Product Description
Teaching and learning to write in technical and professional language is an important part of speech-language pathology education.A Coursebook on Scientific and Professional Writing for Speech-Language Pathology, 3e has a long-standing tradition as the only product that covers writing skills that are specific to the profession of speech-language pathology. This product includes guidelines of scientific and professional writing based on the fifth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) and provides new rules of usage and their correct and incorrect exemplars.A Coursebook on Scientific and Professional Writing for Speech-Language Pathology is divided into three parts covering basic writing skills that are the foundation of good writing, scientific writing in accordance with the fifth edition of APA, and writing assessment reports, treatment plan, progress reports, and professional correspondence. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a lot of work
This book serves its purpose it is a lot of work but, teaches you the material in reference to the subject of speech and language pathology.
It is also clear and concisly written ... Read more

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Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches - Volume 2 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Baron Macaulay is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Baron Macaulay then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1957, this introduction to the Spalding Method has been received more and more enthusiastically in recent years as it has been shown to work--swiftly, inexpensively and efficiently. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Useful for Phonics
I have used this book with the " Johnny Can Spell" program for ten years and my copy has worn out.Both the book and the program are very good for teaching spelling with phonics.

Good information sprinkled between a lot of fluff
There is a lot of good info in this book but seems to have been written by Thurston Howell III, preparing his young child for Harvard.Here is an excerpt from page 60. "Clear the desk of books and materials not needed.Sit with hips against the back of the chair, feet flat on the floor and back straight, with head tall.The straight spinal column supports the head. Keep two inches between the body and the desk.Lean forward just enough to see the paper clearly, but keep the head high.Let the chair carry the weight of the body. Do not let the head fall forward because its heavy weight then would be carried by the neck and back muscles.Place both forearms on the desk with the elbows just off the front edge and comfortable close to the body.The typewriter is a machine with two separate parts for writing.One part (the roller) holds and moves the paper and the other (the tappers) puts the letters on it....." and it goes on and on and on.The author is very knowledgeable and bright but but doesn't seem to know how to put this information down on paper in a way that any child or many adults could put into a coherent lesson plan.It came with a 45 turntable floppy record but we haven't owned a record player since we were kids.While we appreciate the information given, it's presented in such a way that will require much studying for the teacher proceeded by several more hours of lesson planning.Imagine lesson planning to teach a course on the dictionary! Still, there is a wealth of unknown phonics rules that many of my friends who are teachers haven't learned before.It's exciting in the way that it will help you to finally make sense of the English language.It looks like something a college student would enjoy.I myself look forward to learning these rules but we are much happier with "Reading Pathways" and "Phonics Pathways" for our children.Teaching our children ages 9 and 7 was the goal we had in mind when purchasing this book.

Spalding a must!

Best system for giving minds of all ages the tools needed to read, spell and write.

My mother-in-law used this at home to teach my husband when schools abandoned phonics 50 years ago.I used it with my children while home-schooling.

The Spalding method incorporates the least number of "phonograms" - 70 total, teaching from the beginning all sounds that a letter or group of letters can make, so the student is not limited to recognizing only short vowel sounds in his first reading effort.Spalding is much better than A Beka, which teaches multiple combinations of letters/phonograms as separate phonograms, rather than allowing the child to combine phonograms already learned to make other sounds.For example, A Beka teaches "sch" as a separate phonogram.Under Spalding, the child need not memorize additional phonograms -- he can combine "s" and "ch" on his own.

Unlike the whole language crowd, Spalding includes very few sight words -- rules for spelling practically every word in the English language are included.As a student in the 1950's, I was never taught that English words do not end in"u" or "v", thus the silent "e" at the end of those words.Spalding also teaches four other rules for silent e's --

Daily review of the flash cards included in the book helps the child memorize the sounds for fast, ready recognition.Handwriting posture, the spelling notebook, spelling rules, etc., make this a well-rounded curriculum for introducing and sustaining the reading experience.

As a result of using Spalding, my son was reading the newspaper at age 6.He may not have known the definitions of each word he read, but he could pronounce them. We reviewed the flash cards and spelling rules throughout elementary grades, but this system would be advantageous for even older students who were taught the whole language method used in public schools.Spalding will help them immensely.

Just Do It!
Writing Road to Reading is an excellent phonics program. Catch is you have to read the Introduction! Yes, that part that you sometimes skip in a book, you need to read it. It explains the Spalding method and it makes a lot of sense.

I used this book with three of my children and then tried to duck out of the work with my next. It was spelling disaster for him and so I went back to the Writing Road to Reading and started over with phonics and spelling and the results were the same as before- fantastic.

This book has all the spelling rules I missed when I was in school like "one" doesn't make any spelling sense until you learn that it comes from the word "lone" and when the "l" is dropped you are left with "one". Or "two" again, not phonetic but we probably once said the "w" in "two" like we still do in "twin", "twice", "twain" which all refer to two things.

The spelling list is here in great detail and as a bonus in the back of the book is a great reading list through grade six.

LOVED THIS BOOK
I was a little worried about the book after reading some of the reviews. I find this book to be so incredible and easy to use. I think it covers everything you need to teach your children to read. I think every parent needs a copy. Please do not be scared of by the "complexity" of the rules, instead give you child the credit they deserve and the opportunity to thrive.
Judy Pryor ... Read more

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Ready to build a graphic novel? First, youll need the right tools. Open this title in the Writers Toolbox series and discover plenty of tips and tools to get you started. Soon youll be filling panels, boxes, and bubbles like a pro! ... Read more

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“Alone among American Presidents, it is possible to imagine Lincoln, grown up in a different milieu, becoming a distinguished writer of a not merely political kind.”
--Edmund Wilson

Ranging from finely honed legal argument to wry and some sometimes savage humor to private correspondence and political rhetoric of unsurpassed grandeur, the writings collected in this volume are at once a literary testament of the greatest writer ever to occupy the White House and a documentary history of America in Abraham LincolnÂ’s time. They record LincolnÂ’s campaigns for public office; the evolution of his stand against slavery; his electrifying debates with Stephen Douglas; his conduct of the Civil War; and the great public utterances of his presidency, including the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.

Library of America Paperback Classics feature authoritative texts drawn from the acclaimed Library of America series and introduced by todayÂ’s most distinguished scholars and writers. Each book features a detailed chronology of the authorÂ’s life and career, and essay on the choice of the text, and notes.

The contents of this Paperback Classic are drawn from Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832- 1858 and Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, volumes number 45 and 46 in the Library of America series. They are joined in the series by a companion volume, number 192s, The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on his Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now. ... Read more

Product Description

The Spalding Method is a total language arts approach that has been used by teachers and parents for nearly fifty years to teach millions of students to spell, write, and read. Now fully updated to reflect the latest research on how children learn language, this newest edition is easier to use than ever.

The Spalding Method helps train the right and left sides of the brain as children see, hear, read, and write. It is cost-effective and efficient; students use pencils, paper, and their minds. The results are stunning: Children learn to connect speech sounds to print and begin to write and read almost magically. Spalding students perform well in the classroom and on tests -- and most important, they love to read and write.

Customer Reviews (29)

giving our kids the best!
At first, we were reluctant to home school.After discovering the site www.classical-homeschool.org, we found this book as their primary recommendation.After reading through their "whys" we were hooked that home schooling, and with this book was the only way to teach our children to read. One point they made was that WRTR teaches children to spell first and reading will follow.Wow! my three- four year old played in the room while I taught K to our 5 yr old and the 4 yr old is now reading on a 2nd grade level!There are no workbooks, just pencil and paper.It is amazing! Both children are writing 4 types of sentences without difficulty.They can pick up any book and read it.I have them read from the NASB, and they do a good job.This also has a parrallel reading comprehension lesson for each week.We made wet erase sheets for them to fill in the basic elements of narratives, informatives and N/I.They do this with ease.Again, they are 4 and now 6.This book also includes penmanship - no separate practice or workbook required.They wanted to learn cursive, so I found that section in the book and we're working on cursive with our spelling as well.Be patient throuth learning their marking system, but it works.I cannot recommend this book enough!

Helpful Tool but has its flaws
I've been using this to homeschool my first grader for 3 months now.Although this program says its a full language arts cirriculum, I find that I use it mainly for spelling.The word lists are divided into word list A-G, H, I, J, K all the way to Z and it doesn't really explain what grade level the words are (which I would like to know).I like that the phonograms are emphasized throughout the word lists and as well as spelling rules, but there are some errors on the phonogram lists and phonograms cards you can buy seperately.There are also letter blends and combinations that are not covered which I think would make things easier.
I didn't give it 5 stars due to the phonogram errors, and the fact that for me, its easier to use one of the many handwriting or grammar type workbooks to teach how to form letters or form sentenses than trying for figure out my own lessons from scratch each day (Spalding recommends about 3 hours per day just in studying language arts).That is just too much.I think it is a good reference and I am going to continue using it for spelling this year but I may switch if I find something I like better.I recommend checking it out at the library and look and see it that is something you really want to use.Also the phonograms are taught on a youtube video downloaded by Spalding education so that maybe helpful for you.

Writing Road to Reading 5th Rev Ed: The Spalding Method for Teaching Speech, Spelling, Writing, and Reading (Harperresource Book
The Writing Road to Reading is one of the most comprehensive phonics resources available for building a solid foundation in basic English language arts.I have also used this quite successfully to teach children as young as 3 years of age, as well as adults in ESOL courses.The Spalding Method provides all of the tools necessary to acquire a true command of the English language.This is an excellent resource for educators and parents to have on hand.

So much Info
This book has so much infomation, it is fantastic. More of this should be implemented into our public schools.. A great book to help understand why the english language is the way it is..and thanks to Amazon for the speedy delivery...

Just Do It!
Writing Road to Reading is an excellent phonics program. Catch is you have to read the Introduction! Yes, that part that you sometimes skip in a book, you need to read it. It explains the Spalding method and it makes a lot of sense.

I used this book with three of my children and then tried to duck out of the work with my next. It was spelling disaster for him and so I went back to the Writing Road to Reading and started over with phonics and spelling and the results were the same as before- fantastic.

This book has all the spelling rules I missed when I was in school like "one" doesn't make any spelling sense until you learn that it comes from the word "lone" and when the "l" is dropped you are left with "one". Or "two" again, not phonetic but we probably once said the "w" in "two" like we still do in "twin", "twice", "twain" which all refer to two things.

The spelling list is here in great detail and as a bonus in the back of the book is a great reading list through grade six. ... Read more

Product Description
With over 100,000 copies in print, here, with a new jacket for Lincoln’s bicentennial, is the second volume in The Library of America’s acclaimed, comprehensive edition of Lincoln’s writings, featuring over 550 speeches, messages, proclamations, letters, and other writings recording the words and deeds with which he defended, preserved, and redefined the Union. It includes the full texts of the Gettysburg Address and the First and Second Inaugurals, as well as a detailed chronology of Lincoln’s life and helpful explanatory notes prepared by the late Lincoln scholar Don E. Fehrenbacher.
??The companion volume, also available in a bicentennial edition, is Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832-1858.

“The fullest and most reliable collection of Lincoln’s writings ever published.” —The New Republic ... Read more

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Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha-resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence-which led India to independence and has inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. As a practitioner of ahimsa, he swore to speak the truth and advocated that others do the same. Gandhi lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest. ... Read more

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This book will be an invaluable guide for anyone whose work involves changing conversation into written records. Basing her ideas on research material obtained within multidisciplinary child guidance clinics, the author: makes clear the complexity, but also the importance, of case recording; challenges the notion of record keeping as a mundane chore; places record keeping in the context of a network of communication. Using the perceptions of parents, children and clinical social workers the author demonstrates the centrality of the work of record keeping for social work practitioners. ... Read more

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American Political Rhetoric is the only reader for introductory classes in American politics and government and political communication designed to explore fundamental political principles through classic examples of political rhetoric, from the Declaration of Independence to today. Selections include the entire political spectrum and contributors range from the founders to elected public officials, Supreme Court opinions, and representatives of historic movements for social change. Organized thematically, American Political Rhetoric allows students to explore the institutions of government and current controversies in civil rights, race, gender, and America's role in the world as the issues have evolved over time. ... Read more

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"By any reasonable judgment, Burke has to be considered one of the world's outstanding thinkers on politics."-- Peter J. Stanlis, from his Preface ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Classical Regnery Anthology of a Conservative Luminary
~Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches~ is a great anthology of conservative luminary Edmund Burke's political and social writings. Burke is considered by many to be the godfather of conservatism. The Irish-born British conservative entered Trinity College at Dublin in 1744 and later moved to London in 1750. In 1770, in his tract entitled the 'Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents,' he scolded George III for his efforts at undoing the hard-won liberties that were thought to have been secured by the Glorious Revolution. Burke was a champion of the rule of law, and surmised that prerogatives of the king may not usurp that law, and that even the magistrates are to be constrained by the law. He defended the constraining hand of Parliament against the king's usurpations and cronyism in political appointments. He supported principled, calm, deliberative criticism of royal prerogatives by Parliamentarians, which he held to be a vital link in the preservation of the British constitution and ordered liberty.

Burke was an Old Whig, and on the Right side of the political spectrum and had no rosy delusions about human nature. His contemporaries on the Left like Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a positive and a optimistic view of human nature, and in his eyes humanity merely needed to be liberated from the decadent enslaving institutions of civil society. On the other hand, Burke recognized man's sinful nature and innate depravity and incorporated the Augustinian-Christian doctrine of original sin into his political philosophy. "Whatever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man," declares Burke. What is more, Burke does not see equality as self-evident, but he astutely observes that inequality is part of the natural order of things. The ideal equality to strive for was equality before the law, not equality of condition or even opportunity. Burke recognized that the illusive search for equality was in fact destructive of the liberty that was to accompany it because egalitarian ideology was fundamentally at odds with human nature.For this reason, Burke was opposed to the French Revolution and scolded the Jacobin rebellion for its barbarity, its egalitarian tyranny, and the unattainable antinomy of absolute freedom that was sought after. He likewise abhorred the initial English enthusiasm for the events across the sea in France and lamented that such an upheaval would never afflict England. Yet Burke, an Old Whig was a champion of the Rights of the Englishmen, and spoke out on behalf of the American, Irish and the Indian colonials. "Good order is the foundation of all things," quipped Burke in his Reflections on the French Revolution. Burke offered much prescriptive wisdom about reforming and bettering civil society while conserving the vital remnants and traditions so vitally requisite to the continuity of civil society. He yielded his acquiescence of support to the American Cause of 1776 and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Burke assailed the abuses perpetrated against American colonials in exploitative taxation, arbitrary suspension of the rights of colonials and an overall condescending attitude of contempt that pervaded the attitude of government towards the colonial subjects therein. Burke worked tirelessly for conciliation between British and American colonials, though the Tories prevailed and their efforts to spite and to subjugate the colonials only led to the American colonials' victorious secession by force of arms. Furthermore, Burke was opposed to the aggrandizing of power and the corruption of the law, and recognized that ordered liberty must be upheld. Burke observed, "Bad law is the worst sort of tyranny." He was practical and pragmatic to the extent needed without discarding first principles, as he accepted that, "All government-indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act-is founded on compromise and barter." Yet Burke was mistrustful of concentrated power and observed, "Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief."

The reductionism and sophistry of modern critics casts conservatives as knaves who nostalgically seek preservation of the status quo irrespective of whatever tyrannies and social pathologies afflict the people. However, Burke above all shows that classical conservatism is not quixotic sentimentalism about tradition but rather a desire to conserve those vital remnants so necessary to continuation of ordered liberty while improving civil society through patient, contemplative, informed and calmly deliberative political dialogue. Sometimes standing up to sheer tyranny through resistance and civil disobedience is in order. Though, "Our patience will achieve more than our force," avowed Burke. Burke justly condemned the barbarity of the French Revolution and no doubt considers the interposition of the lesser magistrates as requisite in combating the usurpations of higher magistrates, ministers, and leaders.

All things considered, this brilliant anthology of Burke's more renowned works is certainly a great introduction to the perennial conservative.

conservatism's bard
What a heady time were the late 1700's.For hundreds, even thousands, of years, Western man hadbeen saddled with monarchy; kings who were said to rule by divine right.But by the end of the 18thcentury, Martin Luther, John Locke and Adam Smith had propounded the essential framework formodern liberal capitalist democracy and the Revolution in America had launched a grand experimentbased on those ideas.Then came the French Revolution and it was blithely assumed that here againLiberty was on the march.When suddenly, rising to meet the tide of history, came Edmund Burke toexcoriate the Jacobins and denounce the Revolution.In so doing, he not only did mankind a greatservice, by sounding the alarms against unchecked liberty, he also basically gave birth to modernConservatism.Today, after a long period in the wilderness, particularly during the Cold War, EdmundBurke has come roaring back into fashion.In a sense, he has finally won his argument with thedefenders of the French Revolution, two hundred years after the fact, and is reaping the spoils.

For two centuries a controversy has raged over Burke's political philosophy, in particular whether thegreat defender of American, Irish and Indian rights was inconsistent in opposing the FrenchRevolution.The very existence and the stubborn persistence of this controversy seem to demonstrateeither a complete misunderstanding or a willful misrepresentation of Burke's basic arguments.Onesuspects it's a bit of both.The greatness of Burke lies in the fact that he was among the first, andcertainly the most eloquent, defenders of democracy to recognize the dangers it entails; that power inthe hands of the masses is just as great a threat to liberty as when it lies in the hand of a dictator orking.This point had been amply demonstrated in France, where the revolutionists had quicklyabandoned any concern for personal freedom and had moved on to a bloody demand forequality--freedom's enemy.

It is here that we arrive at the key point that divides the modern Left and Right.The Left believes (a laRousseau) that man is by nature "good" and all men are born with equal abilities, but thatenvironmental factors and corrupt institutions warp individuals, making some evil and keeping othersfrom realizing their full potentials; which if realized would make them equal to other men.The goalof the Left is therefore to remove, by any means necessary, these environmental and institutionalimpediments and return to an imagined state of nature where all men are good and are equally able;where Man will be governed by pure reason.

The Right, on the other hand, recognizes that man is inately "evil"; that is, evil in the sense that he isself centered and will generally act in his own interest not the interest of others.Moreover, men areinherently unequal; in the state of nature, the able will tyrannize the less able.It is for these reasonsthat men form governments in the first place; to protect themselves from one another.The goal of theRight is to provide each individual with the greatest personal freedom and utmost opportunity to realizehis potential, consistent with the basic safety concerns that gave birth to the state in the first instance. Conservatives realize that pure reason will not lead men to treat each other with justice, by nature, menwill always seek advantage over one another.The State and other institutions safeguard us against thiseventuality.

This fundamental difference can not be overstated.Prior to the 18th century, the Left would haveincluded all democrats, while the Right would have been made up of monarchists and supporters ofaristocracy.But beginning with the French Revolution, this fissure separated the regnant liberal forcesinto two competing camps, setting the stage for the two century long contest that ended in the early1990's with the fall of the Soviet Union.Both sides would produce great men, original theorists,brilliant writers and magnificent orators, but none of them would ever surpass Burke and his mastery ofall these fields.Rare are the men who so clearly perceive the fundamental issues that confrontmankind.They seem at times to be travelers from the future, come to warn us about what horrors theyears to come will hold unless we obey their counsel.Rarer still are the occasions when we heedthem.We can only imagine the millions of lives that would have been saved had people followedBurke's vision rather that that of Rousseau and Jefferson and Marx.

Happily, here in America, James Madison's Constitution embodies many of the same ideas and protectsagainst many of the concerns which Burke expressed.The adoption of representative, rather thandirect, democracy; the bicameral legislature and tripartite government; the careful system of checks andbalances; the protection of basic rights from government interference: these are all, though we seldomdiscuss them in these terms, intended to protect the individual from the potentially tyrannical effects ofdemocracy.When commentators speak of the genius of the American system, whether they realize itor not, it is to this central fact that they refer.So while critics have struggled to understand a falsedichotomy in Burke's thought, we (and to a lesser extent the Brits) have enjoyed the fruits of a politicalsystem which assumes that his critique of democracy is less theory than received wisdom.Forwhatever reason, it took two hundred years and countless millions of lives before the rest of the worldrecognized what Burke (the bard) and Madison (the draftsman) had known all along; two centuries thatproved them indisputably correct.

GRADE: A+

One of the 25 most important conservative books
If Ronald Reagan is the great communicator, Burke must be theextraordinary communicator. Someone once said that pages of Burke are likesheets of fire.

        During the time he lived, in the 18th century,most political leaders were hereditary aristocrats, but Burke, like Cicero,did not descend from generations of prominent leaders. He earned hisleadership in British politics through the power of his mind, by studyingpolitical principles and applying them to real circumstances. A superficiallook at Burke's career might tempt one to dismiss him as a failure. Most ofthe causes to which he devoted himself were not successful in hislifetime.

        Prior to the American Revolution, he wrote brilliantlyon behalf of conciliation between Britain and the American colonies. Heargued for fair treatment of India by Britain. He argued for fair treatmentof the Irish by the British and for Catholic emancipation in England. Intime these positions won acceptance, but the acceptance came after Burke'sdeath.

        Fortunately, he did live long enough to see the triumph ofthe greatest work of his life: his effort to awaken his country to thefundamentally destructive but superficially attractive nature of the FrenchRevolution. His thorough and, I believe, inspired condemnation of theFrench Revolution swept British majority opinion. To Burke, more than anyother politician of his time, goes the credit for creating the intellectualforce which saved Europe from revolutionary chaos anddictatorship.

        Modern-day conservatives are also profoundly in hisdebt, as his writings against the French revolution provided thephilosophical foundation for anti-communism in particular and orderedliberty in general. Read Burke. All his writings on government and politicsare a rich ore, studded with gems of wisdom. ... Read more

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Any kind of movement for freedom of Black people based solely within the confines of America is absolutely doomed to fail. Speeches and interviews from the last two years of his life.

Includes: Index, Chronology, Annotation ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

There is a Worldwide Revolution Brewing...
This book consists of Malcolm X's final speeches before he was murdered.Deep, philosophical words of wisdom fill the pages and it is hard to put down the book once you begin to read it.A grand speaker that could have debated with the best in the world, it is a shame he was taken away from this world at such a young age.Speaking with such assurance and validity it is hard to ignore the words he spoke to the people.A man who was not afraid to stare death in the face and continue on riding the white horse of truth through the gates of hell, malcolm X simply proves in this book just how much he had grown from his "angry black man" tirade during his days in the Nation of Islam.There is no doubt in my mind if he were alive today, he would still be speaking throughout the world using the power of his words to bring forth real hope and change where there isn't any.I urge anyone interested in malcolm X to pick up this book because his words are still fresh and at times one becomes deeply involved in the words he is speaking, you feel you are in that hot, sweaty room watching him spread the good word.

The best of the M/X compilations
In 1991 I met Malikah Shabazz (one of M/X's daughters) and she autographed my copy of this, telling me that this was her favorite of the varying complations that filled bookstores at the time. I agreed then and now. This presents a more complex look at the varying stages of Malcolm's evolving philosophy while other such compliations are more selective to represent such phases in Malcolm X's evolution Elijah Muhammad's teachings (which I personally have no use for), socialism, black nationalism, etc. to promote the point of view of the compliers. Here, we see that M/X, while consistant in his search for something better for Black people. So it can rightly be called "A Malcolm X Reader" or "The Evolution of Malcolm X Thought."

He also mentions Nelson Mandela in passing in this collection, and what he has to say about his days in the Nation of Islam near the end of this book will give fans of the pre-1964 thought of M/X much pause. After this, check out "Malcolm X Talks to Young People." While that is a representation of his later thought, it's also quite good. But read this after the "Autobiography" and M/X Speaks" to get the full enchilada of Malcolm X Thought.

"There's a worldwide revolution going on"
Dr. Bruce Perry, former collaborator, more recently biographer of Malcolm X, searched for decades after Malcolm X died for more speeches and interviews by Malcolm X.He spent years tracking down the man who had the tapes that led to this book, finding him in the rain forest jungles of Guyana, and being able to interview him while the revolutionary government of Marice Bishop still ruled Grenada.He knew Pathfinder would publish them, because Pathfinder was the publisher Malcolm X chose while he was alive to publish his work, because they believe in Malcolm X's words because they are Malcolm's.
There are three sections, two speeches given before Malcolm split from the Nation of Islam from Januaryand February 1963, two interviews from december 1964, and the last two speeches we have in full, one he gave February 15, 1965 and another he gave the next day. Malcolm X was murdered on February 21, 1965.
You can judge for yourself how Malcolm X grew and changed.l One thing, it wasn't to become someone just into peace and love and non-violence and all sorts of silly things that people say, but that Malcolm X never was into.I just leave you with the contrast in titles. The titles of the 1963 speeches are "Twenty million Black people in a political, economic, and mental prison" anmd "America's gravest crisis since the civil war," rooted in the problems of Black people in America.The speeches given in the last week of his life speak of the world: :There's a world wide revolution going on" and L:Not just an American problem, but a world problem."

Malcolm X's Words: A Guide To Action Today !
This book has all of thethemes that Malcolm spoke about during the last year of his life. He patiently explains over and over that the U.S. government is not and can't be "ours", not without a revolution : it is theirs, it belongs to thesuperrich
( mostly -white ) man. He calls this system " the power structure" or, most scientifically of all, then and now, "Western, or American, imperialism". He speaks of the need for Blacks in "America" to be proud of their African roots;
the need to become and to stay politically independent of the twin parties of capitalist racism; of women's equality and dignity - that's right ; it's one of the main reasons he broke from the Nation of Islam - and he speaks of the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cuban revolutions as examples to emulate HERE. Above all he teaches you , of whatever color , creed ,or sex , to start with the standpoint that most of the people in the world are your potential allies and what is called " America" - the U.S. government and the Yanqui Empire - is your and my deadly enemy. Anti-capitalist and pro-socialist, this is not the Malcolm of biographers, or movie directors, or other"interpreters" - it is Malcolm X speaking for himself, putting forward a line of march relevant to every fighter for meaningful social change today, tomorrow, and beyond.

The Real Malcolm X
If your view of Malcolm X is from the Spike Lee movie, reading this book and the other books of speeches from his last year "Malcolm X: The Final Speeches" will turn your head around. Malcolm is depicted as a purely humanist, apolitical person, after his trip to Mecca who simply loved everyone. The speeches and interviews from his last year show him as an increasingly political person who was working with Cuban, Congolese, Algerian revolutionists and with revolutionary socialists in the United States to fight for African liberation and against the growing US War in Indochina.

Moreover, Malcolm's speeches from this year also document the reactionary and corrupt practices of the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad and its terror campaign against Malcolm and anyone else who dissent.He had held back from this, but he needed to do this to expose the threats against himself and his family.

As in his other speeches and interviews Malcolm speaks in a voice with lots of practical school-of-hard-knocks knowledge and reasoning, in a soul stirring, voice, with lots of wit as well as wisdom thrown in.


While this book may not be directly available from Amazon at times, they are available from the booksfrompathfinderon Amazon that you can find by clicking on the new and used books on this page. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Important, Authoritative Book

I've read a number of books on writing and writing systems, and I think this is the most remarkable and impressive of all the books I've read. DeFrancis demolishes widely-held myths about Chinese, particularly the myth that it is a way of encoding meaning directly, without reference to sound. He shows convincingly that every full writing system ever created codes for sound at one level or another. It may code partially, it may code at the phonemic or syllabic level, the coding may be ambiguous or imperfect, but every full writing system has a phonological component. I highly recommend this book to people who are interested in writing systems and have read works by people like Coulmas, Sampson, Pinker, and Diane McGuinness.

Not tendentious in the least.
I have to address the other review on this page, which penalizes DeFrancis for the reviewer's own naivete when it comes to the Chinese writing system. The case DeFrancis makes for the phoneticity of Chinese characters is based on the fact - so uncontroversial and apparent to anybody familiar with the language that it is recorded in even the first dictionary of Chinese characters, Shuowen-Jiezi, compiled in 121 AD- that the overwhelming majority of Chinese characters are formed by combinations of semantic ('radical') determinatives and phonetic components. (Figures over the years are given on p. 99 in my edition -- perhaps the earlier reviewer missed this page.) This hardly represents a break from the conventional wisdom.

Regarding the question of how phonetic components can function across dialects: These phonetic components were relatively reliable as guides to the pronunciation of given characters at the time of the characters' creation, but over the centuries as Chinese has split into different languages, the phonetic components have become less and less reliable except as "rhymes-with" indicators of pronunciation at best.

Now that that's out of the way: I first read this book when I was beginning my study of Chinese some years ago, and many of the principles inherent in the creation of writing systems - not just Chinese - that are described here have come in useful since then. The topic of writing systems might seem abstruse at first glance, but DeFrancis has an easy style and the text is a pleasure to read.

Tendentious
John DeFrancis is Emeritus Professor of Chinese at the University of Hawaii. In this book, he addresses the many writing systems that humankind has developed, pointing out similarities and differences. Here's a simplification of the basic thesis: there are three core approaches to writing: morphemic, syllabic, and alphabetic. Morphemic writing systems use pictographs or icons to represent words in their entirety; they require memorization of thousands of such words, but the pictographs usually have some mnemonic value.

Syllabic systems use a smaller set of symbols representing the syllables that make up words. Typically a few hundred symbols are adequate, but some languages, such as Japanese and Hawaiian, can get by with a smaller set of syllabic symbols, whereas others, such as English, have thousands of distinct syllables, and so cannot use syllabic systems.

Lastly come the alphabetic systems, with one symbol for each distinct sound. English has about 40 such sounds, represented by 26 letters (we use pairs of letters, such as th in "this" to represent some sounds).

Professor DeFrancis discusses these issues in depth, explaining that in few real cases are the above simple generalizations truly applicable; there are almost always variations and exceptions in any writing system, and he explains these for a wide range of writing systems. Particularly impressive and useful is his wide discussion of many different writing systems, from such obvious ones as Babylonian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphic to obscure ones such as Cherokee, Hmong, and Naxi. The Korean writing system has long been lauded as the cleanest, clearest system in use, but Dr. DeFrancis explains in detail WHY it's so impressive.

Despite the large array of knowledge Dr. DeFrancis brings to bear on the subject, I give his book only three stars, because I feel that he wastes too much space and energy on his pet peeve: that linguists don't seem to understand Chinese writing. The conventional opinion is that Chinese writing is morphemic -- each symbol represents a word rather than a sound. Now, the case here is complicated (and my use of terminology is not as precise as Dr. DeFrancis'), but Dr. DeFrancis entirely rejects the conventional view, insisting that Chinese writing is heavily phonetic in structure. He makes a good case, but he never addresses the big question that loomed in my mind throughout the reading of the book: if Chinese writing is phonetic, then how can the same writing system work for dialects that have completely different pronunciations of the same words? I'm an amateur with no background at all, yet this question seems so obvious that Dr. DeFrancis' failure to address it constitutes an omission of the first magnitude. Moreover, it leads me to ask, what else is Dr. DeFrancis omitting?

I was also disconcerted by his attacks on books that I have read and appreciated. For example, he dismisses Alfred E. Bloom's "The Linguistic Shaping of Thought: A Study of the Impact of Language on Thinking in China and the West" (1981) with the breezy claim that it presents "little more than variations on the popular misconceptions regarding Chinese". I found Bloom's study to be careful and reasonable, and Dr. DeFrancis' airy dismissal served only to undermine my confidence in his own judgement.

I finished the book with a nagging suspicion that Dr. DeFrancis wasn't being straight with me. I don't question his erudition; clearly the man is an expert of the first order. But his total rejection of the conventional opinions regarding the nature of Chinese writing placed upon him a heavy onus to prove his case with care, precision, and completeness, and I don't think he does so. His almost contemptuous dismissal of the work of other linguists, and his failure to address a major objection to his thesis, erode my trust in this work. And if you can't really trust an author, you can't learn much from his work. ... Read more

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