Book Description
In 1969, ending seven years of lovable futility, the New York Mets won the World Series. How they did it became the stuff of legend. Photographs.
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Book Description
This is a book about escapes and escape attempts. But the men and women in these pages are not escaping from the cramped cells and barred windows of a prison; they are fleeing from the demands of everyday life, from the suffocating pressure of routine and ritual, from the despair of the breakfast table and the office. Their search is for meaning, novelty, progress, and sense of identity.

Some create escapes which take a dramatic route away from mundane reality. They frantically travel the world in search of a free territory in which to find themselves, obsessively commit themselves to the search for pleasure, savagely resort to violence to demonstrate their transcendence of ordinary life and its arrangements. This book describes their temporary triumphs, their eventual failures.

The real heroes of these pages are not criminals, outsiders, revolutionaries or cultural critics. They are rather the millions of men and women in our society who continually search for some escape from reality in their everyday lives and find it in such diverse areas as hobbies, vacations, psychotherapy, art, music, games, fantasy, romantic love, sex, gambling, and mass culture.

Escape Attempts chronicles the multitude of free spaces which we construct as refuges from the daily routine, about the amazing variety of devices we employ in order to persuade ourselves and others that we are truly individual, that we are capable of creating distance between ourselves and the world. It is also about the precariousness of these escape attempts, the danger that they will drift into obsessions and madness, become undermined by self-consciousness, or lose their potency by being rendered banal or commercially co-opted. The book is a warning about society's strengths--but at the same time a homage to the self, a celebration of the daily struggle to rise above social destiny. ... Read more

Book Description
Blocking out, turning a blind eye, shutting off, not wanting to know, wearing blinkers, seeing what we want to see ... these are all expressions of 'denial'. Alcoholics who refuse to recognize their condition, people who brush aside suspicions of their partner's infidelity, the wife who doesn't notice that her husband is abusing their daughter - are supposedly 'in denial'. Governments deny their responsibility for atrocities, and plan them to achieve 'maximum deniability'. Truth Commissions try to overcome the suppression and denial of past horrors. Bystander nations deny their responsibility to intervene.Do these phenomena have anything in common? When we deny, are we aware of what we are doing or is this an unconscious defence mechanism to protect us from unwelcome truths? Can there be cultures of denial? How do organizations like Amnesty and Oxfam try to overcome the public's apparent indifference to distant suffering and cruelty? Is denial always so bad - or do we need positive illusions to retain our sanity? States of Denial is the first comprehensive study of both the personal and political ways in which uncomfortable realities are avoided and evaded. It ranges from clinical studies of depression, to media images of suffering, to explanations of the 'passive bystander' and 'compassion fatigue'. The book shows how organized atrocities - the Holocaust and other genocides, torture, and political massacres - are denied by perpetrators and by bystanders, those who stand by and do nothing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

States of Denial - setting the record straight
This review is in response to the offensive one posted on this website. Clearly the reviewer who rated this excellent book with one star and made what I regard as slanderous comments about the professionalism of one of the most illuminating thinkers of our time, is driven by ideological objection to Cohen's analysis.

We can only speculate, because the text has been removed, which act of genocide he would deny or argue had been portrayed as something less than the one the evidence of corpses or the disappeared shows reveals to all those who want to see.

The other reviewer on this site has captured the essence of States of Denial. While Professor Cohen will be best remembered by most people for his influential book Folk Devils and Moral Panics, States of Denial is his seminal work that shows the process of collective justification of atrocities. In doing so he exposes the futility of searching for evil people to explain such atrocities. An essential read for anyone concerned with human rights, justice and understanding humanity.

Reader from London--Should Read London Papers
States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering by Stanley Cohen was awarded the 2002 British Academy Book Prize.

Stanley Cohen is Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The book was reviewed in British newspapers. It was also reviewed in several magazines. The reviews were positive and gave it more than three stars.

Amazon.com does not automatically insert reviews for all books.

I didn't know I knew what I didn't know
This is one of those "it should be required reading" books. Although his emphasis is on the larger mass atrocities and sufferings, Cohen examines denial from the personal to the political, from harmless "I'm not eating as many cookies as I really am," to the most horrendous "It's not torture; it's just heavy pressure" to the apathetic, "Gee, 5000 Ruwandans killed this week; I wonder how the Giants did last night." He concisely reviews the explanations of denial--Freudian, cognitive, etc--and neatly identifies the different types, styles, motives and cultural and personal collusions. Cohen's writing is clean, engaging, to the point, neither tediously over-intellectual nor patronzing, obviously well-researched and professional. He assumes his reader is familiar with basic social and political sciences and history and doesn't belabor points others have made. Most importantly, the book is compassionate, not in a gooey, all-is- forgiven and understood sense, but in its acknowledgement of denial as a universal of human behavior. Cohen handles an uncomfortable subject, not knowing what we know, a behavior of which we are all guilty, in a straight-forward, non-accusatory fashion. One has the sense that Cohen has not only being willing to see what goes on in a way that few have the courage to do, but that he has also refused to see, as we all do, and come to terms with his own denials, that his fastination with denial is not only as an observer but as a participant as well.

Incompletely researched accusations of the most serious kind
I wrote a review of what I take as a significant distortion and failing of this book.I note that this review has not been posted on the site.I am wondering why? ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
This third edition will publish on the 30th anniversary of its original publication.Stanley Cohen's study of Mods and Rockers in the 1960's was a foundational text both in terms of investigating the workings of subcultural groups and identifying the concept of a "moral panic" generated by the media, which lead to groups being vilified in the popular imagination, and inhibits rational debate about solutions to the social problems such groups represent.Cohen's classic study of "deviant" subcultures and the "moral panic" they generate is reissued with a new author's introduction commenting on the demonization of asylum seekers (refugees) and on the recent "name and shame" campaign against pedophiles. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Three Florida cases:Jerry Rogers, Roy Swafford, and Peter Ventura



Jerry Layne Rogers, Sr. -- wrongfully convicted and innocent. From 1989 - 1992, I was his investigator at CCR.

Mr. Rogers' case consisted in 1992 of at least 80 boxes of documents, from court files, prosecutor and law enforcement files, trial and evidentiary hearing transcripts, etc. Mr. Rogers's case was the largest and most complicated that CCR [The Office of Capital Collateral Representative -- a state agency in the judicial branch of Florida government] has ever represented that I am aware of.

The second largest and most complicated was that of Mr. Gerald Stano, whose lead attorney during most of the development of his case was Mark E. Olive.

In 1995, Mr. Rogers began receiving pro bono representation from the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington and Burling. The result was an unanimous Florida Supreme Court (FSC) 26 page opinion ordering a new trial in Mr. Rogers' case due primarily to prosecutorial misconduct, in particular Brady v. Maryland violations.

To read the opinion, go to the FSC website, then at "Public Information", to the recent opinions, to the year 2001, then toward the bottom at February 15, 2001, one will find the FSC opinion.

During the summer of 2002, Mr. Rogers was re-convicted, however sentenced to life upon the jury recommendation. Now twice Mr. Rogers has been wrongfully convicted.

In 2004, the Florida 5th District Court of Appeal denied relief. The FSC declined to accept jurisdiction and thus denied the petition for review.

Mr. Rogers' case is pending Federal review.




For those interested in reading the narrowly decided by four to three vote Florida Supreme Court opinions regarding two more death sentenced persons whose innocence is an authentic issue, please go to the FSC website, then go to the recent opinions, then chose the correct year and scroll down to the following two cases:

Roy Swafford: April 18, 2002

Peter Ventura: May 24, 2001


Additionally, the issue in the below cases is DNA testing that proves that Roy Swafford did not rape Brenda Rucker:

Roy Swafford: March 26, 2004 Case Nos. SC03.931 and SC03.1153

A Must Read - Even If You're Pro-death Penalty, Like Me!
I live in Indiana, very close to the border with Illinois.Our local news comes out of Chicago, Illinois, and since a large portion of the stories included in this non-fiction novel took place in the "Land of Lincoln" I was very familiar with a lot of the cases.

As I state in my title of this review, I am pro-death penalty.But I believe this book proves that our judicial system needs to improve greatly.The stories in this book are proof that there are flaws in the system - as I believe there will always be, in any system.The problem is that in many of these cases common sense should have stopped a wrongful conviction. It didn't, and Stanley Cohen does a fantastic job of pointing that out.

Now, why am I still pro-death penalty.Because I believe, as long as America allows the murder of the most innocent human life (a child in the womb), our justice system should be allowed to dole out the most harshest punishment available for the act of murder on those outside the womb.Elaborating on this - in Cohen's book he uses a quote from Clarence Darrow: "There isn't, I submit, a single admissible argument in favor of capital punishment. Nature loves life. We believe that life should be protected and preserved. The thing which keeps one from killing is the emotion they have against it; and the greater sanctity that the state pays to life, the greater the feeling of sanctity the individual has for life."

I couldn't agree more. And I look forward to the day when anti-death penalty activists line up outside abortion clinics with their message of supporting the sanctity of life.The day I see this happening, I will join the Stanley Cohen's of the world and march with them outside a scheduled execution, protesting the extreme punishment.Cohen, feel free to take me up on this, if you dare.

All that aside, Stanley Cohen's book is packed with a lot of great reading.I can't imagine the pain and suffering a person wrongly convicted must endure, and of course, reading this book is not going to make me understand how it feels.But I can say it has opened my eyes to how blatantly wrong many of these prosecutions have been handled.This book is also written in a rapid-fire manner, that you almost have to take a break from every so often.I tried to remind myself that most of time, the death penalty is not given to innocent men. But then I had to remind myself, just once, and the horror for that one is enough.

I plan on reading this book through again.I find most non-fiction books to be a boring read, but Cohen is a great writer - he manages to never bore the reader, and makes a brilliant presentation in this book.

It amazes me that there are not hundreds of reviews posted here.This book should be a TOP TEN BESTSELLER!Just another example of how hype and timing play into that list.

Buy this book no matter what side of the aisle you're on.It is a MUST READ.Have I mentioned that yet?

See ya next review.

Overwhelming evidence of innocence on death row
I enjoyed this book immensely. It is about persons sent to death row to await execution, but who were later set free due to mistakes in our judicial systems.

The book includes several examples of public servants who serve their own interests by lying and sending innocent people to death row. One story that stands out for me:Earl Charles was convicted for a double murder that took place in 1974 in Savannah, Georgia while he was living and working in Tampa, Florida.According to evidence described in the book, it is apparent that Detective F.W.Wade used perjury and coercion to get the conviction.The thing that saved Charles was that his boss, the manager of a gasoline service station, did not trust him.The boss had asked a deputy sheriff to look in on him from time to time which he did.The sheriff also kept a log which showed that Charles was at work on the day of the murders.When Charles was convicted and sentenced to the electric chair, his former employer and the deputy sheriff came to his rescue at the request of Charles' mother.His conviction was vacated and he was set free after spending 3 years awaiting execution.

The book also contains examples of people who were set free who probably were guilty in reality. Consequently, additional light is shed on how and why our legal system fails.When guilty criminals go free on technicalities, police are motivated to try harder the next time - even to the point of fabricating evidence so as to win instead of lose.The book also concludes that while many innocent people have been freed from death row it is mathematically probable that a high number of innocent people have been executed.

At times I found it depressing.Mitigating my depression was the fact that woven throughout are heroes who stood up for the truth.

The book was sketchy in places.101 people are freed from death row in 290 pages.That's about 3 pages per person.I would have liked to see a little more depth to rate it 5 stars.Still, there are so many cases, the book has value a reference.It also serves well the notion that these occurrences are not extraordinary, made-for-TV, examples.They happen repeatedly in many states.You have to read it to believe it.The book also demonstrates that our system for capital punishment in the U.S. is still broken as of this writing. ... Read more

Book Description
The first edition of this book, published in 1995, commemorated the work of Sheldon L. Messinger at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. While the scope and orientation of this new second edition remain the same, excluded are all personal tributes and references to Messinger's own contribution to the study of punishment and social control. In recognition of the continued growth and diversity of interest in this field, new chapters have been added and some of the original chapters have been updated and revised. ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 813. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Awesome Insight into Mosconi
Outstanding book that gives you a look at one of the greatest champions of pool of all time.Very well written with Stanley Cohen (written many sports books).Cohen uses an unusal writing style, letting Mosconi speak in his own words and then uses seperate interviews or other historical research to add to his story.

Very well written and an easy read.

A fun and informative look at one of pool's greatest players
Willie's Game chronicles the life of Willie Mosconi, one of the greatest pool players in the history of the game. That in itself makes it a necessary edition to a billiard enthusiast's bookcase, but those interested in sports, competition, and prodigies will enjoy it too.

From learning to play by hitting potatoes around on the pool table, to winning tournaments for big money, to setting the world record for the most balls run (526), Mosconi did it all. He talks a lot in his autobiography about what makes a good player, and about the difference between an apt technician and a champion.

As you'd expect, the personalities are colorful, especially when set against the background of early twentieth century America. Mosconi doesn't mince words about his impressions of and experiences with other pool notables. There's a lot of valuable pool history and anecdotes here. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Riddled with historical errors.
This is a sloppily written and poorly researched book. Major errors appear on the opening page (Herman Rosenthal was one of the few gangsters not to have had a nickname; Cohen repeatedly refers to him as "Beansie"--the monicker of the similarly named "Rosenfeld" who was actually a partner of the murder victim.) Big Jack Zelig is incorrectly identified as William Alberts (his true name was Selig Harry Lefkowitz--a biography, THE STARKER, is being published in February 2008.) Photos are badly labeled. Some of the gangsters are still changing identities even now, years after their deaths. Two pictures (Sam Schepps and Harry Vallon) are captioned differently than the same photos in Andy Edmond's much better AGAINST THE EVIDENCE, which is now out of print but worth reading.
This book is a good guide to the inaccurate reporting on the Becker case, since it seems to rely mostly on newspaper accounts of the trial that were invariably highly unfavorable to the defense. But it should in no way be considered historical fact. Corrupt policeman Becker was an unsavory character, but he went to the chair for a murder that he did not commit. The District Attorney hounded him to his death for political advantage. Cohen portrays this even more unsavory man as some kind of hero.
SATAN'S CIRCUS by Mike Dash is an immensely superior work in every way.

A Gem for Crime Buffs
Author Stanley Cohen has done a thorough job in investigating the murder of gambler Herman "Beansie" Rosenthal in the Times Square area of New York City in 1912.A good portion of the book deals with the trial of the actual murderers by the shady names of Gyp the Blood, Lefty Louie, Dago Frank and Whitey Lewis, and the two trials of the man convicted of orchestrating the hit of Rosenthal, Lieutenant Charley Becker.Becker apparently enlisted three others (Bald Jack Rose, Bridgey Webber, and Harry Vallon) to set up the hit on Rosenthal who then hired the four hitmen to carry out the actual assassination.Becker was afraid of Rosenthal exposing Becker's involvement in shady operations in his police department, and the only way to silence Rosenthal was to place him in the past tense.I feel Becker's mistake was to involve three middlemen who then turned state's evidence against Becker to save their own neck.The four actual hitmen paid the supreme price for their involvement in Sing Sing's electric chair in 1913.Despite two trials Becker also kept a date with the electric chair in July of 1913, a few months after the actual hitmen.The fact that Becker was a police officer who faced execution in Sing Sing made this story front page news from the time of the murder until his execution.The book involves several people in addition to those already mentioned, and I found it hard to keep everyone's role in the drama straight.That, however, is my problem.I feel the author did a wonderful job on this book, and if you enjoy crime stories this one is a dandy.Two sets of pictures show the main characters in addition to New York landmarks in the 1910's such as The Tombs and the Criminal Courts Building connected by the Bridge of Sighs, Rector's Restaurant, New York's Lower East Side, the Tenderloin District (Times Square area), the Hotel Cadillac near the site of the murder at the Metropole Hotel, children hawking newspapers with the cry of "Extra", the building where Lefty Louie and Gyp the Blood were arrested in Queens, and children licking huge blocks of ice in front of a grocery store to ward off the stifling July heat.The pictures, I felt, gave me an idea of what New York City was like during the 1910's.Those who enjoy crime stories will want to make this book a permanent addition to their library. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Instructional Psychology, published by George Uhlig Publisher on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 4032 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: Evaluating student use of Web-based course material.
Author: Michelle Heffner
Publication: Journal of Instructional Psychology (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: George Uhlig Publisher
Volume: 32Issue: 1Page: 74(8)

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