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The flat, dry reaches of the northern Yucatán Peninsula have been largely ignored by archaeologists drawn to the more illustrious sites of the south. This book is the first volume to focus entirely on the northern Maya lowlands, presenting a broad cross-section of current research projects in the region by both established and up-and-coming scholars.To address the heretofore unrecognized importance of the northern lowlands in Maya prehistory, the contributors cover key topics relevant to Maya studies: the environmental and historical significance of the region, the archaeology of both large and small sites, the development of agriculture, resource management, ancient politics, and long-distance interaction among sites. As a volume in the series Native Peoples of the Americas, it adds a human dimension to archaeological findings by incorporating modern ethnographic data. By exploring various social and political levels of Maya society through a broad expanse of time, Lifeways in the Northern Maya Lowlands not only reconstructs a little-known past, it also suggests the broad implications of archaeology for related studies of tourism, household economies, and ethno-archaeology. It is a benchmark work that pointedly demonstrates the need for researchers in both north and south to ignore modern geographic boundaries in their search for new ideas to further their understanding of the ancient Maya. ... Read more

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The Mexican and Chicana/o residents of San Diego have a long, complicated, and rich history that has been largely ignored. This collection of essays shows how the Spanish-speaking people of this border city have created their own cultural spaces. Sensitive to issues of gender—and paying special attention to political, economic, and cultural figures and events—the contributors explore what is unique about San Diego’s Mexican American history.In chronologically ordered chapters, scholars discuss how Mexican and Chicana/o people have resisted and accommodated the increasingly Anglo-oriented culture of the region. The book’s early chapters recount the historical origins of San Diego and its development through the mid-nineteenth century, describe the “American colonization” that followed, and include examples of Latino resistance that span the twentieth century—from early workers’ strikes to the United Farm Workers movement of the 1960s. Later chapters trace the Chicana/o Movement in the community and in the arts; the struggle against the gentrification of the barrio; and the growth of community organizing (especially around immigrants’ rights) from the perspective of a community organizer.To tell this sweeping story, the contributors use a variety of approaches. Testimonios retell individual lives, ethnographies relate the stories of communities, and historical narratives uncover what has previously been ignored or discounted. The result is a unique portrait of a marginalized population that has played an important but neglected role in the development of a major American border city. ... Read more

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Migration from Mexico to the United States has become an increasingly volatile topic. The news is filled with stories of deaths, protests, and amnesty debates. With the constant buzz about migration in the political, economic, and legal spheres, the migrants themselves easily become a de-humanized multitude. “I Know It’s Dangerous”: Why Mexicans Risk Their Lives to Cross the Border strives to put a human face on the issue of migration and effectively turns the statistics we hear so often into individuals with real lives, needs, and desires.

As an Australian national, Lynnaire Sheridan brings a refreshingly neutral voice to this hot-button topic. With data gathered over two years of living in Baja California, Mexico, Sheridan draws out individual stories, motivations, and conceptions of risk that ultimately allow us a deeper understanding of migration. Sheridan enriches the migrants’ stories with examinations of popular songs, graffiti art on the border, analyses of newspaper articles, and in-depth interviews with migrants. Together these narratives show us that risk has become a strong motivating factor for migrants and that stricter border policies have not necessarily stemmed the rates of migration; they have merely changed how people migrate.

Sheridan’s findings have broad implications for both those interested in migration from Mexico to the United States and international migration scholars. This book will appeal to a range of disciplines in the humanities, from anthropology and criminology to art and ethnic studies. It will also resonate among legal professionals, policy makers, and social workers.

While numerous books have focused on the act of migration and its ripples across both the United States and Mexico, this book is unique in its attention to migrants in Mexico and its ability to draw out their individual stories. ... Read more

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Before the 1930s, landscapes of the American Southwest represented the migrant's dream of a stable and bountiful homeland. Around the time of the Great Depression, however, the Southwest suddenly became integrated into a much larger economic and cultural system. Audrey Goodman examines how--since that time--these southwestern landscapes have come to reveal the resulting fragmentation of identity and community.

Through analyzing a variety of texts and images, Goodman illuminates the ways that modern forces such as militarization, environmental degradation, internal migration, and an increased border patrol presence have shattered the perception of a secure homeland in the Southwest. The deceptive natural beauty of the Southwest deserts shields a dark history of trauma and decimation that has remained as a shadow on the region's psyche. The first to really synthesize such wide-ranging material about the effects of the atomic age in the Southwest, Goodman realizes the value of combined visual and verbal art and uses it to put forth her own original ideas about reconstructing a new sense of homeland.

Lost Homelands reminds us of the adversity and dislocation suffered by people of the Southwest by looking at the ways that artists, photographers, filmmakers, and writers have grappled with these problems for decades. In assessing the ruination of the region, however, Goodman argues that those same artists and writers have begun to reassemble a new sense of homeland from these fragments. ... Read more

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Mark Homan's second edition of his practical--and often humorous--text is a must for any student studying human services. Homan addresses the real world experiences facing those in social work and human services who focus on communities and organizations, and who want to learn how to actually affect community changes, not simply discuss theory. Promoting Community Change: Making It Happen in the Real World, Second Edition doesn't simply describe issues related to change--it illustrates exactly how readers can personally become effective change agents. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

GREAT
I will def. order from this seller again. Immediate shipping, book in GREAT condition. I ordered book on a saturday and recieved on a Wednesday!!!!!!!!Just in time to get my assignments done for class!!!

Previous edition saved a ton of money
My instructor said it was fine to use this previous edition, which saved about $80.00 compared to a new copy of the latest.Haven't read it yet, but am looking forward to it.

Improved, competent text
This text is a major improvement over previous edition. It is a quite comprehensive look at community change and the professional aproach to doing the work. It convers well the various aspects of commuity development, social planning and social action.
The reflective moments add depth to the study.
I fully recommend Homan's Building Communities

Easy to read...
Mark Homan is my teacher so I'm a little biased.His book is very straight-forward, easy to read, and funny.It is definitely a must-read if you are going into the Social Services field.A lot of what Mark talks about in his books are common sense, but they are things that people don't generally spend a lot of time thinking about.Mark uses his 25+ years of experience to give us a lot of valuable advise. ... Read more

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In this groundbreaking book, the first Navajo to earn a doctorate in history seeks to rewrite Navajo history. Reared on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and Arizona, Jennifer Nez Denetdale is the great-great-great-granddaughter of a well-known Navajo chief, Manuelito (1816–1894), and his nearly unknown wife, Juanita (1845–1910). Stimulated in part by seeing photographs of these ancestors, she began to explore her family history as a way of examining broader issues in Navajo historiography. Here she presents a thought-provoking examination of the construction of the history of the Navajo people (Din©, in the Navajo language) that underlines the dichotomy between Navajo and non-Navajo perspectives on the Din© past. Reclaiming Din© History has two primary objectives. First, Denetdale interrogates histories that privilege Manuelito and marginalize Juanita in order to demonstrate some of the ways that writing about the Din© has been biased by non-Navajo views of assimilation and gender. Second, she reveals how Navajo narratives, including oral histories and stories kept by matrilineal clans, serve as vehicles to convey Navajo beliefs and values. By scrutinizing stories about Juanita, she both underscores the centrality of women’s roles in Navajo society and illustrates how oral tradition has been used to organize social units, connect Navajos to the land, and interpret the past. She argues that these same stories, read with an awareness of Navajo creation narratives, reveal previously unrecognized Navajo perspectives on the past. And she contends that a similarly culture-sensitive re-viewing of the Din© can lead to the production of a Navajo-centered history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Reclaiming Dine' History
I bought this book for genealogy.It is written by a Cousin.Since I knew nothing about Chief Manuelito and Juanita, I found it interesting, but dry. ... Read more

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In her extraordinary bestseller, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses readers in the intricacies of the ghetto, revealing the true sagas lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. Focusing on two romances -- Jessica's dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George, and Coco's first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar -- Random Family is the story of young people trying to outrun their destinies. Jessica and Boy George ride the wild adventure between riches and ruin, while Coco and Cesar stick closer to the street, all four caught in a precarious dance between survival and death. Friends get murdered; the DEA and FBI investigate Boy George; Cesar becomes a fugitive; Jessica and Coco endure homelessness, betrayal, the heartbreaking separation of prison, and, throughout it all, the insidious damage of poverty.

Charting the tumultuous cycle of the generations -- as girls become mothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation -- LeBlanc slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and true story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (159)

Riveting, Heartbreaking, Endearing
I'm not going to summarize this book. Part of the beauty lies in not knowing how the tale will unravel.It is beautiful and tragic and funny and really makes you think. It's everything you would want in a book, and it's based on true characters, which is always fascinating to me.Just try it and enjoy it.I'm sure it will change your life.

NOT white middle class voyeurism
I had seen a review of this book that claimed that it only serves the purpose of white middle class voyeurism.I disagree.Of course not all families are like this in the Bronx, just like not all white middle class people need to meddle in all the cultural pockets of America.Good read.

One of my all time favorites
Not everybody does, but this is a great book about families who get stuck in the cycle. I've read other reviews of this book calling it "shallow", but the truth is sometimes, when some people don't have either the resources or the courage to pull themselves out of it, grasping at small straws is all you can do: The next paycheck, the joy of a new child, the next visit to your man upstate. A definite epic novel of what it sometimes means to grow up poor in New York City. Anybody who's ever had to choose between food and electricity, between staying home sick and losing a day's pay...anybody who's lived in or even visited a shelter or has gone to see a friend at trial or in jail...I think will be able to relate to this book. It may even give you perspective on how good you have it.

Interesting Journalism
Random Family is wrenching written documentary of inner-city life in the Bronx. The author follows a select group of individuals for over a decade and writes to incredible detail their experiences, challenges, triumphs, and perspectives. It is at times horribly sad and frustrating. There are a few sprinkled moments of joy or accomplishment, but they are quickly diminished by some return to poor judgment or lack of opportunity.

The author does an excellent job of simply reporting the facts. At no point did I feel there was bias in her writing or judgment. It was simply a, sometimes overly, detailed writing of the lives she followed. Unfortunately, there are too many books out there that highlight the struggles and challenges of poor persons of color. It is easy for these books to portray stories that all-too-often are generalized and presented as accurate accounts for ALL persons (i.e: wow...this must be what ALL poor people from the Bronx are like). Writers and journalists are all-too ready to write about poor people of color, to use their struggles as fodder - without incorporating into their book a broader critique of the societal contexts that lead to those struggles. I think LeBlanc could have done a better job at presenting the full context leading to the challenges her subjects faced. Without the full context and a trained eye that details the multiple ingredients leading to and perpetuating the cycle of poverty, it is all too easy to stereotype.

Not a must-read by any means, but not a book to avoid either.

Powerful and Unforgettable
As a middle class white suburbanite, Random Family plunged me into to a world I do not know; a world I am fortunate not to inhabit; a world that at once adheres to one's most frightful stereotypes of the inner city and yet, as we learn, also defies those very stereotypes. The people in the book are those we would probably cross the street to avoid and would "see" (if we saw them at all) in only the most narrow, negative terms - unable, and perhaps unwilling, to see the humanity and vulnerability that lies beneath the surface. This book takes us beneath the surface. The veneer of each character, particularly Coco, slips away as Ms. LeBlanc simply, but eloquently, describes the rituals, challenges, hopes and disappointments of living each day in the impoverished world of the Bronx and Troy, New York. It is a stunning and powerful achievement.

Make no mistake, Random Family, is unrelentingly depressing. While Coco and Jessica and Mercedes, among other unforgettable people we meet, are able to occasionally summon hope and optimism in the midst of despair, the odds are stacked high against them. They live in an incrediblydestructive environment - one that relentlessly chips away at hope, ambition, self respect, dignity. The fact that some of them are able to occasionally rise above it, is almost miraculous. This is particularly true for Coco, who tries so hard to be a good mother to her five children and who never becomes as hardened as the hard world in which she lives - a world that is incredibly chaotic; one in which happiness is always fleeting. There is no sense of permanence - people are continually uprooted, moving from one inhospitable, unwelcoming and rundown place to another. Adults and children live with "Random Families" that are continually changing. New people move in and move out, many unsavory and almost always unreliable, particularly men (or teenage boys mimicking men) who invariably leave pain (both physical and emotional) and sadness in their wake. Betrayal is to be expected and yet, somehow the woman and girls have renewed hope that each man and that each promise will be different. Itnever is. That each new baby will make it better, create a new start and a permanent family. It never does. Sadly, self destructive behavior undermines each person'schances to rise above the environment in which they live. Of course, it is almost inevitable. There are no positive role models for them to emulate. One character wisely observes that Mercedes, a vulnerable ten year old seeking the love and acceptance that everyone in the book is looking for but never seems to find, "only does what she sees." And what she sees are adults (or almost adults) continually being abusive of one another, shirking responsibility, lashing out, being indulgent, using one another, dropping out of school, selling and/or using drugs, molesting children... One sees the wonder and innocence, the hope and faith in a bright future without limits, slowly being stripped from Mercedes until she is beginning to look and sound and act like those around her. She is becoming what she sees, seeming to follow the same path and the same pattern of her mother and grandmother before her - even though they each hoped and tried to make it turn out differently. It is incredibly sad and dispiriting because we know that what she is becoming is not who she really is and certainly not what she can be.

... Read more