Reading list
My family likes to joke about how many books I carry with me everywhere I go. I took six on a recent five-day trip to California.
Here are several of the books I carted to California, with an excerpt from each:
''Redesigning the American Dream'' by Dolores Hayden.
I am reading this for a class paper I am writing about characterizations of the YFZ Ranch in Texas during the April raid but the ideas relate to the legal wrangling over the UEP Trust, too. I was curious about how our notions of home have evolved. Keep in mind this book was published in 1984 as you read this excerpt from Hayden:
''The United States has a housing crisis of disturbing complexity, a crisis that, in different ways, affects rich and poor, male and female, young and old, white and minority Americans. We have not merely a housing shortage, but a broader set of unmet needs caused by the efforts of the entire society to fit itself into a housing pattern that reflects the dreams of the mid-nineteenth century better than the realities of the late twentieth century.''
''Nauvoo Polygamy . . . but we called it celestial marriage'' by George D. Smith.
At 550-plus pages, not counting charts and photo pages, it is a hefty read. I interviewed George, a co-founder and current publisher of Signature Books, on Monday and am writing a story about the book for the weekend paper.
''The story of Joseph Smith's documented marriages after wedding Emma in 1827 opens in April 1841 and ends some thirty-seven wives later with his marriage to Fanny Young in November 1843. His life during those two and a half years was dizzying as he juggled land purchases, religious appointments, speeches, meetings; armed and trained a town militia; welcomed settlers and immigrants to the new town; oversaw building projects; and assumed a prominent role in the nascent municipal government. All of this in addition to pronouncing revelations, avoiding arrest and extradition orders, and entering into matrimony with over three dozen women, which meant about one new wife a month.''
''Rumspringa'' by Tom Shachtman.
I really am enjoying this book about the Amish tradition of letting their 16-year-olds go wild for a year (or so) as a prelude to deciding whether to commit to the faith. Boys and girls alike are allowed to live outside tenets of the faith: They try drugs and alcohol, dress gentile, use telephones and cars and listen to rock n' roll, and seemingly party, party, party. Not all Amish teens participate in rumspringa but many do, even while continuing to live at home. Most decide to join the faith. Obvious connnection: The ''Lost Boys'' of the FLDS.
''What a tremendous risk these Amish parents and communities take in permitting their adolescents a rumspringa! The threat is that these children, once let loose, many never return; but that gamble must be chanced by the community because its members sense that the threat of not permitting the children a rumspringa is even greater. Absent a rumspringa process, there would be a higher probability of loss, of many more Amish youth succumbing to the lure of the forbidden, perhaps even after marriage and baptism, with resultant defections from the sect and havoc within it.''
''Intentional Communities: How to Start Them, and Why'' by Donald Walters.
What makes one property a ''compound'' and another a ''commune'' and yet another an ''intentional community?'' How do intentional communities operate? YFZ and the UEP led me to this one.
''It is in the interests of economy and efficiency that groups of people unite. The danger, however, is that those same principles, economy and efficiency, will demand of people a uniformity that extends to their personal lives as well. Numerous social thinkers have noted that individual tastes and values, too, must be, and are being, increasingly subordinated to the institutional order -- the 'Establishment.'''
''Building the City of God: Community & Cooperation Among the Mormons'' by Leonard J. Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox and Dean L. May.
As an undergraduate student at the University of Utah, I took a Utah history class from Dean May. He was a terrific teacher, who passed away some years ago, much too soon. Someone recommended I read this book to better understand the FLDS point of view on the UEP Trust. I never miss an opportunity to buy another book and managed to dig this one up at Ken Sanders' bookshop.
''Responsibility for improving the stewardship was placed upon the individual who was to use the leased and loaned property 'as to him shall seem meet and proper.' He was to pay all taxes on the property and promised 'to pay yearly unto the said Edward Partridge, bishop of said church, or his successor in office, for the benefit of said church, all that I shall make or accumulate more than is needful for the support and comfort of myself and family. The contract was to be binding during the life of the steward unless he left the church or was excommunicated. Were this to happen, he would forfeit the land and be obligated to pay an equivalent for the personal property.''
Here are several of the books I carted to California, with an excerpt from each:
''Redesigning the American Dream'' by Dolores Hayden.
I am reading this for a class paper I am writing about characterizations of the YFZ Ranch in Texas during the April raid but the ideas relate to the legal wrangling over the UEP Trust, too. I was curious about how our notions of home have evolved. Keep in mind this book was published in 1984 as you read this excerpt from Hayden:
''The United States has a housing crisis of disturbing complexity, a crisis that, in different ways, affects rich and poor, male and female, young and old, white and minority Americans. We have not merely a housing shortage, but a broader set of unmet needs caused by the efforts of the entire society to fit itself into a housing pattern that reflects the dreams of the mid-nineteenth century better than the realities of the late twentieth century.''
''Nauvoo Polygamy . . . but we called it celestial marriage'' by George D. Smith.
At 550-plus pages, not counting charts and photo pages, it is a hefty read. I interviewed George, a co-founder and current publisher of Signature Books, on Monday and am writing a story about the book for the weekend paper.
''The story of Joseph Smith's documented marriages after wedding Emma in 1827 opens in April 1841 and ends some thirty-seven wives later with his marriage to Fanny Young in November 1843. His life during those two and a half years was dizzying as he juggled land purchases, religious appointments, speeches, meetings; armed and trained a town militia; welcomed settlers and immigrants to the new town; oversaw building projects; and assumed a prominent role in the nascent municipal government. All of this in addition to pronouncing revelations, avoiding arrest and extradition orders, and entering into matrimony with over three dozen women, which meant about one new wife a month.''
''Rumspringa'' by Tom Shachtman.
I really am enjoying this book about the Amish tradition of letting their 16-year-olds go wild for a year (or so) as a prelude to deciding whether to commit to the faith. Boys and girls alike are allowed to live outside tenets of the faith: They try drugs and alcohol, dress gentile, use telephones and cars and listen to rock n' roll, and seemingly party, party, party. Not all Amish teens participate in rumspringa but many do, even while continuing to live at home. Most decide to join the faith. Obvious connnection: The ''Lost Boys'' of the FLDS.
''What a tremendous risk these Amish parents and communities take in permitting their adolescents a rumspringa! The threat is that these children, once let loose, many never return; but that gamble must be chanced by the community because its members sense that the threat of not permitting the children a rumspringa is even greater. Absent a rumspringa process, there would be a higher probability of loss, of many more Amish youth succumbing to the lure of the forbidden, perhaps even after marriage and baptism, with resultant defections from the sect and havoc within it.''
''Intentional Communities: How to Start Them, and Why'' by Donald Walters.
What makes one property a ''compound'' and another a ''commune'' and yet another an ''intentional community?'' How do intentional communities operate? YFZ and the UEP led me to this one.
''It is in the interests of economy and efficiency that groups of people unite. The danger, however, is that those same principles, economy and efficiency, will demand of people a uniformity that extends to their personal lives as well. Numerous social thinkers have noted that individual tastes and values, too, must be, and are being, increasingly subordinated to the institutional order -- the 'Establishment.'''
''Building the City of God: Community & Cooperation Among the Mormons'' by Leonard J. Arrington, Feramorz Y. Fox and Dean L. May.
As an undergraduate student at the University of Utah, I took a Utah history class from Dean May. He was a terrific teacher, who passed away some years ago, much too soon. Someone recommended I read this book to better understand the FLDS point of view on the UEP Trust. I never miss an opportunity to buy another book and managed to dig this one up at Ken Sanders' bookshop.
''Responsibility for improving the stewardship was placed upon the individual who was to use the leased and loaned property 'as to him shall seem meet and proper.' He was to pay all taxes on the property and promised 'to pay yearly unto the said Edward Partridge, bishop of said church, or his successor in office, for the benefit of said church, all that I shall make or accumulate more than is needful for the support and comfort of myself and family. The contract was to be binding during the life of the steward unless he left the church or was excommunicated. Were this to happen, he would forfeit the land and be obligated to pay an equivalent for the personal property.''
12 Comments:
Damn Brooke
You're such a nerd....
No light reading on that list....
Nothing like becoming informed on subjects before writing about them. Too bad so few on this blog do so.
How are the lost boys and the Amish rumpsprina comparable? Amish give their children a taste of the outside world while still being supportive of them - both monetarily and emotionally. Lost boys are abandoned with maybe a few hundred bucks and told not to return. Also, Amish are only shunned if they are baptized into the church and then choose to turn away from it. And, often this shunning only entails an unacceptance of them at church - they can still see and speak to their families. It all seems to be much different to me.
Paul, I think Brooke is suggesting that something like a rumspringa would something for the FLDS to think about rather than the boys being kicked out and possibly knowing they were going to have one would prevent some of the boys from running off.
Paul-
Shunning in the Amish community means the person is treated as dead. Forever.
The Annabaptists are far stricter in their practice than you might think...and far, far more removed from the secular world than the FLDS....
I really liked the quote about the housing crisis. I agree that houses are not made for the way people live now (or even the way they used to live) but for the dreams of an upwardly mobile working class of 50-100 years ago. My husband and I are now empty nesters and are both the children of people who lived into their 90's. So we face 30-40 years of living. We want to live simply but enjoy some creature comforts (I love my jacuzzi). We can't find a pre built home that has the large kitchen and bathroom we want without having 3 bedrooms and two baths. What we want is our bedroom, one guest bedroom, one full bath, one half bath and room to have all the kids sit down for dinner on Thanksgiving without making a whole room into an altar to my mother's dishes. We also want either a full basement or lots of out buildings for the wood shop and camping gear. But can we find that at any price? Not so far.
Linen closets get me. Take away part of the space for the bath tub so that you can store not enough sheets or towels for the people who live in those bed rooms. Even though I found when raising 3 teenagers that it was best to put their sheets and towels in their rooms - that way they could be accountable for their own laundry.
Houses are made for 2.3 children, even though families come with lots of children, no children, grandma but no children, grandma and children, only one teenager, no kids but a business run out of the parlor, etc. And real estate agents are terrified of houses that don't fit the mold.
Sorry, if I went on too long; you pushed a button.
FIRST PRESS BRIEFING
Betty, and you pushed mine: Linen closets get me. Take away part of the space for the bath tub so that you can store not enough sheets or towels for the people who live in those bed rooms. The housing crisis, and many others. Obamy’s first press briefing was yesterday. I know press sexytarry Robert Gibbs has been practicing, according to the interview on Charlie’s Rose, maybe even on the toilet in front of a mirror. These things take time and effort to prepare and to present, so they can enjoy himself and do a weally good job to help the public enjoy themselves as well. So the deceptions are going well for these cowboys out there in the boondocks of Washing-ton, where we’ve got tons of people there who need to wash, and clean up their act. “Be ye clean that bear the vessels” of power.
I want you Washing-ton kids, both guys and gals, to take a bath once in awhile, and not with each other. That’s the opposite of being clean, don’t you see? That would be naughty, as well as a pubic outrage. It would make you very brief and de-pressing in your press briefings, even with your private and pubic constituencies.
Street
You know Street I was going to thank you for your last two posts and the fact that you kept them nice and clean. This one seems to be sliding back into disgusting innuendo, though. Could you do us all a favor and save that for your very own thread on the pro-polygamy website. People who want to read your derogatory sexual and scatalogical comments know just where to go, I'm sure.
I just finished reading the book "The Shack". You want a good read,,, its awesome, mind, spirit changing book... Author William P. Young.
BURP!
Oh my gracious! Pardon me.
Rebeckah said to street: "Could you do us all a favor and save that for your very own thread on the pro-polygamy website."
Don't blame him on us Rebeckah! I think his posts have been disgusting and appauling!
Cheese,
I'm not. Street is clearly mentally unbalanced. However there is a website specifically for those who approve of polygamy where Street has his very own dedicated section. That's what I'm referring to. You (and the FLDS) are not connected to Street in my mind.
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