Amazon.com
To listen to its proponents, network (or multilevel) marketing is the greatest thing since sliced bread: top performers earn $1 million a month, reside in alluring places like Aspen and Kauai, and still find quality time to happily raise children and lovingly cement spousal relationships. Contending that those who fail to make it that far are ill prepared for the initial challenges they face, Mark Yarnell and Rene Reid Yarnell--married network marketers who are among the industry's leaders, as well as members of a University of Illinois faculty that teaches the only college-certified course on the subject in the U.S.--have written Your First Year in Network Marketing: Overcome Your Fears, Experience Success, and Achieve Your Dreams! to convey both advice and inspiration to newcomers. Peppered with personal anecdotes that bring their recommendations to life, the two offer logical strategies for overcoming rookie obstacles and kick starting a career. Individual chapters explore issues such as battling rejection, avoiding depression, handling prospects, supervising recruits, and managing time. Each concludes with a comprehensive summary, but save it for later reference and don't skip the preceding narrative, or you risk missing the book's considerable motivational component. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
How to Keep the Dream Alive!
Network marketing is one of the fastest-growing career opportunities in the United States. Millions of people just like you have abandoned dead-end jobs for the chance to achieve the dream of growing their own businesses. What many of them find, however, is that the first year in network marketing is often the most challenging—and, for some, the most discouraging.
Here, Mark Yarnell and Rene Reid Yarnell, two of the industry's most respected and successful professionals, offer you strategies on how to overcome those first-year obstacles and position yourself for lifelong success. The Yarnells provide you with a wealth of savvy advice on everything you need to know to succeed in network marketing, such as proven systems for recruiting, training, growing and supporting your downline, and much more.
In an easy, step-by-step approach, you will learn how to:
·Deal with rejection
·Recruit and train
·Avoid overmanaging your downline
·Remain focused
·Stay enthusiastic
·Avoid unrealistic expectations
·Conduct those in-home meetings
·Ease out of another profession
You owe it to yourself to read this inspiring book!
"This will be the Bible of Network Marketing."
— Doug Wead, former special assistant to the president, the Bush Administration
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-09-20
This book is really great for someone entering Network Marketing . . Easy to read . .
Same old stuff, different cover............2007-09-16
There are many books like this out there with the methods are out of date. Most successful network marketers build their fortune on the backs of others. There are some new twists on old approaches, the problem with most network marketing, MLM, multilevel marketing methods is the company's business model drives the behavior in the field and turns people into pushy, aggressive sales people, which causes huge failure in the industry.
[...].
A great way to get going.......2007-08-16
This book is very clearly written, and gives you the right steps, and thoughts on how to get throught the rough part and then get to the GREAT Success! Anyone who is starting to work in MLM should start with this book!
A tremendous help to my continued journey with MLM .......2007-08-10
I really enjoyed it and learned so much useful information while reading this amazing book. I only wish that I bought this book 18 months ago when I started with this wonderful MLM company I belong to. The insights of this industry are fully explained in this book along with stories that people in their organization have lived and learned through. Not only is the information useful and ready to be applied to your business but the inspiring stories are true examples that this industry works for those who work it. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is starting out in a MLM company and for anyone who is a veteran in MLM. I have recommended this book to my organization and everyone loves this book, too.
Must Have for the New Network Marketer.......2007-06-20
This book was a great resource for understanding the network marketing business. It helped to build my faith and become more confident in what I was doing. Great, easy to read and relate to information with real-life examples from some of the best in the business. If you're even thinking about getting into the industry I would read this book to see if network marketing is something you can committ to.
Book Description
Where would your dream take you if you had a whole year to just travel? But perhaps you're thinking, "if I only knew how to start planning my adventure!" This detailed "how-to" guide will get you moving from the dreaming to the doing in no time at all.
Included is step-by-step, real-life information on planning the trip you've always wanted to take -- along with generous doses of humor and advice on topics such as:
* How to pay for a year away from home * How to unravel all your current commitments - to family, work, and organizations * How to plan on the fly and enjoy every day * How to pack in 3 small drawers and 24" of closet space - for two! * How to handle the emergencies that crop up along the way * And the most asked question: How to enjoy your traveling companion on a 24/7 basis!
Once you've decided to "leave it all behind", Live Your Road Trip Dream takes you along on an action-packed, whirlwind tour of the authors' trip - just to help you visualize what months on the road might really be like, and to offer a glimpse into how decisions and discoveries are made along the way.
This is the ultimate road trip planning guide.
Customer Reviews:
Road Trip???.......2007-10-06
These two authors basically drive around the country and pour out verbal diahrea on boring facts about their trip that no one in their right mind should care about. They are actually proud of the fact that they only???? spent 80k in one year of travelling. They must have lived like anaimals! Also, Carol seems to use the exclamation point way too excessively in her writing! If you are not retired and are somewhat of a young age please avoid this book. I did give it one star because if you have a good sense of humour you might enjoy her little stories!
For me, more of a 3 1/2 star book but since halves are not an option, 4 stars........2007-10-03
The first chapters of this book provide excellent guidance for planning a one-year trip away from home. The authors guide you through the entire process of planning and preparation. Definitely four star information. The authors purchased a small RV, set up their budget, rented out their house and got ready to go. This book shares what worked for them and walks you through all the necessary steps that need to be accomplished prior to your departure including a planned/actual budget and a more frugal version. Both budgets seemed high to me, but if the trip were made today, both might be a real bargin.
The second portion of the book, a journal of their year on the road, seemed sketchy and a bit disjointed. There isn't a lot of information on any of the areas visited, so not as useful as it might of been for some actual travel planning. They spent so many nights at hotels that I'm not sure the motor home was a good investment, but the authors thought it was.
If you are considering traveling away from home for an extended period of time, you will find this book a helpful addition to your library along with one or two good travel guides. If, however, you are more interested in reading about traveling the USA in a small RV, Barbara Thacker's books, while older, are fun armchair travel reading along with Ron and Barb Hofmeister's books on full timing in a much larger RV.
Entertaining and loaded with great info.......2007-08-26
This is a very entertaining book loaded with great information about extended traveling. Be it just a few weeks or a year or more, the authors have dispensed great ideas on how to handle the everyday life you leave behind (for whatever period of time).
I finished the book in about a week, reading it for it's entertainment value. I will be retiring soon and my wife and I plan on taking extended "vacations" in our RV. I will read the book again (and again) so I can garner as much information as I can.
listen to the voices of first-hand experience.......2007-07-19
Phil and Carol White amply demonstrate that anyone can live "a road trip dream" as they thoughtfully share their proven insider tips for enjoyable RV travels. Interesting to discover, according to the authors, that a big mistake first-timers make is overplanning. Read this book and "just do it!"
I'd like to start with $80,000 a year too! .......2007-03-09
My family and I are preparing to spend a year full-timing in our 5th wheel camper and thought this book would be helpful in some regards to that. Unfortunately, there were no real bits of information for us to use in planning for our trip. Actually, there was not much at all that was helpful for our purposes.
Book Description
Are you really ready to change? Take this quiz and find out.
Every New Year’s Day, my list of resolutions is:
Ambitious. I aim for everything from losing weight to saving more money for my retirement.
Realistic. I just try to bump my good behavior up a notch--be a better friend, give more money to charity---without giving myself any strict deadlines or goals.
Precise. I decide exactly how many men I will ask for a date, or how many new jobs I will apply for.
Whenever I decide to change something, it’s usually because:
My doctor has put the fear of God into me.
I read a magazine article about why making this change is important.
I start daydreaming about how great life will be after I make the change.
True or False: When you want to make a big change in your life, timing is crucial.
Failure is:
Impossible.
Inevitable.
Not in my vocabulary.
(The answers are on the inside back flap.)
Learn the secret to making changes that stick
Every so often people get inspired (again!) to lose weight, get organized, start saving, or stop worrying –but a few months later they give up, frustrated. It doesn’t have to be that way. In This Year I Wil . . .l, bestselling author M.J. Ryan offers breakthrough wisdom and coaching to help readers make this time the time that change becomes permanent.
Why do people find it so hard to change? The secret is that everyone has their own formula for making changes that stick, but most people don’t know what theirs is. They think there is one way to lose five pounds, and another way to stay on top of their e-mail, but they don’t realize that for all changes, there is one system that works best for each individual. This Year I Will . . . helps you lock on to your unique formula for planning, implementing, and seeing a life change through, so you can use it again and again to tackle anything else you’d like to do.
For anyone who has broken a New Year’s resolution, fallen off a diet, or given up on fulfilling a dream, the ingenious strategies, inspiring stories, and sheer motivational energy of This Year I Will . . . help you make a promise to yourself that you can actually keep.
Answers to the jacket quiz: c, c, false, b. Take the whole quiz and learn your score at M.J. Ryan’s Web site, www.mj-ryan.com.
Customer Reviews:
Not your ordinary motivational guide..........2007-08-31
I'm almost finished with this book and when I do, I plan to start it over again! Absolutely the best book of it's kind that I've ever read. Thank you, MJ Ryan. PS- I lost 27#, work at the gym now and quit smoking...all in the last 4 months. Her book has been instrumental in helping me to make these 'dreams' a reality.
Make Your resolutions come true.......2007-05-10
One of the best I've read. Easy to understand. Motivated me to take action immediately.
This Little Book is a Charm.......2007-03-28
MJ Ryan is one of my favorite authors. Her book, Random Acts of Kindness, started all kinds of initiatives that contribute to the world being kinder.
Her latest book is very, very special. This book is a perfect December read BEFORE one makes New Year's resolutions that are often shattered within the first couple of weeks. In an easy read style that characterizes her writing, she logically sets out why we so often find personal change difficult and then shares her prescription for making changes.
Corny as it may seem to some, I carry this book with me during my many business trips across the country. It has become both a symbol and a guidebook for a series of changes I am implementing in 2007. For me, this little book is working like a charm.
Ah...yet another kindness from Ms. Ryan. One for which I am most grateful.
Mash Note to Author.......2007-03-14
I love this book. Anything that makes me do something I've been avoiding for so long is powerful. I only have this book for a couple of days and already I'm energized. Thank you M.J. Ryan.
Inspiration, encouragement and advice for change.......2007-01-30
What I like best about M.J. Ryan is that she is a compassionate writer. She is writing about something that is very difficult to do: change. It is clear that she understands that change is hard; nobody is perfect, and people will slip. Her acceptance inspires your own acceptance of the perils of change and your personal foibles. She encourages you to take the leap into change despite your doubts. She makes you believe that change may be hard but with her advice it is possible and even probable.
Her advice is clear and precise; the book is jam-packed with information but without an excess of words. She looks at all the essential issues involved in making changes. She begins with the basics, the things that you must do to make a change and make it last: You must be specific. You must plan. You must prepare. You must really want it. You must make a commitment. You must take action. You must re-evaluate when things aren't working. You must get back on track when you slip up.
Yes, all of that sounds very familiar. What isn't so familiar is her analysis of exactly how all that works, why it works the way it does, and precisely what to do to assure that it works the way it should. She also tells you the probable reasons for your efforts going awry, as well as what to do when you do run into trouble.
Like any good writer who compels your attention, she illustrates her points with apt examples and anecdotes. As with the rest of her writing, the stories are made most effective by their brevity. I am reminded of a textbook I was once assigned in college. It was called "The Force of Few Words" and was about how poetry achieves its powerful effects. M.J. Ryan is not writing poetry, but her words are full of "rhyme and reason" and her advice together with her stories will make you believe in your power to change.
Book Description
When Huston Diehl began teaching a fourth-grade class in a "Negro" elementary school in rural Louisa County, Virginia, the school’s white superintendent assured her that he didn't expect her to teach "those children" anything. She soon discovered how these low expectations, widely shared by the white community, impeded her students' ability to learn. With its overcrowded classrooms, poorly trained teachers, empty bookshelves, and meager supplies, her segregated school was vastly inferior to the county's white elementary schools, and the message it sent her students was clear: "dream not of other worlds."
In her often lyrical memoir, Diehl reveals how, in the intimacy of the classroom, her students reached out to her, a young white northerner, and shared their fears, anxieties, and personal beliefs. Repeatedly surprised and challenged by her students, Diehl questions her long-standing middle-class assumptions and confronts her own prejudices. In doing so, she eloquently reflects on what the students taught her about the hurt of bigotry and the humiliation of poverty as well as dignity, courage, and resiliency.
Set in the waning days of the Jim Crow South, Dream Not of Other Worlds chronicles an important moment in American history. Diehl examines the history of black education in the South and narrates the dramatic struggle to integrate Virginia's public schools. Meeting with some of her former students and colleagues and visiting the school where she once taught, she considers what has--and has not--changed after more than thirty years of integrated schooling. This provocative book raises many issues that are of urgent concern today: the continuing social consequences of segregated schools, the role of public education in American society, and the challenges of educating minority and poor children.
Book Description
This is a guide for high school athletes who wish to leverage their talent to get into the best possible college of their choice. In addition to ranking schools according to value, academics, best housing, and even hot and trendy, the book provides a step-by-step plan for an athlete to present him or herself to a wide array of possible colleges.
Customer Reviews:
A must read for student athletes!.......2007-01-09
A very informative book for student athletes and their parents. Every page has important information for high school athletes considering playing sports in college. You will not regret this purchase. I highly recommend it.
Amazon.com
Debbie Ford's straightforward, heartfelt style makes an old-fashioned idea seem fresh in The Best Year of Your Life. Her concept of "dream it, plan it, live it" is a detailed version of advice we've all heard about the need for clear plans, firm action and a refusal to be sidetracked--but with her gentle voice and step-by-step suggestions, the message comes across in a new way. In particular, her advice on creating mental snapshots of specific memories provides an excellent new technique for the ages-old concept of living in the moment.
Each of the three short sections include writing activities to help track your own process and short, regular affirmations that, if made part of a daily routine, can assist you in staying the course you plan for yourself. She demands plenty of honesty with yourself, and refuses to allow excuses any room on a regular basis. The result is a refreshing mix of support and toughness that lets you set your own pace as you work to map out your life goals and aim towards acting with what Ford describes as "conscious intent".
A number of stories from her own life and clients are included, and provide inspiration for readers at different stages. The examples cover a wide range, from losing a few pounds and keeping it off to making explosive changes in a relationship or career, and the resource guide that finishes the book is a welcome accompaniment if you're looking for more details on a specific technique references in one of the stories. --Jill Lightner
Book Description
No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Ford's The Best Year of Your Life is a call to action to stop pretending that the future will bring you the life of your dreams and to instead start living your dreams in this moment and for the rest of your life.
Many of us spend our days thinking, talking and dreaming about what our lives could be like 'if only ...'. We make resolutions, we follow a new diet, we start exercise routines – we begin working on our lifelong goals and then we give up, get too busy and forget about what's truly important to us. Another year passes by and our dreams remain out of reach. But what if today you discovered that the life you've always wanted is right in front of you, well within your grasp? Are you ready to live it?
Debbie Ford not only answers these questions but offers a proven, practical blueprint for making today – this moment – the beginning of the best year of your life.
Customer Reviews:
A handy primer to keep in reach when times get rough.......2007-02-14
As a male, I was unsure about purchasing this book because it seems Ms. Ford has gained her following by catering to the Lifetime television demographic rather than us ESPN viewers. So when this book turned up as a bargain clearance and the reviews seemed to hint the book was geared to both genders, I went ahead and made the purchase. Overall, I found this book to be a breeze to get through and felt it was right up there in terms of substance and just plain fun when compared to other self-help books I have read.
The book is broken into three main sections as stated in the title. I like the way the author closes each section with suggesting you put in writing how you will implement the ideas she lays out. Of course, putting things in writing is not new. I just think she has broken things down into smaller assignments as compared to the somewhat overwhelming "write down everything you want in life" other self help books tell you to do.
Although Ms. Ford's message is nothing new and it has been proven that reading these self-help books may make you change your behavior patterns for a period of just a few days rather than years, I believe this is one of those books that is good to have around as a reference when you find yourself slipping back to old habits.
The Best Year of Your Life.......2007-01-10
This book allows you to take the action steps you want to take in order to create the changes in your life to manifest The Best Year of Your Life. I am enjoying and sharing the Best Year of My Life with eight other colleagues on a weekly basis. I purchase this book and Kit for my sister, so she can also manifest the Best Year of Her Life in 2007.
Maria Maione
A good, practical guide to a happier life........2006-12-30
I love books like this. It's not a lofty, ellusive, preachy book about why we should be happy. The author actually gives practical solutions that we all can apply right away in order to be happier. That is exactly what I did when writing my own book. I love it when (self help) authors come across more like a peer than an "expert". Good job Debbie Ford!
To read it is to love it!.......2006-09-01
There are many who say when opportunity comes, they will take advantage of it. Most will fail. There are a few who say they will make their opportunity, and take advantage of it. Most will succeed. This book exemplifies that "can do" spirit!
Reginald V. Johnson, Author, "How To Be Happy, Successful And Rich"
Timely reading as a new year approaches .......2005-12-19
Looking to change your ways? Looking for a succinct, encouraging, step by step guide? This book is for you. I could recognize myself in many of the examples. The author divides her book into three sections, dream it, plan it, and live it. I particularly liked the "No-Cookie Zones" chapter; how to recognize when we engage in debilitating behaviors; that when we do, there is no reward. She discusses how goals have to be specific, something different from dreams and ambitions. Ms. Ford emphasizes the need for structure and discipline in planning life changing goals. She also encourages her readers to seize moments in their days, and to live to inspire.
Book Description
What is it like to cut loose and sail away for a year?
How do you really do it?
Join them in their Adventure!
Taking their cat along as a referee, Steve and Margaret Watterson spent a year on their 30-foot sailboat traveling from Cleveland, Ohio to the Florida Keys and back. In this book, they describe their experience--the good times and the bad--in order to share it with those who dream of some day cutting off the phone, canceling the paper, and locking the door behind them.
If you have ever wondered how to actually do this, you will enjoy this book. The Wattersons tell how much they spent, how they handled mail, and what charts and cruising guides they used. They cover insurance, how to prepare a boat for this kind of trip, and much more.
Customer Reviews:
An Enjoyable Book.......2005-12-07
This is an amusing and enjoyable book. My husband and I are planning to cruise down the Intracoastal Waterway, and I found this book to be full of useful information about the Erie Canal and the Waterway, and about living aboard a 30-foot boat for a year while cruising south. The book puts you there just as if you were actually having the experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who dreams of such a trip.
A quick year.......2004-02-17
The book gives a quick overview of a long journey. It's an easy read, but the details are thin for anyone looking to make this journey. "Honey, Let's Get A Boat" provides better information and detail than "Our Year". Most of the pictures and maps appear to be borrowed from cruising guides. It does give some highlights, that are extracted from newsletters the author wrote - which is the impression I got while reading it - a compendium of personal newsletters to friends, rather than for someone looking to make this journey.
Captures the Essence.......2004-02-15
What I like about this book is that it captures the real sights and smells of traveling the Atlantic Intracoastal. I believe that this must be what it's really like to live on a 30-foot boat for a year cruising up and down the East coast of the US. The author's descriptions put you right in the picture, and his sense of humor will make you chuckle. There is also a lot of useful information in this book. Anyone who dreams of doing anything like this some day will get a lot of enjoyment from this book.
Informative, unpretentious, and entertaining........2004-02-15
I was captivated by this story of a 60-something couple taking the voyage of HIS dreams. While their particular trip in itself was not extraordinary --- many boaters do this --- the author's wry and self-deprecating sense of humor makes this account of their adventure an outstanding read. It is also chock full of very useful information, but primarily it is just a good book to curl up with when you feel like escaping to an achievable dream.
Fun to read.......2004-02-12
I found this book to be entertaining and fun to read. It details the author's boat cruise down the Intracoastal Waterway from start to finish, including all the planning involved. It is a "we did it, so can you!" book. But mainly, it is just an easy to read story, and the author's personal take on events is amusing. Buy it, you'll like it!
Product Description
Recently updated for the Summer 2007 vacation season, the EZ Fun Guide to Walt Disney World is the fun-to-read, easy-to-use Walt Disney World travel guide and vacation planner. Most travel guides contain too many words, too few maps and pictures. The EZ Fun Guide features 38 pages of unique color-coded theme park maps, plus dozens of checklists and tables to get to the point faster and easier. Every attraction, restaurant, shop and resort hotel is described concisely and highlighted on the maps. You can quickly find what you want to know about the theme parks, other attractions, resorts and more! Whether you are a compulsive planner or dislike having to think of so many details, the EZ Fun Guide to Walt Disney World makes preparing for your vacation fun and easy.
Customer Reviews:
EZFUN GUIDE to WALT DISNEY WORLD.......2007-04-24
A GREAT GUIDE, THE AUTHOR IS SUPER, WELL WORTH THE MONEY
EZ FUN GUIDE WDW 2007 - GREAT BOOK !.......2007-02-15
THIS RESOURCE MATERIAL IS A BIT EXPENSIVE COMPARED TO SOME OF THE OTHER BOOKS, AND AT FIRST SIGHT IT DOESNT APPEAR TO LOOK LIKE A LOT OF MATERIAL -
BUT IT IS WORTH IT!
IT IS A FUN BOOK TO LOOK THRU!
I WOULD SUGGEST PURCHASING IT 6 MONTHS BEFORE YOUR TRIP, SO YOU HAVE TIME TO MAKE MENTAL NOTES OF ALL YOU WANT TO DO AND YOU MAY EVEN WANT TO PACK IT WITH YOU.
A fun and useful guide.......2007-01-20
I really like this guide book. I own many WDW guide books and this is one I would recommend to others. It has the most helpful maps of any WDW guide book out there. It isn't as in depth as some others but it provides a very good overview and lots of helpful planning sheets to fill out. I will be purchasing the next edition !
A good guidebook.......2006-09-25
This guidebook for Walt Disney World isn't the most informative (that would be the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World by Bob Sehlinger) nor the most beautiful (that would be the deluxe version of the Passporter Guide to Walt Disney World by Jennifer Marx), but it is still a good book to buy if you want the basics in an easy-to-understand presentation or if you have the other two books and simply want a third perspective from a thoughtful author.
As someone who has never been to Walt Disney World, I bought a copy of every guidebook I could find. I'm eternally grateful to Bob Sehlinger for his great book with its volumes of very useful information. And I deeply appreciate the thoughtful touches and extra tidbits tucked into the Passporter volume. But this book offered an interesting take on the park maps - they're very informative and, for someone who hadn't yet been to Disney World, they made it much easier to understand and visualize the parks, their layout, and where every single attraction, restaurant, and gift shop was within that layout.
The tips included are also nice, as are the planning documents and the information on things to do at Disney World aside from going to the various theme and water parks.
I think this book is definitely worth the price.
Disney World Guide.......2006-08-05
Very nice book. Useful in finding info for the seperate Disney parks. Planning forms appear they would be useful, however I had already booked my trip so did not get a chance to use them. also good planning tips throughout.
Customer Reviews:
1968: The Year of the Counter-Revolution.......2005-02-02
I will keep this very brief because there are so many avenues to examine this book and I offer only one.
The reason to read this masterwork is because Witcover posits that 1968 might have been the year of the counter-revolution rather than the great liberal near miss that others, like Jack Newfield, have contended.
After all of the RFK myth-making and all of the old liberal romancing about a dream stolen from us that year (full disclosure: I am a liberal) is dispensed with one thing remains, how can we explain why a 61.1% victory for LBJ in 64' turned into 42% for Hubert Humphrey in 1968? Something was amiss on the political left in 1968 and it wasn't RFK and MLK's murders alone but a deeper shift in the public's view of the Democrats and what they could offer a nation in transition. Look no further than now: 37 years of conservative politics and still counting! If 68' was the year that should have been then where have the Democrats been for all those years? Where are the dynamic news ideas??? Where is the liberal legacy? While Reagan may have been a "great communicator," nothing made Nixon and both Bushes so downright appealing (except, perhaps, their alternatives?)! The fact is, the Democrats lost their voice and their way that year because their best spokesmen either died or discovered their ideas just did not fit into an America sick of riots and protests. When will the Democrats awaken from the timidity they've adopted since?
I recommend this book for the varied perspectives Witcover brings together to discuss how so pivotal a year has shaped our politcs to this day. There is no romance or myth-making here, just hard questions asked and hard answers considered.
Five stars.
A year of unprecedented disappointment and heartache.......2002-12-29
You've no doubt heard of that phrase, "Born under a bad sign". Well, how about born in a bad year? That's the circumstances underlying your humble reviewer, but it didn't take Jules Witcover's 1968-The Year The Dream Died, to make me figure that my year was a rotten vintage.
Witcover points to the Kennedy assassination in 1963 as the point where things began to sour. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan, future Senator of New York, then assistant secretary of Labour said in the wake of JFK's death, "We'll laugh again. It's just that we'll never be young again."
That whole disaster of a year that was the third straight year of U.S. involvement in Vietnam was also a presidential election year, during which Democratic disunity and third party candidate George Wallace gave Richard Nixon a new address--1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It also didn't help matters for Hubert Humphrey that his hands were tied in his election bid. He couldn't actively criticize LBJ, who was concentrating on conducting the war.
But the two events that spelled the death of optimism were the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The latter's death is covered in a chapter aptly titled "Murder of Hope." It figured. The nation still hadn't completely healed after the JFK assassination and the murder of these two figures served to scar the nation even more.
Nixon, Agnew, Johnson, Sirhan Sirhan, and Lt. William Calley were some of the dark forces at work that year, but the most ridiculous by far was General Curtis LeMay, that lunatic who seriously thought of using nukes in Vietnam and embarassed George Wallace, who tapped him to be his running mate without foresight.
My Lai demonstrated how brutally insane the situation in Vietnam had become. How could American soldiers actually contemplate massacring 567 unarmed civilians, when in World War II, they were considered heroes?
Other events covered: the riots in Chicago, the Pueblo incident in North Korea, the Prague Spring, the presidential campaign, and the student protests that inflamed universities.
Each chapter represents a month of that dreadful year, and at the beginning of each chapter is a brief timeline of what else occurred, be they deaths of famous people, e.g. Helen Keller, or opening days of key films e.g. Yellow Submarine.
However, at the end, Witcover argues alternative scenarios. Had RFK lived, he would have taken the Democratic nomination AND the White House, ended Vietnam, and worked with MLK to heal the racial divide in the country. Or if Eugene McCarthy had decided to endorse Hubert Humphrey earlier in the race, Humphrey would have defeated Nixon. All of this and more is soberingly reviewed in a thorough coverage of that fateful year.
A Perceptive, Insightful & Entertaining Book About 1968!.......2000-06-16
This book is a must-read for anyone who lived through these fabled and troubled times and is willing to endure Witcover's often emotional and always gripping recreation of the events of that fateful year. For those of us who were involved and are nostalgic about the people, hopes, and aspirations we remember from those times, it is difficult to resist peeking between the covers of any book written by Jules Witcover, a well-noted journalist and author who was on-the-scene as a national correspondent as the cataclysmic events of the sixties in general (and 1968 in particular) transpired. Although it was sometimes personally painful to re-experience by way of Witcover's Technicolor prose style about events that I either participated in or was acutely associated with, it is also humbling and encouraging to discover the degree to which he has accomplished this effort with such terrific accuracy, verve, and perspective.
Too often today one reads neo-conservative revisionist accounts of the sixties written by bow-tied authors who were likely so busy squeezing prepubescent pimples in the boys' room mirror of their local junior high schools in 1968 to really have understood what was going on or what it meant. Thus, they write essays simple-mindedly equating 50s style bohemianism with the beliefs, lifestyles, and perspectives of the counterculture, or promulgate the erroneous notion that the sixties youth revolution was a simple coda of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, or that it's the aftermath of the so-called "new-left" cult of permissiveness that is primarily responsible for the breakdown in contemporary American culture. Such silly, superficial & self-serving analysts of the sixties social scene would do well to immerse themselves in tomes such as this to gain a better sense of the times before launching into ignorant and self-serving diatribes.
The sixties defy such easy, unsophisticated, and facile explanations, and it is difficult to now faithfully recollect the various individual elements of those fractious times without a quite careful, deliberate, & objective search. Many of the conditions for better understanding are present in this book. Witcover describes the month-by-month progress of the year with excruciating detail and a unique sense for how to mix various seemingly unrelated events and characteristics of a particular moment to engender the faithful recall of its tone and flavor. He slowly & carefully recreates the stage for our understanding of how the social, economic, and political sensitivities of millions of Americans with different perspectives & beliefs collided into cultural conflict, and how the collective hopes & dreams of many Americans for a better nation were nearly destroyed beneath a flood of violence, deception and trauma associated with the events of the year.
1968 was a year of great pitch and moment for this country, a moment in time when the social fabric of the country was nearly torn apart, and it was indeed a tragic year in the sense that so much of what started out as positive, hopeful, and energetic ended as being negative, discouraging, and dissolving. It was, as Charles Dickens observed about a different revolutionary period, "the best of times and the worst of times", it was a time when, for even the briefest of moments, the social, economic and human possibilities of this country hung in the balance, when a certain indescribable electricity hung in the air, and when we thought we might just be able to turn this troubled and troubling world around. Then it crashed back to earth. Jules Witcover describes this year of such hope and despair as well as I have read to date. Read it and enjoy!
The politics of a pivotal year in U.S. history.......2000-05-12
"The Year the Dream Died" is probably the best and most comprehensive account yet of the 1968 presidential election. Nineteen sixty-eight was a strange and terrible year in American history, a year in which we endured the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, an escalating war in Vietnam, riots in the cities, the quixotic campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and George Wallace, chaos at the Chicago Democratic convention, and finally Richard Nixon's rise to the presidency.
Witcover is a veteran political reporter, and this book focuses heavily on U.S. politics rather than on the events of the world at large. There's a lot of day-to-day detail on what the candidates did and said, and it sometimes becomes tedious. On the other hand, Witcover pays relatively little attention to other interesting developments around the world, such as the progress of the war in Vietnam, the Prague Spring, the student rebellion in Paris, and popular culture. It was a great and important year for popular music, yet the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and the Rolling Stones get only a very brief mention. Rather than the grand "Revisiting 1968 in America," the book's subtitle should have been something specific to politics, like "Revisiting the 1968 Presidential Election."
Although Witcover provides a generally balanced portrait of each of the men at the center of national politics in 1968, Bobby Kennedy is clearly his favorite, and like so many other commentators, he can't resist speculating about how much better the world might have been if Kennedy had survived and been elected president. On the other hand, McCarthy comes across as an otherworldly pied piper who somehow managed to captivate the nation's youth and a handful of its intellectuals, despite having little interest in campaigning, or indeed in the presidency itself. Humphrey is a bland and ineffectual figure caught in the shadow of Lyndon Johnson, regularly failing to seize opportunities to score political points but somehow coming from far behind Nixon to lose the election by only a small margin. Witcover gives Nixon credit mostly for clever image-making and keeping a lid on his darker side, without really exploring Nixon's broad appeal to the American people.
In the last chapter of the book, Witcover offers a kind of post-mortem on the 1968 election, quoting from interviews with participants across the political spectrum from Tom Hayden to Patrick Buchanan, and from commentators like Arthur Schlesinger, William Bennett, Richard Goodwin and Taylor Branch. It's the best chapter in the book, and should be required reading for any serious student of the 1960's. Its key point is that the 1968 election represented a conservative backlash against the various forces of dissent and disorder that had begun to flourish in America, the beginning of the conservative ascendancy that dominates American politics to this day.
The politics of a pivotal year in U.S. history.......2000-05-12
"The Year the Dream Died" is probably the best and most comprehensive account yet of the 1968 presidential election. Nineteen sixty-eight was a strange and terrible year in American history, a year in which we endured the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, an escalating war in Vietnam, riots in the cities, the quixotic campaigns of Eugene McCarthy and George Wallace, chaos at the Chicago Democratic convention, and finally Richard Nixon's rise to the presidency.
Witcover is a veteran political reporter, and this book focuses heavily on U.S. politics rather than on the events of the world at large. There's a lot of day-to-day detail on what the candidates did and said, and it sometimes becomes tedious. On the other hand, Witcover pays relatively little attention to other interesting developments around the world, such as the progress of the war in Vietnam, the Prague Spring, the student rebellion in Paris, and popular culture. It was a great and important year for popular music, yet the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and the Rolling Stones get only a very brief mention. Rather than the grand "Revisiting 1968 in America," the book's subtitle should have been something specific to politics, like "Revisiting the 1968 Presidential Election."
Although Witcover provides a generally balanced portrait of each of the men at the center of national politics in 1968, Bobby Kennedy is clearly his favorite, and like so many other commentators, he can't resist speculating about how much better the world might have been if Kennedy had survived and been elected president. On the other hand, McCarthy comes across as an otherworldly pied piper who somehow managed to captivate the nation's youth and a handful of its intellectuals, despite having little interest in campaigning, or indeed in the presidency itself. Humphrey is a bland and ineffectual figure caught in the shadow of Lyndon Johnson, regularly failing to seize opportunities to score political points but somehow coming from far behind Nixon to lose the election by only a small margin. Witcover gives Nixon credit mostly for clever image-making and keeping a lid on his darker side, without really exploring Nixon's broad appeal to the American people.
In the last chapter of the book, Witcover offers a kind of post-mortem on the 1968 election, quoting from interviews with participants across the political spectrum from Tom Hayden to Patrick Buchanan, and from commentators like Arthur Schlesinger, William Bennett, Richard Goodwin and Taylor Branch. It's the best chapter in the book, and should be required reading for any serious student of the 1960's. Its key point is that the 1968 election represented a conservative backlash against the various forces of dissent and disorder that had begun to flourish in America, the beginning of the conservative ascendancy that dominates American politics to this day.
Book Description
Who hasn't had the fanthasy of leaving his or her old life behind to start over? What would happen if you gave up your job, city, state, and routine to move to another part of the world? Critically acclaimed writer and aspiring painter James Morgan does just that. Risking everything, he and his wife shed their old, settled life in a lovingly restored house in Little Rock, Arkansas, to travel in the footsteps of Morgan's hero, the painter Henri Matisse, and to find inspiration in Matisse's fierce struggle to live the life he knew he had to live. Part memoir, part travelogue, and part biography of Matisse, Chasing Matisse proves that you don't have to be wealthy to live the life you want; you just have to want it enough.
Morgan's riveting journey of self-discovery takes him, and us, from the earthy, brooding Picardy of Matisse's youth all the way to the luminous Nice of the painter's final years. In between, Morgan confronts, with the notebook of a journalist and the sketchpad of an artist, the places that Matisse himself saw and painted: bustling, romantic Paris; windswept Belle-île off the Brittany coast; Corsica, with its blazing southern light; the Pyrénees village of Collouire, where color became explosive in Matisse's hands; exotic Morocco, land of the secret interior life; and across the sybaritic French Riviera to spiritual Vence and the hillside Villa Le Rêve -- the Dream -- where the mature artist created so many of his masterpieces.
A journey from darkness to light, Chasing Matisse shows us how we can learn to see ourselves, others, and the world with fresh eyes. We look with Morgan out of some of the same windows through which Matisse himself found his subjects and take great heart from Matisse's indomitable, life-affirming spirit. For Matisse, living was an art, and he never stopped striving, never stopped creating, never stopped growing, never stopped reinventing himself. "The artist," he said, "must look at everything as though he were seeing it for the first time." That's the inspiring message of renewal that comes through on every page of Chasing Matisse. Funny, sad, and defiantly hopeful, this is a book that restores our faith in the possibility of dreams.
Customer Reviews:
A book that befriends the artist in all of us.......2007-09-02
This is a book I'm sure I'll reread many times. The author combines humor with depth, and the sense of adventure is inspiring. Right now I'm smiling, just remembering how pleasurable it was to read this book. author (unrelated to me) really did his research, too; I'm now thinking about Arnheim and Elins with renewed interest -- and I'll pursue some of the other books about Matisse as well.
The beauty of Art and fun of travel all in one..........2006-03-18
Here I am trapped in a dull grey/brown Northeast winter when I picked up this book and went on a great trip! As an artist I really loved Mr. Morgan's passion for Matisse, for art in general and I loved his sketches! As a traveler who never gets to travel enough I loved the journey he took me on through France. As a matter of fact I'm so inspired that I'm heading to France this June and I'm going to take another long look at Matisse! So if you love art...this is a terrific book, if you love travel...this is a terrific book. If you love both then you're a terrific person who will really enjoy this book!
A great adventure of self-discovery.......2006-03-11
I'm an American living in France for over 5 years now and I am an amateur painter. And I really like Matisse. So I was really excited when I found this book. I really like the author's humor, he turns what could be boring descriptions of their trip into very funny tales. The book is a mix of a peek into their lives, their adventure in France, the characters they meet, and oh yes, Matisse. I learned a lot in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's sketches and his website.
However, all that said, the book left me wanting more. I got the impression that at the end the author simply got tired of writing or ran out of material. For example, their summer in france only gets a few pages. What was the impact of his search for Matisse? How did it impact his art? Did he just stop chasing Matisse 3 months before he came home? I also would have liked to see more of his sketches as they really helped to imagine the places they went, the hotel rooms, etc.
Overall it was a great book. If you are interested in France, Matisse, or painting, I highly recommend this book!
A Thoughtful Meditation on Travel, Art and Life.......2005-10-02
The author, a writer and artist, is fascinated by the work of Matisse. He and his wife, also a writer, sell their house, leave their desk jobs and go off to France to follow in the footsteps of Matisse. The author chronicles their travels to the places that inspired Matisse - Paris, Collioure in the Pyrenees, Corsica, Belle-Ile off the coast of Britany and the South of France.
In these places the author learns not just to look but also to see. The facts of Matisse's life and his development as an artist are interwoven with the travel adventures of the author and his wife as they live their dream of starting over in a foreign country. A look into the soul of an artist and what we can learn from him if we seek to live the creative life, this book is vastly superior to the shallowness of "C'est La Vie" by Susie Gershman and her vacuous tale of leaving the US to live in Paris.
The only thing missing from "Chasing Matisse" is a map so that the reader can see the locations of the various places that are visited. It's also helpful to have on hand a copy of "Henri Matisse: A Retrospective", Museum of Modern Art 1992, while you read so that you can see the paintings that the author mentions extensively in the book.
Chasing Matisse.......2005-06-27
Oh the places you will go as you read James Morgan's fine book, Chasing Matisse. Morgan and his wife, Beth, leave their comfortable lives in Little Rock, Arkansas and set out for France to visit the places Henri Matisse once inhabited. The physical journey that Morgan takes the reader on makes the book worthwhile; however, it is the psychological journey Morgan takes as an artist that makes this book particularly compelling. Morgan, an accomplished writer, chooses to pursue a lifelong dream, painting. And, who better to lead him on this quest than his hero, Matisse? As he visits the places that stirred Matisse's imagination, Morgan learns "to see" as an artist, and he shares those sights as well as his insights with the reader. It takes a lot of courage to uproot oneself in order to pursue a dream, but Morgan does so and describes the process with such honesty and grace that the reader cannot help but be inspired. If you have ever thought about changing your life, you have to read Chasing Matisse. It's a book that stays with you long after the final page is turned.
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