Reviews for Radical Heroes: Gramsci, Freire, and the Politics of Adult Education

The average rating for Radical Heroes: Gramsci, Freire, and the Politics of Adult Education based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-10-28 00:00:00 Joe Andrews Spoiled Silk is the story of two German immigrants, William Brueckmann and Katherine Ruhren, and the family they raised after immigrating to the Paterson, N.J., area in the 1890's. Brueckmann was to become a prominent figure in the 1913 Silk Strike. Having settled in the nearly town of Haledon, he was elected mayor, running on the Socialist Party line. During the 1913 strike the authorities in Paterson prohibited the workers and their union organizers from meeting in the city, so they appealed to Haledon's "Red Mayor" and he welcomed them to town. There they held regular meetinga at the Botto House, home of an Italian immigrant who also worked in the mills and sympathized with the strikers. That house is today a national landmark and home to the American Labor Museum. The Brueckmann's story takes us through the times of the strike and the influence of the "Wobblies," the radical left Industrial Workers of the World. It also covers the anti-German sentiment that was inspired by World War I, the up and down financial times of the decades between the two wars and even captures a glimpse of the impact of the anti-Communist hysteria of the post World War II years on this by then retired couple. Spoiled Silk is a well researched history of the times, but it is also a family memoir as the author is the grandson of the Brueckmann's. So it is a story that is told to a large extent through the recollections of the participants. It has its lighter moments too, some of which involve the interactions between the author's mother's German family and his father's Irish family. When this book was published in 2001 Shea was a professor of classics at Fordham. Since it was published by the Fordham University Press. I suspect no one was paying for placement on the Barnes & Noble new and notable table, so it probably didn't circulate that widely. Too bad. Shea is a really good writer and the story couldn't be more interesting. It is a work that deserves a bigger audience.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-04-17 00:00:00 Yee Sing Wong The book started off with a neutral stance on Marx/ism. However as the book progressed, the author began to seem more and more against what they were writing about, until straightforwardly attempting to debunk Marx/ism more towards the end (especially in the last two chapters). Although this did effect my experience with the book, it was to be expected with whichever book I picked up on the subject. On a positive note, I did learn more about the life of Karl Marx and his writings as well. The author does a good job of telling some details of Marx's life. For Marxists or those interested in related topics, this book is worth picking up with the expectations that you will at times find yourself scoffing at the text in front you.