No More Prisons
Author: William Upski Wimsatt, Willaim Upski Wimsatt
List Price: $12.00
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ISBN: 1887128425
Publisher: Soft Skull Press, Inc. (15 September, 1999)
Sales Rank: 43,088
Average Customer Rating: 3.68 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
Inspirational, instructive
The book takes a look at many themes and topics -- urban life, self-schooling, hip-hop activism and leadership, the cool rich kids movement and grassroots philanthropy, a hitchhiker's approach to community organizing. Any one could have been expanded in to a book of its own. As a followup to Bomb the Suburbs, No More Prisons is less focused and much delayed (Some of the writing inside dates back to '95, if not sooner.) but still an inspirational and instructive read. And despite the book's wide range of topics, the fact that Upski so firmly espouses the philanthropic tip is a beautiful and encouraging thing. Makes me think I'm not doing enough... for enough people... in enough places. Another reviewer has it totally right: No More Prisons is the kind of book that you keep buying and handing off to friends, family, and other people you want to turn on. There are few books that I buy multiple copies of at the same time. This is one of them.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Go Self-School Yourself!
I'm sure there's a whole flock of teenagers making this book their Bible. Wimsatt has that "edge" people my age love, with chapters talking about self-schooling, challenging others, and making goals for yourself. Some of his writing is actually pretty inspriring stuff. I'm particularly fond of his 19-step self-schooling process, which works as good ground-rules for anybody, out of college or not. However, most of the chapters are sloppily written and seem to lack authority at times (although this could just be the author's style). Overall, a good place to start if you care about inner-city issues.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Short, entertaining, but not adequate.
If you really care about the issues presented in this book, you'd better educate yourself with more in-depth books exploring them. I enjoyed the book and am very glad that it exists. My only misgiving is that it isn't nearly complete in it's arguments. Don't go fighting with someone that knows much more about the topics than you do after you read it. Especially regarding Home schooling, his arguments just don't stand up against my teacher parents, and several friends. That being said, the book is truly inspirational and completely worthy of a read, if only to help spawn your own ideas and get yourself excited about things.
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