Earl Shorris

Explores the lives and history of Hispanic Americans as decendants of the Spanish conquest of the native populations of the New World.

"The destruction of the American Indian, by his enemies and by his friends. This is the story of a proud, profoundly wise culture which now seems doomed to extinction. It is the story of the American Indian, who first had hi lands wrested away, and now is undergoing the final destruction of his identity. There are many actors in this drama, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and its strangling lover's embrace; the last great chiefs and medicine men [shamans], struggling to keep alive their ancient traditions ; the anthropologists and hippies, with their destructive invations ; the new Indian radicals, angry and divided ; and above all, the ordinary Indians, in the reservations and in the cities, marked by the white [whites, whiteman] spiritual death."--from back cover.

Told from the point of view of an ancient shaman, this is the dark and mystical story of Mexico's greatest revolutionary general, Pancho Villa. Shedding the Hollywood mantle of the drunken, womanizing bandit-turned-hero, the Villa who comes to life in this extraordinary novel is part man and part myth, part visionary hoodlum and part brilliant general. A troubled childhood--marked by his father's early death in the fields and his sister's rape by a local landowner--and a prophetic dream propel young Villa through a period of lawlessness and drifting and into life as a military leader. The story moves convincingly through the events of Villa's life, showing him to be a man of fierce passions and moral conviction, a natural leader for the rebellion.

Documents the author's observations of circumstances reflected in a maximum-security prison and subsequent launch of a humanities college course for dropouts, immigrants and former inmates who eventually became high-achieving contributors to society.

"In the central Yucatan a group of Maya Indian workers revolt against the corrupt oligarchy of government, business, the official union, and the press. Two young men - a traditional Maya leader and a Mexican-American lawyer - are drawn into ever deeper commitment to the struggle. When they are caught in a trap and thrown into jail, the lawyer declares a hunger strike.". "The story of the Maya workers, and of their village, is narrated in a series of flashbacks that alternate with the deprivations and interrogations in the prison. Day by day, the young lawyer approaches death, and in his discussions with his friend and cell mate, we find two different definitions of love, loyalty, and courage, each man's version determined by the culture from which he springs.". "From the simple rituals performed on the floor of the cell, the use of arcane plants, and the sighting of stars through the tiny barred window, there gradually emerges a kind of map of the Maya cosmos, and an introduction to their understanding of time, medicine, and proper behavior."--BOOK JACKET.

In a narrative of unsparing detail leavened by compassion and even hope, Earl Shorris takes us inside the lives of the poor - in Oakland, rural Tennessee, El Paso, the South Bronx, and many points in between - so that we understand who they are and see through their eyes the "surround of force" that is their horizon, that prevents them from achieving a full and true citizenship. So rich is this book in the words and thoughts of the poor themselves that they are in a sense its authors. Like any good story, this one has a beginning, a middle, and an end. We begin by listening to what the poor have to say about their lives. Once we know who they are and how much like us they are, we are ready to understand the world they live in, and why they are poor. Finally, and most surprisingly, we are asked to consider a revolutionary idea that has been taking quiet shape before our eyes all through the narrative: if the poor are human, and if the cultivation of their humanity benefits both society and the poor themselves, then why not teach them the humanities as the basic tools of citizenship? In order to test his theory, Shorris started a school on the Lower East Side of New York City. He used donated books and borrowed space, and he enlisted friends to help him teach logic, poetry, art, and moral philosophy to a group of young people whose collective background included prison, hard drugs, and homelessness. This experiment, which forms the triumphant climax of New American Blues, yielded extraordinary results: a majority of the students are now enrolled in four-year colleges, and it is no exaggeration to say that their lives have been transformed. One of the students, describing a difficult decision in his personal life, said: "I asked myself, 'What would Socrates do?'". Imagine a solution to poverty far less costly than welfare or prison, one that encourages a reconnection to public life. Imagine an argument so powerful that it prevails against the cruel lies of The Bell Curve and the savage inequities of recent welfare reform. Imagine a book so movingly written as to inspire everyone who reads it with a sense of hope and possibility about the future of this country. New American Blues is all of these things.

"The Life and Times of Mexico is a narrative driven by three thousand years of history: the Indian world, the Spanish invasion, Independence, the 1910 Revolution, the tragic lives of workers in assembly plants along the border, and the experiences of millions of Mexicans who live in the United States. Mexico is seen here as if it were a person, but in the Aztec way - the mind, the heart, the winds of life - and on every page there are portraits and stories: artists, shamans, teachers, a young Maya political leader - the rich few and the many poor."--BOOK JACKET.

If Adam is the archetype of man, and Eve of woman, then the serpent who sold the apple to Eve in the Garden of Eden was the first salesman: all culture and commerce flow from that act. In this groundbreaking book on the nature and meaning of the sale, Earl Shorris takes us on a journey that starts in Eden and comes at last to a consideration of where we are and what we have become in late twentieth-century America, where selling has finally become the dominant human activity. Shorris focuses on the perfection of this particular art here in America, where the vast frontier with its isolated settlements cast the salesman in a heroic role: he was literally the bearer of culture, the source of a panoply of needed and wanted items, everything from parasols to plowshares. He was Prometheus. All of this changed dramatically in the years following World War II, when it dawned on manufacturers and sellers that the American economy was producing more goods than people wanted or needed. Demand would have to be created in order to sustain the expansion of markets, and then, as the economy became oversold, the role of the salesman changed: his task was now to kill the competition. The argument of this brilliant work draws on classical philosophy, contemporary politics, psychology, and economics; it is grounded in the author's long experience as an advertising executive and consultant to major corporations. His firsthand observations and interviews with salesmen of every description form the anecdotal bedrock of the narrative, which is further enlivened by a series of fictions in which salesmen practice aspects of their trade. Out of these stories and insights emerges a chilling new paradigm of human life in our times: that of homo vendens. Shorris shows us how America became a nation of salesmen, and what this means to our economy, our politics, our culture, and our character - especially our freedom to live as dignified persons.