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Title: The Call of Service by Robert Coles ISBN: 0-395-71084-7 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 15 November, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.17 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Reading this book is time well spent
Comment: This book is fantastic. Coles spent a large portion of his life living amongst, interviewing, studying, and writing about volunteer community servants and the people for whom they work. The first 3/4 or so of this book recounts some of his favorite stories from that portion of his life. It does a fine job of doing so - these stories are the kind of thing you can't put down. The last 1/4 or so of the book tries to draw morals and conclusions from the stories. This part of the book is interesting too, and well written, but not quite as good as the first part of the book. For one thing, Coles tries to draw large-scale conclusions from non-randomly picked anecdotal cases. But his conclusions are still very interesting, and the book as a whole is really astonishingly good.
Rating: 5
Summary: Reawakening idealism
Comment: Some books make you feel good, some books make you feel rotten. This book reawakened my idealism and my interest in doing good in the world. Coles describes the elements of volunteering and how we choose the work in which we become engaged. He also describes how we become disillusioned - sometimes by ignoring the significance of the work that goes on among the volunteers, sometimes by hoping too much and knowing too little, sometimes by not looking at ourselves. But he also offers pictures out of his own life and experience, sharing personal reflections and insights. Coles describes concrete situations in many different kinds of volunteer activities, reporting carefully and without a lot of unnecessary analysis, what gets said, how people look, and when volunteer gestures lead or don't lead to success. His respect for the people he meets is inspiring, as is his openness for learning and reassessing his own value system. Not least important is that Colses is both a good writer and a gifted story teller.
Rating: 2
Summary: The Unanswered Call
Comment: The Unanwered Call
In modern society there seems to be a movement away from the sense of community and more toward a sense of the individual. Often we see people more concerned with what it takes to increase profit margins and less concerned about the need to support the community from which these profits are generated. However, in a world of convoluted moral guidance there is some semblance of community left. Robert Coles, in his book The Call of Service: a Witness to Idealism, discusses some of the astounding people that he has worked with over a thirty-year time span. As with many of Coles' works he begins with the story of Ruby Bridges. Set in 1961, Ruby was one of three black children to break the racial barriers in Boston and attend a previous all white school. Although she faced continual threats, Ruby attended school everyday without complaint. Intrigued by Ruby's courage, Coles searched for the motivating force that allowed her to face such adversity. He found that her bravery came from her propensity to contribute to the greater cause. Through facing the hatred of those crowds in Boston, Ruby helped to cut a path through racism for future generation and doing so created a strong sense of self worth. While many of Coles' stories are inspirational, they lack the sociological support necessary to make them anything more than inspirational. Coles seems to think volunteering for the sake of volunteering is enough. For this reason the book centers on the pride one might get from donating his or her time for the betterment of the community. Though the cause is admirable, execution is poor. Coles only discusses isolated cases that do not depict an objective point of view. For example in the case of Ruby Bridges, Coles only refers to her. However, during the 1960's many black children were subjected to similar abuse and did not fare as well. Coles does not discuss any of them. Instead he chooses to deal only with the stories that support his ideology. As today's society seems to value profit over the needs of the community, Call to Service falls short of providing solutions for diminishing community pride. These stories do not provide much more than pop psychology solutions to complex social problems.
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Title: The Call of Stories : Teaching and the Moral Imagination by Robert Coles ISBN: 0395528151 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 05 January, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Lives of Moral Leadership : Men and Women Who Have Made a Difference by Robert Coles ISBN: 0375758356 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Harvard Works Because We Do by Greg Halpern, Studs Terkel ISBN: 0971454892 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 11 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Superpower Syndrome: America's Apocalyptic Confrontation with the World by Robert Jay Lifton ISBN: 1560255129 Publisher: Nation Books Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Spiritual Life of Children by Robert Coles ISBN: 0395599237 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 10 October, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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