Re: Book Review By Joanna Daneman

June 21, 2006

Re: Book Review By Joanna Daneman.

From: Dean Lawrence R. Velvel
VelvelOnNationalAffairs.com


Dear Colleagues:

Recently the blogs that this author posted in 2004 and 2005 were organized by subject matter and printed as a book entitled Blogs From The Liberal Standpoint: 2004-2005. One of the purposes of the book lay in the hope that it would contribute to getting the blogs’ ideas into the public arena. (For this reason, the price for the book (ten dollars) is nominal by today’s standards.)

The book is available from MSL and on Amazon. On June 20th, one of the more prolific reviewers on Amazon, Joanna Daneman, wrote a review of the book. Though she specifically says that she is not herself a liberal, Ms. Daneman wrote a review that an author has to be deeply pleased with. It has been appended below in the hope that it may contribute to the book accomplishing its purpose of putting ideas from the blogs into the public arena.

Given the “put up” nature of so much that occurs today, I should say that I do not know Ms. Daneman.*



The thinking man's liberal, June 20, 2006

Reviewer: Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA)

Despite not being of the liberal persuasion myself, I admire the way Professor Velvel takes on the educational establishment and government policies. And sometimes I agree with him. Regardless of agreement, I enjoy these blogs. The writing is crisp, clear, always interesting. And the great thing is that the blogs are relatively short articles, good for a mental break.

Dr. Velvel's take on how elite educational institutions are deliberately (he says) excluding middle and lower class student is nothing short of brilliant analysis. And his take on the case of academic plagiarism in one noted situation is equally amazing. Velvel analyses each sentence uttered in defense of this lapse by the perpetrator with a lawyer's ear for fine nuances of truth and untruth.

The blogs are normally available to readers online, but this is a very handy format for reading at your leisure away from the computer screen. Every time I flip open a page at random, I find something that makes me think. Even when I disagree with the blogs, I find them well-argued, well-written and above all, thought-provoking. I'd recommend this to anyone who IS a liberal in order to learn how to reason and argue and to conservatives to learn how to sharpen their opposing points. Dr. Velvel is a formidable writer and thinker.

Myfiles/Blogspot/Blogltr.DanemanReview

*This posting represents the personal views of Lawrence R. Velvel. If you wish to respond to this email/blog, please email your response to me at velvel@mslaw.edu. Your response may be posted on the blog if you have no objection; please tell me if you do object.