The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today's Community Healers Are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhoods - Hardcover

Woodson, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684827425 ISBN 13: 9780684827421

Publisher: Free Press, 1998

Synopsis

Using parallels between the biblical story of Joseph and today's urban workers, the author pays tribute to the courageous men and women who are battling to change the lives of residents in the poorest inner-city communities. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Inspiring subject matter, disappointing book. Founder and president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, and a MacArthur awardee, Woodson argues that the leadership and energy required to remedy the ills of poor neighborhoods must come from within. Especially in impoverished black communities, self-identification as victims and failed government policies must give way to self-help inspired by indigenous role models. The latter he calls ``Josephs,'' referring to the biblical figure who rises from slavery and prison to advise the pharoah--an analogy that doesn't really fit Woodson's concept of individuals who would work at a grass-roots level to help recover the lives of drug addicts and ex-cons. No matter. Those concerned about improving the condition of the poor will applaud such efforts, and Woodson's conservative supporters will applaud the supposed policy implications. Unfortunately, description of actual Josephs is relegated to a surprisingly minor role in this slim volume. The primary focus here is not providing evidence that Josephs can spearhead successful antipoverty efforts, but rather providing a testament to Woodson's belief that they can do so, packaged in a largely incommensurate and potentially inconsistent political agenda. Criticism of government policy and established social service networks may be well deserved, but as Woodson notes, Josephs work independently of policies and institutions and will succeed or fail regardless of public policy, so why the overbearing emphasis on a political critique? If Woodson's policy recommendations calling for money and authority to be channeled through Josephs into poor communities and building ``institutional supports around the grass-roots leaders'' were enacted, however, they would become central political figures--and the prized independence that made them Josephs would be forfeited. There is no doubt that Woodson is genuinely concerned with looking for new, more effective ways to alleviate the scourge of poverty--and that his efforts are accompanied by considerable political na‹vet‚. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Where Thomas Sowell and other black conservatives are popular, this parable of moral regeneration through religious-based grassroots groups emphasizing self-help will have appeal. Woodson is founder and president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, formerly affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute, and a 1990 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. Here he uses the biblical tale of Joseph and the pharaoh to draw a bright line between "modern-day Josephs," who "have forged an effective internal, spiritual response to the spiritual and moral atrophy of our civil society which goes far beyond the limitations of conventional remedies of professional therapy and economic assistance," and "the Pharaoh's Court" --the civil rights establishment, the "poverty industry," some politicians and academics--who preach victimization and define racism as the source of all woe. There's useful information on grassroots programs' success in dealing with addiction, parolees, and former gang members, among others. As for Woodson's polemics: one either believes the Bible and Adam Smith have all the answers, or one doesn't Mary Carroll

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0684827425
• ISBN 13: 9780684827421
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176