Maximum Insight: Selected Columns - Hardcover

Maxwell, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813024366 ISBN 13: 9780813024363

Publisher: University Press of Florida, 2001

Synopsis

"One of the most distinctive and independent voices in American journalism . . . a voice that can inspire and infuriate . . . a voice that must not be ignored, especially if we Americans hope to create in this next century something that looks vaguely like a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy."--Roy Peter Clark, Poynter Institute, St. Petersburg

"Maxwell’s level of erudition is unusual among columnists . . . he often alludes to history, philosophy, literature, and the social sciences as he puts the news of the day into context."--Sam G. Riley, professor of communication studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute

"An original and significant contribution to the literature of journalism and Florida culture."--Jay Black, Poynter-Jamison Chair in Media Ethics, University of South Florida

With syndication in more than 200 newspapers and a faithful readership nationwide, Bill Maxwell’s status as one of the country’s preeminent black journalists is unquestionable. This collection of his columns, primarily from the St. Petersburg Times, forms a body of commentary on humanity (and lack of same) that will capture the hearts and minds of Americans.

 Maxwell covers a sweeping range of subjects, including race—a central but not exclusive theme. He asks hard questions that courageously attempt to understand hatred and injustice in America; and he takes on controversial issues many columnists avoid and a wide spectrum of national figures—from Jeb, George W. and Clarence Thomas to the Pope and Jesse Jackson. 

 Maxwell writes movingly about his childhood as the son of migrant farm workers in rural Florida, his love of books—beginning with those plucked from garbage cans—and his everyday encounters with the white world and the black one. With a voice that is provocative and insights that are deep and passionate, he tackles the plight of migrant workers, the devastation of the environment, religious intolerance, homophobia, affirmative action, illiteracy, public education, civic responsibility, politics—and racism. He criticizes blacks and whites alike in his search for truth and right, especially in his exploration of what he calls “resurgent bigotry and Republicanism” and “the black writer’s most agonizing task—and duty—being dispassionate about the foibles and self-destructive behavior of African-Americans.”

 Setting a standard for the newspaper column as social criticism, Maximum Insight illuminates the role of the black writer as an interpreter of the forces that define a diverse America.

Bill Maxwell writes a twice-weekly column for the St. Petersburg Times. Syndicated by the New York Times News Service and by Scripps-Howard, his columns appear in 200 newspapers worldwide and have received many writing awards, including the Florida Press Club’s plaque for general excellence in commentary twice in and the Community Champion Award from the American Trial Lawyers Association.

About this title

About the Author

Bill Maxwell wrote a twice-weekly column for the St. Petersburg Times from 1994 to 2006. His columns appeared in 200 newspapers worldwide and received many writing awards, including the Florida Press Club’s plaque for general excellence in commentary twice in and the Community Champion Award from the American Trial Lawyers Association.

Reviews

In this compendium, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times syndicated columnist Maxwell offers his perspective on the environment, education, politics, migrant workers and his life as an African-American. This is journalistic writing at its best. Each piece features spare, direct sentences illuminating fragments of individual lives that convey the beauties, frustrations, failures and complexities of living in modern America. Maxwell is most compelling when writing about what his readers likely are not poor, black, migrant workers or homeless. He excels in conveying an understanding of these experiences, and creating empathy for his subjects. In one column, he captures the sense of liberation reading offers to a poor young girl living with her grandmother in a Florida town labeled "the AIDS capital of the world." In another, he describes a painful incident in a restaurant during which he and his white companion were subjected to humiliating racism, an experience that left him in tears. Maxwell forcefully addresses the intractable problem of race relations. His approach is provocative and exhibits a hard-edged intellectual rigor that is pragmatic, rational and constructive, and never doctrinaire: he believes it is counterproductive to mark one's race as "victim," so is against seeking general reparations for slavery. But he favors affirmative action because he sees the opportunities for African-Americans and whites as unequal. Maxwell is a generous writer. Many of his columns are poignant, many hopeful, others funny, and he does not hesitate to share his anger or his vulnerabilities when it is important to his point. Maxwell's world is well worth exploring.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Maxwell, a syndicated columnist with the St. Petersburg Times, who calls himself a "social critic," offers his perspective on a broad range of issues from crime to politics to the environment. But American race relations is a central theme of this selected collection of his columns. Maxwell recalls his own childhood, adolescence, and formative experiences, including witnessing the emergence of the civil rights movement from the vantage point of a small Florida town. He brings personal perspective to the issues of personal responsibility, revealing his own son's struggles with drug addiction and self-destructive behavior and his eventual recovery. He is as critical of Jesse Jackson as he is of Clarence Thomas and takes on a range of public figures on issues of affirmative action, civil responsibility, religious intolerance, and racial justice. Readers interested in general public affairs with an emphasis on race relations will enjoy this broad social commentary. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813024366
• ISBN 13: 9780813024363
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336