The Soul Knows No Bars compiles all of the authors' reactions to texts by Foucault, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and others.
"Revealed in pages of this book are the intelligence, compassion and humanity of both the prisoners and the author...Leder searches for his own soul as the prisoners search for theirs. This book belongs in every classroom and in every home-because as much as it teaches us about the human beings who are incarcerated in America's Archipelago, it teaches us about ourselves."
--Natalie J. Sokoloff, Professor of Sociology
"Drew Leder is a kind of latter-day Socrates...This is philosophy at its best-the courageous love and quest for wisdom that sheds light and enlightens souls in the heart of American darkness."
--Cornel West
"Put a phiosophy professor into a locked room with incarcerated thieves, drug dealers, and murderers, throw in Socrates, Nietzsche, Cornel West and Heidegger - and what do you get? Conversations that will knock your socks off. A book you simply can't put down."
--Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking
"A rare gem of a book...[Leder] artfully demonstrates that inmates are not unreachable, inhuman nor incapable of being taught; nor are they uninterested in the profound philosophical tenets of thinkers like Socrates, Nietzsche, and Foucault. Leder forces us to rediscover a truth that our society often forgets.Our prisons are not filled with soulless cast-offs of little or no consequence, but with men and women who hope, feel, desire, bleed, and, most importantly, who think."
--Kweisi Mfume, president and CEO, NAACP