Crossing the River: Creating a Conceptual Revolution in Community and Disability [Paperback]

David B Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0914797824 | ISBN-13: 978-0914797821

The first revolution in care for people with disabilities created community services and was to be decisive in improving the situation of people with developmental disabilities. However, community based services are falling victim to serious and perhaps intractable problems. Task forces meet. Remedial actions are proposed. Yet underlying these actions lies a sense that the breakdown is proceeding so rapidly that our efforts may be in vain.

In this book, Mr. Schwartz points out the promise and potential of a new conception emerging in community based living. This approach seeks to embed these persons with disabilities in a web of personal relationships to the other people in their community and ways are found to involve them intrinsically in its flow. He illustrates how this conception can work through a series of exciting experiments in social policy in Pennsylvania.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...[a] magnanimous leader who would quit before ...develop(ing) a tin ear for...the suffering around us. -- Robert Perske, Author, Circles of Friends

Fortunately, his style of writing is as refreshing as the issues are important. -- Seymour B. Sarason, Yale University

There is a not-so-quiet revolution under way...Schwartz not only has been part of it, he tells about it... -- Rutherford B. Turnbull, III, University of Kansas
Past President, American Association on Mental Retardation --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Brookline Books/Lumen Editions (January 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0914797824
• ISBN-13: 978-0914797821
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,553,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Encouraging to a person with a disability, February 23, 2008

By 

Dale Brown - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crossing the River: Creating a Conceptual Revolution in Community and Disability (Paperback)

This was assigned reading for an Intro to Disability Studies class that I've taken. It's encouraging for a person with a disability like myself to see that there are people who genuinely care about the individual without allowing the individual's disability to be an obstacle for current and future interactions. This compilation of essays shows how some professionals in the disability services actually have a learning attitude and are able to step back from their position of 'authority' (after all, they're supposed to be 'the expert'). From the perspective a person with a disability, it is an eye opener and I'm eager to read more of Mr. Schwartz's literature and that of some of his colleagues. Not only is this a must-read for professionals and parents of people with disabilities, I believe it is important for people with disabilities to read this book as well. Education, that tests the limits of the individual, is one of the keys to better integrating a person with a disability into his or her community.

5.0 out of 5 stars Expanding our view of disability, October 2, 2005

By 

Martha Ziegler "Founder, Federation for Child... (Harrisburg, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crossing the River: Creating a Conceptual Revolution in Community and Disability (Paperback)

This book is a "must read" for policy makers, families of people with disabilities, and service providers. Unlike most writers in the field, Schwartz expands his discussion of disability policy and practice to the larger realm of community and the world we all live in at any given moment. This book stimulates us to examine our own assumptions, our world view, our own life trajectory, and the very purpose of our own individual lives.

Martha Ziegler

Founder, Federation for Children with Special Needs

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A history of a peace building revolution, June 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Crossing the River: Creating a Conceptual Revolution in Community and Disability (Paperback)

Although David Schwartz's book is several years old now, it is still THE best look at the complexities of the community rebuilding process that is the aftermath of deinstitutionalization. This book is a must for all service providers, family members, friends and everyone who is interested in crossing the river to that place where everyone is welcome and everyone is included.