In this action-packed American political adventure set in the near future, terrorists use selective violence in order to force the call for a Constitutional Convention, the first in more than 200 years of United States history. The country witnesses the growing paranoia and polarization of the populace when more than 200 terrorist attacks take place randomly all across the nation.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Frederick Ellis was a typical "middle class, country club" Ameican, until the civil rights movement exploded, and then the tradegy of the Vietnam War slammed into his Catholic conscience. A graduate of Villanova University (BS, Economics) and Armstrong University (MBA), he was then the owner an insurance brokerage firm in Freeport, Illinois. But his quest for justice got him deeply involved in civil-rights, anti-poverty, and anti-war activities, culminating in a run as a delegate for the 1968 Chicago Democractic Convention, where he was pledged to Senator Eugene McCarthy.
As the Vietnam quagmire dragged on endlessly, Ellis sold his business in 1971, and moved to the heart of the action: Berkeley, California, where he stepped up his political action, becoming the Campaign Director - McGovern for President. He continued to be active in Berkeley, Oakland, and Eureka, California progressive politics for many years.
Now retired, Frederick resides in Costa Rica, where the idea to write a political adventure novel offering a vision of real solutions through two constitutional amendments to the Bill of Rights creating a popular political economy was born.
Carl Frederick is an "educated vagabond", holding a degree from Penn State University (BS, Psychology) and The University of Chicago (MBA). His first business experience was as a Product Manager in the Advertising Department of Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati, where he worked on the introduction of "Pampers", the innovative disposable diaper system. From there he went to Heublein, Inc. in Hartford, as Director of New Products, and then on to Mattel in Los Angeles as Director of Maketing for "Hot Wheels".
In 1975 he wrote a book that literally "blew the lid" off Werner Erhard's "est" training (Title: est: Playing The Game The New Way, Dell Publishing, New York), which reached #2 position on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold 900,000 copies!
Carl then moved to Hawaii, bought a yacht, and traveled the world. At times he did some marketing consulting, and then worked as a newspaper correspondent in New Zealand. Returning to the United States in 1985, he opened a Harley-Davidson motorcylce accessory distribution business in California, Hawaii and the South Pacific. In 1995, he bought a tourist business in Costa Rica, and it was there that he met Ellis, and agreed to co-author the book.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Great plot failed by hideous writing,
By "aaboston" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Oakland Statement (Paperback)
The Oakland Statement teases the potential reader with a fascinating and current political plot topic, but utterly fails to deliver with content. Insipid character development, seemingly non-existent editing (or even basic copy editing) and inane dialogue combine to make the book unreadable. Authors Ellis and Frederick present their tale, set between 2000 and 2006, with condescending piety and child-like simplicity. The story bumbles through the telling of a fictional "leaderless movement" to effect revolutionary constitutional change in the United States without overthrowing the power structure. Autonomous domestic terrorist cells form at the directive of the Americans for Revolutionary Democracy to attack power infrastructure to bolster a published demand for constitutional conventions to be called to affect two amendments to the US Constitution. The first is wealth distribution via employee stock ownership schemes, and the second pertains to election reform. Published prior to September 11th, The Oakland Statement presents ideas that are powerful and germane to ongoing events in the world. However, Ellis and Frederick do not even attempt so much as a plot twist in the book. The story begins flat-with an average citizen's reaction to the emergence of the movement presented in Ellis and Frederick present a host of characters, both actual players on the political scene and purely fictional. Unfortunately, all of them seem to be from the "weed" smoking, socialist, anti-establishment arch-liberal perspective. This is the case in fictionalized characters in the book, from Lani Guinier to Al Gore, as well as the invented ones. Everyone agrees and is presented as mutually intuitive all the time, making the already straight forward, no-surprises rendition of the story even more mundane. All of the characters in the book share unlikely, "gimme a break" dialogue. This is most evident with the fictionalized players, most notably conversations between Pat Buchannan and Jesse Jackson that make the reader cringe with disbelief. Disgustingly little research is evident in the development and presentation of the myriad people introduced. It appears that the authors mirrored everyone in the book after one person and just gave them different names and cursory, uninspired profiles. Furthermore, the book is entirely under edited and unbalanced. The authors run on for pages after points are established without adding anything pertinent to the plot. Information that is clearly stated once is oft repeated in what can only be an editorial oversight. There are paragraph breaks in mid-sentence, as well as other glaring gaffs in the book, such as potato spelled "potatoe." Punctuation is frequently misused also, in a seeming blatant affront to Strunk & White. The Oakland Statement is an excellent example of extremely poor writing. Period. It offers predictability, unconvincing dialogue and uncreative presentation as opposed to the "action-packed American political adventure novel" promised on the back cover. One can't skim through the pages quickly enough to inevitably reach the ending that is embarrassingly evident by the second page.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
An unreadable mess akin to the Unibomber Manifesto,
By Jazzy Dad (Puget Sound, WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Oakland Statement (Paperback)
As an attorney with a degree in American history, I had high hopes before opening this book, which were dashed within minutes by the pitiful stiltedness of the actual text. The Oakland Statement is an unreadable mess. It is a hodgepodge of clunky and bloodless writing, poorly drawn cardboard characters, and redundant narration. The message of the book, as far as can be deciphered, is a strident call to violent terrorist action, all for material gain. The authors, who allegedly live outside the United States, call for terrorist acts within the U.S. in order to force a constitutional convention. One of the many naive premises in the book is that if homegrown terrorists blow up power stations, no one will die. This is asserted in a nation where the failure of air conditioning in some cities can cause dozens of heat deaths in a year - not to mention what an interruption of power does to patients on the operating table, or in intensive care units, or to traffic signals, etc. The Oakland Statement is an incoherent, quasi-political screed akin to the manifesto of Unibomber Theodore Kaczynski. It has nothing to offer for those seeking either a solid, entertaining read, or a work of serious political fiction.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Great plot failed by hideous writing,
By "aaboston" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Oakland Statement (Paperback)
The Oakland Statement teases the potential reader with a fascinating and current political plot topic, but utterly fails to deliver with content. Insipid character development, seemingly non-existent editing (or even basic copy editing) and inane dialogue combine to make the book unreadable. Authors Ellis and Frederick present their tale, set between 2000 and 2006, with condescending piety and child-like simplicity. The story bumbles through the telling of a fictional "leaderless movement" to effect revolutionary constitutional change in the United States without overthrowing the power structure. Autonomous domestic terrorist cells form at the directive of the Americans for Revolutionary Democracy to attack power infrastructure to bolster a published demand for constitutional conventions to be called to affect two amendments to the US Constitution. The first is wealth distribution via employee stock ownership schemes, and the second pertains to election reform. Published prior to September 11th, The Oakland Statement presents ideas that are powerful and germane to ongoing events in the world. However, Ellis and Frederick do not even attempt so much as a plot twist in the book. The story begins flat-with an average citizen's reaction to the emergence of the movement presented in Ellis and Frederick present a host of characters, both actual players on the political scene and purely fictional. Unfortunately, all of them seem to be from the "weed" smoking, socialist, anti-establishment arch-liberal perspective. This is the case in fictionalized characters in the book, from Lani Guinier to Al Gore, as well as the invented ones. Everyone agrees and is presented as mutually intuitive all the time, making the already straight forward, no-surprises rendition of the story even more mundane. All of the characters in the book share unlikely, "gimme a break" dialogue. This is most evident with the fictionalized players, most notably conversations between Pat Buchannan and Jesse Jackson that make the reader cringe with disbelief. Disgustingly little research is evident in the development and presentation of the myriad people introduced. It appears that the authors mirrored everyone in the book after one person and just gave them different names and cursory, uninspired profiles. Furthermore, the book is entirely under edited and unbalanced. The authors run on for pages after points are established without adding anything pertinent to the plot. Information that is clearly stated once is oft repeated in what can only be an editorial oversight. There are paragraph breaks in mid-sentence, as well as other glaring gaffs in the book, such as potato spelled "potatoe." Punctuation is frequently misused also, in a seeming blatant affront to Strunk & White. The Oakland Statement is an excellent example of extremely poor writing. Period. It offers predictability, unconvincing dialogue and uncreative presentation as opposed to the "action-packed American political adventure novel" promised on the back cover. One can't skim through the pages quickly enough to inevitably reach the ending that is embarrassingly evident by the second page.
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