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

Robert Woodson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1998

Listening to Joseph is a tribute to a contemporary miracle -- workers of the inner city who exemplify the imagination, courage, and the self-help ethic necessary to renew our communities. As the biblical story goes, Joseph was imprisoned by the Pharaoh, but when the ruler had a nightmare he and his soothsayers could not understand, it was the young man from the dungeon who was able to interpret it for him and thereby save the kingdom.

Robert L. Woodson identifies with Joseph -- seeing in him an example of the men and women who battle daily to change the lives in our poorest neighborhoods. While many such "Josephs" exist, Woodson argues, their efforts are too often ignored or disparaged by "Pharaoh's courtiers" -- the people who operate today's social service networks. Always accessible and colorful, this powerful appeal for the health of America's inner cities can resurrect the passion to fight poverty -- but only through the vision and deeds of the street-level heroes whose efforts and voices we must heed.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Woodson, founder and president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, argues for increased recognition and support of agents of grass-roots change in the inner city. Like William Julius Wilson (The Truly Disadvantaged, LJ 10/1/87), Woodson claims that race-based programs like affirmative action disproportionately benefit more privileged people of color. In addition, Woodson blames elitist Civil Rights leaders, social service bureaucrats, and academics for protecting their own positions more than empowering the disadvantaged. He also indicts the media for focusing on dysfunction among the poor but glossing over the moral failings of the privileged. His portraits of three effective programs highlight the potential of flexible programs, open to all, that are run by local people in a way that involves clients and demands discipline and service. While Woodson makes a compelling argument, he does ignore the broader structural causes of lack of economic opportunity. Recommended for larger public libraries.?Paula Dempsey, Loyola Univ., Chicago
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1ST edition (January 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684827425
• ISBN-13: 978-0684827421
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,111,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black America, read this now!, February 2, 2001

By 

John McWhorter (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today's Community Healers Are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhoods (Hardcover)

Every black person in the United States ought to devote an evening or two to reading this book. It shows in a concise 100-plus pages that "Black History" includes the triumphs of self-sufficiency which were considered ordinary before the Civil Rights movement taught the race that "progress" meant handouts and lowered standards of evaluation. The inner cities are slowly rising out of the ashes, not through government charity but through residents working the system to change their own destinies, making their peace with an unfair past. No book says this better. Everyone -- buy this book and regain your hope.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eloquent, Powerful and Inspirational!, October 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today's Community Healers Are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhoods (Hardcover)

Dr. Woodsen gives an eloquent and powerful case for the endurence and ingenuity of the individual human soul versus the shocking waste and disregard of people caused by government social programs. He is definetly not "politically correct" in his assessment of the stark failure of the "poverty industry" to stop the tide of death and despair. Dr. Woodsen offers an inspirational solution that really works and takes the reader along to meet the brave and ordinary people who make a difference.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you afraid of the truth?, March 10, 2003

By 

rampant reader "dxystar" (Newton, KS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today's Community Healers Are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhoods (Hardcover)

The Triumphs of Joseph is simply one of the most important books to be written since the Civil Rights Movement. I teach diversity classes and I use Triumphs as a primary text to offset the constant presentation by black leaders (often self-proclaimed) and the media that African Americans are somehow deficient in ordinary resilience and social strategies and need the paternalistic help of governmental and private agencies. Why do so many people who are not disadvantaged feel free to define for the disadvantaged what their needs, wants, and goals are? Dr. Woodson is sure to offend those who are the vicarious victims and parasitic victimizers of the poor but the validity of his message cannot be denied. Coming from a disadvantaged background myself, I have lived some of the situations he describes yet today I hold a doctorate and teach at the college level. Dr. Woodson is definitely a winner with a winning plan. If you want to be a winner, stick with the winners.