Books about Decency from Amazon.com

As sociologist Elijah Anderson shows in the detailed and devastating Code of the Street, the senseless crime in the inner city represents a complex, though ultimately self-defeating, set of social mores. These mores, called "codes," stress a hyperinflated sense of manhood through verbal boasts, drug selling, sexual prowess, and--ultimately--violence and death. "At the heart of the code is the issue of respect," Anderson writes, "loosely defined as being treated 'right' or being granted one's 'props' (or proper due) or the deference one deserves." Anderson reveals a world where unemployment is rampant, teenage pregnancy is common, and social and educational achievement is viewed as "acting white." Although Anderson states that racism is a major factor for this condition, he notes that this type of behavior is further exacerbated by modern economic and political forces, and that it has existed as far back as ancient Rome.

As an African American himself, Anderson moves through the middle- and lower-class Philadelphia neighborhoods with ease, interviewing a variety of subjects, all of whom deal daily with consequences of urban decay--from the high-achieving young woman who had to reject her poorer relatives to better herself, to the former delinquent who tries to go straight after returning from prison. For Anderson, these are the true heroes of Code of the Street: people who overcome the temptations of the streets to help create a better space for the next generation. --Eugene Holley Jr..
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A Leader Becomes a Leader opens with a window on history: Henry David Thoreau riding a borrowed horse and wagon into the woods around Concord, Massachusetts to Walden Pond in 1845. There, he writes a classic work that has a powerful effect on the lives and philosophies of seminal leaders in the next century as diverse as Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela. Thoreau believed that a spirit exists in work of a high order that works outside time to touch readers whenever he or she proves ready. This book in a vivid presentation of images and essays asks an important question: is there a spirit to leadership? Does it exist, and if it does, can it work outside the normal, linear confines of history to mark the progress of civilization in important and consequential ways? A Leader Becomes a Leader: Inspirational Stories of Leadership for a New Generation is a thought-provoking and much-heralded first work from nationally recognized entreprenuer and author J. Kevin Sheehan. With 207 gorgeous photographs and a splendid design from award-winning graphic artist Jan Lindy Boyce, the book lays out cinematically, with sprawling visuals that present critical themes of leadership that get little coverage in current media: Seeking Justice, Sowing Peace, Manifesting Beauty, and With Vision are some of the important realms that make up the books architecture. The book asserts that the spirit of leadership and the core human values that underline it are universal, inherent human capacities that ''often go underestimated or unrecognized when people settle for less.'' The Determination of Nelson Mandela, The Presence of Eleanor Roosevelt, The Experiments of Mohatma Gandhi, The Decency of Cesar Chavez are some of the compelling section titles. Take a journey, and discover how some of the most consequential leaders of the last century developed into the people that we remember, and find inside this book the metaphoric struggles that make or break us on our own paths to leadership. The book is distinguished in the variety of leadership segments and iconic figures it represents. They include Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Franklin Roosevelt, Albert Schweitzer, Katherine Graham, Neil Armstrong, Aung San Suu Kyii, Pele, and 57 others!.
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For almost ten years, Samuel Mockbee, a recent MacArthur Grant recipient, and his architecture students at Auburn University have been designing and building striking houses and community buildings for impoverished residents of Alabama's Hale County. Using salvaged lumber and bricks, discarded tires, hay and waste cardboard bales, concrete rubble, colored bottles, and old license plates, they create inexpensive buildings that bear the trademark of Mockbee's work, which he describes as "contemporary modernism grounded in Southern culture." In a time of unexampled prosperity, when architectural attention focuses on big, glossy urban projects, the Rural Studio provides an alternative of substance. In addition to being a social welfare venture, the Rural Studio--"Taliesin South" as Mockbee calls it--is also an educational experiment and a prod to the architectural profession to act on its best instincts. In giving students hands-on experience in designing and building something real, it extends their education beyond paper architecture. And in scavenging and reusing a variety of unusual materials, it is a model of sustainable architecture. The work of Rural Studio has struck such a chord-both architecturally and socially--that it has been featured on Oprah, Nightline, and CBS News, as well as in Time and People magazines. The Studio has completed more than a dozen projects, including the Bryant "Hay Bale" House, Harris "Butterfly" House, Yancey Chapel, Akron Chapel, Children's Center, H.E.R.O. Playground, Lewis House, Super Sheds and Pods, Spencer House addition, Farmer's Market, Mason's Bend Community Center, Goat House, and Shannon-Dutley House. These buildings, along with the incredible story of the Rural Studio, the people who live there, and Mockbee and his student architects, are detailed in this colorful book, the first on the subject. "I tell my students, it's got to be warm, dry, and noble"--Samuel Mockbee.
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Beloved American storyteller Philip Gulley evokes a time when life revolved around the front porch, where friends gathered, stories were told, and small moments took on large meaning. In today's hurry-up world, Gulley's observations are frank and funny, reminding us of the world we once shared, and can again.

With poignancy and humor, Gulley writes about small-town life, things he thinks about while sitting in his Quaker meeting, and why Donald Trump should pay more taxes. Porch Talk is a tribute to common folk, including Charlie the hardware priest, the Bettys at the newspaper, and other paragons of decency not many people know, but should.

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Feminists, socialists, Afro-Puerto Rican activists, and elite politicians join laundresses, prostitutes, and dissatisfied wives in populating the pages of Imposing Decency. Through her analyses of Puerto Rican anti-prostitution campaigns, attempts at reforming marriage, and working-class ideas about free love, Eileen J. Suárez Findlay exposes the race-related double standards of sexual norms and practices in Puerto Rico between 1870 and 1920, the period that witnessed Puerto Rico’s shift from Spanish to U.S. colonialism.
In showing how political projects and alliances in Puerto Rico were affected by racially contingent definitions of “decency” and “disreputability,” Findlay argues that attempts at moral reform and the state’s repression of “sexually dangerous” women were weapons used in batttles between elite and popular, American and Puerto Rican, and black and white. Based on a thorough analysis of popular and elite discourses found in both literature and official archives, Findlay contends that racialized sexual norms and practices were consistently a central component in the construction of social and political orders. The campaigns she analyzes include an attempt at moral reform by elite male liberals and a movement designed to enhance the family and cleanse urban space that ultimately translated into repression against symbollically darkened prostitutes. Findlay also explores how U.S. officials strove to construct a new colonial order by legalizing divorce and how feminist, labor, and Afro-Puerto Rican political demands escalated after World War I, often focusing on the rehabilitation and defense of prostitutes.
Imposing Decency forces us to rethink previous interpretations of political chronologies as well as reigning conceptualizations of both liberalism and the early working-class in Puerto Rico. Her work will appeal to scholars with an interest in Puerto Rican or Latin American studies, sexuality and national identity, women in Latin America, and general women’s studies.
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There is a philosophy of doing business that goes beyond the transfer of goods and services It calls for a transfer of values known as of small decencies

This book shows the way.

Steve Harrison, longtime management and corporate culture innovator, knows one simple truth: The long term success of any company, small or large, local or global, depends largely on its culture. Change a company's internal culture for the better, and results skyrocket. But can a manager really adjust the culture of an entire work force, especially in a large corporation? Small decencies make it easy, and in this book Harrison describes dozens of such decencies, all field-tested by the best companies in the world. All represent small changes that produce big results.

Addressing concerns at every level of corporate culture, from the entry level to the CEO's office, Harrison shows how decencies will enhance communication, build teamwork, boost productivity, and create a stronger dedication to a shared mission company-wide. The Manager's Book of Decencies provides real-life examples of small decencies that result in major business impact, and that you can put to use in your company.

What is a Small Decency?

• Greet coworkers authentically and personally
• Remember to say thank you-or better yet, write thank you notes
• For meetings you convene, be the first to sit down and the last to get up
• Welcome visitors by name. Better yet call them “guests”
• Answer your own telephone
• Give away recognition when things go well; hoard responsibility when they don't
• Convey bad news in person
• When you make a mistake, admit it and apologize

The Manager's Book of Decencies delivers a top-to-bottom approach to creating the kind of positive corporate culture, which has shown time and again to improve performance, attract and retain top talent, promote well-behaved organizations, and advance a vision of shared values. This is crucial reading for every manager.

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In February of 2004, Senator Zell Miller delivered the speech "A Deficit of Decency" on the Senate floor. The speech considered the very soul of America and generated an unexpectedly massive response from people across the nation.

Expanding on this theme in his new book by the same title, former U.S. Senator and Georgia Governor Zell Miller identifies a wide range of issues—from media and sports role models, to the judiciary, to the decline of traditional Christian values of the family, responsibility and sacrifice—where an absence of decency is threatening the heart of America.

"A Deficit of Decency" addresses specific issues where Miller sees a need to return to a basic sense of duty. Miller writes in the preface, "There have been ten generations of Americans since this nation was founded….Each left this nation in a little better condition than they had inherited it from their parents. This is the first generation at risk of doing the opposite. Why? I have come to believe that it is because we failed to acknowledge and discipline ourselves with the spiritual truths that have made us great for these two hundred years—faith, family, country, values. This book is about how one man thinks they may be restored and yet save this great civilization from itself."

In "A Deficit of Decency," Miller also speaks candidly about the values that led him to attack his own party and deliver a keynote speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention. These same values, he believes, are desperately needed at the heart of American culture. Miller explains, "There were two primary reasons I could not go where my lifelong political party wanted to take me. I seriously questioned its judgment on how to respond to the threat of terrorism, the most serious national security issue of the post Cold War era. But I also came to be repelled by the secularism that had engulfed its thinking and smothered its soul."

Miller writes from the unique perspective of his rise to and service as Governor and United States Senator, drawing upon public service in each of the past six decades. Miller has written six books, including "Corps Values" and the New York Times bestseller "A National Party No More"..
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Can Christians be civil in a world falling apart?In these wild and diverse times, prolifers square off against prochoicers, gay liberationists confront champions of the traditional family, husbands and wives face each other in court, artists attack legislators, and "politically correct" intellectuals abhor crusading fundamentalists.Philosopher and ethicist Richard Mouw is concerned that, too often, Christians seem to be contributing more to the problem than to the solution. But he recognizes--from his own personal struggle--that it's not easy to hold to Christian convictions and treat sometimes vindictive opponents with civility and decency.Few if any people in the evangelical world have dialogued as widely and sensitively as Mouw. So few can write more wisely or helpfully about what Christians can appreciate about pluralism, the theological basis for civility, and how we can communicate with people who disagree with us on the issues that matter most..
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