Not enough depth, 09 Feb 2008
As a first year student we were recommended this book to complete our first assignments. I felt it gave a basic overview of the whole concept and I was not left satisfied. For example the PCS model was explained, however I found I kept going back to the book to try and gain more knowledge on the whole concept of Anti-Discriminatory Practice-that, simply, wasnt there! I feel this book could have been better if it had explored the more in depth concepts behind Anti Discriminatory Practice, althogether it was too general.

This is only a place to start, 02 May 2007
If seriously considering anti-oppressive or discriminatory practice, perhaps it should have been called an introduction to anti-oppressive or discriminatory practices.

As a result I dont believe that criticisms of epistemological analysis and comparisons with A level sociology are fair, infact I think they indicate the sympathies of the previous reviewer and sociology has really moved on from the epistemological discussions and philosophical debates of Hobbes, Locke et al.

I would say that there are much more interesting and illustrative examples of discrimination, power and oppression in James C Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance, however Thompson's model of oppression occuring at the personal, cultural and structural levels should be a spur to further thinking and investigation.

I have only given it three stars since it can only really serve as an introduction to the topic, its written, in the style of the staple of social work practitioner texts, which is less than compelling, has little or no narrative style and reads a lot like DVD player instructions or the continually circulating body of knowledge in all the paper exercises social services training units have invented.

It doesnt tackle the issues of discrimination or oppression of professionals contra other professionals or agencies, which David Howe did in an earlier book which may be out of print now, it does make it appear like oppression is easily defeated and doesnt at all have the health warning that this sort of thing really ought to be accompanied with.

A level sociology revisited, 18 Sep 2003
An at times simplistic account of forms of discrimination which rarely attempts any real depth of analysis. Possibly this is all social work students want to get through their essays with high marks, but the narrative will fail to prepare them for the reality of extreme rationing and endless office based work after qualification. Thompson has certainly got lucky with this best seller that successfully simplifies and packages complex forms of power and domination and presents them as easily confronted and solved. No evidence of epistemological analysis but instead just a new form of A level sociology in drag. Still it sells like hot cakes and so the publishers should be happy, and the career must surely have taken off. Crude, academically lazy and completely out of touch with us the social work practitioners!

Seminal, 24 Mar 2003
An absolute must have for anyone wanting to work in the field of social care. Thompson's grasp of issues around the areas of discrimination is second to none and his ability to describe and analyse potential problems and common pitfalls is first class. Only criticism is that perhaps he is a bit of one trick pony, his PCS model appears all over the place, including in other texts. Nevertheless it makes sense and it works. If you are interested in structral oppression and how endemic it is even within the social care profession buy this book

Not entirely an anti- discriminatory view., 20 Jan 2003
As a social work student I thought that this book would look at examples that occurr everyday when trying to work in an anti-discriminatory way. Unfortunately I did not feel that the book gave any other view than to assume that the social worker will always be the one who discriminates and the examples used became one sided and repetitive. I actually challenge this view with the book - as anyone will know, discrimination cuts both ways. Although a solution may never be reached, what about when users discriminate against each other and towards you, what would be the best way to practice then? After several pages I actually felt that the book was more brain-washing rather than giving some though provoking healthy suggestions for practice.

Not enough depth, 09 Feb 2008
As a first year student we were recommended this book to complete our first assignments. I felt it gave a basic overview of the whole concept and I was not left satisfied. For example the PCS model was explained, however I found I kept going back to the book to try and gain more knowledge on the whole concept of Anti-Discriminatory Practice-that, simply, wasnt there! I feel this book could have been better if it had explored the more in depth concepts behind Anti Discriminatory Practice, althogether it was too general.

This is only a place to start, 02 May 2007
If seriously considering anti-oppressive or discriminatory practice, perhaps it should have been called an introduction to anti-oppressive or discriminatory practices.

As a result I dont believe that criticisms of epistemological analysis and comparisons with A level sociology are fair, infact I think they indicate the sympathies of the previous reviewer and sociology has really moved on from the epistemological discussions and philosophical debates of Hobbes, Locke et al.

I would say that there are much more interesting and illustrative examples of discrimination, power and oppression in James C Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance, however Thompson's model of oppression occuring at the personal, cultural and structural levels should be a spur to further thinking and investigation.

I have only given it three stars since it can only really serve as an introduction to the topic, its written, in the style of the staple of social work practitioner texts, which is less than compelling, has little or no narrative style and reads a lot like DVD player instructions or the continually circulating body of knowledge in all the paper exercises social services training units have invented.

It doesnt tackle the issues of discrimination or oppression of professionals contra other professionals or agencies, which David Howe did in an earlier book which may be out of print now, it does make it appear like oppression is easily defeated and doesnt at all have the health warning that this sort of thing really ought to be accompanied with.

A level sociology revisited, 18 Sep 2003
An at times simplistic account of forms of discrimination which rarely attempts any real depth of analysis. Possibly this is all social work students want to get through their essays with high marks, but the narrative will fail to prepare them for the reality of extreme rationing and endless office based work after qualification. Thompson has certainly got lucky with this best seller that successfully simplifies and packages complex forms of power and domination and presents them as easily confronted and solved. No evidence of epistemological analysis but instead just a new form of A level sociology in drag. Still it sells like hot cakes and so the publishers should be happy, and the career must surely have taken off. Crude, academically lazy and completely out of touch with us the social work practitioners!

Seminal, 24 Mar 2003
An absolute must have for anyone wanting to work in the field of social care. Thompson's grasp of issues around the areas of discrimination is second to none and his ability to describe and analyse potential problems and common pitfalls is first class. Only criticism is that perhaps he is a bit of one trick pony, his PCS model appears all over the place, including in other texts. Nevertheless it makes sense and it works. If you are interested in structral oppression and how endemic it is even within the social care profession buy this book

Not entirely an anti- discriminatory view., 20 Jan 2003
As a social work student I thought that this book would look at examples that occurr everyday when trying to work in an anti-discriminatory way. Unfortunately I did not feel that the book gave any other view than to assume that the social worker will always be the one who discriminates and the examples used became one sided and repetitive. I actually challenge this view with the book - as anyone will know, discrimination cuts both ways. Although a solution may never be reached, what about when users discriminate against each other and towards you, what would be the best way to practice then? After several pages I actually felt that the book was more brain-washing rather than giving some though provoking healthy suggestions for practice.

Pretty sound, 10 Dec 2003
its well written but does tend to be somewhat un exciting. but a good book with loads crammed in and easy to read.

Superb!!, 25 Apr 2003
Faircloughs book offers a suberb discourse on the struggle for equaltity that blacks underwent in 20th century America following the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The accounts of black leaders and organisations are very interesting and authoritative, and extremely useful to anyone interested in this particular historical topic. The only qualm I would have with this book is that the title says 1890-2000, but there is little information supplied on the situtaion of blacks in America after 1970.

Not enough depth, 09 Feb 2008
As a first year student we were recommended this book to complete our first assignments. I felt it gave a basic overview of the whole concept and I was not left satisfied. For example the PCS model was explained, however I found I kept going back to the book to try and gain more knowledge on the whole concept of Anti-Discriminatory Practice-that, simply, wasnt there! I feel this book could have been better if it had explored the more in depth concepts behind Anti Discriminatory Practice, althogether it was too general.

This is only a place to start, 02 May 2007
If seriously considering anti-oppressive or discriminatory practice, perhaps it should have been called an introduction to anti-oppressive or discriminatory practices.

As a result I dont believe that criticisms of epistemological analysis and comparisons with A level sociology are fair, infact I think they indicate the sympathies of the previous reviewer and sociology has really moved on from the epistemological discussions and philosophical debates of Hobbes, Locke et al.

I would say that there are much more interesting and illustrative examples of discrimination, power and oppression in James C Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance, however Thompson's model of oppression occuring at the personal, cultural and structural levels should be a spur to further thinking and investigation.

I have only given it three stars since it can only really serve as an introduction to the topic, its written, in the style of the staple of social work practitioner texts, which is less than compelling, has little or no narrative style and reads a lot like DVD player instructions or the continually circulating body of knowledge in all the paper exercises social services training units have invented.

It doesnt tackle the issues of discrimination or oppression of professionals contra other professionals or agencies, which David Howe did in an earlier book which may be out of print now, it does make it appear like oppression is easily defeated and doesnt at all have the health warning that this sort of thing really ought to be accompanied with.

A level sociology revisited, 18 Sep 2003
An at times simplistic account of forms of discrimination which rarely attempts any real depth of analysis. Possibly this is all social work students want to get through their essays with high marks, but the narrative will fail to prepare them for the reality of extreme rationing and endless office based work after qualification. Thompson has certainly got lucky with this best seller that successfully simplifies and packages complex forms of power and domination and presents them as easily confronted and solved. No evidence of epistemological analysis but instead just a new form of A level sociology in drag. Still it sells like hot cakes and so the publishers should be happy, and the career must surely have taken off. Crude, academically lazy and completely out of touch with us the social work practitioners!

Seminal, 24 Mar 2003
An absolute must have for anyone wanting to work in the field of social care. Thompson's grasp of issues around the areas of discrimination is second to none and his ability to describe and analyse potential problems and common pitfalls is first class. Only criticism is that perhaps he is a bit of one trick pony, his PCS model appears all over the place, including in other texts. Nevertheless it makes sense and it works. If you are interested in structral oppression and how endemic it is even within the social care profession buy this book

Not entirely an anti- discriminatory view., 20 Jan 2003
As a social work student I thought that this book would look at examples that occurr everyday when trying to work in an anti-discriminatory way. Unfortunately I did not feel that the book gave any other view than to assume that the social worker will always be the one who discriminates and the examples used became one sided and repetitive. I actually challenge this view with the book - as anyone will know, discrimination cuts both ways. Although a solution may never be reached, what about when users discriminate against each other and towards you, what would be the best way to practice then? After several pages I actually felt that the book was more brain-washing rather than giving some though provoking healthy suggestions for practice.

Pretty sound, 10 Dec 2003
its well written but does tend to be somewhat un exciting. but a good book with loads crammed in and easy to read.

Superb!!, 25 Apr 2003
Faircloughs book offers a suberb discourse on the struggle for equaltity that blacks underwent in 20th century America following the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The accounts of black leaders and organisations are very interesting and authoritative, and extremely useful to anyone interested in this particular historical topic. The only qualm I would have with this book is that the title says 1890-2000, but there is little information supplied on the situtaion of blacks in America after 1970.

Understanding concepts of equality, 10 Nov 2004
This book has more information than expected. Many issues considered to bring theory and practice together. Although it is suggested as useful to social workers, I find it invaluable to my nursing studies as a 3rd year student. I would recommend it to to support practice and invaluable while studying interprofessional and collaborative working. A must have without a doubt!.

Not enough depth, 09 Feb 2008
As a first year student we were recommended this book to complete our first assignments. I felt it gave a basic overview of the whole concept and I was not left satisfied. For example the PCS model was explained, however I found I kept going back to the book to try and gain more knowledge on the whole concept of Anti-Discriminatory Practice-that, simply, wasnt there! I feel this book could have been better if it had explored the more in depth concepts behind Anti Discriminatory Practice, althogether it was too general.

This is only a place to start, 02 May 2007
If seriously considering anti-oppressive or discriminatory practice, perhaps it should have been called an introduction to anti-oppressive or discriminatory practices.

As a result I dont believe that criticisms of epistemological analysis and comparisons with A level sociology are fair, infact I think they indicate the sympathies of the previous reviewer and sociology has really moved on from the epistemological discussions and philosophical debates of Hobbes, Locke et al.

I would say that there are much more interesting and illustrative examples of discrimination, power and oppression in James C Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance, however Thompson's model of oppression occuring at the personal, cultural and structural levels should be a spur to further thinking and investigation.

I have only given it three stars since it can only really serve as an introduction to the topic, its written, in the style of the staple of social work practitioner texts, which is less than compelling, has little or no narrative style and reads a lot like DVD player instructions or the continually circulating body of knowledge in all the paper exercises social services training units have invented.

It doesnt tackle the issues of discrimination or oppression of professionals contra other professionals or agencies, which David Howe did in an earlier book which may be out of print now, it does make it appear like oppression is easily defeated and doesnt at all have the health warning that this sort of thing really ought to be accompanied with.

A level sociology revisited, 18 Sep 2003
An at times simplistic account of forms of discrimination which rarely attempts any real depth of analysis. Possibly this is all social work students want to get through their essays with high marks, but the narrative will fail to prepare them for the reality of extreme rationing and endless office based work after qualification. Thompson has certainly got lucky with this best seller that successfully simplifies and packages complex forms of power and domination and presents them as easily confronted and solved. No evidence of epistemological analysis but instead just a new form of A level sociology in drag. Still it sells like hot cakes and so the publishers should be happy, and the career must surely have taken off. Crude, academically lazy and completely out of touch with us the social work practitioners!

Seminal, 24 Mar 2003
An absolute must have for anyone wanting to work in the field of social care. Thompson's grasp of issues around the areas of discrimination is second to none and his ability to describe and analyse potential problems and common pitfalls is first class. Only criticism is that perhaps he is a bit of one trick pony, his PCS model appears all over the place, including in other texts. Nevertheless it makes sense and it works. If you are interested in structral oppression and how endemic it is even within the social care profession buy this book

Not entirely an anti- discriminatory view., 20 Jan 2003
As a social work student I thought that this book would look at examples that occurr everyday when trying to work in an anti-discriminatory way. Unfortunately I did not feel that the book gave any other view than to assume that the social worker will always be the one who discriminates and the examples used became one sided and repetitive. I actually challenge this view with the book - as anyone will know, discrimination cuts both ways. Although a solution may never be reached, what about when users discriminate against each other and towards you, what would be the best way to practice then? After several pages I actually felt that the book was more brain-washing rather than giving some though provoking healthy suggestions for practice.

Pretty sound, 10 Dec 2003
its well written but does tend to be somewhat un exciting. but a good book with loads crammed in and easy to read.

Superb!!, 25 Apr 2003
Faircloughs book offers a suberb discourse on the struggle for equaltity that blacks underwent in 20th century America following the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The accounts of black leaders and organisations are very interesting and authoritative, and extremely useful to anyone interested in this particular historical topic. The only qualm I would have with this book is that the title says 1890-2000, but there is little information supplied on the situtaion of blacks in America after 1970.

Understanding concepts of equality, 10 Nov 2004
This book has more information than expected. Many issues considered to bring theory and practice together. Although it is suggested as useful to social workers, I find it invaluable to my nursing studies as a 3rd year student. I would recommend it to to support practice and invaluable while studying interprofessional and collaborative working. A must have without a doubt!.

read this book, 08 Aug 2007
I found out about this book quite by chance, when a friend asked me to go to a reading by the author at Waterstones. I thought I should buy it so I would have a clue what it was all about. I am really glad I did. The book is not an easy read, but a fascinating one. It is a cliche I know, but I really couldn't put it down. It is much much more than a tale about one man, David Oluwale. Kester Aspden has provided an incredibly detailed social history of policing in general, and the city of Leeds in particular. I have recommended "nationality wog" to everyone I know. This is a story that really should be heard.

David Oluwale- neglected by society in 1960's Britain, 10 Jul 2007
I have just finished reading this book and it is one of those books where you just can't put it down, and there were some very difficult parts in this book about the brutality that David Oluwale received at the hands of the police and authorities that even today asylum seekers are recieving the same kind of brutality and bad treatment from different types of organisations. The years of David Oluwale's life as a homeless vagrant was the most brutal, being bullied and hounded as the title of the book says by a supposed 'law enforcing' organisation. His death was caused through blatant racism whether people chooose to admit that or not, as at the time of his death in 1969 it was a year after Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech so tolerance for immigrants was non existant back then.
This was a story that definately needed to be told. this is definately a story of a person who is a part of our history here in Britain.

Miserable misplaced people., 13 Jun 2007
"leave David to me " or words to that effect struck me in the book.They are spoken by one of the two police officers convicted of assaults on David Oluwale. The use of this mans first name is incongruous given his inhumane treatment by these officers and give a glimpse of what might have been a more indepth relationship between these officers and Oluwale than one of bully and victim.
This book is not an attack on the police or other Criminal Justice agencies and public bodies,nor is it pre occupied with institutional racism.It is an account of an immigrants life in Leeds in the context of a changing police force and a changing city.The police officer Kitchin and Ellerker have become dinosaurs in the force and they know it and one has a sense of their growing sense of inadequacy and powerlessness in a changing job and city.They exert their pathetic power and control over Oluwale.
We are left with some sympathy for the officers as Aspden gives powerful accounts of their personalities and backgrounds and the lonely death of Kitchen.
That Oluwale passes through the hands of other Institutions and Authorities and no help is seemingly given is not surprising given the historical context of the book but it leads the reader to ask if much has changed since.The vulnerable and dangerous still fall through loopholes and safety nets today as revealed by subsequent enquiries into preventable murders and deaths.
Nationality Wog is so thoroughly reserached and touches on so many institutions and individuals in order to put the story into as wide a context as possible that one wonders how Aspden manages to bring all the threads together.He does achieve this and the book culminates thankfully not in a dull account of the trial of the police officers but in a skillful account of the best bits of the court scene and lovely portrayals of the QC's in the case.
The detail in the book will delight anyone familiar with Leeds from descriptions of the shop door ways where Oluwale slept and received his beatings to the position of Leeds United at the time and an account of their black players.
The book has been described as brave and it is right from its almost shocking title to the authors attempt to speak to Ellerker in his driveway.

EK.York
June2007

Not enough depth, 09 Feb 2008
As a first year student we were recommended this book to complete our first assignments. I felt it gave a basic overview of the whole concept and I was not left satisfied. For example the PCS model was explained, however I found I kept going back to the book to try and gain more knowledge on the whole concept of Anti-Discriminatory Practice-that, simply, wasnt there! I feel this book could have been better if it had explored the more in depth concepts behind Anti Discriminatory Practice, althogether it was too general.

This is only a place to start, 02 May 2007
If seriously considering anti-oppressive or discriminatory practice, perhaps it should have been called an introduction to anti-oppressive or discriminatory practices.

As a result I dont believe that criticisms of epistemological analysis and comparisons with A level sociology are fair, infact I think they indicate the sympathies of the previous reviewer and sociology has really moved on from the epistemological discussions and philosophical debates of Hobbes, Locke et al.

I would say that there are much more interesting and illustrative examples of discrimination, power and oppression in James C Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance, however Thompson's model of oppression occuring at the personal, cultural and structural levels should be a spur to further thinking and investigation.

I have only given it three stars since it can only really serve as an introduction to the topic, its written, in the style of the staple of social work practitioner texts, which is less than compelling, has little or no narrative style and reads a lot like DVD player instructions or the continually circulating body of knowledge in all the paper exercises social services training units have invented.

It doesnt tackle the issues of discrimination or oppression of professionals contra other professionals or agencies, which David Howe did in an earlier book which may be out of print now, it does make it appear like oppression is easily defeated and doesnt at all have the health warning that this sort of thing really ought to be accompanied with.

A level sociology revisited, 18 Sep 2003
An at times simplistic account of forms of discrimination which rarely attempts any real depth of analysis. Possibly this is all social work students want to get through their essays with high marks, but the narrative will fail to prepare them for the reality of extreme rationing and endless office based work after qualification. Thompson has certainly got lucky with this best seller that successfully simplifies and packages complex forms of power and domination and presents them as easily confronted and solved. No evidence of epistemological analysis but instead just a new form of A level sociology in drag. Still it sells like hot cakes and so the publishers should be happy, and the career must surely have taken off. Crude, academically lazy and completely out of touch with us the social work practitioners!

Seminal, 24 Mar 2003
An absolute must have for anyone wanting to work in the field of social care. Thompson's grasp of issues around the areas of discrimination is second to none and his ability to describe and analyse potential problems and common pitfalls is first class. Only criticism is that perhaps he is a bit of one trick pony, his PCS model appears all over the place, including in other texts. Nevertheless it makes sense and it works. If you are interested in structral oppression and how endemic it is even within the social care profession buy this book

Not entirely an anti- discriminatory view., 20 Jan 2003
As a social work student I thought that this book would look at examples that occurr everyday when trying to work in an anti-discriminatory way. Unfortunately I did not feel that the book gave any other view than to assume that the social worker will always be the one who discriminates and the examples used became one sided and repetitive. I actually challenge this view with the book - as anyone will know, discrimination cuts both ways. Although a solution may never be reached, what about when users discriminate against each other and towards you, what would be the best way to practice then? After several pages I actually felt that the book was more brain-washing rather than giving some though provoking healthy suggestions for practice.

Pretty sound, 10 Dec 2003
its well written but does tend to be somewhat un exciting. but a good book with loads crammed in and easy to read.

Superb!!, 25 Apr 2003
Faircloughs book offers a suberb discourse on the struggle for equaltity that blacks underwent in 20th century America following the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The accounts of black leaders and organisations are very interesting and authoritative, and extremely useful to anyone interested in this particular historical topic. The only qualm I would have with this book is that the title says 1890-2000, but there is little information supplied on the situtaion of blacks in America after 1970.

Understanding concepts of equality, 10 Nov 2004
This book has more information than expected. Many issues considered to bring theory and practice together. Although it is suggested as useful to social workers, I find it invaluable to my nursing studies as a 3rd year student. I would recommend it to to support practice and invaluable while studying interprofessional and collaborative working. A must have without a doubt!.

read this book, 08 Aug 2007
I found out about this book quite by chance, when a friend asked me to go to a reading by the author at Waterstones. I thought I should buy it so I would have a clue what it was all about. I am really glad I did. The book is not an easy read, but a fascinating one. It is a cliche I know, but I really couldn't put it down. It is much much more than a tale about one man, David Oluwale. Kester Aspden has provided an incredibly detailed social history of policing in general, and the city of Leeds in particular. I have recommended "nationality wog" to everyone I know. This is a story that really should be heard.

David Oluwale- neglected by society in 1960's Britain, 10 Jul 2007
I have just finished reading this book and it is one of those books where you just can't put it down, and there were some very difficult parts in this book about the brutality that David Oluwale received at the hands of the police and authorities that even today asylum seekers are recieving the same kind of brutality and bad treatment from different types of organisations. The years of David Oluwale's life as a homeless vagrant was the most brutal, being bullied and hounded as the title of the book says by a supposed 'law enforcing' organisation. His death was caused through blatant racism whether people chooose to admit that or not, as at the time of his death in 1969 it was a year after Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech so tolerance for immigrants was non existant back then.
This was a story that definately needed to be told. this is definately a story of a person who is a part of our history here in Britain.

Miserable misplaced people., 13 Jun 2007
"leave David to me " or words to that effect struck me in the book.They are spoken by one of the two police officers convicted of assaults on David Oluwale. The use of this mans first name is incongruous given his inhumane treatment by these officers and give a glimpse of what might have been a more indepth relationship between these officers and Oluwale than one of bully and victim.
This book is not an attack on the police or other Criminal Justice agencies and public bodies,nor is it pre occupied with institutional racism.It is an account of an immigrants life in Leeds in the context of a changing police force and a changing city.The police officer Kitchin and Ellerker have become dinosaurs in the force and they know it and one has a sense of their growing sense of inadequacy and powerlessness in a changing job and city.They exert their pathetic power and control over Oluwale.
We are left with some sympathy for the officers as Aspden gives powerful accounts of their personalities and backgrounds and the lonely death of Kitchen.
That Oluwale passes through the hands of other Institutions and Authorities and no help is seemingly given is not surprising given the historical context of the book but it leads the reader to ask if much has changed since.The vulnerable and dangerous still fall through loopholes and safety nets today as revealed by subsequent enquiries into preventable murders and deaths.
Nationality Wog is so thoroughly reserached and touches on so many institutions and individuals in order to put the story into as wide a context as possible that one wonders how Aspden manages to bring all the threads together.He does achieve this and the book culminates thankfully not in a dull account of the trial of the police officers but in a skillful account of the best bits of the court scene and lovely portrayals of the QC's in the case.
The detail in the book will delight anyone familiar with Leeds from descriptions of the shop door ways where Oluwale slept and received his beatings to the position of Leeds United at the time and an account of their black players.
The book has been described as brave and it is right from its almost shocking title to the authors attempt to speak to Ellerker in his driveway.

EK.York
June2007



Excellent. Gets to grips with complex and changing ideas., 11 Apr 2008
Ali Rattansi's `Very Short Introduction to Racism' is an excellent overview and update on some of the latest social scientific understandings of racism, it's history and the evolution of racist ideas. Rattansi also tackles issues which many people will find difficult, such as why there isn't actually any such thing as race and, therefore, how can there be racism if there is no race? It's excellent, although I do have a few quibbles.

Rattansi starts with an understanding of what racism is rather than a precise definition of racism, which he regards as unhelpful in attempting to understand an ever evolving phenomenon. He also offers an overview of the history of racism, confirming that such notions are not present throughout most of human history and are the product of the modern era, beginning, according to Rattansi, with the age of discovery and the start of European colonialism in Africa and the New World.

Here's a quibble, Rattansi says; "The question of exactly how much slavery contributed to doctrines of race is a matter of dispute." True. But he could mention that the idea that it is not is very much a minority position. Rattansi does not deal, for example, with the change in slavery's `racial' practice in the period after Bacon's Rebellion.

The role of the Enlightenment is neatly dealt with by reference to Linnaeus' `scientific' categorisation of humanity and the further development of scientific racism in the nineteenth century.

The role of nationalism in the development of racist ideas is explored and the complexity and confusion of national and racial notions are shown in the coalescence of ideas of race, nation, people, citizen, culture and class. Rattansi shows the paradox of the British working class and the Irish being portrayed as `negroid' in the early part of the nineteenth century, only to be admitted to the ranks of the `white race' at the height of the imperial age and the scramble for Africa.

Rattansi then discusses the Holocaust and the consequent loss of credibility for scientific racism that occurred as a result. A second blow is delivered to scientific racism by science itself, by biology and genetics - the fact that, as individuals genetically vary more than the supposed racial groups into which they have been categorised - race does not, actually, exist.

We are thus left with the conundrum of racism without races. Rattansi tackles this well at the start of the book by pointing out that the Nazi definition of `Who is a Jew?' always contained a cultural as well as a supposed biological element. He goes on to demonstrate, through the speeches of people like Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher, how the process of racialisation works; an acknowledgement of a wide spectrum and confusion of views with a myriad of taken for granted assumptions regarding race, nation, ethnicity and `way of life'.

Understanding this process enables Rattansi to see Islamophobia as racism. He, rightly, dislikes the term `Islamophobia' - it is not, after all, a psychological condition - but does not offer the obvious alternative of `anti-Muslim racism'. Rattansi also misses a chance to demonstrate the continuity between `Islamophobia' and previous racist ideas: the Powell/Thatcher notion that New Commonwealth (ie black) immigrants are culturally inferior due to their `race', the notions of the Eurabia conspiracy theory and how that borrows from traditional anti-semitism. Rattansi does give an excellent example in the opposition to Turkish membership of the EU on the basis that Turks can never be European because they are Muslim but, again, misses the continuity here from Enlightenment ideas that `Europe ended at the mind of the Turk'.

Interesting discussions follow on the notion of intention in racist ideas, illustrated by well known recent quotes from Robert Kilroy-Silk and Ron Atkinson.

The notion of scapegoating as a Freudian explanation for racism is, rightly, dismissed. Although, here, I feel, Rattansi missed an opportunity to make a point about power and powerlessness in class society and how this feeds racist scapegoating.

The book finishes with interesting discussions on notions of institutional racism, affirmative action, the increasing success of fascist parties such as the BNP and how notions of a Clash of Civilisations also can feed racist ideas.

So, recommended reading. I'd follow this up with Arun Kundnani's excellent `The End of Tolerance'.

Not enough depth, 09 Feb 2008
As a first year student we were recommended this book to complete our first assignments. I felt it gave a basic overview of the whole concept and I was not left satisfied. For example the PCS model was explained, however I found I kept going back to the book to try and gain more knowledge on the whole concept of Anti-Discriminatory Practice-that, simply, wasnt there! I feel this book could have been better if it had explored the more in depth concepts behind Anti Discriminatory Practice, althogether it was too general.

This is only a place to start, 02 May 2007
If seriously considering anti-oppressive or discriminatory practice, perhaps it should have been called an introduction to anti-oppressive or discriminatory practices.

As a result I dont believe that criticisms of epistemological analysis and comparisons with A level sociology are fair, infact I think they indicate the sympathies of the previous reviewer and sociology has really moved on from the epistemological discussions and philosophical debates of Hobbes, Locke et al.

I would say that there are much more interesting and illustrative examples of discrimination, power and oppression in James C Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance, however Thompson's model of oppression occuring at the personal, cultural and structural levels should be a spur to further thinking and investigation.

I have only given it three stars since it can only really serve as an introduction to the topic, its written, in the style of the staple of social work practitioner texts, which is less than compelling, has little or no narrative style and reads a lot like DVD player instructions or the continually circulating body of knowledge in all the paper exercises social services training units have invented.

It doesnt tackle the issues of discrimination or oppression of professionals contra other professionals or agencies, which David Howe did in an earlier book which may be out of print now, it does make it appear like oppression is easily defeated and doesnt at all have the health warning that this sort of thing really ought to be accompanied with.

A level sociology revisited, 18 Sep 2003
An at times simplistic account of forms of discrimination which rarely attempts any real depth of analysis. Possibly this is all social work students want to get through their essays with high marks, but the narrative will fail to prepare them for the reality of extreme rationing and endless office based work after qualification. Thompson has certainly got lucky with this best seller that successfully simplifies and packages complex forms of power and domination and presents them as easily confronted and solved. No evidence of epistemological analysis but instead just a new form of A level sociology in drag. Still it sells like hot cakes and so the publishers should be happy, and the career must surely have taken off. Crude, academically lazy and completely out of touch with us the social work practitioners!

Seminal, 24 Mar 2003
An absolute must have for anyone wanting to work in the field of social care. Thompson's grasp of issues around the areas of discrimination is second to none and his ability to describe and analyse potential problems and common pitfalls is first class. Only criticism is that perhaps he is a bit of one trick pony, his PCS model appears all over the place, including in other texts. Nevertheless it makes sense and it works. If you are interested in structral oppression and how endemic it is even within the social care profession buy this book

Not entirely an anti- discriminatory view., 20 Jan 2003
As a social work student I thought that this book would look at examples that occurr everyday when trying to work in an anti-discriminatory way. Unfortunately I did not feel that the book gave any other view than to assume that the social worker will always be the one who discriminates and the examples used became one sided and repetitive. I actually challenge this view with the book - as anyone will know, discrimination cuts both ways. Although a solution may never be reached, what about when users discriminate against each other and towards you, what would be the best way to practice then? After several pages I actually felt that the book was more brain-washing rather than giving some though provoking healthy suggestions for practice.

Pretty sound, 10 Dec 2003
its well written but does tend to be somewhat un exciting. but a good book with loads crammed in and easy to read.

Superb!!, 25 Apr 2003
Faircloughs book offers a suberb discourse on the struggle for equaltity that blacks underwent in 20th century America following the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The accounts of black leaders and organisations are very interesting and authoritative, and extremely useful to anyone interested in this particular historical topic. The only qualm I would have with this book is that the title says 1890-2000, but there is little information supplied on the situtaion of blacks in America after 1970.

Understanding concepts of equality, 10 Nov 2004
This book has more information than expected. Many issues considered to bring theory and practice together. Although it is suggested as useful to social workers, I find it invaluable to my nursing studies as a 3rd year student. I would recommend it to to support practice and invaluable while studying interprofessional and collaborative working. A must have without a doubt!.

read this book, 08 Aug 2007
I found out about this book quite by chance, when a friend asked me to go to a reading by the author at Waterstones. I thought I should buy it so I would have a clue what it was all about. I am really glad I did. The book is not an easy read, but a fascinating one. It is a cliche I know, but I really couldn't put it down. It is much much more than a tale about one man, David Oluwale. Kester Aspden has provided an incredibly detailed social history of policing in general, and the city of Leeds in particular. I have recommended "nationality wog" to everyone I know. This is a story that really should be heard.

David Oluwale- neglected by society in 1960's Britain, 10 Jul 2007
I have just finished reading this book and it is one of those books where you just can't put it down, and there were some very difficult parts in this book about the brutality that David Oluwale received at the hands of the police and authorities that even today asylum seekers are recieving the same kind of brutality and bad treatment from different types of organisations. The years of David Oluwale's life as a homeless vagrant was the most brutal, being bullied and hounded as the title of the book says by a supposed 'law enforcing' organisation. His death was caused through blatant racism whether people chooose to admit that or not, as at the time of his death in 1969 it was a year after Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech so tolerance for immigrants was non existant back then.
This was a story that definately needed to be told. this is definately a story of a person who is a part of our history here in Britain.

Miserable misplaced people., 13 Jun 2007
"leave David to me " or words to that effect struck me in the book.They are spoken by one of the two police officers convicted of assaults on David Oluwale. The use of this mans first name is incongruous given his inhumane treatment by these officers and give a glimpse of what might have been a more indepth relationship between these officers and Oluwale than one of bully and victim.
This book is not an attack on the police or other Criminal Justice agencies and public bodies,nor is it pre occupied with institutional racism.It is an account of an immigrants life in Leeds in the context of a changing police force and a changing city.The police officer Kitchin and Ellerker have become dinosaurs in the force and they know it and one has a sense of their growing sense of inadequacy and powerlessness in a changing job and city.They exert their pathetic power and control over Oluwale.
We are left with some sympathy for the officers as Aspden gives powerful accounts of their personalities and backgrounds and the lonely death of Kitchen.
That Oluwale passes through the hands of other Institutions and Authorities and no help is seemingly given is not surprising given the historical context of the book but it leads the reader to ask if much has changed since.The vulnerable and dangerous still fall through loopholes and safety nets today as revealed by subsequent enquiries into preventable murders and deaths.
Nationality Wog is so thoroughly reserached and touches on so many institutions and individuals in order to put the story into as wide a context as possible that one wonders how Aspden manages to bring all the threads together.He does achieve this and the book culminates thankfully not in a dull account of the trial of the police officers but in a skillful account of the best bits of the court scene and lovely portrayals of the QC's in the case.
The detail in the book will delight anyone familiar with Leeds from descriptions of the shop door ways where Oluwale slept and received his beatings to the position of Leeds United at the time and an account of their black players.
The book has been described as brave and it is right from its almost shocking title to the authors attempt to speak to Ellerker in his driveway.

EK.York
June2007



Excellent. Gets to grips with complex and changing ideas., 11 Apr 2008
Ali Rattansi's `Very Short Introduction to Racism' is an excellent overview and update on some of the latest social scientific understandings of racism, it's history and the evolution of racist ideas. Rattansi also tackles issues which many people will find difficult, such as why there isn't actually any such thing as race and, therefore, how can there be racism if there is no race? It's excellent, although I do have a few quibbles.

Rattansi starts with an understanding of what racism is rather than a precise definition of racism, which he regards as unhelpful in attempting to understand an ever evolving phenomenon. He also offers an overview of the history of racism, confirming that such notions are not present throughout most of human history and are the product of the modern era, beginning, according to Rattansi, with the age of discovery and the start of European colonialism in Africa and the New World.

Here's a quibble, Rattansi says; "The question of exactly how much slavery contributed to doctrines of race is a matter of dispute." True. But he could mention that the idea that it is not is very much a minority position. Rattansi does not deal, for example, with the change in slavery's `racial' practice in the period after Bacon's Rebellion.

The role of the Enlightenment is neatly dealt with by reference to Linnaeus' `scientific' categorisation of humanity and the further development of scientific racism in the nineteenth century.

The role of nationalism in the development of racist ideas is explored and the complexity and confusion of national and racial notions are shown in the coalescence of ideas of race, nation, people, citizen, culture and class. Rattansi shows the paradox of the British working class and the Irish being portrayed as `negroid' in the early part of the nineteenth century, only to be admitted to the ranks of the `white race' at the height of the imperial age and the scramble for Africa.

Rattansi then discusses the Holocaust and the consequent loss of credibility for scientific racism that occurred as a result. A second blow is delivered to scientific racism by science itself, by biology and genetics - the fact that, as individuals genetically vary more than the supposed racial groups into which they have been categorised - race does not, actually, exist.

We are thus left with the conundrum of racism without races. Rattansi tackles this well at the start of the book by pointing out that the Nazi definition of `Who is a Jew?' always contained a cultural as well as a supposed biological element. He goes on to demonstrate, through the speeches of people like Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher, how the process of racialisation works; an acknowledgement of a wide spectrum and confusion of views with a myriad of taken for granted assumptions regarding race, nation, ethnicity and `way of life'.

Understanding this process enables Rattansi to see Islamophobia as racism. He, rightly, dislikes the term `Islamophobia' - it is not, after all, a psychological condition - but does not offer the obvious alternative of `anti-Muslim racism'. Rattansi also misses a chance to demonstrate the continuity between `Islamophobia' and previous racist ideas: the Powell/Thatcher notion that New Commonwealth (ie black) immigrants are culturally inferior due to their `race', the notions of the Eurabia conspiracy theory and how that borrows from traditional anti-semitism. Rattansi does give an excellent example in the opposition to Turkish membership of the EU on the basis that Turks can never be European because they are Muslim but, again, misses the continuity here from Enlightenment ideas that `Europe ended at the mind of the Turk'.

Interesting discussions follow on the notion of intention in racist ideas, illustrated by well known recent quotes from Robert Kilroy-Silk and Ron Atkinson.

The notion of scapegoating as a Freudian explanation for racism is, rightly, dismissed. Although, here, I feel, Rattansi missed an opportunity to make a point about power and powerlessness in class society and how this feeds racist scapegoating.

The book finishes with interesting discussions on notions of institutional racism, affirmative action, the increasing success of fascist parties such as the BNP and how notions of a Clash of Civilisations also can feed racist ideas.

So, recommended reading. I'd follow this up with Arun Kundnani's excellent `The End of Tolerance'.



Prelude to Holocaust, 23 Apr 2008
This book tracks the gradual de-emancipation and persecution of German Jewry and later of the Austrian and Tchechoslovakian Jewish communities through the increasingly discriminatory laws issued by the Nazi government. Friedländer here introduces the same technique that he employs in his subsequent "Years of Extermination", that of following numerous individual examples to concretize the effects of these laws. Also, the author takes great care to study prevalent attitudes outside Germany. Not a single voice of any consequence, inside or outside of Germany, was raised to protest against these developments. He makes the bewildering Nazi bureaucracy understandable which is a feat. His concept of "redemptive anti-Semitism" makes understandable the ferocious drive which was to develop during the coming war years. This book lays a thoroughly solid foundation for his magnum opus, "The Years of Extermination".

Undeniable record of the overture for the Holocaust, 28 Nov 2003
Saul Friedlander documents the tragic loss of moral courage and responsibility among the vast majority of Germans some seventy years ago, and how this loss allowed the growing oppression and persecution of their fellow citizens, the Jews. While so-called revisionists and Holocaust deniers focus on the still barely-imaginable campaign of murder carried out by the Germans and their willing helpers from the Baltic to the Balkans, Saul Friedlander's account is of the mounting radicalisation of anti-Jewish policies and public indifference to the Jews' fate. The text is deeply depressing, but is essential reading for anyone who is trying to come to terms with the crimes of the Holocaust itself. Holocaust deniers use the "holes" in accounts of the Holocaust to support their shoddy, deranged arguments. A reading of this book provides massive, incontrovertible evidence of the Nazis' murderous hatred for the Jews and the policies they used to deny them any kind of life in Germany before the war. An unforgettable voyage into a time of mass moral insanity

Not enough depth, 09 Feb 2008
As a first year student we were recommended this book to complete our first assignments. I felt it gave a basic overview of the whole concept and I was not left satisfied. For example the PCS model was explained, however I found I kept going back to the book to try and gain more knowledge on the whole concept of Anti-Discriminatory Practice-that, simply, wasnt there! I feel this book could have been better if it had explored the more in depth concepts behind Anti Discriminatory Practice, althogether it was too general.

This is only a place to start, 02 May 2007
If seriously considering anti-oppressive or discriminatory practice, perhaps it should have been called an introduction to anti-oppressive or discriminatory practices.

As a result I dont believe that criticisms of epistemological analysis and comparisons with A level sociology are fair, infact I think they indicate the sympathies of the previous reviewer and sociology has really moved on from the epistemological discussions and philosophical debates of Hobbes, Locke et al.

I would say that there are much more interesting and illustrative examples of discrimination, power and oppression in James C Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance, however Thompson's model of oppression occuring at the personal, cultural and structural levels should be a spur to further thinking and investigation.

I have only given it three stars since it can only really serve as an introduction to the topic, its written, in the style of the staple of social work practitioner texts, which is less than compelling, has little or no narrative style and reads a lot like DVD player instructions or the continually circulating body of knowledge in all the paper exercises social services training units have invented.

It doesnt tackle the issues of discrimination or oppression of professionals contra other professionals or agencies, which David Howe did in an earlier book which may be out of print now, it does make it appear like oppression is easily defeated and doesnt at all have the health warning that this sort of thing really ought to be accompanied with.

A level sociology revisited, 18 Sep 2003
An at times simplistic account of forms of discrimination which rarely attempts any real depth of analysis. Possibly this is all social work students want to get through their essays with high marks, but the narrative will fail to prepare them for the reality of extreme rationing and endless office based work after qualification. Thompson has certainly got lucky with this best seller that successfully simplifies and packages complex forms of power and domination and presents them as easily confronted and solved. No evidence of epistemological analysis but instead just a new form of A level sociology in drag. Still it sells like hot cakes and so the publishers should be happy, and the career must surely have taken off. Crude, academically lazy and completely out of touch with us the social work practitioners!

Seminal, 24 Mar 2003
An absolute must have for anyone wanting to work in the field of social care. Thompson's grasp of issues around the areas of discrimination is second to none and his ability to describe and analyse potential problems and common pitfalls is first class. Only criticism is that perhaps he is a bit of one trick pony, his PCS model appears all over the place, including in other texts. Nevertheless it makes sense and it works. If you are interested in structral oppression and how endemic it is even within the social care profession buy this book

Not entirely an anti- discriminatory view., 20 Jan 2003
As a social work student I thought that this book would look at examples that occurr everyday when trying to work in an anti-discriminatory way. Unfortunately I did not feel that the book gave any other view than to assume that the social worker will always be the one who discriminates and the examples used became one sided and repetitive. I actually challenge this view with the book - as anyone will know, discrimination cuts both ways. Although a solution may never be reached, what about when users discriminate against each other and towards you, what would be the best way to practice then? After several pages I actually felt that the book was more brain-washing rather than giving some though provoking healthy suggestions for practice.

Pretty sound, 10 Dec 2003
its well written but does tend to be somewhat un exciting. but a good book with loads crammed in and easy to read.

Superb!!, 25 Apr 2003
Faircloughs book offers a suberb discourse on the struggle for equaltity that blacks underwent in 20th century America following the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The accounts of black leaders and organisations are very interesting and authoritative, and extremely useful to anyone interested in this particular historical topic. The only qualm I would have with this book is that the title says 1890-2000, but there is little information supplied on the situtaion of blacks in America after 1970.

Understanding concepts of equality, 10 Nov 2004
This book has more information than expected. Many issues considered to bring theory and practice together. Although it is suggested as useful to social workers, I find it invaluable to my nursing studies as a 3rd year student. I would recommend it to to support practice and invaluable while studying interprofessional and collaborative working. A must have without a doubt!.

read this book, 08 Aug 2007
I found out about this book quite by chance, when a friend asked me to go to a reading by the author at Waterstones. I thought I should buy it so I would have a clue what it was all about. I am really glad I did. The book is not an easy read, but a fascinating one. It is a cliche I know, but I really couldn't put it down. It is much much more than a tale about one man, David Oluwale. Kester Aspden has provided an incredibly detailed social history of policing in general, and the city of Leeds in particular. I have recommended "nationality wog" to everyone I know. This is a story that really should be heard.

David Oluwale- neglected by society in 1960's Britain, 10 Jul 2007
I have just finished reading this book and it is one of those books where you just can't put it down, and there were some very difficult parts in this book about the brutality that David Oluwale received at the hands of the police and authorities that even today asylum seekers are recieving the same kind of brutality and bad treatment from different types of organisations. The years of David Oluwale's life as a homeless vagrant was the most brutal, being bullied and hounded as the title of the book says by a supposed 'law enforcing' organisation. His death was caused through blatant racism whether people chooose to admit that or not, as at the time of his death in 1969 it was a year after Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech so tolerance for immigrants was non existant back then.
This was a story that definately needed to be told. this is definately a story of a person who is a part of our history here in Britain.

Miserable misplaced people., 13 Jun 2007
"leave David to me " or words to that effect struck me in the book.They are spoken by one of the two police officers convicted of assaults on David Oluwale. The use of this mans first name is incongruous given his inhumane treatment by these officers and give a glimpse of what might have been a more indepth relationship between these officers and Oluwale than one of bully and victim.
This book is not an attack on the police or other Criminal Justice agencies and public bodies,nor is it pre occupied with institutional racism.It is an account of an immigrants life in Leeds in the context of a changing police force and a changing city.The police officer Kitchin and Ellerker have become dinosaurs in the force and they know it and one has a sense of their growing sense of inadequacy and powerlessness in a changing job and city.They exert their pathetic power and control over Oluwale.
We are left with some sympathy for the officers as Aspden gives powerful accounts of their personalities and backgrounds and the lonely death of Kitchen.
That Oluwale passes through the hands of other Institutions and Authorities and no help is seemingly given is not surprising given the historical context of the book but it leads the reader to ask if much has changed since.The vulnerable and dangerous still fall through loopholes and safety nets today as revealed by subsequent enquiries into preventable murders and deaths.
Nationality Wog is so thoroughly reserached and touches on so many institutions and individuals in order to put the story into as wide a context as possible that one wonders how Aspden manages to bring all the threads together.He does achieve this and the book culminates thankfully not in a dull account of the trial of the police officers but in a skillful account of the best bits of the court scene and lovely portrayals of the QC's in the case.
The detail in the book will delight anyone familiar with Leeds from descriptions of the shop door ways where Oluwale slept and received his beatings to the position of Leeds United at the time and an account of their black players.
The book has been described as brave and it is right from its almost shocking title to the authors attempt to speak to Ellerker in his driveway.

EK.York
June2007



Excellent. Gets to grips with complex and changing ideas., 11 Apr 2008
Ali Rattansi's `Very Short Introduction to Racism' is an excellent overview and update on some of the latest social scientific understandings of racism, it's history and the evolution of racist ideas. Rattansi also tackles issues which many people will find difficult, such as why there isn't actually any such thing as race and, therefore, how can there be racism if there is no race? It's excellent, although I do have a few quibbles.

Rattansi starts with an understanding of what racism is rather than a precise definition of racism, which he regards as unhelpful in attempting to understand an ever evolving phenomenon. He also offers an overview of the history of racism, confirming that such notions are not present throughout most of human history and are the product of the modern era, beginning, according to Rattansi, with the age of discovery and the start of European colonialism in Africa and the New World.

Here's a quibble, Rattansi says; "The question of exactly how much slavery contributed to doctrines of race is a matter of dispute." True. But he could mention that the idea that it is not is very much a minority position. Rattansi does not deal, for example, with the change in slavery's `racial' practice in the period after Bacon's Rebellion.

The role of the Enlightenment is neatly dealt with by reference to Linnaeus' `scientific' categorisation of humanity and the further development of scientific racism in the nineteenth century.

The role of nationalism in the development of racist ideas is explored and the complexity and confusion of national and racial notions are shown in the coalescence of ideas of race, nation, people, citizen, culture and class. Rattansi shows the paradox of the British working class and the Irish being portrayed as `negroid' in the early part of the nineteenth century, only to be admitted to the ranks of the `white race' at the height of the imperial age and the scramble for Africa.

Rattansi then discusses the Holocaust and the consequent loss of credibility for scientific racism that occurred as a result. A second blow is delivered to scientific racism by science itself, by biology and genetics - the fact that, as individuals genetically vary more than the supposed racial groups into which they have been categorised - race does not, actually, exist.

We are thus left with the conundrum of racism without races. Rattansi tackles this well at the start of the book by pointing out that the Nazi definition of `Who is a Jew?' always contained a cultural as well as a supposed biological element. He goes on to demonstrate, through the speeches of people like Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher, how the process of racialisation works; an acknowledgement of a wide spectrum and confusion of views with a myriad of taken for granted assumptions regarding race, nation, ethnicity and `way of life'.

Understanding this process enables Rattansi to see Islamophobia as racism. He, rightly, dislikes the term `Islamophobia' - it is not, after all, a psychological condition - but does not offer the obvious alternative of `anti-Muslim racism'. Rattansi also misses a chance to demonstrate the continuity between `Islamophobia' and previous racist ideas: the Powell/Thatcher notion that New Commonwealth (ie black) immigrants are culturally inferior due to their `race', the notions of the Eurabia conspiracy theory and how that borrows from traditional anti-semitism. Rattansi does give an excellent example in the opposition to Turkish membership of the EU on the basis that Turks can never be European because they are Muslim but, again, misses the continuity here from Enlightenment ideas that `Europe ended at the mind of the Turk'.

Interesting discussions follow on the notion of intention in racist ideas, illustrated by well known recent quotes from Robert Kilroy-Silk and Ron Atkinson.

The notion of scapegoating as a Freudian explanation for racism is, rightly, dismissed. Although, here, I feel, Rattansi missed an opportunity to make a point about power and powerlessness in class society and how this feeds racist scapegoating.

The book finishes with interesting discussions on notions of institutional racism, affirmative action, the increasing success of fascist parties such as the BNP and how notions of a Clash of Civilisations also can feed racist ideas.

So, recommended reading. I'd follow this up with Arun Kundnani's excellent `The End of Tolerance'.



Prelude to Holocaust, 23 Apr 2008
This book tracks the gradual de-emancipation and persecution of German Jewry and later of the Austrian and Tchechoslovakian Jewish communities through the increasingly discriminatory laws issued by the Nazi government. Friedländer here introduces the same technique that he employs in his subsequent "Years of Extermination", that of following numerous individual examples to concretize the effects of these laws. Also, the author takes great care to study prevalent attitudes outside Germany. Not a single voice of any consequence, inside or outside of Germany, was raised to protest against these developments. He makes the bewildering Nazi bureaucracy understandable which is a feat. His concept of "redemptive anti-Semitism" makes understandable the ferocious drive which was to develop during the coming war years. This book lays a thoroughly solid foundation for his magnum opus, "The Years of Extermination".

Undeniable record of the overture for the Holocaust, 28 Nov 2003
Saul Friedlander documents the tragic loss of moral courage and responsibility among the vast majority of Germans some seventy years ago, and how this loss allowed the growing oppression and persecution of their fellow citizens, the Jews. While so-called revisionists and Holocaust deniers focus on the still barely-imaginable campaign of murder carried out by the Germans and their willing helpers from the Baltic to the Balkans, Saul Friedlander's account is of the mounting radicalisation of anti-Jewish policies and public indifference to the Jews' fate. The text is deeply depressing, but is essential reading for anyone who is trying to come to terms with the crimes of the Holocaust itself. Holocaust deniers use the "holes" in accounts of the Holocaust to support their shoddy, deranged arguments. A reading of this book provides massive, incontrovertible evidence of the Nazis' murderous hatred for the Jews and the policies they used to deny them any kind of life in Germany before the war. An unforgettable voyage into a time of mass moral insanity

coursework helper, 12 Feb 2004
this book contained the main basis for my a2 history coursework it was really helpful in answering some of the puzzling questions i came across while studying this subject. The cntent is great for someone doing a level and i would recommend it to all a level students doing this topic.

Utility as an educational resource, 01 Mar 2001
The book is incredibly usefull as a background text to the new AS modern history syllabus topic as the chapters in the novel are mirrored by the headings under which the exam board set out their specification. It provides the points of view of all groups concerned with the period and so gives students an overview of the period. The book also helps to limit the extra amount of background reading needed as many quotes from Historians and participants in the period of history which are incredibly useful for quoting in an essay or exam question. However, although the book follows the syllabus carefully it often moves away from provideing a chronological list of events, which although is poor essay writing style it is very useful for the understanding of students. Overall an impressive and coherent novel.

Not enough depth, 09 Feb 2008
As a first year student we were recommended this book to complete our first assignments. I felt it gave a basic overview of the whole concept and I was not left satisfied. For example the PCS model was explained, however I found I kept going back to the book to try and gain more knowledge on the whole concept of Anti-Discriminatory Practice-that, simply, wasnt there! I feel this book could have been better if it had explored the more in depth concepts behind Anti Discriminatory Practice, althogether it was too general.

This is only a place to start, 02 May 2007
If seriously considering anti-oppressive or discriminatory practice, perhaps it should have been called an introduction to anti-oppressive or discriminatory practices.

As a result I dont believe that criticisms of epistemological analysis and comparisons with A level sociology are fair, infact I think they indicate the sympathies of the previous reviewer and sociology has really moved on from the epistemological discussions and philosophical debates of Hobbes, Locke et al.

I would say that there are much more interesting and illustrative examples of discrimination, power and oppression in James C Scott's Domination and the Arts of Resistance, however Thompson's model of oppression occuring at the personal, cultural and structural levels should be a spur to further thinking and investigation.

I have only given it three stars since it can only really serve as an introduction to the topic, its written, in the style of the staple of social work practitioner texts, which is less than compelling, has little or no narrative style and reads a lot like DVD player instructions or the continually circulating body of knowledge in all the paper exercises social services training units have invented.

It doesnt tackle the issues of discrimination or oppression of professionals contra other professionals or agencies, which David Howe did in an earlier book which may be out of print now, it does make it appear like oppression is easily defeated and doesnt at all have the health warning that this sort of thing really ought to be accompanied with.

A level sociology revisited, 18 Sep 2003
An at times simplistic account of forms of discrimination which rarely attempts any real depth of analysis. Possibly this is all social work students want to get through their essays with high marks, but the narrative will fail to prepare them for the reality of extreme rationing and endless office based work after qualification. Thompson has certainly got lucky with this best seller that successfully simplifies and packages complex forms of power and domination and presents them as easily confronted and solved. No evidence of epistemological analysis but instead just a new form of A level sociology in drag. Still it sells like hot cakes and so the publishers should be happy, and the career must surely have taken off. Crude, academically lazy and completely out of touch with us the social work practitioners!

Seminal, 24 Mar 2003
An absolute must have for anyone wanting to work in the field of social care. Thompson's grasp of issues around the areas of discrimination is second to none and his ability to describe and analyse potential problems and common pitfalls is first class. Only criticism is that perhaps he is a bit of one trick pony, his PCS model appears all over the place, including in other texts. Nevertheless it makes sense and it works. If you are interested in structral oppression and how endemic it is even within the social care profession buy this book

Not entirely an anti- discriminatory view., 20 Jan 2003
As a social work student I thought that this book would look at examples that occurr everyday when trying to work in an anti-discriminatory way. Unfortunately I did not feel that the book gave any other view than to assume that the social worker will always be the one who discriminates and the examples used became one sided and repetitive. I actually challenge this view with the book - as anyone will know, discrimination cuts both ways. Although a solution may never be reached, what about when users discriminate against each other and towards you, what would be the best way to practice then? After several pages I actually felt that the book was more brain-washing rather than giving some though provoking healthy suggestions for practice.

Pretty sound, 10 Dec 2003
its well written but does tend to be somewhat un exciting. but a good book with loads crammed in and easy to read.

Superb!!, 25 Apr 2003
Faircloughs book offers a suberb discourse on the struggle for equaltity that blacks underwent in 20th century America following the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The accounts of black leaders and organisations are very interesting and authoritative, and extremely useful to anyone interested in this particular historical topic. The only qualm I would have with this book is that the title says 1890-2000, but there is little information supplied on the situtaion of blacks in America after 1970.

Understanding concepts of equality, 10 Nov 2004
This book has more information than expected. Many issues considered to bring theory and practice together. Although it is suggested as useful to social workers, I find it invaluable to my nursing studies as a 3rd year student. I would recommend it to to support practice and invaluable while studying interprofessional and collaborative working. A must have without a doubt!.

read this book, 08 Aug 2007
I found out about this book quite by chance, when a friend asked me to go to a reading by the author at Waterstones. I thought I should buy it so I would have a clue what it was all about. I am really glad I did. The book is not an easy read, but a fascinating one. It is a cliche I know, but I really couldn't put it down. It is much much more than a tale about one man, David Oluwale. Kester Aspden has provided an incredibly detailed social history of policing in general, and the city of Leeds in particular. I have recommended "nationality wog" to everyone I know. This is a story that really should be heard.

David Oluwale- neglected by society in 1960's Britain, 10 Jul 2007
I have just finished reading this book and it is one of those books where you just can't put it down, and there were some very difficult parts in this book about the brutality that David Oluwale received at the hands of the police and authorities that even today asylum seekers are recieving the same kind of brutality and bad treatment from different types of organisations. The years of David Oluwale's life as a homeless vagrant was the most brutal, being bullied and hounded as the title of the book says by a supposed 'law enforcing' organisation. His death was caused through blatant racism whether people chooose to admit that or not, as at the time of his death in 1969 it was a year after Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech so tolerance for immigrants was non existant back then.
This was a story that definately needed to be told. this is definately a story of a person who is a part of our history here in Britain.

Miserable misplaced people., 13 Jun 2007
"leave David to me " or words to that effect struck me in the book.They are spoken by one of the two police officers convicted of assaults on David Oluwale. The use of this mans first name is incongruous given his inhumane treatment by these officers and give a glimpse of what might have been a more indepth relationship between these officers and Oluwale than one of bully and victim.
This book is not an attack on the police or other Criminal Justice agencies and public bodies,nor is it pre occupied with institutional racism.It is an account of an immigrants life in Leeds in the context of a changing police force and a changing city.The police officer Kitchin and Ellerker have become dinosaurs in the force and they know it and one has a sense of their growing sense of inadequacy and powerlessness in a changing job and city.They exert their pathetic power and control over Oluwale.
We are left with some sympathy for the officers as Aspden gives powerful accounts of their personalities and backgrounds and the lonely death of Kitchen.
That Oluwale passes through the hands of other Institutions and Authorities and no help is seemingly given is not surprising given the historical context of the book but it leads the reader to ask if much has changed since.The vulnerable and dangerous still fall through loopholes and safety nets today as revealed by subsequent enquiries into preventable murders and deaths.
Nationality Wog is so thoroughly reserached and touches on so many institutions and individuals in order to put the story into as wide a context as possible that one wonders how Aspden manages to bring all the threads together.He does achieve this and the book culminates thankfully not in a dull account of the trial of the police officers but in a skillful account of the best bits of the court scene and lovely portrayals of the QC's in the case.
The detail in the book will delight anyone familiar with Leeds from descriptions of the shop door ways where Oluwale slept and received his beatings to the position of Leeds United at the time and an account of their black players.
The book has been described as brave and it is right from its almost shocking title to the authors attempt to speak to Ellerker in his driveway.

EK.York
June2007



Excellent. Gets to grips with complex and changing ideas., 11 Apr 2008
Al