Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 240
Trim: 9 x 9
978-0-7425-3396-7 • Paperback • July 2004 • $53.00 • (£41.00)
Kurt Jacobsen is a research associate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Technical Fouls: Democratic Dilemmas and Technological Change, Dead Reckonings: Ideas, Interests, and Politics in the 'Information Age', and Chasing Progress in the Irish Republic.
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Daniel Ellsberg, activist and author "Our leaders don't yield anything to anyone in terms of ruthlessness."
Chapter 3 Larry Heinemann, novelist "He will always look at life through the eyes of a pissed-off infantryman."
Chapter 4 John Nichols, novelist and screenwriter "You become politicized by understanding the whole picture."
Chapter 5 Studs Terkel, writer and broadcaster "It's always agitators who change things."
Chapter 6 J. P. Donleavy, novelist "I learned that where art was concerned there was only one critic, just you."
Chapter 7 Desmond MacNamara, sculptor and author "The real truth lies in comedy."
Chapter 8 Noel Browne, activist and author "My job I considered to be one of an educator, a propagandist and an agitator."
Chapter 9 Bianca Jagger, human rights activist "I realized how just a small act of courage can save a life."
Chapter 10 Marcel Ophuls, documentary film maker "You must always be prepared not only to surprise other people but to surprise yourself."
Chapter 11 Woody Allen, film director "Being an ostrich, in certain ways, has worked positively for me"
Chapter 12 Spike Lee, film director "Any artist has to go out and do what's true in your heart."
Chapter 13 Neil Davies, documentary film maker "Entertainment is not only or always the slickness but connecting at the human level."
Chapter 14 Dusan Makavejev, film director "The basic story of life [is] something dangerous and beautiful."
Chapter 15 Bruno Bettelheim, psychologist: another look
Kurt Jacobsen's Maverick Voices is a powerful, inspiring tribute to an honorable company of dissenters, whose wisdom and courage are vindicated every day now.
— John Pilger
Kurt Jacobsen's collection of Maverick Voices brings together fascinating interviews with top writers and thinkers of our time who dare to go against the grain. Full of illuminating insights into politics, the arts, and psychotherapy, Jacobsen's interviews and commentaries should interest all concerned with ideas and culture in the contemporary moment.
— Douglas Kellner, UCLA; author of Media Culture and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy
Kurt Jacobsen's Maverick Voices is not to be missed by any with an interest in political and cultural challenges to the status quo. . . . [It] brings together a virtual melting pot of interviews with top modern thinkers and writers of our times who dare to confront the status quo of theories on social and political standards.
— The Bookwatch
Maverick Voices serves both as reprieve to what Studs Terkel calls 'the evil of banality' and a narrative of political and cultural renewal. Jacobsen's interviews emerge as engaging and powerful portraits that sizzle with creative insights into the arts, society, politics, and the human condition. These maverick voices are those that will serve as the enabling conditions for our cultural and political evolution.
— Peter McLaren, Emeritus Professor, the University of California, Los Angeles