The Soul Knows No Bars: Inmates Reflect on Life, Death and Hope - Hardcover

Leder, Drew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0847692906 ISBN 13: 9780847692903

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2000

Synopsis

The Soul Knows No Bars is a unique book, co-authored by Drew Leder, and inmates at the Maryland State Penitentiary. Taking off from the texts by Foucault, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Buber, Cornel West, and others, the men speak of the impact within their lives of power, violence, sexual and racial identity, incarceration, and the liberation of spirit possible even in a maximum-security cell.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Revealed in pages of this book are the intelligence, compassion and humanity of both the prisoners and the author...Leder searches for his own soul as the prisoners search for theirs. This book belongs in every classroom and in every home-because as much as it teaches us about the human beings who are incarcerated in America's Archipelago, it teaches us about ourselves."
--Natalie J. Sokoloff, Professor of Sociology

"Drew Leder is a kind of latter-day Socrates...This is philosophy at its best-the courageous love and quest for wisdom that sheds light and enlightens souls in the heart of American darkness."
--Cornel West

"Put a phiosophy professor into a locked room with incarcerated thieves, drug dealers, and murderers, throw in Socrates, Nietzsche, Cornel West and Heidegger - and what do you get? Conversations that will knock your socks off. A book you simply can't put down."
--Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking

"A rare gem of a book...[Leder] artfully demonstrates that inmates are not unreachable, inhuman nor incapable of being taught; nor are they uninterested in the profound philosophical tenets of thinkers like Socrates, Nietzsche, and Foucault. Leder forces us to rediscover a truth that our society often forgets.Our prisons are not filled with soulless cast-offs of little or no consequence, but with men and women who hope, feel, desire, bleed, and, most importantly, who think."
--Kweisi Mfume, president and CEO, NAACP

About the Author:

Drew Leder is associate professor of philosophy at Loyola College in Maryland.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0847692906
• ISBN 13: 9780847692903
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224