Thoughts on Orleck

I liked Tim's question as well and I was left wondering what is the significance of the demise of Operation Life? One the one hand you can argue that these women were very successful because of the programs they implemented and the change they were able to achieve. The fact that they were able to help a lot of people was significant to them and even though the programs ended they were a positive force for along time. On the other hand the success of the community groups led to government takeover. I like the comment about the library and it seems very familiar to the types of progress that government groups consider. Would it not have helped if they spent that money on more books, classes, etc. Instead they sink a lot of money into a new facility, because without state of the art facilities we all know learning is impossible.

The other aspect of Orleck's monograph that I thought was interesting was her use of sources. A good number of her sources are from interviews. Orleck paints a sympathetic picture, does it seem that she was influenced by her connection and admiration for these women? I do not think so she seems to be impartial for most of the book. The last chapter has some sections that are a little too sympathetic but overall i think she handled the issues of this kind of work well. It will be interesting to see what others think about the use of sources.