Saturday, October 31, 2009  How Ordinary People Can Change the
World  I've promised not just to flack my titles on this page,
but I did say I was going to tell you about them now and again.
That's what makes you publish a book--the urge to share it with
other readers.  The one that's on my mind today is The Union of
Their Dreams by Miriam Pawel. The Los Angeles Times reviews it
this coming Sunday and calls it a "masterpiece." I agree. It
reminds me of classics like Anthony Lukas’s COMMON GROUND, or
Randy Shilts’ AND THE BAND PLAYED ON in the way it weaves a
narrative from the stories of ordinary people that you come to
care about intensely.  The story of Cesar Chavez and the United
Farm Workers is one of the great American struggles for social
justice, an astonishingly successful movement built from
scratch. Miriam tells it through the experience of eight people
who became key players in the UFW, from workers who learned
organizing in the fields, to idealistic lawyers, ministers, and
college kids. They found