Alive to history in the making, this volume examines Barack Obama's presidency and Lyndon Johnson's, the killing of Trayvon Martin and the death of Andrew Breitbart, Occupy Wall Street and "America Beyond Capitalism." The title, That Floating Bridge, evokes Representative John Lewis' line-"Obama is what comes at the end of that bridge in Selma"-as it quotes a track on Gregg Allman's Low Country Blues, which Scott Spencer lauds here in a review for the Ages. That Floating Bridge includes contributions from Amiri Baraka, Gar Alperovitz, Bernard Avishai, Uri Avnery, Bill Ayers, Paul Berman, Mark Dudzic, Carmelita Estrellita, Fr. Rick Frechette, Donna Gaines, Lawrence Goodwyn, Lisa Guenther, Alec Harrington, Malcolm Harris, Roxane Johnson, Ben Kessler, Bob Levin, Philip Levine, Bongani Madondo, Greil Marcus, Judy Oppenheimer, Jedediah Purdy, Aram Saroyan, Violet Socks, Tom Smucker, A. B. Spellman, Fredric Smoler, Richard Torres, Jesmyn Ward, and Pablo Yglesias. A definitive account of the life and times of famed scholar Franz Boas anchors a section, "Family of Humanists, " that takes an anthropological turn.
It digs into the roots of classic ethnographies such as The Forest People, Diane Arbus' outsider art, Subway Salsa, and the phenomenon of Linsanity. A section titled "Criticism of Life" brings together exemplary older and younger poets and critics. Songs are key to this volume's soul and plenitude. Ranging from Eddie Hinton's Very Extremely Dangerous to Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, the music writing soundtracks That Floating Bridge's message to "The Democracy.