Bøger af Alexander Kugushev

UNDER THE WHEEL OF HISTORY is the memoir of my mother's dramatic journey through the 20th century. She was born in Russia in 1900 and lived through two revolutions and two World Wars. She died, in California, at the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Her memoir recounts a life of courage, discipline, spirit of sacrifice, and of imagination and initiative with which she managed to overcome the odds and perils of her mostly tragic trajectory.

Today, six out of ten Americans want no more immigrants - of any kind. This is not good for America. Optimism and hope drive immigrants. Pessimists don't emigrate. Immigrants come with energy, looking for opportunity, but not for entitlements or comfort. Coming from the outside, they see opportunities for innovation and they kindle renewal. They spur the economy by their hard work, ready assumption of risk and entrepreneurial instincts, but also by their very presence as consumers and tax payers. Because they relive the frontier experience which founded our society, they buttress and strengthen our culture. They believe in our institutions and thereby affirm their validity. Their offspring observe their parents' struggles and often see examples of the American Dream realized. Thus inspired, and frequently well educated, these children contribute a fresh, often cosmopolitan outlook. Immigrants play also a leading role in the succession and replacement of tiring elites. If we resist continued, well-considered legal immigration, we shall stagnate economically and culturally. "Immigrants in Their Own Voice" advocates a change in US immigration policies to encourage a steady flow of qualified legal immigrants. We want them of all kinds - the well educated, the highly skilled, and those merely willing to work hard and to improve themselves. The author has populated this book with the voices of several dozen actual immigrants and with those of their children and grandchildren. They comprise individuals of various social conditions and from thirty-seven countries. Their voices animate the narrative and testify to their experiences of America. An immigrant himself, the author's voice frames the others. This book hopes to contribute to a national debate about the crucial value of continuing immigration.

We Are 34th in Education - It's the Culture concerns the disappointing state of America's public education. The book's title reflects the 2014 report by PISA, the premier international assessment organism of scholastic performance, that places the US 34th in the world. Who and what is it fault in our standing 34th? As the author parses our educational deficiencies, all too often he finds a mass culture of indifference toward education. He analyzes the harmful consequences of parental and community univolvement that results in low scholastic achievement, appalling rates of dropouts and general lack of interest in self-improvement. A crucial aspect of our mass culture is the deplorable way in which we treat our teachers. In noting all our educational shortcomings, the author also observes their cultural obverse. He describes actions of energetic Americans who produce excellent schools, outstanding teachers and model school leaders. Of these positives, we have, however, as yet all too little. Both the negatives and the positives stem from cultural ways we have inherited. This book records disdain for education by too many and vigorous problem-solving by a relative few. Both traits reside in the American character. The narrative takes into account only secondary education, because of its abundance of reliable data. In doing this, it covers all aspects of our public high schools: the bad, the middling and the excellent. It examines both effective and failing traditional schools and investigates why they are so in either case. While the book devotes extended attention to critical problems, it also goes into considerable detail describing steps that we can take to correct our deficiencies and how we can do it. Thus, in its second half, this inquiry highlights what works well - successful reforms and initiatives, such as charter and magnet schools, and community and work-based learning schools, the use of the computer for instruction, and other instructional innovations. It devotes special attention to the central problem of improved teacher training and to how we must change our treatment of teachers. It delves into the relationship between indispensable money for education and the politics it involves. The fundamental role of ever-present philanthropy, both large and small, receives constant attention. This is ultimately an optimistic account, because it shows resilient American culture beginning to assert its positive side, as it begins to build steps that allow us to turn the corner.

In Resilient America, as a much-traveled immigrant (and long a citizen), I compare and contrast cultures and experiences from my earlier life with those in the U.S. At a time of growing national self-doubt, I find recurrent resilience and vitality in American culture. I observe that most complaints don't stand up to thoughtful, informed critique. Rather, a centered, enduring, self-renewing nation emerges, leading to tempered optimism . Observations of every-day, can-do Americans suggest that those doubting often lack a sense of their history. Their predecessors have worried since the Republic's earliest days. But the historical record demonstrates steadiness, with variations and fluctuations within a narrow range. From that, emerges a story of continuity and adaptation, with optimism consistently prevailing over pessimism. The resilient Republic marches on, adapting, evolving, changing, at times in ways we don't recognize. America is a serial Comeback Kid. I examine claims that the United States has peaked and that its national character is insubstantial. I observe instead a continuing commitment to hard work, to responsible behaviors, to morality and to tolerance. Inventiveness flourishes as energetically as in the past. The community appears largely solid and vibrant, and the family unexpectedly solidifying. The culture continues to absorb most immigrants, contradicting popular belief. Of course, crime, violence and ignorance continue to afflict as always, but not worse. And the law still prevails against the criminals, unlike in so much of the world. We still defend our personal rights vigorously. During my 50 years in the U.S. I have seen the rights of racial minorities and women in spectacular ascent. Recessions and depressions occur at regular intervals. Each time, Americans have claimed that the sky was falling. Each time the country resuscitated, returned to its prosperous, profligate ways and paved the way for the next downturn. The country's moral, spiritual and institutional conditions have also conjured up periodically the falling of the sky, only to regain their equilibrium. I explore the profounder meaning of these cyclical consistencies and the role of the immigrant in our society. The nay-saying pessimism of many native-born generates cynicism and resignation, infects the susceptible, and undermines the communitarian solidarity which powers American life. The vigorous immigrant counteracts such negativism, bringing energizing can-do optimism in the most American tradition. All these considerations motivate Resilient America.

Resilience has marked the American character. From its multiple economic and political crises, the American people have emerged every time and within a few short years to continue the country's prosperous growth. Is that still so?Since 2008, the United States has suffered a sequence of economic, political, and public health crises as well as other causes for concern or dissension, including political polarization, economic disruptions, disputes over immigration, COVID-19 and its consequences, employment doubts caused by automation and online commerce, and racial discords. Has this accumulation of events begun to dent American resilience?Or does the nation's compass needle still point firmly north? Our behaviors rather than our anxieties suggest the latter. New business creation at record levels, critical innovations in education, inventiveness undiminished, immigrant assimilation, voters in record numbers, and government and judiciary holding firm amid unprecedented challenges all point to confidence and latent optimism.America, Resilient Still? examines our prospects over the next two to three decades. In this well-researched, compelling, and timely book. Author Alexander Kugushev ultimately views the river of American history running deep and strong through rapids, between cliffs, and over rocks and boulders into an uncharted future.