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It's one thing to publish the Truth but another to slant the Truth. I have read his journalistic diatribes in the past and as he is a reporter for the Associated Press, in my opinion he is less than impartial and more biased toward the liberal stance. This review in no way is intended to lessen the credibility of the other authors of the book as they may be sincere in their work and I'm not all that familiar with their other work. It's obvious with so few reviews written they were more than likely written by acquaintances of the authors. One particular author of this book sticks out in my mind as questionable and that would be Ron Fournier.
While they did use a lot of prevously published sources and they document them well, they also did a good number of interviews. The authors did do some serious work to write AA. As others have said here on amazon, the "history" of the megachurches was incredily interesting.
I'm sorry I waited so long, but the book took me less than a week to read and I do feel that it was worth it.The authors took liberty in creating terms like Gut Values and Navigators. I wonder if I should have read that book first. I bought Applebee's America when it came out in 2006 but I just now got around to reading it.
The Influentials is also a good example of what I mean when I say that the authors didn't really create terms, as they basically called previously known Influentials, Navigators.There was some overkill with some of the concepts, especially the concept of community and the phrase "people want to belong to a community".Some of the chapters were fascinating and that made them very quick to read. If you're looking for a lot of answers or a place to go for them, this book will guide you to a plethora of sources. However, I don't know that they created these terms as much as they used new, quirky words to say the same thing.
The authors referred to a book called The Influentials many times throughout.
Fast read, easy to understand the concepts being presented, good examoples of gaining a following and how it was done in each case.
It will get you thinking. Highly recommended. a lot. By examining developments in business, church and politics, the author opens a fascinating view on how people respond to belonging, form community, and make relationships in our new age, and how new communication methods and deliberate efforts by institutions to use them are re-shaping traditional processes and systems, and yielding remarkable success. As a new political leader who thought he understood how these things worked, it opened my eyes (once again) to an ever-changing world.
Overall it is a well written book and I am sure it will be assigned to participation classes in the future. It seemed a little cluttered. Each topic deserved more coverage but I understand why he was trying to link them all.
The Navigators were an especially compelling article included. As a grad student I intend to study this generation and this gives me a great starting point. I enjoyed this book overall.
One of the things I disliked was the linking of church, community, restaurants and many other points that were not covered enough or should be covered with additional books. I give a grade of B. It reminded me of DuBois and The Talented Tenth and that a few people often make decisions for the entire community.
I especially liked the section on Generation 9/11.
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