Rating: 
Summary: An Essential Text
Review: A must read for people of all ages, races, nationalities, genders, classes, et. al. A masterpiece of the form. Gloriously flawed, like all of us. So much more than the sum of its parts. George and Jonathan Live.
Rating:
Summary: The Shawshank Redemption
Review: George Jackson was our modern day Barrabas. He was truly a man whose mental capacity was far more advanced than he ever realized. The tradegy of his brother Jonathan Jackson hits so close to home. This is a MUST READ among all of the current good work out there. Get it and read it with your soul...
Rating:
Summary: The Shawshank Redemption
Review: George Jackson was our modern day Barrabas. He was truly a man whose mental capacity was far more advanced than he ever realized. The tradegy of his brother Jonathan Jackson hits so close to home. This is a MUST READ among all of the current good work out there. Get it and read it with your soul...
Rating:
Summary: hard-hitting and still completely relevant
Review: George L. Jackson's oeuvre is a honest, brutal appraisal of the amerikan prison system that victimized and eventually murdered him in 1971. As stated in the introduction by the author's nephew, Jonathan Jackson, Jr. his words are still, unfortunately, relevant today vis-a-vis Mumia Abu-Jamal, the privatization of the prison system, etc. Worthy of a careful reading along with the Angela Davis Autobiography. Truly revolutionary words that survived his death and will presage his revindication.
Rating:
Summary: hard-hitting and still completely relevant
Review: George L. Jackson's oeuvre is a honest, brutal appraisal of the amerikan prison system that victimized and eventually murdered him in 1971. As stated in the introduction by the author's nephew, Jonathan Jackson, Jr. his words are still, unfortunately, relevant today vis-a-vis Mumia Abu-Jamal, the privatization of the prison system, etc. Worthy of a careful reading along with the Angela Davis Autobiography. Truly revolutionary words that survived his death and will presage his revindication.
Rating:
Summary: One day this will be recognized
Review: I first read this work nearly thirty years ago, and at the time I was so moved by the passion and pain contained within it that I could barely speak about it...it seemed almost too real, too personal to bear...especially after George Jackson was denied the romance of his life (Dr. Angela Davis) and murdered for allegedly trying to "escape" from Soledad Prison-really to nowhere, if you look at what happened.In retrospect, I am sure that years from now this work will be studied by a different educational system...not with his communist vision (where else might he have found his political haven?), but a system which will value the perspective of even its lowest common denominator, if intelligently and thoughtfully expressed. In the meantime, I suspect this work is too strong for the average reader and student of American society. But read it for its extradinary exhibition of love. It's extraordinary recitation of pain, lonliness, and disappointment. Read it because it shows, no- takes you inside the mind of one who saw and knew and lived our system at its most brutal level. Ultimately, Mr. Jackson reveals how one man's strength and humanity renders our stone walls (literal and figurative) powerless over the human spirit. George's passion, will, love, and commitment will one day be vindicated.
Rating:
Summary: superb
Review: MAGNIFICENT TREATISE ON THE STATE OF AMERICA'S REHABILITATION SYSTEM!
Rating:
Summary: VERY Powerful
Review: This Book is a Tomb of Truth.Very Powerful&Detailed About A Corrupt System.You Feel The Words&Depth Of Pain,Frustration&Emotions all at once.this should be Required Reading.Very Essential Read that is Timeless&Is Heavy Too The Human Mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthwhile but don't get carried away
Review: This collection of letters by Jackson is well worth reading for several reasons. First, as several other reviewers point out, it provides a valuable (if by now slightly dated) insight into the American penal system. Second, it illustrates the tragedy of people with Jackson's potential being diverted (whether you believe by racism, socio-economic circumstances, poor judgment, or whatever) into the self-perpetuating criminal/penal complex. However, I think some of the raves are overrated. Jackson clearly was an intelligent man who could have accomplished much if his engergies were otherwise directed. But he lacks perspective; the tone is often stridently self-justifying, and he lacks any real moral insight into the magnitude of the violence and pain he inflicted on others.
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile but don't get carried away
Review: This collection of letters by Jackson is well worth reading for several reasons. First, as several other reviewers point out, it provides a valuable (if by now slightly dated) insight into the American penal system. Second, it illustrates the tragedy of people with Jackson's potential being diverted (whether you believe by racism, socio-economic circumstances, poor judgment, or whatever) into the self-perpetuating criminal/penal complex. However, I think some of the raves are overrated. Jackson clearly was an intelligent man who could have accomplished much if his engergies were otherwise directed. But he lacks perspective; the tone is often stridently self-justifying, and he lacks any real moral insight into the magnitude of the violence and pain he inflicted on others.
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