edited by Kathleen Hughes
For years Ralph Nader has been saying, figuratively if not literally, "Don't judge a book by its cover." That warning should be applied to this volume. From the outside, bound as it is into a sort of loose-leaf notebook, it doesn't look like much. Inside, it is bursting with not just information but inspiration. Nader, under whose auspices the book was published, says in an introduction that until now, when someone asked where to find work in consumer protection, ecology or neighborhood organizing, the replies were "a few scattered addresses jotted on the backs of envelopes." Good Works lists more than 450 public service organizations, from the firmly established (Sierra Club, League of Women Voters) to the fledgling (such as the National Recycling Coalition, which is budgeted this year at $45,000). There is job information for prospective workers, including salaries, qualifications and people to contact. Hughes, expanding on the first edition (edited by Karen Aptakin), also profiles a few men and women working for social change. Typically, Curt Troutman, research director of a Massachusetts neighborhood improvement group, says, "I work between 80 and 90 hours a week for $225. It's a lot of work, but because I enjoy it, it doesn't seem like a burden." (Center for Study of Responsive Law, Washington, D.C. 20036, $25)
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