Now that school has started, I find myself complaining about the lack of free time which I wasted away when I had it over the vacation. I did get a bit of reading done, though. I read The State Boys Rebellion, about foster children of normal mental faculties who, due to poor showing on IQ tests, were imprisoned in mental institutions. The story of the children of Fernald State School is interesting enough, but it was more the background information on eugenics in America and the history of the IQ test that interested me. There are books specifically about eugenics (the recent War Against the Weak has been well-recieved), but The State Boys Rebellion covered the material adequately in survey form, while the main story of the institutionalized children keeps a concrete example of the harm done by the movement always in the forefront. The rebellion of the title is a bit anti-climactic, and the book lags a bit once some of the children (men, now) are finally released. But the look at life inside a twentieth-century home for the "feebleminded," as a concrete example of America's embrace of a philosophy generally associated with Nazi Germany, is quite memorable. Incidentally, Spielberg recently acquired the movie rights, I'm sure that will turn out great.

I also read Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison: The Making of a Masterpiece. I must say it was a bit disappointing; the subject matter is interesting enough to make the shortcomings of the book forgivable, but the prose is at times painful, and the biographical background on Cash has been handled better elsewhere (and he at times misrepresents what Cash's autobiography says, for instance, regarding his drug use post '68). The description of the actual concert is interesting, but for the most part just confirms what could be easily inferred from the actual record. The background information on Folsom Prison itself is interesting, but could have been more developed; it often turns into a laundry-list of names and crimes. But if for nothing else, the book is worthwhile in telling the story of Glen Sherley, a prisoner at Folsom who wrote a song performed by Johnny Cash that night. He proved prescient in thinking that Johnny Cash would be his ticket out of Folsom, but much like some of the boys profiled in The State Boys Rebellion, institutional living left him ill-suited to freedom. The story of Johnny Cash's Folsom prison engagement brings together a lot of social issues and a lot of interesting aspects of Cash's life and career, but one will probably find a few listens of the album more rewarding than reading this book.