the crusades of cesar chavez a biography

Add to Wish List Link to this Book Add to Bookbag Sell this Book Buy it at Amazon Compare Prices. The Crusades of Cesar Chavez reveals how this most unlikely American hero ignited one of the great social movements of our time. The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography. Los Angeles Times The first comprehensive biography of the spectacular rise and messy decline of the United Farm Workers union and the man who struck the sparks that made the epic American. Pawel traces Chavez's remarkable career as he conceived strategies that empowered the poor and vanquished California's powerful agriculture industry, and his later shift from inspirational leadership to a cult of personality, with tragic consequences for the union he had built. The Crusades of Cesar Chavez is a biography for readers who find real human beings more compelling than icons and history more relevant than fantasy. Drawing on thousands of documents and scores of interviews, this superbly written life deepens our understanding of one of Chavez's most salient qualities: his profound humanity. He was an experimental thinker with eclectic passions-an avid, self-educated historian and a disciple of Gandhian non-violent protest. Chavez emerges here as a visionary figure with tragic flaws a brilliant strategist who sometimes stumbled and a canny, streetwise organizer whose pragmatism was often at odds with his elusive, soaring dreams. Exploring Chavezs triumphs and faults from his childhood during the 1930s to his.

In the first comprehensive biography of Chavez, Miriam Pawel offers a searching yet empathetic portrayal. Instead, the value of this book lies in its immense detail and readability. Yet his life story has been told only in hagiography-until now. Two decades after his death, Chavez remains the most significant Latino leader in US history. He rose from migrant worker to national icon, becoming one of the great charismatic leaders of the 20th century. National Book Critics Circle Award FinalistĪ searching portrait of an iconic figure long shrouded in myth by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of an acclaimed history of Chavez's movement.Ĭesar Chavez founded a labor union, launched a movement, and inspired a generation.

The crusades of cesar chavez a biography