Reviews & Reader's Comments
What people are saying about Clueless at the Top:

Useful, thought-provoking reading for people who want to organize to improve their workplace and their world.
– Andrew Barnes, union organizer

The dynamics of social order are unmistakable, as much today as 120 years ago in my community of Georgetown, California. Clueless at the Top displays astonishing diversity with quirky examples.
– Ken Deibert, author of On and Beyond the Georgetown Divide

As well as entertaining and provocative reading, the Childresses provide rich food for thought, and myriad discussion opportunities appropriate for public discourse, social studies classes, and book study groups alike.
– Mary Meredith Drew, elementary teacher, Phi Beta Kappa former welfare mother

The authors put the precepts of our society under a microscope, rethinking its top-down structure, and ask us to look more critically at our attitudes toward gender, race and social station. Rethinking the status quo and asking WHY? is a very worthy endeavor. And I really like the part about the male cheerleaders in skimpy outfits.
– Jan Eliot, creator of the syndicated comic strip Stone Soup

The section on political strategies should be required reading for anyone considering a run for political office. Only with such new strategies will we break the partisan logjam so that cities, states and the country can be governed with a win-win strategy.
– Cheryl Farmer, M.D., mayor of Ypsilanti, Michigan

The Childress sisters excavate the hoary old secrets of power.
Hierarchies Abound, the Childress Sisters Astound!
– Mark Harris, multi-ethnic history researcher and professor

I loved the role reversal about the business with the six-foot high ceilings. I laughed – if we sit back and laugh, we would do better. It struck a cord inside me – a reality check of what's truly fair and inclusive.
– Kathryn Jenness, advocate for people with disabilities, wheelchair user

Do you want a new relationship with math? With a clear, humorous, and accessible style, Clueless at the Top shows how our hierarchies produce math anxiety. Now math can be your friend.
– Joan Johnson, math anxiety counselor

A book that makes you want to keep on reading – a good resource for cross-cultural communication. I enjoyed reading what was written about Native culture; I can't wait until it's published on Talking Books.
– Cora Jones, Koyukon Athabascan Indian from Koyudud, Alaska, legally blind since birth

Clueless at the Top takes us beyond the calamity of hierarchies. Its feast of ideas invites us to celebrate a vibrant vision of the world and our place in it, and to join in the dance and fun.
– Ruth Koenig, community and civil rights activist

Clueless at the Top provides a fascinating and insightful blueprint of why things are so difficult to change. With much of the country up in arms over the arrogant use of power by America's moneyed elites, the book provides a timely plan of action that says, "you can make a difference."
– George S. Malleck, retired Foreign Service Officer and Middle East diplomat

This is a particularly timely discussion when the leadership of the United States is insisting that we be at the top of the world hierarchy, that our form of government is better than all others, that one religion should be dominant over government decisions and all other religions. We find ourselves at odds with much of the world and on the brink of a holy war. We find ourselves alone.
– Kitty Piercy, former House Minority Leader, Oregon State Legislature and Mayor of Eugene, Oregon

Clueless at the Top serves as a spotlight to help us see how we unwittingly use hierarchies to limit ourselves and then provides a road map for choosing freedom vs.shackles.
– Richard Rodrigues, HIV/AIDS AND LGBTIQ activist

Highly recommended for public library collections, Clueless at the Top is simply written but profound. Our relationships with those we have previously perceived as "above" us and "below" us will never again be the same.
– Diane Windham Shaw, Special Collections Librarian and College Archivist, Lafayette College

This is a dangerous book. After reading it you may want to tie and gag your bosses and read it to them from beginning to end. But if Clueless doesn't make you re-examine your own roles with everyone and everything, you need to have someone gag and tie you up and read it to you again.
– Alan Siporin, author of Fire's Edge, former contributing NPR reporter and commentator

As I read Clueless at the Top, I thought, "Wow, I hadn't really thought of that before, and wow, that's right!"
– Grace Thompson, attorney at law

While hierarchies can be an avenue to maintain structure, too often, they become layers and structures of oppression. The authors make clear that the same structures of hierarchy are at work within the "religious" or "sacred" world as well as the "secular" world. As a religious professional, I look forward to the day in which all are set free from these "ties that bind."
– Rev. Timothy Thomson-Hohl, Asbury Protestant Ministry at Drexel University

Hierarchy reduces the effectiveness of political and social systems by stopping the flow of information, knowledge, and critical feedback which is essential for any well-functioning system.
– Arun Toke, editor and publisher of Skipping Stones Multicultural Magazine

Hierarchies . . . they surround us like layers of an onion – in our personal relationships, our family units, in schools, places of worship and places of work. By reading Clueless at the Top, we can be less victimized, less paralized, and less poisoned.
– Joy Wallace, Educator, lesbian activist, and program evaluator