Paul Goodman left his mark in a number of fields: he went from being known as a social critic and philosopher of the New Left to poet and literary critic to author of influential works on education (Compulsory Mis-education) and community planning (Communitas). Perhaps his most significant achievement was in his contribution to the founding and theoretical portion of the classic text Gestalt Therapy (with F. S. Perls and R. E. Hefferline, 1951), still regarded as the cornerstone of Gestalt practice.

Taylor Stoher's Here Now Next is the first...

Here are the stories of a dozen men on probation from the busiest criminal court in Massachusetts who met together on a college campus for three months to read and talk about Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Bill Russell, as well as Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, and other authors who write about major life changes not only issues that have gotten probationers in trouble, such as anger and violence, substance abuse, or family breakdown, but also background problems like poverty and racism, the need for social justice, the weakening of community bonds, and the thinning of spiritual...