Congress Book: January 2009

Friday, January 30, 2009

The Confession or State and Local Government

The Confession

Author: James E McGreevey

In August 2004, Governor James E. McGreevey of New Jersey made history when he stepped before microphones, declared "My truth is that I am a gay American," and announced his resignation. The story made international headlines---but what led to that moment was a human and political drama more complex and fascinating than anyone knew. Now, in this extraordinarily candid memoir, McGreevey shares his story of a life of ambition, moral compromise, and redemption.

From childhood, McGreevey lived a kind of idealized American life. The son of working-class Irish Catholic parents, named for an uncle who died at Iwo Jima, he strove to exceed expectations in everything he did, meeting each new challenge as though his "future rode on every move." As a young man he was tempted by the priesthood, yet it was another calling--politics--that he found irresistible. Plunging early into the dangerous waters of New Jersey politics, he won three elections by the age of thirty-six, and soon thereafter nearly toppled the state's popular governor, Christie Todd Whitman, in a photo-finish election. Four years later, he won the governorship by a landslide.

Throughout his adult life, however, Jim McGreevey had been forced to suppress a fundamental truth about himself: that he was gay. He knew at once that the only clear path to his dreams was to live a straight life, and so he split in two, accepting the traditional role of family man while denying his deepest emotions. And he discovered, to his surprise, that becoming a political player demanded ethical shortcuts that became as corrosive as living in the closet. In the cutthroat culture of political bosses, backroom deals, and the insidious practice known as "pay-to-play," he writes, "political compromises came easy to me because I'd learned how to keep a part of myself innocent of them." His policy triumphs as governor were tempered by scandal, as the transgressions of his staff came back to haunt him. Yet only when a former lover threatened to expose him did he finally confront his divided soul, and find the authentic self that had always eluded him.

More than a coming-out memoir, The Confession is the story of one man's quest to repair the rift between his public and private selves, at a time in our culture when the personal and political have become tangled like frayed electric cables. Teeming with larger-than-life characters, written with honesty, grace, and rare insight into what it means to negotiate the minefields of American public life, it may be among the most honest political memoirs ever written.

Publishers Weekly

The New Jersey governor whose resignation made headlines in 2004 delivers a gripping, compelling memoir that offers much more than insight into the pain of being a closeted gay man for more than four decades. Listeners seeking juicy sex-life details will not be disappointed, but this memoir is as much a lesson on authenticity in politics as in sexuality. McGreevey, who is just as candid about New Jersey's politics ("New Jersey leads the nation for mayors in prison"), does a masterful job of weaving a richly detailed chronicle of his own political career with tales of his home and sex lives. McGreevey's narration is relaxed enough for his Joisey accent to sneak out along with spontaneous chuckles, and impassioned when reenacting speeches or conversations. His passion is clear at every turn: detailing his professional and political accomplishments; offering colorful, vivid descriptions of his mentors; and naming friends and colleagues he lost on September 11. The final three discs, covering his relationship with Golan Cipel, his postresignation depression and entry into rehab, are riveting. This is an important memoir that is sure to resonate with listeners. Simultaneous release with the Regan hardcover. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

State and Local Government

Author: Ann OM Bowman

The Seventh Edition of this best-selling text continues to provide the comprehensive and current coverage of institutions, political behavior, and policy-making at the state and local level. The strong policy orientation of the text, as well as its unifying theme of the increased capacity and responsibility of state and local governments, has established this text as the standard for this course. The authors' thorough examination of state and local governments includes a historical perspective that explains both the development of the existing structures as well as their function in the current political scene.

New! Fully updated coverage includes a discussion of the roles of state and local governments in illegal immigration, homeland security, and natural disasters, as well as results of recent state elections.
New! A four-color design presents information in a more visually appealing and accessible format.
New! Breaking New Ground and Debating Politics boxes facilitate critical thinking and class discussion with presentation of policy innovations and controversial issues in state and local government.
Chapter Recap feature helps students to review key concepts.
Expanded coverage of Native American governments discusses their relationship to the federal and other state and local governments.
Thoroughly updated coverage of e-government and the Internet explores the impact of technology on state and local government and on citizen participation.
Updated and expanded web resources in every chapter offer students the latest information on using the Internet to research state and local governments. The enhancedState and Local Government Online Teaching and Study Centers offer additional resources for instructors and students.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Swamp or Front Row at the White House

The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise

Author: Michael Grunwald

The Everglades was once reviled as a liquid wasteland, and Americans dreamed of draining it. Now it is revered as a national treasure, and Americans have launched the largest environmental project in history to try to save it. The Swamp is the stunning story of the destruction and possible resurrection of the Everglades, the saga of man's abuse of nature in southern Florida and his unprecedented efforts to make amends. Michael Grunwald, a prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, takes readers on a riveting journey from the Ice Ages to the present, illuminating the natural, social and political history of one of America's most beguiling but least understood patches of land.

The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and "reclaim" it, and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling suburbs and sugar plantations. And though the southern Everglades was preserved as a national park, it soon deteriorated into an ecological mess. The River of Grass stopped flowing, and 90 percent of its wading birds vanished.

Now America wants its swamp back. Grunwald shows how a new breed of visionaries transformed Everglades politics, producing the $8 billion rescue plan. That plan is already the blueprint for a new worldwide era of ecosystem restoration. And this book is a cautionary tale for that era. Through gripping narrative and dogged reporting,Grunwald shows how the Everglades is still threatened by the same hubris, greed and well-intentioned folly that led to its decline.

Michael Grunwald is a reporter at The Washington Post. He has won the George Polk Award for national reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting, and many other awards. He lives in Miami with his wife, Cristina Dominguez.

Visit his website at michaelgrunwald.com.

The New York Times - William Grimes

Mr. Grunwald, a terrific writer, moves along at a cracking pace. The dredges dig, the railroad advances, the politicians scheme and the dreamers paint their Technicolor fantasies. There is a feverish quality to the endless engineering assaults, the mad plans to rechannel the circulatory system of the Everglades, the blind determination to ignore the forces of nature. For example, no one quite understood that South Florida often experienced powerful hurricanes, so hundreds of poor farmers died in 1926 and 1927 when Lake Okeechobee overflowed.

The Washington Post - John G. Mitchell

In recent years, writers have devoted a lot of ink to the tortured history of south Florida's Everglades. But no one has nailed that story as effectively, as hauntingly and as dramatically as Michael Grunwald does in The Swamp , a brilliant work of research and reportage about the evolution of a reviled bog into America's -- if not the world's -- most valuable wetland.

Publishers Weekly

Washington Post reporter Grunwald brings the zeal of his profession-and the skill that won him a Society of Environmental Journalists Award in 2003-to this enthralling story of "the river of grass" that starry-eyed social engineers and greedy developers have diverted, drained and exploited for more than a century. In 1838, fewer than 50 white people lived in south Florida, and the Everglades was seen as a vast and useless bog. By the turn of this century, more than seven million people lived there (and 40 million tourists visited annually). Escalating demands of new residents after WWII were sapping the Everglades of its water and decimating the shrinking swamp's wildlife. But in a remarkable political and environmental turnaround, chronicled here with a Washington insider's savvy, Republicans and Democrats came together in 2000 to launch the largest ecosystem restoration project in America's history. This detailed account doesn't shortchange the environmental story-including an account of the senseless fowl hunts that provoked abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1877 broadside "Protect the Birds." But Grunwald's emphasis on the role politics played in first despoiling and now reclaiming the Everglades gives this important book remarkable heft. 18 pages of b&w photos; 7 maps. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A lively appreciation of the Everglades as an ecosystem worthy of care and protection-quite a turnaround in attitude, as Washington Post reporter Grunwald reveals. The natural Everglades encompasses an area twice the size of New Jersey, and it lacks both immediately spectacular features and elevation: One "pass" there is marked at a mere three feet above sea level. Yet huge quantities of freshwater slowly roll down the Everglades; as Grunwald writes, "a raindrop that fell in its headwaters in central Florida could have taken an entire year to dribble down to its estuaries at the tip of the peninsula." Nineteenth-century white explorers damned the "Sea of Grass" for its heat, mosquitoes, vast store of reptiles, renegade Indians and runaway slaves, but speculators and capitalists came along who recognized a couple of salient facts: Rich in organic peat, the Everglades could be an agricultural paradise, and it could sustain whole cities. All that was needed was to remake the place entirely-drain the swamps, build vast canals and railroads, divide it into cozy lots. Grunwald's account of the con games and fly-by-nights that made modern South Florida possible is a learned entertainment, though it becomes somewhat less amusing once it's known that the same actors and forces are in play today; one illustrative moment comes when Jeb Bush, governor of Florida and brother of the president, came close to selling off Florida's water rights in the Everglades for the pittance offered by a little company called Azurix, "an aggressive new player in the $400 billion global water market"-and, as it happens, a subsidiary of Enron. Happily, the deal didn't go through. More happily still, Grunwald writes thatmany wide-ranging measures to help restore the Everglades have been successful. Still, "drive through the region's strip-mall hellscapes," Grunwald concludes, and it's clear that much remains to be done to save the Everglades. This lucid history and call to arms is an essential companion to that work.

New interesting textbook: To Serve with Love or Simply Shrimp

Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times

Author: Helen Thomas

"Thank You, Mr. President."

From the woman who has reported on every president from Kennedy to Clinton comes a privileged glimpse into the White House -- and a telling record of the ever-changing relationship between the presidency and the press.

Helen Thomas wanted to be a reporter from her earliest years. She turned a copy-aide job at the Washington Daily News into a powerful and successful career spanning thirty-seven years and eight U.S. presidents. Assigned to the White House press corps in 1961. Thomas was the first woman to close a press conference with "Thank you. Mr. President." She was also the first female president of the White House Correspondents Association and the first woman member, later president, of the Gridiron Club.

In this revealing memoir, which includes hundreds of anecdotes, observations, and personal details. Thomas looks back on a career spent with presidents at home and abroad, on the ground and in the air. Providing a unique view of the past four decades of presidential history. Front Row at the White House offers a seasoned study of the relationship between the chief executive officer and the press -- a relationship that is sometimes uneasy, sometimes playful, yet always integral to the democratic process.

Publishers Weekly

The veteran Washington reporter gives her account of instant history at the White House, the result of her fly-on-the-wall perch covering the administrations of every president since JFK for United Press International. Thomas is always on hand with a jaded eye, a cynical word and a probing question. And her story gives a view of the Fourth Estate surprisingly dissimilar to those that predominate today. In Thomass telling, the press is an institution, one of the many necessities of a democratic society. Gossip and scandal dont drive events, she asserts, as much as the desire to get the story and tell it first. Contained within her memoirs are remarkable recollections of Lyndon Johnson, who investigated the press as much as it investigated him; of Richard Nixon, who asks Thomas to say a prayer for me in one of Watergates darkest hours; of Martha Mitchell, a cabinet wife (of Nixons John Mitchell) who got sucked in and spat out by Beltway politics; and of First Ladies who offer birthday greetingsand others who close off their private lives. While the book is woefully thin on personal motivation and inner thoughts (one of the shortest chapters is on Thomass husband, former AP White House reporter Doug Cornell), it provides a sharp chronicle of the nations recent historyand of the crusade of women reporters to be considered the equal or better of their male counterparts.

Library Journal

Thomas was the first woman reporter to cover the Presidency, a job she has been doing since 1961.

Chicago Sun Times

The first lady of United Press International packs a half a century of history into just 387 pages...her snapshots of White House figures and would-bes will delight news junkies and history lovers.

USA Today

A terrific read.

Kirkus Reviews

A straightforward, though not reflective, memoir from Thomas (Dateline: White House, 1975) on the best beat in the world—covering every president from JFK to Clinton for United Press International. The daughter of Lebanese parents, Thomas grew up in Detroit. She came to her passion for journalism early, having written for her high school and college papers. After covering such beats as the Department of Justice and Capitol Hill, she was assigned to the White House in 1961. As the dean of the White House press corps and the person who delivers the final "Thank you, Mr. President" at press conferences, Thomas has become an instantly recognized fixture among the gaggle who report on the presidency. She has won the respect—and often incurred the wrath—of presidents, first ladies, and press secretaries for her bulldog tenacity and her unenthralled view of their work. Many of her best stories come when she sticks to her aim to provide an impressionistic view of these remarkable men and women (e.g., a scandal-scarred Richard Nixon startling her by asking for her prayers). But her assessments of presidents are conventional, and she is rarely critical of her profession's shortcomings. For instance, she acknowledges that she enraged LBJ by revealing daughter Luci's wedding plans before the latter had the chance to discuss them with her father. She fails to see that such matters have nothing whatever to do with her aim to hold government officials accountable and to explain their actions and policies. Moreover, while proud of her firsts as a female reporter (e.g., the first woman recipient of the National Press Club's Fourth Estate Award), she reveals little about what sustainedher against male chauvinists of the media. A crisply written account of jousting between presidents and press, but without much insight into these two institutions that Thomas so clearly reveres. (16 pages b&w photos)

What People Are Saying

Judy Woodruff
No one has the 'insider's' perspective on our last eight presidents that Helen Thomas has...a must read.
— CNN

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Nemesis or Venona

Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic

Author: Chalmers Johnson

The long-awaited final volume of Chalmers Johnson's bestselling
Blowback trilogy confronts the overreaching of the American empire and the threat it poses to the republic

In his prophetic book Blowback, Chalmers Johnson linked the CIA's clandestine activities abroad to disaster at home. In The Sorrows of Empire, he explored the ways in which the growth of American militarism and the garrisoning of the planet have jeopardized our stability. Now, in Nemesis, he shows how imperial overstretch is undermining the republic itself, both economically and politically.

Delving into new areas—from plans to militarize outer space to Constitution-breaking presidential activities at home and the devastating corruption of a toothless Congress—Nemesis offers a striking description of the trap into which the dreams of America's leaders have taken us. Drawing comparisons to empires past, Johnson explores in vivid detail just what the unintended consequences of our dependence on a permanent war economy are likely to be. What does it mean when a nation's main intelligence organization becomes the president's secret army? Or when the globe's sole “hyperpower,” no longer capable of paying for the vaulting ambitions of its leaders, becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all times?

In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that financial bankruptcy could herald the breakdown of constitutional government in America—a crisis that may ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation.

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

A paean-perhaps premature, perhaps overdue-for a republic-turned-empire. For those of a blue-state bent, the midterm election of 2006 may seem to have changed things for the better. But political scientist and liberal commentator Johnson (Blowback, 2000, etc.) isn't biting. "I believe," he writes, "that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have led the country into a perilous cul-de-sac, but they did not do it alone and removing them from office will not necessarily solve the problem." The problem, writ large, is the post-World War II transformation of America into a super-state served by client governments around the world whose citizens, for various reasons, may not be happy about the association. (Hence the "blowback" of which Johnson has written at length elsewhere.) Secretively seeking to further America's unacknowledged imperial aims, government officials authorize actions that do not befit a republic supposedly ruled by checks and balances. Take former CIA head William Casey, for instance, who "saw political Islam and the Catholic Church as natural allies in covert actions against Soviet imperialism." It was Casey, in Johnson's assessment, who was responsible for the United States' strange-bedfellows alliance with the Islamic fundamentalists who morphed into the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Talk about blowback-but there's more, the author shows, as he examines imperious American "status of forces agreements" here; the Bush administration's mishandling of international events there; and the eerie resemblances between our time and that of Augustus Caesar. A sobering read, though Johnson offers a solution to America's imperial woes: Follow Britain's lead and jettison both empire and theworld-policeman role. Given the alternatives, it seems an idea worth exploring. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra/Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency

Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America

Author: John Earl Haynes

This extraordinary book is the first to examine the thousands of documents of the super-secret Venona Project--an American intelligence project that uncovered not only an enormous range of Soviet espionage activities against the United States during World War II but also the Americans who abetted this effort.

Maurice Isserman

...[C]learly establishes the main contours of the previously hidden landscape of Soviet espionage in the United States in the 30s and 40s..."Espionage" is one of those words...[that] make it difficult to draw the distinctions necessary to exploring historical complexities... —The New York Times Book Review

Library Journal

Those who were convinced that the Soviets were spying on us during the 1930s and 1940s were right. Haynes and Klehr have provided the most extensive evidence to date that the KGB had operatives at all levels of American society and government. Where Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassilievs The Haunted Wood (LJ 11/15/98) provided a peek at Soviet spying, Haynes and Klehr throw open the door, revealing a level of espionage in this country that only the most paranoid had dreamed of. Building on the research for their earlier books, The Secret World of American Communism (LJ 6/1/95) and The Soviet World of American Communism (Yale Univ., 1998), Haynes and Klehr describe the astonishing dimensions of spying reflected in the cable traffic between the United States and Moscow. Venona is the name of the sophisticated National Security Agency project that in 1946 finally broke the Soviet code. This is better than anything John le Carr could produce, because in this case, truth is really stranger than fiction. Highly recommended.Edward Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

The Washington Monthly - David Ignatius

...[W]hat most of us would regard as the "real" evidence is contained in Venona....Anyone who still has a shred of sentimentality about the Old Left should read their account....It's an appalling story....The authors...think Venona shows the Soviets began the Cold War earlier than anyone had realized...

The New York Times Book Review - Maurice Isserman

WQ: The Wilson Quarterly - Jacob Heilbrunn

...[A]ccording to Haynes and Klehr, the Venona transcripts "expose beyond cavil the American Communist party as an auxiliary of the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union"....The implications of these findings are not trivial.....[Shatters] the fable of communist innocence in America.

Sam Tanenhaus - New Republic

Haynes and Klehr have squeezed the pulp from five thousand pages of deciphered cables that verify the grim picture of the Communist underground given many decades ago by defectors such as Elizabeth Bentley and Whittaker Chambers.

Maurice Isserman - New York Times Book Review

This book clearly establishes the main contours of the previously hidden landscape of Soviet espionage in the United States in the 30s and 40s.

Michael Barone - U.S. News & World Report

A virtual king's ransom of top-secret bombshells and bangles.

Kirkus Reviews

This first comprehensive analysis of the 3,000 telegrams between Soviet spies in the US and their superiors in Moscow, decoded shortly after WWII, may well, as the authors believe, "change the way we think about twentieth-century American history." The Venona transcripts, while revealed in part to the Soviets by agents like Kim Philby, were one of the most closely guarded US secrets, since the US didn't want the Soviets to understand the full extent of the damage they had sustained. In one of the extraordinary revelations of this book, the authors, Haynes (History/Library of Congress) and Klehr (Politics and History/Emory Univ.) note that Army Chief of Staff Omar Bradley denied President Truman direct knowledge of the project for fear of a leak, while informing him of the substance of the messages. Moreover, the information could not be used in prosecutions of those guilty of espionage. The consequence was the growth of the widespread belief that the very existence of the charges were evidence of anti-Communist paranoia. The authors, who have previously written seminal analyses of Soviet activity in the US (The Soviet World of American Communism, 1998, etc.), use the decrypts to show how extensive Soviet espionage actually was. In addition to the nuclear spies and top agents like Alger Hiss, who presided at the first session of the United Nations, and Harry Dexter White, the number two at the Treasury, the transcripts identify 349 US citizens and other residents who had a covert relationship with Soviet intelligence. There were 11 well-placed spies in the Treasury, 15 in OSS, many in other key departments. In fact, the authors have changed their view of the Communist Party of the US,which they conclude "was indeed a fifth column working inside and against the United States in the Cold War." The reverberations from this cool, balanced, and devastating appraisal will be heard for many years to come. (30 illustrations)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Perfect Villain or Beyond Glory

The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff

Author: Gary S Chafetz

Gary Chafetz is a liberal Boston journalist who set out to chronicle the scandal involving conservative gun-for-hire and super-lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. Instead he uncovered a Shakespearean tragedy of deceit, betrayal and political vendetta in which the true villains are Presidential aspirant John McCain, the Washington Post newspaper and the U.S. Department of Justice--all of whom participated in the railroading of an innocent man.

Chafetz benefited from exclusive and unconditional access to the jailed Abramoff and to many never-before-released documents. The blizzard of stories originating from the Washington political machine painted Abramoff as an implausibly greedy lobbyist who cheated Indian tribes, bribed politicians and corrupted the political process--a fascinating tale but, ultimately, untrue. The true story, as Chafetz recounts in The Perfect Villain, is even more riveting and compelling.

Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink

Author: David Margolick

Nothing in the annals of sports has aroused more passion than the heavyweight fights in New York in 1936 and 1938 between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling — bouts that symbolized the hopes, hatreds, and fears of a world moving toward total war. Acclaimed journalist David Margolick takes us into the careers of both men — a black American and a Nazi German hero — and depicts the extraordinary buildup to their legendary 1938 rematch. Vividly capturing the outpouring of emotion that the two fighters brought forth, Margolick brilliantly illuminates the cultural and social divisions that they came to represent.

The New York Times Book Review - Joyce Carol Oates

…a heavyweight of a book that is likely to be the definitive chronicle of its subject.

The Washington Post - Bruce Schoenfeld

A contributing editor for Vanity Fair and the author of three previous books, Margolick has brought these events to life. He deftly moves his characters on and off stage against a backdrop of increasing tension…As Louis's rematch with Schmeling nears, the alignment of the various camps—blacks and Jews for Louis; Germans, some German-Americans and most anti-Semites for Schmeling—makes for absorbing reading. Margolick's extensive research gives us a keen sense of what ordinary citizens were being told on both sides of the Atlantic.

Publishers Weekly

Fought with thunderclouds of war on the horizon, the 1938 heavyweight rematch between Detroit's Joe Louis and Germany's Max Schmeling qualifies as the sort of sporting event that coalesces into a symbolic moment with much larger themes. The African-American Louis's success and demeanor were an unsubtle rebuke to the Aryan theories of race; the affable Schmeling, for his part, would be shoehorned into the role of "Nazi Max," despite the uneasiness of the fit-later that year, on Kristallnacht, he would courageously protect two German Jews. Vanity Fair contributor Margolick (Strange Fruit) keeps his bold, colorful focus squarely on the hubbub leading up to the bout; the all-consuming welter of hype-almost every utterance in the book is tinged by race or geopolitics-makes for compelling reading. The fight pitted talent against tactics: Schmeling's previous defeat of the hitherto "unbeatable" Louis depended on Schmeling's shrewd perception of a flaw in Louis's technique. Louis was a critical transitional figure between the controversial first African-American champ, Jack Johnson, and the equally polarizing Muhammad Ali. Schmeling, in turn, was truly the antithesis of the thugs who were running his country. Every chapter in the company of such estimable and likable stalwarts is an unalloyed pleasure. Photos. Agent, David Black. (Sept. 22) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In 1936 and again in 1938, American heavyweight Joe Louis fought Germany's Max Schmeling in monumental bouts in New York's Yankee Stadium-the second time for the championship title. Schmeling won the first fight in 12 rounds, but Louis knocked him out in just over two minutes on June 22, 1938. As highly anticipated as the fights were, it was clear that the rising global fear of Hitler and a world on the brink of war carried greater historical weight. YetVanity Fair contributor Margolick (Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song) balances the gathering storm in Europe with boxing's golden age in a masterly account that makes important connections between the two. Utilizing newspaper sources from both sides of the Atlantic, including African American newspapers, the Jewish press, and the Nazi propaganda machine, Margolick details the full context of the fights, all the while maintaining the perspective of Jewish fears and the Nazi cause in Germany and of blacks in America searching for a savior. One of the best sports books of recent years, Beyond Glory is highly recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/05.]-Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Alabama Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

In a turn to do A.J. Liebling proud, longtime Vanity Fair contributing editor Margolick (Strange Fruit, with Hilton Als, 2001, etc.) recounts a charged moment in boxing history. Max Schmeling, a ponderous but powerful fighter, was a pragmatist, a friend of intellectuals and artists philosophically opposed to the Third Reich, a friend as well to the Jews he encountered in the boxing world, including his manager, Joe Jacobs, who became a symbol for the Nazis of all that was wrong with professional sport. Yet, as Margolick chronicles, the Nazis easily and thoroughly co-opted Schmeling. Against Schmeling, in 1938, stood Joe Louis, himself a politicized figure, a champion of the early civil-rights movement by virtue of proving that blacks and whites could box in the same ring; as fellow fighter Henry Armstrong remarked, "You can't Jim Crow a left hook." Schmeling had defeated Louis in an upset in 1936; two years had invested their impending contest, in Harlem, with much more importance, for at stake was the Nazi program of racial superiority. The fight itself was over almost as soon as it began, with Louis "prancing and dancing as a Man o' War at the bit." A decade younger and in superb form, he defeated Schmeling in the first round and became a national hero-for whites as well as blacks. For his part, Schmeling went back to a Germany whose media and political leadership was inclined either to pretend that the fight had not happened or to blame the loss on conspiracy and technicality. Commentator Heywood Broun hazarded that the decline of Nazi prestige worldwide began with Schmeling's defeat, but of course it took more than that to unseat Hitler: Louis went into the Army and pressed forequality in uniform, while Schmeling served in the Wehrmacht but later insisted, of course, that he was only doing his duty. Sports and political history in a balanced, engaging blend. First printing of 50,000

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Yasir Arafat a Political Biography or In Defense of Self and Others

Yasir Arafat, a Political Biography

Author: Barry Rubin

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

Book review: Food Lovers Guide to Massachusetts or Soup Suppers

In Defense of Self and Others...: Issues, Facts, and Fallacies -- the Realities of Law Enforcement's Use of Deadly Force

Author: Urey W Patrick

In Defense of Self and Others ... is one of the few books addressing the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers, and it is the first to do so comprehensively. It thoroughly and objectively examines and explains the law governing the use of deadly force and the physical realities of these critical, dangerous incidents. The text is comprehensively documented, footnoted and interspersed with clear examples and explanatory asides.

Ch. 1	The law - a brief survey of history & procedures	3
Ch. 2	Federal constitutional standards	11
Ch. 3	The use of deadly force	47
Ch. 4	Wound ballistics	57
Ch. 5	Training vs qualification	77
Ch. 6	Physiological imperatives	101
Ch. 7	Tactical factors & misconceptions	121
Ch. 8	Suicide by cop & the mentally ill subject	155
Ch. 9	Risks and responsibilities	173
Ch. 10	Aftermath & impact	183
Ch. 11	Deadly force policies	195
Ch. 12	Case histories	203
App	A Fourth Amendment outline	277

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America or The Truly Disadvantaged

Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography

Author: William E Gienapp

In Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America, historian William Gienapp provides a remarkably concise, up-to-date, and vibrant biography of the most revered figure in United States history.
While the heart of the book focuses on the Civil War, Gienapp begins with a finely etched portrait of Lincoln's early life, from pioneer farm boy, to politician and lawyer in Springfield, to his stunning election as sixteenth president of the United States. We see how Lincoln grew during his years in office, how he developed a keen aptitude for military strategy and displayed enormous skill in dealing with his generals, and also how his war strategy evolved from a desire to preserve the Union to emancipation and total war.
Gienapp shows how Lincoln's early years influenced his skills as commander-in-chief and also demonstrates that throughout the stresses of the war years, Lincoln's basic character shone through: his good will and fundamental decency, his remarkable self-confidence matched with genuine humility, his immunity to the passions and hatreds the war spawned, his extraordinary patience, and his timeless eloquence.
A former backwoodsman and country lawyer, Abraham Lincoln rose to become one of our greatest presidents. This biography offers a vivid account of Lincoln's dramatic ascension to the pinnacle of American history.

Publishers Weekly

Harvard history professor Gienapp (The Origins of the Republican Party) devotes a mere 70 pages of his brief new biography to Abraham Lincoln's prepresidential life; in a volume that "synthesizes modern scholarship about Lincoln" with the author's own studies, the Civil War years rightfully get most of the attention. At 51, Lincoln was one of the youngest men to be elected president, and he was also the first Westerner. Something of an unknown to Republican Party power brokers back east, Lincoln didn't have time to prove himself viable before South Carolina seceded from the Union and the Civil War loomed. Gienapp's primary ambition is to show how the green, upstart president handled the four years of crisis that followed and how he became such an "extraordinary war leader." Throughout the book, he reveals Lincoln as a shrewd arbitrator of political factions, armies and perhaps most importantly rhetoric and propaganda. Likewise, Gienapp shows Lincoln the man: the father grieving over the death of a cherished son, the husband dealing with a moody, combustible wife. Gienapp seems to especially relish accounts of the harried Lincoln's savvy PR moves throughout the war, as when, in 1864, he threw a bone to Northern pacifists and expressed his willingness to engage in peace talks with the Confederacy. At the same time, Lincoln set out rigid preconditions for the talks that he knew Jefferson Davis never could accept. This is the Lincoln Gienapp gives us: astute, subtle, incisive and tragic. Illus. (Apr.) Forecast: This is a fine intro for new browsers through the Lincoln bookshelf, though David Herbert Donald's work remains the definitive bio to date. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Not taking much stock in the genre, Lincoln tried to shield himself from biography by guarding his private self and carefully crafting his public words and image. Of course, so complex a man, who came to embody America in its ordeal by fire, has attracted scores of biographers hoping to solve the ultimate American enigma. Now Gienapp, author of the acclaimed Origins of the Republican Party, enters the crowded field. This biography neatly synthesizes much recent scholarship and makes Lincoln believable as a president struggling to defend the Union and define freedom. Rather than inventing a Lincoln psyche or persona, as some biographers have done, or trading in oft-recycled Lincoln myths, Giennap goes back to the primary sources to discover a Lincoln who was simultaneously principled and practical, confident of his ability to persuade (though too much so in dealing with generals) and assured in making policy (he was a loner who relied on his own judgment). He does not find the source of Lincoln's enormous ambition, but he does show why Lincoln etched his thought and character into Americans' understanding of themselves. In the public speeches Gienapp gathers in This Fiery Trail, the clarity and cadences of Lincoln's language resound. It is a most apt collection, useful to teachers and anyone wanting to know why Lincoln was our herald. These books in tandem are an excellent way to get hold of Lincoln. Highly recommended. Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Interesting textbook: Rogue Economics or Holy Roller

The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass and Public Policy

Author: William Julius Wilson

"The Truly Disadvantaged should spur critical thinking in many quarters about the causes and possible remedies for inner city poverty. As policy makers grapple with the problems of an enlarged underclass they—as well as community leaders and all concerned Americans of all races—would be advised to examine Mr. Wilson's incisive analysis."—Robert Greenstein, New York Times Book Review
"'Must reading' for civil-rights leaders, leaders of advocacy organizations for the poor, and for elected officials in our major urban centers."—Bernard C. Watson, Journal of Negro Education
"Required reading for anyone, presidential candidate or private citizen, who really wants to address the growing plight of the black urban underclass."—David J. Garrow, Washington Post Book World
Selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the sixteen best books of 1987.
Winner of the 1988 C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Preface
Part 1: The Ghetto Underclass, Poverty, and Social Dislocations
1. Cycles of Deprivation and the Ghetto Underclass Debate
2. Social Change and Social Dislocations in the Inner City
3. Poverty and Family Structure: The Widening Gap between Evidence and Public Policy Issues (with Kathryn Neckerman)
4. Joblessness versus Welfare Effects: A Further Reexamination (with Robert Aponte and Kathryn Neckerman)
Part 2: The Ghetto Underclass and Public Policy
5. Race-specific Policies and the Truly Disadvantaged
6. The Limited Visions of Race Relations and the War on Poverty
7. The Hidden Agenda
Appendix: Urban Poverty: A State-of-the-Art Review of the Literature (with Robert Aponte)
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Friday, January 23, 2009

Washington or My Day

Washington

Author: Meg Greenfield

With Washington, the illustrious longtime editorial page editor of The Washington Post wrote an instant classic, a sociology of Washington, D.C., that is as wise as it is wry. Greenfield, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, wrote the book secretly in the final two years of her life. She told her literary executor, presidential historian Michael Beschloss, of her work and he has written an afterword telling the story of how the book came into being. Greenfield's close friend and employer, the late Katharine Graham, contributed a moving and personal foreword. Greenfield came to Washington in 1961, at the beginning of the Kennedy administration and joined The Washington Post in 1968. Her editorials at the Post and her columns in Newsweek, were universally admired in Washington for their insight and style. In this, her first book, Greenfield provides a portrait of the U.S. capital at the end of the American century. It is an eccentric, tribal, provincial place where the primary currency is power. For all the scandal and politics of Washington, its real culture is surprisingly little known. Meg Greenfield explains the place with an insider's knowledge and an observer's cool perspective.

New York Times Book Review - Adam Clymer

What Greenfield has left us...is something very different from a traditional memoir. It's a new way of looking at a flawed Washington, one that is scathing in import if not in tone, a useful framework even to those who think of government people as more real, more human and even more truthful than she does.

Publishers Weekly

Arriving in Washington on the Kennedy wave in 1961, Greenfield went on to journalistic renown as a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer at the Washington Post (taking over the page's editorship in 1979) and as a Newsweek columnist. In this wry analysis of Beltway moving and shaking, Greenfield (no relation to CNN's Jeff Greenfield) likens political life in the nation's capital to a "stunted, high-schoolish social structure" born out of isolation from the rest of the world and pervasive insecurities and dreads. In chapters on "Mavericks and Image-Makers," "Women and Children" and other players front- and backstage, Greenfield, who died of cancer in 1999 in her late 60s, brilliantly lays bare 40 years of the methods and foibles of the power elite and those who cover them. This is no tell-all scandal sheet (Washington's pervasive sexual affairs have a "biff-bam, backseat-of-your-father's Chevy quality") or the work of a "pop sociology scribe," but neither is it a lament for halcyon days. As the foreword from Post publisher Katharine Graham and afterword by historian and PBS commentator Michael Beschloss make clear, Greenfield, who wrote the book in secret and left it at her death, never lost her "principles, detachment or individual human qualities." Readers will find Greenfield's in-the-know frankness irresistible whatever their party affiliations the mark of great journalism. (Apr. 29) Forecast: Both sides of the aisle of the eponymous city will read this book, and it will certainly be a nostalgia stoker for talking heads on the Sunday morning after its release. Major review attention and the book's inimitably great writing should lead to strong sales nationwide. Oddly, it's Greenfield's first book, though a collection of her columns is in the works. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

KLIATT

Over her 40-year career as a journalist for Newsweek and the Washington Post, Greenfield thought deeply about how the city of Washington and those within it function. In the months before she died in 1999, she quietly (and secretly) began to gather her reflections into a manuscript; friends completed and edited this work after her death. Washington is not an easy read. Greenfield's sentences are sometimes as complex as her thoughts and her references will often be obscure to YA readers. Neither do its chapters separate easily. The work stands as a whole; its power is in the sweeping tableau Greenfield skillfully paints of the social, political and ethical dimensions of our capital city. While she is sometimes delightfully irreverent (one chapter on how the city works is called "A Night at the Opera"), Greenfield is most valuable for her insightful comments on the role of the journalist and the role of the politician in our current government. Recommended for advanced students. Category: Current Topics. KLIATT Codes: A—Recommended for advanced students and adults. 2002, Perseus, Public Affairs, 241p. index., Moore; Brookline, MA

Library Journal

Greenfield, editor of the editorial/opinion pages of the Washington Post until her death in 1999, left behind this jeremiad-cum-memoir, in which she describes the Washington political scene as "high school at its most dangerously deranged." She mercilessly derides the "hall monitors" and prodigies with whom she claims Washington is rife, ever fearful of losing their jobs because of a misspoken word. In order to defend against no-holds-barred press coverage, politicians now develop, according to Greenfield, a completely fabricated persona, generating formulaic exchanges with journalists that lead to a well-founded distrust of government institutions and the press; her odd contention is that Washington worked better in the past. A denizen of Washington for close to four decades, she has many tales to tell. Katharine Graham and Michael Beschloss, both good friends, supply a warm foreword and a warm afterword, respectively. Washington junkies will love this acerbic appraisal by a woman who was certainly in the know. Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Written in secret before her death in 1999, Greenfield's (editor, , and Pulitzer Prize winner) narrative outlines the process of competitive image projection as it erodes the moral and personal sense of politicians and their journalistic counterparts. She identifies the principal species of the Washington DC subculture and recounts the history she saw unfold. Attention is given to the hostility toward professional women, the fall of the Southern oligarchy, the careers of eight Presidents (Kennedy to Clinton), and even occasional heroics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Book about: Business Analysis with Microsoft Excel or Media in the Digital Age

My Day: The Best of Eleanor Roosevelt's Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936-1962

Author: Eleanor Roosevelt

Recently named "Woman of the Century" in a survey conducted by the National Women's Hall of Fame, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote her hugely popular syndicated column "My Day" for over a quarter of that century, from 1936 to 1962. This collection brings together for the first time in a single volume the most memorable of those columns, written with singular wit, elegance, compassion, and insight—everything from her personal perspectives on the New Deal and World War II to the painstaking diplomacy required of her as chair of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights after the war to the joys of gardening at her beloved Hyde Park home.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

My Day reminds us how great a woman she was.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Civil Rights Movement for Kids or Mitt Romney

Civil Rights Movement for Kids: A History with 21 Activities

Author: Mary Turck

Surprisingly, kids were some of the key instigators in the Civil Rights Movement, like Barbara Johns, who held a rally in her elementary school gym that eventually led to the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court school desegregation decision, and six-year-old Ruby Bridges, who was the first black student to desegregate elementary schools in New Orleans. In The Civil Rights Movement for Kids, children will discover how students and religious leaders worked together to demand the protection of civil rights for black Americans. They will relive the fear and uncertainty of Freedom Summer and learn how northern white college students helped bring national attention to atrocities committed in the name of segregation, and they’ll be inspired by the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X. Activities include: reenacting a lunch counter sit-in; organizing a workshop on nonviolence; holding a freedom film festival followed by a discussion; and organizing a choral group to sing the songs that motivated the foot soldiers in this war for rights.

OC Family

Well-written and detailed book.

Children's Literature

Here is a thorough history of the Civil Rights Movement with emphasis on the role that the children and youth of America played in it. Topics follow a historical time line spotlighting the activists in the movement and including documentary photos. The chapters end with relevant activities aimed at today's children. For example, the opening chapter describes segregation in the early days of the '50s; how 16year old Barbara Johns organized a student strike to get a decent new school; and how the NAACP brought this, along with the Linda Brown case, as a lawsuit to the Supreme Court. The activity that follows is for children to survey their own attitudes towards skin color and to plan a civil rights event. A list of resources and children's books at the back of the text provides suggestions for such events. The book concludes with copies of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This study generally seems more appropriate for older readers or, at the least, family or classroom discussion because of its length, depth of treatment, and inclusion of violent acts and strong language. 2000, Chicago Review Press, Ages 9 up, $14.95. Reviewer: Carol Raker Collins

KLIATT

There is just enough material in each of these fine books to inform without overwhelming students; each would be a good introduction to its subject matter for younger YAs. They offer an appealing format for learning about history, with a profusion of b/w photos and intriguing sidebars: for example, "What Causes Extinction?" in the Lewis and Clark title, and statistics on continuing economic inequality in the civil rights book. Teachers will welcome the suggested activities, which range from recording oral histories of the civil rights era to staging a short play (script provided) about a lunch counter sit-in, for the civil rights book, to identifying and tracking animal prints or making dried fruit in the Lewis and Clark book. Lewis and Clark for Kids includes a glossary of terms and listings of Lewis and Clark sites, organizations, and events, along with helpful Web sites. The Civil Rights Movement for Kids includes profiles of leaders in the movement, songs, a time line, and the texts of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, as well as lists of Web sites, civil rights organizations, videos, and books. KLIATT Codes: J—Recommended for junior high school students. 2000, Independent Publishers Group/Chicago Review Press, 190p, illus, bibliog, index, 22cm, 99-054580, $14.95. Ages 13 to 15. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick; September 2000 (Vol. 34 No. 5)

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-A comprehensive history and guide to one of the defining movements of the 20th century. Beginning with the early days of segregation and ending with civil rights today, readers discover not only the work and speeches of the notable leaders, but also how children participated in the struggle. A balanced discussion notes tactical differences between the different groups and their actions. The text is tightly written with a strong voice that rings out in its recounting of past injustices. The ultimate message is that while the movement witnessed extraordinary accomplishments in the past 50 years, new challenges await young people of the new century; knowledge of the past is the foundation of future action. Activities include reenacting a lunch-counter sit-in, organizing a workshop on nonviolence, and holding a freedom film festival. The entire Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are appended. Black-and-white photos from newspapers, magazines, and the National Archives and a few drawings enhance the text. Although independent students will find a wealth of information here, this enormous effort begs for sensitive, knowledgeable adults to use it as a tool in guiding young people in the study of human rights for all.-Pamela K. Bomboy, Chesterfield County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Blackberry Express

...a wonderfully unique installment in the recent spate of Civil Rights books for young people, this book is an important learning tool kids will enjoy.

Mitt Romney: The Man, His Values and Vision

Author: Lisa Ray Turner

There aren't too many people who have earned simultaneous Juris Doctor and MBA degrees from Harvard. Mitt Romney is one of them. But he has always liked the toughest challenges. He first made a name for himself as the brilliant turnaround miracle worker from Bain Capital. And he's the one who turned the debt-ridden, scandal-plagued 2002 Olympics into a marvelous success. Now he is campaigning to be our next president. He is a staunch advocate of free market economics and a devoted husband and father who believes in traditional values. Can he win? Will voters give him the chance to apply his management proficiency to our federal government? Authors Lisa Ray Turner and Kimberly Field examine Mitt Romney as a man of incredible ability and driving energy. They examine his history, his policies, his alleged flip-flopping, and particularly the controversy surrounding his religion. As a team, they offer a unique perspective on this last issue: Lisa is LDS (Mormon), and Kim is an evangelical Christian. You'll find their insights fascinating.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Myth of Progress or Microeconomics for Today

The Myth of Progress

Author: Tom Wessels

In this compelling and cogently argued book, Tom Wessels demonstrates how our current path toward progress, based on continual economic expansion and inefficient use of resources, runs absolutely contrary to three foundational scientific laws that govern all complex natural systems. It is a myth, he contends, that progress depends on a growing economy.

Wessels explains his theory with his three Laws of Sustainability: (1) the law of limits to growth, (2) the second law of thermodynamics, which exposes the dangers of increased energy consumption, and (3) the law of self-organization, which results in the marvelous diversity of such highly evolved systems as the human body and complex ecosystems. These laws, scientifically proven to sustain life in its myriad forms, have been cast aside since the eighteenth century, first by western economists, political pragmatists, and governments attracted by the idea of unlimited growth, and more recently by a global economy dominated by large corporations, in which consolidation and oversimplification create large-scale inefficiencies in material and energy usage.

Wessels makes scientific theory readily accessible by offering examples of how the Laws of Sustainability function in the complex systems we can observe in the natural world around us. He shows how systems such as forests can be templates for developing sustainable economic practices that will allow true progress. Demonstrating that all environmental problems have their source in the Myth of Progress's disregard for the Laws of Sustainability, he concludes with an impassioned argument for cultural change.

Book about: Ancient Herbs Modern Medicine or The Fasting Diet

Microeconomics for Today

Author: Irvin B Tucker

Straightforward and student-friendly, Tucker, MICROECONOMICS FOR TODAY, 6e is the most pedagogically-rich and engaging principles text on the market. Ideal for students of varying levels of skills and preparation, MACROECONOMICS FOR TODAY presents learners with the basics of economic principles and the context to apply them to their everyday lives. The sixth edition continues Tucker's tradition of using a unique textual and visual learning system to concisely present and reinforce core concepts, then assess student comprehension.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Walden and Civil Disobedience or Touching History

Walden and Civil Disobedience

Author: Henry David Thoreau

A discourse on appreciating nature and discovering personal identity, Henry David Thoreau wrote WALDEN, after retreating to a small cabin the woods near Walden Pond. Promoting individual thought, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE reveals what is still considered essential American political thought.

Publishers Weekly

Shrinking Walden into picture book size is somewhat like trying to fit Moby Dick into an aquarium. Still, Lowe's selections from Thoreau's iconoclastic work will give children a brief taste of this classic. Using only quotations from the original work, Lowe tells the story of Thoreau's year in the woods, emphasizing his descriptions of nature,stet comma and action rather than his philosophical musings. Readers see the young Thoreau putting shingles on his roof, hoeing beans, welcoming a stranger; they can revel in the natural wonders he describes--the ``whip-poor-wills,'' in summer, the drifting snow in winter, the ice breaking in the pond in spring. Sabuda's superb linoleum-cut prints lend a hard-edged brilliance to the dark woods--where sunlight is filtered through etched leaves, and moonlight shimmers on the waters of the pond made famous by a young man's experiment with life. All ages. (Nov.)

Library Journal

Walden's original publisher releases an annotated edition to celebrate the book's 150th anniversary.

School Library Journal

YA-An unintended effect of the cultural diversity curriculum is that we lose touch with seminal works such as Walden. Written for an audience thoroughly versed in Western tradition, many of Thoreau's metaphors and references are unrecognizable to today's students. Though some references were intended to prove his erudition, one is chagrined at the number of necessary explications of standard classical concepts. Though some annotations are noisy comments upon Thoreau's life, most are informative and enhance the work. Many YAs will view Thoreau's natural essays as he intended, thanks to Harding's efforts. A must for libraries.-Hugh McAloon, Prince William County Public Library, VA

	Introduction	vii
	Chronology of Henry David Thoreau's Life and Work	xvii
	Historical Context of Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience	xix
	Walden or, Life in the Woods
1.	Economy	3
2.	Where I Lived, and What I Lived For	86
3.	Reading	106
4.	Sounds	119
5.	Solitude	138
6.	Visitors	150
7.	The Bean-Field	166
8.	The Village	180
9.	The Ponds	187
10.	Baker Farm	216
11.	Higher Laws	226
12.	Brute Neighbors	240
13.	House-Warming	256
14.	Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors	275
15.	Winter Animals	291
16.	The Pond in Winter	303
17.	Spring	320
18.	Conclusion	342
	On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
	Poems	359
	Sic Vita	391
	Winter Memories	393
	To the Maiden in the East	394
	Smoke	396
	Mist	397
	Inspiration	398
	Notes	402
	Interpretive Notes	431
	Critical Excerpts	440
	Questions for Discussion	452
	Suggestions for the Interested Reader	454

Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11

Author: Lynn Spencer

A nonfiction thriller chronicling moment to moment the riveting untold story of the drama that unfolded in the skies over America on 9/11 as the FAA, the military, and thousands of commercial pilots called on all of their rigorous training and their reserves of patriotism and courage to improvise a heroic response to the first attacks on American soil since Pearl Harbor and contend with a whole new kind of war in the skies.

Publishers Weekly

Through meticulous research and a talent for scene-setting, Spencer delivers a minute-by-minute account of the events of September 11, 2001, through the eyes of people in the flight industry and the military. Spencer's detailed account jumps from commercial airports to military bases to executive board rooms around the country as she depicts the events and actions of all those involved in responding to the terrorist attacks. The audio acknowledges the problems with the security system, but also the resourcefulness and determination of the many people who tried to prevent the catastrophe. At first, Joyce Bean doesn't seem the right voice in a book dominated by male voices. In some of the narrative and exhaustive parts of the text, her voice doesn't provide the energy and emphasis that is needed. However, her many masculine vocal projections are distinct and match the emotional projection of each character, making her performance a very strong one. A Free Press hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 14). (July)

John Carver Edwards - Library Journal

Commercial airline pilot Spencer shows how, with an American public stupefied by the unimaginable airline attacks on its homeland on 9/11, civil aviation and military circles joined forces quickly to fathom, manage, and defend against a then-unknown enemy. She further conveys the sense of frustration, confusion, and terror felt by flight crews already airborne as the disasters at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon unfolded. Spencer scarcely disguises her profound admiration for these individuals who, armed with the barest intelligence, managed to bring their planes and passengers safely through the ordeal. She exhibits great sympathy for the Air National Guard fighter pilots, who managed to defend their country without sufficient authority and effective rules of engagement. And she insists that, despite the clear findings of the 9/11 Commission Report, these fighter pilots and their commanders did fashion an adequate aerial defense-even though no word had been forthcoming from their civilian higher-ups in Washington. An impressively researched and compellingly written narrative of one of America's worst catastrophes; recommended for collections on terrorism and aviation and all libraries.

Research Methods for Public Administration or A Time to Lead

Research Methods for Public Administration

Author: Elizabethann OSullivan

This accessible text offers an abundance of engaging examples and provides step-by-step instructions to illustrate common research methods and techniques, providing students and future administrators with a sound foundation in model building, research design, measurement, and sampling. The book's statistical section focuses on correct use and interpretation of commonly used statistics, including linear regression.

The book's overall aim is to develop effective, efficient research skills among future public administrators so that they will be better policy makers. It accomplishes this not only by providing a solid foundation in technique, but also by developing an awareness of the ethical issues associated with conducting research and reporting findings.

Go to: Tax Funded Politics or Marketing Management

A Time to Lead: For Duty, Honor and Country

Author: Wesley K Clark

Four-star General Wesley K. Clark became a major figure on the political scene when he was drafted by popular demand to run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2003. But this was just one of many exceptional accomplishments of a long and extraordinary career. Here, for the first time, General Clark uses his unique life experience—from his difficult youth in segregated Arkansas where he was raised by his poor, widowed mother; through the horror of Vietnam where he was wounded; the post-war rebuilding of national security and the struggles surrounding the new world order after the Cold War—as a springboard to reveal his vision for America, at home and in the world. General Clark will address issues such as foreign policy, the economy, the environment, education and health care, family, faith, and the American dream.Rich with breathtaking battle scenes, poignant personal anecdote and eye-opening recommendations on the best way forward, General Clark’s new book is a tour de force of gripping storytelling and inspiring vision.

Publishers Weekly

Army generals frequently remain little known outside the military. That was true of four-star general Clark until he decided to seek the Democratic Party nomination for the 2004 presidential race. In a combination memoir, patriotic tract and broadside about contemporary American politics, Clark explains how his dismay with the Bush administration's determination to invade Iraq "without good reason" primed him to seek the presidency. On the campaign trail, Clark suggested that using military force to defeat terrorists would likely prove futile. Instead, he touted the value of negotiation. How a four-star general ended up less hawkish than the civilian in the White House is linked to the events of his life, from growing up in the segregated city of Little Rock, Ark., to becoming NATO's supreme allied commander, Europe. The freshest material covers his command of international peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, as the 1990s civil war in the former Yugoslavia threatened to engulf neighboring countries. Little will be unfamiliar to those who supported Clark's presidential bid, or of interest to those who didn't. (Sept.)

Leigh Mihlrad - Library Journal

Four-star General Clark (former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO; Waging Modern War), a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, joins with military historian Carhart (Lost Triumph: Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg-and Why It Failed) to focus his third book on leadership. Recounting his childhood in segregated Little Rock, AR, military service at West Point, 30-plus years in the U.S. Army, and presidential campaign, he lays out his thoughts on the current war in Iraq and other pressing issues. Placed in the context of life events, his thoughts come across as entirely genuine. For instance, he refers to receiving help for a speech defect in public school when explaining his belief in the public education system and supports increased opportunities for single mothers, having been raised by a single mother himself. While not overtly political, this book demonstrates that Clark does not approve of the way today's leaders are handling the Iraq War. Regarding leadership, he states flatly that it's "about performance. That's the bottom line." Clark ends with a call for strong leadership to ensure that America's good name and values thrive in the future. Suitable for all public libraries and undergraduate libraries with large military collections.

Kirkus Reviews

Leadership lessons from a life of war and peace. Clark (Winning Modern Wars, 2003, etc.) has been many things during his adventurous life, including a Rhodes Scholar, a four-star Army general and an ardent presidential candidate. In this spare but engaging autobiography, he recounts his evolution from a struggling Arkansas youth with a speech defect to a military man and respected strategist who led troops at home and abroad. To the book's detriment, much of it is couched as a leadership manual; even the valid lessons smack of management coaching vernacular and are often superfluous to the events at hand. Fortunately, the events themselves make fascinating reading. Clark begins with a terse, visceral account of a bloody ambush in the jungles of Vietnam. The easy choice would be to glorify his military experience, but the book's vivid descriptions of his hazardous duties are understated and candid, whether he's recalling a failed attempt to rescue soldiers from a burning convoy while under fire or limning the treacherous political minefields of Washington. Another tense stretch came during Clark's posting in Kosovo, where he played a life-and-death game of chicken with Yugoslavian president Slobodon Milosevic and raced the Russians to capture Pristina International Airport. Clark's willingness to admit tactical failures is admirable, and his strategic insights are piercing yet clear-cut. "Only soldiers win battles," he writes. "The top leaders can lose by making mistakes, but the winning is done by the troops, by their skill, cunning, discipline, intuition, and motivation." His measured criticisms of America's approach to problems in Africa and the Middle East are equally cogent, deliveredin the careful language of a political platform and drawing strongly upon his personal vision for American intervention and diplomacy in the world's conflict zones: "pushing for the United States to do what was right, not just what was easy."An earnest reflection on war and peace from a commander's unique point of view. First printing of 200,000

Acknowledgments     ix
Preface: In the Line of Fire (1970)     1
Introduction     13
Strength from Adversity (1944-1958)     17
Finding a Purpose (1958-1962)     33
The Profession of Arms (1962-1966)     43
Standing Up For America (1966-1968)     67
Vietnam (1968-1970)     83
Healing Wounds (1970-1980)     95
Building a Force (1980-1982)     117
Forging the Modern Army (1982-1991)     129
Recognizing New Challenges (1991-1994)     149
Pursuing a Fresh Strategy (1994-1995)     161
Diplomacy, Diplomacy, Diplomacy (1995-1997)     177
War as a Last Resort (1997-2000)     193
Rediscovering America (2000-2007)     227
America's Promise     245
Index     259

28 Great Inaugural Addresses or So Help Me God

28 Great Inaugural Addresses: From Washington to Reagan

Author: John Grafton

Compelling, powerful, and often inspiring remarks provide insights to 16 presidencies, from George Washington's somber comments in 1789 and John Adams' substantial discourse — which included a 727-word sentence — to Ronald Reagan's well-written, masterfully delivered first inaugural address stating his political mission. Includes Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and more.

So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State

Author: Forrest Church

Today’s dispute over the line between church and state (or the lack thereof) is neither the first nor the fiercest in our history. In a powerful retelling of the birth of the American body politic, religious historian Forrest Church describes our first great culture war—a tumultuous yet nearly forgotten conflict that raged from George Washington’s presidency to James Monroe’s. On one side of the battle, the proponents of order—Federalists, Congregationalists, New Englanders—believed that the only legitimate ruler of men is God. On the other side, the defenders of liberty—republicans, Baptists, Virginians—cheered the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and believed that only the separation of church and state would preserve man’s freedom. Would we be a nation under God, or with liberty for all?

In this vigorous history, Forrest Church offers a new vision of our earliest presidents’ beliefs, reshaping assumptions about the debates that still reverberate across our land.

Kirkus Reviews

Religious historian and minister Church examines freedom of religion in late-18th- and early-19th-century America. Discussion about the separation of church and state often devolves into one-sided, black-and-white debate-either America was founded as a "Christian nation" or every last framer was deeply committed to secularism. In this fascinating and subtle study, Church (The Separation of Church and State: Writings on a Fundamental Freedom by America's Founders, 2004, etc.) shows that the matter was not nearly so simple. Some early Americans believed that the new nation needed "a strong Christian government" to survive, and others favored a clear separation between church and state. Central to the victory of the latter view-and thus to the story Church tells-is Thomas Jefferson's drafting of the "Statute Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia," which disestablished the Anglican Church and created a model for the religious freedom later enshrined in the First Amendment. Church is especially good at revealing small but significant episodes: George Washington's insisting his troops honor the Sabbath during the Revolutionary War, James Madison's thoughts on the constitutionality of chaplains in Congress. Perhaps the most fascinating character in this narrative is John Adams, who, though himself disdainful of orthodox Christian teaching, believed that religion was necessary to maintain virtue in the new nation. Church also investigates the seeming irony that a nation with no established religion should remain so religious. There's no contradiction there, he suggests; in fact, disestablishment guaranteed that churches would not be manipulated by politics, and thus freed them to focus onmatters of faith, not statecraft. The author's discussion of Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists-a letter that includes the phrase "a wall of separation between church and state"-would have been enriched if Church had made better use of recent scholarship tracing the origins of that phrase. Nonetheless, an important, nuanced book, likely to overshadow titles like David Holmes's The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (2006).

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Workin on the Chain Gang or Theodore Roosevelt

Workin' on the Chain Gang: Shaking Off the Dead Hand of History

Author: Walter Mosley

A passionate examination of the social and economic injustices that continue to shackle the American people

Praise for Workin’ on the Chain Gang:

“. . . bracing and provocative. . . .”
—Publishers Weekly

“. . . clear-sighted . . . Mosley offers chain-breaking ideas. . . .”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“[A] thoroughly potent dismantling of Yanqui capitalism, the media, and the entertainment business, and at the same time a celebration of rebellion, truth as a tool for emancipation, and much else besides. . . .”
—Toronto Globe and Mail

“Workin’ on the Chain Gang excels at expressing feelings of ennui that transcend race. . . . beautiful language and penetrating insights into the necessity of confronting the past.”
—Washington Post

“Mosley eloquently examines what liberation from consumer capitalism might look like. . . . readers receptive to a progressive critique of the religion of the market will value Mosley’s creative contribution.”
—Booklist

Walter Mosley’s most recent essay collection is Life Out of Context, published in 2006. He is the best-selling author of the science fiction novel Blue Light, five critically acclaimed mysteries featuring Easy Rawlins, the blues novel RL’s Dream, a finalist for the NAACP Award in Fiction, and winner of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s Literary Award. His books have been translated into twenty languages. He lives in New York.

Clyde Taylor is Professor ofAfricana Studies at NYU’s Gallatin School and author of The Mask of Art: Breaking the Aesthetic Contract—Film and Literature.

Publishers Weekly

Mosley, the author of the popular and critically acclaimed Easy Rawlins mystery series and other novels, issues an ardent manifesto that addresses the political and economic "chains that define our range of motion and our ability to reach for the higher goals" under capitalism, and argues that these "chains might be more recognizable in the black experience, but they restrain us all." Pointing out how "history, economics, self-image, the media, politics and our misuse of technology" limit us, Mosley boldly calls for an aggressive reevaluation of how public information, social life, work and identity are constructed in the United States, invoking a simple axiom: "What we need is a reexamination of the people and their needs." While he claims not to be specifically advocating socialism, he targets an economic system that values corporate profits over the lives and well-being of workers as the main source of psychic and physical pain and ill health in our society. His evaluation of U.S. politics is harsh ("What kind of democracy gives you two candidates who represent less than 5 percent of the population?"), but his message is idealistic, even utopian in its simplicity. In the end, Mosley urges his readers to take responsibility for their own lives and to use their imaginations to envision a new world: "The only way out is to be crazy, to imagine the impossible... to say what it is you want." Less a rigorous political proposal than a cri de coeur against the stifling of the human spirit, Mosley's short book is a bracing and provocative declaration of intellectual and political independence. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Interesting textbook: Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot or Growing Up in Coal Country

Theodore Roosevelt (The American Presidents Series): An American President

Author: Louis Auchincloss

An intimate portrait of the first president of the 20th century

The American century opened with the election of that quintessentially American adventurer, Theodore Roosevelt. Louis Auchincloss's warm and knowing biography introduces us to the man behind the many myths of Theodore Roosevelt. From his early involvement in the politics of New York City and then New York State, we trace his celebrated military career and finally his ascent to the national political stage. Caricatured through history as the "bull moose," Roosevelt was in fact a man of extraordinary discipline whose refined and literate tastes actually helped spawn his fascination with the rough-and-ready worlds of war and wilderness.

Bringing all his novelist's skills to the task, Auchincloss briskly recounts the significant contributions of Roosevelt's career and administration. This biography is as thorough as it is readable, as clear-eyed as it is touching and personal.

The Soviet Afghan War or The Harvest Gypsies

The Soviet-Afghan War: How a Superpower Fought and Lost (Modern War Studies Series)

Author: Russian General Staff

"This superb translation will generate widespread and unprecedented interest in the subject. Offering a candid view of a war that played a significant role in the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union, this book presents analysis absolutely vital to Western policymakers, as well as to political, diplomatic, and military historians, and anyone interested in Russian and Soviet history. It also provides insights regarding current and future Russian struggles in ethnic conflicts both at and within their borders, struggles that could potentially destroy the Russian Federation."—David M. Glantz, coauthor of The Battle of Kursk

"Provides a treasure trove of information and analysis."—William E. Odom, author of The Collapse of the Soviet Military and On Internal War

Author Biography: Lester W. Grau, a Vietnam War veteran and retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, is an analyst for the Foreign Military Studies Office at the Army's Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth. He is also the editor and translator of The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan and The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War.

Michael A. Gress is a native of Siberia and a former soldier in the motorized rifle forces of the Soviet Army.

Publishers Weekly

This is the third volume in a trilogy on the operational aspects of the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979-1988. The first two dealt respectively with Soviet and mujahideen tactics. This one is the perspective of the Russian General Staff. It follows the Soviet tradition of recording the events and experiences of previous wars not from a historical perspective, but in a "lessons learned" context, to help improve future performance. The work lacks the shaping, ideologically based overview of its predecessors. It is, rather, a compilation of information from a broad spectrum of sources synthesized by a group of authors who mostly have been through the fighting, and the book is destined for think tank and military academic libraries. Its text, admirably translated and edited, will be nearly impossible for lay people to stay with, but it tells a story of poor intelligence compounded by inappropriate force structures, inadequate operational doctrine and no strategy to speak of. Soviet forces did not understand their opposition, especially the mujahideen's ability and willingness to sustain the fighting far beyond rational-actor parameters. Repeated failures of conventional, large-scale war techniques led the Soviets to adopt smaller, more flexible formations and nonlinear tactics with increasing success, but mujahideen-operated Stinger ground-to-air missiles provided by the U.S. helped drag out a conflict the Soviet military could not win decisively in a time frame acceptable to Soviet political authorities. In the end, Afghanistan contributed significantly, perhaps decisively, to the collective loss of confidence that brought the U.S.S.R. to self-destruction. (Feb. 5) Forecast: The hardcover is priced out of the trade market, but if the paperback makes it onto the shelves, expect some unsuspecting browsers looking for layperson's narrative to pick this one up. Otherwise, only collections concerned with the nitty-gritty history of operations planning and execution will find what they're looking for here. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The stark contrasts between the current American-Afghan war and the traumatic events of the Soviet conflict that ended more than a decade ago are dramatically apparent in this book. Translator and editor Grau (Lt. Colonel, U.S. Army, ret.; The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan) had help deciphering the Russian General Staff papers from Gress, a Soviet migr who served in the Soviet army. The main body of the book is about Soviet army and air force tactics, operations, and armaments. At the end of each section, Grau offers "editor's comments" to explain and draw perspective on the accounts from the Russian General Staff. Several recurring themes are that the Soviets/Russians have not given accurate statistics on the war, the Soviet military had thoroughly penetrated the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan before the invasion, and the Marxist-Leninist framework kept the generals from making a proper assessment of their task. Although of some historical interest, this book is ponderous with details and is not a light read. Recommended for public libraries with Soviet history collections and academic libraries. Harry Willems, Southeast Kansas Lib. Syst., Iola Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Interesting book: Jesus the Village Psychiatrist or There Are No Secrets

The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath

Author: John Steinbeck

Recently listed in the Top 100 List of the Century's Best American Journalism.

Gathered in this important volume are seven newspaper articles on migrant farm workers that John Steinbeck wrote for The San Francisco News in 1936, three years before The Grapes of Wrath. With the inquisitiveness of an investigative reporter and the emotional power of a novelist in his prime, Steinbeck toured the squatters' camps and Hoovervilles of California. Here he found once strong, independent farmers—the backbone of rural America—so reduced in dignity, beaten in spirit, sick, sullen, and defeated that they had been "cast down to a kind of subhumanity." He contrasts their misery with the hope offered by government resettlement camps, where self-help committees, child nurseries, quilting and sewing projects, and decent sanitation were restoring dignity and indeed saving lives.

The Harvest Gypsies gives us an eyewitness account of the horrendous Dust Bowl migration, a major event in California history, and provides the factual foundation for Steinbeck's masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath. Included are twenty-two photographs by Dorothea Lange and others, many of which accompanied Steinbeck's original articles.

Publishers Weekly

In 1936, a San Francisco newspaper commissioned Steinbeck to write a week-long series of articles about California's underclass of white migrant farm workers, who became the models and the inspiration for The Grapes of Wrath. Reprinted here, Steinbeck's observations of migrant families and of their exploitation by wealthy agriculturists have not lost their potency. And as Wollenberg, a history professor at Vista College, Berkeley, Calif., points out, the plight of the newly destitute and newly homeless has particular relevance today. Steinbeck's journalism shares the enduring quality of his famous novel (but critics of Steinbeck will beware; his heavy-handed style is only slightly less obtrusive here). Especially interesting are the final articles, which analyze the history of California's migrant populations and propose federal programs to alleviate their distress. Steinbeck's outrage leads to an emotional indictment of then-current farm management as ``a system of terrorism that would be unusual in the Fascist nations of the world.'' Certain to engage students of both American literature and labor history. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Great Good Place or Bad Moon Rising

Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of A Community

Author: Ray Oldenburg

Ten years after its original publication, The Great Good Place is touching more people than ever before. The owners of Seattle's Third Place Books, which opened in 1998, were directly inspired by this book, as are, increasingly, entrepreneurs and planners nationwide. They are fueled by its compelling central thesis: that "third places," where people can gather, put aside the concerns of the work and home, and hang out simply for the pleasures of good company and lively conversation, are the heart of a community's social vitality and the grassroots of democracy.

Newark Star-Ledger

Well-written, informative, and often entertaining.

New York Times Book Review

The great value of this book is that Mr. Oldenburg has given us an insightful and extremely useful new lens through which to look at a familiar problem.

Parade

Examines gathering places and reminds us how important they are. People need the 'third place' to nourish sociability.

World of Beer

A book that should be read by everyone in North America over the age of 16.

Florida Architect

Shows how informal gathering places are essential to the vitality of a city and its people and it also includes a social history of informal life throughout the world.

What People Are Saying

Ray Oldenburg is inspirational. He is the first to recognize and articulate the importance of the greeting place (third place) for the well-being of the individual and society at large.

Victor W. Herman
The Great Good Place has put into words and focus what I've been doing all my life, from the barbershop I remember as a child to the bookstore I now own. My goal at Horizon Books is to provide that third place in which people can "hang out." Ray Oldenburg has defined those good places while still recognizing the magical chemistry they require. The Great Good Place is a book to read, to recommend, and to quote.
— Victor W. Herman, (owner of Horizon Books, with locations in Traverse City, Petoskey, and Cadillac, Michigan)

Andrew M. Greeley
The Great Good Place is a great good book. As a fellow defender of neighborhoods and all they stand for, I salute you on it.

New interesting textbook: Action Plan for Diabetes or Migraine

Bad Moon Rising: How Reverend Moon Created the Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right and Built an American Kingdom

Author: John Gorenfeld

John Gorenfeld's Bad Moon Rising takes readers into the chilling Washington underworld of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, whose cult-like Unification Church calls him the True Father. Whether claiming endorsements from George Washington, pronouncing Jesus obsolete or dictating sex positions to his followers, Moon has pursued loopy schemes for decades. For the first time, Bad Moon Rising tells the full story of the reverend's coronation in U.S. Senate offices in 2004; his quest to become world leader; his founding of a media empire with the creation of The Washington Times and purchase of United Press International; and his unlikely influence on the GOP propaganda machine, financing the stories that make Fox News Channel. Although Beltway conservatives rarely acknowledge their embarrassing patron, Gorenfeld is not afraid to follow the money to famous names and shameful secrets, revealing a hidden saga of political corruption, lost souls, and megalomania.

Followers

Blog Archive

Friday, January 30, 2009

The Confession

Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents:

State and Local Government

Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise

The New York Times - William Grimes

The Washington Post - John G. Mitchell

Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Chicago Sun Times

USA Today

Kirkus Reviews

What People Are Saying

Table of Contents:

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America

Maurice Isserman

Library Journal

The Washington Monthly - David Ignatius

The New York Times Book Review - Maurice Isserman

WQ: The Wilson Quarterly - Jacob Heilbrunn

Sam Tanenhaus - New Republic

Maurice Isserman - New York Times Book Review

Michael Barone - U.S. News & World Report

Kirkus Reviews

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff

Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink

The New York Times Book Review - Joyce Carol Oates

The Washington Post - Bruce Schoenfeld

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Yasir Arafat, a Political Biography

In Defense of Self and Others...: Issues, Facts, and Fallacies -- the Realities of Law Enforcement's Use of Deadly Force

Table of Contents:

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass and Public Policy

Table of Contents:

Friday, January 23, 2009

Washington

New York Times Book Review - Adam Clymer

Publishers Weekly

KLIATT

Library Journal

Booknews

My Day: The Best of Eleanor Roosevelt's Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936-1962

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Civil Rights Movement for Kids: A History with 21 Activities

OC Family

Children's Literature

KLIATT

School Library Journal

Blackberry Express

Mitt Romney: The Man, His Values and Vision

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Myth of Progress

Microeconomics for Today

Monday, January 19, 2009

Walden and Civil Disobedience

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

School Library Journal

Table of Contents:

Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11