Congress Book: February 2009

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Strong Borders Secure Nation or Lightning out of Lebanon

Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China's Territorial Disputes

Author: M Taylor Fravel

As China emerges as an international economic and military power, the world waits to see how the nation will assert itself globally. Yet, as M. Taylor Fravel shows in Strong Borders, Secure Nation, concerns that China might be prone to violent conflict over territory are overstated. The first comprehensive study of China's territorial disputes, Strong Borders, Secure Nation contends that China over the past sixty years has been more likely to compromise in these conflicts with its Asian neighbors and less likely to use force than many scholars or analysts might expect.

By developing theories of cooperation and escalation in territorial disputes, Fravel explains China's willingness to either compromise or use force. When faced with internal threats to regime security, especially ethnic rebellion, China has been willing to offer concessions in exchange for assistance that strengthens the state's control over its territory and people. By contrast, China has used force to halt or reverse decline in its bargaining power in disputes with its militarily most powerful neighbors or in disputes where it has controlled none of the land being contested. Drawing on a rich array of previously unexamined Chinese language sources, Strong Borders, Secure Nation offers a compelling account of China's foreign policy on one of the most volatile issues in international relations.

Interesting book: Quick Facts or Just Us Girls

Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil

Author: Tom Diaz

Before September 11, 2001, one terrorist group had killed more Americans than any other: Hezbollah, the “Party of God.” Today it remains potentially more dangerous than even al Qaeda. Yet little has been known about its inner workings, past successes, and future plans–until now.

Written by an accomplished journalist and a law-enforcement expert, Lightning Out of Lebanon is a chilling and essential addition to our understanding of the external and internal threats to America. In disturbing detail, it portrays the degree to which Hezbollah has infiltrated this country and the extent to which it intends to do us harm.

Formed in Lebanon by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1982, Hezbollah is fueled by hatred of Israel and the United States. Its 1983 truck-bomb attack against the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut killed 241 soldiers–the largest peacetime loss ever for the U.S. military–and caused President Reagan to withdraw all troops from Lebanon. Since then, among other atrocities, Hezbollah has murdered Americans at the U.S. embassy in Lebanon and the Khobar Towers U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia; tortured and killed the CIA station chief in Beirut; held organizational meetings with top members of al Qaeda–including Osama bin Laden–and established sleeper cells in the United States and Canada.

Lightning Out of Lebanon reveals how, starting in 1982, a cunning and deadly Hezbollah terrorist named Mohammed Youssef Hammoud operated a cell in Charlotte, North Carolina, under the radar of American intelligence. The story of how FBI special agent Rick Schwein captured him in 2002 is a brilliantly researchedand written account.

Yet the past is only prologue in the unsettling odyssey of Hezbollah. Using their exclusive sources in the Middle East and inside the U.S. counterterrorism establishment, the authors of Lightning Out of Lebanon imagine the deadly future of Hezbollah and posit how best to combat the group which top American counterintelligence officials and Senator Bob Graham, vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, have called “the A Team of terrorism.”

The Washington Post - Daniel Byman

The book shines when discussing FBI operations and the mundane realities of the Hezbollah operatives' daily existence. The FBI officials faced numerous problems, most of which stemmed from byzantine or misguided regulations and procedures rather than the craftiness of their prey. Time and again, opportunities were lost because the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the State Department didn't share information. The artificial "wall" separating criminal and intelligence investigations within the FBI also created roadblocks, making it far harder for investigators to put the pieces together and act effectively.

Publishers Weekly

In a compact and cogent addition to the literature on terrorism, two expert journalists join forces for a portrait of how a Hezbollah cell in Charlotte, N.C., was broken up a little more than a year before September 11. In clear prose with a minimum of political ax-grinding, Newman (The Covenant) and Diaz (Making a Killing) provide biographies of cell leader Mohammed Youssef Hammoud (from his origins in the Shiite slums of Beirut) and member Said Harb; the FBI agents and federal prosecutors (who overcame bureaucratic inertia and civil libertarian-fostered barriers to accumulate the evidence that led to Hammoud's prosecution); and many incidental players along the way. They also provide clear historical summaries of the religious and ethnic divides in the Middle East, and portraits of lesser-known phenomena such as the role of Paraguay (and its borders with Argentina and Brazil) in providing havens for international terrorists. The authors' skill at characterization of friends and foes puts a great many thriller writers in the shade, and at no point do they fall into stereotyping. Embedded in the book is an argument for the kind of interagency intelligence sharing that is still in its infancy. (Mar. 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Friday, February 20, 2009

The Selected Political Writings of John Locke or Global Financial Warriors

The Selected Political Writings of John Locke (Norton Critical Editions Series)

Author: John Lock

"This Norton Critical Edition begins with Paul E. Sigmund's comprehensive introduction to the volume, which provides readers with biographical background and a history of the interpretation of Locke's writings, giving particular attention to the ideologically influenced debates of the last fifty years. Locke's most important political writings - The Two Treatises of Government (The First Treatise generously excerpted; The Second Treatise complete) and A Letter Concerning Toleration - are accompanied by explanatory annotations. The Selected Political Writings of John Locke is the only student edition available that includes, in addition to Locke's political texts, selections from his ethical, epistemological, and religious writings - Essay on the Law of Nature, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and The Reasonableness of Christianity." "Sources" includes writings by the major political theorists who influenced Locke. Twenty-one "Interpretations," judiciously chosen from the thousands of books and articles on Locke's political writings, have been thematically organized to allow students to explore the full range of Locke's influence on political and social controversies and developments.

Book review: Youre Only Young Twice or Dressing Smart for Men

Global Financial Warriors: The Untold Story of International Finance in the Post-9/11 World

Author: John B Taylor

Sworn in as head of the U.S. Treasury Department's international finance division just three months prior to 9/11, John B. Taylor soon found himself at the center of the war on terror. Global Financial Warriors takes you inside the White House Situation Room, to the meetings of the G7 finance ministers, and to cities worldwide as Taylor assembles a coalition to freeze terrorist assets, plans the financial reconstruction in Afghanistan, oversees the development of a new currency in Iraq, and deals with the spread of financial crises. From reforming the IMF and the World Bank to negotiating international agreements to reduce Iraq's debt by 80 percent and cancel the debt of very poor countries, Taylor's unparalleled access offers the reader an insider's account of a pivotal time in international finance. 16 pages of illustrations.

The Washington Post - Jeffrey E. Garten

If most people were asked about President Bush's foreign policy priorities, they would probably point to Iraq, al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea -- crises characterized by the actual or potential use of military force. But in Global Financial Warriors, an account of the administration's international financial efforts from Sept. 11, 2001, to April 2005, John B. Taylor, then the Treasury Department's undersecretary for international affairs, gives us an intriguing and highly personalized view of some other dimensions of international policy that get far less attention these days than they deserve … Taylor has written a valuable insider's account of financial diplomacy in the Bush administration. Coming so soon after the events themselves, it is a worthy first draft of some important recent history.

Library Journal

From freezing terrorists' assets to figuring out how to reduce Iraq's debt, Taylor had a lot to do after being sworn in as head of the U.S. Treasury Department's international finance division just months before 9/11. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

1	The first shot in the global war on terror	1
2	Financial reconstruction in Afghanistan	29
3	Avoiding global financial contagion	70
4	New rules for the international monetary fund	98
5	Accountability at the World Bank and beyond	133
6	Financial diplomacy and the Turkish option	166
7	A plan for financial stability in Iraq	197
8	Iraq achieves financial stability	220
9	Negotiating the mother of all debt deals	250
10	Exchange rate diplomacy	274

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Anthropology of Development and Globalization or The Greek Wars

The Anthropology of Development and Globalization

Author: Marc Edelman

Development — is it a powerful vision of a better life for the half of the world’s population who subsist on two dollars a day? Or is it a failed Enlightenment legacy, an oppressive 'master narrative'? Such questions inspire a field newly animated by theories of globalization, modernity, cultural hybridity, and transnationalism. The Anthropology of Development and Globalization is a collection of readings that provides an unprecedented overview of this field that ranges from its classical origins to today’s debates about the 'magic' of the free market.

The volume is framed by an encyclopedic introduction that will prove indispensable to students and experts alike. Subsequent readings range from classics by Weber and Marx and Engels to contemporary works on the politics of development knowledge, consumption, environment, gender, international NGO networks, the International Monetary Fund, campaigns to reform the World Bank, the collapse of socialism, and the limits of “post-developmentalism.” Explicitly designed for teaching, The Anthropology of Development and Globalization fills a crucial gap; no other available text so richly mingles historical, cultural, political, and economic perspectives on development and globalization, and none captures such a wide variety of theoretical approaches and topics as does this exciting collection.

Book about: Plain Lives in a Golden Age or Travel Perspectives

The Greek Wars: The Failure of Persia

Author: George Cawkwell

The Greek Wars treats the whole course of Persian relations with the Greeks from the coming of Cyrus in the 540s down to Alexander the Great's defeat of Darius III in 331 BC. Cawkwell discusses from a Persian perspective major questions such as why Xerxes' invasion of Greece failed, and how important a part the Great King played in Greek affairs in the fourth century. Cawkwell's views are at many points original: in particular, his explanation of how and why the Persian invasion of Greece failed challenges the prevailing orthodoxy, as does his view of the importance of Persia in Greek affairs for the two decades after the King's Peace. Persia, he concludes, was destroyed by Macedonian military might but moral decline had no part in it; the Macedonians who had subjected Greece were too good an army, but their victory was not easy.

1. Introduction

2. The subjection of the Greeks of Asia

3. `The lands beyond the sea'

4. The Ionian Revolt

5. The conquest of Greece

6. The war in the East Aegean

7. Peace with Athens, 449-412 BC

8. The recovery of the Greeks of Asia

9. From the King's Peace to the end of the Social War

10. The end of the Achaemenids

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Rutherford B Hayes or Chutes and Ladders

Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President

Author: Ari Hoogenboom

"Rutherford B. Hayes was an important president who has long deserved a full modern treatment of his career. Ari Hoogenboom's well-researched, engrossing, and multi-faceted account of Hayes's life as a soldier and politician is a significant contribution to the historical literature on the American presidency. It is also a first-rate example of political biography at its best."—Lewis L. Gould, author of The Presidency of William McKinley and The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt

"From antislavery lawyer to Union general and Republican politician, Hayes's career was intertwined with the major issues of slavery, war, and reunion. As president he struggled with the issues of Reconstruction and the emerging industrial order, always seeking to do the right thing; as an ex-president, he endeavored to preserve the past and prepare for the future. In this comprehensive biography, Hoogenboom rescues Hayes from undeserved obscurity and tells us much not only about the man but also about the times in which he lived. Hoogenboom's skilled rendering of the life of the nineteenth president promises to be definitive, restoring Hayes to his rightful place in American history as a representative of his era."—Brooks Simpson, author of Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861-1868

"Compels fresh respect for both the man and his times."—Allan Peskin, author of Garfield

"An exceptional study: revisionist, comprehensive, and, to a surprising extent, relevant. A superb job."—Les Fishel, former director of the Hayes Library

Author Bio: Ari Hoogenboom is professor of history at the City University of New York-Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center and the author of Outlawing the Spoils: A History of the Civil Service Reform Movement and The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes.

Publishers Weekly

To critics, U.S. president Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) was an aloof, inept politician, but this revisionist biography limns a pragmatic reformer, supporter of civil rights and precursor of the Progressive movement. As a Cincinnati lawyer, Hayes defended runaway slaves; as a crusading antislavery Civil War colonel, he served bravely and was wounded five times. Three-time Republican governor of Ohio, Hayes secured his state's ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteeing the vote to all races. President Hayes has been accused of brutally crushing the Great Strike of 1877, but Hoogenboom, professor of history at the City University of New York, argues that he called out federal troops against striking railway workers only at the behest of state and local authorities. Hayes's abandonment of Reconstruction by withdrawing troops from the South ended a failed policy that had unwittingly polarized politics along racial lines, in Hoogenboom's assessment. Despite Hayes's commitment to equality for all Americans, one is left with the impression that his administration was, at best, merely efficient. Photos. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Enlarging his earlier book on Hayes's presidency (The Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, Univ. Pr. of Kansas, 1988), historian Hoogenboom casts Hayes as a reformer, an advocate for equal rights, and a masterful politician. From his conversion to an antislavery stance through his law career in Ohio to his military service during the Civil War, Hayes grew in his commitment to human rights. As president of the United States (1877-81), he used the veto and appointive powers in new ways and the bully pulpit to protect freedmen and workers. In his retirement, he lobbied for prison reform, veterans' benefits, and education for the poor. Although the Hayes presented is more prescient and principled than his record of achievement would show, all readers will appreciate Hoogenboom's larger view of the man and his time. Burdensome detail sometimes overwhelms and obscures the argument, but this revision merits attention. For academi libraries.-Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1
1 Ohio and New England	7
2 Kenyon and Harvard	27
3 Lower Sandusky	52
4 Cincinnati	73
5 Law and Family	87
6 Politics	100
7 War	112
8 War in Earnest	131
9 Western Virginia Interlude	149
10 The Valleys of Virginia	162
11 The End of the War	178
12 Congressman	189
13 Governor	211
14 Second Term	225
15 Interlude	239
16 The Campaign of 1876	256
17 The Disputed Election	274
18 Two New Policies	295
19 A TroubledSummer	326
20 Congress Triumphant	351
21 Hayes Takes Charge	370
22 Riders, Politics, and Reform	392
23 The Succession	414
24 The Garfield Campaign	433
25 Lame Duck	447
26 Spiegel Grove	466
27 Popular Education	480
28 Social Justice	493
29 Without Lucy	508
30 Joining Lucy	521
Afterword	535
A Note on Sources	541
Notes	543
Index	615

Books about: Understanding and Overcoming Depression or The Type 2 Diabetes SourceBook

Chutes and Ladders: Navigating the Low-Wage Labor Market

Author: Katherine S Newman

Now that the welfare system has been largely dismantled, the fate of America's poor depends on what happens to them in the low-wage labor market. In this timely volume, Katherine S. Newman explores whether the poorest workers and families benefited from the tight labor markets and good economic times of the late 1990s. Following black and Latino workers in Harlem, who began their work lives flipping burgers, she finds more good news than we might have expected coming out of a high-poverty neighborhood. Many adult workers returned to school and obtained trade certificates, high school diplomas, and college degrees. Their persistence paid off in the form of better jobs, higher pay, and greater self-respect. Others found union jobs and, as a result, brought home bigger paychecks, health insurance, and a pension. More than 20 percent of those profiled in Chutes and Ladders are no longer poor.

A very different story emerges among those who floundered even in a good economy. Weighed down by family obligations or troubled partners and hindered by poor training and prejudice, these "low riders" moved in and out of the labor market, on and off public assistance, and continued to depend upon the kindness of family and friends.

Supplementing finely drawn ethnographic portraits, Newman examines the national picture to show that patterns around the country paralleled the findings from some of New York's most depressed neighborhoods. More than a story of the shifting fortunes of the labor market, Chutes and Ladders asks probing questions about the motivations of low-wage workers, the dreams they have for the future, and their understanding of the rules of thegame.

Library Journal

ea. vol: Harvard Univ. Oct. 2006. SOC SCI Remember playing the board game Chutes and Ladders? Drawing on an eight-year study, Newman (sociology & public affairs, Princeton Univ.; A Different Shade of Gray: Midlife and Beyond in the Inner City) effectively uses ethnographic portraits to examine why some low-wage earners in New York's ghettos and beyond particularly African American and Latino service-sector employees have been experiencing a real-life version of the game. Some were able to capitalize on the economic prosperity of the late 1990s, often thanks to family, friends, and public subsidies; they went up the ladder, returning to school and obtaining trade certificates, high school diplomas, and even college degrees. Meanwhile, others, faced with family obligations, little or no training, and sheer prejudice, were not able to take advantage of these opportunities and moved downward. Similarly, sociologist Venkatesh (director of research, Inst. for Research in African American Studies, Columbia Univ.; American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto) looks at the impoverished residents of Southside Chicago's Maquis Park and the networks they have developed to cope with their devastating circumstances. For example, a mechanic works in an alleyway "shop," and gang-run businesses are an everyday affair. While Venkatesh has a more personal, compelling writing style, Newman's work offers appendixes rich in socioeconomic detail and will be of greater interest to policymakers. Both of these books are in the fine tradition of David K. Shipler's The Working Poor: The Invisible in America, and both deserve places in public and academic libraries. Ellen D. Gilbert, Princeton, NJ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Andrew Cherlin
Chutes and Ladders makes an important contribution to our knowledge of low-wage workers. There are many studies of the plight of young, low-income workers, but few if any follow them closely to see what happens to them over time. The conventional wisdom says that they are stuck in undesirable jobs forever, but Katherine Newman shows that about 20 per cent move up the job ladder and greatly improve their lives. Because of her detailed knowledge of these workers' life stores, Newman shows us how they do it. --(Andrew Cherlin, Johns Hopkins University)

Senator John
Katherine Newman is not afraid to ask the hard questions in her new book, Chutes and Ladders. There is much to draw from the "high flyers" such as Kyesha, Jamal and Kevin, who work their way out of poverty, and the rest of the people Newman follows in these pages offer all of us important lessons and insights. In Chutes and Ladders, policymakers have a blueprint for valuing work and reducing poverty. --(Senator John Edwards)

William Julius
This engaging book chronicles the divergent trajectories of a group of low-wage workers during a brief period of economic prosperity. Katherine Newman has once again demonstrated the value of careful ethnographic research in revealing the many challenges confronting the working poor. Chutes and Ladders is a unique and important study that should be widely read and discussed. --(William Julius Wilson, Harvard University)

Monday, February 16, 2009

Stalins Last Crime or Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953

Author: Jonathan Brent

A new investigation, based on previously unseen KGB documents, reveals the startling truth behind Stalin's last great conspiracy.

On January 13, 1953, a stunned world learned that a vast conspiracy had been unmasked among Jewish doctors in the USSR to murder Kremlin leaders. Mass arrests quickly followed. The Doctors' Plot, as this alleged scheme came to be called, was Stalin's last crime.

In the fifty years since Stalin's death many myths have grown up about the Doctors' Plot. Did Stalin himself invent the conspiracy against the Jewish doctors or was it engineered by subordinates who wished to eliminate Kremlin rivals? Did Stalin intend a purge of all Jews from Moscow, Leningrad, and other major cities, which might lead to a Soviet Holocaust? How was this plot related to the cold war then dividing Europe, and the hot war in Korea? Finally, was the Doctors' Plot connected with Stalin's fortuitous death?

Brent and Naumov have explored an astounding arra of previously unknown, top-secret documents from the KGB, the presidential archives, and other state and party archives in order to probe the mechanism of on of Stalin's greatest intrigues -- and to tell for the first time the incredible full story of the Doctors' Plot.

Publishers Weekly

Though the Great Terror of the late 1930s is widely viewed as the height of Stalin's purges, the number of arrests actually peaked in the early 1950s, and Stalin was planning hundreds of thousands more on the eve of his death in 1953. These arrests were spurred by the "doctors' plot," a supposed conspiracy among Jewish doctors to kill members of the government and destroy the U.S.S.R. at the behest of the Americans. Brent, the editorial director of Yale University Press, and Naumov, executive secretary of Russia's Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation of Repressed Persons, trace how Stalin himself put together false evidence of the "doctors' plot," which was far more than a simple exercise in anti-Semitism and paranoid senility. According to the authors, Stalin intended to use the "doctors' plot" to accomplish several goals: to purge his Ministry of Security and upper ranks of government; to defuse the potential threat posed by Soviet Jews, many of whom had ties to the U.S. and the new state of Israel; and to provide fuel for an armed conflict with the U.S. Brent and Naumov provide a riveting view of Stalin's modus operandi: over the course of several years, he patiently and meticulously gathered forced confessions that would weave together unrelated events-the death of a top Party official here, the arrest of a Zionist doctor there-into a story of massive conspiracy. One of the reasons for his great care, the book contends, is that the popular mood had subtly shifted in the postwar era; revolutionary fervor had died down, there was a desire for legal legitimacy and, in contrast to their 1930s counterparts, top bureaucrats were loath to convict without evidence. One wishes that the authors had elaborated on fascinating points like these. Their narrative is a complicated one, full of minor characters and bureaucratic missives, and, by necessity, most of this narrowly focused book is taken up with close readings of documents. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

These two publications deal with similar topics but have different areas of focus. In Stalin's Last Crime, Brent, editorial director of Yale University Press, which publishes the distinguished "Annals of Communism" series, and Naumov, executive secretary of the Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation of Repressed Persons in Moscow, have researched materials previously buried in KGB archives to make the startling but long-suspected assertion that Stalin was poisoned by Politburo members and allowed to die. Their focus is the "doctors' plot" that Stalin concocted to implicate Jewish doctors in the deaths of two top Kremlin leaders in 1945 and 1948. These incidents were tangled together with his paranoid suspicions that the Jews and the Americans were planning to invade Russia (and nuke Moscow), which he used as a cover to purge the MGB (precursor to the KGB). As Stalin fabricated the plot, he had concentration camps built to hold the Jews of Moscow and then all of Russia, and he planned to detain or deport the entire Jewish population. In contrast, Lustiger's Stalin and the Jews begins with the repression of the Jews from the time of Catherine II (the Great) through the tsars of the 19th century to the known anti-Semitism of Nicholas II as background for its own account of the "doctors plot "and the plight of the Jews in Soviet Russia. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAFC) was established in 1942 to muster Jewish support for the war against Hitler's Germany. But its remarkable success was not enough to convince Stalin, who saw demons in the organization's leaders and, with forced confessions, false evidence, and compliant underlings, had the JAFC leadership murdered after a secret mock trial. Both books are well researched and complement each other. But while Brent and Naumov do a great deal of guessing, asserting what Stalin probably did, Lustiger-a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald and an independent publisher and writer-is less interpretive. Both books are recommended for all libraries with Russian history collections.-Harry Willems, Southeast Kansas Lib. Syst., Iola Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A worthy, attention-getting study revealing Stalin's plans to revive state terror after WWII, this time with Soviet Jews as the target and perhaps a war with the US on the horizon. The pretext for the new pogrom, write Yale University Press editor Brent and Russian historian Naumov, was the 1948 death of Communist Party apparatchik A.A. Zhdanov, to all appearances the victim of a bad heart and a bad lifestyle. The Stalin government alleged, however, that Zhdanov was the victim of a widespread conspiracy on the part of Jewish doctors to destroy the Kremlin leadership one party boss at a time. "Fantastic stories circulated," write Brent and Naumov, "that Jewish doctors were poisoning Russian children, injecting them with diphtheria, and killing newborn infants in maternity hospitals." Stalin himself charged that the "Jewish doctors" were part of a larger plot organized by the capitalist powers to invade the Soviet Union, and he apparently planned a retaliatory war that in at least one scenario would have brought Soviet troops to America's West Coast. Over the next few years, hundreds of doctors were arrested and imprisoned, most of the members of Jewish organizations such as the wartime Jewish Antifascist Committee were executed, and plans were laid to create a special gulag for Jews. When Stalin died in 1953--among the most headline-making elements here is the suggestion that he was slowly poisoned by his lieutenant, Beria--the notion of a Jewish plot against the state was quietly dismissed and the doctors freed. That Stalin was using the affair as an excuse to reinstate terror as a political instrument is made clear, the authors suggest, by the fact that not only Jews were specifictargets, but also elements of the Kremlin leadership, members of the state security apparatus, and indeed anyone who looked sideways at the Great Man in his last days. More evidence for the essential evil of the Stalin regime, joining such recent studies as Stйphane Courtois's Black Book of Communism (1999) and Anne Applebaum's Gulag (p. 196).

Go to: The Machiavellian Moment or War and Peace in the Middle East

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage

Author: Nicholas Wapshott

New details of the remarkable relationship between two leaders who teamed up to change history.

It's well known that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were close allies and kindred political spirits. During their eight overlapping years as U.S. president and UK prime minister, they stood united for free markets, low taxes, and a strong defense against communism. But just how close they really were will surprise you.

Nicholas Wapshott finds that the Reagan-Thatcher relationship was much deeper than an alliance of mutual interests. Drawing on extensive interviews and hundreds of recently declassified private letters and telephone calls, he depicts a more complex, intimate, and occasionally combative relationship than has previously been revealed.

Publishers Weekly

White House press secretary James Brady once declared "[i]t took a crowbar" to separate President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher. Biographer Wapshott (Thatcher) assesses the nature of that sometimes testy but always close freindship. As Reagan put it, they were "soul mates when it came to reducing government and expanding economic freedom." Not content with biography, Wapshott also provides a political history of the post-WWII period and the 1980s. Elected under similar circumstances, the two faced many of the same trials: assassination attempts, striking workers and tensions with the Soviet Union. Wapshott's attention to Reagan and Thatcher's compatibility sometimes comes at the expense of a deeper analysis of the ideas that united them. On their economic conservatism, Wapshott is insightful and exhaustive; on the ideas driving their foreign policy, he is less thorough, and more detailed comparison of Thatcher's cold Methodism and Reagan's sense of God's purpose after his attempted assassination would have been welcome. Throughout, Wapshott favors the nitty-gritty, painting a portrait of the friendship that shaped the 1980s and the alliance that won the Cold War. (Nov.)

National Review

I can recommend a rattling good read with lots of new material on their previously private meetings and correspondence.

New York Sun

Briskly written, perceptive, and, ultimately, moving.

Bob Nardini - Library Journal

When Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher met for the first time in 1975 in London, writes veteran biographer Wapshott (Peter O'Toole), the moment was nearly as significant as the first meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in 1941. Thatcher was then the newly elected Conservative Party leader, while Reagan, just done with his second and final term as governor of California, had set a course for the White House. This dual biography centers on the personal friendship and political partnership between Thatcher and Reagan, who, as prime minister and president, were of course to alter the politics of Britain and the United States as leaders of the West in the final years of the Cold War. Wapshott wrote an earlier biography of Thatcher, although most of his books have been on actors and entertainers. Here he writes just well enough to intermittently engage a popular readership, his primary audience. He relies mainly on secondary sources, his research is too thin, and his thesis too overreaching for academic readers. Optional for public libraries.

What People Are Saying

Tina Brown
Nicholas Wapshott, with access to their unpublished correspondence, gives us a nuanced—and immensely readable— portrait of how Reagan and Thatcher resolved their differences in leading the world out of incipient chaos. This is a shrewd and affecting portrait. (Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles)

Introduction     ix
Above the Shop     1
The World of Work     22
A Taste of Power     46
The Road to the Top     70
Success at the Polls     101
The Honeymooners     126
A Lovers' Tiff     142
Outcast of the Islands     160
Cold Warriors     186
Strikebusters     209
From Russia with Love     226
The Victors     251
The Merry Widow     272
Epilogue     289
Acknowledgments     295
Notes     297
Select Bibliography     315
Index     321

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Imperial Hubris or Sketches from a Life

Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror

Author: Michael Scheuer

When Imperial Hubris first came out in 2004, the greatest danger for Americans confronting the Islamist threat was to believe-at the urging of U.S. leaders-that Muslims attack us for what we are and what we think rather than for what we do. The now-classic showed that a growing segment of the Islamic world strenuously disapproves of specific U.S. policies and their attendant military, political, and economic implications and demonstrated that they will go to any length, not to destroy our secular, democratic way of life, but to deter what they view as specific attacks on their lands, their communities, and their religion. Imperial Hubris remains a must read for an in-depth look at Al Qaeda and the War on Terror.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

Imperial Hubris, the scalding new book by a current Central Intelligence Agency officer — who was able to publish the book on the condition that his real name not be revealed — is an assessment of America's war on terror that is bound to provoke large heapings of controversy, on both the right and the left, among hardliners on Iraq and critics of the administration alike. Readers will doubtless contest some or many of the things Anonymous has to say, but he pulls few punches in this book and gives us a fascinating window on America's war with Al Qaeda — at least as framed by one senior analyst, who seems to have put all bureaucratic niceties aside.

The Washington Post - Richard A. Clarke

For those Americans who had begun to doubt whether the Central Intelligence Agency could produce good analysis, Imperial Hubris clearly demonstrates otherwise. It is a powerful, persuasive analysis of the terrorist threat and the Bush administration's failed efforts to fight it. The CIA carefully vetted the book to ensure that no "sources and methods" were exposed, but the anonymous author -- a current CIA official -- draws effectively on the years he's spent carefully studying detailed intelligence reports from several U.S. and many foreign spy agencies. His criticism is damning.

Publishers Weekly

It's unclear how, in an age when even office workers must sign confidentiality agreements, an alleged CIA Middle Eastern specialist has gotten permission to publish a sprawling, erudite book on the origins and present state of the "war on terror." His main point is that Arab antagonism to the West (and even non-fundamentalist Arab regimes' winking at terrorism) has its root in real grievances that have gone unaddressed by U.S. measures. The actions of the Saudis, and their U.S. supporters, come in for some hard criticism, as does the elevation of Northern Alliance warlords to de facto governors of Afghanistan. The author makes some challenging remarks regarding Israel ("Surely there can be no other historical example of a faraway, theocracy-in-all-but-name of only six million people that ultimately controls the extent and even the occurrence of an important portion of political discourse and national security debate in a country of 270-plus million people that prides itself on religious toleration, separation of church and state, and freedom of speech") while playing down the extent to which the Taliban itself was a corrupt theocratic regime. But his annotated compendia of battles and skirmishes won and lost by the U.S. and al-Qaeda are gripping, and his engagement with his subject has made him a pundit-in-demand. (Aug.) Forecast: This is more a book to shake up policy wonks with facts on the ground than for the general public, but it has already created a stir inside the Beltway and beyond. The book is the author's second; Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam and the Future of America was mostly ignored, but this time around, the Primary Colors approach (necessary to protect the author's identity) has led to much TV and print exposure (with voice and features disguised); expect media-based sales. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Book about: Taxação de Propriedades, Presentes e Confianças

Sketches from a Life

Author: George F Kennan

Written originally as a series of entries in a travel diary and now considered one of the most important memoirs of our time, Sketches from a Life is George F. Kennan's peerless, impressionistic record of his experiences with twentieth-century history. Beginning with his first foreign service post in 1927 and ending seven decades later, Kennan's account is rich with the insight of a major historical participant. Whether relating the perils of Hitler's Germany or revisiting Kennan's days as ambassador to the Soviet Union, Sketches from a Life is as riveting as great literature, and one of the most invaluable documents of our time.

Publishers Weekly

``Wistful and wise, these travel notes distilled from a long career in diplomatic service and private wanderlust reveal Kennan as a citizen of the world, though one who may be truly at home nowhere,'' noted PW. (Apr.)

Library Journal

As always, Kennan offers a unique perspective on history, even in the context of these memoirs. This is a collection of very private reflections spanning some 60 years of foreign service in Nazi Germany, the Baltic states, the Low Countries, the Soviet Union, as well as nonofficial travels covering the entire globe. Kennan has marvelous insight into his ever-changing surroundings--an insight that is always sharp, sometimes melancholy, and punctuated frequently by dry, Midwestern wit. His ardent opposition to the arms race is clear in postwar entries which express a mounting concern for the future of his country and the planet. Along with Kennan's other works, this will form a fitting legacy to one of America's greatest historians.-- Joseph W. Constance Jr., Boston Coll. Libs.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Arab and Jew or Trade Regulation

The Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land

Author: David K Shipler

The Jew, according to the Arab stereotype, is a brutal, violent coward; the Arab, to the prejudiced Jew, is a primitive creature of animal vengeance and cruel desires. In this monumental work, revised and more relevant than ever, David Shipler delves into the origins of the prejudices that have been intensified by war, terrorism, nationalism, and the failure of the peace process.

"The best and most comprehensive work there is in the English language on this subject." (Walter Laqueur, The New York Times)

"A rich, penetrating, and moving portrayal of Arab-Jewish hostility, told in human terms." (Newsday)

Publishers Weekly

The Jew, in the Arab stereotype, is a brutal, violent coward; the Arab, to the prejudiced Jew, is a primitive creature of animal vengeance and cruel desires. There is remarkable symmetry in these images, as Shipler (Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams points out in this hefty mixture of reportage, personal histories, interviews and scholarship. An act of courage and clarity, the book is an important contribution to the literature on the Middle East. The New York Times correspondent shows how Israeli Jews deny the reality that Palestinian Arabs are victims of forcible displacement and expulsion from what was once their homeland; he describes how a ``synthetic Israeli history'' is taught to Jewish schoolchildren, while Palestinian boys and girls in the refugee camps are taught militant rhetoric and hatred. Shipler explores the corrosive effects of terrorism by both sides, the zeal of Islamic fundamentalists, as well as that of Israeli ultraconservatives. BOMC and History Book Club alternates; first serial to the New York Times Magazine. (September 24)

Library Journal

int affairs The political and military dimensions of the middle Eastern crisis are the common stuff of headlines and books; Shipler focuses instead on the human dimension. In portraits of Arabs and Jews from all walks of life and political perspectives, he examines the ``attitudes, images, and stereotypes that Arabs and Jews have of one another, the roots of their aversions, and the complex interactions between them. . . .'' The effects of war, nationalism, terrorism, religion, and history come to life, illuminated by Shipler's insights drawn from his five-year residence in Jerusalem and his wide reading. While he concludes with a dream of a peaceful society growing out of direct links among the youth of the two groups, he offers no promise that such a dream can survive the hatred, fear, and pain. Highly recommended. Elizabeth R. Hayford, President, Assoc. Colls. of the Midwest, Chicago

Look this: Inventing the Indigenous or Diagnosis

Trade Regulation: Cases and Materials (University Casebook Series)

Author: Robert Pitofsky

The text is an integrated discussion of the major antitrust guidelines produced by the Department of Justice and the FTC during the 1990s and significant antitrust process issues. The book's comparative law materials reflect expanded antitrust systems of other nations. A series of economic essays and notes prepared in collaboration with economist Steven C. Salop, offer views on antitrust policy development. The casebook offers hypothetical problems throughout as a teaching aid.

The Objectives and Origins of Antitrust LawInstitutional Framework of Antitrust Policy Market Structure and a First Look at the Problem of Monopoly Power Competitor Collaboration on Price Fixing and Division of Markets Group Refusals to Deal and Joint Ventures Market Concentration, Conspiracy, and the Antitrust Laws Vertical Restraints on Competition Additional Limitations on a Single Firm Exercising Market Power Mergers Foreign Commerce and the U.S. Antitrust Laws Price Discrimination and the Robinson-Patman Act

Friday, February 13, 2009

Voltaire in Exile or Though the Heavens May Fall

Voltaire in Exile: The Last Years, 1753-78

Author: Ian Davidson

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

Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery

Author: Steven M Wis

The case of James Somerset, an escaped slave, in June of 1772 in London's Westminster Hall was a decisive turning point in human history. Steven Wise has uncovered fascinating new revelations in this case, which statesmen of the time threatened would bring the economy of the British Empire to a crashing halt. In a gripping, hour-by-hour narrative of the trial and the inflamed participants, Wise leads the reader to the extraordinary and unexpected decision by the great conservative judge, Lord Mansfield, which led to the United States' own abolition movement. As the case drew to a close, and defenders of slavery pleaded with him to maintain the system, Mansfield's reply has resounded down through more than two centuries: "Let Justice be done, though the Heavens may fall."

The New York Times - Marilynne Robinson

Wise, the president of the Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights, traces with reverent care how the question of the legality of slavery developed within England, culminating in this famous trial.

Library Journal

Legal historian Wise examines how 18th-century English abolitionists created legal arguments to challenge slavery. Granville Sharp was a leading abolitionist whose legal failures and eventual success are analyzed here in the context of 18th-century English law and common-law precedents. Wise emphasizes two cases, Lewis v. Stapylton (1771) and the trial of James Somerset (1772). In the latter case, Wise examines Lord Chief Justice Mansfield's legal course to declaring slavery in England as immoral and illegal since it was wrong to treat human beings as property. Wise shows how Mansfield could interpret common law to meet the changing needs of society. Wise uses historical analysis to draw connections between these cases and later U.S. activities concerning freedom in the American Revolution and Civil War. This thoughtful analysis provides an underpinning for the social and legal context of slavery, making this a recommended book for academic and larger public libraries.-Steven Puro, St. Louis Univ. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Forensic Science Handbook Volume 1 or Masters of Deception

Forensic Science Handbook, Volume 1

Author: Richard Saferstein

The second in a three-volume series, this popular and widely circulated professional handbook describes the theories and practices of today's criminalistics, and covers a wide range of subject areas relevant to the services rendered by crime laboratories and related facilities. Presents authoritative reviews from recognized forensic criminologists and forensic scientists well-versed in their chosen areas of expertise. Considers a specific examination technique for a wide-range of evidence prevalent in the modern crime laboratory, e.g., DNA, hair, paint, soil, glass, petroleum products, explosives, alcohol in blood and breath, and questioned documents. Describes the theory, operation, and forensic utilization of such modern analytical instruments as mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis, high-performance liquid chromatography, and the visible microspectrophotometer. Emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between forensic science and criminal law as it examines the role and conduct of the expert witness, rules of evidence, and the legal requirements governing the admissibility of scientifically evaluated evidence. For professionals in forensic science and criminology.

Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace

Author: Michele Slatalla

The bestselling account of a band of kids from New York who fought an electronic turf war that ranged across some of the nation's most powerful computer systems. "An immensely fun and -- one cannot emphasize this enough -- accessible history of the first outlaws in cyberspace."--Glamour

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Migrations and Cultures or One Nation Underprivileged

Migrations and Cultures: A World View

Author: Thomas Sowell

Most commentators look at the issue of immigration from the viewpoint of immediate politics. In doing so, they focus on only a piece of the issue and lose touch with the larger picture. Now Thomas Sowell offers a sweeping historical and global look at a large number of migrations over a long period of time.Migrations and Cultures: shows the persistence of cultural traits, in particular racial and ethnic groups, and the role these groups’ relocations play in redistributing skills, knowledge, and other forms of “human capital.” answers the question: What are the effects of disseminating the patterns of the particular set of skills, attitudes, and lifestyles each ethnic group has carried forth—both for the immigrants and for the host countries, in social as well as economic terms?

New York Times Book Review

Well reasoned and impressively researched, Migrations and Cultures is...a formidable achievement.

Publishers Weekly

Sowell (Race and Culture), senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, takes a sweeping look at major world migrations, his aim being to "provide revealing glimpses of the enormous role of cultural heritages and their far-reaching implications." Focusing on the Germans, Japanese, Italians, Chinese, Jews and Indians (why not the Irish, too?), he traces the migratory pattern of each group and examines how it has affected the countries where its members settled, as well as the effects of migration on the immigrants themselves over time. Interesting insights abound in this study. For instance, the xenophobia of Westerners toward Chinese is equally as strong among China's Asian neighbors; northern Italians in their new homelands asked to be counted separately from their southern compatriots; German Jews in America, while extending charity to their less fortunate Eastern European brethren, kept a social distance from them. Sowell's treatment is so comprehensive and detailed, with a plethora of footnotes on almost every page, that his book will be of particular interest to specialists. (Apr.)

What People Are Saying

Peter Brimelow
"Sowell is one of the wonders of the American intellectual world and this book once again illustrates why."

One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All

Author: Mark Robert Rank

Despite its enormous wealth, the United States leads the industrialized world in poverty. One Nation, Underprivileged unravels this disturbing paradox by offering a unique and radically different understanding of American poverty. It debunks many of our most common myths about the poor, while at the same time provides a powerful new framework for addressing this enormous social and economic problem.
Mark Robert Rank vividly shows that the fundamental causes of poverty are to be found in our economic structure and political policy failures, rather than individual shortcomings or attitudes. He establishes for the first time that a significant percentage of Americans will experience poverty during their adult lifetimes, and firmly demonstrates that poverty is an issue of vital national concern.
Ultimately, Rank provides us with a new paradigm for understanding poverty, and outlines an innovative set of strategies that will reduce American poverty. One Nation, Underprivileged represents a profound starting point for rekindling a national focus upon America's most vexing social and economic problem.

Monday, February 9, 2009

In Command of History or Exodus 1947

In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

Author: David Reynolds

Winston Churchill fought the World War II twice over-first as Prime Minister during the war, and then later as the war's premier historian. From 1948-54, he published six volumes of memoirs. They secured his reputation and shaped our understanding of the conflict to this day.

Drawing on the drafts of Churchill's manuscript as well as his correspondence from the period, David Reynolds masterfully reveals Churchill the author. Reynolds shows how the memoirs were censored by the British government to conceal state secrets, and how Churchill himself censored them to avoid offending current world leaders. This book illuminates an unjustly neglected period of Churchill's life-the Second Wilderness Years of 1945-51, when Churchill wrote himself into history, politicked himself back into the prime-ministership, and delivered some of the most important speeches of his career.

The New York Times - Max Boot

To Reynolds's credit, while he is intent on pulling back the curtain a bit, he does not conclude, as have more fervent debunkers, that the emperor has no clothing. In the end, Reynolds's respect for Churchill as writer and statesman appears undiminished by the lengths to which he went to shape his own reputation.

Publishers Weekly

For many, the fact that Churchill won his Nobel for literature comes as a surprise, but he was a prolific-and very well paid-historian and journalist. Awarded Britain's Wolfson History Prize, this highly readable book by Cambridge historian Reynolds supplies the backstory to Churchill's massive postwar publishing project: the epic The Second World War. As the author notes, he's writing "a book about personal biography and public memory," beginning with Churchill's crushing defeat in the July 1945 election and offering a unique perspective on WWII, the onset of the Cold War and Churchill's determination to write the history of the 20th century's signal conflict. But Reynolds's real achievement is his grasp of the motives behind that determination: "Churchill's sense of the fickleness of fame... impelled him to be his own historian." He quotes a 1944 letter to Stalin in which Churchill writes, "I agree that we had better leave the past to history, but remember if I live long enough I may be one of the historians." Packed with detail and vivid characterizations (but still clearly a scholarly, thoroughly researched work), it's a different take on one of the few men capable of both making history and writing it. 16 pages of b&w photos. Agent, Irene Skolnick Agency. (On sale Nov. 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Interesting book: Unfiltered or Labor Economics and Labor Relations

Exodus 1947: The Ship That Launched a Nation

Author: Ruth Gruber

On July 18, 1947, American journalist Ruth Gruber stood on a wharf in Haifa as the Exodus 1947 limped into harbor. The evening before, this unarmed ship, crammed with more than 4,500 Holocaust survivors, had been rammed and boarded by sailors of the British Navy to prevent her desperate human cargo from seeking refuge in Palestine. Gruber rushed to the scene and began witnessing the events as they unfolded, ultimately spending the next several months pursuing the exiles from port to port on the Mediterranean.
Gruber’s quest produced riveting dispatches and vivid photographs published in the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Post that shaped worldwide perception of the plight of the DPs and arguably influenced the U.N. to create the state of Israel. This gripping book contains Gruber’s moving images and text, plus additional reporting on the wretched camps in Europe where the refugees lived before boarding the Exodus 1947, as well as details of many passengers’ eventual fates. In this edition marking the sixtieth anniversary of the voyage, Gruber’s masterpiece remains as stirring and unforgettable as ever.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The New Transnational Activism or International Business Transactions

The New Transnational Activism

Author: Sidney Tarrow

From labor organizers to immigrant activists, from environmentalists to human rights campaigners, from global justice protesters to Islamic militants, this book shows how ordinary people gain new perspectives, experiment with new forms of action, and sometimes emerge with new identities through their contacts across borders. It asks to what extent transnational activism changes domestic actors, their forms of claim making, and their prevailing strategies. Does it simply project the conflicts and alignments familiar from domestic politics onto a broader stage, or does it create a new political arena in which domestic and international contentions fuse? And if the latter, how will this development affect internationalization and the traditional division between domestic and international politics?

Books about: Una Introducción a Garantía de calidad en Asistencia médica

International Business Transactions: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook

Author: Ralph H Folsom

A popular, problem-oriented coursebook, International Business Transactions introduces law students to the conduct of business in the world community, with problems on trade, licensing, and investment. Its coverage is wide-ranging: international sales, letters of credit, e-commerce, trade law, the World Trade Organization, the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), customs law, export and import controls, intellectual property and licensing, franchising, foreign investment, international finance, commercial arbitration, and international business litigation. The coursebook provides hard-to-find legal documents and explains issues that corporate clients are likely to face, such as defending against important competition, expanding exports and overseas markets, and foreign corrupt payments.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Living My Life or Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

Living My Life

Author: Emma Goldman

Anarchist, journalist, drama critic, advocate of birth control and free love, Emma Goldman was the most famous-and notorious-woman in the early twentieth century. This abridged version of her two-volume autobiography takes her from her birthplace in czarist Russia to the socialist enclaves of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Against a dramatic backdrop of political argument, show trials, imprisonment, and tempestuous romances, Goldman chronicles the epoch that she helped shape: the reform movements of the Progressive Era, the early years of and later disillusionment with Lenin's Bolshevik experiment, and more. Sounding a call still heard today, Living My Life is a riveting account of political ferment and ideological turbulence.

Library Journal

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage

Author: Nicholas Wapshott

Publishers Weekly

National Review

I can recommend a rattling good read with lots of new material on their previously private meetings and correspondence.

New York Sun

Briskly written, perceptive, and, ultimately, moving.

Bob Nardini - Library Journal

What People Are Saying

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Strategies of Containment or Common Ground

Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War

Author: John Lewis Gaddis

When Strategies of Containment was first published, the Soviet Union was still a superpower, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, and the Berlin Wall was still standing. This updated edition of Gaddis' classic carries the history of containment through the end of the Cold War. Beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt's postwar plans, Gaddis provides a thorough critical analysis of George F. Kennan's original strategy of containment, NSC-68, The Eisenhower-Dulles "New Look," the Kennedy-Johnson "flexible response" strategy, the Nixon-Kissinger strategy of detente, and now a comprehensive assessment of how Reagan-- and Gorbechev-- completed the process of containment, thereby bringing the Cold War to an end.
He concludes, provocatively, that Reagan more effectively than any other Cold War president drew upon the strengths of both approaches while avoiding their weaknesses. A must-read for anyone interested in Cold War history, grand strategy, and the origins of the post-Cold War world.

Library Journal

Book review: No Mans Land or Erase Your Waist

Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America

Author: Cal Thomas

Inspired by their popular USA Today column, conservative Cal Thomas and liberal Bob Beckel show politicians of both stripes how to get beyond partisanship, restore civility, and move our country forward. Thomas and Beckel are a unique pair in today's political climate—pundits from opposite sides who not only talk to each other but work together to find common ground on some of the most divisive issues facing us, from the war in Iraq to gay marriage to the Patriot Act. Common Ground unmasks the hypocrisy of many of the issues, organizations, and individuals who created and deepened the partisan divide at the center of American politics, and makes a strategic case for why this bickering must stop.

Throughout, Thomas and Beckel explode conventional wisdom and offer surprising new conclusions:

The Red State/Blue State divide: Myth!
A "common ground" presidential candidate can win in 2008: Reality!
"Polarizers" like Ann Coulter and Michael Moore are the future of political debate: Myth!
Major-party politics faces extinction: Reality!

These guys should know. For years Beckel and Thomas contributed to the climate of polarization in Washington . . . and they admit it. "We're two guys who spent a lot of years in the polarizing business, but on opposing sides," they write. "We helped write the game plan, and we have participated in everything from getting money out of true believers to appearing on television to help spread the contentious message. In many cases, we wrote the message. We know the gig, and it's just about up."

In this much-needed book,Thomas and Beckel go beyond their column to offer a sobering overview of the current political divide and its corrosive effect on us all.They also explain how bipartisanship and consensus politics are not only good for the day-to-day democratic process but essential for our nation's future well-being.

Entertaining and informative, funny and healing, Common Ground is must reading for all concerned citizens.

Publishers Weekly

The world of politics has always been feisty, but Beckel and Thomas assert that it's deteriorated into a partisan divide of animosity that threatens the safety and legitimacy of the country. In addition to tracing the history of this growing chasm, the authors also provide some interesting discussions about how to remedy it and why. Though some of their conclusions are a bit idealized, and even they have trouble finding "common ground" on all issues, they do identify some tactics that should be utilized by all sincere politicians seeking to better the United States. Rohan's dramatic inflection doesn't make him the best narrator for this audiobook, but he's certainly an enjoyable one. Beckel and Thomas, who also read parts of the audio, are mostly enjoyable. They falter on the final chapter, which is meant to be a dialogue between the two, but unfortunately, sounds stilted and scripted. Simultaneous release with the Morrow hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 13). (Nov.)

Kirkus Reviews

Two partisans offer a timely and useful analysis of America's polarized politics. Liberal journalist Beckel (Political Strategy/George Washington Univ.) and conservative columnist Thomas (The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas, 2001, etc.) together write the USA Today column "Common Ground," which gave rise to this book. Agreeing to disagree on many issues, they explore the roots of today's red/blue divide and its effects on government, explaining why a return to bipartisanship and consensus (which they hope to hasten) is already occurring. Along the way, they offer an overlong explanation of familiar issues from the turbulent 1960s through the Reagan '80s that provided fodder for political campaigns characterizing opponents not simply as wrong but as corrupt and wicked. Such demonizing, the authors argue, is the essence of polarized politics and stems from the strong partisanship of activists who are the only Americans engaged in a culture war. Activists constitute an influential one-third of eligible voters, they note, but the vast majority favor consensus. The authors are at their best when describing the "ideologues, power brokers, and bottom feeders" who benefit from a heated political climate: talk-radio and cable-TV hosts, who win higher ratings; political blogs and websites, which get more hits; and campaign fundraisers, who find it easier to raise money. They also note that many now engaged in politics simply aren't old enough to remember a time when political opponents could regularly talk in a civil fashion to folks across the aisle, reach a compromise and get things done. Offering advice on ways to achieve consensus, they predict Americans are tired of black-or-white politicalbattling and will want to elect the "most competent and least ideological" presidential candidate in 2008. Polarization will always be with us, they acknowledge-but at the fringe of the political spectrum, not the center. A welcome invitation to civility and reason.

Preface to the Paperback Edition     vii
Introduction     1
Preface: Who We are     15
"Why I Am a Liberal"   Bob Beckel     17
"Why I Am a Conservative"   Cal Thomas     23
Where We are     27
The People vs. the Polarization of American Politics     29
The Polarization of American Politics     38
"The Rest of Us"     46
Congressional Stories     55
The Parties     61
The Press, Fund-raisers, and Myths     69
The Gathering Storms     85
Storm Clouds from the South     87
A Circular Firing Squad     94
"I'll Never Lie to You"     99
Roe v. Wade     103
The Reagan Revolution     109
Storms     115
Iran-Contra and Bob Bork: The Peace Ends     117
The Politics of Personal Destruction     126
Polarization's Poster Children: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush     131
Clinton Years/Clinton Wars     134
Clinton's Revenge     143
George Bush Rides In     146
War Abroad and War at Home     151
The Way We were     163
A Change of Culture     165
When Adults Were in Charge     169
Bipartisanship     174
The Power of the Parlor     177
Common Ground     183
Common Ground: Slogan or Choice?     185
Common Ground: A Campaign Guide for 2008     193
Selling Common Ground     204
Thoughts and Conclusions     251
Epilogue     259
Acknowledgments     263
Index     265

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Peace Power Righteousness or Down and Dirty

Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto

Author: Taiaiake Alfred

This book challenges the contemporary wisdom on Aboriginal governance. It argues that indigenous peoples must return to their political traditions and use these traditions to educate a new generation of leaders committed to values and the preservation of indigenous nationhood.

New interesting book: A Practical Guide to Developing Resistance Training Programs or A Guide to Child Health

Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency

Author: Jake Tapper

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

	Preface
1	Do you get the feeling that Florida might be important in this election?	3
2	You don't have to be snippy about it	23
3	Do you remember us hitting anything?	41
4	Palm Beach County is a Pat Buchanan stronghold	61
5	That limp-dicked motherfucker	90
6	You fucking sandbagged me	109
7	etc., etc	132
8	I'm willing to go to jail	167
9	We need to write something down	204
10	You know what I dreamed of today?	220
11	Es un circo	229
12	Arrest Him! Arrest Him!	251
13	We're fucked!	282
14	This has to be the most important thing	309
15	Like getting nibbled to death by a duck	328
16	We're going to massacre them	356
17	You were relying on the Gore legal team to give you the straight facts, weren't you?	367
18	Subject: gore clean up	392
19	A little matter down the road	411
20	Boy, that was some Election Night, huh?	425
	Postscript: The Plot to Steal the Presidency	467
	Notes	481
App	The Unfiled Gore Brief of December 13, 2000	483
	Index	505

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Everything You Think You Know about Politicsand Why Youre Wrong or Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington 1837 1863

Everything You Think You Know about Politics...and Why You're Wrong

Author: Kathleen Hall Jamieson

Here, at last, is the book for anyone who ever wondered how the media extravaganzas we call political campaigns really work. Everything You Think You Know About Politics…and Why You're Wrong explores why the American public, seemingly so eager for "unspun" information about candidates and their positions, invariably ends up feeling manipulated by our political process.Challenging the reader with strategically placed quizzes, well-known commentator on the media and politics Kathleen Hall Jamieson surveys the existing public record on voting patterns, campaign promises, and all manner of electioneering and comes up with an engaging mix of analysis, surprising factoids, and political cartoons. This book separates the facts from the convenient fictions that deter Americans from caring about the processes and outcomes of elections.

Library Journal

With the assistance of a team of researchers, JamiesonDwho is dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Packaging the PresidencyDpresents a collection of essays that empirically challenge some widespread political assumptions. The findings are extrapolated from the Annenberg Campaign Mapping Project, the most thorough investigation conducted of modern presidential campaigns, which was based on analyses of 2,535 speeches, 880 ads, and 23 debates. The author stresses the importance of campaigns: presidents work hard to keep their campaign promises, or voters will penalize them. Campaign ads are important, and negative ads are useful when they criticize an opponent's policies. Televised news is racially biased, one of her studies reveals: persons of color are more likely to be portrayed as perpetrators and whites as victims, although most crimes are intra- and not interracial. The optimistic Jamieson disputes the unsubstantiated view of a broken political system manipulated by scheming politicians who run rampant over an apathetic electorate. This scholarly yet accessible appraisal is recommended for academic and larger public libraries.DKarl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Focusing on the media-shaped perceptions of the American public, Jamieson (communication and public policy, University of Pennsylvania) explores feelings of manipulation in politics. Based on information of the last two presidential elections, she surveys the existing public record on voting patterns, campaign promises, polling, soundbites, negative ads, and election strategies. Jamieson's analysis focuses on the content and effects of campaigns, the use of advertising, and the influence of the news media. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Christian Science Monitor - Chinni

[Jamieson] does an excellent job of looking at how political bias in the newsroom affects coverage...at the very least there is honest information and, in the endless spin cycle of Washington, that's no small thing.

The New York Observer - Stephen Metcalf

Ms Jamieson is widely regarded as one of the finest critics of media and politics in the United States, and has produced a book that will doubtless serve as the vade mecum for the upcoming campaign season...Ms. Jamieson's book is remarkable in its own assiduously researched, often tightly argues way. The sections on local news coverage and the defeat of the McCain tobacco bill are superb.

New interesting book: The Spanish Kitchen or Thai Cooking

Abe Lincoln Goes to Washington 1837-1863

Author: Cheryl Harness

From Lincoln's early practice of law in Springfield, Illinois, through his election to the Presidency of the eve of the Civil War, to his untimely assassination, Harness weaves an enormous amount of information into this compelling picture of our 16th President's public and private life. Readers see Lincoln happy and gangly during his first dance with Mary Todd, playful with his young sons, and strong under pressure as he drafts the Emancipation Proclamation and delivers the Gettysburg Address.

Publishers Weekly

Picking up right where she left off in Young Abe Lincoln, Harness begins the second installment of her biography in 1837, as the 28-year-old state legislator rides into Springfield, Ill. The conversational narrative sets the milestones of Lincoln's personal life into the wider political and economic developments of his turbulent times, following him through career setbacks, his ascension to the White House and leadership during the Civil War, and ending with his assassination. Able as the text is, it is Harness's paintings that most vividly convey Lincoln's private and public personalities. Her densely populated pictures alternate between sweeping scenes (a curious Illinois crowd listening to Lincoln debate Stephen A. Douglas; the President greeted by newly freed slaves as he walks the streets of the fallen Confederate capital) and close-up glimpses of her subject with his cherished family, as he romps on the parlor floor with his boys and anxiously keeps vigil at his dying son's bedside. Illustrated and extensively captioned maps will help young audiences measure the progress of the war and understand the impact of specific battles. Solid storytelling meets sound history. Ages 5-up. (Feb.)

School Library Journal

K-Gr 4A richly illustrated and well-researched history. Harness's text is full of facts about Lincoln's family life and political career. Even more facts and situations are presented visually in the paintings that surround and envelope the printed words. While some of the darkest moments of Lincoln's life (his depression and his marital problems) are not mentioned, the death of his beloved son Willie and his assassination are important parts of the story. Portraits, names, maps of Civil War sites and the division of North and South, borders, scrolls, banners, slogans, and dramatic scenes engage the eye and colorfully enrich the story. There is so much detail to see and absorb that the book calls for individual reading rather than reading aloud. There is substance enough for reports, but the emphasis on details of Lincoln's personal life and the elaborate, full-color visuals invite reading for interest as well. While there are undoubtedly many biographies of Lincoln on every library's shelves, Harness's individualized book design makes this a fine purchase.Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ

Kirkus Reviews

To the growing number of picture-book biographies add this sequel to Young Abe Lincoln (1996) that covers the latter half of Lincoln's life. From the tall, lanky new lawyer who tucked his papers inside his stovepipe hat to the president who led a divided country through civil war, Harness profiles a personal and political Lincoln in a variety of settings and states of mind. Her informal style lends a familiarity to the narrative, interspersing quotes, excerpts, anecdotes, and speeches into the straightforward story line. Without romanticizing Lincoln's role in history, the author allows this larger-than-life president to be human by presenting the anguish and torment he suffered at home as well as in his role as president during a time of civil war. Illustrated maps rife with captions and dates outline the chronology of events and provide a jumping-off point for more serious war buffs. An enormous amount of information and a number of complex issues are pared down to an approachable, satisfying sketch of the simple country lawyer who became "Father Abraham, the Emancipator."

Monday, February 2, 2009

Christianity and the Constitution or New Frontiers of Jihad

Christianity and the Constitution: The Faith of Our Founding Fathers

Author: John Eidsmo

John Eidsmoe rights the faulty historical record and correctly brings us back to the roots that made America great . . . clearly demonstrates that our constitutional liberties are a direct result of our founders' moral and religious convictions which were based on a belief in a God who created heaven and earth as well as on the fixed and unchanging absolutes of God's Word.
Robert Skolrood, National Legal Foundation

Legally accurate yet easy to understand . . . presents the truth about our founding fathers and their strong Christian roots that is missing from most textbooks and reference books written during the last fifty years. Every student of American history, ministers, and public speakers should read this book. . . .
Tim LaHaye, Family Life Seminars

Combines an interesting presentation with fine scholarship and a critical m message . . . should be read by anyone interested in the Constitution or Christianity.
Wendell Bird, constitutional attorney

Knowledge of our Christian heritage is an important weapon in the current fight for religious freedom in America. Eidsmoe has given us an entire arsenal of new and important evidence substantiating the Christian roots of our government.
Mike Farris, Home School Legal Defense Association

Balanced and lucid . . . clearly documents the pervasive Christian influence on the lives and thought of those who wrote our Constitution. I recommend it highly as a corrective to the almost totally secular portrayal of the Constitution found in so many textbooks today.
Paul Vitz, author

John Eidsmoe holds five degrees in law, theology, and political science. He currently serves as professor ofconstitutional law and related subjects at the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, Faulkner University, Montgomery, Alabama, where he received the Outstanding Professor Award in 1993. A constitutional attorney and lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, he has also taught church history and other subjects in various seminaries and has produced a twelve-part video series titled The Institute on the Constitution. His other books include The Christian Legal Advisor, God and Caesar, and Columbus and Cortez.

Go to: Cooking with Country Music Stars or Selling em by the Sack

New Frontiers of Jihad: Radical Islam in Europe

Author: Alison Pargeter

Alison Pargeter examines how radical ideology travels from East to West and how the two contexts shape each other. She finds that, contrary to what some analysts have claimed, local rather than global concerns still preoccupy those involved in militant Islam, and national differences and rivalries dominate the scene. Middle Eastern power struggles are now being played out in the mosques of Birmingham, Paris and Milan. She shows how apparently spontaneous expressions of radicalism, such as the cartoon controversy, are in fact driven by political conflicts between different factions in the Middle East. Unravelling the networks behind events like Madrid, 7/7, and the French Metro bombings, she reveals some surprising connections and explores the reasons why young men in Europe are becoming tied up in the world of militant Islamism.

Publishers Weekly

Rejecting the conventional wisdom that the European jihad is monolithic and rooted in local conditions (alienation, marginalization), Pargeter argues that it is instead "plagued by division, petty infighting, and battles of ego," and is "shaped by powers outside the continent." The book's careful analysis demonstrates that the initial wave of radical Islam in Europe in the 1980s was rooted in political struggles against secular governments in the Middle East and that the continent evolved over time into a base "to assist the struggle back home." Even after 9/11, the author claims that the popular notion of a global jihad remains a myth, and after analyzing the terror attacks in Madrid and London, concludes that the evidence linking the perpetrators with al-Qaeda is speculative at best. Pargeter is careful to note that the radicals are a minority within a minority, and her prescription for understanding and combating radical Islam in Europe is to look first to "conditions in the Islamic world." Local "counter-radicalization strategies," she argues, can not work in isolation. Provocative, timely and well-reasoned, Pargeter's iconoclastic views deserve a wide audience.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Iraq War or Native Vote

The Iraq War: A Military History

Author: Williamson Murray

In this unprecedented account of the intensive air and ground operations in Iraq, two of America's most distinguished military historians bring clarity and depth to the first major war of the new millennium. Reaching beyond the blaring headlines, embedded videophone reports, and daily Centcom briefings, Williamson Murray and Robert Scales analyze events in light of past military experiences, present battleground realities, and future expectations.

The Iraq War puts the recent conflict into context. Drawing on their extensive military expertise, the authors assess the opposing aims of the Coalition forces and the Iraqi regime and explain the day-to-day tactical and logistical decisions of infantry and air command, as British and American troops moved into Basra and Baghdad. They simultaneously step back to examine long-running debates within the U.S. Defense Department about the proper uses of military power and probe the strategic implications of those debates for America's buildup to this war. Surveying the immense changes that have occurred in America's armed forces between the Gulf conflicts of 1991 and 2003—changes in doctrine as well as weapons—this volume reveals critical meanings and lessons about the new "American way of war" as it has unfolded in Iraq.

The New York Times

… The Iraq War is an excellent overview of the American military campaign itself. Operation Iraqi Freedom was an extremely complicated and fast-moving campaign -- one that did not lend itself to being understood in bite-size pieces, as most Americans experienced it from television news reports. For this reason, while the embedded journalists provided a wealth of tactical color that helped the average American understand certain aspects of the war, they did little to help the viewer comprehend the operational maneuvering of American forces and the rationale behind those actions.

Murray and Scales make sense of the various events of the war and put them in their proper context -- spatially, chronologically and thematically. In a way that the disconnected reports of the embedded journalists could not, they are able to convey just how remarkable this military campaign was -- and why. — Kenneth M. Pollack

Publishers Weekly

The practice of "embedding" journalists in combat units provided a good deal of spectacular, timely footage, but tended to restrict insight to the frontline perspective of riflemen and vehicle crews. Murray and Scales provide a lucid and leavened look at the larger-scale forces shaping the war. Murray (A War to Be Won), currently a fellow at the Institute of Defense Analysis, is an eminent military historian, and Scales (Yellow Smoke), a retired major general and former commandant of the Army War College, is a familiar commentator on security issues. In this operational history, they eschew discussion of such abstractions as whether the war was a "revolution in military affairs." Instead, they show how, since the Gulf War of 1991, each of the services (army, air force, navy and marines) improved its mastery of the craft of war: individually integrating technology, training, and doctrine while at the same time cultivating a "jointness" that eroded, if it did not quite eliminate, traditional rivalries at the operational level. The result, they argue, was a virtuoso performance in 2003 that did not depend on Iraqi ineffectiveness, a model exercise in maneuver warfare at the operational level that stands comparison with any large-scale operation in terms of effectiveness and economy. The authors complement their work with competent surveys of Iraq's history and of how the U.S. armed forces recovered from the Vietnam debacle, and with an excellent appendix describing the weapons systems that dominated America's television screens. While the short duration of the war's main push-three weeks from start to finish-works against systematic analysis, and there will be much more material to surface and be sifted in the coming years, Murray and Scales set the standard for future works. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and the Right to Vote

Author: Daniel McCool

The right to vote is the foundation of democratic government; all other policies are derived from it. The history of voting rights in America has been characterized by a gradual expansion of the franchise. American Indians are an important part of that story but have faced a prolonged battle to gain the franchise. One of the most important tools wielded by advocates of minority voting rights has been the Voting Rights Act. This book explains the history and expansion of Indian voting rights, with an emphasis on seventy cases based on the Voting Rights Act and/or the Equal Protection Clause. The authors describe the struggle to obtain Indian citizenship and the basic right to vote, then analyze the cases brought under the Voting Rights Act, including three case studies. The final two chapters assess the political impact of these cases and the role of American Indians in contemporary politics.

	"You've got to be taught ..."	3
	"For the violence done in Lebanon ..."	32
	"I knew what he was thinking ..."	61
	"I believe in the sun ..."	93
	"Like a soccer goalkeeper ..."	128
	"Doing something illegal to be legal ..."	161
	"God keep our land glorious and free! ..."	185
	"Rise for Jihad! ..."	218

	Preface
	Acknowledgments
Ch. 1	Migration Patterns	1
Ch. 2	Germans Around the World	50
Ch. 3	Japanese Around the World	105
Ch. 4	Italians Around the World	140
Ch. 5	The Overseas Chinese	175
Ch. 6	Jews of the Diaspora	234
Ch. 7	The Overseas Indians	309
Ch. 8	History and Cultures	371
	Notes	393
	Index	503

	Prologue: The Gulf War, 1991	1
1	The Origins of War	15
2	The Opposing Sides	45
3	The Ground Campaign in Southern Iraq	88
4	The British War in the South	129
5	The Air War	154
6	The End of the Campaign	184
7	Military and Political Implications	234
	Weapons of War	259
	Notes	294
	Acknowledgments and Sources	298
	Index	301

	List of Photographs
	Introduction
1	The DP Camps of Europe	3
2	Haifa	45
3	Cyprus	101
4	Port-de-Bouc	131
5	Hamburg	181
	Epilogue	187
	Afterword	189
	Acknowledgments	191
	Index	195

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Blog Archive

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China's Territorial Disputes

Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil

The Washington Post - Daniel Byman

Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents:

Friday, February 20, 2009

The Selected Political Writings of John Locke (Norton Critical Editions Series)

Global Financial Warriors: The Untold Story of International Finance in the Post-9/11 World

The Washington Post - Jeffrey E. Garten

Library Journal

Table of Contents:

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Anthropology of Development and Globalization

The Greek Wars: The Failure of Persia

Table of Contents:

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Table of Contents:

Chutes and Ladders: Navigating the Low-Wage Labor Market

Library Journal

What People Are Saying

Monday, February 16, 2009

Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage

Publishers Weekly

National Review

New York Sun

Bob Nardini - Library Journal

What People Are Saying

Table of Contents:

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

The Washington Post - Richard A. Clarke

Publishers Weekly

Sketches from a Life

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Trade Regulation: Cases and Materials (University Casebook Series)

Table of Contents:

Friday, February 13, 2009

Voltaire in Exile: The Last Years, 1753-78

Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery

The New York Times - Marilynne Robinson

Library Journal

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Forensic Science Handbook, Volume 1

Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Migrations and Cultures: A World View

New York Times Book Review

Publishers Weekly

What People Are Saying

Table of Contents:

One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All

Monday, February 9, 2009

In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

The New York Times - Max Boot

Publishers Weekly

Exodus 1947: The Ship That Launched a Nation

Table of Contents:

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The New Transnational Activism

International Business Transactions: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Living My Life

Library Journal

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage