Congress Book

Oxymorons or The Affirmative Action Empire

2009-12-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System

Author: J D Kleink

In this impassioned and often vitriolic book - a follow-up to the author's bestselling Bleeding Edge: The Business of Health Care in the New Century - U.S. health care industry expert J.D. Kleinke offers an unflinching look at our broken health care system. Throughout the book, Kleinke - who was once a vocal advocate of the managed health care system - explains what went wrong and attempts to answer such perplexing questions as:

Who's in charge of the American health care system?
How does managed care work . . . or not work?
Why have hospitals become so complex?
What are the prospects for reform?
Does the Internet change anything?
Can we solve the growing problem of the uninsured?

	Preface
	Acknowledgments
	About the Author
1	Wars, Strikes, Riots, and Acts of Congress	1
2	Playing with the Boss's Money	27
3	The HMO Will See You Now	51
4	The Health Care Jobs Program	83
5	Chaos in the Clinic	107
6	Vaporware.com	133
7	A "System" for the Uninsured	165
8	A Simple Plan	177
9	Personal Effects	201
	References	207
	Index	215

The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union,1923-1939

Author: Terry Martin

The Soviet Union was the first of Europe's multiethnic states to confront the rising tide of nationalism by systematically promoting the national consciousness of its ethnic minorities and establishing for them many of the institutional forms characteristic of the modern nation-state. In the 1920s, the Bolshevik government, seeking to defuse nationalist sentiment, created tens of thousands of national territories. It trained new national leaders, established national languages, and financed the production of national-language cultural products.

This was a massive and fascinating historical experiment in governing a multiethnic state. Terry Martin provides a comprehensive survey and interpretation, based on newly available archival sources, of the Soviet management of the nationalities question. He traces the conflicts and tensions created by the geographic definition of national territories, the establishment of dozens of official national languages, and the world's first mass "affirmative action" programs.

Martin examines the contradictions inherent in the Soviet nationality policy, which sought simultaneously to foster the growth of national consciousness among its minority populations while dictating the exact content of their cultures; to sponsor national liberation movements in neighboring countries, while eliminating all foreign influence on the Soviet Union's many diaspora nationalities. Martin explores the political logic of Stalin's policies as he responded to a perceived threat to Soviet unity in the 1930s by re-establishing the Russians as the state's leading nationality and deporting numerous "enemy nations."

About the Author:
Terry Martin is Assistant Professor of History at Harvard University.

New Yorker

In the popular imagination, the Soviet Union was always synonymous with Russia, but in the U.S.S.R.'s early days Soviet leaders had a very different idea in mind: they wanted to establish a true multinational, multi-ethnic empire. To that end, they attacked Russian nationalism as a vestige of Tsarism, and instituted a set of policies that looked very much like affirmative action, enforcing the use of local languages and fostering the development of ethnic leaders, even at the cost of discriminating against Russians. Yet, as Martin shows in this fascinating history, simply giving an order was not enough, even in the Stalin years, and the complex relationship between socialism and nationalism in places like Ukraine often frustrated Soviet intentions. More important, ethnicity, once fostered, was frequently a counterweight to, rather than a bulwark of, Communist ideology; although Stalin remained rhetorically committed to the multi-state idea, he ended up terrorizing those ethnic leaders he saw as threats.

Force of the Example or Handbook of Public Finance

2009-12-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

Force of the Example: Explorations in the Paradigm of Judgment

Author: Alessandro Ferrara

During the twentieth century, the view that assertions and norms are valid insofar as they respond to principles independent of all local and temporal contexts came under attack from two perspectives: the partiality of translation and the intersubjective constitution of the self, understood as responsive to recognition. Defenses of universalism have by and large taken the form of a thinning out of substantive universalism into various forms of proceduralism.

Alessandro Ferrara instead launches an entirely different strategy for transcending the particularity of context without contradicting our pluralistic intuitions: a strategy centered on the exemplary universalism of judgment. Whereas exemplarity has long been thought to belong to the domain of aesthetics, this book explores the other uses to which it can be put in our philosophical predicament, especially in the field of politics. After defining exemplarity and describing how something unique can possess universal significance, Ferrara addresses the force exerted by exemplarity, the nature of the judgment that discloses exemplarity, and the way in which the force of the example can bridge the difference between various contexts.

Drawing not only on Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment but also on the work of Hannah Arendt, John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, and Jürgen Habermas, Ferrara outlines a view of exemplary validity that is applicable to today's central philosophical issues, including public reason, human rights, radical evil, sovereignty, republicanism and liberalism, and religion in the public sphere.

New interesting textbook: Convicted In The Womb or Battleground Chicago

Handbook of Public Finance

Author: J Backhaus

The Handbook of Public Finance provides a definitive source, reference, and text for the field of public finance. In 18 chapters it surveys the state of the art - the tradition and breadth of the field but also its current status and recent developments. The Handbook's intellectual foundation and orientation is truly multidisciplinary. Throughout its examination of the standard material of public finance, it explores the connections between that material and such neighboring fields as political science, sociology, law, and public administration.

The editors and contributors to the Handbook are distinguished scholars who write clearly and accessibly about the political economy of government budgets and their policy implications. To address the needs and interests of international scholars, they place European issues next to the American agenda and give attention to the issues of transformation in Central Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

General Editors: Jürgen G. Backhaus, University of Erfurt
Richard E. Wagner, George Mason University
Contributors: Andy H. Barnett, Charles B. Blankart, Thomas E. Borcherding, Rainald Borck, Geoffrey Brennan, Giuseppe Eusepi, J. Stephen Ferris, Fred E. Folvary, Andrea Garzoni, Heinz Grossekettaler, Walter Hettich, Scott Hinds, Randall G. Holcombe, Jean-Michel Josselin, Carla Marchese, Alain Marciano, William S. Peirce, Nicholas Sanchez, David Schap, A. Allan Schmid, Russell S. Sobel, Stanley L. Winer, Bruce Yandle.

The Plain and Noble Garb of Truth or The British Empire

2009-12-04T00:31:00.000-08:00

The Plain and Noble Garb of Truth: Nationalism and Impartiality in American Historical Writing, 1784-1860

Author: Eileen Ka May Cheng

American historians of the early national period, argues Eileen Ka-May Cheng, grappled with objectivity, professionalism, and other "modern" issues to a greater degree than their successors in later generations acknowledge. Her extensive readings of antebellum historians show that, by the 1820s, a small but influential group of practitioners had begun to develop many of the doctrines and concerns that undergird contemporary historical practice. The Plain and Noble Garb of Truth challenges the entrenched notion that America's first generations of historians were romantics or propagandists for a struggling young nation.

New interesting textbook: Weekend Cooking or James Beards Shellfish

The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset

Author: Philippa Levin

This is a meticulous and energetic synthesis that has the hallmarks of Levine's scholarship: narrative cogency, attention to gender and sexuality and broad geographical sweep. For those convinced that the British Empire was acquired in a 'fit of absence of mind', this is a carefully plotted and empirically grounded rejoinder. Antoinette Burton, Catherine C. and Bruce A. Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies, The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

This is an excellent history. I am very impressed by its breadth, its readability, and the strong narrative that is produced of the rise and fall of the British Empire... The story is so complex that it is a triumph to make it so accessible. Professor Catherine Hall, University College London

Violent, powerful, vast: the British Empire affected everyone who lived within its sphere. Colonialism’s impact could be felt in every aspect of life: food, language, work and education.

The empire is typically viewed as distant and tropical; by contrast, this book examines the effects of the empire on men, women and children across the globe: both those under imperial rule and those who implemented it. Looking beyond politics and diplomacy, Philippa Levine combines a traditional approach to colonial history with an investigation of the experience of living within the empire.

Spanning the period from Cromwell’s rule to decolonization in the late twentieth century, and including an extensive chronology for ease of reference, Levine considers the impact of British rule for people in Africa, India and Australia, as well as for the English rulers, and forthe Welsh, Scots and Irish who were subject to 'internal colonialism' under the English yoke. Imperialism often led to serious unrest; Levine examines the cruel side of imperialism’s purportedly 'civilizing' mission unflinchingly.

Comprehensive, subtle and innovative, The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset tells the human story of colonialism alongside the political drama.

Philippa Levine is a professor at the University of Southern California. She has written and edited several books, including Gender and Empire (2004), Prostitution, Race and Politics: Policing Veneral Disease in the British Empire (2003), Women’s Suffrage in the British Empire (2000) and Feminist Lives in Victorian England (1990).

List of illustrations     vi
List of maps     vii
Preface     ix
Acknowledgements     xi
Publisher's acknowledgements     xii
Uniting the kingdom     1
Slaves, merchants and trade     13
Settling the 'New World'     31
After America     43
Britain in India     61
Global growth     82
Ruling an empire     103
Being ruled     123
Gender and sexuality     142
Contesting empire     166
Decolonization     191
Further reading     210
Chronology     220
Index     244

The Moral Imagination or Postcolonial Disorders

2009-12-02T19:19:00.000-08:00

The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace

Author: John Paul Lederach

John Paul Lederach's work in the field of conciliation and mediation is internationally recognized. As founding Director of the Conflict Transformation Program and Institute of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, he has provided consultation and direct mediation in a range of situations from the Miskito/Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua to Somalia, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country, and the Philippines. His influential 1997 book Building Peace has become a classic in the discipline. This new book represents his thinking and learning over the past several years. He explores the evolution of his understanding of peacebuilding by reflecting on his own experiences in the field. Peacebuilding, in his view, is both a learned skill and an art. Finding this art, he says, requires a worldview shift. Conflict professionals must envision their work as a creative act - an exercise of what Lederach terms the "moral imagination."

1	On stating the problem and thesis	3
2	On touching the moral imagination : four stories	7
3	On this moment : turning points	21
4	On simplicity and complexity : finding the essence of peacebuilding	31
5	On peace accords : image of a line in time	41
6	On the gift of pessimism : insights from the geographies of violence	51
7	On aesthetics : the art of social change	65
8	On space : life in the Web	75
9	On mass and movement : the theory of the critical yeast	87
10	On Web watching : finding the soul of place	101
11	On serendipity : the gift of accidental sagacity	113
12	On time : the past that lies before us	131
13	On Pied Pipers : imagination and creativity	151
14	On vocation : the mystery of risk	163
15	On conclusions : the imperative of the moral imagination	171
	Epilogue : a conversation	179

New interesting textbook: Explorer Extraordinaire or Fancy Nancy

Postcolonial Disorders

Author: Mary Jo DelVecchio Good

The essays in this volume reflect on the nature of subjectivity in the diverse places where anthropologists work at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Contributors explore everyday modes of social and psychological experience, the constitution of the subject, and forms of subjection that shape the lives of Basque youth, Indonesian artists, members of nongovernmental HIV/AIDS programs in China and the Republic of Congo, psychiatrists and the mentally ill in Morocco and Ireland, and persons who have suffered trauma or been displaced by violence in the Middle East and in South and Southeast Asia.
Painting on book jacket by Entang Wiharso

George Washingtons War on Native America or The Politics Presidents Make

2009-12-01T13:56:00.000-08:00

George Washington's War on Native America

Author: Barbara Alice Mann

The Revolutionary War is ordinarily presented as a conflict exclusively between colonists and the British, fought along the northern Atlantic seacoast. This important work recounts the tragic events on the forgotten Western front of the American Revolution--a war fought against and ultimately won by Native America. The Natives, primarily the Iroquois League and the Ohio Union, are erroneously presented in history texts as "allies" (or lackeys) of the British, but Native America was working from its own internally generated agenda: to prevent settlers from invading the Old Northwest. Native America won the war in the West, holding the land west and north of the Allegheny-Ohio River systems. While the British may have awarded these lands to the colonists in the Treaty of Paris, the Native Americans did not concur. Throughout the war, the unwavering goal of the Revolutionary Army, under George Washington, and their associated settler militias was to break the power of the Iroquois League, which had successfully held off invasion for the preceding two centuries, and the newly formed Ohio Union. To destroy the Natives in the way of land seizure, Washington authorized a series of rampages intended to destroy the League and the Union by starvation. Food, livestock, homes, and trees were destroyed, first in the New York breadbaskets, then in the Ohio granaries--spreading famine across Native lands. Uncounted thousands of Natives perished from New York to Pennsylvania to Ohio. This book tells how, in the wake of the massive assaults, the Natives held back the American onslaught.

Interesting textbook: Think Big or The Teenage Investor

The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton

Author: Stephen Skowronek

Stephen Skowronek's wholly innovative study demonstrates that presidents are persistent agents of change, continually disrupting and transforming the political landscape. In an afterword to this new edition, the author examines "third way" leadership as it has been practiced by Bill Clinton and others. These leaders are neither great repudiators nor orthodox innovators. They challenge received political categories, mix seemingly antithetical doctrines, and often take their opponents' issues as their own. As the 1996 election confirmed, third way leadership has great electoral appeal. The question is whether Clinton in his second term will escape the convulsive end so often associated with the type.

Culture and Materialism or Total Lobbying

2009-11-30T08:43:00.000-08:00

Culture and Materialism

Author: Raymond Williams

A comprehensive introduction to the work of one of the outstanding intellectuals of the twentieth century.

Books about: Someday Well All Be Free or Arms and Influence

Total Lobbying: What Lobbyists Want (and How They Try to Get It)

Author: Anthony J Nownes

This book offers a scholarly yet accessible overview of the role of lobbying in American politics. It draws upon extant research as well as original data gathered from interviews with numerous lobbyists across the United States. It describes how lobbyists do their work within all branches of government, at the national, state, and local levels. It thus offers a substantially broader view of lobbying than is available in much of the research literature. Although tailored for students taking courses on interest group politics, Total Lobbying offers an indispensable survey of the field for scholars and others concerned with this important facet of American politics.

Tenured Radicals 3rd Edition or This Little Light of Mine

2009-11-29T03:31:00.000-08:00

Tenured Radicals, 3rd Edition: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education

Author: Roger Kimball

Since Tenured Radicals first appeared in 1990, it has achieved a stature as the leading critique of the ways in which the humanities are now taught and studied in American universities. Trenchant and witty, it lays bare the sham of what now passes for serious academic pursuit in too many circles. In this new edition, completely reset, Roger Kimball has brought the text up to date and has added a new Introduction.

Interesting book: The Complete Idiots Guide to Digital Video or Pragmatic Version Control

This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

Author: Kay Mills

" WITH A FOREWORD BY MARION WRIGHT EDELMAN The award-winning biography of black civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. "Riveting. Provides a history that helps us to understand the choices made by so many black men and women of Hamer's generation, who somehow found the courage to join a movement in which they risked everything." --New York Times Book Review "One is forced to pause and consider that this black daughter of the Old South might have been braver than King and Malcolm." --Washington Post Book World "An epic that nurtures us as we confront today's challenges and helps us Keep Hope Alive.'" --Jesse L. Jackson "Not only does This Little Light of Mine recount a vital part of America"s history, but it lights our future as readers are inspired anew by Mrs. Hamer's spirit, courage, and commitment." --Marian Wright Edelman "This book is the essence of raw courage. It must be read." --Rep. John Lewis

Publishers Weekly

An unlettered Mississippi cotton-picker, Fannie Lou Hamer (1918-1977) led the black Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic Convention and was, to many in the civil rights movement, ``the most inspirational person they ever knew.'' In this thorough, sensitive biography, Mills ( A Place in the News ) shows Hamer inspired by her mother and her faith, propelled by anger at her unbidden sterilization and sustained by deeply spiritual, invoking songs, like the one that serves as this book's title. Drawing on published sources and interviews with principals, Mills reconstructs the efforts of civil rights activists to register fearful rural voters, depicts how Hamer shifted ``from private outrage to public person'' and describes how her politics evolved to include social reconstruction. Mills doesn't ignore complexities: she details controversies over Hamer's role in a local Mississippi Head Start program and in a race for Democratic national committeewoman and indicates that certain middle-class blacks were alienated from her. The book emphasizes Hamer's public life more than her private one; Mills notes that Hamer rarely spoke about her family. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)

Michael Rogers - Library Journal

Hamer was a poor, uneducated Southern black woman who was literally treated worse than her employer's dog. When the Civil Rights Movement flowered in the early 1960s, Hamer exclaimed she was "sick and tired of being sick and tired" (she has coined this phrase) and took action. She started many programs to help the poor gain better housing and job training, founded the National Women's Political Caucus, was the first black delegate at a national political convention since Reconstruction, and much, much more. Although not as well known as other Civil Rights figures, Hamer did as much for that cause as anyone. This edition of Mills's 1994 biography contains a new foreword by children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman. A solid addition for biography, civil rights, and African American studies collections in public and academic libraries.

Library Journal

Journalist Mills has written a moving, inspiring biography of black activist Fannie Lou Hamer. The daughter and wife of poor Mississippi sharecroppers, Hamer was ``converted'' to the Civil Rights movement after attending a mass voter-registration meeting in 1962. For the next 15 years, she was in the forefront of major struggles in Mississippi involving voter registration and economic and educational rights for its black citizens. To Mills, Hamer's ability to influence people came from a combination of energy, powerful public speaking, and an extraordinary talent in music and singing. While hardly perfect (she lacked organizational skills and too often refused to compromise), Fannie Lou Hamer was an inspiration to thousands of ``foot soldiers'' in the movement. This beautifully written tribute is highly recommended.-- Anthony O. Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, Ind.

School Library Journal

YA-A biography that captures the pain, sorrow, and joy of a spirited woman who fought for basic human rights. Born into a black sharecroppers' family in rural Mississippi, Hamer was always reaching out; as a child she would hop off a truck to retrieve a scrap of paper so she would have something to read. Undeterred by the threat of personal injury and the loss of her job, she organized and encouraged members of her race to register to vote. Mills chronicles Hamer's life and her resilience in the face of setbacks, showing how her indomitable light continues to shine.- Mary I. Quinn, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Homeland Security and Terrorism or Being Arab

2009-11-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

Homeland Security and Terrorism

Author: Russell D Howard

The McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Series draws on frontline government, military, and business experts to detail what individuals and businesses can and must do to understand and move forward in this challenging new environment. Books in this timely and noteworthy series will cover everything from the balance between freedom and safety to strategies for protection of intellectual, business, and personal property to structures and goals of terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda.

Homeland Security and Terrorism is a comprehensive collection of essays and articles addressing the problems and solutions of maintaining openness and freedom in American society, while providing protection against future terrorist incidents. Noted contributors including former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating discuss relevant matters from the changing relationships and responsibilities among government, industry, and private citizens to strategies for minimizing tensions between establishing defensive measures and the financial and societal costs of those matters.

Brigadier General (retired) Russell Howard, a career Special Forces officer, is the former Head of the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy. He has had numerous antiterror and counterterror responsibilities and has taught and published books and articles on terrorism subjects.

James Forest is the Director of Terrorism Studies and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Military Academy. His teaching, research and publications focus on terrorist recruitment and training.

Major Joanne Moore is a career Army officer, currently serving in Iraq. Until recently, she served as anassistant professor of political science at the U.S. Military Academy, teaching courses on American politics and homeland security.

Being Arab

Author: Samir Kassir

A passionate meditation on contemporary Arab identity.

Being Arab is a brilliant exploration on what Samir Kassir describes as the "Arab malaise," the political and intellectual stagnation of the Arab world. In searching to understand how the region arrived at this point Kassir turns to the past, revisiting the Arab "golden age," the extraordinary nineteenth-century flowering of cultural expression that continued into the twentieth as, from Cairo to Baghdad and from Beirut to Casablanca, painters, poets, musicians, playwrights and novelists came together to create a new, living Arab culture. Investigating the huge impact of modernity on the region, and the accompanying shockwaves that turned society upside-down, Kassir suggests that the current crisis in Arab identity lies in the failure to come to terms with modernity, instead embracing false solutions such as pan-Arabism and Islamism. Being Arab is a clarion call, urging Arabs to confront their own history, to reject Western double standards and Islamism alike, and to take the future of the region into their own hands.

Jefferson and His Time or Hobbes

2009-11-26T17:08:00.000-08:00

Jefferson and His Time: Jefferson and the Rights of Man, Vol. 2

Author: Dumas Malon

The second volume in this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography tells the story of the eventful middle years in the life of Thomas Jefferson: his ministry to France in the years just before the French Revolution and during the early stages of that conflict; his service as secretary of state in President George Washington's first cabinet; the crucial period of his first differences with Alexander Hamilton and the beginnings of his long struggle with the Federalists.

	Introduction	xiii
	Chronology	xxv
	Lowest of the Diplomatic Tribe
I	Introduction to Paris	3
II	The Rebuffs of a Commissioner, 1784-1786	21
III	At the Court of Versailles, 1785-1787	33
IV	Confronting John Bull, 1786	50
	The Knowledge of Another World
V	Sentimental Adventure, 1786	67
VI	Minister of Enlightenment	82
VII	Traveling with a Purpose, 1787	112
VIII	The Jefferson Circle, 1787-1788	131
	The Rights of Man
IX	Considering the American Constitution, 1786-1789	153
X	In the Twilight of the Old Regime, 1787-1788	180
XI	A Diplomat Awaits His Leave, 1788-1789	203
XII	Revolution Begins and a Mission Ends, 1789	214
	In the Harness of State
XIII	The Return of a Virginian	241
XIV	New York and the Court of George Washington, 1790	256
XV	The Functions of the Secretary of State	269
XVI	Working with Hamilton, 1790	286
XVII	First Skirmishes over Foreign Policy	307
	The Struggle Within the Government
XVIII	Transition to Philadelphia	319
XIX	Foreign Commerce Becomes an Issue, 1791	327
XX	The Bank and the Constitution, 1791	337
XXI	Storm over the Rights of Man, 1791	351
XXII	Starting the Federal City	371
	A Feud Breaks out
XXIII	New Actors on the Diplomatic Stage, 1791-1792	391
XXIV	An American Champion Meets Disappointments, 1792	406
XXV	The Beginnings of Party Struggle, 1791-1792	420
XXVI	The Causes of Discontent, 1792	443
XXVII	Hamilton vs. Jefferson	457
XXVIII	An Election and Its Promise, 1792	478
	Acknowledgments	489
	List of Symbols and Short Titles Most Frequently Used in Footnotes	492
	Select Critical Bibliography	494
	Long Notes	505
	Index	509

Go to: Breaking the Barriers to Higher Economic Growth or The Physical Science Basis

Hobbes: On the Citizen

Author: Thomas Hobbes

De Cive (On the Citizen) is the first full exposition of the political thought of Thomas Hobbes, the greatest English political philosopher of all time. Professors Tuck and Silverthorne have undertaken the first complete translation since 1651, a rendition long thought (in error) to be at least sanctioned by Hobbes himself. On the Citizen is written in a clear, straightforward, expository style, offering students a more digestible account of Hobbes' political thought than even Leviathan itself. This new translation is itself a very significant scholarly event.

Terrorism and Counterterrorism or Multicultural Odysseys

2009-11-25T11:56:00.000-08:00

Terrorism and Counterterrorism

Author: Brigitte L Nacos

Focusing on the phenomenon of terrorism in the post-Cold War and post-9/11 era, Terrorism and Counterterrorism looks at this form of political violence in an international and American context and in light of new and historical trends. Broadly addressing the question “What is terrorism?,” Brigitte Nacos, a renowned expert in the field, clearly defines and discusses terrorism’s many causes, actors, and strategies as well as anti- and counter-terrorist responses. In addition, this text uniquely investigates terrorism’s relationship with the media and the public. Comprehensive and highly readable, Terrorism and Counterterrorism introduces students to key concepts in the study of terrorism and political violence and helps them challenge preconceptions of this complex and vital issue.

Book review: Guia de Escrita de Subvenção Eficaz:Como Escrever a Nih Grant Application Próspero

Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity

Author: Will Kymlicka

We are currently witnessing the global diffusion of multiculturalism, both as a political discourse and as a set of international legal norms. States today are under increasing international scrutiny regarding their treatment of ethnocultural groups, and are expected to meet evolving international standards regarding the rights of indigenous peoples, national minorities, and immigrants. This phenomenon represents a veritable revolution in international relations, yet has received little public or scholarly attention.
In this book, Kymlicka examines the factors underlying this change, and the challenges it raises. Against those critics who argue that multiculturalism is a threat to universal human rights, Kymlicka shows that the sort of multiculturalism that is being globalized is inspired and constrained by the human rights revolution, and embedded in a framework of liberal-democratic values.
However, the formulation and implementation of these international norms has generated a number of dilemmas. The policies adopted by international organizations to deal with ethnic diversity are driven by conflicting impulses. Pessimism about the destabilizing consequences of ethnic politics alternates with optimism about the prospects for a peaceful and democratic form of multicultural politics. The result is often an unstable mix of paralyzing fear and naive hope, rooted in conflicting imperatives of security and justice. Moreover, given the enormous differences in the characteristics of minorities (eg., their size, territorial concentration, cultural markers, historic relationship to the state), it is difficult to formulate standards that apply to all groups. Yet attempts toformulate more targeted norms that apply only to specific categories of minorities (eg., "indigenous peoples" or "national minorities") have proven controversial and unstable.
Kymlicka examines these dilemmas as they have played out in both the theory and practice of international minority rights protection, including recent developments regarding the rights of national minorities in Europe, the rights of indigenous peoples in the Americas, as well as emerging debates on multiculturalism in Asia and Africa.

Strong Borders Secure Nation or Lightning out of Lebanon

2009-02-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

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.

The Selected Political Writings of John Locke or Global Financial Warriors

2009-02-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

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

The Anthropology of Development and Globalization or The Greek Wars

2009-02-19T06:30:00.000-08:00

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

Rutherford B Hayes or Chutes and Ladders

2009-02-18T01:18:00.000-08:00

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)

Stalins Last Crime or Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

2009-02-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

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

Imperial Hubris or Sketches from a Life

2009-02-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

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.

The Arab and Jew or Trade Regulation

2009-02-14T09:39:00.000-08:00

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

Voltaire in Exile or Though the Heavens May Fall

2009-02-13T04:26:00.000-08:00

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.

Forensic Science Handbook Volume 1 or Masters of Deception

2009-02-11T23:14:00.000-08:00

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

Migrations and Cultures or One Nation Underprivileged

2009-02-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

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.

In Command of History or Exodus 1947

2009-02-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

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.

The New Transnational Activism or International Business Transactions

2009-02-08T07:37:00.000-08:00

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.

Living My Life or Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

2009-02-07T02:25:00.000-08:00

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

Strategies of Containment or Common Ground

2009-02-05T21:11:00.000-08:00

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

Peace Power Righteousness or Down and Dirty

2009-02-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-02-03T10:46:00.000-08:00

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."

Christianity and the Constitution or New Frontiers of Jihad

2009-02-02T05:32:00.000-08:00

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.

The Iraq War or Native Vote

2009-02-01T00:19:00.000-08:00

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.

The Confession or State and Local Government

2009-01-30T19:07:00.000-08:00

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.

The Swamp or Front Row at the White House

2009-01-29T13:54:00.000-08:00

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

Nemesis or Venona

2009-01-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

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)

The Perfect Villain or Beyond Glory

2009-01-27T03:27:00.000-08:00

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

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

2009-01-25T22:07:00.000-08:00

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

Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America or The Truly Disadvantaged

2009-01-24T16:54:00.000-08:00

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

Washington or My Day

2009-01-23T11:42:00.000-08:00

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.

Civil Rights Movement for Kids or Mitt Romney

2009-01-22T06:29:00.000-08:00

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.

The Myth of Progress or Microeconomics for Today

2009-01-21T01:17:00.000-08:00

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.

Walden and Civil Disobedience or Touching History

2009-01-19T22:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-19T00:59:00.000-08:00

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).

Workin on the Chain Gang or Theodore Roosevelt

2009-01-18T11:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-18T00:34:00.000-08:00

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.)

Great Good Place or Bad Moon Rising

2009-01-17T12:21:00.000-08:00

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.

The French Revolution and Human Rights or The Essentials of American Government

2009-01-17T02:08:00.000-08:00

The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History

Author: Lynn Hunt

This brief documentary history includes 38 documents that explore the issue of rights and citizenship in Revolutionary France and the movement that helped define modern notions of civil rights.

Book review: The Race Beat or The War for Wealth

The Essentials of American Government: Continuity and Change 2008

Author: Karen OConnor

Essentials of American Government
Continuity and Change
2006 Edition • Election Update
Karen O’Connor • Larry J. Sabato

Written with the belief that students must first understand how American government has evolved to fully understand our nation and the issues facing it today, the 2006 Election Update of Essentials of American Government: Continuity and Change continues to offer students a rich historical perspective complemented by complete coverage of the 2006 midterm elections and the most up-to-date scholarship available in any text for the American government course.

NEW TO THIS EDITION

In-depth and updated coverage throughout of the 2006 midterm campaigns and elections, the war in Iraq, the latest Supreme Court decisions, an analysis of “Red and Blue” America, the changing role of the media, and topics that have been subject to ongoing, impassioned debates, such as the assault weapons ban, gay rights, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, and affirmative action.
New The Living Constitution boxes appear in every chapter. These boxes excerpt and explain a portion of the Constitution relevant to that chapter’s topic and examine why that article, section, or amendment was important to the Framers and continues to be important today.
An Annotated Constitution of the United States appears between Chapters 2 and 3. The Constitution is integrated with a detailed primer that examines the meaning and context of its most significant language. This feature helps give students a deep understanding of what the Constitution says, why itincludes the text it does, and what role this seminal document plays in our lives today.
On Campus boxes now appear in most chapters and continue to focus on the political issues of greatest interest to college students.

MyPoliSciLab

Welcome to MyPoliSciLab, where participation leads to action!

MyPoliSciLab is a state-of-the-art, interactive and instructive online solution for the introduction to American government course. Designed to be used as a supplement to a traditional lecture course, or completely administer an online course, MyPoliSciLab combines multimedia, tutorials, simulations, tests, and quizzes to make teaching and learning fun!

What Students Are Saying About Online Exams and Quizzes:

“I love it. I keep trying until I get a perfect grade and after a couple of times you know the content like the back of your hand!”

“I liked being able to view the results of the quizzes immediately instead of having to wait for them to be graded by the instructor.”

What Students Are Saying About Online Activities:

“The activities were my favorite part of the course. They took a different approach to an interesting subject and made it more applicable to real-life situations. This made the subject seem even more real than before.”

“I think they are a great tool to get students to interact with the material in a way you couldn’t really do in class.”

Visit us at ablongman.com/polisci

Booknews

Presents a condensed and updated version of the author's longer text, , for use in shorter classes, in classes where policy is not the focus, or where an inexpensive text is desired. Contains sections on foundations of government, institutions of government, and political behavior. Appendices offer documents and lists of leaders. Features retained from the longer text include boxes on current politics and comparison with Canada and Mexico, plus margin definitions, a glossary, chapter summaries, and key terms. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

1	The Political Landscape	2
2	The Constitution	30
3	Federalism	58
4	Civil Liberties	86
5	Civil Rights	116
6	Congress	146
7	The Presidency	180
8	The Bureaucracy	212
9	The Judiciary	236
10	Public Opinion and the News Media	270
11	Political Parties and Interest Groups	306
12	Campaigns, Voting, and Elections	340
	Policy Portfolio	381
I	The Declaration of Independence	391
II	The Constitution of the United States of America	394
III	The Federalist No. 10	407
IV	The Federalist No. 51	413
V	Presidents, Congresses, and Chief Justices: 1789-1997	417
	Glossary	423
	Notes	429
	Index	436

Fear Less or Shadow Warriors

2009-01-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

Fear Less: Real Truth About Risk, Safety, and Security in a Time of Terrorism

Author: Gavin de Becker

Gavin de Becker's landmark book The Gift Of Fear showed millions of readers how to better protect themselves from violence and unwarranted fear. Now, in Fear Less, de Becker answers the questions many Americans have been asking since September 11th:

Can air travel be safe?
What is the risk of biological or chemical attack?
Can the government detect and prevent future acts?
How can we best talk to our children about what has happened and what might happen?
What can we do to reduce fear and worry?
What specific steps can we take to reduce terrorism?
What are terrorists likely to do next?
Most simply, is everything going to be all right?

De Becker says, "Just as your imagination has placed you in frightening situations, it is now time to place yourself in empowering situations, time to see that you have a role to play, and contrary to so many TV news stories, it isnit just victim-in-waiting."

Fear Less offers specific recommendations that can enhance our national security and our individual safety р and help put fear into perspective. Nobody in the world understands risk and safety better than Gavin de Becker. At a time of uncertainty, terrorism, and a whole new set of rules, it is hard to imagine a more important, more reassuring, and more necessary book than Fear Less.

Author Biography: Gavin de Becker is widely considered America's leading expert on predicting and managing violent behavior. He advises such clients as the C.I.A. and the United States Supreme Court, and his 70-member firm has protected clients from terrorism in Israel, Southern Africa, Europe, and South America. Thisthree-time presidential appointee designed the assessment systems used to screen threats to all federal judges and the governors of eleven states, and his work has changed the way the U. S. government protects its highest officials. Mr. de Becker is a Senior Fellow at UCLA is School of Public Policy and Social Research.

Interesting book: Pratique de Virginia Real Estate et Loi

Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender

Author: Kenneth R Timmerman

“An alarming but necessary book that reads like a thriller. By raising uncomfortable questions, Ken Timmerman has performed a significant public service.”
–Michael Medved, nationally syndicated talk radio host

Some have called it the CIA’s greatest covert operation of all time.

It is an intelligence war conducted behind the scenes, aimed at confusing, misleading, and ultimately defeating the enemy. The goal is nothing less than toppling the regime in power. A network of agents has been planted at key crossroads of power, stealing secrets, planting disinformation, and cooking intelligence. The plan involves sophisticated political sabotage operations that bring in opposition forces who can challenge the regime openly, in a way the CIA cannot. The scope is breathtaking.

Who is the target of this vast, sophisticated CIA operation? Not the mullahs in Tehran or North Korea’s power-mad Kim Jong Il; the target is America’s president, George W. Bush.

Drawing on exclusive information from senior government officials, intelligence operatives, and many others, investigative reporter Kenneth Timmerman provides the full, untold story of the sabotage that occurs behind the scenes at key government agencies like the CIA and State Department–and the profound effect it has on America’s ability to confront its most dangerous enemies. In Shadow Warriors, Timmerman brings to light the vast underground working to undercut our nation’s efforts to win the war on terror–revealing the when, where, how, and who for the first time. He also exposes the Democratic politicians who have sold outAmerica’s national security for political gain.

In Shadow Warriors you’ll learn:

•How the CIA and State Department sabotaged the administration’s Iraq war plans from the start–sparking the insurgency in the process
•How a high-level State Department official gathered aides after Bush’s reelection to insist they owed no allegiance to the president or his policies
•How pre-war intelligence on Iraq was cooked–not by the Bush administration, but by its opponents
•How and why the shadow warriors have leaked details of virtually every covert U.S. intelligence tool used in the war on terror
•How the leaks have devastated our efforts to fight terrorism–such as when a key U.S. ally rebuffed the CIA director’s request for assistance by saying, “You Americans can’t keep secrets”
•Why U.S. intelligence refused to examine important documents detailing the secret Iraqi networks that became the heart of the insurgency
•How newly discovered Iraqi government documents reveal the extent of Saddam Hussein’s ties to international terrorists and the truth about his WMD arsenal

Shadow Warriors shows that George W. Bush never got the first rule of Washington: People are policy. He allowed his political enemies to run roughshod over his administration. This insider’s look at secret White House meetings, political backstabbing, and war-room summits is an eye-opening account of the mind-set that is crippling our effectiveness in Iraq and around the world.

Prologue: The Underground     1
A Battle Royal     9
The Spooks' War     27
Secret Office in the Basement     35
Preparing for War     45
The Niger Coper     53
Liberation Woes     69
The Viceroy Cometh     84
Joe Wilson Lies     99
Politicizing Intelligence     118
Air CIA     137
The "Cabal"     143
CIA Insurgency     160
"Rogue Weasels"     169
October Surprise     189
People Are Policy     202
The Daily Leak     233
The Missing WMDs     258
Sinking the Ship     277
The Empire Strikes Back     285
Lame Duck Nation     302
Documents     323
Notes     369
Acknowledgments     389
Index     393

Born Again or China Diary of George H W Bush

2009-01-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

Born Again

Author: Charles Colson

As the chief counsel for President Richard Nixon over thirty years ago, Charles Colson influenced the most powerful government in the world-and was an instigator in one of the most devastating political scandals in modern history. He successfully led Nixon to reelection-and struggled to find meaning in any White House success. He was esteemed for his commitment to his party, his president, and his work-and developed a legacy of being the "evil genius" of the administration. Most significantly, Colson lived a life of privilege and professional triumph-yet knew little joy.

An autobiography that reads like a novel, Born Again is the story of a man at the heart of the cloak-and-dagger conspiracies that led to Nixon's downfall in 1974. Only when Colson faced prison doors, ultimate disillusionment, and the darkness of his selfish ambitions did he find true life.

The remarkable political drama of one of the most influential and intriguing people of our time, Born Again reminds us that God never tires of offering second chances.

China Diary of George H. W Bush: The Making of a Global President

Author: Jeffrey A Engel

Available in print for the first time, this day-by-day diary of George H. W. Bush's life in China opens a fascinating window into one of the most formative periods of his career. As head of the United States Liaison Office in Beijing from 1974 to 1975, Bush witnessed high-level policy deliberations and daily social interactions between the two Cold War superpowers. The China Diary of George H. W. Bush offers an intimate look at this fundamental period of international history, marks a monumental contribution to our understanding of U.S.-China relations, and sheds light on the ideals of a global president in the making.

In compelling words, Bush reveals a thoughtful and pragmatic realism that would guide him for decades to come. He considers the crisis of Vietnam, the difficulties of détente, and tensions in the Middle East, while lamenting the global decline in American power. He formulates views on the importance of international alliances and personal diplomacy, as he struggles to form meaningful relationships with China's top leaders. With a critical eye for detail, he depicts key political figures, including Gerald Ford, Donald Rumsfeld, Deng Xiaoping, and the ever-difficult Henry Kissinger. Throughout, Bush offers impressions of China and its people, describing his explorations of Beijing by bicycle, and his experiences with Chinese food, language lessons, and Ping-Pong.

Complete with a preface by George H. W. Bush, and an introduction and essay by Jeffrey Engel that place Bush's China experience in the broad context of his public career, The China Diary of George H. W. Bush offers an unmediated perspective on American diplomatic history, and exploresa crucial period's impact on a future commander in chief.

Major Problems in American Foreign Relations or Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children

2009-01-14T05:07:00.000-08:00

Major Problems in American Foreign Relations (Major Problems in American History Series): Volume II: Since 1914

Author: Dennis Merrill

Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, the Major Problems in American History Series introduces students to both primary sources and analytical essays on important topics in U.S. History.

Look this: Das Bilden eines Therapeuten: Ein Praktischer Guide für die Innere Reise

Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children

Author: Betty M Hart

Meaningful Differences establishes a scientifically substantiated link between children's early family experience and their later intellectual growth - a link that exists regardless of a child's race. This compelling story describes the authors' years of research as they search for the roots of intellectual disparity. Hart and Risley examined the daily lives of 1- and 2-year-old children in typical American families. They found staggering contrasts at the extremes of advantage - and within the middle class - in the amount of interaction between parents and children. These differences in the amount of early family experience translate into striking disparities in the children's later vocabulary growth rate, vocabulary use, and IQ test scores - critical measures of an individual's ability to succeed at school and in the workplace. Meaningful Differences, the culmination of Hart and Risley's decades of collaboration, reveals profound effects of environment on development.

Booknews

Taking on the nature vs. nurture debate, Hart and Risley studied the daily lives of 1- and 2-year-old children in American families of all socioeconomic classes. The families showed huge contrasts in the amount of interaction between parents and children--differences that translated into striking disparities in the children's later vocabulary growth rate, vocabulary use, and IQ scores. The link exists regardless of a child's race, the researchers found, offering an important answer to those such as the controversial authors of The Bell Curve who attribute intelligence to genetics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Roots of Endurance or The Speed of Heat

2009-01-13T17:55:00.000-08:00

The Roots of Endurance: Invincible Perseverance in the Lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce

Author: John Piper

Newton. Simeon. Wilberforce. They were men of their times. Men who rose to the challenges before them. Men who endured trial after trial, year after year. Men who weathered lifelong opposition with joy in Christ.

Our time is marked by emotional fragility. We shatter easily when misfortune comes our way. In the face of sustained contention, we have little ability to withstand the onslaught, let alone surmount it with joy.

But these men were far from fragile, and can inspire a strength that defies resistance and refuses to yield to bitterness. Like Wilberforce, we, too, can capture a childlike, child-loving joy in Christ. We, too, can learn to long for the "valley of humiliation" as Simeon did, or to follow Newton's example and revel in utter amazement that the Lord God Almighty would "save a wretch like me."

John Piper's Roots of Endurance gives us a picture of three men who persisted when it appeared they could not. So if for years you've prayed the same prayer and it seems unanswered, if it seems like one catastrophe after another claims what little faith you have, if bitterness has set in and will not budge, read about the lives of Newton and Simeon and Wilberforce, and learn not only to finish the race but finish it stronger than when you first began.

Interesting book: Essence Beauty Basics and Beyond or Mind Over Body

The Speed of Heat: An Airlift Wing at War in Iraq and Afghanistan

Author: Thomas W Young

With its fleet of large transport aircraft, the United States military can put personnel and equipment anywhere on the globe within hours. In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in particular, virtually every soldier, every bullet, every pint of blood, and every bite of food have arrived in the war zone by airlift. Transport aircrews have accompanied the troops from the beginning, flying them in, supplying them, bringing them out for medical treatment or rotations home, and in the most heart-breaking missions, carrying them on their final journey back to grieving relatives.
This book tells the story of one Air National Guard airlift wing as related by its members. The 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard consisted of a squadron of 12 C-130 cargo planes, their crews, and all the supporting sections-in all, more than 1,200 people. The author, a former Associated Press reporter turned aviator, flew as an active member of that unit and interviewed nearly 70 servicemen and women for this book. Their stories include C-130 aircrews who dodged heat-seeking missiles, mechanics who made combat repairs, flight nurses who treated and transported the wounded, even two motor pool truck drivers struck by a roadside bomb. The interviewees vividly describe their day-to-day work in the war zone, revealing the inner workings of a part of the military not usually well covered by the news media.

Harvard Business Review on Leadership in a Changed World or Bully Boy

2009-01-13T07:42:00.000-08:00

Harvard Business Review on Leadership in a Changed World: Ideas With Impact

Author: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

What does it take to be a leader in a global economy? In the face of the current worldwide economic slump and recent international upheaval, this question has become increasingly difficult to answer. This volume explores the role of leadership in light of globalization and changing economies. With the help of renowned experts like Rosabeth Moss Kanter and C. K. Prahalad, readers will learn how to be strong leaders in an unpredictable world.

Bully Boy: The Truth about Theodore Roosevelt's Legacy

Author: Jim Powell

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

The Federalist Papers or Introduction to Intelligence Research and Analysis

2009-01-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

The Federalist Papers

Author: Alexander Hamilton

The Federalist Papers--85 essays published in the winter of 1787-8 in the New York press--are some of the most crucial and defining documents in American political history, laying out the principles that still guide our democracy today. The three authors--Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay--were respectively the first Secretary of the Treasury, the fourth President, and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in American history. Each had played a crucial role in the events of the American Revolution, and their essays make a compelling case for a new and united nation, governed under a written Constitution that endures to this day. The Federalist Papers are an indispensable guide to the intentions of the founding fathers and a canonical text in the development of western political thought. This is the first edition to explain the many classical, mythological, and historical references in the text, and to pay full attention to the erudition of the three authors, which enabled them to place the infant American republic in a long tradition of self-governing states.

Introduction to Intelligence Research and Analysis

Author:

First published in the 1970s, the classic book An Introduction to Intelligence Research and Analysis was used by intelligence analysts to track and monitor the Communist threat. Although today's environment has changed considerably since the Cold War, intelligence analysts still need to understand the basics of intelligence analysis. The book focuses on how to do research, what qualities are needed to be an intelligence analyst, and what methods can be employed to help in producing products. To avoid politicization, intelligence analysts should strive to become more transparent in their methodology of how they arrived at their conclusions. Intelligence Research and Analysis provides several methods to assist in that end.

The Cornel West Reader or Justice

2009-01-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

The Cornel West Reader

Author: Cornel West

Cornel West is one of the nation’s premier public intellectuals and one of the great prophetic voices of our era. Whether he is writing a scholarly book or an article for Newsweek, whether he is speaking of Emerson, Gramsci, or Marvin Gaye, his work radiates a passion that reflects the rich traditions he draws on and weaves together Baptist preaching, American transcendentalism, jazz, radical politics. This anthology reveals the dazzling range of West’s work, from his explorations of ”Prophetic Pragmatism” to his philosophizing on hip-hop.The Cornel West Reader traces the development of West’s extraordinary career as academic, public intellectual, and activist. In his essays, articles, books, and interviews, West emerges as America’s social conscience, urging attention to complicated issues of racial and economic justice, sexuality and gender, history and politics. This collection represents the best work of an always compelling, often controversial, and absolutely essential philosopher of the modern American experience.

Publishers Weekly

The grandson of a Baptist minister, West is a professor at Harvard University who has adeptly combined the introspective strengths of the academic philosopher-theologian with the activist and humanist elements of the African-American religious tradition and black nationalist thought. This mammoth collection of social commentary, interviews, essays and memoir details his evolution as a social analyst and public figure, gathering some of his finest work from his previous books (Keeping Faith; Prophetic Fragments; Race Matters, etc.) as well as from a wide range of academic sources. Calling himself "a Chekhovian Christian," West is deeply concerned with the corruption of the dignity of the everyday citizen and the betrayal of the ideals of American democracy through its embrace of racist and sexist beliefs. While the range of his philosophical sermons can occasionally be overwhelming, his eclectic interests and original observations are quite rewarding. Whether he is discussing Marxist theory, slavery, architecture, black sexuality, black-Jewish relations or bebop and rap, his often complex statements yield a continual flood of surprising insights. West is at his most accessible in his interviews with philosopher George Yancy, TV host Bill Moyers and African-American feminist writer bell hooks. This collection amply attests that West's reputation as a brilliant, humane voice in American intellectual discourse is richly deserved. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This reader, edited by West himself (Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor, Harvard Univ.), presents essays covering his impressive career and development as an intellectual, philosopher, cultural critic, and "Chekhovian Christian." Arranged in eight thematic sections--autobiography, modernity, pragmatism, Marxism, political praxes, Christian thought, the arts, and controversial racial issues--this work reveals that West's profound commitment to and quest for social justice, across differences, is unrelentingly compassionate and sometimes decorously and ostensibly innocent. Yet West does not feel obligated to write for the everyday folks, especially black folks, he champions. The selected essays, unlike those in his best-selling Race Matters (LJ 3/15/93), are highly theoretical and academic, accessible only to the highly educated. Furthermore, West himself declares that he has given up journalism (a forum in which he could create and maintain a broader audience base) because journalistic writing "can become too simplistic, flat, or clever." For most, these scholarly writings will be too obtuse, convoluted, and pretentious. Recommended for academic libraries.--Sherri Barnes, Univ. of California Lib., Santa Barbara Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Internet Book Watch

Students of contemporary culture, Afro-American studies or philosophy alike will find the Cornel West Reader an important survey of modern American society and times. Chapters reveal and analyze facets of black experience, Marxism and race, politics and American pragmatism. An excellent guide.

	Preface	xiii
	Introduction: To Be Human, Modern and American	xv
I	Autobiographical Prelude
1	The Making of an American Radical Democrat of African Descent	3
2	On My Intellectual Vocation	19
3	Sing a Song	34
II	Modernity and Its Discontents
4	The Ignoble Paradox of Modernity	51
5	Race and Modernity	55
6	Black Strivings in a Twilight Civilization	87
7	The New Cultural Politics of Difference	119
III	American Pragmatism
8	Why Pragmatism?	143
9	On Prophetic Pragmatism	149
10	Pragmatism and the Sense of the Tragic	174
11	The Limits of Neopragmatism	183
12	Nietzsche's Prefiguration of Postmodern American Philosophy	188
IV	Progressive Marxist Theory
13	The Indispensability Yet Insufficiency of Marxist Theory	213
14	Fredric Jameson's American Marxism	231
15	Race and Social Theory	251
V	Radical Democratic Politics
16	The Role of Law in Progressive Politics	269
17	The Political Intellectual	278
18	A World of Ideas	294
19	The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual	302
20	American Progressivism Reoriented	316
21	Parents and National Survival	333
22	On the 1980s	344
23	Michael Harrington, Democratic Socialist	348
VI	Prophetic Christian Thought
24	The Crisis in Contemporary American Religion	357
25	The Historicist Turn in Philosophy of Religion	360
26	Religion and the Left	372
27	On Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza's In Memory of Her	380
28	On Leszek Kolakowski	387
29	On Liberation Theology: Segundo and Hinkelammert	393
30	Christian Love and Heterosexism	401
31	A Philosophical View of Easter	415
32	On Gibson Winter's Ecological Ecumenism	421
33	Prophetic Christian as Organic Intellectual: Martin Luther King, Jr.	425
34	Subversive Joy and Revolutionary Patience in Black Christianity	435
VII	The Arts
35	Critical Reflections on Art	443
36	Horace Pippin's Challenge to Art Criticism	447
37	Race and Architecture	456
38	The Spirituals as Lyrical Poetry	463
39	In Memory of Marvin Gaye	471
40	On Afro-American Music: From Bebop to Rap	474
41	On Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror	485
42	On Walt Whitman	489
VIII	Race and Difference
43	On Affirmative Action	495
44	On Black-Brown Relations	499
45	On Black Sexuality	514
46	On Black Nationalism	521
47	Tensions with Jewish Friends and Foes	530
48	On Jackie Robinson	536
49	On Julianne Malveaux	539
50	Conversation with bell hooks	541
IX	Postscript
51	Chekhov, Coltrane and Democracy	551
	Notes	565
	Index	593

Book review: Estratégia de Informação Corporativa e Gestão:Texto e Casos

Justice: Crimes, Trials, and Punishments

Author: Dominick Dunn

"For more than two decades, Vanity Fair has published Dominick Dunne's brilliant, revelatory chronicles of the most famous crimes, trials, and punishments of our time. The pursuit of justice has become his passion - a passion that began during the trial of the man who murdered Dunne's daughter and who was sentenced to six and a half years and released in less than three. Dunne's account of that trial and its shocking result became the first of his many classic essays on justice." "Dominick Dunne's essays do much more than simply describe; his investigations have shed new light on those crimes and their perpetrators - and demonstrated how it is possible for some to skirt, even flout, the law. His persistence and personal involvement in the matter of Martha Moxley's murder was an important catalyst in bringing a dormant case back to life." "Here is one volume are Dominick Dunne's tales of justice denied and justice affirmed."--BOOK JACKET.

Publishers Weekly

Listening to this audiobook is like having a series of long dinners with Dominick Dunne and listening while he recounts in some detail all the famous crime cases he has covered in his 20-year career. Even better, listeners get to choose the site, can eat (or not eat) whatever they want and don't have to dress up (or at all). Dunne is coy, sly, casually amusing, outrageously brazen and even occasionally tedious as he tells what Claus von Bulow's lover wore while she waited for her comatose rival to die in the other bedroom, what Lyle and Erik Menendez were really like and why Los Angeles society (and Dunne's own writing) never really recovered from the O.J. Simpson case. His stories are even heartbreaking, especially in his cool, crushing account of the trial of the young chef who murdered his daughter, Dominique the horrid crime and supreme legal injustice that got Dunne into the justice game in the first place. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The U.S. legal system love it or hate it, you can never say it's boring. Fraught with controversy, corruption, and occasionally even justice, Dunne's latest offering keeps the listener riveted, following every twist and turn of the trials presented. Claus von Bulow, the Menendez brothers, Martha Moxley, Michael Skakel, and O.J. Simpson: all cases thoroughly documented and masterfully told by Dunne in a tone and manner that few authors can mimic or match. But by far the most compelling story is that of his daughter Dominique's murder, a crime in which the convicted person was allowed to go free after serving only two-and-a-half years. This title reaffirms what everyone has already heard before about lawyers: some are scum and all's fair in love and law. Justice is guilty of being highly recommended. Marty D. Evensvold, Arkansas City P.L., KS Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Surging reports on high-society murder cases, featuring some of the most seamy and venal behavior this side of Gomorrah, from the man who wrote the book on such doings, Dunne (The Way We Lived Then) Collected here are Dunne's articles from Vanity Fair on high-profile courtroom dramas involving O.J. Simpson, Erik and Lyle Menendez, Claus von Bülow, the murder of Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Connecticut-nine stories in all, including a lacerating piece on the murder of his daughter, Dominique. Making no pretense at balance (Dunne is nothing if not opinionated and a great deal of the effectiveness of this work revolves around that), the author is scrupulously honest in his reporting, and thorough. He also moves at a good clip, pulling readers along as though a hand had clasped their sleeve, pointing out inconsistencies in testimony and the willful corruption of the truth by shady lawyers. O.J. gets the most pages: "The Simpson case is like a great trash novel come to life, a mammoth fireworks display of interracial marriage, love, lust, lies, hate, fame, wealth, beauty, obsession, spousal abuse, stalking, brokenhearted children, the bloodiest of bloody knife-slashing homicides, and all the justice that money can buy." Dunne has a knack for capturing the air of unreality that bathes these trials, but the crimes themselves are simply grisly: "The porno star and the unemployed dishwasher implicated each other in helping Murillo as he held a pillow over her face to muffle her screams. It had taken the three of them 15 minutes to kill her." Dunne also has a way with delivering a dig-"A man just convicted of twice attempting to murder his wife would not seem like much ofa catch to most women"-although he can also be prim: a particular judge, for example, was "noticeably dressed in a manner associated more with Hollywood agents than with superior court judges." Are the scales of justice at work here? Hardly. But Dunne's courtroom tales are a lot more lucid than most judge's instructions to their juries.

Zips Pipes And Pens or Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave

2009-01-11T14:22:00.000-08:00

Zips, Pipes, And Pens: Arsenal Of Improvised Weapons

Author: J David Truby

In this book, J. David Truby demonstrates why gun control simply doesn't work. Features rare photos of remarkably ingenious and very deadly improvised weapons made by guerrillas, secret agents, criminals and freedom fighters, all collected from prisons, police departments and Third World countries. For information purposes only.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: Written by Himself (Yale University Press Edition)

Author: Frederick Douglass

In 1845, just seven years after his escape from slavery, the young Frederick Douglass published this powerful account of his life in bondage and his triumph over oppression. The book, which marked the beginning of Douglass’s career as an impassioned writer, journalist, and orator for the abolitionist cause, reveals the terrors he faced as a slave, the brutalities of his owners and overseers, and his harrowing escape to the North. It has become a classic of American autobiography.
This edition of the book, based on the authoritative text that appears in Yale University Press’s multivolume edition of the Frederick Douglass Papers, is the only edition of Douglass’s Narrative designated as an Approved Text by the Modern Language Association’s Committee on Scholarly Editions. It includes a chronology of Douglass’s life, a thorough introduction by the eminent Douglass scholar John Blassingame, historical notes, and reader responses to the first edition of 1845.
“None so dramatically as Douglass integrated both the horror and the great quest of the African-American experience into the deep stream of American autobiography. He advanced and extended that tradition and is rightfully designated one of its greatest practitioners.”—John W. Blassingame, from the introduction

Sacred Life

When it was first published, many critics doubted that The Narrative of the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass had even been written by Frederick Douglass. As odd as it may seem now, that criticism was not completely unfounded: In the mid-nineteenth century, the antislavery movement produced hundreds of slave narratives, many of them ghostwritten by white abolitionists and tailored to create sympathy for their movement. But this book, by this remarkable man, was different. The tag line at the end of the book's subtitle—Written by Himself —was vitally important. Although clearly written with the abolitionist cause in mind, this book is not merely a political tract. True, its dispassionate prose brought to light the "injustice, exposure to outrage, and savage barbarity" of slavery as Douglass observed and experienced But also brought to life an uncommon man and the particular concerns seared into him during his experience of bondage. Douglass recounts that during slavery, he and his people were denied life's fundamentals: faith, family, education, the capacity for bold action, a sense of community, and personal identity. Douglass saw reclamation of these things as the key to his and his people's survival, redemption, and salvation.

The autobiography opens with a description of the aspects of his own life that Douglass was never allowed to know: the identity of his father, the warmth and care of his mother (who was a stranger to him), and even the fact of his own date of birth. As a child, he suffered from and observed savage beatings firsthand, including the fierce beating of his Aunt Hester at the hands of their master, Captain Aaron Anthony. As he grew older, Douglass liberated himself in stages: mentally, spiritually, and, eventually, physically. His mental freedom began when he was taught to read and write and realized the power of literacy; his spiritual freedom came when he discovered the grace of Christianity and the will to resist his beatings; his physical freedom arrived when he finally escaped to the North.

After escaping, Douglass was committed to telling the world about the condition of the brothers and sisters he left behind. Aside from telling Douglass's personal story, his autobiography takes us to the fields and the cabins and the lives of many slaves to reveal the real human cost of slavery. Douglass focused on the dehumanizing aspects of slavery: not just the beatings, but the parting of children from their mothers, the denial of education, and the sexual abuses of slave masters. He ends the book with this statement: "Sincerely and earnestly hoping that his little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system, and hastening the glad day of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in bonds—faithfully relying upon the power of truth, love, and justice, for success in my humble efforts—and solemnly pledging myself anew to the sacred cause, I subscribe myself, Frederick Douglass."

The book was an incredible success: It sold over thirty thousand copies and was an international bestseller. It was the first, and most successful, of three autobiographies that Douglass was to write. The other two, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, update the story of his life and revise some of the facts of his earlier autobiography.

History of the American Steam Fire Engine or White House Confidential

2009-01-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

History of the American Steam Fire-Engine

Author: William T King

Over 100 rare illustrations depict more than 70 antique fire engines with steam-powered pumps — from the very first one, built in 1829, to the end of the 19th century. Include the Braithwaite's "Comet"; the Manhattan No. 8 of New York City; the Hurricane No. 13 of Philadelphia; the Northern Liberty, No. 8, of Boston; more.

See also: Freedom or The Puritan Dilemma

White House Confidential

Author: Gregg Stebben

Most Americans believe that in the past our presidents were smarter, more honest, and behaved more like gentleman than those we elect today. “Not so,” say Gregg Stebben and Austin Hill. “Long before Watergate, Contragate, Travelgate, Nannygate, and Monicagate, our presidents were lying, cheating, stealing, and womanizing.”

White House: Confidential is a clear-eyed look at America’s long line of presidents, warts and all. Focusing on the qualities that never made it into the press releases, the authors look at the strange family relationships, scandals that engulfed their administrations, fights with enemies, and questionable money matters. A “presidential score card” of which presidents cheated on their wives (and with whom), random acts of goofy presidential behavior, their frequently accurate predictions of their own demise, their comments on leaving office, how they died, presidential firsts, and the role of vice presidents—all of these topics and much more made the first edition of White House: Confidential controversial when it was published in 1998.

Two new chapters have been added in this revised and updated edition. The first, “Impeached!” looks at how impeachment and the threat of impeachment have affected several presidents. The second, “Nepotism! A Family Affair!” shows how presidential relatives have exploited their connections. Yet others have used a relative’s presidency as a springboard to their own. Also included are all kinds of goofy family-related high jinks (in the spirit of characters like Billy Carter).

Barbara Bush or Impounded

2009-01-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

Barbara Bush: Presidential Matriarch

Author: Myra G Gutin

Wife of one president and mother of another, Barbara Bush was an outspoken first lady who looked more like her constituents than did her predecessors. A White House resident for only four years, she nevertheless became and remains one of the most admired women in the world.

This new look at Barbara Bush draws on recently opened records at the Bush library, the first lady's many speeches, interviews with the first lady's staff, and an exclusive interview with Mrs. Bush to impart a new appreciation for this beloved former first lady. And while other biographies—and her own memoir—have hinted at seeming contradictions in the Barbara Bush persona, Myra Gutin looks squarely at her White House years to set the record straight and show that she was more than "America's Grandmother" in faux pearls.

Gutin's portrait reveals a woman who was more of a success as first lady than her husband was as president—who in many ways was the public face of the George H. W. Bush administration. And while she wasn't an innovator as presidential wife, Gutin shows how the "Silver Fox" used her rich experience in politics to master the public relations side of first ladyship with as much skill as any White House spouse.

Gutin argues that Barbara was more politically astute than George—even though she denied any input into policymaking and maintained an apolitical image. In fact, she played an integral role in campaigning, fund-raising, and other activities that often blurred the line between the humanitarian and the political. Piercing through the first lady's public persona, Gutin reveals Barbara's backstage political skills in action—along with her closely held views onsocial issues like gun control and abortion.

From behind the faзade of an ideal American family, Gutin also includes frank accounts of George H. W. Bush's alleged adultery and of the death of the Bushes' daughter Robin. In addition, she lends new insight into Barbara's relationship with her mother, her role as entertainer, and her role in wartime.

Gutin gives us a vibrant woman who lent warmth to her husband's cool image and whose legacy lives in the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literary and several best-selling books. It is a richly textured narrative that depicts a woman of loyalty, candor, and common sense, who knew when and how to apply those qualities in the service of her husband.

This book is part of the Modern First Ladies series.

What People Are Saying

Gil Troy
A crisp and clean account of Barbara Bush's emergence as one of the most compelling first ladies of our time. . . . Well-written and well worth reading. (Gil Troy, author of Hillary Rodham Clinton)

John Robert Greene
A fascinating, impeccably researched, and long overdue biography by one of the nation's leading experts on the American first lady. Gutin shows that this wife of one president and mother of a second was hardly just a grandmother in pearls, but a shrewd, thoughtful, and humorous political partner to two presidents named Bush. This is political biography at its best. (John Robert Greene, author of The Presidency of George Bush)

Herbert S. Parmet
Savvy and insightful. (Herbert S. Parmet, author of George Bush: The Life of a Lone Star Yankee

)

Gil Troy

A crisp and clean account of Barbara Bush's emergence as one of the most compelling first ladies of our time. . . . Well-written and well worth reading. (Gil Troy, author of Hillary Rodham Clinton)

John Robert Greene

A fascinating, impeccably researched, and long overdue biography by one of the nation's leading experts on the American first lady. Gutin shows that this wife of one president and mother of a second was hardly just a grandmother in pearls, but a shrewd, thoughtful, and humorous political partner to two presidents named Bush. This is political biography at its best. (John Robert Greene, author of The Presidency of George Bush)

Herbert S. Parmet

Savvy and insightful. (Herbert S. Parmet, author of George Bush: The Life of a Lone Star Yankee)

Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment

Author: Dorothea Lang

"Unflinchingly illustrates the reality of life during this extraordinary moment in American history."—Dinitia Smith, New York Times

Censored by the U.S. Army, Dorothea Lange's unseen photographs are the extraordinary photographic record of the Japanese American internment saga. This indelible work of visual and social history confirms Dorothea Lange's stature as one of the twentieth century's greatest American photographers. Presenting 119 images originally censored by the U.S. Army—the majority of which have never been published—Impounded evokes the horror of a community uprooted in the early 1940s and the stark reality of the internment camps. With poignancy and sage insight, nationally known historians Linda Gordon and Gary Okihiro illuminate the saga of Japanese American internment: from life before Executive Order 9066 to the abrupt roundups and the marginal existence in the bleak, sandswept camps. In the tradition of Roman Vishniac's A Vanished World, Impounded, with the immediacy of its photographs, tells the story of the thousands of lives unalterably shattered by racial hatred brought on by the passions of war. A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2006. 119 photographs.

Publishers Weekly

When America's War Relocation Authority hired Dorothea Lange to photograph the internment of Japanese-Americans in 1942, they put a few restrictions on her work. Barbed wire, watchtowers and armed soldiers were off limits, they declared. And no pictures of resistance, either. They wanted the roundup and sequestering of Japanese-Americans documented-but not too well. Working within these limits, Lange, who is best known for her photographs of migrant farmers during the Depression, nonetheless produced images whose content so opposed the federal objective of demonizing Japanese-Americans that the vast majority of the photographs were suppressed throughout WWII (97% of them have never been published at all). Editors Gordon and Okihiro set this first collection of Lange's internment work within technical, cultural and historical contexts. Gordon (The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction) discusses Lange's professional methods and the formation of her "democratic-populist" beliefs. Okihiro (Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II) traces the history of prejudice against Japanese Americans, with emphasis on internees' firsthand accounts. But the bulk of the book is given over to Lange's photographs. Several of these are as powerful as her most stirring work, and the final image-of a grandfather in the desolate Manzanar Center looking down in anguish at the grandson between his knees-is worth the price of the book alone. 104 photos, 2 maps. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Global Political Economy or What It Means to Be a Libertarian

2009-01-09T22:23:00.000-08:00

Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order

Author: Robert Gilpin

This book is the eagerly awaited successor to Robert Gilpin's 1987 The Political Economy of International Relations, the classic statement of the field of international political economy that continues to command the attention of students, researchers, and policymakers. The world economy and political system have changed dramatically since the 1987 book was published. The end of the Cold War has unleashed new economic and political forces, and new regionalisms have emerged. Computing power is increasingly an impetus to the world economy, and technological developments have changed and are changing almost every aspect of contemporary economic affairs. Gilpin's Global Political Economy considers each of these developments. Reflecting a lifetime of scholarship, it offers a masterful survey of the approaches that have been used to understand international economic relations and the problems faced in the new economy.

Gilpin focuses on the powerful economic, political, and technological forces that have transformed the world. He gives particular attention to economic globalization, its real and alleged implications for economic affairs, and the degree to which its nature, extent, and significance have been exaggerated and misunderstood. Moreover, he demonstrates that national policies and domestic economies remain the most critical determinants of economic affairs. The book also stresses the importance of economic regionalism, multinational corporations, and financial upheavals.

Gilpin integrates economic and political analysis in his discussion of "global political economy." He employs the conventional theory of international trade, insights from the theory ofindustrial organization, and endogenous growth theory. In addition, ideas from political science, history, and other disciplines are employed to enrich understanding of the new international economic order. This wide-ranging book is destined to become a landmark in the field.

What People Are Saying

Robert Jervis
Robert Gilpin,the dean of American students of international political economy,has provided us with a masterful guide to the state of the world economy and how it can be explained. Current developments are placed in historical and theoretical perspective. In a book that is deeply thought as well as deeply researched and carefully argued,Gilpin has produced a landmark study.

Robert O. Keohane
Global Political Economy undertakes a comprehensive survey of major aspects of the world political economy from the perspective of a leading 'realist' political scientist. Robert Gilpin emphasizes the continuing importance of the state and the great impact of variations in state structure and policy around the world. His book is an impressive attempt to synthesize economic and political analysis to understand the forces affecting globalization,state policy,and the results of their interaction for economic development and international trade,investment,and finance.

	List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
	Preface
1	The New Global Economic Order	3
2	The Nature of Political Economy	25
3	The Neoclassical Conception of the Economy	46
4	The Study of International Political Economy	77
5	New Economic Theories	103
6	The Political Significance of the New Economic Theories	129
7	National Systems of Political Economy	148
8	The Trading System	196
9	The International Monetary System	234
10	The International Financial System	261
11	The State and the Multinationals	278
12	The State and Economic Development	305
13	The Political Economy of Regional Integration	341
14	The Nation-State in the Global Economy	362
15	Governing the Global Economy	377
	Select Bibliography	403
	Index	411

Interesting book: Riuscito piano aziendale: Segreti e strategie

What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation

Author: Charles Murray

For the legions of Americans expressing or exploring libertarian beliefs, Charles Murray has created a radical, compassionate blueprint for solving today's most urgent social and political problems.

Murray believes that America's founders had it right -- that strict limits on the power of the central government and strict protection of the individual are the keys to a genuinely free society. In What It Means to Be a Libertarian, he proposes a government reduced to the barest essentials: an executive branch consisting only of the White House and trimmed-down departments of state, defense, justice, and environmental protection; a Congress so limited in power that it meets only a few months each year; and a federal code stripped of all but a handful of regulations. Combining the tenets of classical libertarian philosophy with his own provocative thinking, Murray shows why less government advances individual happiness and promotes more vital communities and a richer culture.

Publishers Weekly

Murray (co-author of The Bell Curve) is a skilled polemicist, and his manifesto for a radically downsized government should both gather adherents and challenge opponents. He argues from two basic points: freedom (associated with responsibility) is our birthright; and in most cases, government intervention has been ineffectual. While Murray allows for some level of state and local government, he recommends scrapping most federal agencies that deal with domestic policies. Arguing that civil rights laws have actually retarded progress against racism, he cites evidence that discrimination against Jews and the Irish declined without legislation; but this ignores the special stigma of race. Murray advocates a $3000 education voucher for each child and suggests optimistically that medical patients paying full fees will subsidize the costs of the indigent; but this says nothing about those in between-the majority of the population. Welfare and Social Security payments should end, to be replaced by individual saving and community support from voluntary associations. Murray's proposals posit a more responsible populace-a worthy goal-yet they also assume a neighborly concern that may be lacking in our increasingly fragmented society. Moreover, his schema fails to address international comparisons (Canadian health care) and does not acknowledge how government has shaped an unequal status quo (e.g., mortgage interest deductions but little money for public housing).

Library Journal

Murray, the controversial coauthor of The Bell Curve (Free Pr., 1994), is back with an essay on the political views of the modern libertarian. At a time when the Libertarian Party seems to be gaining in popularity, Murray's book could have served as a treatise for the cause. However, the text is fraught with contradictions and unsubstantiated claims. For example, while Murray concedes that seat belts have reduced the number of automobile injuries, he argues against government regulations and state laws requiring them because the number of injuries to passengers and pedestrians are up, without citing a single study or paper correlating these two issues. Murray also includes no footnotes in his book and has only two brief two-page bibliographic essays. Ironically, in The Bell Curve, Murray and coauthor Richard J. Herrnstein argued that race and class affects the results of IQ tests and defines an individual's role in life, without taking into consideration the environment in which the person was raised. Yet here, in calling for the dismantling of federal regulations, Murray argues that it is the very environment of big government that is the problem. Go figure. Marginally recommended, at best, for general collections. [See also David Boaz's Libertarianism: A Primer, reviewed above.-Ed.]-Patricia Hatch, Insurance Institute for Property Loss Reduction, Boston, Mass.

Kirkus Reviews

A book guarranteed to delight fans and infuriate foes of the coauthor of the controversial The Bell Curve.

Murray's version of libertarianism embraces familiar themes. The ideal (i.e., limited) government created by the Founders has become a bloated bureaucracy that threatens individual freedom. Leftists have foisted welfare programs, environmental regulations, and affirmative action on American society. Not only are these policies pernicious, according to Murray, but their goals would be achieved more efficiently by a free market unimpeded by government. To make these arguments Murray employs the tactics of a polemicist: Empirical propositions are wedded to normative principles and assumed rather than proved; straw men are used to represent opposing viewpoints; conclusions are supported through highly selective use of statistics, "thought experiments," and trendlines. The most intriguing example, given Murray's obsessive effort to correlate government growth with the worsening of virtually every conceivable national problem, is his failure to notice that government growth also correlates with what he acknowledges to be "the phenomenal growth in national wealth during this century." Engaging on this level and analyzing specific arguments would be to misunderstand Murray's purpose, however. He is writing as an entertainer, and the relevant basis for assessment is amusement value.

Those who share Murray's preconceptions will enjoy this book, for he trumpets the superiority of his position and the errors of opponents without doubt or any consideration of contrary complexities. Those who disagree may enjoy it even more, for opponents of the principles and assumptions Murray champions will find a clear target to attack. Evaluated on the proper grounds, this volume is a clear success.

Labor Relations or The Faith of George W Bush

2009-01-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

Labor Relations

Author: John A Fossum

Labor Relations: Development, Structure, Processes discusses the history and development of labor relations, the structure of union organizations, union organizing and union avoidance, bargaining issues, and the process of negotiations and contract administration. As a result of decreasing union membership over the last twenty years, more material in the book addresses employee relations in nonunion organizations including examples of both cooperative and adversarial relationships.

The Faith of George W. Bush

Author: Stephen Mansfield

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

Life at the Bottom or The Arab Center

2009-01-08T22:58:00.000-08:00

Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass

Author: Theodore Dalrympl

A searing account of life in the underclass and why it persists as it does, written by a British psychiatrist.

New York Post - Thomas Sowell

Searing...this is not dry theory, but living reality...a classic for our times.

Arts and Letters Daily

Lucid, unsentimental, and profoundly honest.

Publishers Weekly

Filled with poignant stories of women and men trapped in destructive behaviors and environments, this volume puts forth a vision of the modern world and of intellectualized modernism as hell but offers few concrete or theoretical solutions. Dalrymple, a noted conservative columnist in London's the Spectator, collects pieces he wrote for the conservative City Journal, using his own work as a physician in British slums and prisons as fodder for an analysis of the underclass: "not poor... by the standards of human history" but trapped in "a special wretchedness" from which it cannot emerge. Most of his patients put their violence in the passive: the murderer who says "the knife went in" as though he had no control; the man who beat his girlfriend and then exclaimed, " `I totally regret everything that happen' [sic] as if... [it] were a typhoon in the East Indies." The fault, Dalrymple asserts, is not bad environments, but a pervasive liberal view and agenda that creates "passive, helpless victims," encourages the idea that the acceptance of "unconscious motivations for one's acts" obviates personal responsibility, and the "widespread acceptance of social determinism." Dalrymple makes many astute observations on British social attitudes about wealth, the tattooing of white youths and urban redevelopment, and his writing is graceful and often witty. But his main points get hammered home too quickly and too often. His critique of liberalism and the welfare state, while sometimes provocative, is spelled out in the introduction and repeated again and again. While Dalrymple is preaching to the converted, his vivid writing and often heartbreaking stories rise above his deeply felt but repetitivesocial analysis. (Nov.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Bruce Ramsey
"Once in a long while a writer comes along with a vision so powerful that it shakes you."
—Liberty

NEW YORK SUN
Mr. Daniels's best essays cast a spell almost from the opening line.

Hilton Kramer
Brilliant social analysis .....a master chronicle of life at the bottom.

Peggy Noonan
Theodore Dalrymple is the best doctor-writer since William Carlos Williams.

George F. Will
It is a truism that ideas have consequences, but a truism is rarely illustrated as implacably as in this book..

Norman Podhoretz
Truthful-therefore morally courageous and intellectually rigorous.

New interesting textbook: Crazy in the Kitchen or Making Maple Syrup

The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation

Author: Marwan Muasher

Marwan Muasher, a prominent Jordanian diplomat, has been instrumental in shaping Middle East peace efforts for nearly twenty years. He served as Jordan’s first ambassador to Israel and was also ambassador to the United States, spokesperson at peace talks in Madrid and Washington, minister of foreign affairs, and deputy prime minister in charge of reform. Here he recounts the behind-the-scenes details of diplomatic ventures over the past two decades, including such recent undertakings as the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East Road Map.

Muasher’s insights into internal Arab politics and the successes and failures of the Arab Center are uniquely informed and deeply felt. He assesses how the middle road approach to reform is faring and explains why current tactics used by the West to deal with Islamic groups are doomed to failure. He examines why the Arab Center has made so little progress and which Arab, Israeli, and American policies need rethinking. Part memoir and part analysis, this book reveals the human side of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is essential reading for all who share the hope that moderate, pragmatic Arab voices will be heard in today’s vitriolic debates over how to achieve an enduring peace in the Middle East.

Clashing Views on Social Issues or The Origin of Wealth

2009-01-08T12:46:00.000-08:00

Clashing Views on Social Issues

Author: Kurt Finsterbusch

This fourteenth edition of TAKING SIDES: SOCIAL ISSUES presents current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. Each issue is thoughtfully framed with an issue summary, an issue introduction, and a postscript. An instructor's manual with testing material is available for each volume. USING TAKING SIDES IN THE CLASSROOM is also an excellent instructor resource with practical suggestions on incorporating this effective approach in the classroom. Each TAKING SIDES reader features an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites and is supported by our student website.

The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics

Author: Eric D Beinhocker

What is wealth? How is it created? And how can we create more of it for the benefit of individuals, businesses, and societies? In The Origin of Wealth, Eric Beinhocker provides provocative new answers to these fundamental questions.

Beinhocker surveys the cutting-edge ideas of economists and scientists and brings their work alive for a broad audience. These researchers, he explains, are revolutionizing economics by showing how the economy is an evolutionary system, much like a biological system. It is economic evolution that creates wealth and has taken us from the Stone Age to the $36.5 trillion global economy of today.

By better understanding economic evolution, Beinhocker writes, we can better understand how to create more wealth. The author shows how "complexity economics" is turning conventional wisdom on its head in areas ranging from business strategy and organizational design to investment strategy and public policy. As sweeping in scope as its title, The Origin of Wealth will rewire our thinking about the workings of the global economy and where it is going.

The Financial Times - Martin Wolf

...a brilliant, thought-provoking and wide-ranging book...anybody interested in understanding why we are where we are should read it. For me, it was more than the business book of 2006; it was the book of 2006.

Journal of Economic Literature Review

The Origin of Wealth is a frontal attack on neoclassical economic theory.

(Josh McHugh) - WIRED magazine

In this ambitious tome, Beinhocker jettisons the math-based canon of economic history and recasts it as a teeming evolutionary stew... Its premise is novel and sweeping.

(John Kay) - Management Today

Unquestionably the most important business book of the year.

The Motley Fool

Eric Beinhocker's The Origin of Wealth ties risk management, incentives, and human psychology together with many other criteria, all under one philosophical framework.

Publishers Weekly

Accounting for the creation of wealth has long challenged humanity's best minds. For business readers and academics, Beinhocker is a zealous and able guide to the emerging economic paradigm shift he calls the "Complexity Economics revolution." A fellow of the economic think tank McKinsey Global Institute, he rejects traditional economic theory, based on a physics model of closed systems, in which change is an external disruptive shock. Instead, he outlines an open, adaptive system with interlocking networks that change organically, reflecting the interaction of technological innovation, social development and business practice. Wealth is created to the degree that this interaction decreases entropy in favor of "fit order" that meets human needs, desires and preferences. Beinhocker is sufficiently comfortable with this evolutionary model to advocate a comprehensive redesigning of institutions and society to facilitate it. He argues for corporate policies that favor many small risks over a few big ones and recommends restructuring financial theory to favor growth and endurance rather than short-term gains. Though he asserts that complexity economics can reduce political partisanship and increase social capital, Beinhocker stops short of saying that it cures sexual dysfunction. By the end, the concept emerges as a great idea that the author tries to make a panacea. (June 1) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Notes from My Travels or Israel

2009-01-07T23:34:00.000-08:00

Notes from My Travels: Visits with Refugees in Africa, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Ecuador

Author: Angelina Joli

Three years ago, award-winning actress Angelina Jolie took on a radically different role as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Here are her memoirs from her journeys to Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Ecuador, where she lived and worked and gave her heart to those who suffer the world's most shattering violence and victimization. Here are her revelations of joy and warmth amid utter destitution...compelling snapshots of courageous and inspiring people for whom survival is their daily work'and candid notes from a unique pilgrimage that completely changed the actress's worldview -- and the world within herself.

Go to: The Freedom From Depression Workbook or Walking for Weight Loss

Israel: A History

Author: Martin Gilbert

Israel is a small and relatively young country, but since the day of its creation half a century ago, its turbulent history has placed it at the center of the world stage. In this new account, Martin Gilbert traces Israel's history from the struggles of its pioneers in the nineteenth century up to the present day. Along the way, he describes the defining moments in the history of the Jewish people, among them the Balfour Declaration of 1917; the United Nations Partition Resolution of 1947; and the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.

The desire for statehood long preceded the declaration of the State: For two millennia the Jews, dispersed all over the world, prayed for a return to Zion. The prayer "Next Year in Jerusalem" seemed a fantasy--until Theodor Herzl, in the last decade of the nineteenth century, transformed Zionism into a modern political movement. Soon the earlier trickle of Jewish immigrants turned into a flood as Jews sought fulfilment of their national aspirations or fled persecution in Europe.

The declaration of Statehood in May 1948 and the War of Independence were only the beginning of the drama. Israel's subsequent development was dominated by the conflicts of Suez, the Six Day War, the October War, the Lebanon and the Intifada, as well as by diplomatic watersheds--from the early armistice agreements to the Camp David negotiations, the Madrid conference, and the Oslo peace process. Guiding us through the events that have shaped modern-day Israel, Gilbert examines not only Israel's political history and personalities from Ben-Gurion to Rabin, Peres, and Netanyahu, but also its society, culture, and economy.

Israel is often at the center ofworld attention--usually because of wars, political and social divisions, conflict with her Arab neighbors and the Palestinians in her midst, and the stark intrusion of acts of terror into daily life. But even though conflict has been so much a part of everyday existence, the history of Israel ultimately uplifts and inspires. During the past fifty years, the quality of life has been transformed: Israel is a vibrant and flourishing nation that has made significant achievements in science, agriculture, trade, and industry--and has grown in population from just over half a million to almost six million.

Basing his narrative on a wealth of contemporary documents and eyewitness accounts, as well as on his own intimate knowledge of the country, Martin Gilbert provides a riveting and moving account of the history of Israel.

This is a riveting account of the history of Israel on its fiftieth anniversary by one of the world's preeminent historians.The founding of the State of Israel in May 1948 was a dramatic event in the history of the twentieth century. In Israel: A History, Martin Gilbert tells the gripping story of the events and personalities in the half century leading up to the declaration of statehood, and of Israel's subsequent development. It is a story punctuated by the conflicts of the War of Independence, Suez, the Six-Day War of 1967, the October War of 1973, the Lebanon and the Intifada, as well as by the diplomatic watersheds, from the armistice agreements of 1949 to the Camp David negotiations, the Madrid conference, and the Oslo accords. As Gilbert chronicles the growth of this flourishing but often troubled nation, he examines not only Israel's political history from Ben-Gurion to Rabin, Peres, and Netanyahu, but also its society, culture, and economy. Based on contemporary documents and eyewitness accounts, and rooted in the author's intimate knowledge of the country and its people, Israel: A History will be essential reading on the nation's fiftieth anniversary.

Publishers Weekly

Gilbert's impassioned history adds immeasurably to our understanding of the forces that have shaped contemporary Israel. Digging up a wealth of primary source material and quoting liberally from letters, memoirs, eyewitness accounts, interviews, memoranda and diaries of David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Abba Eban, Shimon Peres, Teddy Kollek and dozens of ordinary people, the eminent British historian (The Holocaust) has produced a gripping epic. Gilbert's extensive behind-the-scenes and on-the-battlefield coverage of Israel's numerous wars with its Arab neighbors adds much new detail. While the narrative focuses predominantly on politics, high-level diplomacy and war, it also illuminates other topics, including the Jewish settlement of Palestine in the early years of this century, tensions between secularists and Orthodox Jews, Israeli military intelligence operations, the current impasse in negotiations with Palestinian Arabs and the ferment of Israeli society, which Gilbert portrays as a diverse mixture of immigrant peoples that embody many different strands of Judaism yet are united by Israeli culture. (Apr.)

Library Journal

From Churchill's official biographer: a 50th-anniversary history of Israel.

Booknews

Traces Israel's history from the struggles of its pioneers in the 19th century through the present day, and details defining moments in the history of the Jewish people. Examines not only the country's political histories and personalities, but also its society, culture, and economy. Includes some 70 b&w photos, plus maps and a glossary. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Kirkus Reviews

One of the first in a slew of books forthcoming to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel: a thorough and thoroughly entertaining history of that nation's first half centuryþfrom a Labor Party point of view. The prolific historian and Churchill biographer Gilbert (A History of the Twentieth Century, 1997; Holocaust Journey, 1997) covers the remarkable story of Israel's miracles and debacles from the time a Zionist state was a gleam in Theodor Herzl's eye to the latest shrill attack on current Prime Minister Netanyahu for building Jewish housing in the old city of Jerusalem. But Gilbertþs pro-Labor bias somewhat distorts not only his interpretation of the past but his perspective on the present and future of a nation that is becoming increasingly oriental and traditional and is now governed by a coalition representing those, rather than Laborþs, interests. A rich history with a progressive stance.

	Introduction
	Acknowledgements
	List of photographs
	List of maps
1	Ideals of statehood	3
2	Towards Zion	16
3	Beyond the Balfour Declaration, 1918-1929	36
4	Threats and dangers, 1929-1937	59
5	Hopes ... and blows, 1937-1939	82
6	The Second World War, 1939-1945	100
7	The British Mandate continues, 1945-1946	121
8	Year of decision, 1947	141
9	Undeclared war, November 1947-April 1948	153
10	The conflict intensifies, April-May 1948	170
11	The War of Independence, May 1948 to the first truce	186
12	From the first truce to the second truce	209
13	From the second truce to the armistice agreements	223
14	The last four months of the war	240
15	The ingathering of the exiles	250
16	Conflicts and achievements, 1952-1955	279
17	Paths to war, December 1955-October 1956	306
18	The Sinai campaign	320
19	A State in being, 1956-1963	329
20	Years of growth, 1963-1966	349
21	Nasser's challenge	365
22	The Six Day War	384
23	The dilemmas of victory	396
24	The October War, Yom Kippur 1973	426
25	The fourth postwar era	462
26	To the Lebanese war and beyond	496
27	Intifada	525
28	Towards Madrid and Oslo	543
29	The peace process	568
30	'Shalom, haver' - Peace, my friend	588
	Maps	621
	Glossary	665
	Bibliography of works consulted	671
	Index	681

Dictators or Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

2009-01-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia

Author: Richard Overy

If the past century will be remembered for its tragic pairing of civilized achievement and organized destruction, at the heart of darkness may be found Hitler, Stalin, and the systems of domination they forged. Their lethal regimes murdered millions and fought a massive, deadly war. Yet their dictatorships took shape within formal constitutional structures and drew the support of the German and Russian people.

In the first major historical work to analyze the two dictatorships together in depth, Richard Overy gives us an absorbing study of Hitler and Stalin, ranging from their private and public selves, their ascents to power and consolidation of absolute rule, to their waging of massive war and creation of far-flung empires of camps and prisons. The Nazi extermination camps and the vast Soviet Gulag represent the two dictatorships in their most inhuman form. Overy shows us the human and historical roots of these evils. 16 pages of illustrations.

The New York Times - William Grimes

Mr. Overy wastes very little time trying to fathom the psychology of the two leaders since neither regime was, as he puts it, "a one-man show." Instead, he examines the machinery of dictatorship, tracing the historical evolution and the workings of, for example, the party state, the cult of personality, the command economy and cultural and racial policy in each country.

The New York Times Sunday Book Review - Steven Merritt Miner

Beginning in 1992 with the publication of Alan Bullock's vast dual biography, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, the comparative approach has returned in force. Now Richard Overy, best known for his fine histories of World War II and Nazi Germany, has weighed in with The Dictators, the most comprehensive, up-to-date and cogently argued comparison yet published. His approach is systemic rather than biographical: based on a prodigious reading of the scholarly literature, he compares and contrasts key features of the two regimes. The result is a richly insightful study (though one that, to be sure, demands a fairly high level of prior knowledge on the part of the reader).

Publishers Weekly

Comparisons between Hitler and Stalin and their regimes are nothing new, but this dense, comprehensive, scholarly investigation is more nuanced than most. Overy sidesteps the simplistic debate over which dictator was more evil and focuses on how they, and the systems they created, were similar and different. He delves into their regimes thematically, in topics ranging from police states and economic systems to wartime behavior. The results yield intriguing historical insights, although the book demands a careful reading. For instance, Overy notes that both Hitler and Stalin created cults of personality, but for Hitler "personality was the defining criterion of leadership"; Stalin, on the other hand, emphasized Communist ideology first and embraced a personality cult only when he realized it could cement his stranglehold on power. Interestingly, while the Nazi Party increasingly relied on workers' support and ideology, Stalin's Communist Party-the "vanguard of the proletariat"-relied more and more on middle-class technocrats. At times Overy restates points long known to historians, e.g., both leaders pursued negative utopias, but from different bases: class warfare was Stalin's justification, while Hitler chose biological purity. But when he points out the differences in their policies toward minorities and nationalities-Hitler adhered to a racial ladder, while Stalin, a Georgian, flip-flopped to suit his political goals-Overy's analytical strength and depth of knowledge emerges. 32 pages illus.; maps. Agent, Gill Coleridge. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In his comparison of Hitler and Stalin, Overy (history, King's Coll., London; Why the Allies Won) attempts to take the traditional view of the political spectrum (far right-authoritarian dictatorship; far left-communism) and bend both ends until they meet, with Hitler and Stalin behaving nearly identically. He does point out differences in how they ascended to power and whom they focused on as enemies of the state, for instance, but ultimately he highlights their uncanny similarities. For one thing, the rise of neither was inevitable: "Hitler was no more the necessary outcome of German history than Stalin was the inevitable child of Lenin's revolution in 1917." The transition from one comparison to the next is smooth, so that one does not feel jerked between Hitler and Stalin. This book is a smaller version of Alan Bullock's Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives but relies less on statistics and anecdote; both authors are clearly beholden to Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism for the philosophical underpinnings. Recommended for public libraries and academic libraries that lack Hitler-Stalin comparisons.-Harry Willems, Southeast Kansas Lib. Syst., Iola Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A sprawling study of the 20th century's foremost totalitarian systems and their infamous leaders, who are revealed to be, well, alike and different. Against the French authors of The Black Book of Communism (1997), who asserted that Josef Stalin's regime was even more monstrous than Adolf Hitler's, British scholar Overy (The Battle of Britain, 2001, etc.) argues that "the historian's responsibility is not to prove which of the two men was the more evil or deranged, but to try to understand the differing historical processes and states of mind that led both these dictatorships to murder on such a colossal scale." Some 900 pages later, the reader will have learned a very great deal about the systematic growth of the totalitarian state; about the evolution of command economies that sought, in Russia's case, to bring the state into the modern era and, in Germany's, to overcome the state's "vulnerable dependence on the wider world economy"; about the proliferation of concentration and labor camps in the 1930s. Overy does not add much to what is known about these systems, though he does remark, usefully, that some of Hitler's early success came about because Germans were too embarrassed to confront him and that Stalin was no bumpkin, even if he didn't know how to handle an oyster fork. (Stalin's personal library, the author points out, numbered 40,000 well-read volumes.) Overy's conclusions about these rulers' differing conceptions of the state are unexceptionable: Hitler believed in an ethnic state, Stalin in a historically constructed one, and neither had any use for capitalism. His remarks about the complicity of the dictatorships' subjects in the crimes of their rulers will not cause a stirthese days, as they might have in times past. His notion, however, that Soviet communism was meant to advance human progress at large whereas Nazism was meant to serve one people alone will probably not satisfy those French scholars-and certainly does not constitute a satisfactory defense of the former. Still, a highly readable account of the two regimes, drawing on an impressive wealth of primary documents.

	Introduction : comparing dictatorships
1	Stalin and Hitler : paths to dictatorship	1
2	The art of ruling	54
3	Cults of personality	98
4	The party state	132
5	States of terror	176
6	Constructing utopia	218
7	The moral universe of dictatorship	265
8	Friend and foe : popular responses to dictatorship	304
9	Cultural revolutions	349
10	Commanding the economy	392
11	Military superpowers	441
12	Total war	483
13	Nations and races	540
14	Empire of the camps	593
	Conclusion : two dictatorships	635

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Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

Author: David Ricardo

This landmark treatise of 1817 formulated the guiding principles behind the market economy. Author Ricardo, with Adam Smith, founded the classical system of political economy, a school of thought that dominated economic policies throughout the 19th century and figured prominently in the theories of John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx.

Bad Samaritans or The Girl I Left behind

2009-01-07T00:06:00.000-08:00

Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Author: Ha Joon Chang

With irreverent wit, an engagingly personal style, and a battery of real-life examples, Ha-Joon Chang blasts holes in the "World Is Flat" orthodoxy of Thomas Friedman and other neo-liberal economists who argue that only unfettered capitalism and wide-open international trade can lift struggling nations out of poverty. On the contrary, Chang shows, today's economic superpowers - from the United States to Britain to his native South Korea - all attained prosperity by shameless protectionism and government intervention in industry. We in the wealthy nations have conveniently forgotten this fact, telling ourselves a fairy tale about the magic of free trade and - via our proxies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization - ramming policies that suit ourselves down the throat of the developing world.

Unlike typical economists who construct models of how economies are supposed to behave, Chang examines the past: what has actually happened. His pungently contrarian history demolishes one pillar after another of free-market mythology. We treat patents and copyrights as sacrosanct - but developed our own industries by studiously copying others' technologies. We insist that centrally planned economies stifle growth - but many developing countries had higher GDP growth before they were pressured into deregulating their economies. Both justice and common sense, Chang argues, demand that we reevaluate the policies we force on weaker nations. Bad Samaritans calls on America to return to its abandoned role, embodied in programs like the Marshall Plan, to offer a helping hand, instead of a closed fist, to countries struggling to follow in ourfootsteps.

Publishers Weekly

In the 1950s, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world, suffering the aftereffects of decades of brutal Japanese colonialism and war with its northern counterpart. During his childhood, Chang (Kicking Away the Ladder), a respected economist at the University of Cambridge, witnessed the beginnings of Korea's postwar economic miracle as Gen. Park Chung-Hee's dictatorship (despite its corrupt machinations) set the economic groundwork that would lift Korea out of poverty. Though Korea's strategies are "heretical" to first world, free-market economists, Chang argues that the world's wealthiest nations historically relied on the same heavy-handed protectionist approaches in their quests for economic hegemony. These wealthy, first world economies, which "preach free market and free trade to the poor countries in order to capture larger shares of the latter's markets and to pre-empt the emergence of possible competitors" are Chang's "bad Samaritans." Chang builds his outsider stance through a history of capitalism and globalization and stories of other struggling countries' economic transformations. The resulting polemic about the shortcomings of neoliberal economic theory's belief in unlimited free-market competition and its effect on the developing world is provocative and may hold the key to similar miracles for some of the world's most troubled economies. (Jan.)

Library Journal

University of Cambridge economics professor Chang (Institutional Change and Economic Development ) joins the heated discussion on globalization and economic justice with his alternative, iconoclastic views on the currently popular free-trade dogma of global capitalism. Contrary to the opinions of neoliberal economists (e.g., Thomas Friedman) who argue that only free capitalism and wide-open international trade can lift struggling nations out of poverty, Chang instead explains that today's economic superpowers, including the United States, Britain, and his native South Korea, all attained their prosperity by shameless government protectionism and intervention in industry. Solidly researched and filled with striking examples, this book does not deny the benefits of integration into the world economy to developing countries, but it also draws on the lessons of history to argue that Third World nations must be allowed to integrate on their own terms. Chang's starkly stated, oppositional views will stimulate refreshing debate among economists, and the crisp, steady narration by Jim Bond maintains listener interest in material that may be better received in university graduate economics classes. Highly recommended for university libraries supporting a business and economics curriculum and for larger public libraries.-Dale Farris, Groves, TX

Go to: Calamari y Hornbook de Perillo de Contratos

The Girl I Left behind: A Narrative History of the Sixties

Author: Judith Nies

At the height of the Vietnam War protests, twenty-eight-year-old Judith Nies and her husband lived a seemingly idyllic life. Both were building their respective careers in Washington—Nies as the speechwriter and chief staffer to a core group of antiwar congressmen, her husband as a Treasury department economist. They lived in the carriage house of the famed Marjorie Merriweather Post estate. But when her husband brought home a list of questions from an FBI file with Judith's name on the front, Nies soon realized that her life was about to take a radical turn. Shocked to find herself the focus of an FBI investigation into her political activities, Nies began to reevaluate her role as grateful employee and dutiful wife. In The Girl I Left Behind, she chronicles the experiences of those women who, like herself, reinvented their lives in the midst of a wildly shifting social and political landscape.

In a fresh, candid look at the 1960s, Nies pairs illuminating descriptions of feminist leaders, women's liberation protests, and other pivotal social developments with the story of her own transformation into a staunch activist and writer. From exposing institutionalized sexism on Capitol Hill in her first published article to orchestrating the removal of a separate "Ladies Gallery" on the House floor to taking leadership of the Women in Fellowships Committee, Nies discusses her own efforts to enlarge women's choices and to change the workplace—and how the repercussions of those efforts in the sixties can still be felt today.

A heartfelt memoir and piercing social commentary, The Girl I Left Behind recounts one woman's courageous journey towardindependence and equality. It also evaluates the consequences of the feminist movement on the same women who made it happen—and on the daughters born in their wake.

Publishers Weekly

Future chroniclers of the period may well place the drug and hippie scene as, historically, mere decorative fringe to "the women's movement that came out of the 1960s," which was, according to Nies, "the most successful and transformative social movement of the twentieth century." Historian and biographer Nies (Nine Women: Portraits from the American Radical Tradition) combines her memoir of the girl she was with an account of the world in which she grew up to become a "pioneer feminist." She delineates a milieu of limitations on women's lives unimaginable today—a time when "women were supposed to marry well, dress well, and entertain well," and when men's clubs had "Ladies' Entrances" and Congress a "Ladies' Gallery." Nies combines personal memoir (her family history, student days, her travels, her marriage, her jobs from summer waitress to being "one of only a handful of professional women on Capitol Hill") with period history (the Cuban missile crisis, the Women Strike for Peace campaign against nuclear testing, the formation of NOW) and well-known people with whom she crosses paths (Madeleine Albright, Paul Wolfowitz, Dorothy Day and Gloria Steinem, to name a few). While the book lags at times, Nies's combination period history and memoir is a highly valuable first-person record of a woman who finds herself, and the movement she grew with. (June)

Lisa Nussbaum - Library Journal

This memoir spans the Sixties, when anti-Vietnam War rallies, women's and civil rights marches, sit-ins, and boycotts produced an era of great social upheaval. Nies matches these expressions of unrest with injustices encountered in her own life at the time. She learned about gender discrimination when she found herself unemployable after earning a graduate degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Nies explains that the few women who got hired from programs such as hers worked primarily in clerical or low-level positions for the CIA. She finally found a job with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and explains how she went on to work for 11 different liberal antiwar U.S. congressmen-"the best job in Washington"-doing research, writing speeches, and more. But there was still inequality. When she attended a congressional hearing on the Vietnam War, she was told she could sit only in the women's gallery, to which she responded that Congress was violating its own law, Title IX, which guaranteed equal access to public accommodations. Ultimately, Nies writes of coming of age as a stronger and wiser self than the "girl" she was at the beginning. The life experiences and lessons she relates so freshly (including political parallels to this era's war) will make this book captivating for students of the political and cultural history of the Sixties. Highly recommended for academic libraries and larger public libraries.

Kirkus Reviews

Relating her transformation from naive girl to empowered political woman, the author also paints a larger picture of the 1960s on Capitol Hill and beyond. Bolstered by contemporary statistics and an excellent memory, Nies (Writing/Massachusetts College of Art; Nine Women: Portraits from the American Radical Tradition, 2002, etc.) details the life changes she experienced alongside countless other women during a decade of secrecy, boys'-club politics and outright lies. Although handpicked from her blue-collar background to attend the prestigious Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Nies quickly learned that secretary was about the highest title an educated American woman could attain in the '60s. She fought to carve out a space for herself in politics and international relations, relying on persistence, the support of the nascent women's movement and no small measure of guts. She gradually accomplished feats both personal and political, working with or against many famous, influential people along the way. In her punchy memoir, Nies demonstrates that equal rights for women in the workplace did not just happen, nor did they materialize as the result of benevolent male politicians finally deciding to do the right thing. Generations of female activists worked tirelessly behind the scenes to change the country's mind-set about women in the workplace and to raise awareness of crucial issues including child care, birth control and sexual harassment. Many of the dramatic trials and victories she records have faded from public consciousness, even though today's young women directly benefit from the efforts of their female forebears. The book's narrative style-blunt, unflinching,honest-serves the story well, and Nies refuses to gloss over her own flaws and errors. She ably details the conflicting demands made on and by women and their plural strategies for resolving them. Both educational and entertaining, with a wry, ironic wit evident throughout. Agent: Betsy Amster/Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises

Testament of Youth or The Limits to Growth

2009-01-06T13:54:00.000-08:00

Testament of Youth

Author: Vera Brittain

Much of what we know and feel about the First World War we owe to Vera Brittain's elegiac yet unsparing book, which set a standard for memoirists from Martha Gellhorn to Lillian Hellman. Abandoning her studies at Oxford in 1915 to enlist as a nurse in the armed services, Brittain served in London, in Malta, and on the Western Front. By war's end she had lost virtually everyone she loved. Testament of Youth is both a record of what she lived through and an elegy for a vanished generation. Hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as a book that helped "both form and define the mood of its time," it speaks to any generation that has been irrevocably changed by war.

Book about: To the Castle and Back or Of Paradise and Power

The Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update

Author: Donella Meadows

In 1972 four young scientists at MIT wrote The Limits to Growth, which shocked the world and became an international best-seller. Using the World3 computer model, the authors looked toward the future, for the first time showing the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet. Now, armed with 30 additional years of data, these authors sound the alarm on humanity's devastating effects on climate, water quality, fisheries, forests, and other imperiled resources.

Publishers Weekly

Updated for the second time since 1992, this book, by a trio of professors and systems analysts, offers a pessimistic view of the natural resources available for the world's population. Using extensive computer models based on population, food production, pollution and other data, the authors demonstrate why the world is in a potentially dangerous "overshoot" situation. Put simply, overshoot means people have been steadily using up more of the Earth's resources without replenishing its supplies. The consequences, according to the authors, may be catastrophic: "We... believe that if a profound correction is not made soon, a crash of some sort is certain. And it will occur within the lifetimes of many who are alive today." After explaining overshoot, the book discusses population and industrial growth, the limits on available resources, pollution, technology and, importantly, ways to avoid overshoot. The authors do an excellent job of summarizing their extensive research with clear writing and helpful charts illustrating trends in food consumption, population increases, grain production, etc., in a serious tome likely to appeal to environmentalists, government employees and public policy experts. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Escape from Freedom or Angler

2009-01-06T00:41:00.000-08:00

Escape from Freedom

Author: Erich Fromm

If humanity cannot live with the dangers and responsibilities inherent in freedom, it will probably turn to authoritarianism. This is the central idea of Escape from Freedom, a landmark work by one of the most distinguished thinkers of our time, and a book that is as timely now as when first published in 1941. Few books have thrown such light upon the forces that shape modern society or penetrated so deeply into the causes of authoritarian systems. If the rise of democracy set some people free, at the same time it gave birth to a society in which the individual feels alienated and dehumanized. Using the insights of psychoanalysis as probing agents, Fromm’s work analyzes the illness of contemporary civilization as witnessed by its willingness to submit to totalitarian rule.

Book review: Hats and Eyeglasses or HP Way

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency

Author: Barton Gellman

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman's newsbreaking investigative journalism documents how Vice President Dick Cheney redefined the role of the American vice presidency, assuming unprecedented responsibilities and making it a post of historic power.

The Washington Post - James Mann

Until now, I assumed it would take decades, the eventual declassification of documents and considerably more historical perspective for an author (say, some future Robert Caro) to uncover and describe Cheney's secretive role. But Barton Gellman's outstanding new book, Angler, could well turn out to be the most revealing account of Cheney's activities as vice president that ever gets written…There will almost certainly be no vice president as powerful as Cheney for decades, and no account of what he has wrought that is as compelling as this book.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

This book…draws a portrait of Mr. Cheney that will be highly familiar to most readers: that is, a portrait of the vice president as a steamrolling force for the war in Iraq and enhanced executive power; as a vigilant presidential filter who framed issues and information for "the Decider;" and as a shrewd, secretive operative who used his years of government service (as President Ford's chief of staff and the first President Bush's secretary of defense) to hone his skills at bureaucratic in-fighting. What Angler does most impressively is flesh out this portrait with new details, connecting the dots to give the reader a visceral understanding of just how Mr. Cheney maneuvered within the administration, frequently circumventing traditional policy-making channels and sidestepping potential dissenters to get what he wanted.

The New York Times Book Review - Jacob Heilbrunn

As governor of Texas, Bush hewed to a centrist course, working, as he often boasted, with the Democratic-led State Legislature. As a candidate for the presidency, he promised more of the same. But as president, he struck out on a more radical and polarizing course, one that Barton Gellman, in his engrossing and informative Angler, suggests he would not have followed absent Cheney. (Angler is Cheney's Secret Service code name.) Gellman, a reporter at The Washington Post, has interviewed numerous associates and antagonists of the vice president, offering the most penetrating portrait of him yet. The result is that Cheney doesn't seem as bad as you might think. He's even worse.

	"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

	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

1	The question	3
2	Traditional economics	21
3	A critique	45
4	The big picture	79
5	Dynamics	99
6	Agents	115
7	Networks	141
8	Emergence	161
9	Evolution	187
10	Design spaces	221
11	Physical technology	241
12	Social technology	261
13	Economic evolution	279
14	A new defnition of wealth	299

Congress Book

Oxymorons or The Affirmative Action Empire

Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System

Table of Contents:

The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union,1923-1939

New Yorker

Force of the Example or Handbook of Public Finance

Force of the Example: Explorations in the Paradigm of Judgment

Handbook of Public Finance

The Plain and Noble Garb of Truth or The British Empire

The Plain and Noble Garb of Truth: Nationalism and Impartiality in American Historical Writing, 1784-1860

The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset

Table of Contents:

The Moral Imagination or Postcolonial Disorders

The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace

Table of Contents:

Postcolonial Disorders

George Washingtons War on Native America or The Politics Presidents Make

George Washington's War on Native America

The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton

Culture and Materialism or Total Lobbying

Culture and Materialism

Total Lobbying: What Lobbyists Want (and How They Try to Get It)

Tenured Radicals 3rd Edition or This Little Light of Mine

Tenured Radicals, 3rd Edition: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education

This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

Publishers Weekly

Michael Rogers - Library Journal

Library Journal

School Library Journal

Homeland Security and Terrorism or Being Arab

Homeland Security and Terrorism

Being Arab

Jefferson and His Time or Hobbes

Jefferson and His Time: Jefferson and the Rights of Man, Vol. 2

Table of Contents:

Hobbes: On the Citizen

Terrorism and Counterterrorism or Multicultural Odysseys

Terrorism and Counterterrorism

Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity

Strong Borders Secure Nation or Lightning out of Lebanon

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:

The Selected Political Writings of John Locke or Global Financial Warriors

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:

The Anthropology of Development and Globalization or The Greek Wars

The Anthropology of Development and Globalization

The Greek Wars: The Failure of Persia

Table of Contents:

Rutherford B Hayes or Chutes and Ladders

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

Stalins Last Crime or Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

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:

Imperial Hubris or Sketches from a Life

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

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

The Washington Post - Richard A. Clarke