Living My Life or Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

Living My Life

Author: Emma Goldman

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

Library Journal

This Penguin Classics edition combines Goldman's two-volume autobiography into a single unit. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Read also Color Index or Sams Teach Yourself WPF in 24 Hours

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.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

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)

Strategies of Containment or Common Ground

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

Author: John Lewis Gaddis

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

Library Journal

Gaddis here revises his 1982 original to reflect changes since the end of the Cold War and a morphing political climate. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

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.

Table of Contents:

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

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

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Table of Contents:

	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