tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30083046702768636442024-03-08T05:21:18.572-08:00World Politics BookUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-3699816755138665492009-12-02T23:20:00.000-08:002009-12-02T23:31:32.780-08:00Cities withour Suburbs or Bay of Pigs Declassified<h4>Cities withour Suburbs: Census 2000 </h4> <p>Author: <strong>David Rusk</strong> <p><p><P>Cities without Suburbs, first published in 1993, has become an influential analysis of America's cities among city planners, scholars, and citizens alike. In it, David Rusk, the former mayor of Albuquerque, argues that America must end the isolation of the central city from its suburbs in order to attack its urban problems.</P><P>Rusk's analysis, extending back to 1950, covers 522 central cities in 320 metro areas of the United States. He finds that cities trapped within old boundaries have suffered severe racial segregation and the emergence of an urban underclass. But cities with annexation powers -- -- termed "elastic" by Rusk -- -- have shared in area-wide development.</P><P>This third edition is among the first books of any kind to employ information from the 2000 U.S. census. While refining his argument with this new data, Rusk assesses the major trends of the 1990s, including the perceived rebound of central cities, the impact of Hispanic and Asian migration, the growing similarities of older "inner-ring" suburbs to central cities, and the emerging influence of faith-based movements. New recommendations take account of growing restrictions on cities' annexation powers, even in the Southwestern United States, and of new opportunities for federal shaping of home mortgage programs and urban planning processes. Rusk's conclusion stresses cities' growing experience with building political coalitions in pursuit of development and growth.</P> </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Boxes</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Preface</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Acknowledgments</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction: Framing the Issue</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">I</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Lessons from Urban America</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">5</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The real city is the total metropolitan area - city and suburb</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">5</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Most of America's blacks, Hispanics, and Asians live in urban areas</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">7</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Since World War II, urban growth has been low-density, suburban style</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">7</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">For a city's population to grow, the city must be elastic</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">9</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Almost all metro areas have grown</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">14</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Low-density cities can grow through in-fill; high-density cities cannot</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">16</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 7</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Elastic cities expand their city limits; inelastic cities do not</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">17</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 8</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Bad state laws can hobble cities</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">17</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 9</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Neighbors can trap cities</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">19</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 10</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Old cities are complacent; young cities are ambitious</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">22</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 11</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Racial prejudice has shaped growth patterns</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">23</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 12</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Elastic cities capture suburban growth; inelastic cities contribute to suburban growth</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">25</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 13</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Elastic cities gain population; inelastic cities lose population</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">28</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 14</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">When a city stops growing, it starts shrinking</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">30</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 15</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Inelastic areas are more segregated than elastic areas</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">30</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 16</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Major immigration increases Hispanic segregation</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">33</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 17</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Highly racially segregated regions are also highly economically segregated regions</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">33</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 18</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Inelastic cities have wide income gaps with their suburbs; elastic cities maintain greater city-suburb balance</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">34</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 19</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Poverty is more disproportionately concentrated in inelastic cities than in elastic cities</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">36</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 20</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Little boxes regions foster segregation; Big Box regions facilitate integration</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">38</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 21</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Little boxes school districts foster segregation; Big Box school districts facilitate integration</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">40</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 22</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Inelastic areas were harder hit by deindustrialization of the American labor market</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">42</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 23</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Elastic areas had faster rates of nonfactory job creation than inelastic areas</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">43</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 24</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Elastic areas showed greater real income gains than inelastic areas</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">44</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 25</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Elastic cities have better bond ratings than inelastic cities</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">45</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Lesson 26</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Elastic areas have a higher educated workforce than inelastic areas</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">46</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Conclusion</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">48</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">II</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Characteristics of Metropolitan Areas</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">51</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Point of (Almost) No Return</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">78</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Cities without Suburbs</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">83</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">III</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Strategies for Stretching Cities</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">89</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Three Essential Regional Policies</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">89</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Metro Government: A Definition</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">91</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">State Government's Crucial Role</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">93</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Federal Government: Leveling the Playing Field</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">114</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">IV</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Conclusions</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">129</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">App</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Central Cities and Metro Areas by Elasticity Category</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">139</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Sources</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">147</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">149</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">155</TD></TABLE> <p>Interesting book: <strong><a href="http://livros-texto.blogspot.com/2009/12/leader-in-you-or-memory-jogger-ii.html">Leader in You or The Memory Jogger II</a></strong> <h4>Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Peter Kornbluh</strong> <p><p>Including the complete report and a wealth of supplementary materials, this volume provides a fascinating picture of the operation and of the secret world of the espionage establishment, with elements of plots, counterplots, and intra-agency power struggles worthy of a Le Carre novel.</p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>If the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was the most dire event of the Cold War, then the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 was the most absurd. Kornbluh (director, Cuban Documentation Ctr. Project of the National Security Archive; Politics of Illusion: The Bay of Pigs Invasion Reexamined, Lynne Rienner, 1997) includes the tedious but informative report of Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick, which largely blames the CIA for misleading President Kennedy. Richard Bissell, the CIA's deputy director for plans, responds with a similarly oppressive rebuttal that attributes the failure to Kennedy's need to ensure plausible deniability--to hide America's obvious role by committing limited, insufficient air support and troops. Additional supporting documents and an interview with the invasion planners show the Bay of Pigs fiasco to be what historian Theodore Draper calls "a perfect failure." For a narrative overview, see Ale Fursenko's One Hell of a Gamble (LJ 3/15/97). Primarily for specialists in the era.--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA </p><h4>Evan Thomas</h4><p>One of the most brutally frank, important - and unusual - government documents ever written, <i>Bay of Pigs Declassified</i> should be required reading for citizens, as well as for CIA officials as a 'how-to' guide on how not to conduct a covert operation. <br>-- <i>Newsweek</i></p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>A look at spooks in action that does not resemble a Tom Clancy novel. <P><p>A lingering question about the Bay of Pigs operation has always been how anyone could ever have thought it would work. Somehow presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, with the input of their military and intelligence advisers, approved an invasion plan that projected the victory of a 1,400-man exile force over the 25,000-man Cuban army. Moreover, they did so while implausibly insisting that the action must not be traced back to the US. Until recently, the cloak of secrecy has restricted efforts to explain this planning and decision-making process to idle speculation; with the publication of this volume, somewhat informed speculation is now possible. Through the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Archive (a public-interest group), with which Kornbluh is affiliated, has obtained the CIA's internal and very critical report on the Bay of Pigs and a lengthy response from the CIA officer in charge of the operation. <P> <p>Edited by Kornbluh (<i>Nicarauga</i>, 1987), the volume includes an analytical introduction, an interview with two CIA men involved in the planning of the operation and a detailed timeline of events. This mass of information provides insight into shifting objectives, ambiguity over responsibility and accountability, and the momentum that precluded halting or even seriously reconsidering the operation. Most striking, however, is the vigor with which those involved seek to hide behind presidential cancellation of an air strike in explaining the failure. The impulse to deflect blame clearly overrides any self-analysis that could lead to institutional learning from the experience despite the absurdity of claiming that one decision was the turning point in an operation riddled with problems. What remains unexplained is the failure of American political leadership, a puzzle that may be beyond the potential of historical documents to solve. <P> <p>An eye-opening account, regardless of one's political convictions.<P> </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-91511649351093110362009-12-01T17:57:00.000-08:002009-12-01T18:08:33.646-08:00Sister Revolutions or The Tragedy of Great Power Politics<h4>Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Susan Dunn</strong> <p><p>In 1790, the American diplomat and politician Gouverneur Morris compared the French and American Revolutions, saying that the French "have taken Genius instead of Reason for their guide, adopted Experiment instead of Experience, and wander in the Dark because they prefer Lightning to Light." Although both revolutions professed similar Enlightenment ideals of freedom, equality, and justice, there were dramatic differences. The Americans were content to preserve many aspects of their English heritage; the French sought a complete break with a thousand years of history. The Americans accepted nonviolent political conflict; the French valued unity above all. The Americans emphasized individual rights, while the French stressed public order and cohesion. Why did the two revolutions follow such different trajectories? What influence have the two different visions of democracy had on modern history? And what lessons do they offer us about democracy today? In a lucid narrative style, with particular emphasis on lively portraits of the major actors, Susan Dunn traces the legacies of the two great revolutions through modern history and up to the revolutionary movements of our own time. Her combination of history and political analysis will appeal to all who take an interest in the way democratic nations are governed. <p> 18 Black-and-White Photographs<BR> Notes/Bibliography/Index </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>The American and French Revolutions claimed the same Enlightenment ideals: freedom, equality, justice. Still, the two events were profoundly different in method and result. The American Revolution led to a well-reasoned public dialogue on the nature of democracy and the role of the fledgling government. This dialogue culminated first in the Articles of Confederation and then the Constitution, on which the country has been anchored securely ever since. The French Revolution, on the other hand, led to the height of unreasonableness: a bloodbath of recrimination followed by a fragile republic destined to yield again and again to upheaval. Williams College professor Dunn (The Deaths of Louis XVI) explores the roots of these differences, finding that they spring from differences in the basic philosophy of citizenship espoused in each embryo state. While the Americans believed individual rights to be paramount, the French insisted on the appearance of public unity. Individual liberty was no more valued in the early French Republic than it had been under the Bourbons, she explains: "Armed with the `truth,' Jacobins could brand any individuals who dared to disagree with them traitors or fanatics," writes Dunn. "Any distinction between their own political adversaries and the people's `enemies' was obliterated." And as Dunn observes, tyranny does not good nation-building make. Dunn's comparative analysis is solid and well articulated--as far as it goes. A penultimate chapter, "Enlightenment Legacies," which treats the influence of the French and American experiences on subsequent revolutions from Russia to Africa, only begins to explore the legacies left by the sister revolutions. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. </p><h4>Booknews</h4><p>In a narrative style, with particular emphasis on lively portraits of major actors, Dunn (French literature, history of ideas, Williams College) traces the legacies of the American and French revolutions through modern history and up to the revolutionary movements of our own time. She examines why the two revolutions followed such different trajectories, and asks what influence these two different visions of democracy had on modern history. Her combination of history and political analysis will appeal to all who take an interest in the way democratic nations are governed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) </p><h4>Time Magazine</h4><p>They were both rooted in the same Enlightenment ideals of universal human rights, and they both erupted during the waning decades of the 18th century. Why then did the American and the French revolutions profice such radically different result: a contentious but stable democravy on one side of the Atlantic, the Terror and the triumph of Napoleon on the other? <p> The question is old but still stimulating and provocative, as historian Susan Dunn demonstrates anew in <i>Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light</i>. In presenting her lively analysis, Dunn, a history professor at Williams College, relies heavily on the words, both public utterances and private correspondence, of the participants in the two revolutions.</p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Dunn (Williams Coll.; The Deaths of Louis XVI: Regicide and the French Political Imagination, not reviewed) compares the American and French revolutionary traditions and, not surprisingly in this presentist extended essay, finds the latter deficient. Comparisons of the intent, form, and style of these two great 18th-century revolutions are not new. And unfortunately, Dunn, relying heavily on previous scholarly work, adds few fresh perspectives to what has already been written. Nevertheless, her expressive and reflective work reminds us of the profound differences between these roughly contemporaneous revolutions and of their "invaluable lessons" for our own democracies. If its tone is excessively triumphalist, the book soundly insists that the American revolutionary tradition gave birth to a healthy emphasis upon the values of diversity and conflict, while the thrust of its Continental variant was more dangerously toward unity. The generation of the Framers sought to constitutionalize rights against their government, while the French revolutionaries sought to protect the rights of the community against individuals. One sought limited, the other embracing, government; one accepted the ambiguities of democracy, the other reached for clarity of principle. Dunn's freshest chapter, befitting a scholar of literature and ideas, compares the American and French styles of revolutionary expression and action and finds the former marked by courtesy and fairness, the latter all ardor and vigor. She is surely on strong, if well-trodden, ground in depicting a line running from revolutionary France into Bolshevism and the Viet Cong, but she strikes out on a new path in arguing for an Americanlineage to the recent peaceful revolution led by Nelson Mandela in South Africa. A thoughtful reconsideration of the never-ending, grave challenges of governance and power vouchsafed to the modern world by revolutions two centuries ago. (20 b&w illustrations, not seen.)<P> </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>ACKNOWLEDGMENTS *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>xi</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>1 * SISTER REVOLUTIONS *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>3</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>2 * REVOLUTIONARY LEADERSHIP *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>27</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>3 * CONFLICT OR CONSENSUS? *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>53</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>4 * REVOLUTIONARY TALK, REVOLUTIONARY STAGE *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>102</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>5 * DECLARING—AND DENYING-RIGHTS *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>137</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>6 * ENLIGHTENMENT LEGACIES *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>162</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>7 * ON "HER MAJESTY'S LOYAL OPPOSITION" *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>193</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>APPENDIX * THE BILL OF RIGHTS DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>MAN AND CITIZEN *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>209</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>NOTES *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>217</TD> <TR><TD WIDTH = 90%>INDEX *</TD><TD WIDTH = 10% ALIGN = RIGHT>249</TD> </TABLE> <p>Book review: <strong><a href="http://ubersetzungsbuch.blogspot.com">Standard and Poors Guide to Money and Investing or Freakonomics</a></strong> <h4>The Tragedy of Great Power Politics </h4> <p>Author: <strong>John J Mearsheimer</strong> <p><p>A decade after the end of the Cold War, both policy makers and academics foresee a new era of peace and prosperity, an era when democracy, open trade, and mutual trust will join hands to banish war from the globe. With insight worthy of The Prince, John Mearsheimer exposes the truth behind this idyllic illusion: in a world where no international authority reigns above states, great powers invariably seek to gain power at each other's expense and to establish themselves as the dominant state. </p><h4>Choice</h4><p>This is the definitive work on offensive realism. </p><h4>Barry R. Posen</h4><p>A superb book....Mearsheimer has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the behavior of great powers. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>The central tenet of the political theory called "offensive realism" is that each state seeks to ensure its survival by maximizing its share of world power. Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, sets out to explain, defend and validate offensive realism as the only theory to account for how states actually behave. He proceeds by laying out the theory and its assumptions, then extensively tests the theory against the historical record since the Age of Napoleon. He finds plenty of evidence of what the theory predicts that states seek regional dominance through military strength. Further, whenever a condition of "unbalanced multipolarity" exists (i.e., when three or more states compete in a region, and one of them has the potential to dominate the others), the likelihood of war rises dramatically. If history validates offensive realism, then the theory should yield predictions about the future of world politics and the chances of renewed global conflict. Here Mearsheimer ventures into controversial terrain. Far from seeing the end of the Cold War as ushering in an age of peace and cooperation, the author believes the next 20 years have a high potential for war. China emerges as the most destabilizing force, and the author urges the U.S. to do all it can to retard China's economic growth. Since offensive realism is an academic movement, readers will expect some jargon ("buckpassing," "hegemon"), but the terms are defined and the language is accessible. This book will appeal to all devotees of political science, and especially to partisans of the "tough-minded" (in William James's sense) approach to history. Maps. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners BusinessInformation. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Mearsheimer (political science, Univ. of Chicago), an articulate spokesman for the realist school of international politics, here serves up a theory dubbed "offensive realism." Because of the anarchic structure of the international system, he contends, the great powers compete perpetually to become the "hegemon," or dominant state in the world and thus to obtain that elusive quantity called security. Theories of the "democratic peace" have no place in this gloomy world, and the internal makeup of a state has little bearing on its international behavior. Readers of an idealist bent will be distressed to discover that America's grand endeavors of the 20th century the world wars and the Cold War sprang not from altruism but from amoral calculations of power. And the future will be no different: China and the United States are fated to become adversaries as Chinese power waxes, regardless of whether the Asian behemoth evolves in an authoritarian or a more benign direction. One of the finest works of the realist school, this belongs in all academic collections. James R. Holmes, Ph.D. candidate, Fletcher Sch. of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts Univ., Medford, MA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Freelance journalist Mearsheimer (Political Science/Univ. of Chicago) argues that powerful states obey rules centuries old, rules that he believes should prescribe as well as predict a state's behavior. Mearsheimer calls his theory "offensive realism." Since there is no pervasive and powerful global government (the UN is a pale, frail imitation of one), states have obeyed-and should obey-a simple imperative: survival. In this deeply conservative, Darwinian view of the world, the states most likely to survive are those that can both achieve regional hegemony (as the US has done) and prevent other states from doing so anywhere else. (Mearsheimer argues that there has never been, and likely never will be, a global hegemon.) He asserts that there are two kinds of power: latent (population, wealth) and military. And the best kind of military force is a huge, well-equipped, well-trained army. Naval and air forces are at best supplementary and cannot on their own win a war (Nelson's massive victory at Trafalgar, for example, antedated Waterloo by ten years). Mearsheimer points out repeatedly what he calls "the stopping power of water"-the notion that the US and the UK, for example, are relatively safe because they are protected by sizable bodies of water. And because he believes China is now the principal threat to the US, he declares we should attempt to slow the Chinese economy (and thus retard its military capability) rather than invite it into the family of nations. To validate his theses, he examines every major-power conflict since the Napoleonic era-slighting only the effect of prominent individuals (Napoleon, Hitler-were France and Germany just waiting for them?). Mearsheimer has donean astonishing amount of research for this provocative, important study (there are 130 pages of endnotes) and tosses into the trash-bin of history any effete Enlightenment notions about the potential perfectibility of our species. Our nations, he concludes, are like ourselves: territorial, feral, canine, vulpine. A seminal book: controversial, scholarly, compelling-and ultimately frightening. (9 maps, 24 tables) </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-21862838866808005842009-11-30T12:45:00.000-08:002009-11-30T12:56:29.826-08:00They Took My Father or Safe for Democracy<h4>They Took My Father: Finnish Americans in Stalin's Russia </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Mayme Sevander</strong> <p><p>"Mayme Sevander and Laurie Hertzel tell a poignant tale of a hidden corner of U.S. and Soviet history. Tracing the hopes and hardships of one family over two continents, They Took My Father explores the boundaries of loyalty, identity, and ideals." -Amy Goldstein, Washington Post"What makes Mayme's story so uniquely-almost unbelievably-tragic is that her family chose to move from the United States to the Soviet Union in 1934, thinking they were going to help build a 'worker's paradise.' They found, instead, a deadly nightmare." -St. Paul Pioneer Press "This gripping and timely book traces the beginnings of communism not as dry history but as a fascinating personal drama that spreads across Russia, Finland, and the mining towns of Upper Michigan and the Iron Range of Minnesota. . . . An important and largely ignored part of history comes alive in one woman's story of her tragic family, caught up in the all-consuming struggle of the twentieth century." -Frank Lynn, political reporter, New York Times Mayme Sevander (1924-2003) was born in Brule, Wisconsin, and emigrated with her family to the Soviet Union in 1934. Laurie Hertzel is a journalist at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. </p><br><br> <p>Book about: <strong><a href="http://pastries-books.blogspot.com">Hot Cuisine or Incredibly Easy Italian</a></strong> <h4>Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA </h4> <p>Author: <strong>John Prados</strong> <p><p>Safe for Democracy for the first time places the story of the CIA's covert operations squarely in the context of America's global quest for democratic values and institutions. National security historian John Prados offers a comprehensive history of the CIA's secret wars that is as close to a definitive account as is possible today. He draws on three decades of research to illuminate the men and women of the intelligence establishment, their resources and techniques, their triumphs and failures. In a dramatic and revealing narrative, Safe for Democracy not only relates the inside stories of covert operations but examines in meticulous detail the efforts of presidents and Congress to control the CIA and the specific choices made in the agency's secret wars. Safe for Democracy is the most authoritative and complete book on the CIA's secret wars ever published. </p><h4>Choice</h4><p>This is the most detailed single volume on the modern history of US covert operations.<p> </p><h4>Midwest Book Review</h4><p>If you're studying the CIA's operations and routines you can't be without Safe for Democracy.<p> </p><h4>Booklist</h4><p>Prados has performed a valuable service....A comprehensive and superbly researched effort that is both engrossing and disturbing.. </p><h4>Foreign Affairs</h4><p>Prados is an extraordinarily tenacious researcher who has madea career of exploring the activities of the intelligence community, particularly covert operations. He builds his case using whatever evidence he can find. There may be arguments about points of detail and some inferences, but this account of the "secret wars" undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency since its founding in 1947 is an impressive achievement. Many of the stories are familiar -- the coups in Iran and Guatemala, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the embrace of dubious rightists in Central America -- but what is striking is the range of countries in which the CIA has meddled and how counterproductive that meddling has so often been, even when the short-term goals were achieved. The anger generated (the 1953 overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddeq still factors into Iranian attitudes toward the United States), the poor choice of political friends, and the ease with which the CIA fits into conspiracy theories have ended up undermining U.S. interests in the long run. This book does not suggest that the CIA is a rogue arm of the government; the problem is that a covert capability proves too tempting to presidents seeking quick fixes to otherwise intractable problems. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-35768159262459908172009-11-29T07:33:00.000-08:002009-11-29T07:44:12.809-08:00Democracy and Tradition or MoveOns 50 Ways to Love Your Country<h4>Democracy and Tradition </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Jeffrey Stout</strong> <p><p><P>Do religious arguments have a public role in the post-9/11 world? Can we hold democracy together despite fractures over moral issues? Are there moral limits on the struggle against terror? Asking how the citizens of modern democracy can reason with one another, this book carves out a controversial position between those who view religious voices as an anathema to democracy and those who believe democratic society is a moral wasteland because such voices are not heard.<P>Drawing inspiration from Whitman, Dewey, and Ellison, Jeffrey Stout sketches the proper role of religious discourse in a democracy. He discusses the fate of virtue, the legacy of racism, the moral issues implicated in the war on terrorism, and the objectivity of ethical norms. Against those who see no place for religious reasoning in the democratic arena, Stout champions a space for religious voices. But against increasingly vocal antiliberal thinkers, he argues that modern democracy can provide a moral vision and has made possible such moral achievements as civil rights precisely because it allows a multitude of claims to be heard.<P>Stout's distinctive pragmatism reconfigures the disputed area where religious thought, political theory, and philosophy meet. Charting a path beyond the current impasse between secular liberalism and the new traditionalism, <i>Democracy and Tradition</i> asks whether we have the moral strength to continue as a democratic people as it invigorates us to retrieve our democratic virtues from very real threats to their practice.<P> </p><br><br> <p>See also: <strong><a href="http://bestsellerbucher.blogspot.com/2009/11/leadership-and-self-deception-or.html">Leadership and Self Deception or The Trillion Dollar Meltdown</a></strong> <h4>MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change </h4> <p>Author: <strong>MoveOnorg Staff</strong> <p><p>With more than 2 million members, the flourishing online activist group <i>MoveOn</i> is at the cutting edge of a new model for political activism with its ability to mobilize thousands of volunteers and millions of dollars. Best known for its recent grassroots efforts in protesting the war in Iraq and opposing the California recall election, and credited as a major player in the significant gains made by Howard Dean's presidential campaign, <i>MoveOn</i> takes its message offline in this timely book that provides inspiration and ideas for becoming a responsible member of our democracy. The 50 ways range from simple ideas such as "Tell a Friend about a Petition" to more dynamic suggestions like "Organize a Constituent Meeting." For those who feel powerless or hopeless, angry or apathetic, confused or disgusted, this clear and compelling how-to guide helps Americans become more accountable, progressive, and peaceful as it answers the question that more and more citizens are asking: "What can I do?!"</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Fifty members of the online activist group MoveOn.org provide tips on how to take political action in this inspiring audiobook, which is impressive not only because of the breadth of its suggestions, but also because 42 of the 50 contributors lend their own voices to the recording. Although this makes for an uneven listening experience, as not all of the contributors possess velvet voices, it drives home the audiobook's message: that people of all ages, races and income levels can make a difference. The essays--which cover everything from starting an online petition and hosting a political salon to writing letters to congress and organizing a political book club--each end with a set of "action tips" summarizing the steps the writer took in achieving his/her goals. The most useful component of this audiobook, however, may be its enhanced CD features. Those with access to a computer can browse these "action tips" and link directly to any Web sites mentioned in the material. Based on the Inner Ocean Publishing paperback. (June)n Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">I</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The power of connecting</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">2</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Create an effective online petition</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">4</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Spread the word about online petitions</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">6</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Sign a petition</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">8</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Share informed political recommendations</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">10</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Speak out online</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">12</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Email the President (and other politicians)</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">14</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Meet with your representatives</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">16</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">II</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Every vote counts</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">19</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">20</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Vote, no matter what</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">22</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Mobilize underrepresented voters</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">23</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Register voters in unlikely places</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">26</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Organize an issues-specific voter registration drive</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">28</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Get your office to vote</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">30</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Maximize the vote on election day</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">32</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Make a personal request to nonvoters</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">34</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Participate in a phone bank</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">36</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">III</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The many faces of the media</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">39</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">40</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Read more, watch TV news less</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">42</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Write a letter to the editor</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">44</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Respond to biased reporting</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">48</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Alert the media to uncovered events</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">50</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Place an ad</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">54</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Reform the media</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">56</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Make your own media</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">58</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Write an op-ed piece</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">61</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Start a political book club</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">64</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">MoveOn's suggested media sources</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">67</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">IV</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Political action is personal</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">69</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">70</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Write letters to Congress that work</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">72</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Talk to the officials you did't elect</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">74</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Support clean elections</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">76</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Volunteer for campaigns</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">78</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Help run a campaign</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">81</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Hit the streets for your candidate</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">84</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Run for office to challenge incumbents</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">86</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Donate money</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">88</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Host a house party</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">90</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Petition effectively</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">92</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Attend a meetup</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">94</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Serve as an elected official</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">96</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Act outside the box</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">98</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">V</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Personal action is political</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">101</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">102</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Serve your community</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">105</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Defy City Hall</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">108</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Respond locally to national issues</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">110</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Attend a rally</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">112</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Instigate protective laws</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">114</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Initiate a constitutional amendment</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">117</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Get a socially responsible day job</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">120</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Take action with your family</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">122</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Host a political salon</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">124</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Let your money speak</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">127</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Help others express their political views</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">130</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Express your views through art</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">132</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Advertise your political vision</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">134</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Afterword</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">137</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Acknowledgments</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">139</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">141</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">MoveOn information</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">145</TD></TABLE> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-63996324335113559282009-11-28T02:21:00.000-08:002009-11-28T02:32:06.124-08:00Among Warriors in Iraq or Contrary Notions<h4>Among Warriors in Iraq: True Grit, Special Ops, and Lock-and-Load Raiding in Mosul and Fallujah </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Mike Tucker</strong> <p><p>Eight months after George W. Bush proclaimed major combat in Iraq over in 2003, author Mike Tucker found himself right in the thick of it--dirty, profane, violent, lethal, and daily major combat--with some of America’s most highly trained and accomplished soldiers.<br><br><i>Among Warriors in Iraq </i>is a street-level view of the struggles of maintaining control in the anarchy that pervaded Iraq after Coalition forces declared victory. Tucker journeyed--and fought--with Special Forces groups in both Mosul and Fallujah, cities unconvinced the war was over, and willing to do anything to ensure that the struggle would continue.<br><br>Here is his frank and adrenaline-soaked account, seen through the resilient eyes of the soldiers willing to pay the ultimate price for victory.<br><br>A street-level view of the hell of combat in Mosul and Fallujah<br>Eight months after George W. Bush proclaimed major combat in Iraq over in 2003, author Mike Tucker found himself right in the thick of it - dirty, profane, violent, lethal, and daily major combat - with some of America's most highly trained and accomplished soldiers.<br>Among Warriors in Iraq is a street-level view of the struggles of maintaining control in the anarchy that pervaded Iraq after Coalition forces declared victory. Tucker journeyed with Special Forces groups in both Mosul and Fallujah, cities un-convinced the war was over and willing to do anything to ensure that the struggle would continue.<br>Here is his frank and uncensored account, seen through the resilient eyes of the soldiers willing to pay the ultimate price for victory.<br><br><b>Mike Tucker</b> is a Marine infantry veteran with a Special Operations background, andan author. He broke Burmese Army lines in 2002 with Karen guerrillas, and has investigated war crimes in Burma and northern Iraq. In 2003, he journeyed throughout Iraqi Kurdistan, interviewing Kurds from all walks of life. Later, he joined U.S. Army snipers, scouts, light infantry, paratroopers, and Special Forces commandos for nineteen weeks on raids and patrols in northern and western Iraq. He remained in Iraq for fourteen months. <br><p> </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Join Big Hungry, Kentucky Rife, Serpico and Jedi Knight for a harrowing journey into the heart of the Iraqi insurgency. A former Marine infantryman, Tucker follows the warriors of the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul and the 82nd Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions in Fallujah during 19 weeks of urban warfare in late 2003 and early 2004. In declaratives one might describe as debased Hemingway on speed, Tucker tags along for counter-IED (improvised explosive devices) patrols and zero-dark-30 (predawn) raids, capturing the adrenaline-laced urgency of urban combat against a hidden enemy. His conversations with troopers are refreshingly authentic; his analysis of the politics of Iraq tends toward open advocacy for the Kurds and a separate state of Kurdistan. (Tucker is the author of Hell Is Over: Voices of the Kurds After Saddam.) But his gritty firsthand account is packed with detail: from the slow ballet of "scoping roof tops and alley corners," the excruciating tension of disarming IEDs and the frenetic choreography of urban combat to the children who are never far away and are always quick with a smile, a wave and an enthusiastic "Amerikee!" Several impressive accounts of the second Iraq War have appeared already from embedded journalists, but few are as personal and edgy as Tucker's. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Raymond Puffer - KLIATT</h4><p>Any war looks very different depending on where you stand. Civilians see the destruction, the pain, and the frustrations. Generals see maps, troop concentrations, resources, and immense responsibilities. Young officers see tactics. However, it is the foot soldier who sees war at its most basic—the sand, the snipers, and the ominous objects by the side of the road. All of these viewpoints are part of the ultimate truth, but it is the grunt who feels it all the most. The trouble is, most of these young enlisted warriors are not writers. This is where author Mike Tucker comes in. Tucker is an ex-Marine, a combat veteran, and something of a soldier of fortune. His trade is visiting war zones around the globe, insinuating himself at the "point of the spear," and writing about what he sees. In this case, he somehow managed to become embedded in two different infantry units. In the course of combat strikes in Mosul and Fallujah, Iraq, he and his new comrades endured all of the discomfort, aching monotony, confusion and stark terror that have been the lot of every infantryman since Biblical times. Tucker is skillful at catching the enormously varied personalities of his soldiers and the bonds that sustain them. This is no infantile shoot-'em-up war book. Like combat anywhere, there is more moving around, waiting, eating, and horseplay than shooting. Tucker deserves credit for carefully keeping the focus away from himself and on the American troops. That's appropriate, because this is a story of the ordinary heroics of ordinary young Americans. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2005, Lyon Press, 234p. bibliog., Ages 15 toadult.</p><br><br> <p>New interesting book: <strong><a href="http://small-business-books.blogspot.com/2009/02/istituzioni-cambiamento-istituzionale-e.html">Istituzioni, cambiamento istituzionale e risultato economico</a></strong> <h4>Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Michael Parenti</strong> <p><p><p>"Radical in the true sense of the word, [Parenti] digs at the roots which . . . sustain our public consciousness."-Los Angeles Times Book Review</p><p>A powerful selection of Michael Parenti's most lucid and penetrating writings on real history, political life, empire, wealth, class power, technology, culture, ideology, media, environment, sex, and ethnicity. Also included are a few choice selections drawn from his own life experiences and political awakening. Parenti goes where few political observers dare to tread. </p><p><strong>Michael Parenti</strong> is the author of eighteen books, including Superpatriotism, Inventing Reality, and The Assassination of Julius Caesar.</p> </p><h4>Aurora Online</h4><p>Parenti communicates his message in an accessible, provocative, and historically informed style that is unrivaled among fellow progressive activists. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-28817720881437123732009-11-26T21:09:00.000-08:002009-11-26T21:20:19.025-08:00Reagan Diaries or A Revolution in Favor of Government<h4>Reagan Diaries </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Ronald Reagan</strong> <p><p>During his two terms as the fortieth president of the United States, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary in which he recorded, by hand, his innermost thoughts and observations on the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day occurrences of his presidency. Now, nearly two decades after he left office, this remarkable record--the only daily presidential diary in American history--is available for the first time. <p>Brought together in one volume and edited by historian Douglas Brinkley, <i>The Reagan Diaries</i> provides a striking insight into one of this nation's most important presidencies and sheds new light on the character of a true American leader. Whether he was in his White House residence study or aboard Air Force One, each night Reagan wrote about the events of his day, which often included his relationships with other world leaders Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II, Mohammar al-Qaddafi, and Margaret Thatcher, among others, and the unforgettable moments that defined the era---from his first inauguration to the end of the Cold War, the Iran hostage crisis to John Hinckley Jr.'s assassination attempt. <p><i>The Reagan Diaries</i> reveals more than just Reagan's political experiences: many entries are concerned with the president's private thoughts and feelings---his love and devotion for Nancy Reagan and their family, his belief in God and the power of prayer. Seldom before has the American public been given access to the unfiltered experiences and opinions of a president in his own words, from Reagan's description of near-drowning at the home of Hollywood friend Claudette Colbert to his determination to fight Fidel Castro at every turn and keep the Caribbean Sea from becoming a "Red Lake." <p>To read these diaries--filled with Reagan's trademark wit, sharp intelligence, and humor--is to gain a unique understanding of one of the most beloved occupants of the Oval Office in our nation's history. </p><h4>The New York Times - Kevin Phillips</h4><p>Not since the 19th century has a United States president kept a diary through his entire White House tenure, and this volume tells us more about Ronald Reagan than many of his biographies. Besides which, not a few interpretive bits of gold are sprinkled amid the grit and gravel of diplomatic niceties, Congressional consultations and after-dinner entertainments.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p><P>The diaries our 40th president kept while in office—edited and abridged by historian Brinkley (<I>The Great Deluge</I>)—are largely a straightforward political chronicle. Reagan describes meetings with heads of state and anti-abortion leaders, reflects on legislative strategy and worries about leaks to the press. He often used his diary to vigorously defend his polices: for example, after a 1984 visit with South African archbishop Desmond Tutu (whom Reagan calls "naïve"), the president explained why his approach to apartheid—"quiet diplomacy"—was preferable to sanctions. Reagan sometimes seems uncomfortable with dissent, as when he is irked by a high school student who presents a petition advocating a nuclear freeze. And he often sees the media as a "lynch mob," trying to drum up scandal where there is none. Reagan's geniality shines through in his more quotidian comments: he muses regularly about how much he appreciates Nancy, and his complaints about hating Monday mornings make him seem quite like everyone else. Brinkley doesn't weigh down the text with extensive annotation; this makes for smooth reading, but those who don't remember the major political events of the 1980s will want to refer to the glossary of names. Reagan's diaries are revealing, and Brinkley has done historians and the broad public a great service by editing them for publication. <I>(May 22)</I></P>Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information </p><h4>Foreign Affairs</h4><p><p>"D----n those inhuman monsters," runs Ronald Reagan's diary entry for May 17, 1981. He was referring to the Soviet authorities who were keeping Natan Sharansky in the gulag despite Reagan's personal and private appeal to Leonid Brezhnev. These diaries will complete the reevaluation of Reagan by the historical profession. Whatever one thinks of his policies, Reagan emerges here as a focused, take-charge president in full control of his cabinet and administration. He was extremely selective in regard to which issues he took up and willing to let many lower-priority matters slide, but on the things that he cared about, he was forceful and persistent. These are diary entries and lack the intellectual heft and stylistic polish of some of the earlier Reagan writings to reach the public. But they show a president stamping his personality and his views on an administration and contribute to a richer vision of the most influential U.S. president since Franklin Roosevelt. One can only wish that Roosevelt had also kept a diary.< </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Now you can read the diary Reagan kept daily over his two terms as President. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. </p><br><br> <p>See also: <strong><a href="http://cosmetic-surgery-books.blogspot.com/2009/02/pedometer-power-or-libro-de-cocina.html">Pedometer Power or Libro de Cocina Ilustrado de la Nueva Dieta Atkins</a></strong> <h4>A Revolution in Favor of Government: Origins of the U. S. Constitution and the Making of the American State </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Max M Edling</strong> <p><p>What were the intentions of the Founders? Was the American constitution designed to protect individual rights? To limit the powers of government? To curb the excesses of democracy? Or to create a robust democratic nation-state? These questions echo through today's most heated legal and political debates.<br> In this powerful new interpretation of America's origins, Max Edling argues that the Federalists were primarily concerned with building a government that could act vigorously in defense of American interests. The Constitution transferred the powers of war making and resource extraction from the states to the national government thereby creating a nation-state invested with all the important powers of Europe's eighteenth-century "fiscal-military states." A strong centralized government, however, challenged the American people's deeply ingrained distrust of unduly concentrated authority. To secure the Constitution's adoption the Federalists had to accommodate the formation of a powerful national government to the strong current of anti-statism in the American political tradition. They did so by designing a government that would be powerful in times of crisis, but which would make only limited demands on the citizenry and have a sharply restricted presence in society. The Constitution promised the American people the benefit of government without its costs.<br> Taking advantage of a newly published letterpress edition of the constitutional debates, A Revolution in Favor of Government recovers a neglected strand of the Federalist argument, making a persuasive case for rethinking the formation of the federal American state. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-75247710395438296632009-11-25T15:57:00.000-08:002009-11-25T16:08:37.260-08:00The Year of the Hangman or Dixie Rising<h4>The Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Glenn F Williams</strong> <p><p><p>With the entry of France on the American side, the War for Independence moved from a regional conflict to a global war. To offset this new alliance, Britain devised a bold new strategy. Turning its attention to the colonial frontiers, especially those of western New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, Britain enlisted its Provincial Rangers and allied warriors, principally from the Iroquois Confederacy, to wage a brutal backwoods war in an attempt to cut the colonies in half, divert the Continental Army, and weaken its presence around British-occupied New York City and Philadelphia.</p> <p>Moving quickly, British forces under the direction of Colonel John Butler and the charismatic Mohawk leader, Joseph Brant, unleashed a terror campaign, but following massacres in the well-established colonial settlements at Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and Cherry Valley, New York, the Continental Congress persuaded General George Washington to conduct a decisive offensive to end the threat once and for all. Brewing since 1777, the "Year of the Hangman," the conflict between the Iroquois and colonists would now reach its deadly climax.</p> <p>Charging his troops "to not merely overrun, but destroy," Washington devised a two-prong attack to exact American revenge. The largest coordinated American military action against Native Americans in the war, the campaign shifted the power in the east, ending the political and military influence of the Iroquois, forcing large numbers of loyalist to flee to Canada, and sealing Britain's fateful decision to seek victory in the south. In <i>Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois</i>, historian Glenn F. Williams recreates the riveting events surrounding the action, including the checkered story of European and Indian alliances, the bitter frontier wars, and the bloody battles of Oriskany and Saratoga, in order to tell the tale of the campaign that changed the outcome of the American Revolution.</p> <p>Glenn F. Williams is Historical Operations Officer at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC. He also served with the National Park Service Battlefield Protection Program and was curator of the U.S.S. Constellation.</p> </p><br><br> <p>Read also <strong><a href="http://educational-software-books.blogspot.com">Electronic Commerce or Online Retrieval</a></strong> <h4>Dixie Rising: How the South Is Shaping American Values, Politics, and Culture </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Peter Applebom</strong> <p><p><p>In “one of the best portrayals of the South in years” (Washington Post), the Atlanta bureau chief of the New York Times travels from catfish farms and neo-Confederate gatherings to casinos and country music festivals and examines the reasons behind the region’s growing influence. Index.<br> </p><h4>Paige Williams</h4><p><P>Peter Applebome plays the flip side of a tired old tune in <i>Dixie Rising</i>. Instead of adding one more book to the bulging section on the South's homogenization, Applebome aims to show how the region's bedrock ideals are in fact driving modern America. "Only the blind could look at America at the century's end," he writes, "and not see the fingerprint of the South on almost every aspect of the nation's soul." <P>Applebome, a <i>New York Times</i> correspondent in the South, finds in the region the roots of a whole slew of cultural trends -- a flourishing national conservatism, the racial preoccupations of national politics, a wildfire addiction to country music, the obsessive gun debate, and the spread of states' rights groups and of Southern Baptist outposts. Though his thesis isn't entirely original (John Egerton tried first, with <i>The Americanization of Dixie: The Southernization of America</i> in 1974), the concept is intriguing. <P>The book's most convincing chapters are on race, country music (a regional business turned $2 billion mega-industry) and politics, particularly George Wallace. Despite a surprisingly forgiving tone, <i>Dixie Rising</i> depicts Wallace as the politician who "tapped into the fears and resentments of white America in a way that has defined the political landscape" -- making a strong case that without Wallace's mobilization of that angry, alienated, working-class constituency, the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress might never have happened. <P>Yet in other areas, <i>Dixie Rising</i> doesn't quite build the bridge. What promises to be a cohesive portrait of the South's ongoing influence often reads like historical rehash. Other sections are merely self-indulgent profiles of places that Applebome finds interesting, rather than significant contributors to the American scene. In spots, <i>Dixie Rising</i> isn't much more than Applebome reaching. Some might explain that he's just another outsider seduced down the well-traveled path of an enduring mystery, one impossible to simplify. Applebome describes one man who "got Southernized" -- which is a bit like saying moving to Paris makes you French. You're either Southern or you're not; you can marry into it or move into it, but no amount of deep-fried osmosis can make you of it. <P><i>Dixie Rising</i>s value is that it forces us to think about the South's role in modern America and whether Applebome's perception will hold true: "We all need a calm in our storm, divine or otherwise. In ways both real and illusory, the South these days seems to promise one." -- <i>Salon</i> </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>By turns seduced and repelled by Southern politics and culture, former longtime New York Times Atlanta bureau chief and transplanted Yankee Applebome grapples engagingly and appreciatively here with the stunning contradictions of the modern South. Not only does the South exercise disproportionate political power (Dixie now claims leadership of Congress as well as the White House); most of our serious conflicts over race and religion continue to play out dramatically in the old Confederacy. Applebome's unusual historical literacy helps him understand a region drenched in the tradition and legends of the Civil War, racist demagoguery and the battles over integration. Outsiders will be astonished by the new popularity of the Confederacy. Southerners black and white will recognize themselves in portraits of Selma, Ala., then and now, Nashville's music, South Carolina firebrands, Southern Baptist conventions and the saga of George Wallace. Above all, it is race that saturates Southern life. Because the author zeroes in on race and lets Southerners tell their own stories, this is a compelling, disturbing, at times inspiring book. As he stresses, no place in the U.S. has been so defined by raceand "the racial scapegoating... that crippled the South for so long will do the same thing for the nation." Photos. (Nov.) </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Since the 1970s, a persistent theme in both academic and journalistic writing on the American South has been the presumed "convergence" of the politics and culture of the South with those of the non-South. Writers have also debated the question of whether this convergence is primarily a product of an "Americanization" of the South or of a "Southernization" of the non-South. Although New York Times journalist Applebome shows influence in both directions, his subtitle makes it clear that his focus is the South's influence on the rest of the nation. The author relies heavily on travels and interviews he did in the South over a period of 18 months starting in early 1995. Although he is a perceptive writer on matters pertaining to Southern culture and values, Applebome's understanding of Southern politics is not always as insightful. For public libraries.Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-68503848928459541232009-02-22T00:22:00.000-08:002009-02-22T00:29:15.445-08:00Shopping for Bombs or John Brown Abolitionist<h4>Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of AQ Khan's Nuclear Network </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Gordon Corera</strong> <p><p>A.Q. Khan was the world's leading black market dealer in nuclear technology, described by a former CIA Director as "at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden." A hero in Pakistan and revered as the Father of the Bomb, Khan built a global clandestine network that sold the most closely guarded nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. <br> Here for the first time is the riveting inside story of the rise and fall of A.Q. Khan and his role in the devastating spread of nuclear technology over the last thirty years. Drawing on exclusive interviews with key players in Islamabad, London, and Washington, as well as with members of Khan's own network, BBC journalist Gordon Corera paints a truly unsettling picture of the ultimate arms bazaar. Corera reveals how Khan operated within a world of shadowy deals among rogue states and how his privileged position in Pakistan provided him with the protection to build his unique and deadly business empire. It explains why and how he was able to operate so freely for so many years. Brimming with revelations, the book provides new insight into Iran's nuclear ambitions and how close Tehran may be to the bomb. <br> In addition, the book contains startling new information on how the CIA and MI6 penetrated Khan's network, how the U.S. and UK ultimately broke Khan's ring, and how they persuaded Pakistan's President Musharraf to arrest a national hero. The book also provides the first detailed account of the high-wire dealings with Muammar Gadaffi, which led to Libya's renunciation of nuclear weapons and which played a key role in Khan's downfall.<br> The spread of nuclear weapons technology around the globe presents the greatest securitychallenge of our time. Shopping for Bombs presents a unique window into the challenges of stopping a new nuclear arms race, a race that A.Q. Khan himself did more than any other individual to promote. </p><h4>The Washington Post - George Perkovich</h4><p><i>Shopping for Bombs</i> is more than the fast-paced story of an alarming proliferation network and the conditions that let it flourish. Corera also offers a fascinating, detailed account of how Libya surprised the world with its undetected nuclear acquisitions and how the United States and Britain secretly persuaded Moammar Gaddafi to verifiably give them up.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Corera, a security correspondent for the BBC, offers a measured account of how a young Pakistani metallurgist named A.Q. Khan became the world's leading dealer in nuclear technology. The story starts as Khan watched Pakistan lose the 1971 war with India and vowed to help prevent it from happening again. Three years later, as India tested its first nuclear device, he offered Prime Minister Bhutto his help in creating the Muslim world's first nuclear bomb. In 1975, when his Dutch employer discovered Khan had stolen centrifuge designs, he fled to Pakistan. Though he was tried in absentia in 1983, it wasn't until January 2004, under pressure from the U.S. and Britain, that he was arrested for 30 years of selling nuclear materials and designs to Libya, North Korea and Iran. By the mid-1980s, Corera points out, the U.S. was aware that Pakistan had produced weapons-grade uranium. Drawing on CIA and diplomatic accounts of the spread of technology, Corera also examines why the Americans initially looked the other way as Pakistan joined forces in arming the mujahideen in Afghanistan before becoming an ally in the hunt for bin Laden. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. </p><br><br> <p>New interesting book: <strong><a href="http://asian-cooking-book.blogspot.com">Prehistoric Cooking or Middle Eastern</a></strong> <h4>John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights </h4> <p>Author: <strong>David S Reynolds</strong> <p><p>Few historical figures are as intriguing as John Brown, the controversial Abolitionist who used terrorist tactics against slavery and single-handedly changed the course of American history. This brilliant biography of Brown (1800-1859) by the prize-winning critic and cultural biographer David S. Reynolds brings to life the Puritan warrior who gripped slavery by the throat and triggered the Civil War.<br><br>When does principled resistance become anarchic brutality? How can a murderer be viewed as a heroic freedom fighter? The case of John Brown opens windows on these timely issues. Was Brown an insane criminal or a Christ-like martyr? A forerunner of Osama bin Laden or of Martin Luther King, Jr.? David Reynolds sorts through the tangled evidence and makes some surprising findings.<br><br>Reynolds demonstrates that Brown's most violent acts- his slaughter of unarmed citizens in Kansas, his liberation of slaves in Missouri, and his dramatic raid, in October 1859, on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia- were inspired by the slave revolts, guerilla warfare, and revolutionary Christianity of the day. He shows us how Brown seized the nation's attention, creating sudden unity in the North, where the Transcendentalists led the way in sanctifying Brown, and infuriating the South, where proslavery fire-eaters exploited the Harpers Ferry raid to whip up a secessionist frenzy. In fascinating detail, Reynolds recounts how Brown permeated politics and popular culture during the Civil War and beyond. He reveals the true depth of Brown's achievement: not only did Brown spark the war that ended slavery, but he planted the seeds of the civil rights movement by making a pioneering demand forcomplete social and political equality for America's ethnic minorities. <br><br>A deeply researched and vividly written cultural biography- a revelation of John Brown and his meaning for America.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i> </p><h4>The New York Times - Barbara Ehrenreich</h4><p>How do we judge a man of such different times -- and temperament -- from our own? If the rule is that there must be some proportion between a violent act and its provocation, surely there could be no more monstrous provocation than slavery. In our own time, some may discern equivalent evils in continuing racial oppression, economic exploitation, environmental predation or widespread torture. To them, <i>John Brown, Abolitionist,</i> for all its wealth of detail and scrupulous attempts at balance, has a shockingly simple message: Far better to have future generations complain about your methods than condemn you for doing nothing.</p><h4>The Washington Post - David W. Blight</h4><p><i>John Brown, Abolitionist</i> captures with arresting prose Brown's early life of poverty, his huge, tragic, rolling-stone family of 20 children with two wives, the business failures and bankruptcies in several states, the lasting influence of his staunchly Calvinist father and his genuine devotion to the human rights of African Americans. He also takes us deeper than any previous historian into Brown's exploits in the 1856-58 guerrilla war known as "Bleeding Kansas." In the murderous frontier struggle between pro-slavery and free-state advocates, Brown led a personal band of abolitionist warriors who fought pitched battles and executed some settlers. Moreover, the narratives of Brown's fascinating fund-raising tours of Eastern reform communities, the Harpers Ferry raid itself, his epic letter-writing from a jail cell while awaiting execution, and the hanging (with the whole world watching) are all beautifully executed.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>In the very first paragraphs of this biography, Bancroft Prize-winner Reynolds (Walt Whitman's America) steps back a bit from the grandiose claims of his subtitle. Nevertheless, his book as a whole paints a positive portrait of the Calvinist terrorist Brown (1800-1859)-contrary to virtually all recent scholarship (by Stephen B. Oates and Robert Boyer, among others), which tends to depict Brown as a bloodthirsty zealot and madman who briefly stepped into history but did little to influence it. Reynolds's approach harks back to the hero-worship apparent in earlier books by W.E.B. Du Bois and Brown's surviving associates. John Brown waged a campaign so bloody during the Kansas Civil War-in 1856 he chased men and elder sons from their beds in cabins along the Pottawatomie Creek, and then lopped off their heads with broadswords as sobbing wives and younger children looked on-that fellow Kansas antislavery settlers rebuked him. Even the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison condemned Brown and his methods. After taking the federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859, Brown intended (had he not been swatted like a fly within hours) to raise and arm a large force of blacks capable of wreaking a terrible vengeance across Virginia. Yet Reynolds insists that "it is misleading to identify Brown with modern terrorists." Really? 25 b&w illus. (Apr. 21) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>KLIATT</h4><p>John Brown, with his bristling beard, fierce expression, and unyielding opposition to slavery, has always been the perfect icon of the nation's headlong rush into the abyss of the Civil War. After his gallant and completely foolhardy raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, virtually every person in the US lined up solidly on one side or another of the Great Question. By the time he was finally hanged, by the hand of Robert E. Lee, no less, there was no going back. Dealing with the man and his reputation, however, has always been something of a problem. Southerners at the time, horrified at the prospect of a massive slave uprising, immediately branded him as a terrorist, if not the Devil incarnate. The Transcendentalists and other anti-slavery groups in the North, in response, soon came to see him as a martyr for peace, nearly on the level of Jesus himself. As the Civil War finally receded into the past, most scholars eventually came to see Brown simply as some sort of crackpot, well-meaning perhaps, but always an unstable and colorful character who, much like his namesake John the Baptist, was a harbinger of colossal events to come. Now, with this book, author David Reynolds has portrayed what has come to be the modern view, seeing John Brown in the larger context of black emancipation and aligning him squarely alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and the modern civil rights era: all of which might (or might not) have astounded the bearded firebrand. Brown was both intelligent and complex, as Professor Reynolds skillfully brings out, and had one of history's more original personalities. Most YAs will find the entire book a large dose to swallow, but will find individual chaptersand episodes to be fascinating. The highly detailed text opens a fascinating window on the social turmoil of American society on the eve of the Civil War. Even if that war wasn't fought specifically to free the slaves, it was nevertheless all <I>about</I> slavery, and old Brown certainly played his part. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Cradle-to-moldering-grave biography of America's homegrown abolitionist terrorist. Was it John Brown's audacity that put the spark to the tinderbox of slavery in mid-19th-century America? The prize-winning Reynolds (Walt Whitman, 2004, etc.; English and American Studies/CUNY) makes the case that the Civil War and emancipation might well have been slower in coming had Brown (1800-59) not inflamed paranoia in the South by his murderous raids in Pottawatomie, Kan., and his seizure of the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Va. The author argues that Brown was more of a Puritan pioneer than crazed fanatic, a patriarchal figure who "won the battle not with bullets but with words." Although the violence of Brown's anti-slavery raids was at first roundly denounced in the North, his calm and rational behavior after his capture, Reynolds emphasizes, eventually won admiration for his crusade, much thanks to Emerson, Thoreau and other transcendentalists who took up his banner. Though unabashedly hagiographic-the chapter on his execution is titled "The Passion"-the biography justifies its portrayal of Brown as an agent outside and above the norms of society. The author demonstrates that his nonracist behavior, for example, was startlingly original to Southerners and Northerners alike, albeit not anomalous vis-a-vis contemporary European attitudes. Reynolds takes great pains to cast a fair light on an exceptionally controversial figure who used brutally violent tactics to bring about the end of slavery and the beginning of racial equality. He states unequivocally that Brown's tactics were terrorist (and an inspiration to John Wilkes Booth), but in President Lincoln's own words, the Civil War itself was"a John Brown raid on a gigantic scale." Reynolds's conclusions are bold yet justified, and his analysis reflects a thorough understanding of the cultural environment of the time. Engrossing and timely, offering astute, thorough coverage of America's premier iconoclast and the cultural stage upon which he played his role. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Preface <br><i>1. The Party</i><br><i>2. The Puritan </i><br><i>3. The Pioneer</i><br><i>4. The Patriarch</i><br><i>5. The Pauper </i><br><i>6. The Plan </i><br><i>7. Pottawatomie </i><br><i>8. Pariah and Legend </i><br><i>9. The Promoter </i><br><i>10. Plotting Multiculturally </i><br><i>11. Practice</i><br><i>12. Preparation </i><br><i>13. Problems </i><br><i>14. Pilloried, Prosecuted, and Praised </i><br><i>15. The Passion </i><br><i>16. Positions and Politics </i><br><i>17. The Prophet </i><br><i>18. Posterity </i><br>Notes<br>Acknowledgments <br>Index Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-49744739839635879472009-02-20T19:10:00.000-08:002009-02-20T19:17:28.678-08:00Prisoners of Hope or The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr<h4>Prisoners of Hope: The Story of Our Captivity and Freedom in Afghanistan </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Dayna Curry</strong> <p><p><i>The gripping and inspiring story of two extraordinary women—from their imprisonment by the Taliban to their rescue by U.S. Special Forces. </i><p>When Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer arrived in Afghanistan, they had come to help bring a better life and a little hope to some of the poorest and most oppressed people in the world. Within a few months, their lives were thrown into chaos as they became pawns in historic international events. They were arrested by the ruling Taliban government for teaching about Christianity to the people with whom they worked. In the middle of their trial, the events of September 11, 2001, led to the international war on terrorism, with the Taliban a primary target. While many feared Curry and Mercer could not survive in the midst of war, Americans nonetheless prayed for their safe return, and in November their prayers were answered.<p>In <i>Prisoners of Hope</i>, Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer tell the story of their work in Afghanistan, their love for the people they served, their arrest, trial, and imprisonment by the Taliban, and their rescue by U.S. Special Forces. The heart of the book will discuss how two middle-class American women decided to leave the comforts of home in exchange for the opportunity to serve the disadvantaged, and how their faith motivated them and sustained them through the events that followed. Their story is a magnificent narrative of ordinary women caught in extraordinary circumstances as a result of their commitment to serve the poorest and most oppressed women and children in the world. This book will be inspiring to those who seek a purpose greater than themselves. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>This is the eagerly anticipated story of the two Christian aid workers from Waco, Tex., who were imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan shortly before the September 11 attacks on America. Because so many Americans followed their plight in the press, the behind-the-scenes details of their 105-day ordeal will inevitably be riveting. Unfortunately, the narrative is told in a weaving fashion that shuttles back and forth between Curry's voice, Mercer's voice and their joint perspective. Moreover, much of their story of monotonous prison life does not lend itself well to straightforward chronological narrative. Instead, the book is organized loosely by themes, places and people, and often leaps ahead of itself in confusing ways. Despite these frustrations and a surprisingly weak fade-to-black ending that barely mentions God or the faith that has sustained the missionaries throughout, the book is compelling. Readers will learn of the individual paths that led Curry and Mercer first to Christ and then to Kabul. Especially heartbreaking are the stories of all the Afghan families who were relying on the women for life-saving support and who were abruptly cut off at the time of their arrest. Perhaps most powerful is the honesty with which Mercer discusses her spiritual difficulties in captivity. This is not the story of larger-than-life heroines whose faith never wavers in the face of persecution; readers are allowed glimpses into Mercer's very real despair and the rift it caused in the group of prisoners. This gritty sense of the real life of ordinary, believing Americans keeps the pages turning. (June) Forecast: Curry and Mercer have become media-appointed American paladins, so this should garner some strong attention in both the Christian and secular markets. It is a main selection of the Crossings Book Club and a featured selection of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. </p><br><br> <p>Book review: <strong><a href="http://bookkeeping-textbooks.blogspot.com">Mercadotecnia de Servicios:la Gente, Tecnología, Estrategia</a></strong> <h4>The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957-December 1958, Vol. 4 </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Martin Luther King Jr</strong> <p><p>Acclaimed by Ebony magazine as "one of those rare publishing events that generate as much excitement in the cloistered confines of the academy as they do in the general public," The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. chronicles one of the twentieth century's most dynamic personalities and one of the nation's greatest social struggles. King's call for racial justice and his faith in the power of nonviolence to engender a major transformation of American society is movingly conveyed in this authoritative multivolume series. <br>In Volume IV, with the Montgomery bus boycott at an end, King confronts the sudden demands of celebrity while trying to identify the next steps in the burgeoning struggle for equality. Anxious to duplicate the success of the boycott, he spends much of 1957 and 1958 establishing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But advancing the movement in the face of dogged resistance, he finds that it is easier to inspire supporters with his potent oratory than to organize a mass movement for social change. Yet King remains committed: "The vast possibilities of a nonviolent, non-cooperative approach to the solution of the race problem are still challenging indeed. I would like to remain a part of the unfolding development of this approach for a few more years." <br>King's budding international prestige is affirmed in March 1957, when he attends the independence ceremonies in Ghana, West Africa. Two months later his first national address, at the "Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom," is widely praised, and in June 1958, King's increasing prominence is recognized with a long-overdue White House meeting. During this period King also cultivates alliances with the laborand pacifist movements, and international anticolonial organizations. As Volume IV closes, King is enjoying the acclaim that has greeted his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, only to suffer a near-fatal stabbing in New York City. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-20902965482338000702009-02-19T13:58:00.000-08:002009-02-19T14:05:04.779-08:002010 Meltdown or The Call of Service<h4>2010 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Edward E Gordon</strong> <p><p>Ed Gordon marshals a vast amount of data to illustrate how various trends are converging to create a labor vacuum--with potentially disastrous consequences for economic competitiveness and individual opportunity. He sounds a wake-up call to business leaders, policymakers, educators, and concerned citizens, employees, and parents--anyone with a stake in our economic future. Moreover, he highlights innovative initiatives in training, education, and community development in the United States and around the world that can serve as models for positive action. Ultimately, The 2010 Meltdown is an optimistic book about social change, setting an agenda for reforms in education, policy, and business investment that will promote economic freedom, renewal, and prosperity. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Acknowledgments<br>Introduction: People, Jobs, and Culture<br>America's Meltdown<br>The 2010 Crossroad<br>The Rise of the Techno-Peasants<br>Feeding the Sharks<br>Where Has the Schoolhouse Gone?<br>Help Wanted in America and the World<br>Structuring Renewal<br>Signposts at the Workforce Crossroad<br>The "Sixth Discipline"<br>Beyond the 2010 Crossroad<br>End Notes<br>Index <p>See also: <strong><a href="http://political-parties-book.blogspot.com/2009/02/condi-vs-hillary-or-chernobyl.html">Condi vs Hillary or Chernobyl</a></strong> <h4>The Call of Service </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Robert Coles</strong> <p><p>In this book, Coles explores the concept of idealism and why it necessary to the individual and society. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>In a searching, inspirational probe, eminent Harvard psychiatrist Coles ( The Moral Life of Children ) examines the idealistic motives of people who engage in volunteer work, community service or civil rights activism. Mixing autobiographical reminiscence, analysis and oral testimony, he interviews Peace Corps members as well as volunteers in hospitals, schools, prisons and nursing homes. Coles finds that volunteer work can have a transformative influence on those who heed the ``call of service,'' even though they frequently experience doubts, misgivings, depression and even a sense of futility and despair. Rich in empathy and insight, his informed study interweaves his own experiences as a child psychiatrist helping Southern children caught up in the school desegregation struggle, an account of his current work as a volunteer inner-city elementary school teacher near Boston, recollections of his 1950s service in a Manhattan soup kitchen with Catholic Worker activist Dorothy Day and portraits of his mentors Anna Freud and poet/physician William Carlos Williams, who set him on his altruistic path. Author tour. (Sept.) </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Coles is the prolific and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such works as The Spiritual Life of Children ( LJ 11/1/90). Here he examines idealism, the drive that leads people to be of service to others. This service takes a variety of forms, from the formal (e.g., the Peace Corps) to simple volunteer work in hospitals, schools, and the like. Coles makes the subject interesting by letting the people who serve talk about their work. These doers, including Coles himself, tell of the satisfactions and the hazards of service. Let it be known that idealism or service is not a one-way street, Coles maintains. Those who give are as much receivers and learners. This engaging and inspiring book is highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93.-- John Moryl, Yeshiva Univ. Lib., New York </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>An exceptional blend of observation and reflection, literary report and personal revelation, that once again finds Coles (Psychiatry and Medical Humanities/Harvard; Anna Freud, 1992; etc.) exploring important social concepts—community service and the sources of altruism—with the tenacious moral energy that has characterized his writings for 30 years. From the first, Coles clearly cherished his encounters with people whose conduct claimed his imagination: In book after book, he presented them with dignity and respect. Here, he recalls the six-year-old integrating a southern school who sees ahead not trouble but opportunity; admires the white teacher who introduces Tillie Olsen's short story "O Yes" to a class of black middle- schoolers; learns from the Bowery bum who values not only the daily meal at his shelter but also the staff's acceptance of his angry moods; and understands the older tax lawyer who maintains that "there's still a little of 1964 in me." Coles contends that—while motives vary and overlap and stresses frequently wear people down—the satisfactions of service are plentiful and sustaining, conferring importance on small interactions and providing affirmation to those involved (often in place of, say, apparent social change). In his usual meandering way, he examines not only what those who serve mean to us and what their actions mean to them—most of his subjects emphatically resist the "idealist" designation—but also his own part in the equation (as volunteer and witness) and his enduring sources of inspiration: the examples of his own parents; of novelists whose ideas he finds edifying; and of mentors familiar from earlier works.Early on in his career, Coles abandoned the jargon of psychoanalysis and staked out his own territory—and a grateful audience. This work, a wellspring for those touched by "national service" headlines, echoes the spiritual tones of previous books and secures the author's place as a peerless interpreter of individual initiative and moral direction.<P> </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-21320526538538223072009-02-18T05:19:00.000-08:002009-02-18T05:26:36.011-08:00The Week the World Stood Still or Fighting for Faith and Nation<h4>The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Sheldon M Stern</strong> <p><p>“ . . . The Week The World Stood Still is an impressive work of scholarship that is also highly recommended for non-specialist general readers with an interest in the history of the Cold War era.”—The Midwest Book Review </p><h4>Foreign Affairs</h4><p>The discovery that President John F. Kennedy had installed a system for taping conversations in the Oval Office transformed the historiography of the Cuban missile crisis, and Stern was at the heart of the effort to transcribe them at the John F. Kennedy Library. An earlier and much longer version of this book (published in 2003 as Averting the Final Failure) expressed his disappointment with the inadequacy of the best-selling version of these transcripts, edited by Ernest May and Philip Zelikow. He believes strongly that at issue is intonation as well as language, evidence of the emotions at play, and the substance of the debate — so that emphasis can turn bland comment into heavy sarcasm. Only careful listening brings home, for example, how irritated Kennedy got with McGeorge Bundy during the critical discussions on October 27, 1962. This shortened version centers on a blow-by-blow account of the crisis as revealed in the tapes, getting across the ebb and flow of the discussions, the changes in mood, and the groping for a solution to an apparently desperate situation. As such it is a useful addition to the vast literature on the missile crisis and on Kennedy as a crisis manager. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The JFK Cuban Missile Crisis tapes</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The making of the Cuban Missile Crisis</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">11</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Cold War : JFK's crucible</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">11</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Cold War and Cuba</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">14</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Nuclear confrontation in Cuba</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">18</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Kennedy paradox</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">23</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Key members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">29</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The secret meetings of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">37</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Epilogue : the November post-crisis</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">205</TD></TABLE> <p>Read also <strong><a href="http://economic-development-books.blogspot.com/2009/02/vindication-of-rights-of-woman-or-east.html">A Vindication of the Rights of Woman or The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights</a></strong> <h4>Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Cynthia Keppley Mahmood</strong> <p><p>The ethnic and religious violence that characterizes the late twentieth century calls for new ways of thinking and writing about politics. Listening to the voices of people who experience political violence - either as victims or as perpetrators - gives new insights into both the sources of violent conflict and the potential for its resolution. Going beyond such easy labels as "fundamentalism" and "terrorism," Mahmood shows how complex and multifaceted the human experience of political violence actually is. Drawing on her extensive interviews and conversations with Sikh militants, she presents their accounts of the human rights abuses they suffer in India as well as their explanations of the philosophical tradition of martyrdom and meaningful death in the Sikh faith. While demonstrating how divergent the worldviews of participants in a conflict can be, Fighting for Faith and Nation gives reason to hope that our essential common humanity may provide grounds for a pragmatic resolution of conflicts like the one in Punjab, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in the past fifteen years. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Mahmood (Frisian and Free: Study of an Ethnic Minority of the Netherlands, Waveland, 1989) undertook this investigation as a study of the anthropology of violence and based her interviews solely on Sikhs living in North America, including some in prison. The narratives relate primarily to the relationship of the individual to Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, or the invasion of the holiest Sikh temple by the Indian government in 1984. The last portion of the book raises questions about membership in communities and violent attempts to force conformity. Mahmood discusses Edward Said, Salmon Rushdie, and Harjot Oberoi (a Sikh whose academic writings have stirred much controversy). She is careful to state that the militants within the Sikh community are a minority and raises ethical issues for an anthropologist undertaking such research. Highly recommended.-Donald Clay Johnson, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-16697243601000545922009-02-17T00:07:00.000-08:002009-02-17T00:14:47.990-08:00Coercion Capital and European States or The Words of Martin Luther King Jr<h4>Coercion, Capital and European States: Ad 990 - 1992 </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Charles Tilly</strong> <p><p>In this pathbreaking work, now available in paperback, Charles Tilly challenges all previous formulations of state development in Europe. Specifically, Tilly charges that most available explanations fail because they do not account for the great variety of kinds of states which were viable at different stages of European history, and because they assume a unilinear path of state development resolving in today's national state. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Preface.<br>1. Cities and States in World History.<br>2. European Cities and States.<br>3. How War Made States, and Vice Versa.<br>4. States and their Citizens.<br>5. Lineages of the National State.<br>6. The European State System.<br>7. Soldiers and States in 1990.<br>References.<br>Index. <p>Go to: <strong><a href="http://general-accounting.blogspot.com/2009/02/operaciones-y-gestion-del-sistema-de.html">Operaciones y Gestión del sistema de suministros</a></strong> <h4>The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr. </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Coretta Scott King</strong> <p><p><P>Created as a "living memorial" to the philosophies and ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this essential volume includes more than 120 quotations from the greatest civil rights leader's speeches, sermons and writings. </p><h4>Malcolm Boyd</h4><p>This volume of quotations is thoughtful, intelligently provocative... —<i>Los Angeles Times</i> </p><h4>New York Times</h4><p>A valuable book. </p><h4>Ebony Man</h4><p>This book celebrates King's wisdom and is relevant today as it was during his lifetime. </p><h4>Children's Literature</h4><p>"When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind." These words and others from King's sermons, speeches and published works typify his conviction to address social wrongs by peaceful means. An introduction by his wife, Coretta, brings King's history briefly to life through her eyes—from their first meeting as students in 1952 to his death by a sniper's bullet in 1968. The quotations eloquently advocate love, peace, strength and courage, and are divided into sections representing Racism, The Community of Man, Nonviolence, Faith and Religion and more. Also included is President Reagan's speech proclaiming Martin Luther King Day as a public holiday. This short book could easily be read straight through but would benefit readers even more when absorbed in small, thoughtful doses. Though sources for the selections are listed, individual selections are rarely identified, making the text more useful for inspiration and awareness than as a research resource. An extensive chronology incorporates Dr. King's personal history with relevant events of the Civil Rights movement. Generous amounts of white space dramatically offset both the words and the black-and-white photographs that personify this vital leader and his cause. Part of "The Newmarket Words Of" series. 1996 (orig. 1983), Newmarket, $11.95. Ages 9 up. Reviewer: Betty Hicks AGES: 9 10 11 12 13 14 </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-32880915896322053862009-02-15T18:55:00.000-08:002009-02-15T19:02:50.256-08:00The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction or The Fate of Their Country<h4>The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction </h4> <p>Author: <strong>F Michael Connelly</strong> <p><p><p><b>The Sage Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction</b> emerges from a concept of curriculum and instruction as a diverse landscape defined and bounded by schools, school boards and their communities, policy, teacher education, and academic research. Each contributing author was asked to comprehensively review the research literature in their assigned topic. These topics, however, are defined by practical places on the landscape e.g. schools and governmental policies for schools. </p><p><b>Key Features:</b></p><ul type="square"><li>Presents a different vision or reconceptualization of the field</li><li>Provides a comprehensive and inclusive set of authors, ideas, and topics</li><li>Takes a global rather than North American parochial approach</li><li>Recognizes that curriculum and instruction is broader in scope than is suggested by university research and theory</li><li>Reflects post-1992 changes in curriculum policy, practice and scholarship</li><li>Represents a rethinking of how school subject matter areas are treated</li></ul><p>The contents of the <b>Handbook</b> are recognizable by high level practitioners with curriculum making jobs to do. Teacher education is included in the Handbook with the intent of addressing the role and place of teacher education in bridging state and national curriculum policies and curriculum as enacted in classrooms.<br><br>Meet the authors! phillion@purdue.edu </p> </i></b> </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Acknowledgments viii<br>Introduction: Planning The Handbook: Practice, Context, and Theory F. Michael Connelly Ming Fang He JoAnn Phillion Candace Schlein ix<br>Curriculum in Practice 1<br>Introductory Essay Ian Westbury 1<br>Making Curriculum<br>Curriculum Policy and the Politics of What Should Be Learned in Schools Ben Levin$dConsulting Authors: Geraldine Anne-Marie Connelly and Ulf P. Lundgren 7<br>Curriculum Planning: Content, Form, and the Politics of Accountability Michael W. Apple$dConsulting Authors: Carlos Alberto Torres and Geoff Whitty 25<br>Making Curricula: Why Do States Make Curricula, and How? Ian Westbury$dConsulting Authors: Stefan T. Hopmann and Leonard J. Waks 45<br>Subject Matter: Defining and Theorizing School Subjects Zongyi Deng Allan Luke$dConsulting Authors: John Chi-kin Lee and Margaret Placier 66<br>Managing Curriculum<br>Structuring Curriculum: Technical, Normative, and Political Considerations Kevin G. Welner Jeannie Oakes$dConsulting Authors: Michelle Fine and Kenneth R. Howe 91<br>Curriculum Implementation and Sustainability Michael Fullan$dConsulting Authors: David Hopkins and James Spillane 113<br>Technology's Role in Curriculum and Instruction Barbara Means$dConsulting Authors: Larry Cuban and Stephen T. Kerr 123<br>Curriculum in Context 145<br>Introductory Essay Allan Luke 145<br>Diversifying Curriculum<br>Curriculum and Cultural Diversity Gloria Ladson-Billings Keffrelyn Brown$dConsulting Authors: Kathryn H. Au and Geneva Gay 153<br>Identity, Community, and Diversity: Retheorizing Multicultural Curriculum for the Postmodern Era Sonia Nieto Patty Bode Eugenie Kang John Raible$dConsulting Authors: Cherry A. McGee Banks and Sofia Villenas 176<br>Students' Experience of School Curriculum: The Everyday Circumstances of Granting and Withholding Assent to Learn Frederick Erickson Rishi Bagrodia Alison Cook-Sather Manuel Espinoza Susan Jurow Jeffrey J. Shultz Joi Spencer$dConsulting Authors: Robert Boostrom and Pedro Noguera 198<br>Immigrant Students' Experience of Curriculum Ming Fang He JoAnn Phillion Elaine Chan Shijing Xu$dConsulting Authors: Jim Cummins and Stacey J. Lee 219<br>Teaching for Diversity: The Next Big Challenge Mel Ainscow$dConsulting Authors: Chris Forlin and Roger Slee 240<br>Teaching Curriculum<br>Teacher Education as a Bridge? Unpacking Curriculum Controversies Marilyn Cochran-Smith Kelly E. Demers$dConsulting Authors: Ann Lieberman and Ana Maria Villegas 261<br>Cultivating the Image of Teachers as Curriculum Makers Cheryl J. Craig Vicki Ross$dConsulting Authors: Carola Conle and Virginia Richardson 282<br>Teachers' Experience of Curriculum: Policy, Pedagogy, and Situation William Ayers Therese Quinn David O. Stovall Libby Scheiern$dConsulting Authors: Freema Elbaz-Luwisch and Janet L. Miller 306<br>Internationalizing Curriculum<br>Indigenous Resistance and Renewal: From Colonizing Practices to Self-Determination Donna Deyhle Karen Swisher Tracy Stevens Ruth Trinidad Galvan$dConsulting Authors: Teresa L. McCarty and Linda Tuhiwai Smith 329<br>Globalization and Curriculum Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt$dConsulting Authors: Lynne Paine and Fazel Rizvi 349<br>Community Education in Developing Countries: The Quiet Revolution in Schooling Joseph P. Farrell$dConsulting Authors: Ash Hartwell and John N. Hawkins 369<br>Curriculum in Theory 391<br>Introductory Essay William H. Schubert 391<br>Inquiring Into Curriculum<br>Curriculum Inquiry William H. Schubert$dConsulting Authors: Craig Kridel and Edmund C. Short 399<br>Curriculum Policy Research Edmund C. Short$dConsulting Author: Nina Basica 420<br>Hidden Research in Curriculum Robin J. Enns$dConsulting Author: Margaret Haughey 431<br>Reenvisioning the Progressive Tradition in Curriculum David T. Hansen Rodino Anderson Jeffrey Frank Kiera Nieuwejaar$dConsulting Authors: Gert J. J. Biesta and Jim Garrison 440<br>What the Schools Teach: A Social History of the American Curriculum Since 1950 Barry M. Franklin Carla C. Johnson$dConsulting Authors: Gary McCulloch and William J. Reese 460<br>Curriculum Development in Historical Perspective J. Wesley Null$dConsulting Authors: Geoffrey Milburn and Wiel Veugelers 478<br>Curriculum Theory Since 1950: Crisis, Reconceptualization, Internationalization William F. Pinar$dConsulting Authors: Donald Blumenfeld-Jones and Patrick Slattery 491<br>The Landscape of Curriculum and Instruction: Diversity and Continuity F. Michael Connelly Shijing Xu$dConsulting Authors: Elliot W. Eisner and Philip W. Jackson 514<br>Author Index 534<br>Subject Index 558<br>About the Editors 586<br>About the Part Editors 588<br>About the Consulting Authors 589<br>About the Contributing Authors 597 <p>New interesting book: <strong><a href="http://accounting-software-books.blogspot.com">Consumers Guide to Cell Phones and Wireless Service Plans or Statistical Analysis of Medical Data Using SAS</a></strong> <h4>The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Michael F Holt</strong> <p><p><b>How partisan politics lead to the Civil War </b><br><br>What brought about the Civil War? Leading historian Michael F. Holt convincingly offers a disturbingly contemporary answer: partisan politics. In this brilliant and succinct book, Holt distills a lifetime of scholarship to demonstrate that secession and war did not arise from two irreconcilable economies any more than from moral objections to slavery. Short-sighted politicians were to blame. Rarely looking beyond the next election, the two dominant political parties used the emotionally charged and largely chimerical issue of slavery's extension westward to pursue reelection and settle political scores, all the while inexorably dragging the nation towards disunion.<br><br>Despite the majority opinion (held in both the North and South) that slavery could never flourish in the areas that sparked the most contention from 1845 to 1861-the Mexican Cession, Oregon, and Kansas-politicians in Washington, especially members of Congress, realized the partisan value of the issue and acted on short-term political calculations with minimal regard for sectional comity. War was the result.<br><br>Including select speeches by Lincoln and others, <i>The Fate of Their Country</i> openly challenges us to rethink a seminal moment in America's history.<br> </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>University of Virginia historian Holt (The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party) provides an elegant, brief analysis of the partisan political forces that, via the great debate over the extension of slavery into the American West, eventually plunged the United States into civil war. Holt discounts the view that the war arose inevitably from two irreconcilable economies as well as the more na ve interpretation that it derived from righteous Northern outrage over slavery. Instead he argues that shortsighted and self-absorbed politicians from both the South and the North (their agendas focused, for the most part, on simple re-election) needlessly exploited the slavery-extension debate and escalated the associated rhetoric to a crescendo that finally made disunion inevitable. Holt provides brilliant thumbnail portraits of such key players as Abraham Lincoln, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, James K. Polk, Daniel Webster and Stephen A. Douglas. He also offers vitally lucid analyses of such key legislative issues as the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Stating his case in a nutshell, Holt writes, "At few other times in American history did policy makers' decisions have such a profound-and calamitous-effect on the nation as they did in the 1840s and 1850s." 8 pages of b&w illus. not seen by PW; map. (Aug.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>While modern historians often focus on the activities of marginalized groups that lacked true political power, the well-respected Holt (history, Univ. of Virginia; The Political Crisis of the 1850s) reaffirms the importance of politics and politicians as he re-examines the often studied coming of the Civil War. This short volume reiterates a thesis Holt offered earlier in The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party, which declares that the war resulted from a series of political decisions and actions relating to the extension of slavery rather than moral or social differences over slavery. The earlier volume was applauded by scholars, but its length (1000+ pages) and detail were daunting to more casual readers. This concise book, with four chapters focusing on significant political events of the prewar period and a useful appendix of primary sources, makes Holt's theories available to a wider audience. Reference to the current conflict in Iraq demonstrates the continuing importance of Holt's approach. Likely to be used for years to come, this work is highly recommended for academic and public libraries of all sizes.-Theresa McDevitt, Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>It wasn't slavery per se but the debates about the extension of slavery into new territories and states that sent the nation careening into civil war, argues Holt (History/Univ. of Virginia) in a work that aims at a broader audience than did his The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party (1999). As in that comprehensive, scholarly history, the author returns to the era of presidents whose visages will never adorn Mt. Rushmore (Polk, Taylor, Pierce, Buchanan) and politicians whose personal interests trumped the interests of the nation. (Stephen A. Douglas worked hard for the transcontinental railroad, in part to make sure it would pass through some of his land holdings.) With the confidence born of intimate knowledge, Holt guides us through some extraordinary complexities: the Missouri Compromise, the Mexican War, the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He explores the reasoning and motivations of some of the most well-known names in American history, including Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun. He does not, however, see much honor among the political thieves of the era. "Politicians made decisions," he writes, "from short-term calculations of partisan, factional, or personal advantage rather than from any long-term concern for the health, indeed, the very preservation of the Union." Holt implies that times have not changed much, and perhaps it was the contemporary parallels that led him, as he states in the text, to attempt both to sharpen the focus of his study of American Whigs and to attract a more general readership. He has certainly accomplished the former: few passages deal with anything other than politics, with glimpses of HarrietBeecher Stowe and John Brown providing occasional relief. But attracting a general readership is a more dubious proposition. Holt's prose is heavy, leaden, and veers at times into the inelegant. Important but occasionally tedious analysis of a most critical period in our history. (map; 8 pp. b&w illustrations, not seen) </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-41046112366343318102009-02-14T13:42:00.000-08:002009-02-14T13:49:30.086-08:00Aldo Leopold or Supreme Court Opinions of Clarence Thomas 1991 2006<h4>Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire: An Illustrated Biography </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Marybeth Lorbiecki</strong> <p><p>Written in a clear, accessible style, this biography reveals the background, early inspiration, and triumphs of Aldo Leopold and traces the foremost environmentalist's development as a leader in the conservationist movement. 160 linecuts. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>While not the first biography written about environmentalist Aldo Leopold (see Curt Meine's Aldo Leopold: His Life & Work, Univ. of Wisconsin, 1988), this one is definitely a worthwhile addition to the literature. Sufficient facts and context are provided to leave the reader informed yet not overburdened with detail. Environmental writer Lorbiecki does not offer much interpretation of events but rather allows us to see Leopold's development through description of his life and his own philosophical evolution. We see his emergence as a leader in wilderness preservation, and game and then wildlife management. We also see his development as a husband, father, and mentor. The presentation of Leopold's public and private lives is well balanced. He is portrayed here not as a saint but as a thinking man, willing to learn and change. Those unfamiliar with Leopold will relish this book; those who already know him will enjoy the retelling. This highly readable, lavishly illustrated biography is recommended for all environmental collections, public and academic.-Nancy J. Moeckel, Miami Univ. Libs, Oxford, Ohio </p><h4>Booknews</h4><p>This brief biography traces Leopold's development as a leader in the conservationist movement; explores his environmental writings, achievements, and philosophy; and examines his life as a husband and father. Leopold's daughter contributes her own personal reflections and many family photos. Lorbiecki has written numerous books and articles about environmental issues. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) </p><br><br> <p>Look this: <strong><a href="http://livres-francais.blogspot.com/2009/02/leconomie-de-changement-climatique-la.html">L'Économie de Changement climatique :la Révision Sévère</a></strong> <h4>Supreme Court Opinions of Clarence Thomas, 1991-2006: A Conservative's Perspective </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Henry Mark Mark Holzer</strong> <p><p>In his fifteen years as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has written nearly 350 opinions. Thousands of Thomas's eloquent and thoughtful words are thus available for Americans to examine. Yet much of the public still bases its opinion of Thomas on the words of the American media, going as far back as the bruising confirmation battle of 1991. Widespread, uncritical acceptance of glib assumptions has greatly distorted the record and even the character of this formidable justice.<p>This book offers readers the opportunity to consider the real Clarence Thomas-the formidable intellectual and defender of the Constitution, amply represented by his writings. It analyzes his most important majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions from 1991 through 2006. The author argues that Thomas's opinions reveal a consistent adherence to the principles of federalism, separation of powers, limited judicial review, and regard for individual rights as contemplated by the framers of the Constitution. An appendix contains a list of every opinion Thomas has written and notes whether it was a majority, concurring, or dissenting opinion. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Acknowledgments vii<br>Introduction 1<br>"We the People": The Constitution of the United States 9<br>"Further declaratory and restrictive clauses": The Bill of Rights 17<br>"Shall be vested in": Separation of Powers 23<br>"The powers not delegated": Federalism 36<br>Tenth Amendment 36<br>Commerce Clause 40<br>Necessary and Proper Clause 43<br>"One supreme Court": Judicial Review 51<br>Judicial Restraint 51<br>Statutory Interpretation 60<br>Stare Decisis 64<br>Thomas and Scalia 67<br>"Congress shall make no law": First Amendment 69<br>Establishment of Religion 69<br>Free Exercise of Religion 75<br>Freedom of Speech 76<br>Right of Association 93<br>"Other enumerated rights": Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments 96<br>Fourth Amendment 97<br>Fifth Amendment 100<br>Sixth Amendment 107<br>Eighth Amendment 111<br>"No State shall": Fourteenth Amendment 122<br>Privileges or Immunities 122<br>Due Process of Law 125<br>Equal Protection of the Law 140<br>Conclusion 151<br>Chapter Notes 159<br>Opinions of Justice Thomas 193<br>Statutory Interpretation Opinions of Justice Thomas 209<br>Index 219 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-51717229815792148272009-02-13T08:29:00.000-08:002009-02-13T08:36:00.939-08:00The End of Iraq or Turkmeniscam<h4>The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War without End </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Peter W Galbraith</strong> <p><p><i>The End of Iraq</i> -- definitive, tough-minded, clear-eyed, describes America's failed strategy toward that country.</p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><center><P><font size="+1"><b>Contents</b></font><P></center><P><P>1. The Appointment in Samarra<P><P>2. Appeasement<P><P>3. He Gassed His Own People<P><P>4. The Uprising<P><P>5. Arrogance and Ignorance<P><P>6. Aftermath<P><P>7. Can't Provide Anything<P><P>8. Kurdistan<P><P>9. Civil War<P><P>10. The Three State Solution<P><P>11. How to Get Out of Iraq<P><P><I>Appendixes <P><P>1. Special Provisions for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq<P><P>2. Iraq's Political Parties and the 2005 Elections<P><P>Cast of Characters<P><P>A Note on Sources<P><P>Acknowledgments<P><P>Index</i><P><P><br> <p>New interesting book: <strong><a href="http://healthy-living-book.blogspot.com/2009/02/shopaholics-guide-to-buying-fashion-and.html">Shopaholics Guide to Buying Fashion and Beauty Online or Women in Overdrive</a></strong> <h4>Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Ken Silverstein</strong> <p><p><P>“As I have often said, I would represent the devil himself for the right price–it’s not personal, just business.”<br>–a Washington, D.C., lobbyist<br><br>For nearly as long as there have been politicians in the United States, there have been lobbyists haunting the halls of Congress–shaking hands, bearing gifts, and brandishing agendas. Everyone knows how the back-scratching game of money, power, and PR is played. For a good enough offer, there are those who will gladly dive into the dirtiest political waters. The real question is: Just how low will they sink? Veteran investigative journalist Ken Silverstein made it his mission to find out–and “Turkmeniscam” was born.<br><br>On assignment for <i>Harper’s</i> magazine, and armed with a fistful of fake business cards, Silverstein went deep undercover as a corporate henchman with money to burn and a problem to solve: transforming the former Soviet-bloc nation Turkmenistan–branded “one of the worst totalitarian systems in the world”–into a Capitol Hill-friendly commodity. Even in the notoriously ethics-challenged world of Washington’s professional lobbying industry, could “Kenneth Case” (Silverstein’s fat-cat alter ego) find a team of D.C. spin doctors willing to whitewash the regime of a megalomaniac dictator with an unpronounceable name and an unspeakable reputation? Would the Beltway’s best and brightest image-mongers shill for a country condemned for its mind-boggling history of corruption, brutality, and civil rights abuse? <br><br>Who would dare tread in the ignoble footsteps of Ivy Lee, the pioneering PR guruwho sought to make the Nazis look nice? And who would stoop to unprecedented new lows to conquer Congress and compromise the red, white, and blue for the sake of the almighty green? As Ken Silverstein discovers in this mordantly funny, disturbingly enlightening, jaw-dropping exploration of the dark side, the real question is: Who wouldn’t?<br><br><br><b><u>Praise for <i>The Radioactive Boy Scout</i></u></b><br><br>“Alarming . . . The story fascinates from start to finish.”<br><i>–Outside</i><br><br>“An astounding story . . . [Silverstein] has a novelist’s eye for meaningful detail and a historian’s touch for context.”<br><i>–The San Diego Union-Tribune</i><br><br>“[Silverstein] does a fabulous job of letting David [Hahn’s] surrealistic story tell itself. . . . But what’s truly amazing is how far Hahn actually got in the construction of his crude nuclear reactor.”<br><i>–The Columbus Dispatch</i><br><br>“Enthralling . . . [<i>The Radioactive Boy Scout</i>] has the quirky pleasures of a Don DeLillo novel or an Errol Morris documentary. . . . An engaging portrait of a person whose life on America’s fringe also says something about mainstream America.”<br><i>–Minneapolis Star Tribune</i><br><br>“Amazing . . . unsettling . . . should come with a warning: Don’t buy [this book] for any obsessive kids in the family. It might give them ideas.”<br><i>–Rocky Mountain News</i> </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Harper's Washington editor Silverstein (The Radioactive Boy Scout, 2004, etc.) takes an informative, smart-alecky look at the lengths to which lobbying firms will go to get clients. The book is based on his undercover reporting for the magazine. Silverstein invented a company interested in promoting Turkmenistan's image in the United States so that it could attract investors to energy projects in the former Soviet Union. In edgy prose he describes the people he met and the places he visited, also providing plenty of biographical and campaign-finance factoids. His report will confirm many people's worst fears about the influence business, whose members display considerable willingness to work for repressive regimes (as long as they or their allies can write checks) and a tendency to shade the truth when dealing with the media. While this material worked well as a magazine article, it's a bit skimpy for a full-length book, so the author augments the narrative of his investigation with a lengthy history of lobbying. This synthesis of existing material doesn't always cohere. Silverstein's undercover effort was controversial when the article first came out, among some journalists as well as most of the lobbying community. He defends his approach as the only way to get the true story and also takes issue with those who put balance above all other values when judging reporting. " 'Balanced' is not fair, it's just an easy way of avoiding real reporting (as well as charges of bias) and shirking our responsibility to inform readers," he contends. Nobody will accuse Silverstein of evenhandedness, since he never gives the lobbyists a chance to defend their tactics. Readable and well-reported, thoughopenly partisan. Agent: Melanie Jackson/Melanie Jackson Agency </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-41672072150655058012009-02-12T03:16:00.000-08:002009-02-12T03:23:25.514-08:00The Jewish Political Tradition or Advanced Tactical Marksman<h4>The Jewish Political Tradition: Authority, Vol. 1 </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Michael Walzer</strong> <p><p>The first volume in a new series that will define an entirely new field within Jewish Studies by identifying a Jewish political tradition. Michael Walzer is the very prominent editor of the series, providing introductions to the volume and project as well as to each chapter. It is based on documents covering a time span over 2000 years. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>In this first book of a four-volume series originating from a conference on Jewish philosophy, religion, and politics sponsored by the Shalom Harman Institute of Jerusalem, the political arguments of two millennia are made accessible to a new generation of general readers. The struggle between secular and religious authority and the interaction of the individual in society are central themes. The editors, all scholars affiliated with the Shalom Hartman Institute, arrange this anthology of texts with commentaries in chronological order under 30 chapters headings, centering upon key historical events from ancient times unto the modern State of Israel. Primary sources (the Talmud, Mishnah, Midrash, Gemara, etc.) are supplemented by legal responsa, extracanonical, and contemporary sources, including essays, articles, and pamphlets by eminent scholars and professionals working in different fields of Jewish studies. Many of the medieval and modern texts are translated into English for the first time. Biographical data on various authors are included. This highly comprehensive and scholarly work is recommended for academic libraries.--Michael W. Ellis, Ellenville P.L., NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. </p><h4>Noah J. Efron</h4><p>Remarkable for both what it does and how it does it. It is a > splendid achievement.—<I>Boston Book Review</I> </p><h4>The New Republic - David Novak</h4><p><I>The Jewish Political Tradition</I> is one of the most ambitious Jewish intellectual efforts of recent years.</p><h4>What People Are Saying</h4><p><strong>Macy</strong><br>This work is the most comprehensive attempt that has ever been undertaken to present a thematic compilation of the important texts of the Jewish political tradition. It is a monumental project. </p><br><br><br> <p>Book review: <strong><a href="http://word-processing-book.blogspot.com/2009/02/decision-support-and-business.html">Decision Support and Business Intelligence Systems or Programming Microsoft ASPNet 20 Core Reference</a></strong> <h4>Advanced Tactical Marksman: More High-Performance Techniques for Police, Military, and Practical Shooters </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Dave M Lauck</strong> <p><p>When Lauck wrote *The Tactical Marksman* in 1996, it quickly became a sought-after training manual for police, military and civilian marksmen alike. Now one of the most respected names in high-performance shooting and gunsmithing refines and updates that information. Dispensing with overcomplicated mil-dot formulas and minute-of-angle calculations, Lauck shows you how to achieve superior accuracy and figure out angle shots, streamline the zero process, hit targets at 2,000 yards, deal with dawn and dusk shoots, train for real-world scenarios, choose optics and accessories, create a mobile shooting platform and much more. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Firearms Safety</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">3</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Modern Tactical Marksman</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">17</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Rifle Selection</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">25</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Advanced Optics and Accessories</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">57</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Ammunition and Ballistic Considerations</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">99</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Zeroing</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">123</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">7</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Marksmanship</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">137</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">8</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Immediate Action Rifle</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">141</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">9</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Advanced-Precision Rifle Training</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">147</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">10</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Equipment Maintenance</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">183</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Appendix A</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">189</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Glossary</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">197</TD></TABLE> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-28949125723209113412009-02-10T22:04:00.000-08:002009-02-10T22:11:08.378-08:00Unaccountable or Modernization Cultural Change and Democracy<h4>Unaccountable: How the Accounting Profession Forfeited a Public Trust </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Mike Brewster</strong> <p><p>For thousands of years, those who controlled and monitored society’s finances–accountants–were often the most powerful, respected, and influential members of the community. From the collectors at communal granaries in the ancient Middle East to the scribes who monitored Queen Victoria’s Exchequer, the accountant’s role has been to preserve the integrity of financial systems. <br><br>In the United States, twentieth-century accountants played a vital role in shaping the transparency of U.S. capital markets, counseling the Allies on financial matters in both world wars, advising Congress on the creation of the federal income tax, and inventing the concept of the gross national product. <br><br>Yet by 2003, the reputation of the public accountant was in tatters. How did the accounting profession in America squander its legacy of public service? What happened to the accountants that presidents, senators, and captains of industry turned to for advice? Why did auditors stop looking for fraud? How did this once revered profession find itself in this unlikely and humiliating state?<br> </p><br><br> <p>New interesting book: <strong><a href="http://political-parties-books.blogspot.com">Decolonizing Methodologies or Leaving America</a></strong> <h4>Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Ronald Inglehart</strong> <p><p><P>This book demonstrates that people's basic values and beliefs are changing, in ways that affect their political, sexual, economic, and religious behavior. These changes are roughly predictable because they can be interpreted on the basis of a revised version of modernization theory presented here. Drawing on a massive body of evidence from societies containing 85% of the world's population, the authors demonstrate that modernization is a process of human development, in which economic development triggers cultural changes that make individual autonomy, gender equality, and democracy increasingly likely. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Foreword</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">A revised theory of modernization</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">15</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Value change and the persistence of cultural traditions</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">48</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Exploring the unknown : predicting mass responses</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">77</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Intergenerational value change</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">94</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Value changes over time</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">115</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Individualism, self-expression values, and civic virtues</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">135</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">7</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The causal link between democratic values and democratic institutions : theoretical discussion</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">149</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">8</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The causal link between democratic values and democratic institutions : empirical analyses</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">173</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">9</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Social forces, collective action, and international events</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">210</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">10</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Individual-level values and system-level democracy : the problem of cross-level analysis</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">231</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">11</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Components of a prodemocratic civic culture</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">245</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">12</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Gender equality, emancipative values, and democracy</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">272</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">13</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The implications of human development</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">285</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Conclusion : an emancipative theory of democracy</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">299</TD></TABLE> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-34632167335600443842009-02-09T16:51:00.000-08:002009-02-09T16:58:52.509-08:00Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace or Voices of Freedom<h4>Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Gore Vidal</strong> <p><p><P>The United States has been engaged in what the great historian Charles A. Beard called "perpetual war for perpetual peace." The Federation of American Scientists has cataloged nearly 200 military incursions since 1945 in which the United States has been the aggressor. In a series of penetrating and alarming essays, whose centerpiece is a commentary on the events of September 11, 2001 (deemed too controversial to publish in this country until now) Gore Vidal challenges the comforting consensus following September 11th and goes back and draws connections to Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. He asks were these simply the acts of "evil-doers?" "Gore Vidal is the master essayist of our age." — Washington Post "Our greatest living man of letters."—Boston Globe "Vidal's imagination of American politics is so powerful as to compel awe."—Harold Bloom, The New York Review of Books </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>In this collection of essays, noted novelist and critic Vidal turns his acerbic wit on the United States. Never shy about expressing his opinion, Vidal questions U.S. assumptions regarding the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings: "That our ruling junta might have seriously provoked McVeigh and Osama was never dealt with." His critique of the coverage of September 11 is slim, mostly centering on already reported truisms about why many in the Muslim world sympathize in some way with Osama bin Laden. Some readers, however, will share his unease with the willingness on the part of the American government and the American people to put concerns for civil liberties on the back burner during the war on terrorism. Vidal's criticisms of McVeigh, with whom he struck up a correspondence and a relationship, is more detailed. In Vidal's view, it is unlikely that McVeigh was solely responsible for Oklahoma City, and he saw himself as a martyr for a libertarian cause that would rescue America. But in this book, the tone is as important as the text. Vidal gleefully skewers American capitalism and the role of the religious right in American politics at every opportunity. Critics of American policy and American life, as well as those prone to conspiracy theories, are likely to find a lot of fodder. Many will not be surprised that Vidal's views have not received a wider hearing a piece on McVeigh was rejected by Vanity Fair, another by the Nation but even at his most contrarian, Vidal's writing is powerful and graceful. (May) Forecast: Vidal's piece on September 11 appeared in a book that became a bestseller in Italy. Will it do the same here? Not likely, but the success of Noam Chomsky's 9-11 makes it clear that at least some readers are ready for an alternate view. They may also welcome A Just Response (reviewed on p. 69), a collection from the Nation. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>In a piquant collection (originally published in Italy), Vidal (The Last Empire, 2001, etc.) asks readers to consider the forces that motivated Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden-and perhaps it wouldn't hurt to heed the beating the Bill of Rights has been taking recently. When President Bush ("a powerless Mikado ruled by a shogun vice president and his Pentagon warrior counselors") tells his public that the nation is embarking on a "very long war," a "secret war" against operators like bin Laden, who has been reduced to a Shakespearean motiveless malignity, warning bells should be heard. Citizens ought to wonder, Vidal suggests, how we got in such a fix. Have our actions in the Middle East been not only self-serving, but open to misinterpretation as well? Plain hypocritical? Should we give with one hand, take away with the other: support Saddam Hussein or bin Laden one day, vilify him the next? When "Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return" (Auden), is self-righteousness an option? As for McVeigh, does he bear witness to rage in the heartland? Is there a reason for the surge of militias? Has the destruction of the family farm anything to do with it? Have the trouncing of the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, the carte blanche given to the ATF/FBI/DEA/IRS to step on those rights, the abominations of Waco and Ruby Ridge, followed by the government's smug refusal to accept any culpability, at the very least boomeranged on their proclaimed intent? Deserves some thought by anyone with a shred of skepticism, thinks Vidal. He provides plenty of examples to sustain his shimmering abhorrence for current American politics (e.g., his contention that FBI Director Freeh was "placed" inhis job by Opus Dei). Challenging as ever, Vidal quotes Justice Brandeis: "If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for laws; it invites every man to become a law unto himself." </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">September 11, 2001 (A Tuesday)</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">How I Became Interested in Timothy McVeigh and Vice Versa</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">43</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Shredding the Bill of Rights</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">49</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">83</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Fallout</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">123</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The New Theocrats</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">137</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">A Letter to Be Delivered</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">147</TD></TABLE> <p>Interesting textbook: <strong><a href="http://general-accounting.blogspot.com/2009/02/crujienteservicio-de-cliente-cortesia.html">Crujiente:Servicio de Cliente & Cortesía Telefónico, Tercera Edición:Alcanzamiento Inte</a></strong> <h4>Voices of Freedom: English and Civics </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Bill Bliss</strong> <p><p>This content-based English and Civics text introduces basic government and history topics through a carefully controlled sequence of lessons that simultaneously teach beginning-level vocabulary and grammar.<ul> <li>New civic participation activities, projects, and issue discussions meet English/Civics program goals.</li> <li>Expanded chapter tests develop test-taking skills and increase confidence levels.</li> <li>Interview dialogues allow students to practice the functional interview skills crucial to a successful INS interview.</li> <li>Internet activities range from simple web browsing to virtual field trips to important historical sites.</li></ul> New civic enrichment activities in each chapter, including visits to local government offices, community tasks, and debates encourage students to become active participants in the classroom and in the community. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-4055498938208928242009-02-08T11:39:00.000-08:002009-02-08T11:46:20.771-08:00Lead Time or The Hemingses of Monticello<h4>Lead Time: A Journalist's Education </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Garry Wills</strong> <p> and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books</p> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction : after the fact</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">War protest : commune</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">3</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">War protest : jail</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">11</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Dr. King on the case</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">29</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">"McCarthyism"</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">53</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Alger Hiss</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">56</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Hiss and Nixon</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">62</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">7</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Summer of '74</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">79</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">8</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Sideshows</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">96</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">9</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Dunces</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">108</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">10</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Senate</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">117</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">11</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The House</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">124</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">12</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Bobby Baker</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">128</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">13</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Daniel Patrick Moynihan</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">132</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">14</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">George Wallace</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">140</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">15</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Burt Lance</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">156</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">16</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Jerry Brown</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">166</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">17</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The best reporter</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">181</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">18</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Miniconvention, '74</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">186</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">19</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Democrats, '76</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">195</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">20</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Republicans, '76</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">203</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">21</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Miniconvention, '78</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">209</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">22</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Truman</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">221</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">23</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Eisenhower</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">233</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">24</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Johnson</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">236</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">25</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Ford</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">241</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">26</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Carter</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">250</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">27</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Reagan</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">257</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">28</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Born-again Watergater</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">275</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">29</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Stained-glass Watergate</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">285</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">30</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Pope John Paul II</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">293</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">31</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Dorothy Day</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">300</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">32</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Pope in America</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">304</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">33</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The devil</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">320</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">34</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Why?</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">327</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">35</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Muhammad Ali</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">331</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">36</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Shirley Verrett</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">339</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">37</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Raymond Berry</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">346</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">38</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Beverly sills</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">362</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">App</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Boxing : a palinode</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">381</TD></TABLE> <p>Book about: <strong><a href="http://small-business-books.blogspot.com/2009/02/sistemi-dinformazione-di-impresa-un.html">Sistemi d'informazione di impresa: Un metodo Modello-Basato</a></strong> <h4>The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Annette Gordon Reed</strong> <p><p><P>Historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed presents this epic work that tells the story of the Hemingses, an American slave family, and their close blood ties to Thomas Jefferson. </p><h4>The Washington Post - Fergus M. Bordewich</h4><p>…monumental and original…Liberating the woman known to Jefferson's smirking enemies as "dusky Sally" from the lumber room of scandal and legend, Gordon-Reed leads her into the daylight of a country where slaves and masters met on intimate terms. In so doing, Gordon-Reed also shines an uncompromisingly fresh but not unsympathetic light on the most elusive of the Founding Fathers…In this magisterial book, she has succeeded not only in recovering the lives of an entire enslaved family, but also in showing them as creative agents intelligently maneuvering to achieve maximum advantage for themselves within the orbit of institutionalized slavery.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p><P>This is a scholar's book: serious, thick, complex. It's also fascinating, wise and of the utmost importance. Gordon-Reed, a professor of both history and law who in her previous book helped solve some of the mysteries of the intimate relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings, now brings to life the entire Hemings family and its tangled blood links with slave-holding Virginia whites over an entire century. Gordon-Reed never slips into cynicism about the author of the Declaration of Independence. Instead, she shows how his life was deeply affected by his slave kinspeople: his lover (who was the half-sister of his deceased wife) and their children. Everyone comes vividly to life, as do the places, like Paris and Philadelphia, in which Jefferson, his daughters and some of his black family lived. So, too, do the complexities and varieties of slaves' lives and the nature of the choices they had to make-when they had the luxury of making a choice. Gordon-Reed's genius for reading nearly silent records makes this an extraordinary work. 37 illus. <I>(Sept.)</I></P>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><h4>Thomas J. Davis - Library Journal</h4><p><P>This multigenerational saga traces mixed-race bloodlines that American history has long refused fully to acknowledge. Blending biography, genealogy, and history, Gordon-Reed (history, Rutgers Univ.; law, New York Law Sch.; <i>Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy</i>) brings to life the family from which Sally Hemings (1773-1835) came and the family that she and Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) created. Sally bore five surviving children for the man who penned the Declaration of Independence and later became the new nation's third president. In a three-part, 30-chapter tour de force through voluminous primary and secondary sources, including Jefferson family correspondence, Gordon-Reed reconstructs not simply the private life and estate of an American demigod but reveals much of the characteristic structure and style of early Virginia society and the slavery that made possible much of the Old Dominion's position and pleasure. Moreover, she ushers forth slaves from the usual shadows of historical obscurity to show them as individuals and families with multifaceted lives. This is a masterpiece brimming with decades of dedicated research and dexterous writing. It is essential for any collection on U.S. history, Colonial America, Virginia, slavery, or miscegenation. [See Prepub Alert, <i>LJ</i>5/1/08.]</p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>The unusual history of an enslaved family whose destiny was shaped over the course of four decades by Thomas Jefferson. Gordon-Reed (Law/New York Law School, History/Rutgers Univ.; Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, 1997, etc.) grudgingly comes to a sympathetic view of Jefferson, who inherited the mixed-race Hemings family when he married Martha Wayles Skelton in 1772. By 1784, he was a widower living in Paris as head of the American commission, accompanied by manservant James Hemings, whom Jefferson took along so he could receive training as a French chef. In 1787, James's 14-year-old sister Sally came to Paris with Jefferson's daughter Polly; sometime during the French sojourn, she became her master's mistress. Back in Virginia, Jefferson installed Sally in a fairly pampered life at Monticello; he sired her numerous children and emancipated them upon his death in 1826. The author painstakingly sifts through the evidence about their relationship and examines the convoluted attitudes that influenced Jefferson's behavior. Sally's white father was also Martha Jefferson's father; Jefferson's wife and his slave mistress were half-sisters who owed their radically different destinies to the Anglo-Virginian system of bondage. The colonists had adopted the Roman rule partus sequitur ventrem (you were what your mother was) rather than the English rule (you were what your father was). By the perverse logic of this system, any drop of white blood ameliorated the work slaves were assigned and their chances of being freed. Jefferson encouraged James Hemings and his brother Robert to learn skills and to move freely in the world. There is no clue in the life of this intertwined family that Gordon-Reeddoes not minutely examine for its most subtle significance. She concludes that Jefferson was above all a most private man, who espoused abhorrent racial theories in public but behaved relatively well (by the standards of the era) toward his own slaves. Ponderous but sagacious and ultimately rewarding. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-8729515374298918492009-02-07T06:26:00.000-08:002009-02-07T06:33:32.841-08:00Era of Good Feelings or Durable Inequality<h4>Era of Good Feelings </h4> <p>Author: <strong>George Dangerfield</strong> <p><p>Winner of the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes, this is the standard history of the years between Jefferson and Jackson. </p><br><br> <p>Interesting book: <strong><a href="http://revue-de-livres.blogspot.com/2009/02/leadership-clairs.html">Leadership Clairs</a></strong> <h4>Durable Inequality </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Charles Tilly</strong> <p><p>Charles Tilly, in this eloquent manifesto, presents a powerful new approach to the study of persistent social inequality. How, he asks, do long-lasting, systematic inequalities in life chances arise, and how do they come to distinguish members of different socially defined categories of persons? Exploring representative paired and unequal categories, such as male/female, black/white, and citizen/noncitizen, Tilly argues that the basic causes of these and similar inequalities greatly resemble one another. In contrast to contemporary analyses that explain inequality case by case, this account is one of process. Categorical distinctions arise, Tilly says, because they offer a solution to pressing organizational problems. Whatever the "organization" is--as small as a household or as large as a government--the resulting relationship of inequality persists because parties on both sides of the categorical divide come to depend on that solution, despite its drawbacks. Tilly illustrates the social mechanisms that create and maintain paired and unequal categories with a rich variety of cases, mapping out fertile territories for future relational study of durable inequality. </p><h4>William Julius Wilson</h4><p>Solidifies Charles Tilly's reputation as one of the world's most creative social scientists....Tilly's original framework clearly reveals and thoroughly explains the similar social processes that create different forms of social inequality. -- William Julius Wilson</p><h4>Bruce G. Carruthers</h4><p>Clearly the work of a master...provides a new and rigorous understanding of one of the key facts of social life. -- Bruce G. Carruthers</p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-80104685683087055482009-02-06T01:14:00.000-08:002009-02-06T01:21:19.790-08:00New Imperialism or On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness<h4>New Imperialism </h4> <p>Author: <strong>David Harvey</strong> <p><p>People around the world are confused and concerned. Is it a sign of strength or of weakness that the US has suddenly shifted from a politics of consensus to one of coercion on the world stage? What was really at stake in the war on Iraq? Was it all about oil and, if not, what else was involved? What role has a sagging economy played in pushing the US into foreign adventurism? What exactly is the relationship between US militarism abroad and domestic politics? These are the questions taken up in this compelling and original book. In this closely argued and clearly written book, David Harvey, one of the leading social theorists of his generation, builds a conceptual framework to expose the underlying forces at work behind these momentous shifts in US policies and politics. The compulsions behind the projection of US power on the world as a "new imperialism" are here, for the first time, laid bare for all to see. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Preface</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">All About Oil</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">How America's Power Grew</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">26</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Capital Bondage</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">87</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Accumulation by Disposession</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">137</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Consent to Coercion</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">183</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Further Reading</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">213</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Bibliography</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">217</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Notes</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">225</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">237</TD></TABLE> <p>Interesting book: <strong><a href="http://iraqi-politics.blogspot.com/2009/02/one-hour-activist-or-come-to-think-of.html">One Hour Activist or Come to Think of It</a></strong> <h4>On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Jacques Derrida</strong> <p><p><P>One of the world's most famous philosophers, Jacques Derrida, explores difficult questions in this important and engaging book. Is it still possible to uphold international hospitality and justice in the face of increasing nationalism and civil strife in so many countries? Drawing on examples of treatment of minority groups in Europe, he skillfully and accessibly probes the thinking that underlies much of the practice, and rhetoric, that informs cosmopolitanism. What have duties and rights to do with hospitality? Should hospitality be grounded in a private or public ethic, or even a religious one? This fascinating book will be illuminating reading for all. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-80908391934194797862009-02-04T20:00:00.000-08:002009-02-04T20:07:49.846-08:00Born to the Mob or Mr Lincoln Goes to War<h4>Born to the Mob: The True-Life Story of the Only Man to Work for All Five of New York's Mafia Families </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Frankie Saggio</strong> <p><p>Frankie Saggio reminisces about the era of true wise guys like his Uncle Philly -a contemporary of Al Capone. After all, it was Frankie's uncle who "taught him the value of a dollar and how to steal it from someone else." Uncle Philly was from a day when being in a mafia family meant being bound by blood and honor, not like modern day families whose only concern is money. For Frankie, the only way to avoid the modern mob treachery is to avoid getting involved with any single mob family, working "freelance" for all five. Frankie can do this because he is one of the biggest earners in the business, pulling down millions and kicking a share upstairs to the bosses. Though he fights the decision, Frankie is tied by blood to the Bonanno family, Uncle Philly's family, and current home to Philly's murderer. Soon after joining the Bonannos, Frankie narrowly escapes an assassination attempt and is busted for a major scam. With little choice, and even less loyalty to the Bonannos, Frankie turns himself over to the Feds on the one condition that he will tell the feds everything, but will not squeal on his own relatives.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>The apparently insatiable public appetite for insider stories from the world of organized crime gives Saggio's dramatized third-person narrative, co-written with true-crime veteran Rosen (Lobster Boy), a built-in audience, but don't expect another Wiseguy or Donnie Brasco. Saggio, a federally protected witness following his cooperation against his former partners in crime, relates a familiar, clich d tale without offering much new. While his schemes involved mail fraud scams and stock manipulation rather than violence, more detailed and better-written accounts of mob infiltration of Wall Street have appeared recently (e.g., Gary Weiss's Born to Steal and Salvatore Lauria's The Scorpion and the Frog). Purple prose ("With a crackle of gears, the bus descended to hell") mingled with blatant errors (the underboss, not the capo, is "one rung below boss"; Rudy Giuliani never prosecuted John Gotti) and "revelations" that are not news (Carmine Galante's assassins have been publicly named before) add up to a disappointing by-the-numbers story. The few touches of humor-Saggio refers to the mob's ruling body, the Commission, as the "Justice League" and compares his life to that of Harry Potter-don't make Saggio, who comes off here as greedy and conscienceless, any more endearing. Readers with a background in law enforcement will dispute Saggio's accusation that FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone was complicit in three murders and that the FBI let those hits go forward. (Mar. 11) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Saggio, now residing in an unknown location under the federal government's Witness Security Program, tells all in this interesting but unevenly written memoir of the Wiseguy life. Growing up under the wing of his uncle, "Philly Lucky" Giaccone (a member of the Bonanno crime family), Saggio was initiated early into the ways of the Mafia. When he was 17, Uncle Philly was killed, and Saggio became a "freelance" mobster, going on to work for all five of New York's crime families. Ultimately busted for his operation of a phony pay-phone scam, Saggio made a deal with the federal government to inform on the Mafia in which he had traveled so widely. The story is told in the third person, but large parts are made up of direct quotes from Saggio, often breaking the flow of the book and making it slightly disjointed. Not for the faint of heart, given the superfluous use of strong language, this is an optional purchase for the true-crime collections of large public libraries or wherever Mob tell-alls are popular.-Sarah Jent, Univ. of Louisville, KY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>An organized-crime figure specializes in financial shenanigans as intricate as any imaginable. No goomba-come-lately, Saggio was a fourth-generation member of an extended Mafia family. Here, with his first-person account buttressed by crime journalist Rosen's narrative, Saggio explains why he chose to operate independently: "I didn't want anyone bustin' my balls. . . . If I wasn't with any crew, I could move around and not answer to anyone." He made money and paid the vig to whoever controlled the turf-and what a turf it was, from drugs to cigarettes to car thefts, but most fascinatingly on Wall Street, where Saggio figured out how to "get a hook into a firm, bring the wiseguys in, and the exploit the situation." This involved IPO scams like dumping stocks after an early purchase. "I had a vice president at Chase Manhattan Bank and a vice president at European American Bank who would handle my accounts and transactions personally," the mobster boasts; Paine Webber and Shearson Lehman also figured in the equation. But Saggio's independence required an exquisite appreciation of balance and a knowledge of who was who within the five New York crime families. ("Patty and his brother Joey were with Roy DeMeo, who ran a crew for Nino Gaggi, a skipper with the Gambinos.") His connections were always in flux-now with the Columbos, now with the Luccheses, the Genoveses, the Bonannos, the Gambinos-and when Saggio eventually ran afoul of the truly nasty Tommy D., he turned to the witness protection program, which comes across as a deeply amateurish operation. The everyday lawlessness and violence here is omnipresent; there's no running, no hiding, no avenue of escape from Mob influence, andlaw-abiding readers may feel as though a rasp is being drawn across their foreheads. If what Saggio says is true, and there's little reason to believe it's not, readers are advised to think twice before their next flutter on an IPO. </p><br><br> <p>Go to: <strong><a href="http://vitamins-books.blogspot.com">The Dependent Personality or Miracle Touch</a></strong> <h4>Mr. Lincoln Goes to War </h4> <p>Author: <strong>William Marvel</strong> <p><p>This exciting work of groundbreaking history investigates the mystery of how the Civil War began, reconsidering the big question: Was it inevitable? Marvel vividly depicts President Lincoln's first year in office, from his inauguration through the rising crisis of secession and the first several months of the war. Drawing on original sources and examining previously overlooked factors, Marvel leads the reader inexorably to the conclusion that Lincoln not only missed opportunities to avoid war but actually fanned the flames - and often acted unconstitutionally in prosecuting the war once it had begun. The story unfolds with Marvel's keen eye for the telling detail, on the battlefield as well as in the White House. This is revisionist history at its best and necessary reading for Civil War and Lincoln devotees alike.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Establishing slavery as the Civil War's central issue has fostered an acceptance of the conflict's inevitability among academic and popular historians alike. Marvel, author of several prize-winning books on the Civil War (Lee's Last Retreat, etc.), combines an iconoclastic approach with extensive research to challenge this conventional wisdom. Focusing on the North's road to war in 1861, he argues that Abraham Lincoln made armed force a first choice, rather than a last resort, in addressing the Union's breakup. While conceding the complex problems Lincoln faced, and the corresponding limitations on his options, Marvel describes the president's course of action as "destructive and unimaginative." The confrontation at Fort Sumter ended any chance of avoiding conflict, he writes, and the North's amateurish conduct of initial military operations, culminating in the defeats at Bull Run, Wilson's Creek and Ball's Bluff, encouraged an emerging Confederacy's belief that war was its best option. More generally, Lincoln's early and comprehensive infringement of such constitutional rights as habeas corpus set dangerous precedents for future autocratic executives. Marvel's characterization of Lincoln as a victim of tunnel vision, who launched a war without considering how devastating it might become, incorporates a certain present-mindedness. His willingness to consider the positive prospects of accepting secession is informed by a barely concealed subtext: the existence of the United States as we know it has not been an unmixed blessing. This well-constructed, comprehensively documented revisionist exercise merits consideration and reflection. Drawings, maps, halftones. (May 10) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Historian Marvel (Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox) insists that the positive outcome of the Civil War and the deification of Lincoln as a great war leader have obscured many of the actual facts. He offers an alternate historical view, arguing that Lincoln misread the political situation during the secession winter preceding the attack on Fort Sumter, mishandled the crisis at the fort, abused the power of his office, trampled on civil liberties and democratic processes to keep Maryland and Missouri in the Union, and stumbled through cabinet decisions about how to prosecute the war. In grim and vivid detail, he recounts the military blundering that made the war more terrible than it might have been were another man in Lincoln's position. Marvel writes with authority and vigor in relating military actions but relies on conjecture in supposing political alignments and peaceful resolutions had Lincoln not been so aggressive and unyielding in insisting the Union not disassemble. Nonetheless, this provocative book will fuel the current raging debates on presidential powers, leadership, the causes and conduct of the Civil War, and the possibilities of peace. Highly recommended.-Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>The Railsplitter as tyrant, warmonger and Machiavellian strategist. Did Lincoln cause the Civil War? Historian Marvel (The Monitor Chronicles, 2000, etc.) says yes, but then adds a qualification or two. Certainly, he writes, Lincoln could have taken the advice of Cabinet members, newspaper editors and plenty of Northern voters by allowing the South to secede, in which case, Marvel ventures, slavery would have at least been a localized problem, likely to disappear in time. Lincoln, however, "eschewed diplomacy" and replied to the capture of Fort Sumter-which, Lincoln's secret agents had already told him, was inevitably to fall to the South-by raising an army and threatening invasion. He had already hinted at such intentions in his inaugural speech, knowing that trouble was on the way; indeed, as Marvel writes, Sumter, which supposedly touched off the war, was but the latest of many federal installations that the secessionists had taken, to which then-President James Buchanan had responded by not doing anything. Any attempt to enforce federal law in the South, Lincoln's advisors told him, "would precipitate war." By Marvel's account, Lincoln welcomed the prospect, for the Union needed a renewed forging of bonds and federal authority needed to be extended over states' rights-an argument still played out in the Capitol today. In any event, Marvel argues, Lincoln willingly violated the Constitution to preserve the Union by, for one thing, suspending the writ of habeas corpus, and he came very close to establishing a dictatorship (of the Roman, not Nazi, variety). "Lincoln gradually arrogated so much authority to his office that his own dominant party dared not pass that power on to a member ofthe opposition," Marvel notes, so that Republicans raced to strip away presidential powers when Democrat Andrew Johnson took office after Lincoln's assassination. Sure to touch off discussion, if not controversy, in professional circles; readers with a penchant for iconoclasm will want to have a look, too. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Contents<BR><BR>List of Illustrations and Maps ix<BR>Preface xiii<BR><BR>Part I WE CANNOT SEPARATE<BR>1. Songs for a Prelude 3<BR>2. Flags in Mottoed Pageantry 36<BR>3. The Banner at Daybreak 63<BR><BR>Part II AND NOW THE STORM-BLAST CAME<BR>4. Behold the Silvery River 93<BR>5. Where Ignorant Armies Clash 120<BR>6. The Crimson Corse of Lyon 155<BR><BR>Part III THE ERA OF SUSPICION<BR>7. The Despot's Heel 185<BR>8. By Cliffs Potomac Cleft 216<BR>9. Shovel Them Under and Let Me Work 247<BR><BR>Epilogue 281<BR>Appendix 1: Orders of Battle 289<BR>Appendix 2: Biographical Sketches 292<BR>Notes 304<BR>Bibliography 340<BR>Acknowledgments 363<BR>Index 368 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-75925776096118427392009-02-03T14:48:00.000-08:002009-02-03T14:55:28.799-08:00Historic Homes of American Presidents or US Presidents and Latin American Interventions<h4>Historic Homes of American Presidents </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Irvin Haas</strong> <p><p>The perfect traveler's guide to American Presidential homes, most of them open to the public. Depicts and describes in architectural and historical detail homes (including the White House) occupied by American Presidents from George Washington to George Bush. Lively readable text with revealing anecdotes and thought-provoking historical perspectives. Up-to-date information on visiting hours, admission charges and recommended travel routes.</p><br><br> <p>Interesting book: <strong><a href="http://world-politics-books.blogspot.com">Development Economics or Shooter</a></strong> <h4>U.S. Presidents and Latin American Interventions: Pursuing Regime Change in the Cold War </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Michael Grow</strong> <p><p><P>Lyndon Johnson invaded the Dominican Republic. Richard Nixon sponsored a coup attempt in Chile. Ronald Reagan waged covert warfare in Nicaragua. Nearly a dozen times during the Cold War, American presidents turned their attention from standoffs with the Soviet Union to intervene in Latin American affairs. In each instance, it was declared that the security of the United States was at stake—but, as Michael Grow demonstrates, these actions had more to do with flexing presidential muscle than responding to imminent danger.<P>From Eisenhower's toppling of Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954 to Bush's overthrow of Noriega in Panama in 1989, Grow casts a close eye on eight major cases of U.S. intervention in the Western Hemisphere, offering fresh interpretations of why they occurred and what they signified. The case studies also include the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961 and Reagan's invasion of Grenada in 1983, as well as the fullest examination currently available of JFK's little-known 1963 intervention against the government of Cheddi Jagan in British Guiana.<P>Each intervention was part of a symbolic geopolitical chess match in which the White House sought to project an image of overpowering strength to audiences at home and abroad—in order to preserve both national and presidential credibility. As Grow also reveals, that impulse was routinely reinforced by local Latin American elites—such as Chilean businessmen or opposition Panamanian politicians—who actively promoted intervention in their own self-interest.<P>LBJ's loud lament—"What can we do in Vietnam if we can't clean up the Dominican Republic?"—reflected just how preoccupied our presidents were with provingthat the U.S. was no paper tiger and that they themselves were fearless and forceful leaders. Meticulously argued and provocative, Grow's bold reinterpretation of Cold War history shows that this special preoccupation with credibility was at the very core of our presidents' approach to foreign relations, especially those involving our Latin American neighbors. </p><h4>What People Are Saying</h4><p><strong>Howard J. Wiarda</strong><br>A wonderful and refreshingly clear-eyed book. (Howard J. Wiarda, author of <I>The Soul of Latin America</I>) </p><br><p><strong>Lars Schoultz</strong><br>A stunning account that defines for our lifetime the meaning of the term 'hegemony,' with a graceful, inviting style that foregoes the strident tone of much of the literature on intervention. . . . Should be at the top of Washington's reading list. (Lars Schoultz, author of <I>Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America</I>) </p><br><p><strong>William LeoGrande</strong><br>An important addition to the literature on U.S. policy toward Latin America and the general literature on U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. (William LeoGrande, author of <I>Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1993</I>) </p><br><p><strong>Lars Schoultz</strong><br><P>A stunning account that defines for our lifetime the meaning of the term 'hegemony,' with a graceful, inviting style that foregoes the strident tone of much of the literature on intervention. . . . Should be at the top of Washington's reading list. (Lars Schoultz, author of <I>Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America</I>) </p><br><p><strong>Howard J. Wiarda</strong><br><P>A wonderful and refreshingly clear-eyed book. (Howard J. Wiarda, author of <I>The Soul of Latin America</I>) </p><br><p><strong>William LeoGrande</strong><br><P>An important addition to the literature on U.S. policy toward Latin America and the general literature on U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. (William LeoGrande, author of <I>Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1993</I>) </p><br><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-56452750144678174812009-02-02T09:34:00.000-08:002009-02-02T09:41:45.064-08:00Tales of Alaskas Bush Rat Governor or Henry Kissinger and the American Century<h4>Tales of Alaska's Bush Rat Governor: The Extraordinary Autobiography of Jay Hammond, Wilderness Guide and Reluctant Politician </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Jay Hammond</strong> <p><p><P>Jay Hammond's hilarious, adventure-packed autobiography is filled with candid insights on the independent people and faraway places of our nation's largest state. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>In 1946 Hammond, a Methodist minister's son from New York State and a Marine pilot during WW II, realized his dream of moving to Alaska. Once there he had many jobs, including trapping, fishing, guiding, flying and working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He also served six years in the House beginning in 1959, the advent of statehood, then six more in the Senate. Hammond was elected governor in 1974 in an upset victory over the favored candidate who was backed by the press and the unions; in 1978 he was reelected, campaigning for a balance between industrial growth and preservation of the environment. While Hammond's political career is interesting, the main appeal of his autobiography is his portrait of his adopted state and its residents. Photos. Author tour. (May) </p><h4>Booknews</h4><p>Hammond served as a Marine fighter pilot during World War II, then fled civilization for Alaska's wilderness, where he became a trapper, bush pilot, wolf hunter, commercial fisherman, wilderness guide, and poet. He was governor of Alaska between 1974 and 1982, an environmentalist during the nation's oil crisis. His memoirs are lively and engaging. Distributed by Graphic Arts Center Publishing, Portland, Ore. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) </p><br><br> <p>Books about: <strong><a href="http://healing-books.blogspot.com/2009/02/when-dieting-becomes-dangerous-or.html">When Dieting Becomes Dangerous or Digestive Health Now</a></strong> <h4>Henry Kissinger and the American Century </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Jeremi Suri</strong> <p><p><P>What made Henry Kissinger the kind of diplomat he was? What experiences and influences shaped his worldview and provided the framework for his approach to international relations? Jeremi Suri offers a thought-provoking, interpretive study of one of the most influential and controversial political figures of the twentieth century.<br></p><P>Drawing on research in more than six countries in addition to extensive interviews with Kissinger and others, Suri analyzes the sources of Kissinger's ideas and power and explains why he pursued the policies he did. Kissinger's German-Jewish background, fears of democratic weakness, belief in the primacy of the relationship between the United States and Europe, and faith in the indispensable role America plays in the world shaped his career and his foreign policy. Suri shows how Kissinger's early years in Weimar and Nazi Germany, his experiences in the U.S. Army and at Harvard University, and his relationships with powerful patrons—including Nelson Rockefeller and Richard Nixon—shed new light on the policymaker.<br></p><P>Kissinger's career was a product of the global changes that made the American Century. He remains influential because his ideas are rooted so deeply in dominant assumptions about the world. In treating Kissinger fairly and critically as a historical figure, without polemical judgments, Suri provides critical context for this important figure. He illuminates the legacies of Kissinger's policies for the United States in the twenty-first century.<br></p> </p><h4>The Washington Post - David Greenberg</h4><p>…a useful, idiosyncratic study…Suri isn't trying to compete—for audience or authoritativeness —with Dallek's <i>Nixon and Kissinger</i> or MacMillan's <i>Nixon and Mao</i>, which combine scholarly rigor with popular appeal. Rather, he's gambling that less can be more. Suri's Kissinger is an academic rumination on the cerebral Harvard professor-turned-showboating national security adviser that, while intentionally narrow in scope, is bold in its reach.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p><P>University of Wisconsin historian Suri (<I>Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente</I>) endeavors to explore the philosophical roots of Henry Kissinger's actions as national security adviser and secretary of state under President Nixon, finding those roots in a Jewish boy's experiences of a weak Weimar regime's fall to genocidal Nazism. At the end of the day, in Suri's account, Kissinger's philosophy boiled down to the need to back democracy with muscle. "America, alone of the free countries," said Kissinger, "was strong enough to assure global security against the forces of tyranny. Only America had both the power and the decency to inspire other peoples who struggled for identity, for progress and dignity." But Kissinger's expressed idealism leads Suri to downplay the consequences of Kissinger's actions, including his role in subverting the democratically elected government of Chile's Salvador Allende. Kissinger did not support the brutality of the "regimes he supported in Chile, South Africa, and other parts of the Third World," Suri writes. But, the author acknowledges, he did "nurture personal relations with their leaders as strongmen who could mobilize force effectively against threats to themselves and the United States." At the close of that statement, Suri stumbles into the unpleasant truth of Kissinger's realpolitik. Illus.<I> (July)</I></P>Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information </p><h4>Marcia L. Sprules - Library Journal</h4><p><P>Suri (history, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison; <i>Power and Protest</i>) here turns his attention to archetypal power broker Kissinger during his years in government service, ending in 1977. Throughout, the author bears in mind how Kissinger was influenced by his youth in Germany and by postwar America generally (thus distinguishing this book from Jussi Hanhimaki's <i>Flawed Architect</i>, which does not analyze such influences). Suri argues that the weak response of the democratic states as well as public acquiescence to the rise of the Nazis left Kissinger convinced of the need to use any means necessary to defeat evil. Suri specifies the social changes in postwar America that opened doors for those outside the traditional elites and points to Kissinger's ability to bridge previously separate worlds, which enabled him to get full benefit of these changed conditions. The author is less positive about the success of Kissinger's approach in Vietnam and the Middle East, where Kissinger's preference for dealing between nation-states, rather than with insurgencies and nonstate actors, was not an option. The archival research is extensive and the analysis thought-provoking. Although there are numerous studies of Kissinger, as well as his own memoirs, Suri's is the best at studying the man in terms of the social surroundings that influenced him. Recommended, especially for academic libraries.-Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York</P></p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008304670276863644.post-50032429598928119632009-02-01T04:21:00.000-08:002009-02-01T04:28:13.042-08:00Threads of Honor or George W Bush Coloring Book<h4>Threads of Honor: The True Story of a Boy Scout Troop, Perseverance, Triumph, and an American Flag </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Gordon W Ryan</strong> <p><p>A troop of Boy Scouts had arranged to have the American flag that belonged to their troop included in the flight kit of the Challenger. They had tried for the better part of a year to get this flag to fly on a space shuttle, only to be horrified to witness the explosion of the Challenger, with their flag aboard, 70 seconds after lift off. The amazing part of this story is that, nine months later, this flag was recovered, completely unscathed, from the bottom of the ocean. </p><br><br> <p>Book about: <strong><a href="http://international-business-textbooks.blogspot.com/2009/01/telephone-survey-methods-or.html">Telephone Survey Methods or Agricultural Markets and Prices</a></strong> <h4>George W. Bush Coloring Book </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Joley Wood</strong> <p><p>Drawing from the imaginative quotes President Bush has uttered over the years, the George W. Bush Coloring Book illustrates Bush's very own words in the form of a coloring book. Illustrator Karen Ocker lends her visually distinct style to on-the-record quotes such as "It's amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity and incumbency," and "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." The coloring book includes an essay on Bush by Joley Wood. Wood has written on numerous Irish writers, including essays on James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats and a preface for Shaw's <i>Saint Joan</i> (Penguin). </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0