World Politics Book

Cities withour Suburbs or Bay of Pigs Declassified

2009-12-02T23:20:00.000-08:00

Cities withour Suburbs: Census 2000

Author: David Rusk

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.

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.

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.

	Boxes
	Preface
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction: Framing the Issue	1
I	Lessons from Urban America	5
Lesson 1	The real city is the total metropolitan area - city and suburb	5
Lesson 2	Most of America's blacks, Hispanics, and Asians live in urban areas	7
Lesson 3	Since World War II, urban growth has been low-density, suburban style	7
Lesson 4	For a city's population to grow, the city must be elastic	9
Lesson 5	Almost all metro areas have grown	14
Lesson 6	Low-density cities can grow through in-fill; high-density cities cannot	16
Lesson 7	Elastic cities expand their city limits; inelastic cities do not	17
Lesson 8	Bad state laws can hobble cities	17
Lesson 9	Neighbors can trap cities	19
Lesson 10	Old cities are complacent; young cities are ambitious	22
Lesson 11	Racial prejudice has shaped growth patterns	23
Lesson 12	Elastic cities capture suburban growth; inelastic cities contribute to suburban growth	25
Lesson 13	Elastic cities gain population; inelastic cities lose population	28
Lesson 14	When a city stops growing, it starts shrinking	30
Lesson 15	Inelastic areas are more segregated than elastic areas	30
Lesson 16	Major immigration increases Hispanic segregation	33
Lesson 17	Highly racially segregated regions are also highly economically segregated regions	33
Lesson 18	Inelastic cities have wide income gaps with their suburbs; elastic cities maintain greater city-suburb balance	34
Lesson 19	Poverty is more disproportionately concentrated in inelastic cities than in elastic cities	36
Lesson 20	Little boxes regions foster segregation; Big Box regions facilitate integration	38
Lesson 21	Little boxes school districts foster segregation; Big Box school districts facilitate integration	40
Lesson 22	Inelastic areas were harder hit by deindustrialization of the American labor market	42
Lesson 23	Elastic areas had faster rates of nonfactory job creation than inelastic areas	43
Lesson 24	Elastic areas showed greater real income gains than inelastic areas	44
Lesson 25	Elastic cities have better bond ratings than inelastic cities	45
Lesson 26	Elastic areas have a higher educated workforce than inelastic areas	46
	Conclusion	48
II	Characteristics of Metropolitan Areas	51
	The Point of (Almost) No Return	78
	Cities without Suburbs	83
III	Strategies for Stretching Cities	89
	Three Essential Regional Policies	89
	Metro Government: A Definition	91
	State Government's Crucial Role	93
	Federal Government: Leveling the Playing Field	114
IV	Conclusions	129
App	Central Cities and Metro Areas by Elasticity Category	139
	Sources	147
	Index	149
	Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars	155

Interesting book: Leader in You or The Memory Jogger II

Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report

Author: Peter Kornbluh

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.

Library Journal

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

Evan Thomas

One of the most brutally frank, important - and unusual - government documents ever written, Bay of Pigs Declassified 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.
-- Newsweek

Kirkus Reviews

A look at spooks in action that does not resemble a Tom Clancy novel.

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.

Edited by Kornbluh (Nicarauga, 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.

An eye-opening account, regardless of one's political convictions.

Sister Revolutions or The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

2009-12-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light

Author: Susan Dunn

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.

18 Black-and-White Photographs
Notes/Bibliography/Index

Publishers Weekly

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.

Booknews

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)

Time Magazine

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?

The question is old but still stimulating and provocative, as historian Susan Dunn demonstrates anew in Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light. 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.

Kirkus Reviews

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.)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS *	xi
1 * SISTER REVOLUTIONS *	3
2 * REVOLUTIONARY LEADERSHIP *	27
3 * CONFLICT OR CONSENSUS? *	53
4 * REVOLUTIONARY TALK, REVOLUTIONARY STAGE *	102
5 * DECLARING—AND DENYING-RIGHTS *	137
6 * ENLIGHTENMENT LEGACIES *	162
7 * ON "HER MAJESTY'S LOYAL OPPOSITION" *	193
APPENDIX * THE BILL OF RIGHTS DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF
MAN AND CITIZEN *	209
NOTES *	217
INDEX *	249

Book review: Standard and Poors Guide to Money and Investing or Freakonomics

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

Author: John J Mearsheimer

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.

Choice

This is the definitive work on offensive realism.

Barry R. Posen

A superb book....Mearsheimer has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the behavior of great powers.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews

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)

They Took My Father or Safe for Democracy

2009-11-30T12:45:00.000-08:00

They Took My Father: Finnish Americans in Stalin's Russia

Author: Mayme Sevander

"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.

Book about: Hot Cuisine or Incredibly Easy Italian

Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA

Author: John Prados

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.

Choice

This is the most detailed single volume on the modern history of US covert operations.

Midwest Book Review

If you're studying the CIA's operations and routines you can't be without Safe for Democracy.

Booklist

Prados has performed a valuable service....A comprehensive and superbly researched effort that is both engrossing and disturbing..

Foreign Affairs

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.

Democracy and Tradition or MoveOns 50 Ways to Love Your Country

2009-11-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

Democracy and Tradition

Author: Jeffrey Stout

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.

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.

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, Democracy and Tradition 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.

MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change

Author: MoveOnorg Staff

With more than 2 million members, the flourishing online activist group MoveOn 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, MoveOn 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?!"

Publishers Weekly

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.

	Introduction
I	The power of connecting	1
	Introduction	2
	Create an effective online petition	4
	Spread the word about online petitions	6
	Sign a petition	8
	Share informed political recommendations	10
	Speak out online	12
	Email the President (and other politicians)	14
	Meet with your representatives	16
II	Every vote counts	19
	Introduction	20
	Vote, no matter what	22
	Mobilize underrepresented voters	23
	Register voters in unlikely places	26
	Organize an issues-specific voter registration drive	28
	Get your office to vote	30
	Maximize the vote on election day	32
	Make a personal request to nonvoters	34
	Participate in a phone bank	36
III	The many faces of the media	39
	Introduction	40
	Read more, watch TV news less	42
	Write a letter to the editor	44
	Respond to biased reporting	48
	Alert the media to uncovered events	50
	Place an ad	54
	Reform the media	56
	Make your own media	58
	Write an op-ed piece	61
	Start a political book club	64
	MoveOn's suggested media sources	67
IV	Political action is personal	69
	Introduction	70
	Write letters to Congress that work	72
	Talk to the officials you did't elect	74
	Support clean elections	76
	Volunteer for campaigns	78
	Help run a campaign	81
	Hit the streets for your candidate	84
	Run for office to challenge incumbents	86
	Donate money	88
	Host a house party	90
	Petition effectively	92
	Attend a meetup	94
	Serve as an elected official	96
	Act outside the box	98
V	Personal action is political	101
	Introduction	102
	Serve your community	105
	Defy City Hall	108
	Respond locally to national issues	110
	Attend a rally	112
	Instigate protective laws	114
	Initiate a constitutional amendment	117
	Get a socially responsible day job	120
	Take action with your family	122
	Host a political salon	124
	Let your money speak	127
	Help others express their political views	130
	Express your views through art	132
	Advertise your political vision	134
	Afterword	137
	Acknowledgments	139
	Index	141
	MoveOn information	145

Among Warriors in Iraq or Contrary Notions

2009-11-28T02:21:00.000-08:00

Among Warriors in Iraq: True Grit, Special Ops, and Lock-and-Load Raiding in Mosul and Fallujah

Author: Mike Tucker

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.

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--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.

Here is his frank and adrenaline-soaked account, seen through the resilient eyes of the soldiers willing to pay the ultimate price for victory.

A street-level view of the hell of combat in Mosul and Fallujah
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.
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.
Here is his frank and uncensored account, seen through the resilient eyes of the soldiers willing to pay the ultimate price for victory.

Mike Tucker 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.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Raymond Puffer - KLIATT

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.

New interesting book: Istituzioni, cambiamento istituzionale e risultato economico

Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader

Author: Michael Parenti

"Radical in the true sense of the word, [Parenti] digs at the roots which . . . sustain our public consciousness."-Los Angeles Times Book Review

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.

Michael Parenti is the author of eighteen books, including Superpatriotism, Inventing Reality, and The Assassination of Julius Caesar.

Aurora Online

Parenti communicates his message in an accessible, provocative, and historically informed style that is unrivaled among fellow progressive activists.

Reagan Diaries or A Revolution in Favor of Government

2009-11-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

Reagan Diaries

Author: Ronald Reagan

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.

Brought together in one volume and edited by historian Douglas Brinkley, The Reagan Diaries 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.

The Reagan Diaries 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."

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.

The New York Times - Kevin Phillips

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.

Publishers Weekly

The diaries our 40th president kept while in office—edited and abridged by historian Brinkley (The Great Deluge)—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. (May 22)

Foreign Affairs

"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.<

Library Journal

A Revolution in Favor of Government: Origins of the U. S. Constitution and the Making of the American State

Author: Max M Edling

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.
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.
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.

The Year of the Hangman or Dixie Rising

2009-11-25T15:57:00.000-08:00

The Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois

Author: Glenn F Williams

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.

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.

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 Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois, 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.

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.

Dixie Rising: How the South Is Shaping American Values, Politics, and Culture

Author: Peter Applebom

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.

Paige Williams

Peter Applebome plays the flip side of a tired old tune in Dixie Rising. 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."

Applebome, a New York Times 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 The Americanization of Dixie: The Southernization of America in 1974), the concept is intriguing.

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, Dixie Rising 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.

Yet in other areas, Dixie Rising 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, Dixie Rising 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.

Dixie Risings 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." -- Salon

Publishers Weekly

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.)

Library Journal

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

Shopping for Bombs or John Brown Abolitionist

2009-02-22T00:22:00.000-08:00

Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of AQ Khan's Nuclear Network

Author: Gordon Corera

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.
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.
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.
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.

The Washington Post - George Perkovich

Shopping for Bombs 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.

Publishers Weekly

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.

New interesting book: Prehistoric Cooking or Middle Eastern

John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights

Author: David S Reynolds

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.

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.

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.

A deeply researched and vividly written cultural biography- a revelation of John Brown and his meaning for America.

From the Hardcover edition.

The New York Times - Barbara Ehrenreich

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, John Brown, Abolitionist, 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.

The Washington Post - David W. Blight

John Brown, Abolitionist 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.

Publishers Weekly

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.

KLIATT

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 about slavery, and old Brown certainly played his part.

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Preface
1. The Party
2. The Puritan
3. The Pioneer
4. The Patriarch
5. The Pauper
6. The Plan
7. Pottawatomie
8. Pariah and Legend
9. The Promoter
10. Plotting Multiculturally
11. Practice
12. Preparation
13. Problems
14. Pilloried, Prosecuted, and Praised
15. The Passion
16. Positions and Politics
17. The Prophet
18. Posterity
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

Prisoners of Hope or The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr

2009-02-20T19:10:00.000-08:00

Prisoners of Hope: The Story of Our Captivity and Freedom in Afghanistan

Author: Dayna Curry

The gripping and inspiring story of two extraordinary women—from their imprisonment by the Taliban to their rescue by U.S. Special Forces.

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.

In Prisoners of Hope, 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.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Book review: Mercadotecnia de Servicios:la Gente, Tecnología, Estrategia

The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957-December 1958, Vol. 4

Author: Martin Luther King Jr

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.
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."
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.

2010 Meltdown or The Call of Service

2009-02-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

2010 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis

Author: Edward E Gordon

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.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: People, Jobs, and Culture
America's Meltdown
The 2010 Crossroad
The Rise of the Techno-Peasants
Feeding the Sharks
Where Has the Schoolhouse Gone?
Help Wanted in America and the World
Structuring Renewal
Signposts at the Workforce Crossroad
The "Sixth Discipline"
Beyond the 2010 Crossroad
End Notes
Index

See also: Condi vs Hillary or Chernobyl

The Call of Service

Author: Robert Coles

In this book, Coles explores the concept of idealism and why it necessary to the individual and society.

Publishers Weekly

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.)

Library Journal

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

Kirkus Reviews

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.

The Week the World Stood Still or Fighting for Faith and Nation

2009-02-18T05:19:00.000-08:00

The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis

Author: Sheldon M Stern

“ . . . 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

Foreign Affairs

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.

1	The JFK Cuban Missile Crisis tapes	1
2	The making of the Cuban Missile Crisis	11
	The Cold War : JFK's crucible	11
	The Cold War and Cuba	14
	Nuclear confrontation in Cuba	18
	The Kennedy paradox	23
	Key members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council	29
3	The secret meetings of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council	37
	Epilogue : the November post-crisis	205

Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants

Author: Cynthia Keppley Mahmood

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.

Library Journal

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

Coercion Capital and European States or The Words of Martin Luther King Jr

2009-02-17T00:07:00.000-08:00

Coercion, Capital and European States: Ad 990 - 1992

Author: Charles Tilly

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.

The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Author: Coretta Scott King

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.

Malcolm Boyd

This volume of quotations is thoughtful, intelligently provocative... —Los Angeles Times

New York Times

A valuable book.

Ebony Man

This book celebrates King's wisdom and is relevant today as it was during his lifetime.

Children's Literature

"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

The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction or The Fate of Their Country

2009-02-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction

Author: F Michael Connelly

The Sage Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction 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.

Key Features:

Presents a different vision or reconceptualization of the field
Provides a comprehensive and inclusive set of authors, ideas, and topics
Takes a global rather than North American parochial approach
Recognizes that curriculum and instruction is broader in scope than is suggested by university research and theory
Reflects post-1992 changes in curriculum policy, practice and scholarship
Represents a rethinking of how school subject matter areas are treated

The contents of the Handbook 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.

Meet the authors! phillion@purdue.edu

Acknowledgments     viii
Introduction: Planning The Handbook: Practice, Context, and Theory   F. Michael Connelly   Ming Fang He   JoAnn Phillion   Candace Schlein     ix
Curriculum in Practice     1
Introductory Essay   Ian Westbury     1
Making Curriculum
Curriculum Policy and the Politics of What Should Be Learned in Schools   Ben Levin$dConsulting Authors: Geraldine Anne-Marie Connelly and Ulf P. Lundgren     7
Curriculum Planning: Content, Form, and the Politics of Accountability   Michael W. Apple$dConsulting Authors: Carlos Alberto Torres and Geoff Whitty     25
Making Curricula: Why Do States Make Curricula, and How?   Ian Westbury$dConsulting Authors: Stefan T. Hopmann and Leonard J. Waks     45
Subject Matter: Defining and Theorizing School Subjects   Zongyi Deng   Allan Luke$dConsulting Authors: John Chi-kin Lee and Margaret Placier     66
Managing Curriculum
Structuring Curriculum: Technical, Normative, and Political Considerations   Kevin G. Welner   Jeannie Oakes$dConsulting Authors: Michelle Fine and Kenneth R. Howe     91
Curriculum Implementation and Sustainability   Michael Fullan$dConsulting Authors: David Hopkins and James Spillane     113
Technology's Role in Curriculum and Instruction   Barbara Means$dConsulting Authors: Larry Cuban and Stephen T. Kerr     123
Curriculum in Context     145
Introductory Essay   Allan Luke     145
Diversifying Curriculum
Curriculum and Cultural Diversity   Gloria Ladson-Billings   Keffrelyn Brown$dConsulting Authors: Kathryn H. Au and Geneva Gay     153
Identity, Community, and Diversity: Retheorizing Multicultural Curriculum for the Postmodern Era   Sonia Nieto   Patty Bode   Eugenie Kang   John Raible$dConsulting Authors: Cherry A. McGee Banks and Sofia Villenas     176
Students' Experience of School Curriculum: The Everyday Circumstances of Granting and Withholding Assent to Learn   Frederick Erickson   Rishi Bagrodia   Alison Cook-Sather   Manuel Espinoza   Susan Jurow   Jeffrey J. Shultz   Joi Spencer$dConsulting Authors: Robert Boostrom and Pedro Noguera     198
Immigrant Students' Experience of Curriculum   Ming Fang He   JoAnn Phillion   Elaine Chan   Shijing Xu$dConsulting Authors: Jim Cummins and Stacey J. Lee     219
Teaching for Diversity: The Next Big Challenge   Mel Ainscow$dConsulting Authors: Chris Forlin and Roger Slee     240
Teaching Curriculum
Teacher Education as a Bridge? Unpacking Curriculum Controversies   Marilyn Cochran-Smith   Kelly E. Demers$dConsulting Authors: Ann Lieberman and Ana Maria Villegas     261
Cultivating the Image of Teachers as Curriculum Makers   Cheryl J. Craig   Vicki Ross$dConsulting Authors: Carola Conle and Virginia Richardson     282
Teachers' Experience of Curriculum: Policy, Pedagogy, and Situation   William Ayers   Therese Quinn   David O. Stovall   Libby Scheiern$dConsulting Authors: Freema Elbaz-Luwisch and Janet L. Miller     306
Internationalizing Curriculum
Indigenous Resistance and Renewal: From Colonizing Practices to Self-Determination   Donna Deyhle   Karen Swisher   Tracy Stevens   Ruth Trinidad Galvan$dConsulting Authors: Teresa L. McCarty and Linda Tuhiwai Smith     329
Globalization and Curriculum   Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt$dConsulting Authors: Lynne Paine and Fazel Rizvi     349
Community Education in Developing Countries: The Quiet Revolution in Schooling   Joseph P. Farrell$dConsulting Authors: Ash Hartwell and John N. Hawkins     369
Curriculum in Theory     391
Introductory Essay   William H. Schubert     391
Inquiring Into Curriculum
Curriculum Inquiry   William H. Schubert$dConsulting Authors: Craig Kridel and Edmund C. Short     399
Curriculum Policy Research   Edmund C. Short$dConsulting Author: Nina Basica     420
Hidden Research in Curriculum   Robin J. Enns$dConsulting Author: Margaret Haughey     431
Reenvisioning the Progressive Tradition in Curriculum   David T. Hansen   Rodino Anderson   Jeffrey Frank   Kiera Nieuwejaar$dConsulting Authors: Gert J. J. Biesta and Jim Garrison     440
What the Schools Teach: A Social History of the American Curriculum Since 1950   Barry M. Franklin   Carla C. Johnson$dConsulting Authors: Gary McCulloch and William J. Reese     460
Curriculum Development in Historical Perspective   J. Wesley Null$dConsulting Authors: Geoffrey Milburn and Wiel Veugelers     478
Curriculum Theory Since 1950: Crisis, Reconceptualization, Internationalization   William F. Pinar$dConsulting Authors: Donald Blumenfeld-Jones and Patrick Slattery     491
The Landscape of Curriculum and Instruction: Diversity and Continuity   F. Michael Connelly   Shijing Xu$dConsulting Authors: Elliot W. Eisner and Philip W. Jackson     514
Author Index     534
Subject Index     558
About the Editors     586
About the Part Editors     588
About the Consulting Authors     589
About the Contributing Authors     597

New interesting book: Consumers Guide to Cell Phones and Wireless Service Plans or Statistical Analysis of Medical Data Using SAS

The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War

Author: Michael F Holt

How partisan politics lead to the Civil War

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.

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.

Including select speeches by Lincoln and others, The Fate of Their Country openly challenges us to rethink a seminal moment in America's history.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews

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)

Aldo Leopold or Supreme Court Opinions of Clarence Thomas 1991 2006

2009-02-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire: An Illustrated Biography

Author: Marybeth Lorbiecki

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.

Library Journal

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

Booknews

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)

Look this: L'Économie de Changement climatique :la Révision Sévère

Supreme Court Opinions of Clarence Thomas, 1991-2006: A Conservative's Perspective

Author: Henry Mark Mark Holzer

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.

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.

Acknowledgments     vii
Introduction     1
"We the People": The Constitution of the United States     9
"Further declaratory and restrictive clauses": The Bill of Rights     17
"Shall be vested in": Separation of Powers     23
"The powers not delegated": Federalism     36
Tenth Amendment     36
Commerce Clause     40
Necessary and Proper Clause     43
"One supreme Court": Judicial Review     51
Judicial Restraint     51
Statutory Interpretation     60
Stare Decisis     64
Thomas and Scalia     67
"Congress shall make no law": First Amendment     69
Establishment of Religion     69
Free Exercise of Religion     75
Freedom of Speech     76
Right of Association     93
"Other enumerated rights": Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments     96
Fourth Amendment     97
Fifth Amendment     100
Sixth Amendment     107
Eighth Amendment     111
"No State shall": Fourteenth Amendment     122
Privileges or Immunities     122
Due Process of Law     125
Equal Protection of the Law     140
Conclusion     151
Chapter Notes     159
Opinions of Justice Thomas     193
Statutory Interpretation Opinions of Justice Thomas     209
Index     219

The End of Iraq or Turkmeniscam

2009-02-13T08:29:00.000-08:00

The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War without End

Author: Peter W Galbraith

The End of Iraq -- definitive, tough-minded, clear-eyed, describes America's failed strategy toward that country.

Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship

Author: Ken Silverstein

“As I have often said, I would represent the devil himself for the right price–it’s not personal, just business.”
–a Washington, D.C., lobbyist

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.

On assignment for Harper’s 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?

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?

Praise for The Radioactive Boy Scout

“Alarming . . . The story fascinates from start to finish.”
–Outside

“An astounding story . . . [Silverstein] has a novelist’s eye for meaningful detail and a historian’s touch for context.”
–The San Diego Union-Tribune

“[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.”
–The Columbus Dispatch

“Enthralling . . . [The Radioactive Boy Scout] 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.”
–Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Amazing . . . unsettling . . . should come with a warning: Don’t buy [this book] for any obsessive kids in the family. It might give them ideas.”
–Rocky Mountain News

Kirkus Reviews

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

The Jewish Political Tradition or Advanced Tactical Marksman

2009-02-12T03:16:00.000-08:00

The Jewish Political Tradition: Authority, Vol. 1

Author: Michael Walzer

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.

Library Journal

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.

Noah J. Efron

Remarkable for both what it does and how it does it. It is a > splendid achievement.—Boston Book Review

The New Republic - David Novak

The Jewish Political Tradition is one of the most ambitious Jewish intellectual efforts of recent years.

What People Are Saying

Macy
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.

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Advanced Tactical Marksman: More High-Performance Techniques for Police, Military, and Practical Shooters

Author: Dave M Lauck

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.

Unaccountable or Modernization Cultural Change and Democracy

2009-02-10T22:04:00.000-08:00

Unaccountable: How the Accounting Profession Forfeited a Public Trust

Author: Mike Brewster

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.

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.

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?

New interesting book: Decolonizing Methodologies or Leaving America

Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence

Author: Ronald Inglehart

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.

	Foreword
1	A revised theory of modernization	15
2	Value change and the persistence of cultural traditions	48
3	Exploring the unknown : predicting mass responses	77
4	Intergenerational value change	94
5	Value changes over time	115
6	Individualism, self-expression values, and civic virtues	135
7	The causal link between democratic values and democratic institutions : theoretical discussion	149
8	The causal link between democratic values and democratic institutions : empirical analyses	173
9	Social forces, collective action, and international events	210
10	Individual-level values and system-level democracy : the problem of cross-level analysis	231
11	Components of a prodemocratic civic culture	245
12	Gender equality, emancipative values, and democracy	272
13	The implications of human development	285
	Conclusion : an emancipative theory of democracy	299

Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace or Voices of Freedom

2009-02-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated

Author: Gore Vidal

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

Publishers Weekly

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.

Kirkus Reviews

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."

Voices of Freedom: English and Civics

Author: Bill Bliss

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.

New civic participation activities, projects, and issue discussions meet English/Civics program goals.
Expanded chapter tests develop test-taking skills and increase confidence levels.
Interview dialogues allow students to practice the functional interview skills crucial to a successful INS interview.
Internet activities range from simple web browsing to virtual field trips to important historical sites.

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.

Lead Time or The Hemingses of Monticello

2009-02-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

Lead Time: A Journalist's Education

Author: Garry Wills

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

	Introduction : after the fact
1	War protest : commune	3
2	War protest : jail	11
3	Dr. King on the case	29
4	"McCarthyism"	53
5	Alger Hiss	56
6	Hiss and Nixon	62
7	Summer of '74	79
8	Sideshows	96
9	Dunces	108
10	The Senate	117
11	The House	124
12	Bobby Baker	128
13	Daniel Patrick Moynihan	132
14	George Wallace	140
15	Burt Lance	156
16	Jerry Brown	166
17	The best reporter	181
18	Miniconvention, '74	186
19	Democrats, '76	195
20	Republicans, '76	203
21	Miniconvention, '78	209
22	Truman	221
23	Eisenhower	233
24	Johnson	236
25	Ford	241
26	Carter	250
27	Reagan	257
28	Born-again Watergater	275
29	Stained-glass Watergate	285
30	Pope John Paul II	293
31	Dorothy Day	300
32	The Pope in America	304
33	The devil	320
34	Why?	327
35	Muhammad Ali	331
36	Shirley Verrett	339
37	Raymond Berry	346
38	Beverly sills	362
App	Boxing : a palinode	381

Book about: Sistemi d'informazione di impresa: Un metodo Modello-Basato

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family

Author: Annette Gordon Reed

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.

The Washington Post - Fergus M. Bordewich

…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.

Publishers Weekly

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. (Sept.)

Thomas J. Davis - Library Journal

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.; Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy) 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, LJ5/1/08.]

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Era of Good Feelings or Durable Inequality

2009-02-07T06:26:00.000-08:00

Era of Good Feelings

Author: George Dangerfield

Winner of the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes, this is the standard history of the years between Jefferson and Jackson.

Interesting book: Leadership Clairs

Durable Inequality

Author: Charles Tilly

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.

William Julius Wilson

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

Bruce G. Carruthers

Clearly the work of a master...provides a new and rigorous understanding of one of the key facts of social life. -- Bruce G. Carruthers

New Imperialism or On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness

2009-02-06T01:14:00.000-08:00

New Imperialism

Author: David Harvey

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.

On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness

Author: Jacques Derrida

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.

Born to the Mob or Mr Lincoln Goes to War

2009-02-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

Born to the Mob: The True-Life Story of the Only Man to Work for All Five of New York's Mafia Families

Author: Frankie Saggio

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.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Go to: The Dependent Personality or Miracle Touch

Mr. Lincoln Goes to War

Author: William Marvel

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.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps ix
Preface xiii

Part I WE CANNOT SEPARATE
1. Songs for a Prelude 3
2. Flags in Mottoed Pageantry 36
3. The Banner at Daybreak 63

Part II AND NOW THE STORM-BLAST CAME
4. Behold the Silvery River 93
5. Where Ignorant Armies Clash 120
6. The Crimson Corse of Lyon 155

Part III THE ERA OF SUSPICION
7. The Despot's Heel 185
8. By Cliffs Potomac Cleft 216
9. Shovel Them Under and Let Me Work 247

Epilogue 281
Appendix 1: Orders of Battle 289
Appendix 2: Biographical Sketches 292
Notes 304
Bibliography 340
Acknowledgments 363
Index 368

Historic Homes of American Presidents or US Presidents and Latin American Interventions

2009-02-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

Historic Homes of American Presidents

Author: Irvin Haas

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.

Interesting book: Development Economics or Shooter

U.S. Presidents and Latin American Interventions: Pursuing Regime Change in the Cold War

Author: Michael Grow

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.

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.

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.

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.

What People Are Saying

Howard J. Wiarda
A wonderful and refreshingly clear-eyed book. (Howard J. Wiarda, author of The Soul of Latin America)

Lars Schoultz
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 Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America)

William LeoGrande
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 Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1993)

Lars Schoultz

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 Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America)

Howard J. Wiarda

A wonderful and refreshingly clear-eyed book. (Howard J. Wiarda, author of The Soul of Latin America)

William LeoGrande

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 Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1993)

Tales of Alaskas Bush Rat Governor or Henry Kissinger and the American Century

2009-02-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Tales of Alaska's Bush Rat Governor: The Extraordinary Autobiography of Jay Hammond, Wilderness Guide and Reluctant Politician

Author: Jay Hammond

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.

Publishers Weekly

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)

Booknews

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)

Books about: When Dieting Becomes Dangerous or Digestive Health Now

Henry Kissinger and the American Century

Author: Jeremi Suri

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.

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.

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.

The Washington Post - David Greenberg

…a useful, idiosyncratic study…Suri isn't trying to compete—for audience or authoritativeness —with Dallek's Nixon and Kissinger or MacMillan's Nixon and Mao, 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.

Publishers Weekly

University of Wisconsin historian Suri (Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente) 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. (July)

Marcia L. Sprules - Library Journal

Suri (history, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison; Power and Protest) 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 Flawed Architect, 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

Threads of Honor or George W Bush Coloring Book

2009-02-01T04:21:00.000-08:00

Threads of Honor: The True Story of a Boy Scout Troop, Perseverance, Triumph, and an American Flag

Author: Gordon W Ryan

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.

Book about: Telephone Survey Methods or Agricultural Markets and Prices

George W. Bush Coloring Book

Author: Joley Wood

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 Saint Joan (Penguin).

Africa in World Politics or Emotionally Intelligent Manager

2009-01-30T23:08:00.000-08:00

Africa in World Politics: Reforming Political Order

Author: Donald Rothchild

In this fully revised edition top scholars in African politics address the effects that major currents in Africa and world politics have upon each other and explore the ramifications of this interconnection for contemporary theories of international and comparative politics.
The fourth edition focuses on issues of reforming and strengthening states and their economies in sub-Saharan Africa. The nation-state as we know it is a legacy of European rule in Africa, and the primacy of the nation-state remains a bedrock of most contemporary theories of international relations. Yet in the fifth decade of Africa’s independence, this colonial inheritance has been challenged as never before by state weakness, internal and inter-state conflict, and internal and external demands for economic and political reform, with potentially far-reaching implications. Including new readings on the AIDS crisis in Africa and the regional war on terrorism, this text remains an invaluable resource for students of African and world politics.
Contents
Part One: Introduction
1. Intimations of an African Renaissance, New Gains, Long Term Challenges (John W. Harbeson, City University of New York)
Part Two: Historical Parameters
2. The Heritage of Colonialism (Crawford Young, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
3. Africa and the World Political Economy: Still Caught Between a Rock and Hard Place (Thomas M. Callaghy, University of Pennsylvania)
4. Africa and Other Civilizations: Conquest and Counter Conquest (Ali A. Mazrui, SUNY Binghamton)
Part Three: Africa’s States and State Systems: Reinvention and Reconstruction
5. Democratizationand Africa’s Weak States (John W. Harbeson, City University of New York)
6. The AIDS Crisis: International Relations and Governance (Alan Whiteside, University of Kwa Zulu-Natal, Anokhi Parikh Overseas Development Institute)
7. In Pursuit of Authority: Civil Society and Rights-Based Discourses (Aili Mari Tripp, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
8. The Privatization of Africa’s International Relations (William Reno, Northwestern University)
9. Inter-African Negotiations and Reforming Political Order (I. William Zartman, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies)
Part Four: Global Involvement in Africa: Parameters of Commitment, Obligation, Capability and Responsibility
10. US Role in Promoting Peaceful African Relations (Donald Rothchild, University of California-Davis)
11. China's Engagement in Africa: Scope, Significance, and Consequences (Denis M. Tull)
12. Euro-African Relations in the Age of Maturity (Gilbert M. Khadiagala, University of the Witwatersrand)
13. The War on Terrorism in Africa (Princeton N. Lyman, Council on Foreign Relations)
14. Reconciling Sovereignty with Responsibility (Francis M. Deng, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies)

Emotionally Intelligent Manager: How to Develop and Use the Four Key Emotional Skills of Leadership

Author: David R Caruso

We have long been taught that emotions should be felt and expressed in carefully controlled ways, and then only in certain environments and at certain times. This is especially true when at work, particularly when managing others. It is considered terribly unprofessional to express emotion while on the job, and many of us believe that our biggest mistakes and regrets are due to our reactions at those times when our emotions get the better of us. David R. Caruso and Peter Salovey believe that this view of emotion is not correct. The emotion centers of the brain, they argue, are not relegated to a secondary place in our thinking and reasoning, but instead are an integral part of what it means to think, reason, and to be intelligent. In The Emotionally Intelligent Manager, they show that emotion is not just important, but absolutely necessary for us to make good decisions, take action to solve problems, cope with change, and succeed. The authors detail a practical four-part hierarchy of emotional skills: identifying emotions, using emotions to facilitate thinking, understanding emotions, and managing emotions—and show how we can measure, learn, and develop each skill and employ them in an integrated way to solve our most difficult work-related problems.

Information Operations or Islam and the Secular State

2009-01-29T17:56:00.000-08:00

Information Operations: Warfare and the Hard Reality of Soft Power

Author: Edwin L Armistead

The modern means of communication have turned the world into an information fishbowl and, in terms of foreign policy and national security in post-Cold War power politics, helped transform international power politics. Information operations (IO), in which time zones are as important as national boundaries, is the use of modern technology to deliver critical information and influential content in an effort to shape perceptions, manage opinions, and control behavior. Contemporary IO differs from traditional psychological operations practiced by nation-states, because the availability of low-cost high technology permits nongovernmental organizations and rogue elements, such as terrorist groups, to deliver influential content of their own as well as facilitates damaging cyber-attacks ("hactivism") on computer networks and infrastructure. As current vice president Dick Cheney once said, such technology has turned third-class powers into first-class threats.

Conceived as a textbook by instructors at the Joint Command, Control, and Information Warfare School of the U.S. Joint Forces Staff College and involving IO experts from several countries, this book fills an important gap in the literature by analyzing under one cover the military, technological, and psychological aspects of information operations. The general reader will appreciate the examples taken from recent history that reflect the impact of IO on U.S. foreign policy, military operations, and government organization.

Ch. 1	Foundations : the language of information operations	9
Ch. 2	Intelligence support : foundations for conducting IO	49
Ch. 3	Information protection : the challenge to modern bureaucracies	65
Ch. 4	Information projection : shaping the global village	111
Ch. 5	Related and supporting activities : organize, train, and equip	163
Ch. 6	Implementing IO : recent campaigns	189
	Conclusion : what is the future of information operations?	231

Interesting textbook: Recetas de Chocolate or The Microwave Kitchen Handbook

Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari`a

Author: Abd Allah Naim

What should be the place of Shari‘a—Islamic religious law—in predominantly Muslim societies of the world? In this ambitious and topical book, a Muslim scholar and human rights activist envisions a positive and sustainable role for Shari‘a, based on a profound rethinking of the relationship between religion and the secular state in all societies.

An-Na‘im argues that the coercive enforcement of Shari‘a by the state
betrays the Qur’an’s insistence on voluntary acceptance of Islam. Just as the state should be secure from the misuse of religious authority, Shari‘a should be freed from the control of the state. State policies or legislation must be based on civic reasons accessible to citizens of all religions. Showing that throughout the history of Islam, Islam and the state have normally been separate, An-Na‘im maintains that ideas of human rights and citizenship are more consistent with Islamic principles than with claims of a supposedly Islamic state to enforce Shari‘a. In fact, he suggests, the very idea of an “Islamic state” is based on European ideas of state and law, and not Shari‘a or the Islamic tradition.

Bold, pragmatic, and deeply rooted in Islamic history and theology, Islam and the Secular State offers a workable future for the place of Shari‘a in Muslim societies.

The Washington Post - Geneive Abdo

An-Na'im's experience in his native Sudan and in the United States has bred the practical assumption that an Islamic state will lead only to tyranny, and that Muslims need a secular state in which to live their faith by their own free choice; for him, this is "the only valid and legitimate way of being a Muslim."

William P. Collins - Library Journal

Muslim scholar (Emory Univ.) and human rights activist An-Na'im has written extensively on law and human rights in the Islamic world (e.g., Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law). Here, he turns to the subject of the state's coercive enforcement of Sharia-Koran-based Islamic law-in predominantly Muslim societies, arguing that its promulgation of Sharia is contrary to the Koranic insistence on the voluntary acceptance of Islam and the freely chosen adherence to its commandments. He argues for religion to be separate from the state, positing that the secular (i.e., neutral) state is the best instrument to safeguard the rights of Muslims and others. And he demonstrates that it has always been impossible to have an "Islamic state" because the Sharia itself was created and codified subject to imperfect human interpretation. Nonetheless, he acknowledges that significant portions of the Muslim world currently have difficulty separating Sharia as a religious duty from Sharia as a state-imposed code. An-Nai'm's thoughtful argument seems directed toward a well-educated Muslim readership. Highly recommended for university and large public libraries and Islamic collections (including mosque libraries).

What People Are Saying

Bruce B. Lawrence
Two debates pervade almost all discussions about Islam, Muslim societies and the role of both in the 21st century. The first revolves around the shari'a, a kind of comprehensive Muslim guide to good conduct, and its applicability within Muslim majority states. The other frames capitalism, socialism and secularism as antipodes to what Islam cannot or should not be. This book engages both, arguing that secularism is not as an unwelcome counter force to 'true' Islam but is the indispensable path to reclaiming Islam to advance pluralism, human rights, women's rights, civil society and citizenship. Abdullahi An-Na'im is a public intellectual known far beyond the academy and the American continent. In Africa, in Asia and throughout the Middle East his is a courageous voice for secular Islam. There is no book like this one: brilliant, compelling, and optimistic. --(Bruce B. Lawrence, Duke University)

Rethinking the World or Lobbying Manual

2009-01-28T12:43:00.000-08:00

Rethinking the World: Great Power Strategies and International Order

Author: Jeffrey W Legro

Stunning shifts in the worldviews of states mark the modern history of international affairs: how do societies think about-and rethink-international order and security? Japan's "opening," German conquest, American internationalism, Maoist independence, and Gorbachev's "new thinking" molded international conflict and cooperation in their eras. How do we explain such momentous changes in foreign policy-and in other cases their equally surprising absence?

The nature of strategic ideas, Jeffrey W. Legro argues, played a critical and overlooked role in these transformations. Big changes in foreign policies are rare because it is difficult for individuals to overcome the inertia of entrenched national mentalities. Doing so depends on a particular nexus of policy expectations, national experience, and ready replacement ideas. In a sweeping comparative history, Legro explores the sources of strategy in the United States and Germany before and after the world wars, in Tokugawa Japan, and in the Soviet Union. He charts the likely future of American primacy and a rising China in the coming century.

Rethinking the World tells us when and why we can expect changes in the way states think about the world, why some ideas win out over others, and why some leaders succeed while others fail in redirecting grand strategy.

Foreign Affairs

In this impressive study, Legro argues that major strategic turning points are not simply the result of shifts in power and interests; they also involve the interplay of "collective ideas" within states about how to relate to the outside world. Legro explores many of the most important cases: the United States' turn to internationalism after World War II, Japan's decision in the 1860s to join the great powers, Germany's failed reintegration into Europe after World War I, Gorbachev's late-Soviet "new thinking." In each instance, shocks to old thinking — typically war or economic calamity — make possible a reorientation of foreign policy. And it is at these historical "pivot points," when the nation's interests are not clear and leaders are forced to puzzle about the future, that ideas and beliefs matter. The causal connections between power, interests, and collective ideas are not always clear, but Legro makes a compelling case that strategic beliefs cannot be reduced to strategic circumstance. He ends by reflecting on the future of the Bush "revolution" and argues that, absent further terrorist attacks, U.S. foreign policy is likely to tack back to the post-World War II mainstream.

New interesting textbook: Pesquisa de Perspectiva:um Escorvador para Cultivar Não-lucros

Lobbying Manual: A Compliance Guide for Lawyers and Lobbyists

Author: William V Luneburg

Describes the dramatic changes brought about by the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, and the considerable changes that have occurred since the last edition was published in 1998.

Ch. 1	Federal lobbying regulation : history through 1954	5
Ch. 2	History of lobbying reform proposals since 1955 and enactment of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995	21
Ch. 3	The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 : scope of coverage	33
Ch. 4	Registration, reporting, and related requirements	89
Ch. 5	Lobbying Disclosure Act : administration and miscellaneous matters	135
Ch. 6	Constitutional issues raised by the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act	143
Ch. 7	Antitrust - the federal trade commission and the department of justice	167
Ch. 8	Lobbying at the EPA under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995	177
Ch. 9	Communications with federal financial regulatory agencies under the Lobbying Disclosure Act	195
Ch. 10	Internal revenue code limitations on deductibility of lobbying expenses by businesses and trade associations	227
Ch. 11	Internal revenue code limitations on lobbying by tax-exempt organizations	243
Ch. 12	Foreign Agents Registration Act	251
Ch. 13	The Byrd amendment	265
Ch. 14	Federal acquisition regulation governing lobbying	279
Ch. 15	Office of management of budget regulations governing lobbying costs incurred by nonprofit organizations	285
Ch. 16	Antitrust consent decree (Tunney Act) lobbying	291
Ch. 17	Public utility holding company lobbying	305
Ch. 18	Lobbying by executive branch officials	309
Ch. 19	Special considerations by lobbying by nonprofit corporations	319
Ch. 20	Contingent fee lobbying	341
Ch. 21	Federal campaign finance law : a primer for the lobbyist	361
Ch. 22	Congressional ethics : gifts, travel, and income limits	405
Ch. 23	Restrictions on gifts and compensation for executive branch employees	433
Ch. 24	Post-employment restrictions and the regulation of lobbying by former employees	445
Ch. 25	Criminal prosecution of lobbyists for offering gratuities to legislators	469
Ch. 26	The lawyer and the congressional investigation	477
Ch. 27	The ethical responsibilities of a lawyer-lobbyist	487

The Enemy within The McClellan Committees Crusade against Jimmy Hoffa and Corrupt Labor Unions or Huey P Newton

2009-01-27T07:31:00.000-08:00

The Enemy within: The McClellan Committee's Crusade against Jimmy Hoffa and Corrupt Labor Unions

Author: Robert F Kennedy

This is the authoritative, compelling account of one of the most famous, consummate, and effective Senate investigations in modern Congressional history. From 1956 to 1959 the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field (chaired by Sen. McClellan and guided by chief counsel Robert Kennedy) heard more than 1500 witnesses and uncovered a shocking story, proving that labor leaders, management, the underworld, and public officials, sometimes in combination, sometimes separately, had worked to cheat and intimidate the rank-and-file union members. These revelations resulted in convictions, tough labor reform legislation, and a public awareness of organized crime’s insidious and corrosive influence. Writing crisply, with indignation but also with humor, Kennedy focuses on how unions are bought, sold, and sometimes stolen; how ’democracy’ actually operated in Jimmy Hoffa’s captive unions and what happened to the men who dared to oppose him; how Hoffa was tried on charges of attempting to plant a spy in the McClellan Committee; how an investigating committee works; how the Committee resisted external pressures, threats, and ploys to derail its efforts; and more. The Enemy Within is illuminated by firsthand knowledge and charged with the fire of personal conviction. With a new introduction by the chairman of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, this book remains a vivid testament to Robert Kennedy’s early commitment to equal justice for leaders and laborers alike.

Book about: Inglese di affari (con Xtra! Carta stampata di accesso)

Huey P. Newton: The Radical Theorist

Author: Judson L Jeffries

Huey P. Newton's powerful legacy to the Black Panther movement and the civil rights struggle has long been obscured. Conservatives harp on Newton's drug use and on the circumstances of his death in a crack-related shooting. Liberals romanticize his black revolutionary rhetoric and idealize his message.

In Huey P. Newton: The Radical Theorist, Judson L. Jeffries considers the entire arc of Newton's political role and influence on civil rights history and African American thought. Jeffries argues that, contrary to popular belief, Newton was one of the most important political thinkers in the struggle for civil rights.

Huey P. Newton's political career spanned two decades. Like many freedom fighters, he was a complex figure. His international reputation was forged as much from his passionate defense of black liberation as from his highly publicized confrontations with police.

His courage to address police brutality won him admirers in ghettos, on college campuses, and in select Hollywood circles. Newton gave Black Power a compelling urgency and played a pivotal role in the politics of black America during the 1960s and 1970s.

Few would deny that Newton's life (1942-1989) was strewn with incidences of violence and that his police record was long. But Newton's struggles with police took place in a rich and troubled context that included urban unrest, police brutality, government repression, and an intense debate over civil rights tactics.

Stripped of history and interpretation, the violence of Newton's life brought emphatic indictments of him. Newton's death attracted widespread media attention. However, pundits offered little on Newton as freedom fighteror as theoretician and activist.

Huey P. Newton: The Radical Theorist dispels myths about Newton's life, but the book is primarily an in-depth examination of Newton's ideas. By exploring this charismatic leader, Jeffries's book makes a valuable contribution to the scant literature on Newton, while also exposing the core tenets and evolving philosophies of the Black Panther Party.

Judson L. Jeffries is an assistant professor of political science at Purdue University. He is the author of Virginia's Native Son: The Election and Administration of Governor L. Douglas Wilder (2000), and his work has been published in such periodicals as Western Journal of Black Studies, Journal of Political Science, and Ethnic and Racial Studies.

On Liberty or Is Bill Cosby Right

2009-01-26T02:17:00.000-08:00

On Liberty (Library of Essential Reading Series)

Author: John Stuart Mill

Published in 1859, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty presented one of the most eloquent defenses of individual freedom in nineteenth-century social and political philosophy and is today perhaps the most widely-read liberal argument in support of the value of liberty. Mill's passionate advocacy of spontaneity, individuality, and diversity, along with his contempt for compulsory uniformity and the despotism of popular opinion, has attracted both admiration and condemnation.

About the Author:
John Stuart Mill was born in a suburb of London on May 20, 1806. By the age of ten he was reading classical authors in the original Greek and Latin, was proficient in history, algebra, and geometry, and soon after began to study logic, political economy, and law. He was elected to Parliament in 1865 and held the Radical seat for Westminster for the next three years. Mill died in Avignon, France, on May 7, 1873.

	Editorial Note
	A Note on the Life and Thought of John Stuart Mill	1
	A Reading of On Liberty	28
	On Liberty
Ch. I	Introductory	73
Ch. II	Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion	86
Ch. III	Of Individuality, as One of the Elements of Well-Being	121
Ch. IV	Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual	139
Ch. V	Applications	156
	Rethinking On Liberty
	A Freedom Both Personal and Political	179
	On Liberty: A Revaluation	197
	Mill's Liberty and the Problem of Authority	208
	Mill as a Critic of Culture and Society	224
	Bibliography	247

Book about: The Tai Chi Chuans Internal Secrets or Soul Full Eating

Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?

Author: Michael Eric Dyson

The acclaimed "hip-hop intellectual" exposes the raw nerve of class and generational warfare in black America with this provocative defense of impoverished African Americans

Nothing exposed the class and generational divide in black America more starkly than Bill Cosby's now-infamous assault on the black poor when he received an NAACP award in the spring of 2004. The comedian-cum-social critic lamented the lack of parenting, poor academic performance, sexual promiscuity, and criminal behavior among what he called the "knuckleheads" of the African-American community. Even more surprising than his comments, however, was the fact that his audience laughed and applauded.

Best-selling writer, preacher, and scholar Michael Eric Dyson uses the Cosby brouhaha as a window on a growing cultural divide within the African-American community. According to Dyson, the "Afristocracy" -lawyers, physicians, intellectuals, bankers, civil rights leaders, entertainers, and other professionals-looks with disdain upon the black poor who make up the "Ghettocracy" -single mothers on welfare, the married, single, and working poor, the incarcerated, and a battalion of impoverished children. Dyson explains why the black middle class has joined mainstream America to blame the poor for their troubles, rather than tackling the systemic injustices that shape their lives. He exposes the flawed logic of Cosby's diatribe and offers a principled defense of the wrongly maligned black citizens at the bottom of the social totem pole. Displaying the critical prowess that has made him the nation's preeminent spokesman for the hip-hop generation, Dyson challenges us all-black and white-to confront the social problems that the civil rights movement failed to solve.

Publishers Weekly

Last May, iconic comedian Cosby raised a storm with a dyspeptic rant about the self-destructive failures of the black underclass: "knuckleheads" without parents who "put their clothes on backward," speak bad English and go to jail. To pop culture intellectual Dyson-author of books on Marvin Gaye, Tupac Shakur and Martin Luther King Jr.-this was the most blatant manifestation of an attitude shared by the "Afristocracy." With empathy and energy, Dyson takes Cosby at his word and dissects his arguments-as well as the comedian's own conduct-in order to combat Afristocratic dogma. While Dyson is merciless in assessing both, he takes the opportunity to explore a host of hot-button issues in black culture, from illegitimacy to faux African names, citing data and making his own case for black culture as adapted to a dominant white society that systematically puts up barriers to opportunity. The prolific Dyson has already generated controversy with what finally amounts to an evisceration of a major black figure, but that seems to be precisely the point. Despite the specificity and ferocity of Dyson's critique (which draws on allegations that Cosby sexually abused a woman and fathered an illegitimate child, and understates the race politics of The Cosby Show), Cosby ends up more of a straw man than take-down victim, as Dyson celebrates the "persistent freedom of black folk." 12-city author tour; 40-city radio satellite tour. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In a 1968 television special, a 1969 Playboy interview, and a 1976 doctoral dissertation, Bill Cosby laid the responsibility for the constricted life opportunities of low-income blacks on the shoulders of privileged white society. Flash to May 2004, when Cosby gave a well-publicized speech in which he tore into those he referred to as African American "knuckleheads," calling them irresponsible and uneducated and charging them with failing in their parental duties. A best-selling author (Holler If You Hear Me), Baptist minister, and ex-welfare teenage father, Dyson (humanities, Univ. of Pennsylvania) firmly castigates Cosby for ignoring gross inequities in educational opportunities, criminal justice treatment, living conditions, and respect. Cosby, argues Dyson, should use his station in life to help. Highly recommended for those interested in exploring relations among the different U.S. classes and what the disparity means to the country's overall future.-Suzanne W. Wood, emerita, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

In Search of Another Country or What Happened

2009-01-24T20:57:00.000-08:00

In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution

Author: Joseph H Crespino

In the 1960s, Mississippi was the heart of white southern resistance to the civil-rights movement. To many, it was a backward-looking society of racist authoritarianism and violence that was sorely out of step with modern liberal America. White Mississippians, however, had a different vision of themselves and their country, one so persuasive that by 1980 they had become important players in Ronald Reagan's newly ascendant Republican Party.

In this ambitious reassessment of racial politics in the deep South, Joseph Crespino reveals how Mississippi leaders strategically accommodated themselves to the demands of civil-rights activists and the federal government seeking to end Jim Crow, and in so doing contributed to a vibrant conservative countermovement. Crespino explains how white Mississippians linked their fight to preserve Jim Crow with other conservative causes--with evangelical Christians worried about liberalism infecting their churches, with cold warriors concerned about the Communist threat, and with parents worried about where and with whom their children were schooled. Crespino reveals important divisions among Mississippi whites, offering the most nuanced portrayal yet of how conservative southerners bridged the gap between the politics of Jim Crow and that of the modern Republican South.

This book lends new insight into how white Mississippians gave rise to a broad, popular reaction against modern liberalism that recast American politics in the closing decades of the twentieth century.

List of Illustrations and Tables     ix
Abbreviations     xiii
Acknowledgments     xv
Introduction     1
Practical Segregation     18
The Limits of Resistance     49
"The Heartland of Conservative America"     75
Racial Troubleshooting     108
The Ambivalence of White Christians     144
The Irony of School Desegregation     173
Southern Strategies in Mississippi     205
Mississippi Kulturkampf     237
Conclusion     267
Notes     279
Index     343

Interesting textbook: Can I Exercise Sitting Down or Classical Homeopathy

What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

Author: Scott McClellan

With unprecedented candor, one of George W. Bush's closest aides takes readers behind the scenes of the Bush presidency, and what exactly happened to take it off course.

Scott McClellan was one of a few Bush loyalists from Texas who became part of his inner circle of trusted advisers, and remained so during one of the most challenging and contentious periods of recent history. Drawn to Bush by his commitment to compassionate conservatism and strong bipartisan leadership, McClellan served the president for more than seven years, and witnessed day-to-day exactly how the presidency veered off course.

In this refreshingly clear-eyed book, written with no agenda other than to record his experiences and insights for the benefit of history, McClellan provides unique perspective on what happened and why it happened the way it did, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, Washington's bitter partisanship, and two hotly contested presidential campaigns. He gives readers a candid look into who George W. Bush is and what he believes, and into the personalities, strengths, and liabilities of his top aides. Finally, McClellan looks to the future, exploring the lessons this presidency offers the American people as we prepare to elect a new leader.

Seattle Times

The former press secretary of President Bush (No. 43 version) empties out his notebooks, and all of Washington will be holding its breath.

Sissy Nation or The Different Drum

2009-01-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

Sissy Nation: How America Became a Culture of Wimps & Stoopits

Author: John Strausbaugh

Praised by The New York Times Book Review for being “persuasive [and] provocative,” John Strausbaugh reveals in furious, funny, and ferocious strokes how Americans became sissified, soft, and scared—and offers us unforgettable solutions on how to snap out of it. The American Sissy cocoons in a safe, virtual world— Fundadome. He plays with online friendsters and he plays with himself, anything to abate the growing anxiety about everything from terrorists to sex and spinach, air and water. He votes for sissy leaders, who lash out at the world like bullies—sissies in tough-guy drag. He’s so afraid of death and illness he doesn’t really live; he medicates and analyzes. And he’s so busy following the lives of the rich and famous that he has no time to have a rich and fulfilled life of his own. “I don’t mean sissy as girly man versus manly man,” Strausbaugh says. “This is not about big biceps. It’s about shrinking balls. And unless we stop acting like such sissies, soon enough some lean, angry barbarians from somewhere out Beyond Fundadome are going to overrun us, ramming their bayonets in our fat guts like fingers poking the Pillsbury Doughboy, and we won’t be giggling.”

Strausbaugh leaves no sacred cow untipped. He is as non-partisan as he is a straight shooter, taking equal aim at Democrats and Republicans, gays and straights, PETA fanatics, and the Christian right. But all is not lost. Sissy Nation offers “modest proposals” for getting back the gumption that made this culture great.

The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace

Author: M Scott Peck

In The Different Drum, the next step, the next challenge, the next journey is presented: to achieve, through the creative experience of community, a new "connectedness" and wholeness.

Publishers Weekly

An advocate of a supranational government agency to replace obsolete nation-states and transformation of the military into a national service corps, psychiatrist Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, etc., argues that physical and spiritual salvation no longer can be separated. The only way to combat the public apathy and ``militant ignorance'' that allow the arms race to continue lies in grass-roots propagation of the community ideal, which the church and government have lost, argues the author. Individualism plus groupand self-acceptance, good communication and joint commitment are essential to building a true community whatever its membership and interests. Peck foresees a new era of integration favorable to a community movement that calls for universal application of the personal principles of tolerance and love. Renouncing both policies of appeasement and deterrence, he proposes a ``peace through weakness'' strategy that dares us to ``empty'' ourselves of outmoded ideas of security to the extent of facing the economic consequences of eliminating the arms race. Major ad/promo. (June 2)

Library Journal

In his newest book psychiatrist Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled ( LJ 9/15/78), explores the nature of community, which can be recognized, he suggests, by the vulnerability, honesty, and theological cultural inclusiveness of its participants. Born of a yearning for world peace, this draws exciting analogies between the ways communities emerge and the dynamics of individual spiritual development. A moving work that achieves a rich integration of social/psychological insights and a contemplative stance. EC

Bomb Scare or Pacifism as Pathology

2009-01-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons

Author: Joseph Cirincion

Since their inception, nuclear weapons have multiplied at an alarming rate, leaving everyone from policymakers to concerned citizens wondering what it will take to slow, stop, or even reverse their spread. With clarity and expertise, Joseph Cirincione presents an even-handed look at the history of nuclear proliferation and an optimistic vision of its future, providing a comprehensive survey of the wide range of critical perspectives.

Cirincione begins with the first atomic discoveries of the 1930s and covers the history of their growth all the way to current crisis with Iran. He unravels the science, strategy, and politics that have fueled the development of nuclear stockpiles and increased the chance of a nuclear terrorist attack. He also explains why many nations choose not to pursue nuclear weapons and pulls from this the outlines of a solution to the world's proliferation problem: a balance of force and diplomacy, enforcement and engagement that yields a steady decrease in these deadly arsenals.

Though nuclear weapons have not been used in war since August 1945, there is no guarantee this good fortune will continue. A unique blend of history, theory, and security analysis, Bomb Scare is an engaging text that not only supplies the general reader and student with a clear understanding of this issue but also provides a set of tools policymakers and scholars can use to prevent the cataclysmic consequences of another nuclear attack.

About the Author:
Joseph Cirincione is the Vice President for National Security at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., and teaches at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served as the director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and on the professional staff of the Armed Services Committee and the Government Operations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. One of America's best known weapons experts, he is the co-author of Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats; Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security; and WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications. He appears frequently on radio, television and in print.

Book review: Dessert First or Kentuckys Best

Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America

Author: Ward Churchill

"This extraordinarily important book cuts to the heart of one of the central reasons movements to bring about social and environmental justice always fail. The fundamental question here is: is violence ever an acceptable tool to help bring about social change? This is probably the most important question of our time, yet so often discussions around it fall into cliches and magical thinking: that somehow if we are merely good and nice enough people, the state will stop using its violence to exploit us all. Would that this were true."-Derrick Jensen, author of Endgame, from the introduction.

Pacifism, the ideology of nonviolent political resistance, has been the norm among mainstream North American progressive groups for decades. But to what end? Ward Churchill challenges the pacifist movement's heralded victories-Gandhi in India, 1960s antiwar activists, even Martin Luther King's civil rights movement-suggesting that their success was in spite of, rather than because of, their nonviolent tactics. Pacifism as Pathology was written as a response not only to Churchill's frustration with his own activist experience, but also to a debate raging in the activist and academic communities. He argues that pacifism is in many ways counterrevolutionary; that it defends the status quo, and doesn't lead to social change. In these times of upheaval and global protest, this is a vital and extremely relevant book.

Ward Churchill is a prolific writer and lecturer, having authored, co-authored, or edited over twenty books. He is a member of the leadership council of Colorado AIM (American Indian Movement).

Supervising Police Personnel or Richard Nixon

2009-01-21T05:18:00.000-08:00

Supervising Police Personnel: The Fifteen Responsibilities

Author: Paul Whisenand

For courses in Police Supervision, Human or Organizational Behavior, and Ethics.

Using an exploratory and interactive structure, this introduction to police supervision covers all the latest supervisory concepts and practices with an emphasis on character, teamwork, and conflict resolution. Boasting a 15-responsibility organization, the Sixth Edition implements self-discipline, self-restraint, & self-reliant through Team Fundamentals, Team Development, and Teamwork.

Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents

Author: Rick Perlstein

The first book to present America's most controversial president in his own words across his entire career, this unique collection of Richard Nixon's most important writings dramatically demonstrates why he has had such a profound impact on American life. This volume gathers everything from schoolboy letters to geostrategic manifestos and Oval Office transcripts to create a fascinating portrait of Nixon, one that is enriched by an extensive introduction in which Rick Perlstein puts forward a major reinterpretation of the thirty-seventh president's rise and fall.

This anthology includes some of the most famous addresses in American history, from Nixon's "Checkers" speech (1952) and "Last Press Conference" (1962), to the "Silent Majority" speech (1969) and White House farewell. These texts are joined by campaign documents--including the infamous "Pink Sheet" from the 1950 Senate race--that give stark evidence of Nixon's slashing political style. Made easily available here for the first time, these writings give new depth to our understanding of Nixon.

The Death of Outrage or Jihad and Jew Hatred

2009-01-20T02:27:00.000-08:00

The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals

Author: William J Bennett

In this new, updated edition of a book heralded as a clarion call to the nation's conscience, William Bennett asks why we see so little public outrage in the fade of the evidence of deep corruption within Bill Clinton's administration. The Death of Outrage examines the Monica Lewinsky scandal as it unfolded, from Clinton's denials that he had had sex with a young White House intern, to his testimony before the grand jury, to the nation's decision not to remove Clinton from office. Brick by brick, Bennett dismantles the wall of defenses offered by Clinton and his apologists, and casts the clear light of moral reason and common sense on a shameful chapter in American history.

Deborah Tannen

In his new book, Bennett advances his own credo of right and wrong, and it is far less compelling. It is a slim book with a correspondingly slim premise: that the American public's failure to be outraged at President Clinton's lies about his private life is evidence of our 'moral and intellectual disarmament.' -- The Washington Post

Tom Shull

A bold and necessary act of civic courage, one that will be remembered in years to come. —The Detroit News, Opinion Page

New York Times Book Review - Richard L. Berke

. . .[O]ffers few fresh insights into [why voters have] seemed unwilling to punish Clinton for his ethical lapses. . . .It may be premature to pronounce outrage dead. . . .most polls suggested that voters are so furious at Clinton tht they want to put the whole scandal behind them.

A.M. Rosenthal

Read itparticularly if you are sure you won't agree. —The New York TimesOp-Ed Page

A.M. Rosenthal

Read it, particularly if you are sure you won't agree. -- The New York Times, Op-Ed Page

Richard L. Berke

Christian Science Monitor

Bennett's skill at crafting an argument makes this a compelling reading experience.

U.S. News & World Report

A piercing commentary.

Tom Shull

A bold and necessary act of civic courage, one that will be remembered in years to come. -- The Detroit News, Opinion Page

Look this: Management Fundamentals or Consumer Behavior

Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots Of 9/11

Author: Matthias Kuentzel

Jihad and Jew-Hatred makes a major contribution to the understanding of radical Islamism by tracing the impact of European fascism on the Arab and Islamic world. Drawing extensively on German-language sources, Matthias Küntzel analyzes the close relationship that began in the 1930s between Nazi leaders and Muslim extremists, especially the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Mufti of Jerusalem. This pathbreaking book provides compelling documentation of the Nazi roots of what became Islamo-fascism and jihadist terror.

This study demonstrates in historical detail how the Muslim Brotherhood has consistently placed the hatred of Jews at the center of its ideology and policies through an incendiary rhetoric that interweavespassages from the Koran hostile to Jews with elements of Nazi-style world-conspiracy theories. Ancient prejudice and modern fantasies have become a deadly combination.

Jihad and Jew-Hatred also explains how the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 led to the shift of the center of global antisemitism to the Arab world, laying the foundation for radical Islamist currents in and around the Muslim Brotherhood and more recent terrorist organizations.

Küntzel convincingly shows that antisemitism is no mere supplementary feature of modern jihadism, and certainly no afterthought but its defining ideological core. This hatred also goes far beyond questions of Zionism and Israel. For Islamism, not only is everything Jewish evil, but every evil is Jewish, as the writings of Sayyid Qutb and the Charter of Hamas clearly explain to anyone willing to read them. It was this Jew-hatred that fueled the Jihad of the 9/11 terrorists.

The New York Times - Jeffrey Goldberg

[Kuntzel's] bracing, even startling, book, Jihad and Jew-Hatred (translated by Colin Meade), reminds us that it is perilous to ignore idiotic ideas if these idiotic ideas are broadly, and fervently, believed…Kuntzel makes a bold and consequential argument: the dissemination of European models of anti-Semitism among Muslims was not haphazard, but an actual project of the Nazi Party, meant to turn Muslims against Jews and Zionism…Kuntzel marshals impressive evidence to back his case, but he sometimes oversimplifies…Still, Kuntzel is right to state that we are witnessing a terrible explosion of anti-Jewish hatred in the Middle East, and he is right to be shocked. His invaluable contribution, in fact, is his capacity to be shocked, by the rhetoric of hate and by its consequences.

Foreword by Jeffrey Herf....................VII Preface....................XIX
Introduction....................1
1. The Muslim Brotherhood and Palestine....................6
The Islamist Vanguard....................8
On the "Art of Death"....................14
Anti-German Boycott....................16
Anti-Jewish Jihad....................20
The Muslim Brothers, the Mufti and the Nazis....................25
The Mufti's Antisemitism....................31
Nashashibis versus Husseinis....................37
The Sanctuary of National Socialism....................43
War against Israel....................48
2. Egyptian Islamism from Nasser to the present day....................61
The Humiliation....................63
Comrade Brother Nasser....................67
Islamism under Sadat....................73
Unity and Submission....................75
Sayyid Qutb....................80
Jihad against the Muslims....................85
Islamization under Mubarak....................91
3. The Jihad of Hamas....................103
Islamist terror in Gaza....................104
The Hamas Charter....................107
El-Husseini and Arafat....................112
Mass Murder as Strategy....................119
4. September 11 and Israel....................123
Bin Laden and the Muslim Brothers....................124
Hatred of America....................128
The Antisemitic Signal....................133
New Alliances....................141
Epilogue: "... the Beginning of Complicity."....................151
Bibliography....................162
Index....................174

Alternative Energy Demystified or God Willing

2009-01-19T15:15:00.000-08:00

Alternative Energy Demystified

Author: Stan Gibilisco

The fast and easy way to get up-to-speed on alternative energy

Because of current events, geopolitics, and natural disasters, the cost of fuel is front and center in our lives. This book provides a concise look at all forms of energy, including fossil fuels, electric, solar, biodiesel, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, and renewable fuel cells. You will get explanations, definitions, and analysis of each alternative energy source from a technological point of view.

Stan Gibilisco is one of McGraw-Hill's most prolific and popular authors. His clear, reader-friendly writing style makes his books accessible to a wide audience, and his experience as an electronics engineer, researcher, and mathematician makes him an ideal editor for reference books and tutorials. Stan has authored several titles for the McGraw-Hill Demystified library of home-schooling and self-teaching volumes, along with more than 30 other books and dozens of magazine articles. His work has been published in several languages.

New interesting book: Adobe PhotoShop Forensics or GPU Gems 3

God Willing: My Wild Ride with the New Iraqi Army

Author: Capt Eric Navarro USMCR

Ten U.S. Marines are assigned to live, train, and go into battle with more than five hundred raw and undisciplined Iraqi soldiers. A member of this Adviser Support Team, Capt. Eric Navarro, recounts their tour in vivid and brutally honest detail.

Their deployment comes at a particularly important time in the war. The Battle of Fallujah is raging, and President Bush has proclaimed training the Iraqi forces is the key to winning the war. Once they stand up, we can stand down, or so the theory goes. Navarro's team, nicknamed The Drifters, faces countless roadblocks-no interpreters initially, limited supplies, little contact with other U.S. forces, and a vast cultural gulf with the Iraqis. One hackneyed and fatalistic Arabic phrase seems to sum up the mission, "Insha Allah," which translates as "God willing" or "if God wills it."

Whether riding into downtown Fallujah in an unarmored Nissan pick-up truck, living in squalor in abandoned buildings, dodging trigger-happy troops, sharing FHM magazine with Iraqi soldiers to boost morale, or getting attacked by insurgent rockets less than an hour after arriving, life is never easy and more often surreal. The Drifters' trials and tribulations help shed light on this most under-reported aspect of the war: What is wrong with the new Iraqi Army? The answer is not as pretty as the politicians would like.

Preface     vii
First Hour, First Contact, First Impressions     1
Iraqi Psychology 101     17
The Ninja Shitter     29
Interactions and Movements     41
Patrolling     59
Two Wahhabi     73
Forging Bonds     87
Plak-A-Bo, Chi, Tobacco, and Porn     99
The Main Effort     115
A Question of Leadership     133
Strategic Parents     141
New Mission: Habbaniyah     149
Unity of Command     165
The Staff and the Plan     177
The Habbaniyah Routine     189
Sarcasm, Shoot-outs, and a Wet Dream Riot     201
The Patrol Package     221
Operational Experience     237
The Results and the Outlook     249
Afterword: Home, with a Final Anecdote     259
Index     261
About the Author     271

Catastrophic Consequences or Honest Calling

2009-01-19T05:01:00.000-08:00

Catastrophic Consequences: Civil Wars and American Interests

Author: Steven R David

Civil war and other types of radical domestic upheaval are replacing war as the preeminent threat to American security and economic well-being, according to Steven R. David. Catastrophic Consequences argues that civil conflicts are of even greater importance than deliberate efforts to harm the United States or to undermine its interests precisely because they are unintended-and therefore are impossible to deter.

David examines the prospects for and potential after-effects of instability in four nations vital to U.S. national interests-Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, and Mexico. It is not, he argues, a rising China that threatens America, but one that is falling apart. Likewise, it is not a hostile Pakistani regime over which the United States should worry, rather it is one that cannot keep the country together. Similarly, a conflict-torn Mexico or Saudi Arabia poses a far greater danger to America than does either of those states growing stronger.

In assessing these threats, David contends that the United States' only viable option is to view other-state civil upheaval similarly to natural disasters and to develop a coherent, effective emergency response mechanism, which does not exist today in any systemic, nationwide form.

About the Author:
Steven R. David is a professor of political science and vice dean for Centers and Programs at the Johns Hopkins University

Interesting book: Numerical Methods for Engineers or Programming in Ada 2005 with CD

Honest Calling: The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln

Author: Mark E Steiner

"Abraham Lincoln practiced law for nearly 25 years, five times longer than he served as president. Nonetheless, this aspect of his life was known only in the broadest outlines until the Lincoln Legal Papers project set to work gathering the surviving documentation of more than 5,600 of his cases. One of the first scholars to work in this vast collection, Mark E. Steiner goes beyond the hasty sketches of previous biographers to paint a detailed portrait of Lincoln the lawyer. This portrait not only depicts Lincoln's work for the railroads and the infamous case in which he defended the claims of a slaveholder; it also illustrates his more typical cases involving debt and neighborly disputes. Steiner describes Lincoln's legal education, the economics of the law office, and the changes in legal practice that Lincoln himself experienced as the nation became an industrial, capitalist society. Most important, Steiner highlights Lincoln's guiding principles as a lawyer." "In contrast to the popular caricature of the lawyer as a scoundrel, Lincoln followed his personal resolve to be "honest at all events," thus earning the nickname "Honest Abe." For him, honesty meant representing clients to the best of his ability, regardless of his own beliefs about the justice of their cause. Lincoln also embraced a professional ideal that cast the lawyer as a guardian of order. He was as willing to mediate a dispute outside the courtroom in the interest of maintaining peace as he was eager to win cases before a jury." Over the course of his legal career, however, Lincoln's dedication to the community and his clients' personal interests became outmoded. As a result of the rise of powerful, faceless corporate clients and the national debate over slavery, Lincoln the lawyer found himself in an increasingly impersonal, morally ambiguous world.

101 Things You Didnt Know about Lincoln or Embracing Defeat

2009-01-18T15:48:00.000-08:00

101 Things You Didn't Know about Lincoln: Loves and Losses! Political Power Plays! White House Hauntings!

Author: Brian Thornton

One hundred fifty years after his death, Abraham Lincoln remains one of America's most fascinating, brilliant, and visionary leaders. He's idolized as a hero, a legend, and even a secular saint. But what about the real man behind the stone monument?

In this engaging, intelligent book, you'll learn about more than just his savvy political skills and Civil War power plays. 101 Things You Didn't Know about Lincoln reveals other little known details of his personal and professional life, including:

How Lincoln escaped death more than once as a child

Why he once used a chicken bone to argue a court case

Why the Lincolns keep goats at the White House

When and why he grew that beard

How John Wilkes Booth's brother saved Lincoln's son

Who tried to rob Lincoln's grave

Filled with these and other offbeat facts, 101 Things You Didn't Know about Lincoln is sure to fascinate, whether you're a newcomer to Lincoln legend and lore, or a hardcore history buff!

Brian Thornton earned his B.A. in History from Gonzaga University and his M.A. in History, with a concentration in 19thcentury American History, from Eastern Washington University. He has taught History at every level, from 6th grade through college. He currently lives and teaches in Seattle, WA.

Book about: OpenGL Shading Language or Access 2000 For Windows

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

Author: John W Dower

John Dower, distinguished historian of modern Japan, casts his eye on the immediate aftermath of World War II. Drawing on a vast range of Japanese sources, this new study illuminates how shattering defeat followed by over six years of American military occupation affected every level of Japanese society in ways that neither the victor nor the vanquished could anticipate. The great achievement of Embracing Defeat lies in its vivid portrayal of the countless ways in which the Japanese met the challenge of "starting over" - from top-level manipulations concerning the fate of Emperor Hirohito to the hopes, fears, and activities of ordinary men and women in every walk of life. This is a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary moment in history, when new values warred with old and early ideals of demilitarization and radical reform were soon challenged by the United States's decision to incorporate Japan into the Cold War Pax Americana.

Wall Street Journal - Jacob Heilbrunn

Embracing Defeat arrives at an opportune moment...an extraordinarily illuminating book. Mr. Dower has deftly mixed history form the 'bottom up' and 'top down' to produce what is surely the most significant work to date on the postwar era in Japan. He writes with panache and with a keen eye for the absurdities of the Japanese-American encounter. Among other thinkers, his analysis of cartoons, a genre taken very seriously in Japan, is fascinating.

Far Eastern Economic Review - Roger Buckley

Half a century later, this frenetic, contradictory occupation era has at last found its English-language historian....[A] graphic, multifaceted account of an extraordinary period in American-Japanese relations. This huge work is going to be the gold standard against which future scholarship will be tested.

Publishers Weekly

The writing of history doesn't get much better than this. MIT professor Dower (author of the NBCC Award-winning War Without Mercy) offers a dazzling political and social history of how postwar Japan evolved with stunning speed into a unique hybrid of Western innovation and Japanese tradition. The American occupation of Japan (1945-1952) saw the once fiercely militarist island nation transformed into a democracy constitutionally prohibited from deploying military forces abroad. The occupation was fraught with irony as Americans, motivated by what they saw as their Christian duty to uplift a barbarian race, attempted to impose democracy through autocratic military rule. Dower manages to convey the full extent of both American self-righteousness and visionary idealism. The first years of occupation saw the extension of rights to women, organized labor and other previously excluded groups. Later, the exigencies of the emergent Cold War led to American-backed "anti-Red" purges, pro-business policies and the partial reconstruction of the Japanese military. Dower demonstrates an impressive mastery of voluminous sources, both American and Japanese, and he deftly situates the political story within a rich cultural context. His digressions into Japanese culture--high and low, elite and popular--are revealing and extremely well written. The book is most remarkable, however, for the way Dower judiciously explores the complex moral and political issues raised by America's effort to rebuild and refashion a defeated adversary--and Japan's ambivalent response to that embrace. Illustrations. (Mar.)

Library Journal

Dower's magisterial narrative eloquently tells the story of the postwar occupation of Japan by departing from the usual practice of making the story part of General MacArthur's biography and instead focusing on the citizens. With historical sweep and cultural nuance, and using numerous personal stories of survival, loss, and rededication, he follows the astonishing social transformation of a people. (LJ 4/1/99) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Following his National Book Critics Award winning War Without Mercy on the Pacific theater, Dower (history, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) examines the immediate aftermath of World War II. He draws on a wide range of Japanese sources to illuminate how the shattering defeat and six years of US military occupation affected every level of society in ways no one anticipated. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Far Eastern Economic Review - Roger Buckley

NY Times Book Review - J.A.A. Stockwin

...[M]agisterial and beautifully written....The occupation of Japan was full of ambiguities, inconsistencies, bad policy-making, bureaucratic bungling and arrogance....There is much to deplore, no doubt, about its legacy, but also much to applaud. John W. Dower both deplores and applauds in this richly nuanced book, which is such a pleasure to read.

The Boston Globe - Akira Iriye

Masterly…a penetrating analysis of Japan in the aftermath of defeat.

The Washington Post - T R. Reid

Richly detailed and provocative…A marvelous piece of reporting and analysis.

Kirkus Reviews

An NBCC award winner and expert in the modern history of Japan, Dower (Massachusetts Inst. of Technology; Japan in War and Peace, 1994; War Without Mercy, 1986) absorbingly explains how American forces imposed a revolution from above in six years of occupation that transformed imperial Japan into a democracy. As WWII ended, Japan had lost three million dead, with many more wounded, starving, homeless, and demoralized. Dower has drawn effectively on Japanese academic, archival, and popular sources to capture the atmosphere of flux and uncertainty that followed surrender, including suicidal despair, gratitude toward generous GIs, black-market entrepreneurship, prostitution, and the unleashing of creative energy. The most important change, of course, occurred in politics. In a root-and-branch attempt to destroy Japan's militaristic culture, the Americans created a constitution that limited the emperor to a symbolic head of state, renounced war as an instrument of settling international disputes, and established such reforms as sexual equality, greater freedom of speech and press, an end to the Shinto state religion, and a free labor movement. Written in six days, the constitution set the stage for unprecedented Japanese freedom, equality, and prosperity. For all their idealism, however, the American forces also acted with little knowledge of Japanese history, censored criticism of the occupation, and treated the losers with condescension. In the Far East counterpart to the Nuremberg trials, American prosecutors excluded testimony about Emperor Hirohito's responsibility for war crimes and fed the nation's sense of its victimization without forcing a realization of itsculpability for atrocities committed against other Asians. In the greatest irony, by promoting such bureaucratic structures as the Ministry of Trade and Industry, MacArthur merely replaced his own mandarinate with a Japanese version. A turning point in Japanese history, illuminated through diligent research and piercing insight. (80 b&w photos).

We the People or The Hollow Hope

2009-01-18T04:36:00.000-08:00

We the People: An Introduction to American Politics, Shorter Edition

Author: Benjamin Ginsberg

Emphasizing the relevance of politics and government in everyday life, We the People provides tools to help students think critically about American government and politics. The Sixth Edition has been carefully updated to reflect most recent developments, including the ongoing conflict in Iraq and the 2006 midterm elections. Complemented by a rich package of multimedia tools for instructors and students, including a new video-clip DVD, We the People is now more pedagogically effective than ever.

Book review: La Teoría de Finanzas Corporativas

The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring about Social Change?

Author: Gerald N Rosenberg

In follow-up studies, dozens of reviews, and even a book of essays evaluating his conclusions, Gerald Rosenberg’s critics—not to mention his supporters—have spent nearly two decades debating the arguments he first put forward in The Hollow Hope. With this substantially expanded second edition of his landmark work, Rosenberg himself steps back into the fray, responding to criticism and adding chapters on the same-sex marriage battle that ask anew whether courts can spur political and social reform.
Finding that the answer is still a resounding no, Rosenberg reaffirms his powerful contention that it’s nearly impossible to generate significant reforms through litigation. The reason? American courts are ineffective and relatively weak—far from the uniquely powerful sources for change they’re often portrayed as. Rosenberg supports this claim by documenting the direct and secondary effects of key court decisions—particularly Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. He reveals, for example, that Congress, the White House, and a determined civil rights movement did far more than Brown to advance desegregation, while pro-choice activists invested too much in Roe at the expense of political mobilization. Further illuminating these cases, as well as the ongoing fight for same-sex marriage rights, Rosenberg also marshals impressive evidence to overturn the common assumption that even unsuccessful litigation can advance a cause by raising its profile.
Directly addressing itscritics in a new conclusion, The Hollow Hope, Second Edition promises to reignite for a new generation the national debate it sparked seventeen years ago.

Booknews

While debate rages over whether the courts should be relied on as tools for legislative change, Rosenberg asks the more fundamental question--can courts produce political and social reform? His argument suggests that efforts to use the courts to generate reforms in civil rights, abortion, women's rights, and other issues have been largely failures. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Lee Epstein

Since 1987, I have noticed a dramatic increase in public curiosity about and interest in the U.S. Supreme Court. Though I do not have data to support this assertion, I do know that over the past four years I have received more phone calls, inquiries, and so forth about the Court from more diverse sources than ever before. Some of this interest concerned specific Court rulings (TEXAS V. JOHNSON was a particularly hot case); but, mostly it centered on Reagan's and Bush's nominations to the Court, espe- cially those of Bork and Thomas. Obviously, what I experienced was not at all unique. Who could have ever imagined a Supreme Court nomination proceeding beating out the baseball playoffs in the television ratings game! Why all of this interest in the Court? To be sure, the Thomas nomination contained all the ingredients necessary to pique the public; interest here was more closely akin to that of the "Who Shot Laura Palmer" episode of "Twin Peaks" than of the constitutional law seminars provided by the Bork hearings. But even so, these nomination proceedings have caused the public to think more about the Court than at any point in recent memory; that "thinking," it strikes me, is grounded in a rather universal assumption: it "matters" who sits on the Court and, more general- ly, that the Court itself "matters." This is something the scholarly community has accepted for years; the public outcry over and Senate rejection of Bork, in particular, indicate that we are not alone. In the much-awaited THE HOLLOW HOPE, Gerald Rosenberg questions that basic assumption. He finds that it is largely wanting. Following his argument to its logical conclusion, it does not matter who sits on the Court because the Court itself does not matter much. To put it more centrally in terms of this study, the answer to the question raised in the subtitle of his book (Can courts bring about social change?) is NO. The question we, the scholarly community, need to consider is whether Rosenberg provides sufficient evidence to support this rather astonishing assertion. Before I provide my assessment, let me give you a better sense of the book's theoretical under-pinnings and its design. Given its anything-but-conventional conclusion, THE HOLLOW HOPE starts in a rather conventional way. In the Introduction and first chapter, Rosenberg lays out two distinctly conflicting, and familiar perspectives on the Court's ability to generate significant social change and the conditions under which it can do so. The first, which he calls the Constrained Court view, generally maintains that courts will rarely be able to produce social change of any magnitude because of three important con- straints: Page 139 follows: Constraint I. The bounded nature of constitutional rights prevents courts from hearing or effectively acting on many significant social reform claims, and lessens the chances of popular mobilization (p.13). Constraint II. The judiciary lacks the necessary independence from the other branches of government to produce significant social reform (p.15). Constraint III. Courts lack the tools to readily develop appropriate policies and implement decisions ordering significant social reform (p.21) In contrast, the Dynamic Court view asserts that courts are effective "producers" of social change, and, more to the point, they "can be more effective than other governmental institutions" (p.22). This is because courts have advantages over the other branches: their members, free from the electoral connection, can "act in the face of public opposition" and, thus, are in a unique position to generate social change; those litigants entering their doorsteps -- especially groups desiring social change, who are disadvantaged in the electoral and legislative process -- enjoy access that depends neither on "connections nor position" (p.23); and their decisions have indirect ways of producing social change not necessarily enjoyed by those emanating from the other branches; for example, they can serve to set the agendas of the other branches and they can "educate" Ameri- cans. Rosenberg could have left it at this and gone about his study. He does not. Rather, viewing the two perspectives as too simple, he devises a framework that specifies the conditions under which courts could effectively produce social change: 1. Overcoming Constraint I (there exists ample precedent for change); AND, 2. Overcoming Constraint II (there is support for change from substantial numbers in Congress and from the executive); AND, 3. Overcoming Constraint III (there is either support from some citizens, or at least low levels of opposition from all citizens); AND, at least one of four conditions is met: a. Positive incentives are offered to induce compli- ance Page 140 follows: b. Costs are imposed to induce compliance c. Court decisions allow for market implementation d. Administrators and officials crucial for implemen- tation are willing to act and see court orders as a tool for leveraging additional resources for hiding behind (p. 36, with some paraphrasing). The balance of the book (about 230 pages) applies this framework to the areas of civil rights, abortion, and women's rights; Rosenberg also looks at the environment, reapportionment, and criminal law, though in considerably less detail. His modus operandi, thus, is the intensive case study, with mounds of data drawn from primary and secondary sources. To provide you with detailed descriptions of Rosenberg's specific conclusions would perform an injustice to him. No fair way exists to encapsulate the monumental amount of work he put into this research. Rather, let me give you the basic punch lines. The first is that the framework depicted above "works." For example, Rosenberg argues that pro-choice groups were able to achieve their significant victory in ROE V. WADE because, in the lingo of the framework, the conditions existed for overcoming the constraints. More specifically, legal precedent was sufficient; elites desired legalized abortion and faced little federal opposition in their quest to achieve that goal; and, the public was increasingly supportive. So too, those arguing for expanded abortion rights were "lucky"; one of the four conditions (listed above) "necessary for change, a market free to implement, was present" (p.189). A second, and related finding is that it is more typically the case that the constraints outweigh the condi- tions for overcoming them. In Rosenberg's word's: The findings show that, with the addition of the four condi- tions, the constraints derived from the Constrained Court view best capture the capacity of courts to produce significant social reform. This is the case because, on the most fundamental level, courts depend on political support to produce such reform (Constraint III) (p.336). Put in less jargonized terms, U.S. courts "can almost never be effective producers of significant social reform" (p.338). It seems almost unnecessary for me to point out the implica- tions of such a conclusion, but let me name just two. Public interest law groups that have long relied on litigation to achieve policy goals ought start looking elsewhere. Scholars who have long viewed the Court as a place where significant change can occur ought start rethinking some basic assumptions about the institution. Page 141 follows: The $64k question, however, is whether Rosenberg is correct. I have no doubt that the scholarly and practicing community will engage in vigorous debate over the "right" answer to this question. Before I present my own response, I owe it to readers of this review to explain the perspective I brought to my reading of the text. As part of a cohort trained less in a "Dahlesque" approach (courts legitimate majoritarian interests) and more in the Casper/Vose school (courts protect minority rights), not only did I read THE HOLLOW HOPE closely but I sought to identify any possible weakness. This is not to suggest I wanted to prove Rosenberg wrong; however, I read it with the eye of skeptic. This noted, let me give you my bottom line first: to be sure, I have some quibbles with the study, but they do not significantly detract from Rosenberg's findings. I believe Rosenberg has presented sufficient, even abundant, evidence to support his findings. Why did I reach this conclusion? One reason lies with the areas on which Rosenberg focused: civil rights and abortion/women's rights. These were, in my view, outstanding choices because they are areas on which schol- ars largely agree the Court had a major impact. Had he picked issues on which its effect was murkier, his conclusions would be far less important and far more vulnerable to attack. But, at least on this score, he is virtually unassailable (i.e., if the Court was ineffective in producing social change in the areas of civil rights and abortion, then on what could it possibly have had influence?). Another reason lies with the case studies themselves. With exceptions here and there, they are flawless. Indeed, Rosenberg bends over backwards to demonstrate precisely the opposite of where he ends up. He develops an extraordinary battery of tests to discern any possible impact -- from the direct to the very indirect -- that the Court's rulings may have had on a diverse range of political actors and the public. To give but a taste, here are some of things he uses to assess whether the Court generated change on the abortion issue (pre/post Roe): the number of legal abortions, precedents, mass and elite attitudes, avail- ability of abortion services, media coverage, and legislative activity. In short, he anticipated well, I think, the most obvious sources of criticism. So too the less-than-obvious ones: he managed to address almost all of the Ifs, Howevers, and Buts I mentally raised during the course of my reading. THE HOLLOW HOPE is, to say the least, a carefully and thoroughly executed study. I would, then, GENERALLY agree with Robert Dahl's comment about THE HOLLOW HOPE: "Hereafter, anyone who defends the view of the Court as a force for basic reforms will have to confront and rebut the evidence and argument of this book. This will not be an easy task." Page 142 follows: I stress "generally" because I do have some concerns about the work. One is, as I already mentioned, that Rosenberg attrib- utes the success of the pro-choice movement in Roe and of the NAACP LDF in Brown more to luck and less to litigation prowess. In his words, "The chief reason [why the movements won] is that the remaining legal constraint, the lack of legal precedents was weak... There were precedents for change and supportive movements within the broader legal culture" (p.337). I would argue that this was not at all a matter of "luck." As Rosenberg knows, the key precedential cases were brought to the Court by interest groups or movements. According to Greenberg's account in the JUDICIAL PROCESS AND SOCIAL CHANGE, for example, the LDF spon- sored the litigation needed to achieve victory in Brown; it was the group's persistence and not "luck," that weakened "the remaining legal constraint." I think this is an important link, but one Rosenberg largely overlooks. Another quibble I have is that some of his analyses are too casual. Those on public opinion immediately come to mind. Because he does not examine trends in survey data in a rigorous way, his observations tend toward the pedestrian. Here is what he writes about public opinion on abortion: "there was clearly no rapid or large change in American's support of abortion after the Court's decision" (p.238). He may be correct on an aggregate, first blush, level, but he misses an important point brought to light in Franklin and Kosaki's (APSR, 1989: 751-777) intriguing study: Roe did have the effect of polarizing the citizenry in an unprecedented way. I could list a few more problems with the study, but they too would be minor or, at best, insufficient to undermine Rosenberg's central findings. Thus, I leave it to readers to reach their own conclusions about the merits or demerits of Rosenberg's research and its implications. In any event, I do believe that THE HOLLOW HOPE is absolutely "must" reading. I have just ordered it for my graduate seminar on the Court, and I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to the session at which we will discuss it. It will undoubtedly generate great debate among my students, as it will among those of us toiling in the field.

Forensic Fire Scene Reconstruction or Autobiography of Margaret Sanger

2009-01-17T16:23:00.000-08:00

Forensic Fire Scene Reconstruction

Author: David J Icov

Containing the most up-to-date inforamtion, the second edition of Forensic Fire Scene Reconstruction expands the ability of investigators to apply fire engineering, forensic analysis and the interpretation of human behavior to the accurate investigation of fires. Extensive new research on fire behavior, ignition mechanizms, fire pattersns and fire modeling is incorprated to explore and explain the process of applying the full spectrum of forensic tecniques to the reconstruction of fire events. With more than 70 years of combined experience, two of the most experienced fire scientists in the United States have authored a text that can be used by fore and law enforcement investigators, presecutors, forensic scientists, and fire protection specialists. A greately expanded peer review adds a newer fresh perpective to this edition.

Interesting book: The Liver Disorders and Hepatitis Sourcebook or Facial Reflexology

Autobiography of Margaret Sanger

Author: Margaret Sanger

A pioneer in the battle to establish birth control as a basic human right and a founder of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Sanger — a nurse who witnessed first-hand the devastating effects of unwanted pregancy — triumphed over arrest, indictment, and exile. Her autobiography is a classic of women's studies.

I.	From Which I Spring	11
II.	Blind Germs of Days to be	24
III.	Books are the Compasses	33
IV.	Darkness There and Nothing More	46
V.	Corals to Cut Life Upon	58
VI.	Fanatics of Their Pure Ideals	68
VII.	The Turbid Ebb and Flow of Misery	86
VIII.	I Have Promises to Keep	93
IX.	The Woman Rebel	106
X.	We Speak the Same Good Tongue	121
XI.	Havelock Ellis	133
XII.	Stork over Holland	142
XIII.	The Peasants are Kings	153
XIV.	O, to be in England	169
XV.	High Hangs the Gauntlet	179
XVI.	Hear Me for My Cause	192
XVII.	Faith I Have Been a Truant in the Law	210
XVIII.	Lean Hunger and Green Thirst	224
XIX.	This Prison Where I Live	238
XX.	A Stout Heart to a Steep Hill	251
XXI.	Thus to Revisit	268
XXII.	Do Ye Hear the Children Weeping?	280
XXIII.	In Time We Can Only Begin	292
XXIV.	Laws were Like Cobwebs	306
XXV.	Alien Stars Arise	316
XXVI.	The East is Blossoming	327
XXVII.	Ancients of the Earth	337
XXVIII.	The World is Much the Same Everywhere	349
XXIX.	While the Doctors Consult	358
XXX.	Now is the Time for Converse	369
XXXI.	Great Heights are Hazardous	376
XXXII.	Change is Hopefully Begun	392
XXXIII.	Old Father Antic, the Law	398
XXXIV.	Senators, be Not Affrighted	413
XXXV.	A Past which is Gone Forever	431
XXXVI.	Faith is a Fine Invention	447
XXXVII.	Who Can Take a Dream for Truth?	461
XXXVIII.	Depth But Not Tumult	478
XXXIX.	Slow Grows the Splendid Pattern	493
	Index	497

The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb or Hunger of Memory

2009-01-17T06:11:00.000-08:00

The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb: A Spirituality for Leadership in a Multiculutural Community

Author: Eric HF Law

A multicultural conference has convened. Everything is in place, and the participants arrive brimming with goodwill and even better intentions. Surely this time...! But, no. Halfway through the meetings, communication grinds to a halt, and people retreat to the safety of their own groups. What happened? And how can we keep it from happening again? Those are the questions this book proposes to answer.

New interesting textbook: Emergencias de la Ninez or The Goddess Diet

Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez

Author: Richard Rodriguez

Hunger of Memory is the story of Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez, who begins his schooling in Sacramento, California, knowing just 50 words of English, and concludes his university studies in the stately quiet of the reading room of the British Museum.

Here is the poignant journey of a “minority student” who pays the cost of his social assimilation and academic success with a painful alienation — from his past, his parents, his culture — and so describes the high price of “making it” in middle-class America.

Provocative in its positions on affirmative action and bilingual education, Hunger of Memory is a powerful political statement, a profound study of the importance of language ... and the moving, intimate portrait of a boy struggling to become a man.

Boston Globe

Arresting...Splendidly written intellectual autobiography.

New York Times Book Review

Superb autobiographical essay... Mr. Rodriguez offers himself as an example if the long labor of change: its costs, about which he is movingly frank, its loneliness, but also its triumph.

Understanding Privacy or The Kennedy Tapes

2009-01-16T16:58:00.000-08:00

Understanding Privacy

Author: Daniel J Solov

Privacy is one of the most important concepts of our time, yet it is also one of the most elusive. As rapidly changing technology makes information increasingly available, scholars, activists, and policymakers have struggled to define privacy, with many conceding that the task is virtually impossible.

In this concise and lucid book, Daniel J. Solove offers a comprehensive overview of the difficulties involved in discussions of privacy and ultimately provides a provocative resolution. He argues that no single definition can be workable, but rather that there are multiple forms of privacy, related to one another by family resemblances. His theory bridges cultural differences and addresses historical changes in views on privacy. Drawing on a broad array of interdisciplinary sources, Solove sets forth a framework for understanding privacy that provides clear, practical guidance for engaging with relevant issues.

Understanding Privacy will be an essential introduction to long-standing debates and an invaluable resource for crafting laws and policies about surveillance, data mining, identity theft, state involvement in reproductive and marital decisions, and other pressing contemporary matters concerning privacy.

What People Are Saying

Jerry Kang
One of the topic's most prolific and thoughtful thinkers, Daniel Solove has written a clear and comprehensive analysis of privacy. In it, he explains why it has been so hard to conceptualize this thing called privacy, and provides a pragmatic, bottom-up understanding. This book will promote sharper thinking and analysis for the next generation of privacy scholarship and policy. --(Jerry Kang, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law)

Anita L. Allen
Daniel Solove offers a unique, challenging account of how to think better about-- and of-- privacy. No scholar in America is more committed to demystifying "the right to privacy".
--(Anita L. Allen, University of Pennsylvania Law School)

Peter P. Swire
Daniel Solove has had the patience and insight to lay privacy bare. This is the most thorough and persuasive conceptualization of privacy written to date. Solove's taxonomy of privacy will become the standard tool for analyzing privacy problems.
--(Peter P. Swire, C. William O'Neill Professor of Law and Judicial Administration, Ohio State University)

Book about: Verträge

The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis

Author: Ernest R May

October 1962: the United States and the Soviet Union stood eyeball to eyeball, each brandishing enough nuclear weapons to obliterate civilization in the Northern Hemisphere. It was one of the most dangerous moments in world history. Day by day, for two weeks, the inner circle of President Kennedy's National Security Council debated what to do, twice coming to the brink of attacking Soviet military units in Cuba -- units equipped for nuclear retaliation. And through it all, unbeknownst to any of the participants except the President himself, tape was rolling, capturing for posterity the deliberations that might have ended the world as we know it. Now available in this new concise edition, The Kennedy Tapes retains its gripping sense of history in the making.

Hendrik Hertzberg

Riveting. . . The Kennedy Tapes. . . [is] a suspenseful, self-contained narrative of a single intense episode. . . which in retrospect stands out as the most dangerous moment of the Cold War. -- New Yorker

Barry Gewen

[A] splendid achievement, as powerful and exciting a book as one is likely to read this year.... —New York Times Book Review

Stephen E. Ambrose

[M]esmerizing. I was utterly fascinated....the best, fullest account of crisis yet and will remain so for decades to come.

Richard J. Tofel

Gripping history. —Wall Street Journal

James G. Blight

[A]s close as most people will ever get to being a fly on the wall during the discussions of leaders. —Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review

(James Baker, former Secretary of State Observer (London)) - James Baker

To read [The Kennedy Tapes] is to be in the White House in those fateful days of October, 1962…This immediacy is new, and it is endlessly fascinating…The Kennedy Tapes is a must-read, not only for the student of history or international affairs, but for citizens of any country who hold out the hope that the Earth will never face such a crisis again.

Newsweek - Philip Seib

The Kennedy Tapes will fascinate anyone interested in history and anyone interested in how the American government works when its citizens most depend on it.

Kim Weiner New York Times - Kim Weiner

The transcripts…capture the power and drama of the moment. They show just how raw things were in the White House. They let readers hear leaders thinking out loud about what to do to force the Soviets to withdraw the missile. The raise ideas about nuclear weapons, political power and civilian control of the military that remain vital today…The tapes show men mulling over a global chess game in which the wrong move kills millions…The words are a record of decision-making in a nuclear crisis that has no equal.

Bruce W. Melan Time - Bruce Melan

[The Kennedy Tapes] is 700 pages of terror and drama.

Kirkus Reviews

The glimpse we get into the making of U.S. policy in a crisis—in this case the Cuban missile crisis—is unique and, in light of the historical and legal problems of the taping of White House conversations by presidents, may well remain so.

Which is a great pity, for despite the apparently poor quality of the tapes and various unresolved questions relating to them, the picture of U.S officials dealing with the most serious crisis of the Cold War is memorable. Although the editors, both scholars at Harvard, rightly remark on the "inherently disorderly character" of such meetings, the quality of understanding and analysis the participants brought to the task was high. There are some exceptions: The lack of esteem felt by Kennedy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff seems justified by their performance (General LeMay openly equated Kennedy's actions with "the appeasement at Munich"); the congressional group brought in to advise was less than helpful, Senator Fulbright, ironically, calling for an immediate all-out invasion. Kennedy privately chews Secretary Rusk out for failing to do contingency planning on the U.S. missiles in Turkey. But the praise given by the editors to Kennedy seems justified, not only for his clear recognition of the awesome responsibilities of his actions, but for asking questions that his advisors had neglected. The editors write of his "cold analytical mind," and indeed he alone notes that U.S. allies think that on the subject of Cuba "we're slightly demented"; if anything, he tends to be pessimistic ("He'll grab Berlin, of course," he says of Khrushchev). But it is particularly impressive when contrasted with the idiosyncratic, unsystematic, and uninformed policymaking of Khrushchev.

A remarkable and truly historic record, well analyzed and put in context by May and Zelikow.

What People Are Saying

Stephen E. Ambrose
The Kennedy Tapes is mesmerizing. I was utterly fascinated. The book is the best, fullest account of crisis yet and will remain so for decades to come…I can't think of when I've learned more from a single book.

	Preface to the Concise Edition
	A Note on Sources
	Introduction
	Tuesday, September 4, 1962	3
	12:35 P.M. - Meeting on Soviet Arms Shipments to Cuba	3
	4:00 P.M. - Drafting Meeting on the Press Statement	9
	5:00 P.M. - Meeting With Congressional Leadership	12
	5:55 P.M. - Meeting on the Congressional Resolution	16
	Saturday, September 29, 1962	20
	11:00 A.M. - Meeting on the Soviet Union	20
	Tuesday, October 16, 1962	30
	11:50 A.M. - Meeting on the Cuban Missile Crisis	32
	6:30 P.M. - Meeting on the Cuban Missile Crisis	53
	Thursday, October 18, 1962	73
	11:10 A.M. - Meeting on the Cuban Missile Crisis	73
	Near Midnight. Kennedy Summarizes a Late-Night Meeting	106
	Friday, October 19, 1962	109
	9:45 A.M. - Meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff	109
	Saturday, October 20, 1962	124
	2:30 P.M. - National Security Council Meeting	125
	Monday, October 22, 1962	138
	10:40 A.M. - Conversation with Dwight Eisenhower	142
	11:00 A.M. - Meeting on Diplomatic Plans	146
	11:47 A.M. - Meeting of Berlin Group	149
	3:00 P.M. - National Security Council Meeting	152
	5:30 P.M. - Meeting with the Congressional Leadership	163
	Tuesday, October 23, 1962	194
	10:00 - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	194
	12:25 P.M. - Conversation with Lucius Clay	202
	3:52 P.M. - Conversation with Roswell Gilpatric	204
	6:00 P.M. - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	206
	7:10 P.M. - Discussion between President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy	218
	Wednesday, October 24, 1962	224
	10:00 A.M. - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	224
	5:05 P.M. - Meetings with Staff and Congressional Leadership	234
	Thursday, October 25, 1962	245
	10:00 A.M. - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	245
	5:25 P.M. - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	260
	Friday, October 26, 1962	269
	10:10 A.M. - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	269
	12:00 P.M. - Meeting with Intelligence Officials	288
	4:30 P.M. - Conversation with Dean Rusk	292
	7:31 P.M. - Conversation with Lincoln White	295
	Saturday, October 27, 1962	301
	10:05 A.M. - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	301
	4:00 P.M. - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	324
	9:00 P.M. - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	391
	Sunday, October 28, 1962	402
	11:05 A.M. - Executive Committee Meeting of the National Security Council	404
	12:08 P.M. - Conversations with Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, and Herbert Hoover	405
	Conclusion	411
	Notes	451
	Index	491

Theodore Roosevelt or Libertarianism

2009-01-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Riders and an Autobiography

Author: Theodore Roosevelt

"The Rough Riders (1899) is the story of the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the regiment Roosevelt led to enduring fame in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt recounts how the regiment was raised from an unusual mixture of hardened southwestern frontiersmen and privileged northeastern college graduates, and how it trained in Texas and then sailed "southward through the topic seas toward the unknown." Writing at a time when war could still be seen as a romantic adventure, Roosevelt describes the confusion of fighting in the jungle; the heat, hunger, rain, mud, and malaria that tested his men; and his "crowded hour" of triumph on the San Juan Heights." In An Autobiography (1913), Roosevelt recalls his lifelong fascination with natural history, his love of hunting and the outdoors, and his adventures as a cattleman in the Dakota Badlands, as well as his career in politics as a state legislator, civil service reformer, New York City police commissioner, assistant secretary of the navy, governor of New York, and president. Roosevelt writes of his battles against corruption and machine rule, efforts to establish America as a world power, historic achievements in conservation, and his growing conviction that only a strong national government and an energetic presidency could protect the public against the rapacious greed of modern corporations.

Library Journal

Of the Presidents whose writings have been included among the first 152 volumes in the Library of America series, only Lincoln and now Theodore Roosevelt have merited two separate volumes. Scholars rank TR as America's fifth best president overall, and he surely ranks among its most prolific writers. Novelist and TR biographer Auchincloss has sifted through the enormous collection of Roosevelt's writing to capture some of his best pieces. The first volume contains The Rough Riders (1899) and the four-times-longer Autobiography (1913). These major works are followed by the editor's detailed chronology of TR's life, a very useful "Note on the Texts," and further notes. The second volume consists of 367 of the more than 100,000 letters TR wrote during his lifetime. Four of his most famous speeches are also included "The Strenuous Life" (1899), "The Big Stick" (1901), "The Man in the Arena" (1910), and "The New Nationalism" (1910) followed by a duplicate of the chronology from the first volume, a brief note on the texts, nearly 50 pages of editor's notes, and an index. The material in these volumes illustrates TR's diverse interests, ebullient spirit, and writing talent. Essential for both public and academic libraries. William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Books about: Hot Vegetables or Cool Coyote Cafe Juice Drinks

Libertarianism

Author: David Boaz

Tens of millions of Americans, from Generation X-ers to baby boomers and beyond, are rediscovering libertarianism, a visionary alternative to the tired party orthodoxies of left and right. In 1995 a Gallup poll found that 52 percent of Americans said "the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens." Later that year, The Wall Street Journal concurred, saying: "Because of their growing disdain for government, more and more Americans appear to be drifting—often unwittingly—toward a libertarian philosophy."

Libertarianism is hardly new, but its framework for liberty under law and economic progress makes it especially suited for the dynamic new era we are now entering. In the United States, the bureaucratic leviathan is newly threatened by a resurgence of the libertarian ideas upon which the country was founded. We are witnessing a breakdown of all the cherished beliefs of the welfare-warfare state. Americans have seen the failure of big government. Now, in the 1990s, we are ready to apply the lessons of this century to make the next one the century not of the state but of the free individual.

David Boaz presents the essential guidebook to the libertarian perspective, detailing its roots, central tenets, solutions to contemporary policy dilemmas, and future in American politics. He confronts head-on the tough questions frequently posed to libertarians: What about inequality? Who protects the environment? What ties people together if they are essentially self-interested? A concluding section, "Are You a Libertarian?" gives readers a chance to explore the substance oftheir own beliefs. Libertarianism is must reading for understanding one of the most exciting and hopeful movements of our time.

Publishers Weekly

This book is more substantial if less elegantly written than Charles Murray's What It Means to Be a Libertarian (Forecasts, Nov. 18). Boaz, executive v-p of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, reaches back to religion and theorists like David Hume and Adam Smith to explore the roots of libertarianism. Boaz, like Murray, may be too optimistic in his assumption that private charity will supplant government assistance; however, he argues cogently against government excess. Government intervention (taxation, bank insurance, Medicare, etc.), he maintains, can diminish virtues like thrift and self-reliance. Libertarianism, he stresses, enhances individual dignity and pluralism; though he opposes laws based on race, he suggests, intriguingly, that Social Security discriminates against blacks because they have lower life expectancies. Predictably, Boaz argues that free markets enhance economic productivity and employment, and that government programs perpetuate bureaucratic and special interests. Among his proposals: end corporate and farm welfare; chop defense spending in half; abolish numerous federal agencies; privatize government programs. He proposes privatizing the Social Security system and offering tax-free Medical Savings Accounts in which unused money allocated for health insurance could be redirected to savings accounts. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Boaz, executive vice-president of the Cato Institute, advocates libertarianism as the underlying philosophy for 21st-century U.S. politics. He finds that this philosophy allows each person "the right to live his life in any way he chooses as long as he respects the equal rights of others." Boaz claims that libertarian principles will minimize government intervention in people's economic and political choices and enlarge ideas of individual freedom. Indicating that libertarian political and economic approaches can diminish problems that stem from "big government," Boaz also argues that libertarian views can resolve contemporary policy dilemmas, such as drug use or discriminatory employment practices, better than pluralism or capitalism. General readers and individuals concerned with future directions of American politics will find this book an interesting and informative initial analysis. [See also Charles Murray's What It Means to Be a Libertarian, reviewed below.-Ed.]-Steven Puro, St. Louis Univ., Mo.

Kirkus Reviews

From theoretical roots to contemporary policies, Boaz, who is executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, presents a solid introduction to a trendy ideology.

The end of libertarianism is individual freedom, its Antichrist the state, and its mantra the market. Unlike those who bash government simply to further their own interests, Boaz understands the substantive implications of the libertarian merger of natural-rights liberalism and capitalism, and he embraces them. He recognizes that liberty (which calls for maximizing individual choice) is not synonymous with democracy (which is a process of social choice) and promotes the former as the overriding concern. He rejects the government intervention in private lives favored by conservatives just as adamantly as the government intervention in the market favored by 20th-century liberals. There are some odd omissions, however: Public goods are discussed without accounting for national defense, and the role of government (or lack thereof) in the economy without mentioning the provision of money. A more serious omission is the absence of the ultimate critics of government, the 19th-century anarchists, from Boaz's version of intellectual history. No doubt they are ignored because the anarchists included private property and other elements of capitalism in their pantheon of coercive institutions. Boaz simply defines coercion as a function of government and thereby anoints capitalism as a coercion-free form of social organization. Sliding by the more encompassing anarchist critique with an assumption rather than an argument leaves the libertarian infatuation with capitalism open to question.

Despite struggling with tunnel-vision, Boaz tries to be an intellectually honest cheerleader for capitalism and produces a work that should be taken seriously.

Assassins Gate or Benjamin Franklin

2009-01-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq

Author: George Packer

Named one of the Best Books of 2005 by The New York Times, The Washington Post Book World, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The New York Times Book Review, USA Today, Time, and New York magazine.

The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq recounts how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a guerrilla war in Iraq. It brings to life the people and ideas that created the Bush administration’s war policy and led America to the Assassins’ Gate—the main point of entry into the American zone in Baghdad.

The Assassins’ Gate also describes the place of the war in American life: the ideological battles in Washington that led to chaos in Iraq, the ordeal of a fallen soldier ’s family, and the political culture of a country too bitterly polarized to realize such a vast and morally complex undertaking. George Packer’s best-selling first-person narrative combines the scope of an epic history with the depth and intimacy of a novel, creating a masterful account of America’s most controversial foreign venture since Vietnam.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

In his authoritative and tough-minded new book…the New Yorker writer George Packer reminds us that the decision of the Bush administration to go to war against Iraq and its increasingly embattled handling of the occupation were both predicated upon large, abstract ideas about the role of America in the post-cold war world…What The Assassins' Gate may lack in freshness…is more than made up for by its wide-angled, overarching take on the Iraq war and Mr. Packer's lucid ability to pull together information from earlier books and integrate it with his own reporting from Washington and Iraq.

The Washington Post - Gideon Rose

Packer's sketch of the prewar debates is subtle, sharp and poignant. His book truly picks up, however, once the wheels of history have been set in motion. Writing with barely suppressed fury and continued bafflement, he describes how the great and noble enterprise he supported is inexplicably handed over to those least qualified to make it work…Packer relates all this clearly and briskly, painting moving portraits of both Iraqis and Americans while skillfully guiding the reader through the intricacies of colonial administration, Iraqi ethnic politics and Beltway skullduggery. His reporting from Iraq was always good, but the book is even better, putting the reader at the side of Walter Benjamin's angel of history, watching helplessly as the wreckage unfolds at his feet.

Publishers Weekly

It is extremely uncommon for any reporter to read another's work and to find that he altogether recognizes the scene being described. Reading George Packer's book, I found not only that I was remembering things I had forgotten, but also that I was finding things that I ought to have noticed myself. His book rests on three main pillars: analysis of the intellectual origins of the Iraq war, summary of the political argument that preceded and then led to it, and firsthand description of the consequences on the ground. In each capacity, Packer shows himself once more to be the best chronicler, apart perhaps from John Burns of the New York Times, that the conflict has produced. (I say "once more" because some of this material has already appeared in the New Yorker.) A very strong opening section traces the ideas, and the ideologists, of the push for regime change in Iraq. Packer is evidently not a neoconservative, but he provides an admirably fair and lucid account of those who are. There is one extraordinary lacuna in his tale-he manages to summarize the long debate between the "realists" and the "neocons" without mentioning Henry Kissinger-but otherwise he makes an impressively intelligent guide. Of value in itself is the ribbonlike presence, through the narrative, of the impressive exile Iraqi dissident Kanan Makiya, upon whom Packer hones many of his own ideas. (I should confess that I myself make an appearance at this stage and, to my frustration, can find nothing to quarrel with.) The argument within the administration was not quite so intellectual, but Packer takes us through it with insight and verve, giving an excellent account in particular of the way in which Vice President Cheney swung from the "realist" to the "neocon" side. And then the scene shifts to Iraq itself. Packer has a genuine instinct for what the Iraqi people have endured and are enduring, and writes with admirable empathy. His own opinions are neither suppressed nor intrusive: he clearly welcomes the end of Saddam while having serious doubts about the wisdom of the war, and he continually tests himself against experience. The surreal atmosphere of Paul Bremer's brief period of palace rule is very well caught, but the outstanding chapter recounts a visit to the northern city of Kirkuk and literally "walks" us through the mesh of tribal, ethnic and religious rivalry. The Iraq debate has long needed someone who is both tough-minded enough, and sufficiently sensitive, to register all its complexities. In George Packer's work, this need is answered. (Oct. 15) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

What a mess! That is Packer's analysis of America in Iraq. He summarizes the political and intellectual basis for the U.S. presence there as emerging from the neoconservative thinking of Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Kagan, Richard Perle, William Bennett, and other Bush administration figures. He also points to the justification embedded in Arab tyranny, weapons proliferation, strategic threats to oil, the weakness of Democratic party leadership, and security for Israel. Political philosopher Leo Strauss is characterized as the intellectual spinal cord of the Republicans, in neat contrast to Packer's implication of the lack of intellectual capacity or practice by members of the Bush administration. Packer (staff writer, The New Yorker; Blood of the Liberals) moves the focus in the second half of his work from Washington to Iraq to record the experiences and thinking of the lower-level administrators and soldiers as they apply neoconservative policy. Although it has been said that truth is the first thing to disappear in war, Packer meets head on the failings of Washington policy as implemented by those administrators and soldiers on the ground in Iraq. This disturbing and thought-provoking work is recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/05.] Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-This well-researched, articulate, journalistic account details the United States ideology that fomented the war in Iraq that began in the spring of 2003, the planning (actually the lack of it) that went into dealing with the country after Saddam Hussein's expected fall, and the consequences of marrying political ideology to military strategy and the treatment of intelligence. A longtime, well-read student of modern Iraq, Packer writes from personal observation and interviews with decision makers or their staff, and he knows the territory. He has previously written several articles for The New Yorker that reflect some of the conclusions drawn in this book, but most of it is fresh. He was definitely a supporter of this war for many years before March 2003, in large part because he knew many Iraqi migr s and refugees, and despised Saddam Hussein and the Baath party that supported him. Packer concludes: "The Iraq War was always winnable; it still is. For this reason, the recklessness of its authors is all the harder to forgive." Students who want a balanced account of this war and its consequences would do well to read this book.-Alan Gropman, National Defense University, Washington, DC Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

"Iraq," observes New Yorker staff writer Packer (Blood of the Liberals, 2000, etc.), "is the Rashomon of wars."Which is to say, no one can be sure why the U.S. government decided to invade Iraq: Ask any given official, get a different reason from the one offered by the office next door. Yet, to judge by its intellectual architects, the war is on at least one level a war of ideas: Here were men such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Robert Kagan, informed not only by the neoconservatives of the 1960s but, perhaps more importantly, by the communist Trotsky, transposing his permanent revolution onto an Islamic battlefield. Interventionist and even imperialist, these men (and a few women) had little pull with a GOP in opposition to the sort-of-interventionist Bill Clinton, which expressed that opposition by urging America isolationism; it was the task of the neo-neocons to "take over-or take back-the Republican Party. Then, in a few years, the nation. After that, the world." The brilliant geopolitical technocrats in their ranks had their chance once George W. Bush got into office, Packer observes, though Bush had non-intellectual reasons of his own for wanting to overthrow the government of Saddam Hussein. Six days after 9/11, Bush declared, without evidence, that the Iraqis were involved; given events, no evidence was necessary, and so Bush ordered the American army in Afghanistan, where the terrorists were, to transfer their attention to Iraq, saying, "Fuck Saddam. We're taking him out." Enter a new breed of ideologues, such as Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, who, Packer shows, have no ideas but bad ones. Exit the intellectual architects. Enter kid soldiers with ideas of their own abouthow to conduct a war; says one to a prisoner, "I will fucking kick your ass. I will cut you up." Exit the anti-Saddam resistance within Iraq, which has a new enemy. As memorable as Michael Herr's Dispatches, and of surpassing immediacy.

Go to: Cigarettes or Essentials of Sports Nutrition and Supplements with CDROM

Benjamin Franklin

Author: Edmund S Morgan

The greatest statesman of his age, Benjamin Franklin was also a pioneering scientist, a successful author, the first American postmaster general, a printer, a bon vivant. In addition, he was a man of vast contradictions. This best-selling biography by one of our greatest historians offers a compact and provocative new portrait of America's most extraordinary patriot.

"Superb. . . . The best short biography of Franklin ever written. . . .[A] concise and beautifully written portrait of an American hero."-Gordon Wood, New York Review of Books; "While several previous biographies provide fuller accounts of Franklin's life, none rivals Morgan's study for its grasp of Franklin's character, its affinity not just for his ideas, but for the way his mind worked."-Joseph J. Ellis, London Review of Books; "Entrancing. . . . Lucid [and] entertaining."-Charles M. Carberry, USA Today; "In this engaging and readable book, Edmund S. Morgan . . . does more than recount the colorful and gripping story of Franklin's long, action- and idea-filled life; he also skillfully dissects the man's personality and mind, his social self and political beliefs. . . . Illuminating."-Susan Dunn, New York Times Book Review; "A luminous biography."-Louis P. Masur, Chicago Tribune Book Review; "It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to find fault with this book."-Carol Berkin, New England Quarterly

Author Biography: Edmund S. Morgan, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University, has written more than a dozen books. Cited as "one of America's most distinguished historians," he was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2000.

Chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review and as a best book for 2002 by the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, and Publishers Weekly, A finalist for the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography, A New York Times Bestseller

Publishers Weekly

This wonderful biography of an extraordinary man results from a perfect marriage of subject and scholar. Among the most senior of our senior historians, Yale professor emeritus Morgan (American Slavery, American Freedom, etc.) proves himself still at the height of his powers. While Franklin remains, as Morgan writes, elusive and hard to know because "it is so hard to distinguish his natural impulses from his principles," the author probably comes as close to understanding him as anyone can. Rather than focusing on Franklin's role as classic, representative American, Morgan instead gives us a portrait of his public life, almost a third of it spent abroad, in England and France, more than any comparable figure of his generation. In Morgan's hands, Franklin therefore turns out to be more cosmopolitan than provincial, more worldly than Pennsylvanian. He also shines in this biography as someone deeply committed to his fellow Americans and the nation they were creating. Many previous biographers have sought to explain how Franklin helped lay the foundations for a distinctive American mind and personality. Morgan instead takes us more into Franklin's thinking and activities as diplomat and politician and into the way his winning personality served his country so well at the moment it needed him. While suitably critical when Franklin deserves criticism, Morgan's bravura performance is nevertheless a buoyant appreciation of a man whose fame as aphorist in Poor Richard's Almanack and as the scientist who helped discover electricity have often obscured his devotion to the public good. It's hard to imagine a better life study of a man we've all heard about but who is barely known. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Foreign Affairs

Morgan, one of the greatest living authorities on colonial America, has written a concise, excellent, and eminently readable biography. Franklin was the most accomplished of the country's founders. As a scientist and inventor he eclipses Jefferson, and none of the others matched his diplomatic experience and success. No American was better known or more widely admired in Europe. Franklin is the only man whose signature appears on all four of the founding documents of the American republic: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Treaty of Paris, and the Constitution. Morgan has written a book very much like its hero: so fluent, so engaging, and so self-effacing that one only gradually realizes its true breadth and scope. Moreover, he brilliantly sketches the outlines of Franklin's growing views while unobtrusively helping his readers grasp the intricacies of Pennsylvania politics in the 1750s, the swirling debates of the triumphant British Empire after 1760, and the evolving international situation during the American Revolution. Part of what made Franklin great was his genius for company — a genius that struck his contemporaries as exemplifying the finest qualities of the emerging American world. In conveying to modern readers the natural geniality of Franklin's character, Morgan succeeds also in casting new light on the social atmosphere and political ideas of the emerging American nation.

Library Journal

Morgan (Sterling Professor of History, emeritus, Yale), the award-winning author of numerous books, including Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America, here offers the best short biography of Franklin ever written. He is ideally suited to the task. For many years, he has chaired the administrative board that oversees the ongoing work on The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Yale Univ., 36 volumes to date), making this the first biography whose author can claim to have read virtually everything ever written by or to Franklin. Without denying Franklin's flaws, Morgan expresses affection and admiration for his subject throughout. He argues forcefully that Franklin's chief goal was to live a "useful" life, showing that Franklin held public service above his lucrative career as a printer and the fame he achieved as a scientist. Morgan deftly shows how Franklin's desire to serve the public good occasionally led him to support ideas at variance with his personal views. The chief virtue of this book is also its chief flaw. Morgan's almost exclusive reliance on Franklin's papers gives the reader an unparalleled glimpse into Franklin's mind. Yet by keeping the story so closely tied to Franklin, the author sometimes gives too little attention to other persons and to the general social and political context. Moreover, he never discusses how his views compare with those of others, such as David McCullough (John Adams) and H.W. Brands (The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin). Nevertheless, the general reader will find this book to be a well-written, thoughtful appreciation of one of the Founding Fathers who did the most to shape his era and our own. Highly recommended for all public libraries.-T.J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., NY

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Through the simple admission that this biography is meant primarily to introduce Franklin to the general reading public, Morgan avoids the biographer's dilemma of choosing between a narrative focus or presenting a comprehensive history of a subject. He begins with an overview that seeks to educe Franklin's character through an examination of the principles and ideas of this early American Renaissance man as expressed across the board in the various parts of his life. Yet, it is not Franklin the Renaissance man, but rather Franklin the Founding Father of whom Morgan is writing, arguing persuasively that this was the role to which the statesman was most devoted. In telling this story, the author creates a vivid narrative, an adventure story of sorts, which grabs readers with the tale of his subject's part in the political developments of 18th-century America. Yet, the author never loses sight of the importance of the other aspects of the man's personality and the thoughts and actions of others toward him. This is the key to this biography's success: it engages readers' interest in the great drama of this fascinating man's life. Teens may well begin here, and have material enough, but this fascinating introduction could entice them to look further.-Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

In this relatively brief biography, Morgan (History/Yale) aims to depict Franklin's personality as much as the deeds that made him famous. Of course, the two are related: the author argues that, unlike his colleagues among the Founding Fathers who rose to their positions via oratory or elected office or family connections, Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) accomplished his goals by working behind the scenes. He owed his success to his affability, his work as a printer and writer, and his fame as an inventor. His success in England and France as ambassador from the colonies and then the fledgling US derived more from his experiments with electricity than from his diplomatic portfolio. Having founded most of the cultural institutions in Philadelphia at the time, usually by coordinating groups of friends to support his proposals rather than working personally on any one project, he easily fluttered in and out of the English and French courts, discussing everything from the new devices called hot-air balloons to the loans Congress had asked him to acquire for his new country. Franklin's skills at adapting to his environment could also be a shortcoming, writes Morgan. At the outset of the Revolution, he was an unrepentant imperialist who believed America would someday be the center of the British Empire. He'd spent years hobnobbing with British officials, and his initial proposals to keep the colonies in the fold were completely out of touch with the facts on the ground in places like Boston, where noted citizens were dumping tea into the harbor. By the time Franklin became a member of the Constitutional Convention, he tended to sit silently, his gravitas contributing more than his sharp tongue.Morgan's account is based almost exclusively on its subject's massive collection of writings (now being edited for publication in 46 volumes), but Franklin was diversified enough to satisfy most readers. An excellent portrayal of a patriot's style and substance.

	Preface
1	An Exciting World	1
2	"A Dangerous Man"	47
3	An Empire of Englishmen	71
4	Proprietary Pretensions	104
5	The Importance of Opinion	145
6	Endgame	189
7	Becoming American	220
8	Representing a Nation of States	242
9	A Difficult Peace	272
10	Going Home	298
	Chronology	315
	Some of the People in Franklin's Life	317
	Notes	323
	Credits	333
	Index	335

The Transparent Cabal or Profiling Violent Crimes

2009-01-13T21:57:00.000-08:00

The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel

Author: Stephen J Sniegoski

Although it is generally understood that American neoconservatives pushed hard for the war in Iraq, this book forcefully argues that the neocons' goal was not the spread of democracy, but the protection of Israel's interests in the Middle East. Showing that the neocon movement has always identified closely with the interests of Israel's Likudnik right wing, the discussion contends that neocon advice on Iraq was the exact opposite of conventional United States foreign policy, which has always sought to maintain stability in the region to promote the flow of oil. Various players in the rush to war are assessed according to their motives, including President Bush, Ariel Sharon, members of the foreign-policy establishment, and the American people, who are seen not as having been dragged into war against their will, but as ready after 9/11 for retaliation.

New interesting textbook: Interventi di sviluppo di carriera in ventunesimo secolo

Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool

Author: Stephen T Holmes

"I highly recommend the second edition of Profiling Violent Crimes for classroom use. It is easy to read and understand, and it makes good sense." --Jack Levin, Northeastern University "Professor Holmes is to be congratulated for producing such a quality work as this for his second edition. I strongly recommend this volume for anyone teaching in the areas of violence, criminal behavior, or serial crime. . . . With this book, Ronald M. Holmes has reasserted himself as one of the leading authorities concerning the area of serial crime. . . . I believe that Profiling Violent Crimes, Second Edition will enhance the field of serial crime profiling for many years." --Robert Hale, Southeastern Louisiana University [also see praise for the first edition in the master below this one] With captivating new additions to the best-selling first edition, Profiling Violent Crimes, Second Edition offers a state-of-the-art overview of the general principles of profiling. Presenting the techniques required to develop a complete sociopsychological profile, authors Ronald M. Holmes and Stephen T. Holmes discuss how to use this important tool as a part of effective investigations. Intriguing case examples and illustrations portray the complexity of deviant personality while maintaining a scientific focus and approach. Augmented by valuable tables and charts, this edition also features extensive updates and new chapters on pedophilia, arson, geoforensic information, and the use of computers in profiling. As a textbook vital to students in criminology and criminal justice fields, or as a resource for criminal justice professionals and researchers, Profiling Violent Crimes, Second Edition contributessignificantly to the knowledge about violent personalities and behaviors.

Booknews

Extensively revised to include new material in this fast-expanding field, this volume includes new chapters addressing criminal behavior theories and psychological profiling, autoerotic deaths, and occult crimes, as well as detailed profiles of several famous unsolved crimes and criminals including the Jon Benet Ramsay case and Jack the Ripper. Other additions include a chapter on victims and improved coverage of the theoretical aspects of sociopsychological profiling. Suitable for students in criminology and criminal justice as well as for professionals and researchers in those fields. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

	Preface and Acknowledgments
1	Psychological Profiling: An Introduction	1
	Inductive Versus Deductive Profiling	5
	Goals in Profiling	7
	Profiling: An Art, Not a Science	10
2	Profiling in Fantasy and Fact	16
	Sherlock Holmes: The Master Detective	16
	Will Graham and Red Dragon	18
	Clarice Starling and The Silence of the Lambs	20
	Zoe Koehler: A Female Serial Murderer	21
	Dr. Laszlo Kreizler: The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness	23
	Other Works of Fiction and Psychological Profiling	23
	Profiling in Fact	25
	Profile of a Rape Case	31
	An Actual Profile: Mrs. Charlene L. Miller	32
3	The Rationale for Psychological Profiling	37
	Personality and Crime	37
	New Ways of Viewing the Personality	40
	Assumptions of the Profiling Process	40
4	Criminal Theories and Psychological Profiling	47
	Theories of Crime and Criminality	49
	Individual Theories of Crime	50
	Social and Ecological Theories of Crime	65
	Combining the Disciplines	68
	Key Terms	69
5	Analyzing the Crime Scene	71
	Beyond the Physical Evidence	71
	Psychological Profiling Typology	72
	Crime Scene Differences	80
6	Arson and Psychological Profiling	85
	What Is Arson?	85
	Statistics on Arson	87
	A View of the Firesetter	89
	Typologies of Firesetters	90
	The Pyromaniac's Firesetting Experience	98
	Types of Arsonists	100
	Organized Versus Disorganized Personality	104
7	Profiling Serial Murderers	109
	Typology of Serial Murderers	110
	Spatial Mobility of Serial Killers	111
	Serial Murderers: General Characteristics	115
	Profiling a Serial Murder Case	126
8	Psychological Profiling and Rape	139
	Definitions of Rape	139
	Statistics on Rape	140
	Selected Characteristics of Rapists	142
	Psychology and Rape	143
	Typology of Rapists	144
9	Pedophilia and Psychological Profiling	158
	Child Molester or Pedophile	158
	Types of Pedophiles	161
	Profiling Child Molester Types	168
10	Autoeroticism	172
	What Is Autoerotic Sex Behavior?	173
	Traits and Characteristics of Autoerotic Practitioners	176
	Autoerotic Scene Indicators	179
	Evidence of Past Autoerotic Behaviors	182
11	Profiling Satanic and Cult-Related Murders	185
	Roots of Satanism	186
	Satanism in the United States	186
	The Satanic Bible	187
	Types of Personal Involvement in Satanism	188
	General Beliefs in Satanism	195
	Satanic Masses	199
	Satanic Ceremonies	200
	Crime Scene Elements	202
12	Geography, Profiling, and Predatory Criminals	208
	The Role of Geography	208
	The Nature of Geographic Profiling	215
	Computerized Geographical Analyses	220
13	Jack the Ripper: A Case for Psychological Profiling	223
	Victim: Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols	224
	Victim: Annie Chapman	228
	Victim: Elizabeth Stride	231
	Victim: Catharine Eddowes	234
	Victim: Mary Kelly	236
	Who Was Jack the Ripper?	240
14	Jonbenet Ramsey: The Murder of a Beauty Queen	243
	The Principal Players in the Ramsey Murder Case	243
	The Morning of the Murder, December 26, 1996	247
	Aftermath of the Investigation	255
	The Autopsy Report	255
15	The Victim in Psychological Profiling	268
	Elements in the Victim Profiling Process	268
16	Profiling and the Future	275
	Additional Uses for Profiling	275
	Eduction and Training for Profiling	276
	Computerized Monitoring	277
	Computerized Profiling	279
	References	281
	Index	292
	About the Authors	299

Dirty Politics or Tower Stories

2009-01-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

Dirty Politics: Deception, Distraction, and Democracy

Author: Kathleen Hall Jamieson

Americans in recent years have become thoroughly disenchanted with our political campaigns, especially with campaign advertising and speeches. Each year, as November approaches, we are bombarded with visceral appeals that bypass substance, that drape candidates in the American flag but tell us nothing about what they'll do if elected, that flood us with images of PT-109 or Willie Horton, while significant issues--such as Kennedy's Addison's Disease or the looming S&L catastrophe--are left unexamined. And the press--the supposed safeguard of democracy--focuses on campaign strategy over campaign substance, leaving us to decide where the truth lies.
In Dirty Politics, campaign analyst Kathleen Hall Jamieson provides an eye-opening look at political ads and speeches, showing us how to read, listen to, and watch political campaigns. Jamieson provides a sophisticated (and often humorous) analysis of advertising technique, describing how television ads use soft focus, slow motion, lyrical or patriotic music (Reagan used "I'm Proud to be an American") to place a candidate in a positive light, or quick cuts, black and white, videotape, and ominous music (for instance, the theme from "Jaws") to portray the opposition. She shows how ads sometimes mimic news spots to add authenticity (Edwin Edwards, in his race against David Duke, actually used former NBC correspondent Peter Hackis, who would begin an ad saying "This is Peter Hackis in Baton Rouge"). And Jamieson points out that consultants create inflammatory ads hoping that the major networks will pick them up and run them as news, giving the ad millions of dollars of free air time. The most striking example would be the Willie Horton ad,which the press aired repeatedly (as an example of negative advertising) long after the ad had ceased running. (In fact, it never ran on the major networks as an ad, only as news.)
From a colorful, compact history of negative campaigning from Eisenhower to the present, to an in-depth commentary on the Willie Horton ads, to an up-to-the-minute analysis of the Duke-Edwards campaign in Louisiana, Dirty Politics is both a fascinating look at underhanded campaigning as well as a compelling argument for fair, accurate, and substantive campaigns. It is a book that all voters should read before they vote again.

	Introduction	3
I	Attack Campaigning
1	The Role of Drama and Data in Political Decisions	15
2	Tactics of Attack	43
3	Patriotism and Prejudice: Visceral Responses and Stereotypes That Foil Argument	64
4	Countering Attacks: Pitting the Propositional Against the Primal	102
II	Ads and the News
5	Power of Ads to Shape News	123
6	Adbites, Ad Stories, and Newsads	136
III	News Coverage of the Campaign
7	The News Media as Sounding Board	163
8	Solutions or Strategy?	189
IV	Accountability, Engagement, and Democracy
9	Argument, Engagement, and Accountability in Political Discourse	203
10	The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: 1960-1988 and Beyond	237
	Appendix I	267
	Appendix II	281
	Notes	289
	Bibliography	310
	Index	329

Look this: Generation Rx or Herbs Demystified

Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11

Author: Damon DiMarco

Including follow-up interviews which track contributors' lives since 9/11, as well as never-before-published photographs, this expanded second edition of a literary time capsule preserves a monumental tragedy in American history through the voices of the people who were in Lower Manhattan and elsewhere in New York at the time of the attack. The diverse stories chronicled here include a small group of people who made it safely down from the 89th floor of Tower 1, a paramedic who set up a triage area 200 yards from the base of the towers before they collapsed, and ordinary citizens trying to get on with their lives in the days following the tragic event. Voices represented include police, firefighters, paramedics, reporters, volunteers, eyewitnesses, the bereaved of 9/11, World Trade Center structural engineers, political experts, political dissidents, and children who witnessed the events.

William F. Buckley

This volume defends the understanding, as also the horror, of that day. We are indebted to Mr. DiMarco for the effort and for the editorial acuity.

Publishers Weekly

The only widely available oral history of 9/11 from the perspective of New Yorkers, this monumental work (originally released by Revolution in 2004) has been updated for the sixth anniversary of the national tragedy. In the weeks following the World Trade Center attack, DiMarco, in the tradition of Studs Terkel, wandered Manhattan collecting the stories of Gothamites who survived the collapse of the towers, as well as those who came to help or simply bore witness-whether from elsewhere in the city, across the country or overseas. Two major themes emerge, the first concerning the heroism of common decency: Florence Engoran, five months' pregnant on the day of the attack, was helped down 55 flights of stairs by near strangers, "two men [who] promised that they were gonna stay with me the whole time down, which they did." In the same vein, Jan Demczur relates how he used his window washing tools to save himself and an elevator full of people, and Dr. Walter Gerasimowicz tells of the men who aided him when he was forced to evacuate without his crutches. The rigors of loss and mourning make a second theme: Patrick Charles Welsh, whose wife perished on flight 93, says, "I was so devastated by this unheard cry of souls . . . This moan of humanity going straight up to heaven." Though a good idea, the scholarly essays that close the book, concerning the U.S.-Middle East relations, feel off-puttingly distant compared to the stories that precede them. DiMarco's contribution to the memory of that horrific day is enormous; the testimonies collected here form an amazing, one-of-a-kind account. Photos. (Sept.)

Margaret Heilbrun - Library Journal

Most oral histories are compiled by a person classified as editor. That DiMarco (theater arts, Drew Univ.) is labeled as author, as for his Heart of War: Soldiers' Voices from the Front Lines of Iraq, causes unnecessary confusion. (The Library of Congress CIP rightly clarifies that he is the editor.) Although the book's value as primary source documentation of a transforming catastrophe is diminished by its lack of an index, the material it offers is unique, a multitude of firsthand experiences preserved as few other 9/11 books have done. This second edition is expanded with many more photographs and with updates about a number of the witnesses interviewed. Recommended for all publicand undergraduate libraries.

See also September 11, 2001,a new entry in the "One Day in History" series to be reviewed, in LJ9/15/07.

The Best Intentions or Whos Looking Out for You

2009-01-12T22:31:00.000-08:00

The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power

Author: James Traub

A man who had won the Nobel Peace Prize, who was widely counted one of the greatest UN Secretary Generals, was nearly hounded from office by scandal. Indeed, both Annan and the institution he incarnates were so deeply shaken after the Bush Administration went to war in Iraq in the face of opposition from the Security Council that critics, and even some friends, began asking whether this sixty-year-old experiment in global policing has outlived its usefulness. Do its failures arise from its own structure and culture, or from a clash with an American administration determined to go its own way in defiance of world opinion?

James Traub, a New York Times Magazine contributor who has spent years writing about the UN and about foreign affairs, delves into these questions as no one else has done before. Traub enjoyed unprecedented access to Annan and his top aides throughout much of this traumatic period. He describes the despair over the Oil-for-Food scandal, the deep divide between those who wished to accommodate American critics and those who wished to confront them, the failed attempt to goad the Security Council to act decisively against state-sponsored ethnic cleansing in Sudan. And he recounts Annan’s effort to respond to criticism with sweeping reform—an effort which ultimately shattered on the resistance of U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.

In The Best Intentions, Traub recounts the dramatically entwined history of Kofi Annan and the UN from 1992 to the present. In Annan he sees a conscientious idealist given too little credit for advancing causes like humanitarian intervention and an honest broker crushed between American conservatives and Third Worldopponents—but also a UN careerist who has absorbed that culture and can not, in the end, escape its limitations.

The New York Times - Josef Joffe

Is the United Nations boring and irrelevant? This book certainly is not. Call the organization a "haven of hypocrites" or "humanity's best hope," tote up its many miseries and few glories. But if you want to understand this vexing creature with its 192 heads, The Best Intentions is one of the finest guides around, indeed, the best in recent memory…Traub, always the dispassionate analyst, neither condemns nor condones. His is a melancholy tale, beautifully written and meticulously researched—about a hero who was not so much flawed as indecisive, whose clout could never measure up to his lofty purpose. How could it? A secretary general is precisely what the title says: a secretary beholden to 192 bosses, all seeking power while pretending to serve the common good.

Library Journal

A contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, Traub assesses not only high-profile UN secretary-general Kofi Annan but also the problems facing the UN. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A heartbreaking book about a hardworking idealist's frustrated attempts to restore the stature of the cumbersome United Nations in a world dominated by "the preemptively belligerent America."New York Times Magazine contributor Traub (The Devil's Playground, 2004, etc.) offers a detailed account of Kofi Annan's 1992-96 tenure as head of UN peacekeeping and then as the Secretary-General whose battering from the Bush Administration during its invasion of Iraq sent him into "something like a nervous breakdown," and left the UN seriously weakened. The author depicts Annan as a modest and charming career civil servant. He joined the UN in 1962, taking a low-grade job in Geneva, and assumed his present leadership post in 1997, lionized as a peacemaker. After 9/11, things changed: The U.S. invaded Iraq without Security Council approval, and the UN's failure to find a multilateral solution underscored its seeming irrelevance in an era of conflicts involving stateless terrorists. Written with Annan's cooperation, the book traces the Nobel Peace Prize-winner's struggle to build consensus and achieve reforms in the face of U.S. indifference (often shading into outright hostility) and the scandal over corruption in the UN's Oil-For-Food program, which left him devastated. Traub's hundreds of interviews produce stories of well-intentioned bureaucrats caught up in endless politicking and paper-pushing; sharp portraits of ineffectual, careerist aides in the Renaissance court-like atmosphere of Annan's office on the 38th floor of the Secretariat Building; and many glimpses of the low-key Secretary-General in action as he searches for elusive common ground in meetings and on tours abroad. Annan sometimesseems emotionless to the point of being strange. He is unable to comfort a colleague upset by the deaths of 22 UN workers in Baghdad; he sits quietly, compulsively taking notes in a secret three-hour meeting called by former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke and other intimates to warn Annan that the UN's grave situation requires a complete management overhaul. The good news? "The UN will muddle along in the future."Agent: Andrew Wylie/Wylie Agency

Preface     xi
Part I
A Greater Magna Carta...     3
A Gold Coast Man     29
Peace, Not Justice     44
The American Candidate     67
Kofi in the Lion's Den     83
Bosnia Never Again     102
The Exquisite Ironies of Benevolent Colonialism     124
Romancing Cousin Jesse     146
Who's Going to Run Afghanistan?     169
Saddam's Pyrrhic Victory     187
"What Did They Die For?"     212
Part II
The Security Council Fiddles While Darfur Burns     233
The Gentle King and His Court     255
Two Cheers-If That-for Diplomacy     266
Oil-for-Food: The Witch Hunt     281
Kofi Briefly Rescued by Disaster     305
Nice Guys Get Crushed     316
"They're Laughing at Us in Khartoum"     339
Oil-for-Food: The Nightmare     359
The Black Hole of Kinshasa     377
America's Interest in UN Reform Is...What, Exactly?     399
John Bolton's Nuclear Strategy     415
Model UN     445
Epilogue     453
Afterword     469
A Note on Sources     479
Acknowledgments     483
Index     485

New interesting book: Life and Death in the Third Reich or Unlimited Access

Who's Looking Out for You?

Author: Bill OReilly

Media powerhouse and expert critic Bill O'Reilly's most comprehensive book yet offers new insight into the current state of life in America. In examining the social, political, and economic aspects of our daily lives, O'Reilly exhausts every bureaucratic system to see what our higher-ups are doing to take care of us, and points out the people and institutions who are failing the average American. At the same time, he makes one of his most profound and daring journeys yet, as he ventures to question how much genuine altruism is left in a society that thrives on a competitive, increasingly self-indulgent ethos. With thoughtfulness and candor, O'Reilly targets our biggest problems, and offers sage advice on how to regain control and trust in these troubled times.

Publishers Weekly

The tough-talking, no-spin anchor of The O'Reilly Factor offers his many fans another no-holds-barred excoriation of the usual suspects-but also, surprisingly, some others. In his latest, the bestselling author (The No-Spin Zone) scrutinizes the forces at play in the lives of ordinary Americans, seeking to answer the question in the title. His conclusion: not the U.S. government; not the media; not the Catholic bishops ("elderly white men who have spent their lives playing politics and currying favor with the conservative zealots in the Vatican"). Other offenders include "antipolice minority `leaders' "; Hollywood moguls who put profit before public morality; lawyers eager to make a buck on the back of taxpayers and the justice system itself- and the list goes on. But this is not an exercise in complaint; in fact, it is the opposite. This surprisingly personal book gets even more personal in the last two chapters where O'Reilly provides examples of his own blunders and vulnerabilities on his path to success. In the last chapter, entitled "Here's to You," O'Reilly counsels his readers: take care of your mind and your body; read books; exercise; forgive yourself; be independent and practice tolerance. While he at times falls into clich and overly simplistic analysis, he manages to pull off an inspirational guide to life's most basic quandaries. O'Reilly has found a niche and continues to capitalize successfully on it. He is able to package conservative ideas so that they are palatable to a broader audience, and despite his confrontational, some might say merciless, style, he makes his readers and viewers feel that he is looking out for them. (On sale Sept. 23) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Animal Underworld or The State of the Native Nations

2009-01-12T11:17:00.000-08:00

Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species

Author: Alan Green

A vast and previously undisclosed underground economy exists in the United States. The products bought and sold: animals. In Animal Underworld, veteran investigative journalist Alan Green exposes the sleazy, sometimes illegal web of those who trade in rare and exotic creatures. Green and The Center for Public Integrity reveal which American zoos and amusement parks dump their "surplus" animals on the middlemen adept at secretly redirecting them into the private pet trade. We're taken to exotic-animal auctions, where the anonymous high bidders are often notorious dealers, hunting-ranch proprietors, and profit-minded charlatans masquerading as conservationists. We visit some of the nation's most prestigious universities and research laboratories, whosediseased monkeys are "laundered" through this same network of breeders and dealers until they finally reach the homes of unsuspecting pet owners. And we meet the men and women who make their living by skirting through loopholes in the law, or by ignoring the law altogether. For anyone who cares about animals; for pet owners, zoo-goers, wildlife conservationists, and animalwelfare advocates, Animal Underworld is gripping, shocking reading.

Publishers Weekly

In a shocking and heartbreaking expos , Green examines the fate of unwanted animals cast off by U.S. zoos and theme parks. Many of the nation's leading zoos, he reports, sell their unwanted animals--whether surplus, aging and decrepit, or babies bred for sale--to supposedly reputable dealers who, in turn, dump the animals onto roadside attractions, unaccredited petting zoos, private hunting parks and bogus sanctuaries that will hand over endangered species to anyone for a buck. Using easily doctored documents, the animals are laundered into obscurity, shunted from opportunistic breeders to wretched menageries, auctioneers, backyard hobbyists and even university research centers. Many of these animals, according to Green, suffer cruel abuse, mistreatment or fatal neglect; some end up as exotic meat on the grocery shelf. He also argues that zoos ignore their own edict by permitting animals to migrate almost uncontrollably into the hands of unaccredited institutions. Working with the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, Green crisscrossed the country, combing thousands of health certificates and interviewing hundreds of people. He tracked smugglers and poachers who traffic in rare species disappearing from their native habitats, which are then sold to "exotic pet" owners. He takes aim particularly at the thousands of Americans who keep dangerous pets like tigers or cougars, inviting human tragedies. A major feat of investigative reporting, this book spells out sensible strategies to clean up this unholy mess, including a proposal that zoos should provide cradle-to-grave care to their denizens. Green's important, eye-opening report could spark a national debate. Photos. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Remember the last time you took a child to the zoo and cooed over the baby lion? Or the time you stopped at that roadside petting zoo and enjoyed feeding the deer and antelopes? Most of us have similar happy memories of summer afternoons spent observing animals in zoos and game parks. Unfortunately, there is a harsh reality that lies under the surface. Investigative reporter Green, with the support of the Center for Public Integrity, scratched that surface, and the result is this disturbing expos of the trade in exotic and endangered species. Animals are "laundered," given false health certificates and new identities and provenance. They are sold at auction, ending up in canned hunts, nonaccredited and disreputable zoos, or in meat markets. They are dismembered, and their organs are used as aphrodisiacs. They are beaten, tortured, left to die of starvation or dehydration. This shocking book is an eye-opener that belongs in every collection.--Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll. Lib., NH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

The Christian Science Monitor - Lori Valigra

Green does justice to documenting the sad relationship between people and the animals they keep for pleasure. Unlike the horse in "Black Beauty," Green's animals rarely find a happy ending. Perhaps this book will help change that.

Kirkus Reviews

You wouldn't want to be a member of the captive-bred wildlife population in this country, even in a zoo. Chances are, as investigative journalist Green carefully charts out, you would wind up in a small enclosure, there to be shot for "sport." Exotic animals fascinate and delight us, and we are willing to pay to see our favorite charismatic fauna, the tigers and elephants and pandas. We enjoy the bizarre as well, the white-tailed gnus and the addax. We also like them young or very old, and zoos have found themselves with an overabundance of middle-aged animals: "There is, in short, no place for them, and they are of real worth only when disassembled." Skins make rugs, paws are nibbled as delicacies; whole animals find themselves in everything from exotic-animal hunting operations to ratty, vermin-infested roadside/nightclub venues. Feel the urge to shoot a Nubian ibex? Got a couple grand? Done. Green (along with the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity, which examines public service and ethical issues) is able to flourish his pull-no-punches style because he has done the legwork, following the arcane and nearly invisible paper trails that cast a harsh light on such venerable establishments as the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and the San Diego Zoo, who rid themselves of unwanted, unprofitable inmates by selling them to unscrupulous dealers. Green makes it clear that heaven-sent sanctuaries like the Primate Rescue Center exist, though for each one of them there are legions of horrific places run by ethically impaired yahoos. Green also makes it clear why: captive-bred wildlife falls between the legal cracks, with the US Dept. of Agriculture only handling egregious animalwelfare infringements and US Fish and Wildlife interested in international trafficking and the Endangered Species Act. No one is responsible for the captive breds, and few show any concern. What Green is talking about here is zoos' long-term commitment to the welfare of the animals they breed. But that commitment doesn't pay, it costs, and profits—not ethics—drive the zoo business. (8 pages b&w photos) (Author tour)

The State of the Native Nations

Author: The Harvard Project on American Indian

Media filters and personal preconceptions can make it hard to get a clear view of present-day Indian America. The reality is that the 500+ Native nations in the United States confront many of the same day-to-day challenges that are faced by other nations and communities--raising children with strong identities, practicing religion, providing economic sustenance, strengthening culture, managing business and governmental affairs, and protecting public health and safety--but they are doing so from foundations built on their distinct histories, cultures, and circumstances. The State of the Native Nations: Conditions under U.S. Policies of Self-Determination chronicles the efforts, obstacles, and accomplishments that are shaping Indian Country under contemporary federal policies and responsive tribal strategies of self-determination.
In The State of the Native Nations, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development brings together scholars and Native leaders to produce the most comprehensive, cohesive interdisciplinary study available on current conditions and trends in Indian Country. Broad in scope and thematically organized, the volume features twenty-three chapters covering issues ranging from tribal governance, land and natural resources, and economic and social development, to arts and culture, the large off-reservation Native population, and federal Indian policy. Fourteen accompanying essays bring to life the personal perspectives of noted national leaders in Native affairs. The result is invaluable insight into the universal challenges of creating resilient, sustained, and self-determined communities.
FEATURES:
* Balances first-personaccounts and field findings with extensive and up-to-date data and facts
* Emphasizes the critical issues of Native self-determination and nation-building
* Puts contemporary issues in their historical and policy contexts
* Integrates case studies that highlight successful examples of the practice of Native nation self-determination

Governing by Network or Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities

2009-01-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector

Author: Stephen Goldsmith

"A fundamental, but mostly hidden, transformation is happening in the way public services are being delivered, and in the way local and national governments fulfill their policy goals. Government executives are redefining their core responsibilities away from managing workers and providing services directly to orchestrating networks of public, private, and nonprofit organizations to deliver the services that government once did itself. Authors Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers call this new model "governing by network" and maintain that the new approach is a dramatically different type of endeavor than simply managing divisions of employees." Governing by Network examines for the first time how managers on both sides of the aisle, public and private, are coping with the changes. Drawing from dozens of case studies, as well as established best practices, the authors tell us what works and what doesn't. Here is a clear roadmap for actually governing the networked state for elected officials, business executives, and the broader public.

Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities

Author: Karen K Kirst Ashman

Now available in paperback format and thoroughly updated to reflect the latest CSWE ethical standards and current social work literature, this hands-on text offers a practical, user-friendly, and comprehensive introduction to foundation macro practice. Encouraging you to build on their one-on-one (micro) and group (mezzo) communication skills, the authors outline a guided, step-by-step plan for community and organizational change. Two models -- Prepare and Imagine -- form the heart of the book, providing valuable frameworks for effective macro social work practice. A running case study illustrates these models in action. The authors' coverage of such skills as working with the media, using new technological advances, fundraising, grant writing, and working within court settings -- as well as lively vignettes and a wide variety of highlights that include hands-on tips and sample forms -- will further enhance your expertise.

International Politics or Ethical Standards in Social Work

2009-01-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues

Author: Robert J Art

With an abundance of new essays reflecting the ever-changing landscape of world politics, the eighth edition of this renowned reader provides students with comprehensive coverage of the most important IR concepts, trends, and current issues.

Edited by two of the most respected scholars in the field, this best-selling collection places contemporary essays alongside classics of the discipline and includes divergent views to ensure a balanced perspective. The presentation of alternative perspectives provides students with challenging material in the language of the field. The anthology presents clear, theoretical works that inspire a deeper understanding of the forces that shape today's world.

Detailed Contents     VII
Preface     XIII
Anarchy and Its Consequences     1
Power and Principle in Statecraft     7
The Consequences of Anarchy     29
The Mitigation of Anarchy     69
The Uses of Force     127
The Political Uses of Force     131
The Four Functions of Force   Robert J. Art     131
The Diplomacy of Violence   Thomas C. Schelling     139
Offense, Defense, and the Security Dilemma   Robert Jervis     153
What Is Terrorism?   Bruce Hoffman     174
The Political Utility of Force Today     181
The Fungibility of Force   Robert J. Art     181
The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism   Robert A. Pape     198
The Spread of Nuclear Weapons     217
Nuclear Instability in South Asia   Scott D. Sagan     217
Nuclear Stability in South Asia   Kenneth N. Waltz     228
A Nuclear-Armed Iran: A Difficult but Not Impossible Policy Problem   Barry R. Posen     239
International Political Economy and the Environment     255
Perspectives on Political Economy     263
The Nature ofPolitical Economy   Robert Gilpin     263
The Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policies   Michael J. Hiscox     280
The Great Divide in the Global Village   Bruce R. Scott     290
Globalization and Its Critics     303
Globalization of the Economy   Jeffrey Frankel     303
Why the World Isn't Flat   Pankaj Ghemawat     319
Trading in Illusions   Dani Rodrik     325
Why the Globalization Backlash Is Stupid   John Micklethwait   Adrian Wooldridge     333
Has Globalization Passed Its Peak?   Rawi Abdelal   Adam Segal     340
The Environment and Climate Change     347
The Tragedy of the Commons   Garrett Hardin     347
Demography, Environment, and Civil Strife   Colin H. Kahl     353
International Cooperation on Climate Change: Numbers, Interests and Institutions   David G. Victor     364
One Answer to Global Warming: A New Tax   N. Gregory Mankiw     372
Contemporary World Politics     375
Conflict, Interstate War, and Terrorism     379
The Era of Leading Power Peace   Robert Jervis     379
The Clash of Civilizations?   Samuel P. Huntington     395
Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?   F. Gregory Gause III     411
Can the War on Terror Be Won?   Philip H. Gordon     419
Civil Wars, Intervention, and Nation-Building     427
Failed States, Collapsed States, Weak States: Causes and Indicators   Robert I. Rotberg     427
Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars   Chaim Kaufmann     435
Nation-Building: UN Surpasses U.S. on Learning Curve   James Dobbins     457
Deconstructing Nation Building   James L. Payne     466
New Actors and New Forces     471
Europe Without Illusions   Andrew Moravcsik     471
Transnational Activist Networks   Margaret E. Keck   Kathryn Sikkink     477
NGOs: Fighting Poverty, Hurting the Poor   Sebastian Mallaby     484
Transnational Organized Crime and the State   Phil Williams     491
Human Rights, Justice, and International Law     504
Human Rights in World Politics   Rhoda E. Howard   Jack Donnelly     504
Reflections on Intervention   Kofi Annan     517
International Law: The Trials of Global Norms   Steven R. Ratner     523
The Dilemmas of Transitional Justice   Neil J. Kritz     529
Modes of Global Governance     539
The United Nations and International Security   Adam Roberts     539
Globalization and Governance   Kenneth N. Waltz     548
Rising Powers and Global Institutions   G. John Ikenberry     560
Democracies of the World, Unite   Ivo Daalder   James Lindsay     567
Government Networks and Global Governance   Anne-Marie Slaughter     577

Ethical Standards in Social Work: A Review of the NASW Code of Ethics

Author: Frederic G Reamer

The second edition of Ethical Standards in Social Work offers the social work profession the only in-depth analysis of the NASW Code of Ethics. The NASW code provides social workers with a comprehensive summary and analysis of ethical standards in the profession and an explicit statement of the profession's principal mission and core values. This is an updated overview of relevant literature with a new appendix that offers readers challenging ethics cases. This practical guide is designed to help social workers make sound ethical decisions and minimize malpractice risk.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Essential ethics content that is a required element in social work education programs
• Extensive application of case examples to the NASW Code of Ethics
• Evolution of ethical issues in the social work profession
• Relevant curriculum content in the areas of clinical practice, social policy, social work administration, community practice, research and evaluation, and cultural, ethic, and social diversity

Practice of Research in Social Work or A Knock at Midnight

2009-01-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

Practice of Research in Social Work

Author: Rafael J Engel

Congratulations to esteemed author Russell Schutt, 2007 recipient of University of Massachusetts, Boston's Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Service!

Based on Russell Schutt's Investigating the Social World, the most successful and innovative social research text in the last decade, The Practice of Research in Social Work introduces research methods as an integrated set of techniques for investigating social work research and practice problems.

Key Features:

Integrates substance and method: Each chapter focuses on a substantive research question in areas such as homelessness and domestic violence. The authors use real-life data and integrate the most contemporary treatments of the latest developments in social work research approaches.
Treats specific methods as part of a coherent whole, rather than a disparate collection of techniques: Throughout the text, the authors reveal how students can use a combination of methods--both qualitative and quantitative--to best explore their research question.
Presents ethical decision-making as an integral part of the research design process rather than a disconnected step: Foundations of research ethics are introduced in Chapter Two, and each subsequent chapter concludes with a separate section on ethics in data collection, analysis, and reporting.
Integrates cultural group differences and similarities in social work research throughout: The authors stress that the diverse populations with which one works should be considered during everystep of the research process.
Provides students with multiple methods for checking their reading comprehension and preparing for exams: The text comes bundled with Student Resources on a CD-ROM, featuring Interactive Exercises, SPSS® datasets, and survey instruments that relate to the datasets. The book's Companion Student Study site: sagepub.com/prsw offers a collection of journal articles, E-flash cards and self-quizzes.
Provides instructors with ample materials to support different pedagogical approaches: Instructor's Resources, which are provided on a CD-ROM, feature lecture outlines, Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides, and electronic versions of the artwork from the book to support different presentation styles. This CD also includes a dynamic textbank, suggestions for group projects, and other valuable teaching tools.

The Practice of Research in Social Work is an essential text for research methods courses in schools of social work, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and for research methods courses in graduate counseling programs or in nursing programs.

1	Science, society, and social work research	1
2	The process and problems of social work research	27
3	Conceptualization and measurement	63
4	Sampling	101
5	Causation and research design	133
6	Group experimental designs	155
7	Single-subject design	185
8	Survey research	221
9	Qualitative methods : observing, participating, listening	273
10	Evaluation research	305
11	Quantitative data analysis	335
12	Qualitative data analysis and content analysis	379
13	Reporting research	409

Interesting textbook: Les fondements d'Avenirs et de Marchés d'Options avec CDROM

A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Author: Martin Luther King Jr

With fiery words of wisdom and a passion for justice. Reverend Martin Luther King. Jr., inspired people everywhere to perform extraordinary acts of courage and ignited one of the most influential movements of the twentieth century. This is the definitive collection of eleven of his most powerful sermons, from his earliest known audio recording to his last sermon, delivered days before his assassination. With introductions by renowned theologians and ministers including Reverend Billy Graham and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, filled with moving personal reflections and firsthand accounts of the events surrounding each sermon. A Knock At Midnight is Dr. King's living voice today, an irresistible call that resonates and inspires the greatness in us all.

Library Journal

The King family and Time Warner have collaborated on this selection of memorable sermons by King, from "Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool" to "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution." Each sermon has its own introduction, with the Rev. Billy Graham and Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu among the contributors. (An audio version is also available.)

Three Guineas or A Sense of Where You Are

2009-01-10T02:25:00.000-08:00

Three Guineas

Author: Virginia Woolf

The author received three separate requests for a gift of one guinea-one for a women’s college building fund, one for a society promoting the employment of professional women, and one to help prevent war and “protect culture, and intellectual liberty.” This book is a threefold answer to these requests-and a statement of feminine purpose.

Library Journal

Three of Woolf's top works get annotated by individual scholars, who also supply introductions and additional reading lists. Other extras include a chronology of the author's life and illustrations. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Look this: Comptabilité des Systèmes informatiques

A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton

Author: John McPhe

When John McPhee met Bill Bradley, both were at the beginning of their careers. A Sense of Where You Are, McPhee's first book, is about Bradley when he was the best basketball player Princeton had ever seen. McPhee delineates for the reader the training and techniques that made Bradley the extraordinary athlete he was, and this part of the book is a blueprint of superlative basketball. But athletic prowess alone would not explain Bradley's magnetism, which is in the quality of the man himself--his self-discipline, his rationality, and his sense of responsibility. Here is a portrait of Bradley as he was in college, before his time with the New York Knickerbockers and his election to the U.S. Senate--a story that suggests the abundant beginnings of his professional careers in sport and politics.

John McPhee is the author of twenty-five books, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He was born in Princeton, New Jersey, where he currently resides, and was educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. His writing career began at Time magazine and led to his long association with The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965.

The New York Times Book Review - Rex Lardner

Immensely well-written, inspiring without being preachy, and contains as well the clearest analyses of Bradley's moves, fakes, and shots that have appeared in print.

	Introduction	1
1	Firearms Safety	3
2	The Modern Tactical Marksman	17
3	Rifle Selection	25
4	Advanced Optics and Accessories	57
5	Ammunition and Ballistic Considerations	99
6	Zeroing	123
7	Marksmanship	137
8	Immediate Action Rifle	141
9	Advanced-Precision Rifle Training	147
10	Equipment Maintenance	183
	Appendix A	189
	Glossary	197

	Introduction
	September 11, 2001 (A Tuesday)	1
	How I Became Interested in Timothy McVeigh and Vice Versa	43
	Shredding the Bill of Rights	49
	The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh	83
	Fallout	123
	The New Theocrats	137
	A Letter to Be Delivered	147

	Preface
1	All About Oil	1
2	How America's Power Grew	26
3	Capital Bondage	87
4	Accumulation by Disposession	137
5	Consent to Coercion	183
	Further Reading	213
	Bibliography	217
	Notes	225
	Index	237

World Politics Book

Cities withour Suburbs or Bay of Pigs Declassified

Cities withour Suburbs: Census 2000

Table of Contents:

Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report

Library Journal

Evan Thomas

Kirkus Reviews

Sister Revolutions or The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light

Publishers Weekly

Booknews

Time Magazine

Kirkus Reviews

Table of Contents:

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

Choice

Barry R. Posen

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

They Took My Father or Safe for Democracy

They Took My Father: Finnish Americans in Stalin's Russia

Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA

Choice

Midwest Book Review

Booklist

Foreign Affairs

Democracy and Tradition or MoveOns 50 Ways to Love Your Country

Democracy and Tradition

MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change

Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents:

Among Warriors in Iraq or Contrary Notions

Among Warriors in Iraq: True Grit, Special Ops, and Lock-and-Load Raiding in Mosul and Fallujah

Publishers Weekly

Raymond Puffer - KLIATT

Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader

Aurora Online

Reagan Diaries or A Revolution in Favor of Government

Reagan Diaries

The New York Times - Kevin Phillips

Publishers Weekly

Foreign Affairs

Library Journal

A Revolution in Favor of Government: Origins of the U. S. Constitution and the Making of the American State

The Year of the Hangman or Dixie Rising

The Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois

Dixie Rising: How the South Is Shaping American Values, Politics, and Culture

Paige Williams

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Shopping for Bombs or John Brown Abolitionist

Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of AQ Khan's Nuclear Network

The Washington Post - George Perkovich

Publishers Weekly

John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights

The New York Times - Barbara Ehrenreich

The Washington Post - David W. Blight

Publishers Weekly

KLIATT

Kirkus Reviews

Table of Contents:

Prisoners of Hope or The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr

Prisoners of Hope: The Story of Our Captivity and Freedom in Afghanistan

Publishers Weekly

The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957-December 1958, Vol. 4

2010 Meltdown or The Call of Service

2010 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis

Table of Contents:

The Call of Service

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

The Week the World Stood Still or Fighting for Faith and Nation

The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis

Foreign Affairs

Table of Contents:

Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants

Library Journal