Practical Politics Books

Development of British Naval Thinking or Out for Good

2009-12-06T11:55:00.000-08:00

Development of British Naval Thinking: Essays in Memory of Bryan Ranft

Author: Geoffrey Till

In this book, Britain's leading naval historians and analysts have come together to produce an investigation of the development of British naval thinking over the last three centuries, from the sailing ship era to the current day. It will describe the beginnings of formalised thought about the conduct of naval operations in the eighteenth century, its transformation through the impact of industrialisation in the nineteenth century and its application in the two world wars of the twentieth. The book concludes with a review of modern British naval thinking and the appearance of naval doctrine against the uncertainties of the loss of empire, the Cold War, nuclear weapons and the huge changes facing us as we move in to the new millennium. How perceptive and distinctive was British naval thinking? Where did British ideas come from? Did they determine or merely follow British experience? Do they explain British naval success? The contributors to this volume will try to answer all such questions in a book that should be of considerable interest to the maritime community around the English-speaking world.

List of Contributors     xi
Foreword   Sir Julian Oswald, GCB     xiii
Acknowledgements     xvi
Introduction: British naval thinking: a contradiction in terms?   Geoffrey Till     1
The idea of naval strategy in Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries   N.A.M. Rodger     19
The development of education in the Royal Navy: 1854-1914   Andrew Lambert     34
Corbett and the emergence of a British school?   Geoffrey Till     60
1914-18: the proof of the pudding   Andrew Gordon     89
Richmond and the faith reaffirmed: British naval thinking between the wars   Geoffrey Till     103
All sorts of wars: British naval thinking and technology in the Second World War   Jock Gardner     134
British naval thinking in the nuclear age   Richard Hill     160
The discovery of doctrine: British naval thinking at the close of the twentieth century   Eric Grove     182
Epilogue: Professor Bryan McLaren Ranft   Geoffrey Till     192
Bibliography     195
Index     208

Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America

Author: Dudley Clendinen

This is the definitive account of the last great struggle for equal rights in the twentieth century. From the birth of the modern gay rights movement in 1969, at the Stonewall riots in New York, through 1988, when the gay rights movement was eclipsed by the more urgent demands of AIDS activists, this is the remarkable and until now untold story of how a largely invisible population of men and women banded together to create their place in America's culture and government. Told through the voices of gay activists and their opponents, filled with dozens of colorful characters, Out for Good traces the emergence of gay rights movements in cities across the country and their transformation into a national force that changed the face of America forever.

Out for Good is the unforgettable chronicle of an important -- and nearly lost -- chapter in American history.

New York Times Book Review - David Garrow

[A] rich and valuable book....nicely captures the optimism that followed the enactment of gay rights ordinances in [several] cities in the 1970s....[C]onsistently, Out for Good portrays gay activists as their own worst enemies, with political advancement reapeatedly thwarted by unnecessarily ugly intramural politics.

Library Journal

Two New York Times reporters on the struggle for equal rights.

The New York Times Book Review - David J. Garrow

...[A] rich and valuable book....nicely captures the optimism that followed the enactment of gay rights ordinances in [several] cities in the 1970s....[C]onsistently, Out for Good portrays gay activists as their own worst enemies, with political advancement reapeatedly thwarted by unnecessarily ugly intramural politics.

USA Today - Foster

[A]n extraordinarily revealing history...Clendinen and Nagourney artfully chart the dynamic oscillation of shanging cultural and political attitudes about gay life, in which even modest victories sometimes precede devastating reactions...[The Authors] have accomplished a great deal in Out for Good. It's a riveting history that strikes at the heart of a perplexing story about the persistence of bigotry— and a 30-year effort, so far, to vanquish it.

Kirkus Reviews

Embedded within this heavily detailed chronicle of the American gay rights movement(s) between 1969 and 1992 are openings of bright clarity onto the complex, sometimes self-divided evolution of gay and lesbian activism. Clendinen and Nagourney, both New York Times journalists, chose their subtitle well: Their book focuses on such political (not social-service or cultural) organizations and their leaders as the Gay Liberation Front, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. However, the authors' claim for their book, that it uniquely recounts the history of gay activism since 1969, is dated, in view of John Loughery's Other Side of Silence (1998), which includes within its more intellectually nuanced history of gay male identity some of the political developments described here (such as the Supreme Court case of Bowers v. Harwick, upholding state laws against "sodomy," and the countervailing passage of gay rights bills). What Clendinen and Nagourney additionally incorporate are: attention to lesbian activism and to such sometimes forgotten midwestern cities as Chicago and Minneapolis; pivotal moments in the rise of gay political consciousness, such as the first national gay fund-raising campaign (to help arson victims in New Orleans, 1973); and the dialectics of political success and failure (Anita Bryant's antigay rhetoric in Florida energized gay activism nationally). Though the lengthy documentation of personal politics within the organizations discussed is wearing, it contextualizes the tensions the authors expose, with impartial sympathy, between gay men and lesbians, blacks and whites, and conservatives and radicals withinthe gay rights movements—oppositions that do not often receive, as they do here, the candid discussion they deserve. In that regard, the chapter on Jesse Jackson's ambivalent speech to the Human Rights Campaign Fund in 1983 is a highlight. Readers who can navigate the journalistic density of sometimes anecdotal fact and quotation will be rewarded with a richer sense of recent gay history.

Bringing Religion into International Relations or Nazi Propaganda and World War II

2009-12-05T06:43:00.000-08:00

Bringing Religion into International Relations

Author: Jonathan Fox

This book examines the role religion plays in international relations as well as why this role has been ignored until now by international relations theorists. Fox and Sandler argue that while religion is not the driving force in world politics, international relations cannot be understood without taking religion into account. Religious legitimacy influences policy makers and their constituents; local religious phenomena, especially religious conflicts, cross borders; many transnational issues like human rights and population control have religious components. The authors also examine Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, which touches indirectly upon the role of religion in current world politics, and provide insights into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

1	Introduction	1
2	The overlooked dimension	9
3	Religion and legitimacy	35
4	Local religious conflicts are international issues	63
5	Transnational religious phenomena	83
6	The clash of civilizations debate	115
7	The Palestinian-Israeli conflict : a case study of religion and international politics	137
8	Toward a theory of international relations and religion	163

New interesting book: Weird Pennsylvania or My French Life

Nazi Propaganda and World War II

Author: Aristotle A Kallis

Was Nazi wartime propaganda a 'totalitarian' mechanism that controlled the perceptions of the Germans? Was it as effective as generally thought? Did it 'win' the psychological war over the minds of the population? Was Joseph Goebbels the 'mastermind' of the Third Reich? This book analyzes the factors that determined the organization, conduct and output of Nazi propaganda during World War II, in an attempt to re-assess previously inflated perceptions about the influence of Nazi propaganda and the role of the regime's propagandists in the outcome of the 1939-45 military conflict.

The Rise and Decline of the State or Conquest in Cyberspace

2009-12-04T01:31:00.000-08:00

The Rise and Decline of the State

Author: Martin L Van Crevald

The state, which since the middle of the seventeenth century has been the most important of all modern institutions, is in decline. From Western Europe to Africa, many existing states are either combining into larger communities or falling apart. Many of their functions are likely to be taken over by a variety of organizations that, whatever their precise nature, are not states. In this unique volume Martin van Creveld traces the story of the state from its beginnings to its end. Starting with the simplest political organizations that ever existed, he guides the reader through the origins of the state, its development, its apotheosis during the two World Wars, and its spread from its original home in Western Europe to cover the globe. In doing so, he provides a fascinating history of government from its origins to the present day. This original book will of interest to historians, political scientists and sociologists.

Conquest in Cyberspace: National Security and Information Warfare

Author: Martin C Libicki

With billions of computers in existence, cyberspace, 'the virtual world created when they are connected,' is said to be the new medium of power. Computer hackers operating from anywhere can enter cyberspace and take control of other people's computers, stealing their information, corrupting their workings, and shutting them down. Modern societies and militaries, both pervaded by computers, are supposedly at risk. As Conquest in Cyberspace explains, however, information systems and information itself are too easily conflated, and persistent mastery over the former is difficult to achieve.

International Political Economy or Peace Process

2009-12-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

International Political Economy: Interests and Institutions in the Global Economy

Author: Thomas Oatley

Emphasizing both domestic and international politics as well as fundamental economic principles, International Political Economy is the most accessible and holistic overview of the global economy. This text offers students a uniquely engaging introduction to IPE by viewing global economic exchange as a political competition. While surveying key IPE theories, economic principles, institutions, and processes, the text explains how this competition raises social welfare but also creates winners and losers who influence the policies of governments and international institutions and ultimately the global economy.

	Preface	xii
Chapter 1	International Political Economy	1
	What Is International Political Economy?	3
	Studying International Political Economy	8
	Traditional Schools of International Political Economy	9
	Interests and Institutions in International Political Economy	13
	The Organization of the Book	15
	Key Terms	17
Chapter 2	The Multilateral Trade System	18
	The Multilateral Trade System	19
	Power, Interests, and the Multilateral Trade System	26
	The Creation of the Postwar Trade System	27
	The Evolution of the Multilateral Trade System	30
	A Closer Look: Hegemonic Decline and American Trade Policy	33
	The Problem of Trade Cooperation	42
	The Politics of Trade Liberalization	43
	Multilateral Institutions and Trade Cooperation	48
	Globalization and its Critics	51
	The Globalizing World Economy	51
	A Closer Look: The Global Division of Labor in the Semiconductor Industry	56
	The Critics of Globalization and the World Trade Organization	58
	A Closer Look: The WTO and its Critics	59
	Conclusion	72
	Key Terms	73
	Web Links	73
	Suggestions for Further Reading	74
Chapter 3	The Domestic Politics of Trade Policy	75
	Protection and its Consequences	76
	The Structure of Protection in the Advanced Industrialized Countries	76
	A Closer Look: Trade Policy Instruments	77
	The Economic Consequences of Protection	80
	A Society-centered Approach to Trade Policy	86
	Trade Policy Preferences	88
	The Collective Action Problem and Trade Policy Demands	94
	Political Institutions and Trade Politics	96
	Interests and Institutions in American Trade Politics	99
	A Closer Look: Trade Politics in the European Union	100
	Weaknesses of a Society-centered Approach	107
	A State-centered Approach to Trade Policy	109
	States and Industrial Policy	109
	Industrial Policy in High-technology Industries	113
	Weaknesses of the State-centered Approach	118
	Conclusion	120
	Key Terms	121
	Web Links	121
	Suggestions for Further Reading	122
Chapter 4	Trade and Economic Development in the South	123
	Insulation and Systemic Reform	124
	Domestic Interests, Internal Pressures, and Protectionist Coalitions	124
	Markets, Trade, and Economic Development: The Structuralist Critique	130
	Domestic and International Elements of Trade and Development Strategies	135
	A Closer Look: Import Substitution Industralization in Brazil	140
	Dismantling ISI: Trade Policy Reform in the Developing Countries	145
	Emerging Problems with Import Substitution Industrialization	146
	The East Asian Model	149
	International Financial Institutions and Structural Adjustment	157
	A Closer Look: Structural Adjustment in Mexico	161
	Domestic Politics and Structural Adjustment	162
	Developing Countries in the Contemporary Multilateral Trade System	164
	Conclusion	167
	Key Terms	168
	Web Links	168
	Suggestions for Further Reading	169
Chapter 5	Multinational Corporations in the World Economy	170
	Multinational Corporations: The Agents of Globalization	171
	Economic Explanations for MNCs	180
	Market Imperfections	180
	Locational Advantages	183
	Domestic Politics and MNCs	185
	The Host Country Dilemma	187
	Regulating MNC Activity	189
	A Closer Look: Singer Sewing Machines in Taiwan	192
	The Bargaining Relationship	198
	A Closer Look: Luring the German Luxury Car Producers to the South	200
	MNCs and Labor in the Global Economy	204
	MNCs and Labor in Developing Countries	204
	MNCs and Labor in Advanced Industrialized Countries	207
	International Regulation of MNCs	210
	A Closer Look: Protecting Investment in NAFTA	214
	Conclusion	217
	Key Terms	218
	Web Links	219
	Suggestions for Further Reading	219
Chapter 6	The International Monetary System	220
	The International Monetary System	221
	The Exchange Rate System	222
	Balance of Payments Adjustment	224
	The Tradeoff between Exchange Rate Stability and Domestic Autonomy	228
	The Bretton Woods System	230
	Creating the Bretton Woods System	231
	A Closer Look: The International Monetary Fund	235
	The Operation and Collapse of the Bretton Woods System	237
	A Closer Look: Dollar Overhang and the Confidence Problem	240
	Contemporary International Monetary Arrangements	246
	International Financial Integration	246
	Exchange Rate Arrangements in a World of Mobile Capital	250
	Conclusion	264
	Key Terms	265
	Web Links	266
	Suggestions for Further Reading	266
Chapter 7	Domestic Politics and Exchange Rate Policy	267
	Domestic Politics, Monetary Policy, and the Exchange Rate	268
	Electoral Politics, the Keynesian Revolution, and Monetary Policy	268
	The Unholy Trinity and the Domestic Politics of Exchange Rate Policies	273
	Society-based Approaches to Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy	277
	The Electoral Model of Exchange Rate Politics	277
	The Partisan Model of Exchange Rate Politics	280
	The Sectoral Model of Exchange Rate Politics	284
	Weaknesses of the Society-centered Approaches	289
	The State-centered Approach to Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy	290
	Monetary Policy and Unemployment	291
	A Closer Look: The Natural Rate in the United States and European Union	292
	The Time Consistency Problem	300
	Independent Central Banks as Commitment Mechanisms	301
	A Closer Look: The European Monetary System as a Commitment Mechanism	303
	Independent Central Banks and Exchange Rates	307
	Criticisms of the State-centered Approach	309
	Conclusion	310
	Key Terms	311
	Web Links	311
	Suggestions for Further Reading	312
Chapter 8	Developing Countries and the International Financial System	313
	The Early Postwar Period	314
	The Supply of External Finance	316
	A Closer Look: The World Bank	319
	Financial Arrangements in Developing Countries	322
	Commercial Bank Lending: Private Capital and the Debt Crisis	325
	The Oil Shock, ISI, and the Demand for External Finance	325
	Commercial Banks and the Supply of External Finance	327
	Commercial Bank Lending and the Boom and Bust Cycle in Latin America	329
	Managing the Debt Crisis	334
	The Debt Regime	334
	The Sources of Bargaining Power	337
	A Closer Look: The Debt Crisis in Africa	338
	The Domestic Politics of Economic Reform	342
	The Resumption of Capital Flows and the Return of Financial Crises	346
	The Causes and Consequences of the Asian Financial Crisis	349
	Reforming the International Financial System?	355
	Conclusion	358
	Key Terms	359
	Web Links	359
	Suggestions for Further Reading	360
Chapter 9	Political Economy of Socialist and Post-socialist Societies	361
	The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Bloc	362
	Creating and Extending the Soviet System	362
	Stagnation, Crisis, and Collapse	372
	Economic Decline and Political Change	375
	Market Reform in the Former Soviet Bloc	379
	Strategies of Market Reform	380
	A Closer Look: Shock Therapy in Poland	382
	Economic Reform in China	392
	Economic Reform	393
	The Political Logic of China's Economic Reforms	397
	Conclusion	399
	Key Terms	400
	Web Links	401
	Suggestions for Further Reading	401
	Glossary	402
	References	415
	Index	434

Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967

Author: William B Quandt

In this timely new edition of Peace Process, William B. Quandt analyzes how each U.S. president since Lyndon Johnson has dealt with the complex challenge of brokering peace in the Middle East, from the 1967 Arab-Israeli war to the death of Yasir Arafat. This classic work has now been updated to reflect recently declassified U.S. government documents and other published materials relating to the Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton presidencies, and to carry the story through George W. Bush's first term.

The most comprehensive account of the Middle East peace process in print, the book places the current situation in historical context and point to possible ways out of the impasse between Israelis and Palestinians. The text is complemented by extensive documentary appendixes containing significant treaties, resolutions, and speeches, which are available on the Brookings Institution's web site.

Booknews

Quandt is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution and was a member of the National Security Council staff during the Nixon and Carter administrations. He provides a detailed account of American policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict, assessing each administration's initial approach to the problem of peacemaking since 1967 and the evolution of policy. Co- published with the Brookings Institution. Paper edition (unseen), $15.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

What People Are Saying

Thomas R. Mattair
"Quandt's work on this subject, including this third edition, is probably the most readable, comprehensive, thoroughly researched, dispassionate, honest, fair, and yet critical, account we have."
—Middle East Policy

Handbook of Comparative Social Policy or While Six Million Died

2009-12-01T14:56:00.000-08:00

Handbook of Comparative Social Policy

Author: Patricia Kennett

"This Handbook brings together the work of key commentators in the field of comparative analysis in order to provide comprehensive coverage of contemporary debates and issues in cross-national social policy research." International in scope, this authoritative Handbook presents original cutting-edge research from leading specialists and will become an indispensable source of reference for anyone interested in comparative social research. It will also prove a valuable study aid for undergraduate and postgraduate students from a range of disciplines including social policy, sociology, politics, urban studies and public policy.

Book review: The Future of Reputation or Essay on the Principle of Population

While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy

Author: Arthur D Mors

First published in 1967, While Six Million Died revealed the untold story behind the deliberate obstruction placed in the way of attempts to save the Jewish people from Hitler's "final solution," with detailed documentation from worldwide interviews with participants, research in archives around the world, as well a classified and official papers that had never been published before Morse's exhaustive study. While the tragedy of the Holocaust continues to be told by historians, novelists, filmmakers, and others, no single volume has documented this dark period in its historical relationship to America as thoroughly and passionately as Arthur Morse's pioneering work.

What People Are Saying

Barbara Tuchman
For national self-knowledge, the historical record Arthur Morse has compiled is one of the most important of our time.

The New Deal or Lighting the Way

2009-11-30T09:44:00.000-08:00

The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940

Author: Anthony J Badger

This notably successful history is not simply another narrative of the New Deal. The author considers important aspects of New Deal activity and explores the major problems in interpreting the history of each.

Library Journal

An interpretive synthesis of the history of the New Deal. Historical writing about that era has been stalemated since the 1960s, when radical critics challenged the dominant liberal interpretation. Though many aspects of this significant period have since been researched, historians largely have avoided the grand interpretation of the New Deal that used to predominate. The result has been many studies but little coherence. While Badger's work can hardly be called a major synthesis, nor can his conclusions be considered startling, it reveals that some sense can be made out of the massive, fragmented body of historical work. The New Deal was not as revolutionary as some have thought, but neither was it as conservative as others have argued. Its significance came from its success in sustaining American society during a period of great stress. A well-written study.-- Charles K. Piehl, Mankoto State Univ., Minn.

What People Are Saying

James Patterson
Extraordinarily well researched, clearly written, and balanced.

Frank Freidel
An admirable, unique overview and analysis.... .... This is the finest survey [in over] a quarter-century...

Dan T. Carter
A superb one-volume synthesis...never loses sight of the critical elements of change and continuity that marked the decade.

Ellis W. Hawley
Masterfully done...it deserves high marks for its clear and lively prose, sound judgments, and penetrating insights.

Books about: Diners or British Toast Racks for Collectors and the History of Toast

Lighting the Way: Volunteer Child Advocates Speak Out

Author: National Court Appointed Special Advocat

Parents on the run from the law, stepparents who physically or sexually assault their children, teenagers who set fire to themselves and others: such are the tales of the abused and neglected child. Yet the 15 men and women featured in Lighting the Way discover that by speaking on behalf of abused children as court appointed volunteer advocates, they find their own voices as well -- voices that speak for joy amid despair, that offer hope in the face of hopelessness, that resonate with a deep satisfaction of aiding children. Lighting the Way takes readers on a journey of self-discovery and explains how ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things.

	Poem by Danielle	v
	Foreword	vii
	Brenda Gowen, Tarpon Springs, Florida	1
	Rick Neyrey, Houston, Texas	9
	Julie Hobson, Granville, Ohio	15
	Achaessa James, Seattle, Washington	23
	Kathleen Simmons, Liberty, Indiana	31
	Sebastian Stubbs, Sr., Macon, Georgia	37
	Susan Forstadt and Stephen Forstadt, Los Angeles, California	43
	Linda Murphy, Houston, Texas	49
	Premelia Lindor, Manchester, New Hampshire	55
	Beverly Tuttle, Porcupine, South Dakota	61
	Mary Kilgour, Gainesville, Florida	65
	Dago Benavidez, Salem, Oregon	71
	Linda Warfield, Phoenix, Arizona	75
	Donna Ratcliffe, Seminole County, Florida	79
	Stephanie O'Shieles, Houston, Texas	85
	Afterword	91
	Poem by Nicole	93
	Acknowledgments	94

The Sagebrush State or Achieving Our Country

2009-11-29T04:32:00.000-08:00

The Sagebrush State: Nevada's History, Government, and Politics

Author: Michael W Bowers

Teachers of Nevada history and government at all levels will welcome The Sagebrush State. This clear, authoritative, and readable book offers a balanced, up-to-date view of the state of Nevada. The author has referred to all the appropriate primary and secondary sources in creating this compact volume. He relates the characteristics of Nevada politics and government to the state's historical development and provides an evenhanded look at Nevada's problems as well as its progress. The Sagebrush State is thoroughly documented, providing useful figures and tables, and includes the complete text of the state constitution for quick reference. This volume serves as a text for the Nevada Constitution component required for graduation from all Nevada colleges and universities. It is also an invaluable resource for civics teachers in secondary schools, for members of the media who report on state politics, and for the many newcomers to Nevada who want an accurate description of Nevada's origins and how the state works.

Look this: The 4 Hour Workweek or Before You Do

Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America

Author: Richard Rorty

Must the sins of America's past poison its hope for the future? Lately the American Left, withdrawing into the ivied halls of academe to rue the nation's shame, has answered yes in both word and deed. In Achieving Our Country, one of America's foremost philosophers challenges this lost generation of the Left to understand the role it might play in the great tradition of democratic intellectual labor that started with writers like Walt Whitman and John Dewey.

How have national pride and American patriotism come to seem an endorsement of atrocities—from slavery to the slaughter of Native Americans, from the rape of ancient forests to the Vietnam War? Achieving Our Country traces the sources of this debilitating mentality of shame in the Left, as well as the harm it does to its proponents and to the country. At the center of this history is the conflict between the Old Left and the New that arose during the Vietnam War era. Richard Rorty describes how the paradoxical victory of the antiwar movement, ushering in the Nixon years, encouraged a disillusioned generation of intellectuals to pursue "High Theory" at the expense of considering the place of ideas in our common life. In this turn to theory, Rorty sees a retreat from the secularism and pragmatism championed by Dewey and Whitman, and he decries the tendency of the heirs of the New Left to theorize about the United States from a distance instead of participating in the civic work of shaping our national future.

In the absence of a vibrant, active Left, the views of intellectuals on the American Right have come to dominate the public sphere. This galvanizing book, adapted from Rorty's MasseyLectures of 1997, takes the first step toward redressing the imbalance in American cultural life by rallying those on the Left to the civic engagement and inspiration needed for "achieving our country."

Library Journal

Rorty contrasts two views of America: those of the Old Left and of the New Left. The Old Left he associates with Walt Whitman's "American Dream" and John Dewey's idea of an ever-evolving secular society of varied, autonomous agents whose evils are remediable because they result from failures of imagination. The New Left he associates with spectators who damn America for such past "atrocities" as slavery, the massacre of Indians, and the Vietnam War. Rorty claims that the Old Left was stubbornly reformist, whereas the New Left collaborates with and thereby empowers the Right by supplanting real politics with cultural issues. He urges the New Left to understand that our national character has not been settled but is still being formed. The book contrasts the two Lefts clearly enough, but the rest of it is rather foggy with occasional flashes of light. For larger academic libraries only.Robert Hoffman, York Coll., CUNY

Alan Ryan

Achieving Our Country is an appeal to American intellectuals to abandon the intransigent cynicism of the academic, cultural left and to return to the political ambitiohns of Emerson, Dewey, Herbert Croly and their allies. What Rorty has written -- as deftly, amusingly and cleverly as he always writes -- is a lay sermon for the untheological...[He argues] that we would do better to try to improve the world than lament its fallen condition. On that he will carry with him a good many readers. -- New York Times Book Review

NY Times Book Review

A witty and distinuished philosopher appeals to American intellectuals to return to the political ideals of Emerson, Dewey and other ancestors.

Tikkun - Michael Berube

[A] blueprint for nothing less than the renewal of the American left, a provocative challenge to left sectarianism of the past and present.

Kirkus Reviews

In this slim volume (from a series of lectures), eminent liberal political theorist Rorty passes judgment on the state of the US left. And he is not amused. Beginning from familiar places for him, John Dewey and Walt Whitman, Rorty (Humanities/Univ. Of Virginia) argues that the faith of these men in what the US might become, their dismissal of all closed systems of thinking, their turn from religious authority to secular joy in the contingent process of democratic creation are all aspects of leftist thought missing from today's left, much to its detriment. In place of the search for a moral identity that will inspire and unite us, the left todayþwhat he calls the "academic" or "cultural" leftþhas opted instead for a "detached spectatorship," condemnation without action or hope. Rorty traces the origins of this spectatorship to theorists such as Foucault, who insists on the irresistible ubiquitousness of power. The appeal of such spectatorship he traces to the US New Left and its experience with the Vietnam War. In Vietnam the US "sinned," became beyond redemption, and so the New Left turned its back on ever reforming such a place. The Left retreated to academia, theory, culture, and spectatorship. This is all, however, a very familiar scenario by now (if argued in an interestingly odd way), and one wonders why it needs repeating, Rorty seems only to be using the New Left as a straw person here, and his depiction of the "academic" Left is caricature. Assertion substitutes for analysis. Lapses in logic occur: He chastises the Left, for instance, for being both Marxist and "postmodern," yet the two tendencies stand mostly opposed to each other. Like an obscure clubrecording from a major jazz musician, this is a minor work from a profound thinker that perhaps only true devotees of Rorty will find of value.

Social Movements and Networks or Rural Social Work

2009-11-27T23:20:00.000-08:00

Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action

Author: Mario Diani

For the first time in a single volume, leading social movement researchers map the full range of applications of network concepts and tools to their field of inquiry. They illustrate how networks affect individual contributions to collective action in both democratic and non-democratic organizations; how patterns of inter-organizational linkages affect the circulation of resources both within movement milieus and between movement organizations and the political system; how network concepts and techniques may improve our grasp of the relationship between movements and elites, of the configuration of alliance and conflict structures, of the clustering of episodes of contention in protest cycles.Social Movements and Networks casts new light on our understanding of social movements and cognate social and political processes.

	List of Figures
	List of Tables
	List of Abbreviations
	Contributors
1	Introduction: Social Movements, Contentious Actions, and Social Networks: 'From Metaphor to Substance'?	1
2	Social Networks Matter. But How?	21
3	Movement Development and Organizational Networks: The Role of 'Single Members' in the German Nazi Party, 1925-30	49
4	Networks in Opposition: Linking Organizations Through Activists in the Polish People's Republic	77
5	'Leaders' or Brokers? Positions and Influence in Social Movement Networks	105
6	Community Embeddedness and Collaborative Governance in the San Francisco Bay Area Environmental Movement	123
7	Contentious Connections in Great Britain, 1828-34	147
8	Networks, Diffusion, and Cycles of Collective Action	173
9	Movement in Context: Thick Networks and Japanese Environmental Protest	204
10	Why do Networks Matter? Rationalist and Structuralist Interpretations	233
11	Cross-talk in Movements: Reconceiving the Culture-Network Link	258
12	Beyond Structural Analysis: Toward a More Dynamic Understanding of Social Movements	281
13	Networks and Social Movements: A Research Programme	299
	References	320
	Index	347

Rural Social Work: Building and Sustaining Community Assests (with Infotrac(r))

Author: T Laine Scales

Following an introduction by the co-editors, this collection of 27 contributed readings from academics, students and practitioners is presented in 5 parts, introduced by 'Lead Teachers. ' This book presents a framework for asset building based on the strengths, assets, and capacities of people, all of which are critical for working with rural communities.

Hardball Lobbying for Nonprofits or At the Risk of Being Heard

2009-11-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

Hardball Lobbying for Nonprofits: Real Advocacy for Nonprofits in the New Century

Author: Barry Hessenius

This is a no-holds-barred, comprehensive, real-world guide to building political power and successfully lobbying for nonprofits in the 21st century, written by an insider who has been in the trenches as both a lobbyist and a government official.

Lobbying in America has everything to do with money and elected officials' need for campaign funds. Hardball Lobbying for Nonprofits recognizes this reality, and is both a tutorial for nonprofit organizations on how to effectively advocate and lobby, and a plea for the nonprofit leaders to embrace the lobbying function as part of their job descriptions.

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At the Risk of Being Heard: Identity, Indigenous Rights, and Postcolonial States

Author: Bartholomew Crispin Dean

Leading experts in the analysis of ethnicity and indigenous rights explore why and how the circumstances of indigenous peoples are improving in some places of the world, while human rights continue to be abused in others. Drawing on case studies from Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas, the contributors investigate how political organization, natural resource management, economic development, and conflicting definitions over cultural, linguistic, religious, and territorial identity have informed indigenous strategies for empowerment.

About the Authors
Bartholomew Dean is Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Kansas. Jerome M. Levi is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Carleton College.

What People Are Saying

Jonathan Benthall
Lucid and realistic, with a refreshing lack of self-importance, this impressive collection builds on anthropology's unique disciplinary heritage to tackle an urgent set of global and local issues.
—University College London

	Foreword
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction	1
1	Legalism and Loyalism: European, African, and Human "Rights"	45
2	Indigenous Rights and the Politics of Identity in Post-Apartheid Southern Africa	80
3	Hot and Cold: Interethnic Relations in Siberia	112
4	Indigenous Rights Issues in Malaysia	142
5	Nationalism and Cultural Survival in Our Time: A Sketch	165
6	Indigenous Autonomy in Mexico	191
7	At the Margins of Power: Gender Hierarchy and the Politics of Ethnic Mobilization among the Urarina	217
8	Indigenous Rights and Representations in Northern Mexico: The Diverse Contexts of Raramuri Voice and Silence	255
9	Reconciling Personal and Impersonal Worlds: Aboriginal Struggles for Self-Determination	293
10	From Elimination to an Uncertain Future: Changing Policies toward Indigenous Peoples	324
	Contributors	335
	Index	339

Boricua Pop or The Lesbian and Gay Movements

2009-11-25T12:56:00.000-08:00

Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture

Author: Frances Negr n Muntaner

View the

"Boricua Pop" is a foundational text in American, Latino/a, Queer, Performance, and Cultural Studies."
—Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez, Mount Holyoke College

Boricua Pop is the first book solely devoted to Puerto Rican visibility, cultural impact, and identity formation in the U.S. and at home. Frances Negrón-Muntaner explores everything from the beloved American musical West Side Story to the phenomenon of singer/actress/ fashion designer Jennifer Lopez, from the faux historical chronicle Seva to the creation of Puerto Rican Barbie, from novelist Rosario Ferré to performer Holly Woodlawn, and from painter provocateur Andy Warhol to the seemingly overnight success story of Ricky Martin. Negrón-Muntaner traces some of the many possible itineraries of exchange between American and Puerto Rican cultures, including the commodification of Puerto Rican cultural practices such as voguing, graffiti, and the Latinization of pop music. Drawing from literature, film, painting, and popular culture, and including both the normative and the odd, the canonized authors and the misfits, the island and its diaspora, Boricua Pop is a fascinating blend of low life and high culture: a highly original, challenging, and lucid new work by one of our most talented cultural critics.

1	Weighing in theory : Puerto Ricans and American culture	3
2	1898 : the trauma of literature, the shame of identity	33
3	Feeling pretty : West side story and U.S. Puerto Rican identity	58
4	From Puerto Rico with Trash : Holly Woodlawn's A low life in high heels	87
5	The writing on the wall : the life and passion of Jean-Michel Basquiat	115
6	Flagging Madonna : performing a Puerto Rican-American erotics	145
7	Rosario's tongue : Rosario Ferre and the commodification of island literature	179
8	Barbie's hair : selling out Puerto Rican identity in the global market	206
9	Jennifer's butt : valorizing the Puerto Rican racialized female body	228
10	Ricky's hips : the queerness of Puerto Rican "white" culture	247
	Postscript : words from the grave	273

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The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation?

Author: Craig A Rimmerman

Throughout their relatively short history, the lesbian and gay movements in the United States have endured searing conflicts over whether to embrace assimilationist or liberationist strategies. This new book explores this dilemma in both contemporary and historical contexts, describing the sources of these conflicts, to what extent the conflicts have been resolved, and how they might be resolved in future. The text also tackles the challenging issue of what constitutes movement “effectiveness” and how “effective” the assimilationist and liberationist strategies have been in three contentious policy arenas: the military ban, same-sex marriage, and AIDS. Considerable attention is devoted to how policy elites-most notably Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton; Congress; and the Supreme Court-have responded to the movements’ grievances. The book examines the George W. Bush presidency with an eye to assessing how political opportunities have informed the broader lesbian and gay movements’ strategies, and also details the response of the Christian Right to the movements’ various assimilationist and liberationist strategies.

Garibaldi or Pregnancy and Power

2009-02-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero

Author: Lucy Riall

Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary leader and popular hero, was among the best-known figures of the nineteenth century. This book seeks to examine his life and the making of his cult, to assess its impact, and understand its surprising success.
For thirty years Garibaldi was involved in every combative event in Italy. His greatest moment came in 1860, when he defended a revolution in Sicily and provoked the collapse of the Bourbon monarchy, the overthrow of papal power in central Italy, and the creation of the Italian nation state. It made him a global icon, representing strength, bravery, manliness, saintliness, and a spirit of adventure. Handsome, flamboyant, and sexually attractive, he was worshiped in life and became a cult figure after his death in 1882.
Lucy Riall shows that the emerging cult of Garibaldi was initially conceived by revolutionaries intent on overthrowing the status quo, that it was also the result of a collaborative effort involving writers, artists, actors, and publishers, and that it became genuinely and enduringly popular among a broad public. The book demonstrates that Garibaldi played an integral part in fashioning and promoting himself as a new kind of “charismatic” political hero. It analyzes the way the Garibaldi myth has been harnessed both to legitimize and to challenge national political structures. And it identifies elements of Garibaldi’s political style appropriated by political leaders around the world, including Mussolini and Che Guevara.

Publishers Weekly

With his trademark red cape, full beard and regal bearing, Italian revolutionary hero Giuseppe Garibaldi cut a swashbuckling swath through European politics during the mid-19th century. In Riall's (Sicily and the Unification of Italy) exhaustive and sometimes exhausting study of this supremely charismatic man and his tumultuous times, Garibaldi's life and legacy echo through the fascist dictators of the 20th century to the Marxist revolutionaries of the 1970s. Born in Nice in 1807, Garibaldi lived a peripatetic life until he "discovered his true vocation-not as a (failed) merchant sailor nor as a (outlawed) political conspirator, but as a soldier hero" and returned to Italy in 1848, a year of widespread political upheaval in Europe. The Italy that Riall describes is a conflicted place seething with nationalist fervor, waiting for a hero to fan the flames and lead the people to their rightful place among nations. As much a product of behind-the-scenes manipulations as his own desires and ambitions, Garibaldi became that hero. A deeply researched and resourced scholarly text, this is not for the general reader. Riall's extensive use of contemporary primary source material makes for some heavy sledding. Still, for the 19th-century European history buff or the revolutionary hero completist, this is a useful and illuminating read. (June)

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Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America

Author: Rickie Solinger

"Readers will find within this book a deeply researched and fine analysis of reproductive politics spanning 250 years. It definitely should be of interest to legal scholars and law students and also to political and social historians."
—The American Journal of Legal History

"Solinger is impressively optimistic about America's potential not only to evolve into 'a country of reproductive justice,' but also to overcome centuries of the sex, race, and class prejudice that have literally built our society.'
—Bitch

"A concise historical overview. . . . Based primarily on a vast array of well-documented secondary sources, this book is a well-written and useful overview of the politics behind pregnancy in the U.S. . . . Highly recommended."
—Choice

"This succinct, highly readable political and cultural history of a wide range of reproductive issues is a near-perfect primer on the topic."
—Publishers Weekly

"The book is well documented and well written... I expect this book to find a place in many classrooms."
— The Journal of American History

"Rickie Solinger puts today's 'culture wars' over abortion, birth control and sex education into a historical context that is rich, complex and full of surprises. A deeply researched-and highly readable-book that should reach the widest possible audience."
—Katha Pollitt, author of Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture

"An extraordinary accomplishment. In a courageous exploration of American history, Solinger demonstrates how public supervision of sex and social reproduction haveserved to maintain racial privilege."
—Alice Kessler-Harris, author of In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America

"Pregnancy and Power definitively demolishes the myth that reproductive politics has ever been about women's choice. Rickie Solinger's brilliant and comprehensive analysis shows that, throughout U.S. history, reproductive regulation has served a social agenda that especially disadvantages women of color."
—Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

"We must all be grateful to Rickie Solinger for another of her pithy, compelling interpretive histories. Pregnancy and Power offers a thoughtful, lucid overview of reproductive issues throughout U.S. history—an extremely valuable contribution that should be widely read."
—Linda Gordon, author of The Moral Property of Women: Birth Control Politics in America

"Solinger shows how the past is truly prologue as she connects contemporary political struggles over pregnancy and pregnancy limitation to racism and colonialism in the United States"
—Loretta J. Ross, co-author, Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice

"Pregnancy and Power embraces far more than the usual perspective."
—MBR: California Bookwatch

[R]eading Rickie Solinger's Pregnancy and Power felt in some ways like taking a medicinal tonic. She provides a vision of what a society dedicated to reproductive justice could be... [Pregnancy and Power] made me think— and for that, I like this book immensely.
—The Women's Review of Books

A sweeping chronicle of women's battles for reproductive freedom throughout American history, Pregnancy and Power explores the many forces—social, racial, economic, and political—that have shaped women's reproductive lives in the United States.

Leading historian Rickie Solinger argues that a woman's control over her body involves much more than the right to choose an abortion. Reproductive politics were at play when slaveholders devised breeding schemes, when the U.S. government took Indian children from their families in the nineteenth century, and when doctors pressed Latina women to be sterilized in the 1970s. Tracing the diverse plot lines of women's reproductive lives throughout American history, Solinger redefines the idea of reproductive freedom, putting race and class at the center of the effort to control sex and pregnancy in America over time.

Solinger asks which women have how many children under what circumstances, and shows how reproductive experiences have been encouraged or coerced, rewarded or punished, honored or exploited over the last 250 years. Viewed in this way, the debate over reproductive rights raises questions about access to sex education and prenatal care, about housing laws, about access to citizenship, and about which women lose children to adoption and foster care.

Pregnancy and Power shows that a complete understanding of reproductive politics must take into account the many players shaping public policy-lawmakers, educators, employers, clergy, physicians-as well as the consequences for women who obey and resist these policies. Tracing the diverse plotlines of women's reproductive lives throughout American history, Solinger redefines the idea of reproductive freedom, putting race and class at the center of the struggle to control sex and pregnancy in America.

Publishers Weekly

This succinct, highly readable political and cultural history of a wide range of reproductive issues is a near-perfect primer on the topic. Independent historian Solinger (Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade) writes from a broad, multi-issue, feminist perspective, placing the struggle for reproductive freedom at the center of a variety of political battles. This approach yields unique new insights. Detailing antimiscegenation laws and common assumptions about family life and reproduction in Chinese-American communities, Solinger shows how immigration laws favoring Chinese merchant-class women over poor women "shaped the demographics of Chinatowns around the country." Similarly, she discusses how the relationship between civil rights and reproductive rights in the 1960s gave different cultural meanings to the "fertile body of women of color" in the eyes of the white establishment and within the African-American community. Solinger succeeds in moving the discussion of the social and legal politics of reproduction out of a confining category of "women's issues" and into the broader sphere of U.S. history and national politics, and her study will be helpful to anyone interested in how current debates about abortion, the morning-after pill and sex education were historically formed. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

	Introduction : what is reproductive politics?	1
1	Racializing the nation : from the Declaration of Independence to the Emancipation Proclamation, 1776-1865	27
2	Sex in the city : from secrecy to anonymity to privacy, 1870s to 1920s	63
3	No extras : curbing fertility during the Great Depression	103
4	Central planning : managing fertility, race, and rights in postwar America, 1940s to 1960	131
5	The human rights era : the rise of choice, the contours of backlash, 1960-1980	163
6	Revitalizing hierarchies : how the aftermath of Roe v. Wade affected fetuses, teenage girls, prisoners, and ordinary women, 1980 to the present	209

Becoming King or Democracys Good Name

2009-02-20T16:09:00.000-08:00

Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Making of a National Leader

Author: Troy Jackson

In Becoming King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of a National Leader, Troy Jackson chronicles King's emergence and effectiveness as a civil rights leader by examining his relationship with the people of Montgomery, Alabama. Using the sharp lens of Montgomery's struggle for racial equality to investigate King's burgeoning leadership. Drawing on countless interviews and archival sources and comparing King's sermons and religious writings before, during, and after the Montgomery bus boycott, Jackson demonstrates how King's voice and message evolved to reflect the shared struggles, challenges, experiences, and hopes of the people with whom he worked.

Library Journal

Jackson (senior pastor, University Christian Church, Cincinnati; editor, The Papers of Martin Luther King Jr. Vol. 6: Advocate of the Social Gospel, September 1948-March 1963 ) has written a convincing reinterpretation of the role of King in the Montgomery, AL, bus boycott of 1955-56. Jackson grants that King's inspirational oratory and ability to communicate to African Americans across class lines made him a powerful symbol and chief spokesman of the movement there. However, the black community in Montgomery had laid the groundwork through its organizing activities in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Local activists, white and black, including NAACP leader E.D. Nixon and Women's Political Council president Jo Ann Robinson, as well as civil rights lawyers Virginia and Clifford Durr and librarian Juliette Morgan, planted the seeds that flowered in the boycott. Jackson concludes that in many ways, King did not make the boycott movement; the blacks of Montgomery made him. Highly recommended for all major libraries.-Anthony Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, IN

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Democracy's Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World's Most Popular Form of Government

Author: Michael Mandelbaum

The last thirty years have witnessed a remarkably rapid rise of democracies around the world. In 1975, only thirty countries were democracies. Today, 119 of the world’s 190 countries are democratic. How did democracy establish itself so quickly and so widely? Why do some important countries and regions remain undemocratic?
In Democracy’s Good Name, Michael Mandelbaum, one of America’s leading foreign policy thinkers, answers these questions. He discusses the relationship between democracy, on the one hand, and war and terrorism, on the other, and assesses the prospects for the establishment of democracy in Russia, China, and the Arab world. And he explains why the United States has found it so difficult to foster democratic governments in other countries.

Publishers Weekly

Democracy, until recently, was an anomaly in a landscape of monarchies, dictatorships and empires; its critics-including America's founding fathers-associated it with mob rule and demagogic tyranny. In this engaging treatise, Mandelbaum (The Ideas That Conquered the World) explains how the modern democratic fusion of popular sovereignty-i.e., majority rule-with individual liberty came to dominate the world's polities. His first reason is straightforward: democracy works. Democratic nations, he notes, especially the flagship democracies of Britain and the U.S., are wealthier, stronger and more stable and inspire other countries to emulate them. His second, more provocative explanation, is that the modern spread of free markets provides a "school for democracy" by establishing private property (the fundamental liberty), respect for law, civil society, organized economic interests as the forerunners of political parties, and the habit of settling differences by negotiation and compromise rather than violence. Mandelbaum's market rhetoric-he calls democracy the "leading brand of political system" among "knowledgeable political consumers"-can be a bit simpleminded. But readers will find a lucid, accessible blend of history, political science and sociology, with a wealth of fresh insights into the making of the contemporary world. (Aug.)

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     xi
The Origins of Democracy     1
The Triumph of Democracy     1
The Two Traditions     7
The Odd Couple     16
The Career of Popular Sovereignty     27
The Trials of Liberty     37
Democracy from Without: The Course of Modern History     47
The Leading Brand     47
English Exceptionalism     52
The Two World Wars     66
The Contest of Systems     72
The American Era     82
Democracy from Within: The Magic of the Market     93
The Constant Companion     93
The Wealth Effect     100
Civil Society     104
The School for Democracy     110
Market Failures     121
Democracy and Peace     137
Modernity and Peace     137
Popular Sovereignty and Peace     146
Liberty and Peace     151
Democracy Versus Peace     159
Democracy and Terrorism     169
The Future of Democracy     179
Democracy-Promotion     179
Democracy in Russia     190
Democracy in China     205
Democracy in the Arab World     218
Democracy in the Democracies     235
Notes     245
Index     299

Jarhead or The Pirate Queen

2009-02-19T07:30:00.000-08:00

Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles

Author: Anthony Swofford

In his New York Times bestselling chronicle of military life, Anthony Swofford weaves his experiences in war with vivid accounts of boot camp, reflections on the mythos of the marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family.

When the U.S. Marines--or "jarheads"--were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 for the Gulf War, Anthony Swofford was there. He lived in sand for six months; he was punished by boredom and fear; he considered suicide, pulled a gun on a fellow marine, and was targeted by both enemy and friendly fire. As engagement with the Iraqis drew near, he was forced to consider what it means to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.

The Los Angeles Times

Swofford's book is about the man who feels cheated because the Gulf War was over so quickly, and he was, perhaps, both relieved and horrified. "I am not well," he writes, "but I am not mad." He describes what it was like getting ready for the war, and his book, he wants us to know, "is neither true nor false but what I know." He knows an immense amount as a member of the Surveillance and Target Acquisition Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines. In short, he was a scout-sniper and a good one. Although it might be said snipers are often very peculiar people. — Gloria Emerson

The Washington Post

Swofford's war ends in a strangely appropriate fashion, as he and a colleague are sent out on a mission far from their battalion. The Iraqi army quits, the fighting stops. And no one remembers the men who have been left out in the desert.

That's a story Philip Caputo and James Webb would have understood well. — Chris Bray

The New Yorker

In 1990, Swofford, a young Marine sniper, went to Saudi Arabia with dreams of vaporizing Iraqi skulls into clouds of "pink mist." As he recounts in this aggressively uninspiring Gulf War memoir, his youthful bloodlust was never satisfied. After spending months cleaning sand out of his rifle -- so feverish with murderous anticipation that he almost blows a buddy's head off after an argument -- Swofford ends up merely a spectator of a lopsided battle waged with bombs, not bullets. The rage the soldiers feel, their hopes of combat frustrated, is "nearly unendurable." Swofford's attempts at brutal honesty sometimes seem cartoonish: "Rape them all, kill them all" is how he sums up his military ethic. He is better at comic descriptions -- gas masks malfunctioning in the desert heat, camels picked off during target practice -- that capture the stupid side of a smart-bomb war.

Publishers Weekly

A witty, profane, down-in-the-sand account of the war many only know from CNN, this former sniper's debut is a worthy addition to the battlefield memoir genre. There isn't a bit of heroic posturing as Swofford describes the sheer terror of being fired upon by Iraqi troops; the elite special forces warrior freely admits wetting himself once rockets start exploding around his unit's encampment. But the adrenaline of battle is fleeting, and Swofford shows how it's in the waiting that soldiers are really made. With blunt language and bittersweet humor, he vividly recounts the worrying, drinking, joking, lusting and just plain sitting around that his troop endured while wondering if they would ever put their deadly skills to use. As Operation Desert Shield becomes Desert Storm, one of Swofford's fellow snipers-the most macho of the bunch-solicits a hug from each man. "We are about to die in combat, so why not get one last hug, one last bit of physical contact," Swofford writes. "And through the hugs [he] helps make us human again." When they do finally fight, Swofford questions whether the men are as prepared as their commanders, the American public and the men themselves think they are. Swofford deftly uses flashbacks to chart his journey from a wide-eyed adolescent with a family military legacy to a hardened fighter who becomes consumed with doubt about his chosen role. As young soldiers might just find themselves deployed to the deserts of Iraq, this book offers them, as well as the casual reader, an unflinching portrayal of the loneliness and brutality of modern warfare and sophisticated analyses of-and visceral reactions to-its politics. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In his memoir on life as a U.S. Marine, Swofford starts out by admitting that what he describes "is neither true nor false, but what I know." This is in no sense a chronicle of the Gulf War but instead an interior monolog reflecting Swofford's inner journey from despised childhood to coming of age as an enlisted marine and finally coming somewhat to terms with the man he has become. For Swofford, warfare was the culmination of everything he had experienced, so that his existential narrative hangs on his pivotal nine-month tour of duty. The boredom, frustration, fear, physical exertion, and relentless training all contributed to his sense of self, but in the end he felt capable of backing away from the total absorption of combat to live in the real world. Unfortunately, reconnection with civilian life turned out to be no easier than living in the combat zone. Many libraries may be put off by the book's pervasive sex and profanity, but it is an eloquent depiction of the martial enthusiasm of young men. Recommended for comprehensive military collections.-Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

The New York Times

The descriptions of the 1991 gulf war in Anthony Swofford's harrowing new memoir feel like something out of a Hieronymous Bosch painting of hell, combined with something out of "Blade Runner": spectral oil well fires burning day and night, as a petrol rain falls on the blasted desert and psy-ops helicopters fly overhead, blasting tapes of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones — music from another war — in an effort to unnerve enemy soldiers. Wearing jungle camouflage gear that makes them "look like mulberry bushes marching through the desert" — because their sand-colored suits haven't arrived — small battalions of American soldiers trek across a wasteland, dotted with the smoking ruins of Iraqi tanks and the rotting corpses of dead Iraqis, blown away by American air power.

At night the marines dig shallow sleep pits in the sand as protection against small arms and artillery, but there is the constant fear of a gas attack. "In my dark fantasies," Mr. Swofford writes, "the chemicals are gassy and green or yellow and floating around the warhead, the warhead on its way to me, my personal warhead, whistling its way to the earth, into my little hole."

By turns profane and lyrical, swaggering and ruminative, "Jarhead" — referring to the marines' "high-and-tight" haircuts, which make their heads look like jars — is not only the most powerful memoir to emerge thus far from the last gulf war, but also a searing contribution to the literature of combat, a book that combines the black humor of "Catch-22" with the savagery of "Full Metal Jacket" and the visceral detail of "The Things They Carried."

Mr. Swofford, who served in a United States Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon during the operation known as Desert Storm, drinks, carries on and trash-talks with the rowdiest of his comrades. But he is also the one who reads the "Iliad," "The Stranger" and "Hamlet" in his spare time, and he has found in his own book a narrative voice that accommodates both parts of his temperament: an irreverent but meditative voice that captures both the juiced-up machismo of jarhead culture and the existential loneliness of combat. He can be unsparingly candid about the ugly emotions released by war — one of his platoon mates brutally desecrates Iraqi corpses — and Mr. Swofford admits to feeling blood lust, afraid he won't get a kill before war ends. But he is also eloquent about the terrible physical and psychological costs of combat and the emotional bonds shared by soldiers.

He makes us understand the exacting and deadly art practiced by a sniper, going after the "pink mist" of a kill or making a "dime group at a grand," that is, three shots that can be covered by a dime, on a target 1,000 yards away. He makes us feel the rhythm of boredom and terror of preparing for an enemy attack and the sheer physical ordeal of humping 100 pounds of gear 20 miles in the desert heat. He tells us how he contemplated committing suicide in the days before the war and how his roommate Troy talked him out of pulling the trigger, and he tells us how he survived the actual war only to come close to dying when he casually walked into an empty but booby-trapped Iraqi bunker.

Like so many war memoirs and novels, "Jarhead" takes the form of a bildungsroman: it traces the familiar real-life sequence of initiation, from boot camp to shipping out to combat, while chronicling the author's passage from innocence to disillusion. Instead of writing a strictly chronological account, however, Mr. Swofford uses flashbacks and flashforwards to tell his story, an effective strategy in this case, as it juxtaposes his youthful idealism with adult cynicism and despair, gung-ho bravado with doubts and fears and crumbling religious faith.

We learn that Mr. Swofford's father served in Vietnam, his grandfather in World War II, and that despite the postwar trauma sustained by his father, the author understood from a very early age "that manhood had to do with war, and war with manhood, and to no longer be just a son, I needed someday to fight."

Though his parents refused to give him permission to join the Marines at 17 — by way of encouragement, the recruiter told them that their son would "be a great killer" — he joined several months later, when he was able to sign the contract on his own. In part, he says in retrospect, he joined the corps to compete with his brother, Jeff, who had joined the Army; in part "to impose domestic structure upon my life, to find a home" in the wake of his parents' collapsing marriage.

Mr. Swofford's account of boot camp and the long wait in Saudi Arabia for the war to begin is rich in the absurdities of military bureaucracy: one colonel, seeing that reporters are on hand, insists that the platoon play football for an hour, wearing gas masks and protective suits (which raise the body temperature to 130 degrees). Not surprisingly the author and many of his fellow recruits quickly develop a cynical humor. Their loyalty is to one another and to privately held ideals of honor and valor, not to the mission to which they've been assigned.

"We joke about having transferred from the Marine Corps to the Oil Corps, or the Petrol Battalion," he writes, "and while we laugh at our jokes and we all think we're damn funny jarheads, we know we might soon die, and this is not funny, the possibility of death, but like many combatants before us we laugh to obscure the tragedy of our cheap, squandered lives."

In the course of "Jarhead" Mr. Swofford conveys a chilling sense of what it is like to be under enemy fire, and he also communicates a palpable sense of the fog of war: the chaos of fighting in a desert landscape offering little cover, where the hazards of friendly fire are nearly as great as the danger of being hit by the enemy, where months of training and discipline can be undone in a second by malfunctioning equipment or a fellow soldier's momentary inattention.

Although the reader wishes that the portraits of some of the author's comrades in arms had been more fully fleshed out, that some of the asides about unfaithful girlfriends and obnoxious acquaintances had been trimmed back, Mr. Swofford writes with such ardor and precision that these lapses are quickly forgotten.

With "Jarhead," he has written the literary equivalent of a dime group at a grand.

Kirkus Reviews

War is hell. And maybe just a little fun, once some of the shock has worn off. So this literate and nuanced if sometimes self-conscious coming-of-age tale instructs. Swofford's debut covers all the bases: a stint in basic training with a brutal drill instructor, drunken episodes with prostitutes, fights with sailors, explosions and their attendant airborne body parts, postwar trauma and depression. Yet there's not a clichйd moment in this rueful account of a Marine's life, in which the hazards are many and the rewards few. Swofford, for instance, recounts a bout with one of those hazards, dysentery, earned by consuming a stolen vat of salad greens while awaiting orders to attack the opposing Iraqi line along the Saudi border: "The lettuce came from Jordanian fields where they use human feces as fertilizer. So here we are, defending a country none of us gives a shit about, eating its neighbors' shit, and burying ours in the sand." Another hazard, we learn, is the presence of battle-deranged fellow squad members, one of whom takes to systematically disfiguring a fallen Iraqi fighter: "He says the look on the dead man's face, his mocking gesture, is insulting, and that the man deserved to die, and now that he's dead the man's corpse deserves to be fucked with." Still another hazard, quite apart from dangerous food and dangerous psychopaths, is the endless politicking of the brass, one of whom keeps Swofford, a sniper, from assassinating an Iraqi officer and perhaps inducing that officer's charges to surrender rather than fight on. And so on. For all the dangers, the author allows, a certain exhilaration attends the facing of a deadly enemy and living to tell the tale, a joy that no civiliancan possibly understand-though Swofford does his best to explain. Extraordinary: full of insight into the minds and rucksacks of our latter-day warriors.

Book about: Das Schaffen Wirksamer Mannschaften: Ein Guide für Mitglieder und Führer

The Pirate Queen: Queen Elizabeth I, Her Pirate Adventurers, and the Dawn of Empire

Author: Susan Ronald

Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Spain's Philip II, Elizabeth I was feared and admired by her enemies. Extravagant, whimsical, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the epitome of power. Her visionary accomplishments were made possible by her daring merchants, gifted rapscallion adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her stalwart Privy Council, including Sir William Cecil, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Sir Nicholas Bacon. All these men contributed their vast genius, power, greed, and expertise to the advancement of England.

In The Pirate Queen, historian Susan Ronald offers a fresh look at Elizabeth I, focusing on her uncanny instinct for financial survival and the superior intellect that propelled and sustained her rise. The foundation of Elizabeth's empire was built on a carefully choreographed strategy whereby piracy transformed England from an impoverished state on the fringes of Europe into the first building block of an empire that covered two-fifths of the world.

Based on a wealth of historical sources and thousands of personal letters between Elizabeth and her merchant adventurers, advisers, and royal "cousins," The Pirate Queen tells the thrilling story of Elizabeth and the swashbuckling mariners who terrorized the seas, planted the seedlings of an empire, and amassed great wealth for themselves and the Crown.

Kirkus Reviews

Popular historian Ronald (The Sancy Blood Diamond, 2004, etc.) struggles mightily to find a fresh promontory from which to observe Elizabeth I's favorite rovers: John Hawkins, Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, the Earl of Essex. They helped fill her coffers, weaken Spain, lay the foundation for Britain's empire. Is there anything new to say about these celebrated folks and their often execrable behavior? This author's success is moderate. Her framework is the oft-told biography of the Virgin Queen. Ronald quickly assesses the sorry economic and geopolitical state of the country in 1558, when young Elizabeth assumed the throne. The country needed cash, and Spanish treasure ships were queued up across the Atlantic delivering the bounties of the New World. Enter those aforementioned English pirates. Ronald offers the biography of each, narrates the necessary adventures, pauses periodically to quote (sometimes at excessive length) from relevant documents or to sketch biographical, political and geographical background. She rehearses a bit of the story of the first successful English slave trader, John Hawkins (for much more, see Nick Hazlewood's The Queen's Slave Trader, 2004). Then the text, like Elizabethan history itself, comes alive with Francis Drake swaggering onto the stage and quite literally stealing his way into the queen's heart. Ronald chronicles Drake's voyages with confidence, knowledge and patent admiration for his naval skills: At one point she describes him as "one hell of a captain and navigator." Eventually, he circumnavigated the globe, defeated the Spanish Armada, sort of retired, died. Mary, Queen of Scots, Essex and Raleigh lost their heads, but by the time James I mountedthe throne in 1603, England was poised for global greatness. What will certainly strike many readers is Elizabeth's serial dissembling-lying was one of her greatest talents-and the use by all European powers of deception, theft and violence as their principal instruments in the cacophonous symphony of international relations. Oft-told stories about people as familiar as family still retain their power to animate and educate.

Illustrations     x
Acknowledgments     xii
Author's Note     xiv
Introduction     xx
The Desperate Quest for Security
The Lord's Doing     3
A Realm Exhausted     8
The Queen, Her Merchants and Gentlemen     17
The Quest for Cash     26
The Merchants Adventurers, Antwerp, and Muscovy     38
The Politics of Piracy, Trade, and Religion     55
Raising the Stakes     67
Cunning Deceits     78
The Gloves Are Off     96
Lovell's Lamentable Voyage     106
The Troublesome Voyage of John Hawkins     112
Harvesting the Sea
The Queen and Alba's Pay Ships     129
The Cost of Failure     138
Undeclared Holy War     144
Drake's War     144
The Dread of Future Foes     154
Drake at the Treasure House of the World     164
From a Treetop in Darien     170
Success at a Cost     175
Dr. Dee's Nursery and the Northwest Passage     179
Dark Days at Rathlin Island     191
Drake's Perfect Timing     197
The Northwest and the Company of Kathai     206
In theShadow of Magellan     214
Into the Jaws of Death     221
The Famous Voyage     225
The World Is Not Enough     237
Elizabeth Strikes Back in the Levant     244
Katherine Champernowne's Sons Take Up the American Dream     248
The Defeats of 1582-84     256
Water!     263
Roanoke     269
The Spanish War
The Queen Lets Loose Her Dragon     277
The Camel's Back     291
Cadiz     295
The Plundering of the Spanish Armada     306
America Again...and Again?     316
The Last Gasp of the Early Roaring '90s     321
Dawn of Empire
The Alchemy That Turned Plunder into Trade     335
Essex, Ireland, and Tragedy     346
Raleigh, Virginia, and Empire     356
The East and the East India Company     363
Epilogue     370
The Petty Navy Royal     374
The Flotilla from New Spain of August 1587     384
Endnotes     386
Glossary     419
Select Bibliographical Essay and Suggested Reading     430
Index     443

Culture War or Archibald Cox

2009-02-18T02:18:00.000-08:00

Culture War?: The Myth of a Polarized America

Author: Morris P Fiorina

Part of the "Great Questions in Politics" series, Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America combines polling data with a compelling narrative to debunk commonly-believed myths about American politics–particularly the claim that Americans are deeply divided in their fundamental political views. This second edition of Culture War? features a new chapter that demonstrates how the elections of 2004 reinforce the book’s argument that Americans are no more divided now than they were in the past. In addition, the text has been updated throughout to reflect data from the 2004 elections.

Ch. 1	Culture war?	1
Ch. 2	If America is not polarized, why do so many Americans think it is?	11
Ch. 3	A 50:50 nation? : red and blue state people are not that different	33
Ch. 4	A 50:50 nation? : beyond the red and blue states	57
Ch. 5	A closer look at abortion	79
Ch. 6	A closer look at homosexuality	109
Ch. 7	Have electoral cleavages shifted?	127
Ch. 8	The 2004 election and beyond	145
Ch. 9	Reconciling micro and macro	165
Ch. 10	How did it come to this and where do we go from here?	187

Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation

Author: Ken Gormley

By October 1973 special prosecutor Archibald Cox was tracing the Watergate cover-up to the Oval Office. President Nixon demanded that he stop. In the “Saturday Night Massacre” two heads of the Justice Department quit before Nixon found a subordinate (Robert Bork) willing to fire Cox. Immediately public opinion swung against the president and turned Cox into a hero—seemingly Washington’s last honest man.Cox’s life was distinguished well before that Saturday night. He had been a clerk for the legendary judge Learned Hand, a distinguished professor at Harvard Law School, and the Solicitor General, arguing many Supreme Court cases. He exemplified what we want lawyers to be. At its core Archibald Cox is the story of a Yankee who went to Washington but refused to leave his principles behind.

Kirkus Reviews

The jurist who gave Richard Nixon fits receives his due in a satisfying biography.

Gormley (Law/Duquesne Univ.) approaches Cox as an exponent of a particularly tough, independent-minded, Yankee kind of approach to the law. Born in 1912, Cox came of age in a time when the legal profession was nearly universally respected and when whole lineages devoted themselves to the practice of law (Gormley notes that Cox's great-grandfather William Maxwell Evarts defended Andrew Johnson when impeachment proceedings were undertaken against him in 1868). After clerking for the eminent federal judge Learned Hand, Cox became a government labor lawyer, then a Harvard professor, and then entered politics somewhat reluctantly as a speechwriter for presidential candidate John Kennedy. Despite his solid résumé, Cox was seemingly unprepared for the scrutiny that would attach to his work as the government's special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation of 1973. Gormley examines Nixon's charge that Cox was a politically motivated hit man who, with his staff, "bored like termites through the whole executive branch," noting that Cox was in fact something of a legal conservative who criticized such rulings as Roe v. Wade and who found the whole business of turning up evidence against a sitting president personally distasteful. Gormley gives a careful account of the events leading up to Cox's dismissal at Nixon's orders; the man who fired him was a federal judge named Robert Bork, whose role as hatchet man would come back to haunt him more than a decade later as a nominee for the Supreme Court.

Students of the Watergate years will find a few other gems in Gormley's pages, including an admission from Nixon's chief of staff Alexander Haig that the president "could well be guilty." Otherwise, this well-written biography will be of most interest to students of law in the public interest.

The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence or Silent Travelers Germs Genes and the Immigrant Menace

2009-02-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence

Author: Raymond J Batvinis

As the world prepared for war in the 1930s, the United States discovered that it faced the real threat of foreign spies stealing military and industrial secrets-and that it had no established means to combat them. Into that breach stepped J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.

Although the FBI's expanded role in World War II has been well documented, few have examined the crucial period before Pearl Harbor when the Bureau's powers secretly expanded to face the developing international emergency. Former FBI agent Raymond Batvinis now tells how the Bureau grew from a small law enforcement unit into America's first organized counter-espionage and counterintelligence service. Batvinis examines the FBI's emerging new roles during the two decades leading up to America's entry into World War II to show how it cooperated and competed with other federal agencies. He takes readers behind the scenes, as the State Department and Hoover fought fiercely over the control of counterintelligence, and tells how the agency combined its crime-fighting expertise with its new wiretapping authority to spy on foreign agents.

Based on newly declassified documents and interviews with former agents, Batvinis's account reconstructs and greatly expands our understanding of the FBI's achievements and failures during this period. Among these were the Bureau's mishandling of the 1938 Rumrich/Griebl spy case, which Hoover slyly used to broaden his agency's powers; its cracking of the Duquesne Espionage Case in 1941, which enabled Hoover to boost public and congressional support to new heights; and its failure to understand the value of Soviet agent Walter Krivitsky, which slowed Bureau efforts to combat Soviet espionage in America.

In addition, Batvinis offers a new view of the relationship between the FBI and the military, cites the crucial contributions of British intelligence to the FBI's counter-intelligence education, and reveals the agency's ultra-secret role in mining financial records for the Treasury Department. He also reviews the early days of the top-secret Special Intelligence Service, which quietly dispatched FBI agents posing as businessmen to South America to spy on their governments.

With an insider's knowledge and a storyteller's skill, Batvinis provides a page-turning history narrative that greatly revises our views of the FBI-and also resonates powerfully with our own post-9/11 world.

Go to: Iraq or Christianity and Law

Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace

Author: Alan M Kraut

Epidemics and immigrants have suffered a lethal association in the public mind, from the Irish in New York wrongly blamed for the cholera epidemic of 1832 and Chinese in San Francisco vilified for causing the bubonic plague in 1900, to Haitians in Miami stigmatized as AIDS carriers in the 1980s. Silent Travelers vividly describes these and many other episodes of medicalized prejudice and analyzes their impact on public health policy and beyond. The book shows clearly how the equation of disease with outsiders and illness with genetic inferiority broadly affected not only immigration policy and health care but even the workplace and schools. The first synthesis of immigration history and the history of medicine, Silent Travelers is also a deeply human story, enriched by the voices of immigrants themselves. Irish, Italian, Jewish, Latino, Chinese, and Cambodian newcomers among others grapple in these pages with the mysteries of modern medicine and American prejudice. Anecdotes about famous and little-known figures in the annals of public health abound, from immigrant physicians such as Maurice Fishberg and Antonio Stella who struggled to mediate between the cherished Old World beliefs and practices of their patients and their own state-of-the-art medical science, to "Typhoid Mary" and the inspiring example of Mother Cabrini. Alan M. Kraut tells of the newcomers founding of hospitals to care for their own the "Halls of Great Peace" (actually little more than hovels where lepers could go to die) set up by Chinese immigrants; the establishment of St. Vincent's Hospital in New York as an institution sensitive to the needs of Catholic patients; and the creation of a tuberculosis sanitarium in Denver by Eastern European Jewish tradespeople who managed to scrape together $1.20 in contributions at their first meeting. Tapping into a rich array of sources - from turn-of-the-century government records to an advice book aimed at Italians financed by the DAR, from the photog

Library Journal

Fear of the ``other'' has long been part of life in America. Historian Kraut chronicles that fear as it manifests itself as fear of contamination by new immigrants. He describes how health policy was and is used to segregate communities and to exclude classes of people from entry into the United States. In particular, he looks closely at tuberculosis, cholera, and bubonic plague and at the institutional and governmental response to health crises. Kraut also emphasizes the importance of culturally relevant medicine and how it has come into conflict with the desire to Americanize the immigrants. These are important issues today, when tuberculosis and AIDS are often viewed as outsider's diseases, as when Haitians were singled out as a nation of AIDS carriers. No other current volume covers immigration and health from a historical perspective. The material is well presented and engrossing. Recommended for all history and health collections.-- Eric D. Albright, Galter Health Sciences Lib., Northwestern Univ., Chicago

Booknews

Traces the American tradition of suspicion of the unassimilated, from the cholera outbreak of the 1830s through the great waves of immigration that began in the 1890s, to the recent past, when the erroneous association of Haitians with the AIDS virus brought widespread panic and discrimination. Kraut (history, American U.) found that new immigrant populations--made up of impoverished laborers living in urban America's least sanitary conditions--have been victims of illness rather than its progenitors, yet the medical establishment has often blamed epidemics on immigrants' traditions, ethnic habits, or genetic heritage. Originally published in hardcover by Basic Books in 1994. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

	Preface
	Introduction: The Double Helix of Health and Fear
1	"The Breath of Other People Killed Them": First Encounters
2	"A Scourge, a Rod in the Hand of God": Epidemics and the Irish Mid-Century
3	"Proper Precautions": Searching for Illness on Ellis Island
4	A Plague of Nativism: The Cases of Chick Gin and "Typhoid Mary"
5	"That Is the American Way. And in America You Should Do as Americans Do": Italian Customs, American Standards
6	Gezunthayt iz besser vi Krankhayt: Fighting the Stigma of the "Jewish Disease"
7	"The Old Inquisition Had Its Rack and Thumbscrews": Immigrant Health and the American Workplace
8	"There Could Also Be Magic in Barbarian Medicine": American Nurses, Physicians, and Quacks
9	"East Side Parents Storm the Schools": Public Schools and Public Health
10	"Viruses and Bacteria Don't Ask for a Green Card": New Immigrants and Old Fears
	Appendix I: Classification of Excludable Medical Conditions According to the 1903 Book of Instructions for the Medical Inspection of Immigrants
	Appendix II: Classification of Excludable Medical Conditions According to the 1917 Book of Instructions for the Medical Inspection of Immigrants
	Notes
	Credits
	Index

Implementation or Making Peace

2009-02-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland: or, Why It's Amazing that Federal Programs Work at All, This Being a Saga of the Economic Development Administration as Told by Two Sympathetic Observers Who Seek to Build Mo

Author: Aaron B Wildavsky

Three substantial new chapters and a new preface in this third edition explore and elaborate the relationship between the evaluation of programs and the study of their implementation. The authors suggest that tendencies to assimilate the two should be resisted. Evaluation should retain its enlightenment function while the study of implementation should strengthen its focus on learning.

National Review

There are innumberable ways to profit from this fully documented yet highly readable tale of earnest but relatively unsuccessful ways of spending the taxpayers' money.

New Republic

They make an unimpeachable case for close attention to the modes of implementing policy, and . . . their chapters five and six constitute the first solid survey of the adminsitrative thickets through which future urban policies will have to make their way.

New York Times Book Review

Of universal application . . . this is an analysis of why the urban crisis has proved so intractable . . . . Nobody who reads this book will ever again be surprised by the gulf between promise and performance in a program to help revive or save or rebuild the country's cities.

Books about: Marketing or Teaching Today

Making Peace

Author: George Mitchell

UPDATED WITH A NEW PREFACE
Fifteen minutes before five o'clock on Good Friday, 1998, Senator George Mitchell was informed that his long and difficult quest for an Irish peace effort had succeeded--the Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland, and the governments of the Republic of Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, would sign the agreement. Now Mitchell, who served as independent chairman of the peace talks for the length of the process, tells us the inside story of the grueling road to this momentous accord and the subsequent developments that may threaten, or strengthen, the chance for a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.

Washington Monthly - Fred Barbash

We...congratulate George Mitchell for his role in Northern Ireland. He is a tremendous hero, in ways most Americans have yet to recognize, in part because the Norwegians foolishly left his name off when they gave the Nobel Peace prize in 1998...

Boston Globe

Compelling.

Irish America Magazine

...[A]n interesting account of [Mitchell's] time as chairman of the peace talks which ultimately led to the signing of the Good Friday agreement.

Brill's Content - Rifka Rosenwein

It's no small feat to keep a story suspenseful when the reader already knows the outcome, but former U.S. Senate majority leader George Mitchell manages to do so...

The New York Times Book Review - Warren Hoge

...[A]n account of [Mitchell's] participation that characteristically focuses less on himself than on the process he put in motion....The narrative usefully chronicles how Mitchell constructed a trustworthy ladder for people who needed enormous persuasion to reach out for the first rung....It was an unaccustomed and short-lived moment of euphoria for Northern Ireland. Putting the agreement into place has faltered, and Mitchell has been dispatched by President Clinton to lead the salvage effort.

Publishers Weekly

Politics, according to Bismarck, is the art of the possible. Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader, used his mastery of this art to achieve the seemingly impossible: a peace settlement in Northern Ireland. This is his account of his role as chairman of the interparty negotiations and of how the major nationalist and unionist political parties — and the British and Irish governments — managed to forge the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. Recruited by President Clinton to serve as an intermediary in the peace process, Mitchell spent nearly three years trying to create the conditions that made the final agreement possible. It wasn't easy. The IRA temporarily abandoned its ceasefire in the middle of the process, and extremist unionist and nationalist paramilitary groups tried their utmost to thwart the process by continuing to conduct bombings and shootings. Mitchell describes the twists and turns of the peace process in comprehensive detail, and his overview of the conflict provides a concise introduction to the turbulent history of Northern Ireland. He came to know all of the major protagonists very well, and his shrewd assessments of Gerry Adams ("sincerely trying hard, in difficult and dangerous circumstances, to bring his supporters into the grand tent of democracy"), David Trimble ("he saw the opportunity to end a long and bitter conflict, and he did not want to go down in the history books as the man who let it pass") and other political leaders enrich the book. In discussing the crucial final negotiating session, the narrative becomes as fast-paced as any thriller. While noting that the peace remains fragile, Mitchell provides solid evidence for believing the Good Friday agreement will hold and that the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland have finally come to an end.

Library Journal

The landmark 1998 Good Friday Agreement of Northern Ireland still holds, however threatened. That agreement was the result of several years of intense, difficult negotiations led by former senate majority leader Mitchell (Not for America Alone: The Triumph of Democracy and the Fall of Communism, LJ 4/15/97). Here he presents a readable, illuminating portrait of the negotiation process, offering vivid snapshots of the key players and the high and low points of the whole affair. His understanding and observations are characterized by the same good sense and fairness that have long been regarded as hallmarks of his character and key elements in his successful senate career. Mitchells unusual family backgroundhis orphaned Irish American father was raised by Lebanese Americans, and his mother is Lebanesemay account for some of his understanding of and obvious patience with ethnic and religious tensions and differences. Highly recommended for larger public and academic libraries where such political fare is of interest.Charles V. Cowling, Drake Memorial Lib., Brockport, NY

Philadelphia Inquirer - Jonathan Stevenson

The paramount quality that shines through Mitchell's narrative is his cool professionalism, uncorrupted by ego or American chauvinism...He won the trust of most of those involved and got an improbable result. Making Peace faithfully memorializes that marvelous achievement.

The Washington Monthly - Fred Barbash

Sunday Times(London) - Paul Bew

A significant and decisive contribution to our understanding of the most serious attempt yet to achieve a historic compromise in Ireland.

Irish Voice - Niall O'Dowd

Riveting...Thoughtful and incisive.

The New York Times Book Review - Warren Hoge

Brill's Content - Rifka Rosenwein

It's no small feat to keep a story suspenseful when the reader already knows the outcome, but former U.S. Senate majority leader George Mitchell manages to do so...

Kirkus Reviews

A rather dry firsthand account of the difficult negotiations leading up to the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland, as told by the former senator and negotiations chairman. Mitchell's inestimable political genius played a crucial role in achieving the historic Good Friday Agreement. As it emerges here, his unwavering patience, vast experience, and supreme evenhandedness steered the bickering parties toward consensus, pushing the peace process forward against powerful tides of sectarian hatred. Mitchell makes clear how his years as Senate majority leader prepared him well to confront the polarized political climate of Northern Ireland, where incendiary rhetoric and rifles have often substituted for political discourse. For the first time in eight decades, overwhelming international pressure (especially from Britain, Ireland, and the US) played a decisive role in creating the momentum for peace. The opposing Irish nationalists and pro-British Unionists, who have traded atrocities for 30 years, felt this pressure intensely, but also felt pressure from their own (often extremist) constituents who feared that compromise would be a "betrayal." Every inch the politician, Mitchell implicitly understood the tightrope walk that both sides were being asked to take. He performed brilliantly as a trusted, honest broker, enabling the parties to hammer out the details of an agreement. While Mitchell's political acumen is undeniably world-class, he's less skilled as a chronicler of events. He simply doesn't flesh out the critical personalities (Tony Blair, David Trimble, John Hume, Gerry Adams, etc.), nor does he provide enough historical background to explain the profound sectarianmistrust that continues to scar Northern Ireland. On the paramount issue of weapons decommissioning, Mitchell offers almost no insights. What emerges most clearly is not Mitchell's ability as a historian or memoirist, but his tremendous desire to bring the parties together. Despite horrific personal tragedy and diplomatic setbacks that would have driven a lesser person to hair-pulling insanity, Mitchell kept up the good fight. A middling book by an exemplary peacemaker and human being. (b&w photos) (First printing of 40,000)

What People Are Saying

Kevin Cullen
Mitchell's account of the negotiating sets the benchmark against which any subsequent books on that part of the peace process will be judged...One of its strengths is that while Mitchell is refreshingly honest in his descriptions of the various political leaders in Northern ireland, he is remarkably restrained and nonjudgmental.

	Preface	xi
	Introduction	xv
1	"I have never known peace."	3
2	"Would you be willing to help?"	7
3	First Steps	22
4	A Different Route	39
5	"No. No. No. No."	46
6	No Progress	71
7	An American Interlude	76
8	Beyond Reason	84
9	Smear Tactics	89
10	No Turning Back	96
11	"The settlement train is leaving."	101
12	Sinn Fein Comes In	107
13	Andrew's Peace	120
14	"I don't talk to murderers!"	129
15	An Agreement at Last	143
16	Peace	184
	Notes	189

Globalized Islam or Best Laid Plans

2009-02-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

Author: Olivier Roy

The spread of Islam around the globe has blurred the connection between a religion, a specific society, and a territory. One-third of the world's Muslims now live as members of a minority. At the heart of this development is, on the one hand, the voluntary settlement of Muslims in Western societies and, on the other, the pervasiveness and influence of Western cultural models and social norms. The revival of Islam among Muslim populations in the last twenty years is often wrongly perceived as a backlash against westernization rather than as one of its consequences. Neofundamentalism has been gaining ground among a rootless Muslim youth -- particularly among the second- and third-generation migrants in the West -- and this phenomenon is feeding new forms of radicalism, ranging from support for Al Qaeda to the outright rejection of integration into Western society.

In this brilliant exegesis of the movement of Islam beyond traditional borders and its unwitting westernization, Olivier Roy argues that Islamic revival, or "re-Islamization," results from the efforts of westernized Muslims to assert their identity in a non-Muslim context. A schism has emerged between mainstream Islamist movements in the Muslim world -- including Hamas of Palestine and Hezbollah of Lebanon -- and the uprooted militants who strive to establish an imaginary ummah, or Muslim community, not embedded in any particular society or territory. Roy provides a detailed comparison of these transnational movements, whether peaceful, like Tablighi Jama'at and the Islamic brotherhoods, or violent, like Al Qaeda. He shows how neofundamentalism acknowledges without nostalgia the loss of pristine cultures, constructinginstead a universal religious identity that transcends the very notion of culture. Thus contemporary Islamic fundamentalism is not a single-note reaction against westernization but a product and an agent of the complex forces of globalization.

Go to: Supportive Care for the Renal Patient or Breast Cancer

Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook and Your Future

Author: Randal OTool

Drawing on 30 years of experience reviewing hundreds of government plans, Randal O'Toole shows that, thanks to government planners, American cities are choked with congestion, major American housing markets have become unaf-fordable, and the cost of government infrastructure is spiraling out of control. The book makes the case for repeal of federal planning laws and closure of gov-ernment planning offices. Every American who worries about the insidious growth of the Nanny State must read this book.

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     1
Forest Planning     7
The Case of the Fake Forests     9
Garbage In, Gospel Out     15
A Process of Natural Selection     23
Analysis Paralysis     33
The Return of Fire Dominance     41
Why Planning Fails     45
Radical Doctrine or Rational Decisionmaking?     47
Human Barriers     57
Planning Is Not Necessary     69
Land-Use Planning     73
Urban Renewal     75
Turning Portland into L.A.     83
How Smart Is "Smart Growth"?     93
Smart Growth as Oppression     105
Homeownership     111
Housing Affordability     117
Housing Bubbles     127
It's Supply, Not Demand     133
Portland Housing     137
Smart Growth and Crime     143
Portland Planning Implodes     149
Why Planners Fail     157
The Planning Profession     159
The History of Planning     167
The Ideal Communist City     171
Urban Renewal in the United States     179
From Radiant City to SmartGrowth     185
Typical Planning Methods     189
Transportation Planning     195
Planning vs. Chaos     197
The Benefits of the Automobile     203
Costs Exaggerated     221
The Panic Over Peak Oil     227
Planning for Congestion     237
Building Auto-Hostile Streets     243
The Rail Transit Hoax     249
Transportation Myths     267
Why Government Fails     279
Power and Rationality     281
Legislators: Seeking Reelection     289
Special Interests: Looking for Handouts     293
Bureaucrats: Maximizing Budgets     297
The Executive: Distracted by Detail     303
Courts and Voters: The Last Lines of Defense     307
Instead of Planning     311
246 Varieties of Cheese     315
Make the Market Work     319
Turn Open-Access Resources into Property     325
Protect Public Goods with Trusts     329
Understand Government's Limits     335
Reforming Public Land Management     339
Reforming Transportation     343
Reforming Land Use     349
The American Dream      353
Notes     357
Index     393

Blood Stripes or Cleansing the Fatherland

2009-02-13T05:27:00.000-08:00

Blood Stripes: The Grunt's View of the War in Iraq

Author: David Danelo

A sometimes harrowing, often humorous, and occasionally tragic look at the Marine Corps from the inside out in its struggle with the insurgency in Iraq. Drawing from personal experience in the confusing, deadly conflict currently being fought in the streets and back alleys of Iraqi towns and villages, Danelo focuses on the young Marine leaders—corporals and sergeants—whose job it is to take even younger Marines into battle, close with and destroy an elusive enemy, and bring their boys back home again. Sadly, there are losses, but true to the Marine Corps spirit, they soldier on, earning their blood stripes the only way they know how—the hard way. The author interviewed charismatic and controversial Marine Gen. James N. "Mad Dog" Mattis, a legendary Marine commander revered by the grunts and uncovered new details about the fierce battle for Fallujah.

Author Biography: David J. Danelo, a former U.S. Marine Corps infantry captain, deployed to Camp Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. While overseas, he served in several billets, including the Operations Officer, Intelligence Officer, and Convoy Commander for the I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group. A 1998 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Danelo was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal with Combat "V," Combat Action Ribbon, and Purple Heart. Danelo also speaks, reads, and writes Arabic. He lives near Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Look this: Insulin Resistance or Exercise for Older Adults

Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene

Author: Gotz Aly

"The chapters in this volume painfully drive home the point that certainly as far as Germany is concerned, the lessons of the Third Reich have not yet been learned... These significant attempts by younger recruits to the larger medical establishment to change things through eye-opening reflection and analysis, however uncomfortable, need support."--Michael H. Kater, author of Doctors under Hitler, in the foreword.

The infamous Nuremberg Doctors' Trials of 1946-47 revealed horrifying crimes --ranging from grotesque medical experiments on humans to mass murder--committed by physicians and other health care workers in Nazi Germany. But far more common, argue the authors of Cleansing the Fatherland, were the doctors who profited professionally and financially from the killings but were never called to task--and, indeed, were actively shielded by colleagues in postwar German medical organizations.

The authors examine the role of German physicians in such infamous operations as the "T 4" euthanasia program (code-named for the Berlin address of its headquarters at Number 4 Tiergartenstrasse). They also reveal details of countless lesser known killings--all ordered by doctors and all in the name of public health. Maladjusted adolescents, the handicapped, foreign laborers too illto work, even German civilians who suffered mental breakdowns after air raids were "selected for treatment." (One physician who persisted in speaking of "killings" was officially reprimanded for his "negative attitude.")

The book also includes original documents--never before published in English--that give unique and chilling insight into the everyday workings of Nazi medicine. Amongthem:

• Minutes from a 1940 meeting of the Conference of German Mayors, at which a Nazi official gives the assembled politicians detailed instructions for the secret burial of murdered mental patients.

• A pre-Nazi era questionnaire sent by the head of a state mental institution to parents of disabled children. (Sample question: "Would you agree to a painless shortening of your child's life after an expert had determined him incurably imbecilic?" Sample answer: "Yes, but I would prefer not to know.")

• The diary of Dr. Hermann Voss, chief anatomist at the Reichs University of Posen (and later a highly respected physician in postwar Germany), who delights in the flowers blooming outside his window and worries that the overstock of Polish cadavers from his Gestapo suppliers might cause his crematory oven to break down.

• Letters of Dr. Friedrich Mennecke, director of the notorious Eichberg Clinic, who writes with cloying sentimentality to the wife he calls "mommy" and comments offhandedly about visiting concentration camps to select "patients" for death.

Today, as reports of mass death in Europe are once again cast in terms of public hygiene, and as euthanasia is advocated--even applauded--on U.S. television, the relevance of what Michael H.Kater here calls "the lessons of the Third Reich" is perhaps greater than ever. Against this background, Cleansing the Fatherland sends a stark message that is difficult to ignore.

Publishers Weekly

It's no wonder this book caused a flurry when first published in Germany. The authors, who are German, offer compelling evidence that the 350 doctors tried at Nuremberg in 1946-47 were not the so-called black sheep of the German medical profession, but rather a small part of a much larger group of doctors, university professors, scientists and researchers involved in medical crimes. The authors draw their chilling conclusions directly from the archives of mental institutions, hospitals and experimentation centers. An abundance of evidence, sometimes absorbing, sometimes overwhelming, demonstrates how the Nazis employed medicine to ``cleanse'' Germany of the ``sick, alien, and disturbing''-a goal firmly supported by the intelligentsia. By 1939, euthanasia was the method ordained by the Nazis to eliminate the infirm, mentally ill, socially or racially ``inferior'' and anyone unable to work. Hundreds of thousands, including children, were killed while medical professionals profitted. Dr. Hermann Voss, chief anatomist at the Reich University of Posen, turned a handsome profit on the sale of the skeletons and skulls of dead Poles. His diary is an illustration of Hannah Arendt's banality of evil, ``Yesterday, two wagons full of Polish ashes were taken away. Outside my office, the robinias are blooming beautifully, just as in Leipzig.'' Much of this information, which was available at the end of WWII, was suppressed because many of those involved in these heinous crimes still hold leading positions. Readers may be driven to examine their own beliefs concerning the benefits of doctor-assisted suicide, when confronted with a society that takes this seemingly benign idea and turns it into a great evil. (Sept.)

Warrior or Hidden Iran

2009-02-12T00:15:00.000-08:00

Warrior: An Autobiography

Author: Ariel Sharon

Israel's newest prime minister as of February 6, 2001, Ariel Sharon is a dynamic and controversial leader. A hero in Israel's wars, perhaps the most daring and successful commander in Israel's extraordinary military history, Sharon has always been a warrior, whether the enemies were hostile Arab nations, terrorists, Time magazine, or rival politicians. The public man is well known -- aggressive in battle, hard-line in politics -- but the private man has always been obscured by Sharon's dazzling career and powerful personality. In this compelling and dramatic auto-biography, the real Sharon appears for the first time: a complex man, a loving father, a figure of courage and compassion. He is a warrior who commands the respect and love of his troops, a visionary, and an uncompromising, ruthless pragmatist.

Sharon tells his story with frankness, power, intelligence, and a brilliant gift for detail. Always controversial, he is as outspoken as his friends -- and enemies -- would expect him to be.

Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic

Author: Ray Takeyh

A leading expert explains why we fail to understand Iran and offers a new strategy for redefining this crucial relationship

For more than a quarter of a century, few countries have been as resistant to American influence or understanding as Iran. The United States and Iran have long eyed each other with suspicion, all too eager to jump to conclusions and slam the door. What gets lost along the way is a sense of what is actually happening inside Iran and why it matters. With a new hard-line Iranian president making incendiary pronouncements and pressing for nuclear developments, the consequences of not understanding Iran have never been higher.

Ray Takeyh, a leading expert on Iran’s politics and history, has written a groundbreaking book that demystifies the Iranian regime and shows how the fault lines of Iran’s domestic politics serve to explain its behavior. In Hidden Iran, he explains why this country has so often confounded American expectations and why its outward hostility does not necessarily preclude the normalization of relations. Through a clearer understanding of the competing claims of Muslim theology, republican pragmatism, and factional competition, he offers a new paradigm for managing our relations with this rising power.

Publishers Weekly

In this well-constructed sketch of American-Iranian relations, Takeyh (senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations) critiques the U.S.'s unnuanced approach to Iran since its 1979 revolution as well as the failure of successive administrations to note that decades of sanctions and containment haven't significantly changed Iranian behavior. A picture emerges of a complex society marked by cultural struggle and compromise, as Takeyh criticizes the perception of Iranian politics as monolithic. He concludes that the "chimera of regime change" must finally be rejected, and pointedly observes that "it is rare... for a state that views nuclear weapons as fundamental to its security interests to dispense with such weapons under relentless threats." Takeyh urges America to look beyond President Ahmadinejad to such institutions as Iran's powerful Supreme National Security Council and Foreign Ministry, each of which distanced themselves from Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel rhetoric. Takeyh even suggests areas in which Iran and the U.S. might forge a "selective partnership"-not least their shared need for a stable Iraq. Though he occasionally slips into a too-casual assumption of the inevitability of his forecasts, Takeyh (The Receding Shadow of the Prophet) provides a well-argued, seldom heard viewpoint. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Think Iraq is a mess? Wait until the neocons get to Iran, warns Council on Foreign Relations fellow Takeyh. Getting Iran wrong is the single thread that has linked American administrations of all political persuasion, writes the author. In some instances, getting Iran wrong has involved overestimating its people's willingness to endure oppression, as with the hated Pahlavi dynasty, which fell in 1979. In other instances, it has involved overestimating the power of religious orthodoxy-and misreading the very nature of the Iranian theocracy. In the case of the Bush administration and its think-tankers, misreadings are tinged with ideological certainty that Iran is indeed a member of the league of rogue nations: Thus, former CIA director James Woolsey deems Iran the "central antagonist" in World War IV ("the third evidently being the Cold War," Takeyh glosses), while Iraq war architect Richard Perle urges the overthrow of "that miserable government." Takeyh argues that Iran seeks only to be regionally influential, though it has an unfortunate habit of projecting its power via terrorist proxies, as with Hezbollah in Lebanon and various Shiite factions in Iraq. All that aside, Iran is best understood as a nation in search of itself, one in which Islamic ideology, factional politics (including reformist, democratic organizations) and pragmatic national interests are in constant struggle. Even if the 2005 presidential election seemed to secure the ascendancy of conservative power, opposition politics is very much alive. It does no good, Takeyh urges, to isolate Iran; the specter of an "impudent American president castigating Iran as part of an 'axis of evil,' or denigrating its political processby proclaiming its elections a fraud even before they take place, only provides ammunition to hard-liners decrying Iran's democrats as unwitting agents of Western machinations."Think of Iran as China, Takeyh concludes in this useful essay, a nation with whom it is possible to compete and cooperate at once. We'll see. Agent: Larry Weissman/Larry Weissman, LLC

The Politics of Collective Violence or Asia America and the Transformation of Geopolitics

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

The Politics of Collective Violence (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics Series)

Author: Charles Tilly

Are there any commonalities between such phenomena as soccer hooliganism, sabotage by peasants of landlords' property, road rage, and even the events of September 11? With striking historical scope and command of the literature of many disciplines, this book seeks the common causes of these events in collective violence. In collective violence, social interaction immediately inflicts physical damage, involves at least two perpetrators of damage, and results in part from coordination among the persons who perform the damaging acts. Charles Tilly argues that collective violence is complicated, changeable, and unpredictable in some regards, yet also results from similar causes variously combined in different times and places. Pinpointing the causes, combinations, and settings helps to explain collective violence and also helps to identify the best ways to mitigate violence and create democracies with a minimum of damage to persons and property. Charles Tilly is the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University. He has published more than twenty scholarly books, including twenty specialized monographs and edited volumes on political processes, inequality, population change and European history.

Foreign Affairs

Why do people who have lived together peacefully for years suddenly start killing each other? Tilly, a leading historical sociologist, thinks there are patterns to collective violence that run through its various forms — barroom brawls, peasant rebellions, labor strikes, ethnic struggles, civil wars, and even interstate wars. Although Tilly relies on jargon and abstractions in his quest for a unifying framework to make sense of these diverse types of violence, a dedicated reader will pick up some interesting insights. Tilly argues that the activation of latent political identities that separate people into "us" and "them" often triggers violence. But the violence emerges less from preexisting hatred than from sudden uncertainties and shifting social conditions, particularly the declining capacity of authorities to enforce agreements or police existing boundaries. Tilly supports this claim with the useful finding that the character and intensity of collective violence depend mightily on the type of government and its capacities. Democratic regimes tend to experience less group violence than authoritarian ones because of broader participation and a more extensive array of rights and institutions, and thus, he concludes, they are the best cure for collective violence.

Asia, America and the Transformation of Geopolitics

Author: William H Overholt

American security and prosperity now depend on Asia. William H. Overholt offers an iconoclastic analysis of developments in each major Asian country, Asian international relations, and U.S. foreign policy. Drawing on decades of political and business experience, he argues that obsolete Cold War attitudes tie the U.S. increasingly to an otherwise isolated Japan and obscure the reality that a U.S.-Chinese bicondominium now manages most Asian issues. Military priorities risk polarizing the region unnecessarily, weaken the economic relationships that engendered American preeminence, and ironically enhance Chinese influence. As a result, despite its Cold War victory, U.S. influence in Asia is declining. Overholt disputes the argument that democracy promotion will lead to superior development and peace, and forecasts a new era in which Asian geopolitics could take a drastically different shape. Covering Japan, China, Russia, Central Asia, India, Pakistan, Korea, and South-East Asia, Overholt offers invaluable insights for scholars, policymakers, business people, and general readers.

Outsourcing America or Rome from the Ground Up

2009-02-09T13:50:00.000-08:00

Outsourcing America: The True Cost of Shipping Jobs Overseas and What Can Be Done About It

Author: Ron Hira

In the debate over outsourcing, one fact is clear: Most companies still believe they can save a tremendous amount of money by shipping jobs overseas. But how much is too much? Revised and expanded, this new edition of Outsourcing America exposes the hidden ways this alarming trend affects us all, revealing just how much outsourcing is taking place, what its impact has been and will continue to be, and what can be done about the loss of jobs.

More than an expose, Outsourcing America shows how offshoring is part of the historical economic shifts toward globalism and free trade, and demonstrates its impact on individual lives and communities. In addition, the book now features a new chapter on immigration policies and outsourcing, and advice on how individuals can avoid becoming victims of outsourcing. The authors discuss policies that countries like India and China use to attract U.S. industries, and they offer frank recommendations that business and political leaders must consider in order to confront this ongoing crisis.

About the Author:
Ron Hira, Ph.D., P.E., is a recognized expert on outsourcing, and the only person to testify twice before Congress on its implications

About the Author:
Anil Hira, Ph.D., is a specialist in international economic development and innovation issues

Rome from the Ground Up

Author: James McGregor

Rome is not one city but many, each with its own history unfolding from a different center: now the trading port on the Tiber; now the Forum of antiquity; the Palatine of imperial power; the Lateran Church of Christian ascendancy; the Vatican; the Quirinal palace. Beginning with the very shaping of the ground on which Rome first rose, this book conjures all these cities, past and present, conducting the reader through time and space to the complex and shifting realities—architectural, historical, political, and social—that constitute Rome.

A multifaceted historical portrait, this richly illustrated work is as gritty as it is gorgeous, immersing readers in the practical world of each period. James McGregor's explorations afford the pleasures of a novel thick with characters and plot twists: amid the life struggles, hopes, and failures of countless generations, we see how things truly worked, then and now; we learn about the materials of which Rome was built; of the Tiber and its bridges; of roads, aqueducts, and sewers; and, always, of power, especially the power to shape the city and imprint it with a particular personality—like that of Nero or Trajan or Pope Sixtus V—or a particular institution.

McGregor traces the successive urban forms that rulers have imposed, from emperors and popes to national governments including Mussolini's. And, in archaeologists' and museums' presentation of Rome's past, he shows that the documenting of history itself is fraught with power and politics. In McGregor's own beautifully written account, the power and politics emerge clearly, manifest in the distinctive styles and structures, practical concernsand aesthetic interests that constitute the myriad Romes of our day and days past.

Publishers Weekly

This intricate, literary traveler's guide explores the contiguous cities of Rome built on the Tiber floodplain over the centuries. McGregor, co-head of the University of Georgia's department of comparative literature, chronologically traces the successive periods of intense architecture and planning that helped Rome achieve strategic greatness, from the Etruscan management of the Tiber Island ford 3,000 years ago, to the city's unparalleled artistic stamp by Bramante and Michelangelo during the Renaissance, to Mussolini's monumental Fascist vision, to the precarious repairs heralding the Jubilee Year of 2000. The ancient historian Strabo remarked that while Greek cities were esteemed for their beauty and wealth, Rome excelled in the construction of roads, aqueducts and sewers, and on this theme McGregor dwells expertly, giving readers an excellent tour of ancient landmarks. As an official residence of emperors until the fourth-century displacement of the capital to Constantinople, Rome gushed with water in the form of baths and fountains; with the return of the popes from Avignon in 1377, the Vatican assumed prominence, and Bramante's restructuring of Old St. Peter's became a beacon for Rome's new mission. Here is a walking tour in stately, inviting prose that renders wonderfully manageable a massive history lesson for the intellectually curious and adept. Illus. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A pleasing history of Rome from antiquity to the modern era, tied to monuments, buildings and other structures throughout the city. The heart of Rome is the Tiber River, and there McGregor (Comparative Literature/Univ. of Georgia) begins. "Like all too many urban rivers," he writes, "it lies far below street level in a deep and narrow chasm, visible from above but almost out of reach." Not quite; the homeless get to it easily enough. But the point is well taken; the Tiber stands as a rebuke in a city full of splendors but also of graffiti and litter, one that is "being internationalized at an unprecedented pace" and made ever more chaotic with bigger and more numerous motor vehicles. Step away from the river, and McGregor's tour of the city becomes calmer and more reflective, and even longtime students of Roman history stand to learn something from his pages. Among the lessons offered along the way: The Basilica Julia represents a major urban renewal project on the part of Julius Caesar, who bought up a big chunk of the ancient Forum at "Manhattan prices" (whether of Pieter Minuit or Donald Trump we do not know) for the purpose. The Piazza di Spagna is so named because the Spanish embassy was once located there, and with it the office of the Institute for the Propagation of Faith-for it made sense for the proselytizers to associate with busy conquerors. Benito Mussolini engineered some urban renewal of his own, clearing out hundreds of houses in order to make his grand Via del Impero. And so on, in a wealth of detail and with well-chosen illustrations. Well worth consulting before planning a tour of the Eternal City. McGregor might have spent more time-or time at all-on certain well-knownpoints on the Roman map (the Campo dei Fiori, the Gardens of Sallust, the Baths of Caracalla), but Georgina Masson's Companion Guide to Rome (1974) fills in the blanks.

Radical Prunings or The Last Best Hope

2009-02-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

Radical Prunings: A Novel of Officious Advice from the Contessa of Compost

Author: Bonnie Thomas Abbott

This rather deceptive work purports to be the collected horticultural columns of one opinionated Mertensia Corydalis. As Mertensia answers her readers' innocent gardening questions, she reveals more than she intends about her life, her relationships (from her prissy ex-husband to questionable interactions with her employees, Miss Vong and Tran), and her state of mind.

Radical Prunings is a literate, funny, and surprisingly bittersweet fiction debut from a writer with a sharp wit and a very green thumb.

Interesting book: Breathing Underwater or Wilderness First Aid

The Last Best Hope: A Democracy Reader

Author: Stephen John Goodlad

Sponsored by the Institute for Educational Inquiry

What are the conditions necessary for democracy to exist and flourish? Is democracy a sustainable ideal? What does individual freedom mean in a democracy? What is the relationship between democracy and morality? What roles does or should education play in a democratic society? Address some of the most important issues confronting democracy in the twenty-first century with this comprehensive anthology.

In addition to providing a provocative view of a complex subject, this collection will also be invaluable to anyone seeking a general introduction and overview of contemporary thought on the subject of democracy and education. Democracy demands of its citizens the ability to discuss, debate, and learn from one another. The Last Best Hope, a companion volume to Developing Democratic Character in the Young, encourages and makes a major contribution to such discourse.

Source Texts.
Introduction (S. Goodlad).
Acknowledgements.
The Editor
WHY DEMOCRACY?
Democracy (N. Postman).
An Aristocracy of Everyone (B. Barber).
CONCEPTS AND COMPLEXITIES.
What Makes Democracy Work? (R. Putnam).
The Democratic Virtues (C. Lummis).
Was Democracy Just a Moment? (R. Kaplan).
CITIZENSHIP AND CHARACTER.
The Masses in Representative Democracy (M. Oakeshott)
Reorientation in Education (B. Bode).
The Education of Character (M. Buber).
DEMOCRACY AND ITS TROUBLES.
Market Democracy in a Neoliberal Order (N. Chomsky).
Law and Justice (H. Zinn).
Jefferson, Morrill, and the Upper Crust (W. Berry).
THE PUBLIC AND THE PERSONAL.
Democracy and Human Nature (J. Dewey).
Egalitarian Solidarity (P. Green).
Moral Imagination (M. Johnson).
EDUCATION IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY.
How Colleges of Education Package the Myth of Modernity (C. Bowers).
Democratic Education in Difficult Times (A. Gutmann).
What Is Education For? (D. Orr).
HUMAN POTENTIAL AND DEMOCRACY'S FUTURE.
The Domain of the Future (M. Csikszentmihalyi).
Practical Utopianism (M. Midgley).
Index.

Post Colonial Studies Reader or The Ultimate Storm Survival Handbook

2009-02-07T03:25:00.000-08:00

Post-Colonial Studies Reader

Author: Bill Ashcroft

The Postcolonial Studies Reader is the essential introduction to the most important texts in post-colonial theory and criticism. Updating and expanding the coverage of the highly successful first edition, this second edition now offers 121 extracts from key works in the field, arranged in clearly introduced sections on:
· Issues and Debates
· Universality and Difference
· Representation and Resistance
· Nationalism
· Hybridity
· Indigeneity
· Ethnicity
· Race
· Feminism
· Language
· The Body and Performance
· History
· Place
· Education
· Production and Consumption
· Diaspora
· Globalization
· Environment
· The Sacred

Leading figures in the areas of post-colonial writing, theory and criticism are represented, as are critics who are as yet less well-known. As in the first edition, the Reader ranges as widely as possible in order to reflect the remarkable diversity of work in the discipline and the vibrancy of anti-imperialist writing both within and without the metropolitan centres. Covering more debates, topics and critics than any comparable book in its field, The Postcolonial Studies Reader provides the ideal starting point for students and issues a potent challenge to the ways in which we think and write about literature and culture.

The Ultimate Storm Survival Handbook

Author: Warren Faidley

This is the information you need to prepare to survive any major storm. The Ultimate Storm Survival Handbook covers all forms of severe weather, including snowstorms, tornados, ice storms, hurricanes, firestorms, and more. In addition to practical advice on preparing your home, avoiding dangers, and creating action plans, it also features special chapters on pet care, post-storm dangers, children, and phobias.

Preface....................vii
Acknowledgments....................xi
How To Use This Book....................xi
Introduction....................xiii
Part One: The Storms....................1
Chapter One: Before the Storm....................3
Chapter Two: Land Storms....................54
Chapter Three: Tropical Cyclones....................117
Chapter Four: Winter Storms....................142
Chapter Five: Other Weather-Related Hazards....................165
Chapter Six: Post-Storm and Disaster Survival....................197
Part Two: Storm Survival Checklists....................207
Chapter Seven: Thunderstorm Survival....................209
Chapter Eight: Tropical Cyclone Survival....................215
Chapter Nine: Winter Storm Survival....................221
Chapter Ten: Flood Survival....................225
Chapter Eleven: Fog Survival....................230
Chapter Twelve: Heat Survival....................232
Appendices A. Storm Chasing 101....................234
B. Storm and Disaster Checklists....................240
C. References and Web Directory....................246
D. Tables and Conversions....................249
E. Glossary....................251
About the Author....................269

The Project Managers Desk Reference or Bush on the Couch

2009-02-05T22:12:00.000-08:00

The Project Manager's Desk Reference

Author: James P Lewis

The definitive guide to keeping your project on time, under budget, and problem-free

In this Third Edition of The Project Manager's Desk Reference, top project management consultant James Lewis arms you with today's most comprehensive and understandable project management resources, showing you how to conduct a project of any size or nature-from the office move to building new facilities.

Using results-oriented language and easy-to-understand examples, this comprehensive, quick-reference guide presents specific situations taken from today's fast-moving business environment, walking you through proven solutions designed to keep the project moving forward.

This ready-access toolbox shows you how to:

Plan, execute, and control a project from beginning to end
Choose project managers, leaders, and teams
Develop project plans using Work Breakdown Structures, PERT, CPM, and Gantt schedules
Conduct risk analysis
Design a project control system
Use earned value analysis to track projects
Communicate effectively with all levels of your team
Conduct the essential post-project “lessons learned” review

Serving as the perfect supplement to Lewis's bestselling PM bible, Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control, The Project Manager's Desk Reference provides you with the foundation you need to manage any project to its successful completion.

James P. Lewis, the world’s best-known project managementexpert, has more than 25 years of project managementexperience and has trained more than 30,000 supervisorsand managers around the world.

Section I: Introduction and Overview.
Overview of Project Management.
A Model for Managing Projects.
Section II: Project Planning.
General Aspects of Project Planning.
Planning: Developing the Project Mission, Vision, Goals, and Objectives.
Planning Project Strategy.
Implementation Planning.
Section III: Project Scheduling.
Developing a Project Schedule.
Schedule Computations.
Scheduling with Resource Constraints.
Scheduling with PERT.
Section IV: Project Control and Evaluation.
Principles of Project Control and Evaluation.
Project Control Using Earned Value Analysis.
Progress Payments and Earned Value Analysis.
Project Change Control.
Section V: Causes of Project Success and Failure.
Defining Project Success and Failure.
Causes of Project Failure.
Managing Project Risks.
Section VI: Other Issues in Project Management.
Sociotechnical Systems and Project Organization.
Profiling the World-Class Project Management Organization.
Improving Your Communication Skills.
(and more...)

Book about: Affaires internationales :les Défis de Globalisation

Bush on the Couch

Author: Justin A Frank

With the Bush administration in permanent crisis, a renowned Washington psychoanalyst updates his portrait of George W.'s public persona—and how it has damaged the presidency.

Insightful and accessible, courageous and controversial, Bush on the Couch sheds startling new light on George W. Bush's psyche and its impact on the way he governs, tackling head-on the question few seem willing to ask: Is our president psychologically fit to run the country? With an eye for the subtleties of human behavior sharpened by thirty years of clinical practice, Dr. Justin A. Frank traces the development of Bush's character from childhood through his presidency, identifying and analyzing his patterns of thought, action, and communication. The result is a troubling portrait filled with important revelations about our nation's leader—including disturbing new insights into:

How Bush reacted to the 2006 Democratic sweep in Congress with a new surge of troops into Iraq
His telling habits and coping strategies—from his persistent mangling of English to his tendency to "go blank" in the midst of crisis
The tearful public breakdown of his father, George H. W. Bush, and what it says about the former president's relationship to his prominent sons
The debacle of Katrina—the moment when Bush's arrogance finally failed him

With a new introduction and afterword, Bush on the Couch offers the most thorough and candid portrait to date of arguably the most psychologically damaged president since Nixon.

Open Target or Heideggerian Marxism

2009-02-04T16:59:00.000-08:00

Open Target: Where America Is Vulnerable to Attack

Author: Clark Kent Ervin

Based on his first-hand experiences and observations of how the Department of Homeland Security is failing to make America safe, Ervin shows the real threats we face--from nuclear attack to homegrown terrorism. Pushed out by the White House for refusing to sugarcoat its failures, Ervin candidly discusses the circumstances of his departure. He takes the reader inside the decision-making councils of this newest department of the U.S. government, and shows how his team's prescriptions for urgent change were ignored--leaving the US vulnerable to another terrorist attack. For more information, visit Clark Kent Ervin's blog at http://opentarget.blogspot.com.

The Washington Post - Lee H. Hamilton

… [Ervin's] basic analysis is persuasive -- from his sensible policy prescriptions to his infuriating description of how his teams passed through aviation screening with deadly weapons. Even allowing for growing pains, this vitally important cabinet department has had a troubling start. "By any measure, the department has proved to be less than the sum of its parts," Ervin writes. But fixes for that should come from more than an agency's inspector general; oversight is supposed to come from Congress. But congressional oversight of DHS remains divided among several committees, and the department is still not getting clear direction from Congress.

Publishers Weekly

Appointed acting inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security in January 2003, Ervin left after 18 months when Congress refused to confirm him. The reason, he writes, is that he did his job too well, pointing out so much mismanagement and so many security lapses that the bureaucracy turned against him. Ervin sounds the alarm and attempts to settle scores in this book, a detailed warning that America remains frighteningly vulnerable to terrorism. Ervin explores the homeland's weaknesses, describes what the DHS should be doing and how it falls short. Ports, airlines, "soft targets" such as stadiums and critical infrastructure like the water supply must be further secured, as must mass transit (which receives a fraction the funding aviation does). Fragmented intelligence allowed the 9/11 plotters to succeed, but the DHS has not yet achieved coordination of intelligence. Finally, the massive DHS budget requires the establishment of strict accounting and antifraud policies. Though the author notes progress in some areas, he thinks the department has made woefully inadequate headway, is incompetently administered and starved for funds. Ervin's criticisms ring true, and they were well covered in the media, but readers may prefer an account less colored by personal feeling. 4-city author tour. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Air travelers still aren't safe, mass transit remains unprotected, border and port security is feeble, and the Department of Homeland Security doesn't know what's up, argues the DHS's first inspector general, whose true assignment turned out to be positive spin; with a four-city tour. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Book review: Questões Éticas em Negócio:uma Aproximação Filosófica

Heideggerian Marxism

Author: Herbert Marcus

The Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979) studied with Martin Heidegger at Freiburg University from 1928 to 1932 and completed a dissertation on Hegel’s theory of historicity under Heidegger’s supervision. During these years, Marcuse wrote a number of provocative philosophical essays experimenting with the possibilities of Heideggerian Marxism. For a time he believed that Heidegger’s ideas could revitalize Marxism, providing a dimension of experiential concreteness that was sorely lacking in the German Idealist tradition. Ultimately, two events deterred Marcuse from completing this program: the 1932 publication of Marx’s early economic and philosophical manuscripts, and Heidegger’s conversion to Nazism a year later. Heideggerian Marxism offers rich and fascinating testimony concerning the first attempt to fuse Marxism and existentialism. These essays offer invaluable insight concerning Marcuse’s early philosophical evolution. They document one of the century’s most important Marxist philosophers attempting to respond to the “crisis of Marxism”: the failure of the European revolution coupled with the growing repression in the USSR. In response, Marcuse contrived an imaginative and original theoretical synthesis: “existential Marxism.”

Menace in Europe or Politics Culture and Class in the French Revolution Twentieth Anniversary

2009-02-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

Menace in Europe: Why the Continent's Crisis Is America's, Too

Author: Claire Berlinski

Old Europe’s new crisis.

Europe, the charming continent of windmills and gondolas. But lately, Europe has become the continent of endless strikes and demonstrations, bombs on the trains and subways, radical Islamic cells in every city, and ghettos so hopeless and violent even the police won’t enter them. In Spain, a terrorist attack prompts instant capitulation to the terrorists’ demands. In France, the suburbs go up in flames every night. In Holland, politicians and artists are murdered for speaking frankly about Islamic immigration.

This isn’t the Europe we thought we knew. What’s going on over there? Traveling overland from London to Istanbul, journalist Claire Berlinski shows why the Continent has lately appeared so bewildering—and often so thoroughly obnoxious—to Americans. Speaking to Muslim immigrants, German rock stars, French cops, and Italian women who have better things to do than have children, she finds that Europe is still, despite everything, in the grip of the same old ancient demons. Anyone who knows the history can sense it: There is something ugly—and familiar—in the air.

But something new is happening as well. Indeed, Europe now confronts—and seems unable to cope with—an entirely new set of troubles. Tracing the ancient conflicts and newly erupting crises, Menace in Europe reveals: • Why Islamic radicalism and terrorist indoctrination flourish as Europe fails to assimilate millions of Muslim immigrants • How plummeting birthrates hurtle Europe toward economic and cultural catastrophe

• Why hatred of America has becomeubiquitous—on Europe’s streets, in its books, newspapers, and music, and at the highest levels of government • How long-repressed destructive instincts are suddenly reemerging • How the death of religious faith has created a hopeless, morally unmoored Europe that clings to anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and other dangerous ideologies • Why the notion of a united Europe is a fantasy and what that means for the United States In the end, these are not separate issues. Berlinski provocatively demonstrates that Europe’s political and cultural crisis mirrors its profound moral and spiritual crisis.

But this is not just Europe’s problem. Menace in Europe makes clear that the spiritual void at the heart of Europe is ultimately our problem too. And America will pay a terrible price if we continue to ignore it.

From the Hardcover edition.

Books about: MPLS Configuration on Cisco IOS or Yakuza Official Strategy Guide

Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution, Twentieth-Anniversary

Author: Lynn Hunt

When this book was published in 1984, it reframed the debate on the French Revolution, shifting the discussion from the Revolution's role in wider, extrinsic processes (such as modernization, capitalist development, and the rise of twentieth-century totalitarian regimes) to its central political significance: the discovery of the potential of political action to consciously transform society by molding character, culture, and social relations. In a new preface to this twentieth-anniversary edition, Hunt reconsiders her work in the light of the past twenty years' scholarship.

	Introduction : interpreting the French revolution	1
Pt. I	The poetics of power
1	The rhetoric of revolution	19
2	Symbolic forms of political practice	52
3	The imagery of radicalism	87
Pt. II	The sociology of politics
4	The political geography of revolution	123
5	The new political class	149
6	Outsiders, culture brokers, and political networks	180
	Conclusion : revolution in political culture	213
App. A	Correlation matrix of selected political, economic, and demographic variables	237
App. B	Occupational analysis of city councillors in Amiens, Bordeaux, Nancy, and Toulouse	242

Palestine Inside Out or Mengele

2009-02-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation

Author: Saree Makdisi

How the "peace process" has made life impossible for ordinary Palestinians.

This book is not about suicide bombers. Tending one's fields, visiting a relative, going to the hospital: for ordinary Palestinians, such everyday activities require negotiating permits and passes, curfews and closures, "sterile roads" and "seam zones"—bureaucratic hurdles ultimately as deadly as outright military incursion.

Not since the late Edward Said has there been such an articulate Arab voice on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In devastating detail, Saree Makdisi reveals how the "peace process" institutionalized Palestinians' loss of control over their inner and outer lives. He shows how Israel's massive concrete walls going up around Gaza and the West Bank isolate communities from their lands, their livelihoods, and each other. Through eye-opening statistics and day-by-day reports, we learn how Palestinians have seen their hopes for freedom and statehood culminate in the creation of abject "territories" comparable to open-air prisons.

Anyone surprised at Arab anger or the election of Hamas must read this book. 33 photographs, 12 maps.

Publishers Weekly

In chronicling Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories-from road blocks to curfews, economic chaos to health care crises-UCLA professor Makdisi sketches a powerful, relentlessly heartbreaking account of a reality few Westerners know. According to Makdisi, the global media rarely covers the "routine" destruction of the occupation; rather than assessing the hermetic sealing of the Gaza Strip or the slicing up of West Bank communities for the sake of Israeli settlements, the media focuses on violence-eclipsing the "deadly effects of the Israeli apparatus of bureaucracy and control." Makdisi unequivocally condemns attacks on civilians, Israeli or Palestinian, and acknowledges the many Israelis working toward conflict resolution (indeed, much of his data comes from Israeli human rights organizations), but his scholarship occasionally fails when surveying Israeli society: Jews who fled Arab lands don't generally consider themselves "Arab Jews," for instance, and Zionism is a 19th-century nationalist movement, not a reaction to the Holocaust. Yet this doesn't detract from the urgency of Makdisi's work. The combined weight of personal stories of abject suffering, harsh statistics (in the past seven years, Israeli military operations have killed 854 Palestinian children) and facts on the ground make Makdisi's case that the occupation is destroying the Palestinian people, and possibly any chance for peaceful coexistence. (May)

Kirkus Reviews

An intense look at the difficult daily existence of people who are often little more than pawns in a bigger chess game. A half-Palestinian Christian who grew up in Beirut, Makdisi (English and Comparative Literature/UCLA; William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s, 2002, etc.) combines interviews with average citizens and a detailed history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even those not supportive of the Palestinian cause may be affected by the author's stark descriptions of the restrictions on liberty that he asserts are a hallmark of the Israeli occupation. A Palestinian man describes how guards punished him when he and his family tried to get into a shorter line while going through a border crossing on the West Bank: "I did not lose consciousness, but the many blows I suffered completely disoriented me. The two soldiers . . . punched and kicked me all over my body." Occasionally the quotations run too long and begin to ramble, decreasing their effectiveness, and the narrative sometimes awkwardly straddles the line between academic and general-interest text. The author rarely discusses underlying reasons for Israeli actions, such as the ongoing threat of suicide bombers and the stated desire of some Palestinian leaders to destroy Israel. In his extensive discussion of Israel's creation and the concomitant displacement of many Palestinians, he impugns the motives of Zionists and their allies throughout Western Europe and rarely displays the empathy for the Israelis that he asks people to show for the Palestinians. Makdisi dismisses the efforts of some Israeli and Western leaders to resolve the conflict and create a Palestinian homeland (e.g., the 2000 Camp Davidcompromise rejected by PLO leader Yasser Arafat) as both insincere and insufficient. Those looking for a moving and humane account of the lives of Palestinians will be rewarded, but readers expecting an evenhanded assessment will be disappointed. Agent: Melanie Jackson/Melanie Jackson Agency

Mengele: The Complete Story

Author: Gerald Posner

Examines the notorious Nazi's life.

The Origins of the Second World War or Do Think Tanks Matter

2009-02-01T01:19:00.000-08:00

The Origins of the Second World War: Seminar Studies in History Series

Author: R J Overy

'seminar Studies in History...provide a means of bridging the gap between specialist articles and monographs and textbooks. They are written by acknowledged experts on the subject who are not only familiar with current thinking but have often contributed to it. Their format, well-tried and effective, combines information, analysis and assessment effectively. The selections of documents, included from the outset of the series when document work was hardly in vogue in schools, not merely illustrates points made in the text but provides an effective medium for discussion on the issues raised. The further reading guide has stimulated countless students to take their interests further. The structure of the series may not have changed through time but the format has, with attractive four-colour covers and larger pages....Seminar Studies are still, despite all the opposition, a market leader.ї
Teaching History
__________________________________________________________________________

First published in 1987, this highly successful Seminar Study has now been completely overhauled, updated, expanded and reset. With its dozen additional documents the book now provides a fuller range of essential sources, making the book even more useful for teaching purposes. The bibliography has over thirty new entries and the main text has been fully updated to take account of the writings on the subject since the mid 1980s. In particular, new material has been added on the Munich crisis and on Japan but the most significant change is to be found in the treatment of the Soviet Union. Since 1989 knowledge of Soviet foreign policy has been transformed, and this is reflected in a completeredrafting of the sections covering Soviet actions from the Czech crisis in 1938 to the final showdown with Germany in 1941.

The strength of the new edition lies, as before, in the broad analytical approach and its accessible style. Professor Overy explores why the war broke out in September 1939 and not sooner, and why a European war expanded into world war by 1941. The war has usually been seen simply as Hitler's war and yet the wider conflict that broke out when Germany invaded Poland was not the war that Hitler wanted. He had hoped for a short war against Poland; instead, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Richard Overy argues that that any explanation of the outbreak of hostilities must therefore be multi-national and he shows how the war's origins are to be found in the basic instability of the international system that was brought about by the decline of the old empires of Britain and France and the rise of ambitious new powers, Italy, Germany and Japan keen to build new empires of their own.

R. J. Overy is Professor of Modern History at King's College, University of London.

	An introduction to the series
	Note on referencing system
	List of maps
	Acknowledgements
	Preface
1	Explaining the Second World War	1
2	The International Crisis	11
	The collapse of the League	12
	France and Britain	16
	America and the Soviet Union	22
	From the Rhineland to Munich	25
3	Economic and Imperial Rivalry	31
	The imperial powers	32
	The 'have-not' powers	36
	The failure of 'Economic Appeasement'	42
4	Armaments and Domestic Politics	47
	Rearmament	47
	Finance, industry and labour	55
	Rearmament and domestic politics	60
5	War Over Poland	63
	The aftermath of Munich	63
	The Soviet factor	73
	The outbreak of war	79
6	From European to World War	84
	The war in the west	84
	Barbarossa	87
	The coming of world war	90
7	Hitler's War?	96
	A Guide to the Main People in the Text	129
	Bibliography	131
	Index	139

Books about: Comforting Soups Colorful Salads or Pride

Do Think Tanks Matter?: Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes

Author: Donald E Abelson

Do Think Tanks Matter? evaluates the influence and relevance of public policy institutes in today's political arena. Many journalists and scholars believe the explosion of think tanks in the latter part of the twentieth century indicates their growing importance in the policy-making process. This perception has been reinforced by directors of think tanks, who often credit their institutes with influencing major policy debates and government legislation. Yet the basic question of how and in what way they influence public policy has, Donald Abelson contends, frequently been ignored.

Empire as a Way of Life or Miriams Song

2009-01-30T20:07:00.000-08:00

Empire as a Way of Life

Author: William Appleman Williams

"An unblinkered look at our imperial past . . . a perceptive work by one of our most perceptive historians."-Studs Terkel

Awork of remarkable prescience, Empire As A Way of Life is influentialhistorian William Appleman Williams's groundbreaking work highlightingimperialism-"empire as a way of life"-as the dominant theme in Americanhistory. Analyzing U.S. history from its revolutionary origins to the dawn ofthe Reagan era, Williams showshow America has always been addicted to empire in its foreign and domesticideology. Detailing the imperial actions and beliefs of revered figures such asBenjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin DelanoRoosevelt, this book is the most in-depth historical study of the Americanobsession with empire, and is essential to understanding the origins of ourcurrent foreign and domestic undertakings.

Backin print for the first time in twenty-five years, this new edition features anintroduction by Andrew Bacevich, author of American Empire: The Realities andConsequences of U.S. Diplomacy.

Miriam's Song

Author: Miriam Mathaban

Mark Mathabane first came to prominence with the publication of Kaffir Boy, which became a New York Times bestseller. His story of growing up in South Africa was one of the most riveting accounts of life under apartheid. Mathabane's newest book, Miriam's Song, is the story of Mark's sister, who was left behind in South Africa. It is the gripping tale of a woman -- representative of an entire generation -- who came of age amid the violence and rebellion of the 1980s and finally saw the destruction of apartheid and the birth of a new, democratic South Africa.

Mathabane writes in Miriam's voice based on stories she told him, but he has re-created her unforgettable experience as only someone who also lived through it could. The immediacy of the hardships that brother and sister endured -- from daily school beatings to overwhelming poverty -- is balanced by the beauty of their childhood observations and the true affection that they have for each other.

Glamour

This memoir of growing up in South Africa during apartheid is alternately evocative and wrenching, but always inspiring....[It] captures both the brutality and beauty of their childhood.

Library Journal

Mark Mathabane, the author of Kaffir Boy, helps recount the life of his sister, who remained behind in South Africa after he left and witnessed its struggle to throw off apartheid. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

The New York Times Book Review - Mary Ellen Sullivan

[Mathabane's] searingly honest account of this period when the townships were under siege by both their residents and the government brings a critical chapter of South African history to life. Now studying in the United States, Mathabane told her stories to her brother, who perfectly captures her guileless wisdom.

Kirkus Reviews

From the South African-born Mathabane (Kaffir Boy, 1986; African Women, 1994, etc.) comes this unsparingly graphic account of his sister's growing up in the last days of apartheid—when violence turned black townships into killing fields and schooling ceased as young Comrades insisted on liberation before education. The story told by Miriam, now studying in the US, is a searing indictment of the violence to women engendered both by apartheid and by traditional African attitudes. Both quashed human potential and aspirations, and good daughters and students like Miriam were as penalized as their more recalcitrant sisters. Born in 1969 and raised in Alexandria, a sprawling black township to the north of Johannesburg, Miriam offers vivid details of township life: the food eaten (a whole chicken was an undreamed-of luxury), the small houses (spotless despite the number of people living in them), and the ubiquitous scrawny dogs picking over the uncollected trash. She describes growing up as the middle daughter in a family made dysfunctional by circumstance. Her illiterate father, unable to find better-paying jobs, is often unemployed, drinks, gambles away their food money, and beats the children; her mother, a devout Christian, lacks the proper documentation and also has employment problems; and her elder brother steals Miriam's savings. The black schools are poorly equipped, the teachers are sadistic, and Miriam (who wants to become a nurse) soon finds her ambition thwarted by the times and by custom. A teenager in the 1980s, when anti-government violence made life in townships dangerous, she has to stay home when the schools are forced to close. Then, in a society where blackmentraditionally are free to do as they please (to take 13-year-old girls for wives, for example, as one of her uncle does), she is raped by her boyfriend and finds herself pregnant. But brother Mark, who has used his tennis talents as a passport to the US and success, will change Miriam's life. A moving story of a survivor, but Miriam herself often seems more a reporter recalling an eventful past than a reflective memoirist.

Profiting with Forex or Power Play

2009-01-29T14:55:00.000-08:00

Profiting with Forex: The Most Effective Tools and Techniques for Trading Currencies

Author: John Jagerson

Profiting with Forex introduces investors to all the advantages of the global foreign exchange market and shows them how to capitalize on it. Readers will learn why forex is the perfect supplement to stock and bond investing; why it is unrivaled in terms of protection, profit potential, and ease of use; and how it can generate profits, whether the other markets are up of down.

Written by two leading forex experts, this complete investing resource uses basic economic principles, solid technical analysis, and lots of common sense to develop an arsenal of tools and techniques that will lead to winning results in the lucrative foreign exchange marketplace. Profiting with Forex includes everything that investors need to know about:

The many advantages of the forex market: huge market size, ease of entry, profit potential, tax incentives, 24-hour trading, no commissions, increased leverage, and guaranteed stops

The basic terms of forex trading: definitions of important concepts, including "pip," "currency pair," "contract" or "lot," and more

Genesis and growth of the forex market: how the forex market emerged out of a changing global financial landscape and continues to changes and adapt with that same volatile landscape

Fundamental factors that shape the Forex market: the U.S. government, inflation, the U.S. stock market, China and other emerging markets, oil, and breaking news

Fundamental tools for tracking Forex market changes: interest rates, Treasury International Capital Data, Consumer Price Index, S&P 500, U.S. dollar vs. Chinese yuan, balance of trade, crude oil futures, and newsmedia

Technical analysis tools and indicators for gauging market sentiment: moving averages, oscillating indicators such as, stochastics, Commodity Channel Index, Relative Strength Index, Fibonacci analysis, and others

Filled with over 150 illustrations and figures, Profiting with Forex also shows investors how to combine their newly acquired knowledge of Forex fundamentals with proven trading techniques that can generate great rewards in the market.

John Jagerson is Vice President of Content for INVESTools, the leading investor-education company in the United States. A veteran trader in stocks, options, futures, and forex, he is also a managing principal of Ouroboros Capital Management, an NFA member firm. Jagerson has been featured in Business Week's Stock Trader newsletter and has published several articles in online and print periodicals.

S. Wade Hansen is a managing principal of Ouroboros Capital Management, where he created the firm's proprietary trading system. Mr. Hansen's articles have appeared in several media outlets and he has been a featured speaker at numerous forex workshops and seminars. He helped train tens of thousands of investors as the co-creator of the INVESTools Currency Trader, Advanced Options, and Advanced Technical Analysis education programs.

Interesting textbook: Cardiovascular Disease or Depression

Power Play: The Bush Presidency and the Constitution

Author: James P Pfiffner

The framers of the U.S. Constitution divided the federal government's powers among three branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Their goal was to prevent tyranny by ensuring that none of the branches could govern alone. While numerous presidents have sought to escape these constitutional constraints, the administration of George W. Bush went farther than most. It denied the writ of habeas corpus to individuals deemed to be enemy combatants. It suspended the Geneva Convention and allowed or encouraged the use of harsh interrogation methods amounting to torture. It ordered the surveillance of Americans without obtaining warrants as required by law. And it issued signing statements declaring that the president does not have the duty to faithfully execute hundreds of provisions in the laws he has signed.

Power Play analyzes the Bush presidency's efforts to expand executive power in these four domains and puts them into constitutional and historical perspective. Pfiffner explores the evolution of Anglo-American thinking about executive power and individual rights. He highlights the lessons the Constitution's framers drew from such philosophers as Locke and Montesquieu, as well as English constitutional history. He documents the ways in which the Bush administration's policies have undermined the separation of powers, and he shows how these practices have imperiled the rule of law.

Following 9/11, the Bush presidency engaged in a two-front offensive. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the administration aggressively prosecuted the "war on terror." At home, it targeted constraints on the power of the executive. Power Play lays bare theextent of this second campaign and explains why it will continue to threaten the future of republican government if the other two branches do not assert their own constitutional prerogatives.

Margaret Heilbrun - Library Journal

Public policy academic Pfiffner (George Mason Univ.; The Character Factor: How We Judge America's Presidents) addresses the Constitution's meticulously established system of checks and balances among the executive, legislative, and judicial bodies-and shows how the current President has stepped over the limits placed there on executive power, specifically in relation to habeas corpus, definitions of torture, employing surveillance without warrant, and disregard of laws that the executive branch is charged with upholding. Pfiffner's first chapters give a deep but very clear introduction to the legal philosophies behind our Constitution, then introduce the Constitution itself as an evolution from thinkers and circumstances in Europe. When he homes in on the particulars of overweening executive power, including examples from previous administrations, readers are well posed to understand and keep turning the pages. Highly recommended for suitable collections.

What People Are Saying

Louis Fisher
"With his customary thoughtfulness and scholarly integrity, Jim Pfiffner has examined the post-9/11 events, analyzed the legal arguments offered by the administration, and with great precision cut through to the central issues that should concern us all. A very important contribution to reviving constitutional government."--(Louis Fisher, author of Presidential War Power)

Hugh Heclo
"This book should deeply trouble any citizen. In a clear, fair-minded review of the evidence, Pfiffner builds a powerful case pointing toward one unmistakable conclusion: since 9/11 the claims and actions of the Bush administration have been undermining the constitutional principles and rule of law on which our Republic is based. "--(Hugh Heclo, Robinson Professor of Public Affairs, George Mason University)

Carl M. Cannon
"Power Play is meticulously researched, engagingly written, and passionately argued. Its essential argument is that the United States was formed as a reaction to monarchy, and that U.S. presidents-no matter the threat against America-were never meant to have the power of kings. As long as diligent scholars such as Pfiffner are around, they won't."--(Carl M. Cannon, co-author of Reagan's Disciple: George W. Bush's Troubled Quest for a Presidential Legacy)

Robert J. Spitzer
"This is the right book, at the right time, by the right author. It is clear, dispassionate, and straightforward. A key strength is the manner in which Pfiffner interweaves historical and theoretical perspectives with his contemporary critique of Bush doctrine. Power Play epitomizes the best of Brookings Press's many distinguished titles that apply superb political science to contemporary problems and issues."--(Robert J. Spitzer, author of Saving the Constitution from Lawyers)

American Government or Debate on the Constitution

2009-01-28T09:42:00.000-08:00

American Government: Readings and Cases

Author: Peter Woll

American Government:Readings and Cases
Seventeenth Edition
Peter Woll

For nearly 50 years, American Government: Readings and Cases has been the best-selling reader in American government. The author provides students with a strong, balanced blend of classic readings and cases that illustrate and amplify key concepts, as well as offering extremely current selections drawn from today's most important literature. Now with an even stronger focus on the U.S. Constitution in the post 9/11 world, the Seventeenth Edition puts students directly in touch with great scholars and political leaders who have shaped–and are shaping–American government.

Highlights of the Seventeenth Edition

Contrasting views of Supreme Court Justices in the California medical marijuana case, Gonzales v. Raich (2005), illustrating the political and constitutional debates that continue over the boundaries of national and state powers.
New selections examining the origins of the right to privacy, including the historic 1890 article by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis from the Harvard Law Review, and Justice William O. Douglas’s Supreme Court opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965).
New readings that examine the party model of government, analyzing the Republican and Democratic Parties in the twenty-first century and the constitutional and political requirements for a responsible two-party system.
New readings on the presidency, including important pieces by Stephen Skowronek, Sidney Milkis, and John Dean.

For more information on the Seventeenth Edition, including a full table of contents, pleasevisit our website at ablongman.com/polisci

Ch. 1	Constitutional government	3
	Constitutional democracy : the rule of law	3
	Framing the Constitution : elitist or democratic process?	10
	Limitation of governmental power and of majority rule	41
	Interpreting the Constitution	45
Ch. 2	Federalism	50
	Constitutional background : national versus state power	51
	Implied powers and the supremacy of national law	74
	A perspective on federalism : present and future	83
	State politics and constitutional government	88
	National power over the states : a recurring constitutional debate	95
Ch. 3	Civil liberties and civil rights	105
	Constitutional background	105
	The nationalization of the Bill of Rights	112
	The Fourteenth Amendment	116
	Freedom of speech and press	124
	Expanding the boundaries of permissible criticism of government and public officials	130
	Equal protection of the laws : school desegregation	136
	The judicial sources of major political controversies over civil liberties and rights	145
	The establishment clause and the issue of school prayer	146
	School vouchers and the establishment clause	154
	The right to abortion	156
	Affirmative action	167
Ch. 4	Political parties and the electorate	175
	Constitutional background	175
	Constitutional protection of parties	183
	The party model of government	185
	Political parties in divided government	193
	Functions and types of elections	201
	Party decline and electoral decay	212
	Voting behavior : rational or irrational?	218
	Political campaigns and the electorate	226
	Political parties and campaign finance : constitutional issues regulating political campaigns	230
	The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002	236
	A perspective on the act	247
Ch. 5	Interest groups	253
	Constitutional background	253
	The nature and functions of interest groups	259
	How American government and politics enhance interest group power	273
	Money, PACs, and elections	277
Ch. 6	The presidency	287
	Constitutional background : single versus plural executive	287
	The nature of the presidency : power, persuasion, and paradoxes	290
	Presidential politics	302
	Presidential character and style	303
	Presidential leadership and political parties	313
	Presidential elections	327
	The constitutional presidency and emergency powers	331
	Ex Parte Quirin (1942) as a precedent for military tribunals to try suspected terrorists	338
Ch. 7	The bureaucracy	350
	Constitutional background	350
	The political roots and consequences of bureaucracy	355
Ch. 8	Congress	364
	Constitutional background : representation of popular, group, and national interests	364
	Congress and the Washington political establishment : Congress emerges as a professional body shaped by reelection and internal power incentives	372
	Committee chairmen as political entrepreneurs	385
	Congress and the electoral connection	397
Ch. 9	The judiciary	426
	Constitutional background : judicial independence and judicial review	426
	Powers and limitations of the Supreme Court	435
	A case study of judicial self-restraint : the Pledge of Allegiance case and the First Amendment's establishment clause	442
	The use of the standing doctrine as procedural self-restraint : a case study	442
	Judicial decision making	447
	Interpreting the Constitution	455
	The contemporary debate over constitutional interpretation	456
App. 1	The Declaration of Independence	466
App. 2	The Constitution of the United States	470

Debate on the Constitution: Federalist and Antifederalist Speeches, Articles, and Letters During the Struggle over Ratification, January to August 1788 (Library of America), Vol. 2

Author: Bernard Bailyn

The library of America is dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as the "finest-looking, longest-lasting editions ever made" (The New Republic), Library of America volumes make a fine gift for any occasion. Now, with exactly one hundred volumes to choose from, there is a perfect gift for everyone.

The Colfax Massacre or Huey Long

2009-01-27T04:28:00.000-08:00

The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror and the Death of Reconstruction

Author: LeeAnna Keith

On Easter Sunday, 1873, in the tiny hamlet of Colfax, Louisiana, more than 150 members of an all-black Republican militia, defending the town's courthouse, were slain by an armed force of rampaging white supremacists. The most deadly incident of racial violence of the Reconstruction era, the Colfax Massacre unleashed a reign of terror that all but extinguished the campaign for racial equality.
LeeAnna Keith's The Colfax Massacre is the first full-length book to tell the history of this decisive event. Drawing on a huge body of documents, including eyewitness accounts of the massacre, as well as newly discovered evidence from the site itself, Keith explores the racial tensions that led to the fateful encounter, during which surrendering blacks were mercilessly slaughtered, and the reverberations this message of terror sent throughout the South. Keith also recounts the heroic attempts by U.S. Attorney J.R. Beckwith to bring the killers to justice and the many legal issues raised by the massacre. In 1875, disregarding the poignant testimony of 300 witnesses, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in U.S. v. Cruikshank to overturn a lower court conviction of eight conspirators. This decision virtually nullified the Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871--which had made federal offenses of a variety of acts to intimidate voters and officeholders--and cleared the way for the Jim Crow era.
If there was a single historical moment that effectively killed Reconstruction and erased the gains blacks had made since the civil war, it was the day of the Colfax Massacre. LeeAnna Keith gives readers both a gripping narrative account of that portentous day and a nuanced historical analysisof its far-reaching repercussions.

The Washington Post - Eric Foner

…the new books by LeeAnna Keith and Charles Lane are doubly welcome. Not only do they tell the story of the single most egregious act of terrorism during Reconstruction (a piece of "lost history," as Keith puts it), but they do so in vivid, compelling prose. Keith, who teaches at the Collegiate School in New York, and Lane…have immersed themselves in the relevant sources and current historical writing. Both accomplish a goal often aspired to but rarely achieved, producing works of serious scholarship accessible to a non-academic readership…Both authors offer a gripping account of the assault and subsequent atrocities. But overall, their books complement rather than repeat each other. While shorter, Keith's is more comprehensive, devoting more space to the history of slavery, emancipation and Reconstruction in west-central Louisiana.

The New York Times - Kevin Boyle

In The Colfax Massacre, Keith, who teaches history at the Collegiate School in New York, painstakingly recreates the town's complicated racial and political dynamics, both before and after emancipation. She places its leading family, the Calhouns, at the center, and their twists and turns take up almost a third of her brief book. Centering a story of black activism on a slave-owning family might seem strange, but it works, largely because the Calhouns never played to type.

Publishers Weekly

It happened in Colfax, La., on Easter Sunday, 1873; when it ended, the "the largest number of victims in the history of racial violence in the United States," more than one hundred and fifty African-Americans, were dead. Keith places the massacre at the center of her book, but her sharpest focus is upon white political figures and the slave-holding Calhoun family (the character Simon Legree in Uncle Tom's Cabinwas based upon a Calhoun forebear), most notably William, who witnessed the violence. Keith traces the fortunes of the Calhoun family to the events leading to the massacre, then turns to the Colfax Courthouse assault and judicial aftermath that deepened the complexity of this tragic event. Three white men were convicted, not for murders but for conspiracy in one murder. These convictions were then overturned, and Reconstruction effectively ended according to Keith. Louisiana's Governor Kellogg declared "no white man could be punished for killing a negro." Later memorialized by the state with a plaque "celebrating the demise of 'carpetbag misrule in the South,' " the horrific massacre has received scant attention from American historians. Keith's aim is admirable, but the execution could be bolstered with more substantive research. (Feb.)

Theresa McDevitt - Library Journal

In Colfax, LA, in 1873, one of the country's worst incidents of racial violence took place when white supremacists slayed dozens of black men, a tragedy that would effectively signal the U.S. government's abandonment of Reconstruction efforts. The massacre led ultimately to the Supreme Court's 1875 decision in United States v. Cruikshank, in which it was declared that it was not the federal government's province to defend the rights of the murdered blacks. These two well-researched and accessible treatments, each with its own emphasis, shed further light on the massacre and should pave the way for a wider consideration of its significance. Keith's (history, Collegiate Sch., New York; coauthor, with Sandy Fekete, Companies Are People Too) is a fast-moving, sympathetic account focusing on the Louisiana setting, the participants, local reactions, and the lore that grew up around that day. Keith recognizes the significance of the tragedy but argues against exaggerated claims about its national impact. She suggests that "its story must yet be reconciled into the broader narrative of American History."

Lane, who has covered the Supreme Court for the Washington Post, offers a longer study not only of the massacre but also of the national scene and the resulting court proceedings, both local and federal, that produced legal and political aftermaths as tragic as the massacre itself. Lane sees the event as a "turning point in the history of American race relations and racial politics," stating that after the above Supreme Court case "the federal government did not mount another substantial effort to enforce black citizens' right to vote in the South until thecivil rights revolution in the 1950s and 1960s." His maps and provided "cast of characters" are helpful. Public and academic libraries should purchase at least one or the other of these books, both welcome additions to the historiography of the Reconstruction era, and if choosing one, should pick depending on whether they prefer the local historical and personal context (Keith) or the long-term political and constitutional significance (Lane).

Huey Long

Author: T Harry Williams

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this work describes the life of one of the most extraordinary figures in American political history.

Saturday Review - E. Yoder

I know of no better American political biography.

1	Not Even a Horse	3
2	There He Goes Again	25
3	High Popalorum and Low Popahirum	47
4	All the Law Business I Could Handle	71
5	I Won a Very Good Lawsuit	91
6	The Sport of Kings	106
7	The Fight Is Just Beginning	129
8	We Are Forcing Them Back	153
9	Blood on the Moon	181
10	I Am a Candidate	214
11	In the Radiance of the Future	244
12	Fry Me a Steak	280
13	Kingfish of the Lodge	312
14	Bloody Monday-and Impeachment	347
15	The Round Robins	384
16	We Propose to Go Faster	420
17	Beating the Feather Duster	454
18	I've Got a University	492
19	Completing Our Great Program	526
20	We Always Have a Wild Man	554
21	A Circus Hitched to a Tornado	583
22	He Lied to Me	619
23	Polecats Everywhere	648
24	Share Our Wealth	676
25	Sit Down, Isom	707
26	Power in Himself	737
27	Fighting for Their Ground	763
28	I Might Have a Good Parade	793
29	Lay Over, Huey	819
30	Blood on The Marble Floor	848
	Epilogue	873
	Bibliographical Essay	877
	Index	884

Eisenhower and Berlin 1945 or Deaths Acre

2009-01-25T23:07:00.000-08:00

Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945: The Decision to Halt at the Elbe

Author: Stephen E Ambros

In the final months of World War II, with the Allied forces streaming into Germany on two fronts, a major decision had to be made: where to draw a stop line to prevent an accidental clash between the Russian and the Anglo-American armies. Behind this decision lay another. Whose forces would be the first to reach Berlin?" "General Dwight Eisenhower, supreme commander of the British and American armies, chose to halt at the Elbe River and leave Berlin to the Red Army." "Stephen E. Ambrose describes both the political and the military aspects of the situation, sketches the key players, explains the alternatives, and considers the results. In so doing he focuses a sharp light on a decision that had major consequences for the postwar world.

	Introduction to the Paperback Edition	5
	Foreword	11
1	The Position, March 7, 1945	17
2	The Creation of the Zones	35
3	Eisenhower's Superiors and His Telegram to Stalin	47
4	The Military Situation and the Basis for Decision	66
5	Could Eisenhower Have Taken Berlin?	88
App. A	The Telegrams	99
App. B	Eisenhower's Directive	105
	A Note on Sources	107
	Index	113

Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensics Lab - Where the Dead Do Tell tales

Author: Bill Bass

A pioneer of modern forensic anthropology reveals secrets of the world's first-and only-laboratory devoted to death.

Forensic science and murder investigations are among the most fascinating topics of our time. Dominating television and print media every season, both as fiction and nonfiction, the subject could not be hotter. As one of the world's leading forensic anthropologists, Dr. Bill Bass is the premier guide to this unusual world.

Nowhere is there another lab like Dr. Bass's: on a hillside in Tennessee, human bodies decompose in the open air, aided by insects, bacteria, and birds, unhindered by coffins or mausoleums. At the "Body Farm," nature takes its course with corpses buried in shallow graves, submerged in water, locked in trunks of cars. As scientific stand-ins for murder victims, they serve the needs of science-and the cause of justice.

For thirty years, Dr. Bass's research has revolutionized the field of forensic science, particularly by pinpointing "time since death" in murder cases. In his riveting book, he investigates real cases and leads readers on an unprecedented journey behind the locked gates of the "Body Farm." A master scientist and engaging storyteller, Bass shares his most intriguing cases: his revisit of the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder fifty years later; the mystery of a headless corpse, whose identity astonished police; the telltale bugs that finally sent a murderous grandfather to death row-and many more.

This is a book for forensics purists: voyeuristic oddballs like myself who are only mildly intrigued by the details of the book's true-crime narratives, who skip ahead to the part where the forensics guys arrive with their Ziploc bags and delectably horrid puns. ("Bill, give me a hand," we hear a fingerprint expert at a crime scene say when he wants a corpse's severed hand.) The cases in Death's Acre seem to have been chosen not for the dramatic arcs of crime unfolding and justice served -- indeed, many chapters end in anticlimax -- but because they work well to illustrate the essentials of decomp science: timelines of decay, identifying burned or skeletal remains, forensic entomology. — Mary Roach

The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

In this memoir, Bass, a premier forensic anthropologist, recounts how a life spent studying dead bodies led to the creation of "The Anthropolgy Research Facility" (aka the Body Farm), a plot of land near the University of Tennessee Medical Center where Bass and his colleagues monitor the decomposition of human corpses in various environments. The book is structured around the 1981 creation of the Body Farm, and the early chapters focus on some of Bass's trickier cases to demonstrate his need for more information about the science of forensics. The later chapters take a closer look at how the scientific analysis of Body Farm corpses has helped Bass and other anthropologists solve some of the toughest and most bizarre cases of their distinguished careers. Though professional and conscientious when describing the medical facts of each case, Bass, writing with journalist Jefferson, proves to be a witty storyteller with a welcome sense of humor. He also does a nice job balancing accounts of death and decomposition with decidedly not-so-morbid tidbits from his personal life. Furthermore, the poignancy of how he reacts to the deaths of his first two wives reflects the compassion he feels for the dead and their surviving family members he encounters in his working life. Bass may deal with the dead, but he has a lust for life that comes across in his writing. While the grisly details may not make this a must-read for everyone, those who do pick it up might just be pleasantly surprised by how Bass brings death to life. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Not for the "faint of stomach," this is the story of one man's quest to identify murder victims. Bass, who created the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility, which is devoted to research on human decomposition, mixes scientific and personal anecdotes in such a way that readers are hooked from the first page. Readability, however, never loses out to accuracy, and the mix is quite an accomplishment. The author explains the process of decomposition and how bones give clues to identity: approximate age, sex, height, and race, all of which are needed to bring the forensic scientist one step closer to putting a name to a corpse. He describes some of the cases he has been involved with and laughs at himself when he shares stories of mistakes and assumptions. Young adults will gain insight into the forensic process and appreciate Bass's dedication to the truth and his work.-Peggy Bercher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Get Out The Vote or Karl Marx

2009-01-24T17:55:00.000-08:00

Get Out The Vote

Author: Donald P Green

The first edition of Get Out the Vote! broke ground by introducing a new scientific approach to the challenge of voter mobilization and profoundly influenced how campaigns operate. In this expanded and updated edition, the authors incorporate data from more than one hundred new studies, which shed new light on the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of various campaign tactics, including door-to-door canvassing, e-mail, direct mail, and telephone calls. Two new chapters focus on the effectiveness of mass media campaigns and events such as candidate forums and Election Day festivals. Available in time for the core of the 2008 presidential campaign, this practical guide on voter mobilization is sure to be an important resource for consultants, candidates, and grassroots organizations.

Preface     vii
Introduction: Why Voter Mobilization Matters     1
Evidence versus Received Wisdom     12
Door-to-Door Canvassing: Shoe Leather Politics     26
Leaflets: Walk, Don't Talk     46
Direct Mail: Postal Service as Campaign Staff     55
Phone Banks: Politics Meets Telemarketing     74
Electronic Mail: Faster, Cheaper, but Does It Work?     97
Using Events to Draw Voters to the Polls     108
Using Mass Media to Mobilize Voters     120
What Works, What Doesn't, and What's Next     135
Appendixes
Technical Results of Door-to-Door Canvassing Experiments     165
Technical Results of Direct Mail Experiments     175
Technical Results of Phone-Calling Experiments     188
Notes     201
Index     219

Karl Marx: A Life

Author: Francis Wheen

Paradox and passion were the animating spirits of Karl Marx's life, which oftenreads like a novel by Laurence Sterne or George Eliot. "Imagine Rousseau, Voltaire, and Hegel fused into one person," said a contemporary, "and you have Dr. Marx." In this stunning book, the first major biography of Marx since the end of the Cold War, Francis Wheen gives us not a socialist ogre but a fascinating, ultimately humane man. Marx's marriage to Jenny von Westphalen, whose devotion was tested by decades of poverty and exile, is as affecting a love story offered by history, while his friendship with Friedrich Engels is by turns hilarious and inspiring. Wheen does not, however, shy away from Marx's work. Was he, as his detractors have claimed, a self-hating Jew? What did Marx really mean by his famous line, "Religion is the opiate of the masses"? Is Capital deserving of the ridicule with which modern-day economists have dismissed it? Marx lived both at the center and on the fringes of his age. He also changed the world. With Karl Marx, Francis Wheen has written a hugely entertaining biography of one of history's most unforgettable players.

New York Times

Wheen's portrait of Marx's life is artfully shaped and makes delectable reading.

Christopher Hitchens

A brilliant book, by a superb author, about a necessary man.

Boston Book Review

[E]xpertly researched, admirably objective, eminently humane, and plenty entertaining.

A. N. Wilson

A magnificent portrait of Marx.... Bravo!

Publishers Weekly

"It is time to strip away the mythology," writes Wheen, "and try to rediscover Karl Marx the man." In the first major biography of Marx since the end of the Cold War, Wheen does just that as he looks for the man lurking behind the myths of both enemies and disciples, the misinterpretations and the academic jargon. What he finds is somebody who will suit nobody's purposes--Marx, Wheen argues, lived his life messily. He was neither a clearheaded revolutionary nor an unrepentant hypocrite, but he wasn't the anti-Christ either. More or less incapable of holding down a steady, salaried job, he mooched off of his selfless wife, Jenny (an aristocrat fallen on hard times), and his well-to-do ideological partner, Friedrich Engels, and spent his time obsessively writing unreadable, unmarketable economics tracts. He also spent a good deal of time preaching the imminent revolution of the masses (with whom he appears to have had little affinity). Following Marx from his childhood in Trier, Germany, through his exile in London, Wheen, a columnist for the British Guardian, takes readers from hovel to grand house, from the International Working Man's Association to Capital, from obscurity to notoriety and back again. (Only 11 mourners attended Marx's funeral.) The narrative veers unsteadily from scorn to admiration for the bearded philosopher. Wheen begins by jeering at Marx's cantakerousness and ends by lauding him as a prophet and a brave survivor of poverty and exile. In the end, Wheen's breezy, colorful portrayal is as eccentric as its subject. 16 pages of illustrations not seen by PW. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

Little about Marx was left undiscovered by David McLellan's highly regarded Karl Marx: His Life and Thought (LJ 3/1/74), but left-leaning British journalist Wheen attempts to add some new understanding. Wheen does correct a small error that McLellan advanced about Charles Darwin's nonrelationship with Marx, but otherwise his book is notable less for the quality of the scholarship--which is solid enough--than for his deft portraiture. Wheen's Marx is often charming and likable--and just as often not. An earlier generation of biographers depicted an impoverished Marx dependent upon the generosity of collaborator Frederick Engels, but Wheen demonstrates that Marx actually led a bourgeois lifestyle beyond his means--mostly for the sake of his daughters, whom he adored. Engels seemed to regard Marx almost as a fortunate younger sibling would a brilliant but unlucky older brother. Wheen's book is engagingly written, but his editors have done him a disservice by retaining an overabundance of British colloquialisms that simply do not travel well across the pond. Still, Wheen's compelling depiction of the truly historic Marx-Engels friendship combines with a bold prose style to commend his book to serious academic and public libraries.--Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., PA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

In this reportedly first major post-Cold War biography of the author of the , "the most influential pamphlet in history," a British columnist for London's newspaper portrays this middle-class German as a paradoxical representative of the oppressed masses in his relationships with family, Engels, and Bakunin, et al. Includes photos of Marx (1818-83). First published in London in 1999. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The New York Times Book Review - Sylvia Nasar

Wheen has engagingly reinterpreted Marx's exhaustively annotated life...his portrait of Marx's life is artfully shaped and makes delectable reading.

The Boston Book Review - Corson

Karl Marx: A Life is expertly researched, admirably objective, eminently humane, and plenty entertaining.

Irish Times - John Banville

… Wheen has read not only widely but deeply in the great man's work… his account of Capital , the most daunting of door stoppers, is nothing short of masterful… It is hard to think of anyone since Isaiah Berlin who has written so persuasively and compellingly on Marx… The common reader, if such a creature still exists, will find cause here to rejoice.

Ben Timlott

Stunning… a witty, subtle, and beautifully written study that neither idolizes the old suer nor dismisses him… Wheen's Karl is a warm, rambunctious, imperfect, irresponsible, bundling giant.
&#!51; The Independent

Kirkus Reviews

Superb life of the thinker who, for better or worse, molded the 20th century. Marx once proclaimed, famously, that he was not a Marxist. If pressed, British journalist Wheen would probably claim Marxist credentials—if of a distinctly irreverent stripe. (For example, his extraordinarily well-conceived biography of communism's guiding light is probably the first to press the comedy troupe Monty Python into exegetical service.) Wheen's satirical edge does not, however, make his study any less serious; it is as well-documented as Isaiah Berlin's 1963 biography—and certainly more interesting to read. Marx, Wheen allows, was a paradoxical sort: a Jew who disavowed Judaism; an ardent moralist who fathered an illegitimate child by a servant; a communist firebrand who lived well beyond his means and aggressively mooched off well-to-do acquaintances (especially his forbearing colleague Friedrich Engels). But Marx was also fearless, unafraid of a good fight, and accustomed to a life in which "grubby police spies from Prussia lurked all too conspicuously outside, keeping note of the comings and goings, while irate butchers and bakers and bailiffs hammered on the door." Wheen makes a number of useful revisions to the historical record; whereas many biographers paint Marx's relationship with the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin as a bitter and hateful rivalry, Wheen documents that the two were friendly in person and borrowed liberally from one another's store of ideas. Engels emerges from the record, too, with his reputation restored: in Wheen's pages he is not the toady of other biographies, but a critical and thoughtful—ifsometimesbeery—participant in the shaping of Marx's thought. Wheen takes vigorous issue with those "countless wiseacres" who, on one hand declare that Marx's thought leads directly to the Gulag and, on the other, hold that Marx's ideas are irrelevant to the modern, post-Cold War world. Neither view, Wheen holds, is correct—and neither is useful to reckoning the extent of Marx's role in making the world in which we live. Respectful yet non-hagiographic, Wheen's life of Marx deserves a wide readership.

Theodore Roosevelt or The Cuckoos Egg

2009-01-23T12:43:00.000-08:00

Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of the American Spirit

Author: Betsy Harvey Kraft

People often associate Theodore Roosevelt with the Rough Riders, the volunteer cavalry regiment that he led to vic-tory in 1898 in the Spanish-American War. But the list of accomplishments of the 26th president of the United States is long: besides holding office as vice president, governor of New York State, and police commissioner of New York City, he was a writer, cowboy, historian, conservationist, and soldier. Above all, he ushered the United States into the ranks of the world's great powers. His incredible exuberance and strength continue to inspire, and his progressive views on government and corporate corruption, labor laws, and feminism are still relevant today.

Award-winning author Betsy Harvey Kraft has written a sweeping biography that draws from diverse sources, including Theodore Roosevelt's journals, correspondence, and autobiography, as well as the memoirs of family and friends and newspaper reports of the time. This excellent book also features archival photographs, political cartoons, and drawings by Roosevelt himself. Endnotes, bibliography, index.

Publishers Weekly

Kraft (Mother Jones; Sensational Trials of the Twentieth Century) marshals Theodore Roosevelt's ebullience and forceful character to animate this colorful biography. The narrative traces how the sickly boy born in 1858 to New York aristocrats channeled his considerable will and intellect to become an athlete, fighter, naturalist, conservationist, cowboy, author and, of course, the 26th president of the United States. Carefully chosen details illustrate Roosevelt's larger-than-life enthusiasms (one senator recalls a hiking trip: "When we came to the stream, instead of deviating and seeking a bridge, Roosevelt strode right through the water, which was well up to the tops of his shoes, with never a break in his flow of speech, and just as if this was the most natural thing in the world to do"). Readers will enjoy Kraft's descriptions of Roosevelt's role as the adoring father of six famously rambunctious children, and they will admire his battles against corruption and his efforts to preserve wilderness. The author effectively employs quotes from Roosevelt and his contemporaries (including some from enemies); reproductions of Roosevelt's illustrated letters are particularly captivating. The institutional design does little to enliven the subject, several issues lack sufficient context (e.g., Roosevelt's role in a military controversy in Brownsville, Tex., that alienated black Americans) and some episodes seem superficially dismissed (e.g., during a grueling post-presidential expedition through Brazilian jungles, Roosevelt lost "much of the boyish spirit that had propelled him all his life"). These drawbacks aside, the biography delivers a lively portrait of an American hero. Illustrated with period photos, political cartoons and Roosevelt's own drawings. Ages 10-14. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Joan Kindig, Ph.D. - Children's Literature

Kraft ends this book saying that Roosevelt was not swept into office because of war or a financial depression. Instead, he created his own momentum. The book itself has that momentum. Roosevelt's determination and indomitable energy and spirit fairly jumps from every page. This is a well-told story of a man who is unlike any other that I know of in politics. His concern for the poor, the immigrants, the workers, the conservation of our lands, the curtailing of business monopolies, and the destruction of dirty politics energized him throughout his life. He was a man who wanted to leave a positive mark on his world and he very much did. Kraft did a meticulous research job and her writing is so engaging, I literally could not put the book down. Perhaps the greatest testament to her writing is that I finally found a Republican I could get behind! 2003, Clarion, Ages 10 to 14.

Kim Zach - VOYA

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt is best known as president of the United States, a role he inherited when President William McKinley was assassinated. Only sixty-one years old when he died in 1919, Roosevelt lived with unmatched energy and enthusiasm. Kraft, author of Mother Jones: One Woman's Fight for Labor (Clarion, 1995), does an excellent job of portraying Roosevelt's political career, his heroic leadership of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, and his vigorous pursuit of outdoor activities. Roosevelt's larger-than-life persona is captured in both the text and in the many period photographs liberally used throughout the book. With his trademark wire-rim glasses and bushy mustache, he was as comfortable standing on a platform delivering a speech as he was wielding a gun over a big game animal or perched atop a Yosemite cliff. The well-researched, intimate details, which are often the difference between a mediocre biography and one that succeeds, show another side of the tough outdoorsman with enormous political clout. Roosevelt was crushed when his beloved first wife died two days after the birth of their daughter, but he married again and had five more children who made the White House years quite lively with their boisterous antics. Roosevelt was devoted to his children, often writing them letters punctuated with little sketches when he was away. Several photographs of these charming letters are pictured in the book. Kraft includes a list of books, videos, and Web sites for further investigation, places to visit, and a chronology of important events. This title is highly recommended for biography collections in school and public libraries. Index. Illus. Photos. Biblio. SourceNotes. Further Reading. Chronology. VOYA Codes: 5Q 3P M J (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2003, Clarion, 180p,

Alan Review

Theodore Roosevelt was born into a wealthy New York family. As a child, he spent much time outside keeping detailed notes on nature. He also was an avid reader. As an adult, he was successful in establishing national parks to protect America's natural resources. An honest man who loved a good fight, Roosevelt put together a volunteer "Rough Riders" unit to fight the Spanish in Cuba. He also worked hard to eliminate corruption in government and break up corporate monopolies in U.S. business. Roosevelt was a problem-solver; he backed Panama in gaining independence from Columbia, to enable the building of the Panama Canal. His charismatic personality helped negotiate peace between warring nations, industry, and their labor force and strengthen the U.S. Navy. Readers will appreciate the author's storytelling approach. Kraft has written a book that will keep readers turning the pages to follow Roosevelt's adventures. This would be a good choice for an overview of Roosevelt's life, but it lacks the depth to use for research papers. 2003, Clarion Books, 163 pp. Ages young adult. Reviewer: Ruth Prescott

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Roosevelt emerges from the pages of this biography as an exuberant, energetic, larger-than-life personality, making it easy to understand his daughter Alice's description of her father as a man who "always had to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral." Kraft captures his complex character, which encompassed many seemingly contradictory aspects. Although he came from an aristocratic, wealthy background, Roosevelt was determined to make big business abandon corrupt practices and obey the law. He was an avid big-game hunter as well as an ardent conservationist. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic efforts during the Russo-Japanese War, but held a firm belief in U.S. military preparedness. A popular president, a champion of women's and working-class rights, and a devoted husband and father, Roosevelt claimed near the end of his life that "No man has had a happier life than I have led." Richly illustrated with period photos, political cartoons, engravings, and many of Roosevelt's own drawings from letters to his children, this handsome book provides a fascinating glimpse into the public and private life and the wide range of accomplishments of a major figure in American history.-Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Interesting textbook: Ultraprevention or The Wrath of Grapes

The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

Author: Cliff Stoll

Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter"—a mystery invader hiding inside a twisting electronic labyrinth, breaking into U.S. computer systems and stealing sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own, spying on the spy—and plunged into an incredible international probe that finally gained the attention of top U.S. counterintelligence agents. The Cookoo's Egg is his wild and suspenseful true story—a year of deception, broken codes, satellites, missile bases, and the ultimate sting operation—and how one ingenious American trapped a spy ring paid in cash and cocaine, and reporting to the KGB.

Chicago Tribune

[The Cuckoo's Egg] is "reader friendly," even for those who have only the vaguest familiarity with computers...a true spy thriller...the hunt is gripping.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Stoll's is the ever-appealing story of the little man bucking the system...great fun to read...lively and thoroughly absorbing.

Seattle Times

Fascinating...a nonfiction account that reads like a le Carre spy novel.

Grants Lieutenants or Uncle Sam Wants You

2009-01-22T07:29:00.000-08:00

Grant's Lieutenants: From Chattanooga to Appomattox

Author: Steven E Woodworth

A companion to Grant's Lieutenants: From Cairo to Vicksburg, this new volume assesses Union generalship during the final two years of the Civil War. Steven Woodworth, one of the war's premier historians, is joined by a team of distinguished scholars—Mark Grimsley, John Marszalek, and Earl Hess, among others—who critique Ulysses S. Grant's commanders in terms of both their working relationship with their general-in-chief and their actual performances.

The book covers well-known Union field generals like William T. Sherman, George Thomas, George Meade, and Philip Sheridan, as well as the less-prominent Franz Sigel, Horatio Wright, Edward Ord, and Benjamin Butler. In addition, it includes an iconoclastic look at Grant's former superior and wartime chief of staff Henry W. Halleck, focusing on his wise counsel concerning Washington politics, the qualities of various subordinates, and the strategic environment. Each of these probing essays emphasizes the character and accomplishments of a particular general and shows how his relationship with Grant either helped or hindered the Union cause. The contributors highlight the ways Grant's lieutenants contributed to or challenged their commander's own success and development as a general. In addition to revisiting Grant's key collaboration with Sherman, the essays illuminate the hostile relationship between Grant and Thomas, commander of the Army of the Cumberland; Grant's almost daily contact with "Old Snapping Turtle" Meade, whose expertise relieved Grant of the close tactical direction of the Army of the Potomac; and the development of a highly successful command partnership between Grant and Sheridan, his new commander ofthe Army of the Shenandoah. Readers will also learn how Grant handled the relative incompetence of his less sterling leaders—perhaps failing to give Butler adequate direction and overlooking Ord's suspect political views in light of their long relationship.

Like its companion volume, Grant's Lieutenants: From Chattanooga to Appomattox is an essential touchstone for Civil War scholars and aficionados. It offers new and profound insights into the command relationships that fundamentally shaped both the conduct of the war and its final outcome.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

What People Are Saying

Gary W. Gallagher
A companion to Woodworth's earlier collection of essays on top Union commanders that matches the high quality of the original. . . . Offers incisive analysis of the men Grant entrusted with execution of his strategic plans. Scholars and general readers will find much to ponder in this fine book. (Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War)

Brooks D. Simpson
These stimulating and insightful essays remind us of the collaborative nature of military command and help us appreciate how Grant persevered and ultimately prevailed in directing the Union armies to victory. (Brooks D. Simpson, author of Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity, 1822-1865)

Stephen D. Engle
A fascinating and thought-provoking book. (Stephen D. Engle, author of Struggle for the Heartland: The Campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth)

Brooks D. Simpson

These stimulating and insightful essays remind us of the collaborative nature of military command and help us appreciate how Grant persevered and ultimately prevailed in directing the Union armies to victory. (Brooks D. Simpson, author of Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity, 1822-1865)

Gary W. Gallagher

A companion to Woodworth's earlier collection of essays on top Union commanders that matches the high quality of the original. . . . Offers incisive analysis of the men Grant entrusted with execution of his strategic plans. Scholars and general readers will find much to ponder in this fine book. (Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War)

Stephen D. Engle

A fascinating and thought-provoking book. (Stephen D. Engle, author of Struggle for the Heartland: The Campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth)

Interesting textbook: Cocina Latinoamericana or Japanese Kitchen

Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen

Author: Christopher Capozzola

In April 1917, the United States embarked on World War I--with little history of conscription, an army smaller than Romania's, and a political culture that saw little role for the federal government other than delivering the mail. Uncle Sam Wants You tells the gripping story of the American homefront in World War I, revealing how the tensions of mass mobilization led to a significant increase in power in Washington.
Christopher Capozzola shows how, in the absence of a strong federal government, Americans at first mobilized society by stressing duty, obligation, and responsibility over rights and freedoms. In clubs, schools, churches, and workplaces, Americans governed each other. But the heated temper of war quickly unleashed coercion on an unprecedented scale, making wartime America the scene of some of the nation's most serious political violence, including notorious episodes of outright mob violence. To solve this problem, Americans turned over increasing amounts of power to state institutions. In the end, whether they were some of the four million men drafted under the Selective Service Act or the tens of millions of homefront volunteers--or counted themselves among the thousands of conscientious objectors, anti-war radicals, or German enemy aliens--Americans of the World War I era created a new American state, and new ways of being American citizens.
Based on a rich array of sources that capture the voices of both political leaders and ordinary Americans, Uncle Sam Wants You offers a vivid and provocative new interpretation of American political history.

Publishers Weekly

The newly created image of Uncle Sam defined Americans' sense of obligation to their country during WWI, says Capozzola, associate professor of history at MIT. But the war also "blurred the lines between... mobilization and social control." Capozzola does an excellent job of rendering the jingoistic, dogmatic mindset that characterized the country at a crucial time. The mobilization led 13 million American males between the ages of 18 and 45 to enthusiastically swarm to local draft boards, and women planted "Victory Gardens." On the other hand, "home guards" kept an eye on "enemy aliens"-Americans unlucky enough to be afflicted with German heritage when this was neither convenient nor popular. Concurrently, Americans abdicated power (and key freedoms) to the federal government, while those who advocated for peace were repudiated by most. Even the revered Jane Addams was castigated by the press when she spoke against the war. It seemed, Capozzola says, that being a true American meant mindlessly going along with the status quo. All this the author captures in eloquently rendered and assiduously researched detail. 15 b&w illus. (July)

What Did the Constitution Mean to Early Americans or Global Ethics

2009-01-21T02:17:00.000-08:00

What Did the Constitution Mean to Early Americans?

Author: Edward Countryman

What did the Constitution mean to early Americans? Ostensibly the foundational document of a sovereign American people, the U.S. Constitution affected different kinds of Americans in very different ways. Modern historians have investigated its impact on various groups in an effort to determine what the Constitution meant to the founding generation of Americans. Exploring how early Americans shaped, responded to, and debated the document, this volume's 5 selections attempt to gauge the Constitution's ultimate success in forging a government based on the consent of the American people.

Booknews

Reprints five recent essays exploring what the political issues were in 1787, whether the Framers were counter-revolutionaries, what the Federalists achieved, whether the Constitution created a republic of white men, and whether we can know the original intent of the Framers. In addition to providing information and insights on a particular subject, the anthology demonstrates to student historians the kinds of approaches and methods the profession calls for. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Interesting book: The Hormone of Desire or Bra Talk

Global Ethics: Seminal Essays

Author: Thomas Pogg

About the Author:
Thomas Pogge is Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University. Research Director in the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature at the University of Oslo, and Professorial Fellow in the Australian National University Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, which generously paid all the permission fees for this volume and its companion Global Justice

About the Author:
Keith Horton is an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Western Australia

Preface     xiii
Introduction     xxv
Famine, Affluence, and Morality   Peter Singer     1
Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor   Garrett Hardin     15
Just War and Human Rights   David Luban     29
The Moral Standing of States: A Response to Four Critics   Michael Walzer     51
Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs, Part I   Michael W. Doyle     73
Cosmopolitan Ideals and National Sentiment   Charles R. Beitz     107
Is Patriotism a Virtue?   Alasdair MacIntyre     119
Rights, Obligations and World Hunger   Onora O'Neill     139
The Concept of Development   Amartya Sen     157
National Self-Determination   Avishai Margalit   Joseph Raz     181
Subsistence Emissions and Luxury Emissions   Henry Shue     207
Gender Inequality and Cultural Differences   Susan Moller Okin     233
Population: Delusion and Reality   Amartya Sen     259
Individual Responsibility in a Global Age   Samuel Scheffler     291
Who Are We? Moral Universalism and Economic Triage   Richard Rorty     313
Sections 1-3 of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of Living High and Letting Die   Peter Unger     325
The Justification of National Partiality   Thomas Hurka     379
Conditions of an Unforced Consensus on Human Rights   Charles Taylor     405
[section] 15 and [section] 16 of The Law of Peoples   John Rawls     431
The Real Tragedy of the Commons   Stephen M. Gardiner     447
Distributing Responsibilities   David Miller     481
Moral Closeness and World Community   Richard W. Miller     507
"Assisting" the Global Poor   Thomas Pogge     531
"Saving Amina": Global Justice for Women and Intercultural Dialogue   Alison M. Jaggar     565
Index     605

Killing Hitler or The Long Bitter Trail

2009-01-19T23:26:00.000-08:00

Killing Hitler: The Plots, the Assassins, and the Dictator Who Cheated Death

Author: Roger Moorhous

For the first time in one enthralling book, here is the incredible true story of the numerous attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler and change the course of history.

Disraeli once declared that “assassination never changed anything,” and yet the idea that World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust might have been averted with a single bullet or bomb has remained a tantalizing one for half a century. What historian Roger Moorhouse reveals in Killing Hitler is just how close–and how often–history came to taking a radically different path between Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and his ignominious suicide.

Few leaders, in any century, can have been the target of so many assassination attempts, with such momentous consequences in the balance. Hitler’s almost fifty would-be assassins ranged from simple craftsmen to high-ranking soldiers, from the apolitical to the ideologically obsessed, from Polish Resistance fighters to patriotic Wehrmacht officers, and from enemy agents to his closest associates. And yet, up to now, their exploits have remained virtually unknown, buried in dusty official archives and obscure memoirs. This, then, for the first time in a single volume, is their story.

A story of courage and ingenuity and, ultimately, failure, ranging from spectacular train derailments to the world’s first known suicide bomber, explaining along the way why the British at one time declared that assassinating Hitler would be “unsporting,” and why the ruthless murderer Joseph Stalin was unwilling to order his death.

It is also the remarkable, terrible story of the survival of a tyrant against all theodds, an evil dictator whose repeated escapes from almost certain death convinced him that he was literally invincible–a conviction that had appalling consequences for millions.

Publishers Weekly

Although Hitler took his own life, there was no shortage of people who wanted, and attempted, to do it for him throughout his political career. Drawing on newly opened archives in Germany and elsewhere, British historian Moorhouse (Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City) casts a wide net, chronicling failed assassination attempts by disaffected individuals in the early days of Hitler's reign, such as radical university student Maurice Bavaud, whose three easily thwarted tries in November 1938 got him guillotined; the efforts of a British group of James Bond-like spies armed with, among other things, "exploding rats"; and the well-known attempts of German officers, such as Hitler's architect Albert Speer. Moorhouse also brings to light little-known would-be-assassins, such as members of the Polish underground. Most of the assassination attempts Moorhouse describes failed because of poor planning; others fell victim to circumstance, while some may simply have been rumors, making for a compelling web of research, intrigue and conspiracy theory. Accessible prose, suspenseful narration and ample historical context make this a page-turner for WWII buffs as well as anyone with a passion for the underbelly of political power in one of the last century's darkest regimes. (Mar. 28) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Although there were probably more than 50 plots to kill Hitler, Moorhouse focuses on eight specific case studies. Each chapter covers either an individual, such as Maurice Bavaud, who was apparently motivated by religious zeal, or a group, such as the conspiracy generated within German military intelligence (the Abwehr). The failure of each plot (although the July 20, 1944, bomb came close) helped reinforce Hitler's sense that he led a charmed life-indeed, that he was a man of destiny. Describing the workings of Hitler's own personal security apparatus, Moorhouse presents a picture that agrees with contemporary historiography, revealing a chaotic Nazi bureaucracy beset by overlapping lines of authority. In some cases, Hitler's security managed to protect him through sheer luck, while in other instances he was saved by the plotters' incompetence. Drawing on archival evidence from German, Russian, and British sources, Moorhouse reminds the reader that Nazi Germany was not a monolithic entity; opposition existed, motivated by diverse ideas ranging from religious principle to political opportunism. Recommended for public libraries and specialized collections.-Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Ch. 1	Maurice Bavaud : God's assassin	13
Ch. 2	Georg Elser : the lone bomber	49
Ch. 3	The Abwehr : the enemy within	79
Ch. 4	"The nest of vipers" : the Polish underground	115
Ch. 5	The implacable foe : the Soviet Union	151
Ch. 6	The dirty war : the British and the special operations executive	187
Ch. 7	Honor redeemed : the German military	225
Ch. 8	Revolt of the acolyte : Albert Speer	279

Go to: Economics of the Environment or Creative Problem Solving

The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians (A Critical Issue Series)

Author: Anthony F C Wallac

The Hill and Wang Critical Issues Series: concise, affordable works on pivotal topics in American history, society, and politics.

This account of Congress's Indian Removal Act of 1830 focuses on the plight of the Indians of the Southeast--Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles--who were forced to leave their ancestral lands and relocate to what is now the state of Oklahoma. Revealing Andrew Jackson's central role in the government's policies, Wallace examines the racist attitudes toward Native Americans that led to their removal and, ultimately, their tragic fate.

Publishers Weekly

Wallace, who won a Bancroft Prize in 1978 for Rockdale: The Growth of an American Village , turns to Native American history in this retelling of the story of the Trail of Tears. This refers to the forced removal in the 1830s of thousands of Indians, particularly the Cherokee and the Choctaw, from the American east to west of the Mississippi River. The author expands his focus to examine the relocation of numerous Indian groups. Central to the story is Andrew Jackson, who assumed the presidency confronted with a government divided over the question of Indian removal and who soon became one of its major proponents. Responses of the Natives ranged from legal action and ultimate resignation on the part of some to warfare on the part of the Seminole. In a concluding chapter, Wallace shows how the effects of removal continue to the present day. All of this is told in a straightforward manner. Although he points to certain well-known white historians who give short shrift to this history, he overstates the uniqueness of his study. While it is a good introduction to the topic, this volume is far from the only modern historical treatment. Two documentary appendixes will be helpful to readers new to the subject. (July)

Library Journal

The Indians, not Jackson, are the chief focus of this excellent account of the five ``civilized tribes'' being forced west with the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Wallace succinctly traces the evolution of the government's Indian policies from colonial days to this removal. It was Jackson's actions--or lack of them--that forced the westward migration. Wallace paints an uncomplimentary picture of a man driven by politics, land hunger, and profit who justified his ambitions as a desire to save the Indians from extinction. Wallace's work compares favorably with Ronald N. Satz's critical study, American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era (1975), and contrasts sharply with Francis Paul Prucha's favorable treatment in The Great Father: The United States and the American Indian (Univ. of Nebraska Pr . , 1984. 2 vols). This sobering study is essential for people wanting a terse description of the Indians' trek over the ``Long, Bitter Trail.''-- Richard Hedlund, Ashland Community Coll., Ky.

School Library Journal

YA-The Indian Removal Act of 1830 summarily dismissed the rights of Native Americans to their homelands east of the Mississippi and mandated their relocation to the wilds of the Oklahoma plains. The infamous Trail of Tears is indeed a riveting tale of political expediency, greed, and sorrow. In this book, Wallace recounts in a balanced and clear manner the influences that gave rise to a governmental policy that regulated the disenfranchisement of Native peoples within American boundaries. The author carefully traces the movement and activities of the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles through the Trail of Tears to their eventual destinations and fortunes. While almost scholarly in tone, the calm and precise narrative remains arresting because of the strength of its subject matter.-Carol Beall, Immanuel Christian School, Springfield, VA

International Politics on the World Stage or War and the State

2009-01-19T12:12:00.000-08:00

International Politics on the World Stage

Author: John T Rourk

This concise text provides students and instructors with a comprehensive overview of world politics, inviting them in a straightforward and accessible way to explore international relations and its new challenges. A hallmark of the text is the authors' position that politics affect the lives of all of us, and that the individual can have an impact, whether small or large, by being politically aware and by taking action.

Booknews

An introductory text highlighting the connections between the events of current history and theories of international politics. Sections on international politics; world politics; physical security; and economic, ecological, and individual security include chapter summaries and b&w photos, plus a section of technical explanations and terminology. This fifth edition incorporates the latest developments in various countries, UN peacekeeping forces, and international trade. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Book review: Best of the Best from Utah or Touring Texas Wineries

War and the State: The Theory of International Politics

Author: R Harrison Wagner

War and the State exposes the invalid arguments employed in the unproductive debate about Realism among international relations scholars, as well as the common fallacy of sharply distinguishing between conflict among states and conflict within them. As R. Harrison Wagner demonstrates, any understanding of international politics must be part of a more general study of the relationship between political order and organized violence everywhere--as it was in the intellectual tradition from which modern-day Realism was derived. War and the State draws on the insights from Wagner's distinguished career to create an elegantly crafted essay accessible to both students and scholars.

"Possibly the most important book on international relations theory since Kenneth Waltz's Theory of International Politics."
---James Fearon, Stanford University

"This is one of the best books on international relations theory I have read in a very long time. It is required reading for any student of modern IR theory. Once again, Wagner has shown himself to be one of the clearest thinkers in the field today."
---Robert Powell, Robson Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

"Painting on a vast canvas, and tackling and integrating topics such as state formation, domestic politics, and international conflict, R. Harrison Wagner's War and the State offers many brilliant insights into the nature of international relations and international conflict. War and the State compellingly highlights the importance of constructing rigorous and valid theorizing and sets a high standard for all students of international relations. The field has much togain if scholars follow the trail blazed by Wagner in this book."
---Hein Goemans, University of Rochester

R. Harrison Wagner is Professor of Government at the University of Texas.

List of Figures     vii
Preface     ix
The Theory of International Politics     1
Theories, Arguments, and Explanations     2
Offensive Realism     13
Defensive Realism     15
Structural Realism     17
Anarchy and War     21
Hierarchy and Peace     33
Realism's Competitors     36
Generic Realism     48
Reason of State     53
Classical Realism, Social Norms, and Raison d'Etat     53
The State of Nature     65
The Prince     71
A World of Leviathans     76
The Market     89
Recurring War, Perpetual Peace     94
From Raison d'Etat to Realism     100
Violence, Organization, and War     105
Bargaining     107
Bargaining and the Use of Force     112
The Protection Business     118
The Social Contract     120
Anarchy and Hierarchy Reconsidered     122
The Global Constitution     125
Peace and the State     127
Bargaining and War     131
Warring Predators     131
Let's Make a Deal     137
Bargaining and Fighting     143
Bargaining, War, and Alliances     154
Bargaining, War, and the Balance of Power     161
Bargaining and the Recurrence of War     170
Enforcing Agreements     173
The Struggle for Power     175
Incentives to Attack First     177
Bargaining over the Distribution of Power     184
A World of Commonwealths     197
Taming Predators     202
A Mixed World     206
Domestic and International Politics     209
Writing the Global Constitution: Top-down or Bottom-up?     217
Summing Up     235
References     239
Index     255

The Rise and Fall of Athens or Doctors from Hell

2009-01-19T02:00:00.000-08:00

The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives

Author: Plutarch

Plutarch's Greek Lives can be seen as a summing up of the classical Greek age and its great writers.

The nine Lives translated here and arranged in chronological order follow the history of Athens from the legendary times of Theseus, the city's founder, to its defeat at the hands of Lysander, its Spartan conqueror. Included in this selection are the biographies of Themistocles, a brilliant but heavy-handed naval commander, Aristides 'the Just' and Pericles, who was responsible for the buildings on the Acropolis. Plutarch's real interest in these men is not in the greatness of their victories or achievements but in their moral strengths, and for him responsibility for the eventual fall of Athens lay with the weakness and ambition of its great men.

Varying in historical accuracy, these accounts are nevertheless rich in anecdote, and Plutarch's skill as a social historian and his fascination with personal idiosyncracies make them of timeless interest.

Interesting book: Healing Your Emotional Self or PDR Guide to over the Counter Drugs

Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans

Author: Vivien Spitz

A chilling story of human depravity and ultimate justice, told for the first time by an eyewitness court reporter for the Nuremberg war crimes trial of Nazi doctors.

Cafe Europa or The Constitution in Crisis

2009-01-18T12:47:00.000-08:00

Cafe Europa: Life after Communism

Author: Slavenka Drakulic

Today in Eastern Europe the architectural work of revolution is complete: the old order has been replaced by various forms of free-market economy and de jure democracy. But as Slavenka Drakulic observes, "in everyday life, the revolution consists much more of the small things - of sounds, looks and images. In this brilliant work of political reportage filtered through her own experience, we see that Europe remains a divided continent. In the place of the fallen Berlin Wall, there is a chasm between East and West, consisting of the different way people continue to live and understand the world. Are these differences a communist legacy, or do they run even deeper? What divides us today? To say simply that it is the understanding of the past, or a different concept of time, is not enough. But a visitor to this part of the world will soon discover that the Eastern Europeans live in another time zone. They live in the twentieth century, but at the same time they inhabit a past full of myths and fairy tales, of blood and national belonging.

Stephanie Zacharek

This collection of essays by the Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulic illuminates with surprising clarity a concept that could be maddeningly nebulous: that countries, like the individuals who live in them, have desires too, collective desires. In this case, Drakulic is talking about the countries of Eastern Europe, countries that have been splintered apart and hastily repatched, that are only just beginning to adjust to new ways of thinking since the fall of communism. She explains how they want so badly to be considered European that their desire is almost palpable. The book's title refers to the countless cafes and shops that have eager, "me too" Western European or American names like Bonjour, Target, Four Roses, Lady, The End -- even Bonbonnière Hemingway.

Drakulic's gift is in knowing how to map the contours of nationwide hopes and dreams by tracing the habits, the wants and needs of individuals. She's at her best when she's writing about her own experiences, describing, for instance, how difficult it is for an Eastern European to cross national borders. Automatically suspected of being a potential defector (among other things), she's invariably subjected to humiliating searches and uestioning, while her Swedish husband sails through customs with barely a flash of the passport. She explains her attitudes toward money in the context of the severe economic limitations she and the women around her faced in the mid-'70s: A friend, visiting her in Zagreb at the time, remarked on how elegantly all the women were dressed. The reason, Drakulic explains, is that "spending the little surplus money was the only fun we had. The result was that we all looked and behaved as if we were rich. We developed an easy-come, easy-go attitude to money."

Sometimes Drakulic loses steam. In a chapter on mud and its ubiquity, she writes, "It seems like a sort of plot: from time to time the soil rises from beneath us, just to remind us where we come from, to tell us that most of us are nly the first generation of urban citizens." It's an interesting enough idea, but it doesn't sustain even the short chapter Drakulic devotes to it. By and large, though, Drakulic manages to show that no matter how many times borders are reconsidered or redefined, no matter what kinds of transformation a cluster of countries is forced to undergo, a nation's true character can never be reduced to simple geography. Countries are people too. -- Salon

Michiko Kakutani

Cafe Europa...is studded with...everyday observations that open out, like windows, to reveal wide-angled historical vistas. —The New York Times, 1997

Publishers Weekly

Drakulic (How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed) notes that Eastern Europeans are so anxious to become like their Western counterparts that every city and town has a Caf Europa that is a pale imitation of similar establishments in Paris and Rome. She presents here a collection of essays that explore life in various Eastern European countries since the fall of communism. As a citizen of Croatia (formerly a part of Yugoslavia) living now in Vienna with her Swedish husband, she writes knowingly as a survivor of a communist regime, as one who realizes that pitfalls still lie ahead for nations emerging from the Soviet yoke. In Albania, she observes rage everywhere in people who seem to want to smash all vestiges of the Hoxha regime. In Romania, she comments on the execrable state in which public toilets are maintained: "[T]he standard of Romanian toilets reflects the nature of the communist system of which it is a legacy"; "the absence of any improvement is... a warning for the future of democracy" there. Drakulic's pungent and insightful ruminations not only describe life in her part of the world-she makes us feel it as well. Author tour. (Feb.)

Library Journal

Drakuli'c '(How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, LJ 3/15/93) has a rare reporting talent. She observes country soil rising from beneath urban asphalt, and she knows how to explain to urbane reader the passions and desires of a marginalized Eastern culture. The specter of an international European community may be a mundane sidebar in Western newspapers, but for Drakuli'c it represents far more. Diapers, royalty, Bucharest toilets, and presumptuous cafs serve as apocryphal symbols in her collection of political essays. To the daughter of an antifascist hero, the West represents the realization that money can transcend the future and that there is more to life than the "living in the present" that communism offered. Rather than using the language of traditional economic and political analysis, Drakuli'c offers the language of everyday life to describe a momentous cultural evolution. This important book from a very talented European writer is highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/96.]-Mary Hemmings, Univ. of Calgary Lib., Alberta

The New York Times, 1997 - Michiko Kakutani

Cafe Europa...is studded with...everyday observations that open out, like windows, to reveal wide-angled historical vistas.

Kirkus Reviews

Drakuli's eloquent and brave essays demand that the citizens of post-Communist Eastern Europe take personal responsibility for their roles in the new civil society.

Over the past five years, Croatian journalist and novelist Drakuli (The Balkan Express, 1993; Holograms of Fear, 1992) has emerged in the English-speaking world as a consistent, honest, stylish, and canny interpreter of Eastern Europe and ex-Yugoslavia. Her latest contribution continues that tradition (some may argue to the point of repetition), offering Drakuli's trademark essays that reach for the pulse of a country or an era by homing in on everyday events and encounters. Like her previous work, Cafe Europa serves as a protest against an East European tendency, based on decades- long experience under paternalist dictators, to shirk civic responsibility. "How does a person who is a product of a totalitarian society," she asks, "learn responsibility, individuality, initiative? By saying `no.' " Although her canvas encompasses all of the Balkans and Eastern Europe, her own Croatia bears the brunt of Drakuli's penetrating criticism. One unforgettable essay depicts Croatian president Franjo Tudjman as an object of vitriolic contempt. Both the everyday and the political milieu of post-Communist Croatia are ready subjects for Drakuli's combination of wit, scorn, and introspection. From the renaming of the streets and cutting down of trees in Zagreb, to a colleague's uncritical interview with an unrepentant Croatian Fascist, to the author's own experiences as a consumer in America and as a Croat in Israel, the Croatian essays form the backbone of this collection. Nevertheless, these 24 essays, written between 1992 and 1996, are informed by the author's image of the lands of Eastern Europe as the "infantile nations of our continent," sharing a common desire—"our longing for Europe and all that it stands for."

General readers interested in understanding the gritty realities of post-Communist Eastern Europe should grab a coffee and sit down with Cafe Europa.

Interesting textbook: Romancing the Vine or Korean Cooking

The Constitution in Crisis

Author: John C Conyers

The Republican-led Congress has been notoriously slow to investigate the current Republican administration. For that reason, Representative Conyers of Michigan commissioned his staff to put together the report that became The Constitution in Crisis. It chronicles the deceptions, manipulations, and retributions of President George W. Bush and his administration. Did the President mislead the country in order to invade Iraq? Have suspected “evil-doers” been tortured in violation of U.S. and international laws? Has the National Security Agency eaves-dropped on American citizens in violation of wire tapping laws? This report is a must-read for anyone concerned about the direction of our nation!

Inside Hitlers Bunker or Lincolns Virtues

2009-01-18T01:34:00.000-08:00

Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich

Author: Joachim Fest

Fest describes in riveting detail the final weeks of the war, from the desperate battles that raged night and day in the ruins of Berlin, fought by boys and old men, to the growing paranoia that marked Hitler’s mental state, to his suicide and the efforts of his loyal aides to destroy his body before the advancing Russian armies reached Berlin. Inside Hitler’s Bunker combines meticulous research with spellbinding storytelling and sheds light on events that, for those who survived them, were nothing less than the end of the world.

Library Journal

German journalist and historian Fest (Hitler: A Biography) has penned another admirable study of Nazi Germany that focuses on the final, cataclysmic days of Hitler's Third Reich in the F hrer bunker beneath Berlin. Four factual chapters chronicle events as reconstructed by reliable eyewitness reports and interviews. They are complemented by four reflective chapters that look at the "deeper meaning" behind those events. Reprising a theme from his Hitler biography, Fest describes his subject essentially as a supreme nihilist. The destruction in the final weeks of the war, engendered by Hitler's obstinate refusal to end the fighting long after defeat was certain, gave him, according to Fest, a "greater sense of satisfaction" than any of his early victories. The tragic devastation was further compounded and abetted by the "inculcated obsequiousness" of Hitler's entourage and leading generals, who did little or nothing to stop him. While there are no surprising revelations, Fest does synthesize a daunting body of research obtained from disparate, if sometimes dated, sources into an accessible narrative. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/03.]-Edward Metz, Combined Arms Research Lib., Ft. Leavenworth, KS Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A vivid reconstruction of the final weeks of Hitler's regime. In mid-April 1945, the Soviets launched an offensive against Berlin "with twenty armies, two and a half million soldiers, and more than forty thousand mortars and field guns"-an avenging force of an almost unimaginable size and scale. Hitler retreated into the Reich Chancellery, but not before warning that this "Asian onslaught" had to be stopped; if it were not, he warned, Germany's "old people, men, and children will be murdered, and women and girls will be forced to serve as barracks whores." Thus inspired, the Volksturm and Wehrmacht units charged with defending the city put up a stiff fight, even as Hitler continued to imagine that with Franklin Roosevelt's death the Western Allies would realize that their enemy was Russia and join Hitler's crusade. The fall of Vienna to the Soviets put an end to that vision, and Hitler-physically and mentally ill-waited out Marshal Zhukov's arrival while gorging himself on chocolate cake. An inglorious end, that, and German historian Fest (Speer: The Final Verdict, 2002, etc.) surprises with a number of unreported or overlooked details-such as a letter that Albert Speer had written to Hitler only a few weeks before, chiding him "for equating the existence of Germany with his own life span, describing this as an egocentricity unparalleled in history." For all that, Hitler shot his wife and then himself, leaving it to the handful of remaining stalwarts to burn their corpses. Fest confirms that widely published photographs of Hitler's corpse were a hoax, but adds the intriguing note that many of the theories concerning Hitler's supposed survival came straight from Josef Stalin: "Once he saidthat Hitler had escaped to Japan in a submarine; another time he mentioned Argentina; and later he said something about Franco's Spain." A well-considered slice of the Nazi era, and one with a happy ending.

New interesting book: Comportement D'organisation :la Science, le Monde réel et Vous

Lincoln's Virtues

Author: William Miller

How did an unschooled career politician named Abraham Lincoln, from the raw frontier villages of early-nineteenth-century Illinois, become one of the most revered of our national icons? This is the question that William Lee Miller explores and answers, in fascinating detail, in Lincoln's Virtues.

Lincoln, Miller says was a great man who was also a good man. It is the central thrust of this "ethical biography" to reveal how he became both, to trace his moral and intellectual development in the context of his times and in confrontation with the leading issues of the day--most notably, of course, that of slavery.

Following the rough chronology of Lincoln's life up to the crucial decisions in the winter of secession, the narrative portrays his conscious shaping of himself as a writer, speaker, moral agent, politician, and statesman. Miller shows us a man who educated himself through reading, had a mind inclined to plow down to first principles and hold to them, and combined clarity of thought with firmness of will and power of expression, a man whose conduct rose to a higher moral standard the higher his office and the greater his power. The author takes us into the pivotal moments of "moral escalation" in Lincoln's political life, allowing us to see him come gradually to the point at which he was compelled to say, "Hold fast with a chain of steel." Miller makes clear throughout that Lincoln never left behind or "rose above" the role of "politician," but rather fulfilled the highest possibilities of this peculiarly honorable democratic vocation.

Lincoln's Virtues approaches this much-written-about figure from a wholly newstandpoint. As a biography uniquely revealing of its subject's heart and mind, it represents a major contribution to the current and perennial American discussion of national moral conduct, and of the relationship between politics and morality.

Gertrude Bell or Invitation to the White House

2009-01-17T13:22:00.000-08:00

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations

Author: Georgina Howell

A marvelous tale of an adventurous life of great historical import

She has been called the female Lawrence of Arabia, which, while not inaccurate, fails to give Gertrude Bell her due. She was at one time the most powerful woman in the British Empire: a nation builder, the driving force behind the creation of modern-day Iraq. Born in 1868 into a world of privilege, Bell turned her back on Victorian society, choosing to read history at Oxford and going on to become an archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author (of Persian Pictures, The Desert and the Sown, and many other collections), poet, photographer, and legendary mountaineer (she took off her skirt and climbed the Alps in her underclothes).

She traveled the globe several times, but her passion was the desert, where she traveled with only her guns and her servants. Her vast knowledge of the region made her indispensable to the Cairo Intelligence Office of the British government during World War I. She advised the Viceroy of India; then, as an army major, she traveled to the front lines in Mesopotamia. There, she supported the creation of an autonomous Arab nation for Iraq, promoting and manipulating the election of King Faisal to the throne and helping to draw the borders of the fledgling state. Gertrude Bell, vividly told and impeccably researched by Georgina Howell, is a richly compelling portrait of a woman who transcended the restrictions of her class and times, and in so doing, created a remarkable and enduring legacy.

The Washington Post - Jason Goodwin

Georgina Howell recounts these stories with a wide-eyed admiration that is, for the most part, infectious, and her long book is a gripping read. Often pursuing themes in Bell's life, rather than bald chronology, she introduces her readers to the atmosphere of Oxford colleges, to the perils and excitements of the Alps, and to the dangers and decorum of desert life.

Publishers Weekly

In this hefty, thoroughly enjoyable biography of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), English journalist Howell describes her subject as not only "the most famous British traveler of her day, male or female" but as a "poet, scholar, historian, mountaineer, photographer, archaeologist, gardener, cartographer, linguist and distinguished servant of the state." As Howell observes, "Gertrude always had to have a project," and she manages to bring those multitudinous projects, studies and adventures to life on the page. "I decided," Howell writes, "to use many more of her own words than would appear in a conventional biography": a felicitous decision when the subject's letters, diaries and publications are as seamlessly incorporated in Howell's engaging text as they are. Bell's role in the creation of Iraq and the placement of Faisal upon the throne, is fully detailed, both to honor her power and to haunt us today. But the strength and delight of Howell's superb biography is in the fullness with which Bell's character is drawn. Having clearly fallen in love with her subject (though not blind to her warts), Howell leaves no stone unturned-family history, school days, Bell's clothes, sometimes her meals, her friendships, her servants, her thousands of miles traveled, her fluency in languages (Persian, Turkish, Arabic) and, yes, her romances. 16 pages of b&w illus. (Apr.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Maps     xi
Preface     xv
Gertrude and Florence     3
Education     28
The Civilized Woman     42
Becoming a Person     60
Mountaineering     74
Desert Travel     94
Dick Doughty-Wylie     127
Limit of Endurance     162
Escape     194
War Work     217
Cairo, Delhi, Basra     238
Government Through Gertrude     274
Anger     302
Faisal     335
Coronation     365
Staying and Leaving     383
Chronology     421
Note on Money Values     433
Notes     435
Bibliography     453
Acknowledgements     461
Index     465

Books about: Economia

Invitation to the White House: At Home With History

Author: Hillary Rodham Clinton

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has worked to make the White House a distinctly American showcase -- from historically accurate renovations and acquisitions of important American art, to celebrations of jazz and gospel music and an expanded emphasis on American cuisine. The first family's home has also been distinguished by the diversity of Americans honored and welcomed there. In this lavishly illustrated book, the First Lady invites you into the best-known house in the country and celebrates the very best of American history, arts, and culture.

An Invitation to the White House shows how the White House figures prominently in the cultural and political life of the country, as well as in the life of the first family. You'll have a front-row seat at the full range of White House occasions, from an elegant and historic State Dinner for the Emperor and Empress of Japan to the annual Easter Egg Roll, from a performance by Lou Reed to a private recital for President Clinton by a saxophone quartet. You'll follow a State Visit -- from the planning of the seating arrangements to the arrival ceremonies to the dancing after dinner -- and meet the dedicated staff who work behind the scenes to make it all possible. This is a White House you won't see on any public tour: As historian Carl Anthony writes in his introduction, "This book makes the rooms come alive -- one can almost taste the food and hear the music."

With more than 350 color and black-and-white photographs, menus and invitations from State Dinners and other events, and more than fifty recipes used in the White House kitchens, here is a glimpse of the day-to-day life behind the historic events that take place in thepeople's house.

The Politics of the Presidency or An Evening with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson

2009-01-17T03:09:00.000-08:00

The Politics of the Presidency

Author: Joseph August Pika

About the Author:
Joseph A. Pika is professor of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware. He holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin and taught previously at SUNY at Buffalo

About the Author:
John Anthony Maltese is the Albert Berry Saye Professor of American Government and Constitutional Law and a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs

I	The president and the public
1	The changing presidency	1
2	Election politics	30
3	Public politics	78
4	Presidential character and performance	128
II	The president and the government
5	Legislative politics	175
6	Executive politics	214
7	Judicial politics	257
III	The president and public policy
8	The politics of domestic policy	293
9	The politics of economic policy	321
10	The politics of national security policy	360
11	George W. Bush : challenges of a wartime president	397

Interesting textbook: Young Adult and Pediatric Headache Management or Womans Health Diary

An Evening with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson: Dinner, Wine, and Conversation

Author: James Gabler

In An Evening with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, the reader, through a dream sequence, is transported back in time to 18th century Paris. In the comfort of Jefferson's residence on the Champs-Elysйes, Franklin and Jefferson tell in their own words the most interesting stories of their lives. There are nearly nine hundred citations of authority to support all of Franklin and Jefferson's comments.

They talk about their early years, their embarrassments, disappointments, intrigues, travels, social activities in London and Paris, the women in their lives, the libel and slander they suffered at the hands of their political enemies, slavery, religion, their opinions of and associations with George Washington, John Adams, John Paul Jones, Marquis de Lafayette, the charismatic Edward Bancroft, a British spy who was Franklin's secretary and friend, and much more.

Coming to America or A Nation of Immigrants

2009-01-16T13:56:00.000-08:00

Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life

Author: Roger Daniels

With a timely new chapter on immigration in the current age of globalization, a new Preface, and new appendixes with the most recent statistics, this revised edition is an engrossing study of immigration to the United States from the colonial era to the present.

San Francisco Chronicle

From almost every corner of the globe, in numbers great and small, America has drawn people whose contributions are as varied as their origins. Historians have spent much of the last generation investigating the separate pieces of that great story. Now historian Roger Daniels has crafted a work that does justice to the whole.

Daily Herald

Perhaps the most authoritative and readable single-volume history of immigration yet written. Nationality by nationality, Daniels traces the migration of refugees to this country as far back as the year 1500.

Booknews

A broad historical overview of immigration to America from 1500 to the present that is informal, current in scholarship, comfortably written, and generous in spirit. Daniels (history, U. of Cincinnati) includes slavery, the successive waves of ethnic immigration, and the 20th century migrations of refugees within the context of evolving capitalism and world events. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

	Tables, Charts, and Maps
	Preface to the Second Edition
Pt. I	Colonial America
1	Overseas Migration from Europe	3
2	English Immigrants in America: Virginia, Maryland, and New England	30
3	Slavery and Immigrants from Africa	53
4	Other Europeans in Colonial America	66
5	Ethnicity and Race in American Life	101
Pt. II	The Century of Immigration (1820-1924)
6	Pioneers of the Century of Immigration: Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians	121
7	From the Mediterranean: Italians, Greeks, Arabs, and Armenians	185
8	Eastern Europeans: Poles, Jews, and Hungarians	212
9	Minorities from Other Regions: Chinese, Japanese, and French Canadians	238
10	The Triumph of Nativism	265
Pt. III	Modern Times
11	Migration in Prosperity, Depression, and War, 1921-1945	287
12	From the New World: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans	307
13	Changing the Rules: Immigration Law, 1948-1980	328
14	The New Asian Immigrants	350
15	Caribbeans, Central Americans, and Soviet Jews	371
16	The 1980s and Beyond	388
17	Immigration in an Age of Globalization	409
	App. I	453
	App. II	455
	App. III	457
	Notes	461
	Selected Bibliography	477
	Additional Bibliography	487
	Acknowledgments	493
	Index	495

New interesting textbook: Economía Hoy

A Nation of Immigrants

Author: John F Kennedy

Throughout his presidency, John F. Kennedy was passionate about the issue of immigration reform. He believed that America is a nation of people who value both tradition and the exploration of new frontiers, people who deserve the freedom to build better lives for themselves in their adopted homeland. This modern edition of his posthumously published, timeless work—with a new introduction by Senator Edward M. Kennedy and a foreword by Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League—offers the late president's inspiring suggestions for immigration policy and presents a chronology of the main events in the history of immigration in America.

As continued debates on immigration engulf the nation, this paean to the importance of immigrants to our nation's prominence and success is as timely as ever.

Charlie Wilsons War or In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz

2009-01-14T18:41:00.000-08:00

Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History

Author: George Cril

In a little over a decade, two events have transformed the world we live in: the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of militant Islam. Charlie Wilson's War is the untold story behind the last battle of the Cold War and how it fueled the new jihad. George Crile tells how Charlie Wilson, a maverick congressman from east Texas, conspired with a rogue CIA operative to launch the biggest, meanest, and most successful covert operation in the Agency's history.

In the early 1980s, after a Houston socialite turned Wilson's attention to the ragged band of Afghan "freedom fighters" who continued, despite overwhelming odds, to fight the Soviet invaders, the congressman became passionate about their cause. At a time when Ronald Reagan faced a total cutoff of funding for the Contra war, Wilson, who sat on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee, managed to procure hundreds of millions of dollars to support the mujadiheen. The arms were secretly procured and distributed with the aid of an out-of-favor CIA operative, Gust Avrakotos, whose working-class Greek-American background made him an anomaly among the Ivy League world of American spies. Nicknamed "Dr. Dirty," the blue-collar James Bond was an aggressive agent who served on the front lines of the Cold War where he learned how to stretch the Agency's rules to the breaking point.

Avrokotos handpicked a staff of CIA outcasts to run his operation: "Hilly Billy," the logistics wizard who could open an unnumbered Swiss bank account for the U.S. government in twelve hours when others took months; Art Alper, the grandfatherly demolitions expert from the Technical Services Division who passed on his dark arts to the Afghans; Mike Vickers, the former Green Beret who created a systematic plan to turn a rabble of shepherds into an army of techno Holy warriors.

Moving from the back rooms of the Capitol, to secret chambers at Langley, to arms-dealers conventions, to the Khyber Pass, Charlie Wilson's War is brilliantly reported and one of the most detailed and compulsively readable accounts of the inside workings of the CIA ever written.

The New York Times

Charlie Wilson's War is a behind-the-scenes chronicle of a program that is still largely classified. Crile does not provide much insight into his reporting methods, but the book appears to be based on interviews with a number of the principals. The result is a vivid narrative, though a reader may wonder how much of this story is true in exactly the way Crile presents it. Still, few people who remember Wilson's years in Washington would discount even the wildest tales. — David Johnston

The Washington Post

The stories George Crile tells in Charlie Wilson's War must be true -- nobody could make them up. This is a rousing tale of jihad on the frontiers of the Cold War, infighting at the CIA and horse-trading in Congress, spiced by sex, booze, ambition and larger-than-life personalities. — Thomas Lippman

Ken Auletta

An amazing tale, made all the more amazing because it was missed by the press. George Crile has written a book revealing the extraordinary details and intrigue of a secret war, and that alone would be a monumental achievement. But he has also written a book about how power works in Washington, about how the C.I.A. succeeded in this war but failed because it armed an ally who became our enemy, about how we might better understand Islamic fundamentalism, about how a solitary Congressman guilefully moved the U.S. government, and all of this comes with a breathtaking cast of characters worthy of a LeCarre novel. Only it's all true. And just as vivid.

Dan Rather

Americans often ask: 'Where have all the heroes gone?' Well a lot of them come roaring through in this tour de force of reporting and writing. Tom Clancy's fiction pales in comparison with the amazing, mesmerizing story told by George Crile. By resurrecting a missing chapter out of our recent past, Charlie Wilson's War provides us with the key to understanding the present.

Christian Science Monitor - Gerard DeGroot

A cross between Tom Clancy and Carl Hiassen, with the distinguishing feature that it's all apparently true. . . . Throw in a middle-aged Texan belly dancer, an assortment of Congressional looinies, a few beauty queens, some ruthless Afghan rebels, and a murderous Pakistani dictator who only wants to be understood.

PW Daily

Crucial and timely. . . . Criles book, with its investigative verve and gripping narrative, is a comprehensive political assessment and sobering account of the power structures that run parallel to, but apparently unknown by, official government authorities.

Publishers Weekly

Put the Tom Clancy clones back on the shelf; this covert-ops chronicle is practically impossible to put down. No thriller writer would dare invent Wilson, a six-feet-four-inch Texas congressman, liberal on social issues but rabidly anti-Communist, a boozer, engaged in serial affairs and wheeler-dealer of consummate skill. Only slightly less improbable is Gust Avrakotos, a blue-collar Greek immigrant who joined the CIA when it was an Ivy League preserve and fought his elitist colleagues almost as ruthlessly as he fought the Soviet Union in the Cold War's waning years. In conjunction with President Zia of Pakistan in the 1980s, Wilson and Arvakotos circumvented most of the barriers to arming the Afghan mujahideen-distance, money, law and internal CIA politics, to name a few. Their coups included getting Israeli-modified Chinese weapons smuggled into Afghanistan, with the Pakistanis turning a blind eye, and the cultivation of a genius-level weapons designer and strategist named Michael Vickers, a key architect of the guerrilla campaign that left the Soviet army stymied. The ultimate weapon in Afghanistan was the portable Stinger anti-aircraft missile, which eliminated the Soviet's Mi-24 helicopter gunships and began the train of events leading to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and its satellites. A triumph of ruthless ability over scruples, this story has dominated recent history in the form of blowback: many of the men armed by the CIA became the Taliban's murderous enforcers and Osama bin Laden's protectors. Yet superb writing from Crile, a 60 Minutes producer, will keep even the most vigorous critics of this Contra-like affair reading to the end. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Raymond Puffer - KLIATT

This is a fast-paced and highly colored account, presumably true, of how a freewheeling Congressman teamed up with an Oliver North-ish CIA employee to funnel arms and money to the Afghan mujahideen fighting the Soviet takeover of their country. The subtitle pretty well sums up not only what the book is about, but also its literary style and its target audience. Author George Crile is a CBS television producer, and has put his Washington insider's knowledge to good use. Representative Charles Wilson (D-TX), a 60ish and undeniably handsome politician, was frequently described as a freewheeling party boy with a perennial midlife crisis. Never really a Congressional insider in spite of his longevity, he was most noted for an extremely hawkish view of foreign affairs. The Speaker of the House viewed him as something of a loose cannon, but also as someone who could be useful if he could be held in check. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan brought everything together. Wilson leapt into extracurricular action, making under-the-table connections and deals that raised money, bought weapons, and got them into rebel hands. In the end he not only helped the mountain guerillas but also managed to spare his party and the House Leadership some discomfort. The combination of James Bond-like action, a noble cause, and sexual escapades proves too much for Crile, and he makes the most of the story. His narrative is fast-moving, supercharged, and overheated, chock-full of high drama and sexual innuendo. In short, it is great fun. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2003, Grove Press, 550p. illus. notes. index., Ages 15 to adult.

Library Journal

A follow-up to "Charlie Did It," a piece on CBS's 60 Minutes that Crile produced with Robert Anderson in 1990, this book is an account of Texas representative Wilson's efforts to aid covert CIA activities to get military aid to Afghanistan's Mujahideen guerrillas, who were fighting the occupying Soviet Red Army in the 1980s. As a member of the powerful House Defense Appropriations and Intelligence Oversight committees, Wilson was in a good position to play a role in the "Great Game" and may have seen himself as a new Lawrence of Arabia. This work must be based on unacknowledged interviews with the main participants, for there is no bibliography and few reference notes; more documentation could surely have been provided. With its colorful international cast of characters, this book provides powerful background for understanding our current predicament. But while this may have been the largest covert operation in U.S. history, it was not the most important; that honor goes to Operation Bodyguard, which hid the D-day invasion plan from Hitler. An interesting and readable story that is suitable for academic and large public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/02; illustrations and index not seen.]-Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

So, let's see. We arm Afghan rebels to fight the Soviets. The Afghans drive the Russians out of their country. We ignore the Afghans. They stew for a few years and hook up with Osama bin Laden.

In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo

Author: Michela Wrong

In a country rich with diamonds, gold, copper, uranium, oil, and timber, the average worker was reduced to a living income of $120 a year under the rule of Mobutu. From 1965 to 1997, his regime bled the country of some $4 billion. This is both a brilliant journalistic account and a grimly humorous story set amid the heart of the apocalypse—a nation plunged back to the Iron Age, whose citizens miraculously continue to survive.

London Times

Michela Wrong has written a cool, glittering, kaleidoscopic book. Her acount of the fall of Kinshansha and Mobutu's flight have something of the flavor of Evelyn Waugh's African travel books.

Financial Times

A superb book...the absorbing, witty, and wryly observed account of Mobutu's reign and collapse.

Jonathan Yardley

Wholly unsentimental ... Wrong gets it right ... [a] chillingly amusing cautionary tale. —Washington Post Book World

William Shawcross

A superb book ... the absorbing, witty, and wryly observed account of Mobutu's reign and collapse. —Financial Times

Sunday Times

Provocative, touching, and sensitively written ... an eloquent, brilliantly researched account and a remarkably sympathetic study of a tragic land.

Publishers Weekly

The beauty of this book is that it makes sense of chaos. For the past few decades, the Congo, one of Africa's richest countries in natural resources, has been in an economic decline that has resulted in violence and lawlessness. Wrong, a British journalist who spent six years covering Africa as a reporter for European news agencies, skillfully balances history with nuanced reportage. She details the "discovery" of the Congo by the British explorer Lord Stanley, the land's subsequent exploitation by the Belgian King Leopold II for his own personal benefit and the role of the United States and other Western nations in propping up Joseph Mobutu. Without apologizing for his brutal regime, Wrong explains how the cold war dictator used a mixture of terror and charisma to maintain his hold on the country for three decades. But although the roots of the country's downfall are traced to Western policies the book's title comes from Joseph Conrad's famous anticolonialist novel this book is no anti-imperialist screed. What Wrong finds is a widespread refusal, among Westerners and Congolese alike, to accept responsibility for the country's deterioration, which has led to a situation in which "each man's aim is to leave Congo, acquire qualifications and build a life somewhere else." And when Wrong uses her keen eye to describe contemporary life in Congo as in her portrayal of the handicapped businessmen's association the streets of this now-wretched nation come alive. Illus. (Apr. 29) Forecast: Wrong will come to the States to do a three-city tour: New York, D.C. and Boston. This fine book should benefit from being one of several books on Africa coming out, including Ryszard Kapuscinski's (see above) and Bill Berkeley's The Graves Are Not Yet Full (Forecasts, Mar. 26). Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This is a terrific if disheartening book. A foreign correspondent and eyewitness to the demise of Mobutu Sese Seko's Zaire in 1997, Wrong combines travelog with astute political analysis. In lively prose, she traces the country's dysfunction to its history of permitting outsiders to exploit its wealth of natural resources, including diamonds, timber, and oil. Indeed, the very borders of Zaire, now Congo, reflect not geographic or ethnic realities but bargains struck between late 19th-century European firms and tribal chiefs. The key to Mobutu's survival despite his infamous corruption and ordinary citizens' professed loathing for him was his ability to forge a sense of nationhood amid the chaotic conditions he inherited. Whoever succeeds Laurent Kabila who ousted Mobutu before being assassinated early this year will gain not the presidency of a viable nation-state but the power to barter natural riches for political support abroad. Recommended for all academic collections. James R. Holmes, Ph.D. candidate, Fletcher Sch. of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts Univ., Medford, MA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Anthony Sampson
This is the most gripping and illuminating book about Africa I have read in years, and it throws its light way beyond the borders of the Congo...to the wider problem of preventing the drift to corruption and tyranny in other parts of Africa.

The Economics of Health and Health Care or The Interrogators

2009-01-14T06:28:00.000-08:00

The Economics of Health and Health Care

Author: Sherman Folland

This clear, step-by-step best-selling introduction to the economics of health and health care thoroughly develops and explains economic ideas and models to reflect the full spectrum of the most current health economics literature. This book uses core economic themes as basic as supply and demand, as venerable as technology or labor issues, and as modern as the economics of information. Chapter topics include health care, health capital, information, health insurance markets, managed care, nonprofit firms, hospitals, physicians and labor, the pharmaceutical industry, government intervention and regulation, and epidemiology and economics. Useful as a reference work for health service researchers, government specialists, and physicians and others in the health care field.

Booknews

New edition of an introduction to the economics of health and health care that develops and explains economic ideas and models and reflects the full spectrum of the most current health economics literature. In the 26 chapters, Folland (economics, Oakland U.), Allen C. Goodman (economics, Wayne State U.) and Miron Stano (economics and management, Oakland U.) provide analytic tools of economics and econometrics as applied to contemporary health issues. Topics include basic economic tools, supply and demand, information, insurance and organization of health providers, technology, labor, hospitals and nursing homes, social insurance, and policy issues and analyses. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Pt. I	Basic economics tools	1
Ch. 1	Introduction	1
Ch. 2	Microeconomic tools for health economics	20
Ch. 3	Statistical tools for health economics	51
Ch. 4	Economic efficiency and cost benefit analysis	68
Pt. II	Supply and demand	89
Ch. 5	The production of health	89
Ch. 6	The production, cost, and technology of health care	111
Ch. 7	Demand for health capital	137
Ch. 8	Demand and supply of health insurance	153
Ch. 9	Consumer choice and demand	176
Pt. III	Information and insurance markets	199
Ch. 10	Asymmetric information and agency	199
Ch. 11	The organization of health insurance markets	215
Ch. 12	Managed care	241
Ch. 13	Nonprofit firms	270
Pt. IV	Key players in the health care sector	294
Ch. 14	Hospitals and long-term care	294
Ch. 15	The physician's practice	313
Ch. 16	Health care labor markets and professional training	331
Ch. 17	The pharmaceutical industry	358
Pt. V	Social insurance	383
Ch. 18	Equity, efficiency, and need	383
Ch. 19	Government intervention in health care markets	407
Ch. 20	Government regulation : principal regulatory mechanisms	430
Ch. 21	Social insurance	461
Ch. 22	Comparative health care systems and health system reform	491
Pt. VI	Special topics	525
Ch. 23	The health economics of bads	525
Ch. 24	Epidemiology and economics : HIV/AIDS in Africa	541

Books about: Cuba after Castro or The Practical Student

The Interrogators: Task Force 500 and America's Secret War Against Al Qaeda

Author: Chris Mackey

In a narrative that reads like a spy thriller, Chris Mackey takes us inside a small team of American military interrogators confronting an enemy unlike any other they had ever seen—in a war not of missiles and tanks, but of sleeper cells and suicide bombers. Mackey reveals how his team managed to crack some of the hardest cases they encountered, creating highly sophisticated ruses and elaborate trickery to bluff, worry, and confuse their opponents into yielding up precious information. He tells as well of mistakes made: blown interrogations, abuses against prisoners, and failures of American intelligence. THE INTERROGATORS is a riveting memoir that lifts the curtain for the first time on the hidden backstage of America's war against terrorism.

Author Biography: Greg Miller is a national security correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.

Chris Mackey joined the army and was assigned to the intelligence corps as an interrogator.

Raymond Puffer - KLIATT

During these days of controversy about prisoners' rights in Guantanamo, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and heated discussions about torture, an insider's view of the Army's detainee centers and interrogation rooms is especially welcome. Author Chris Mackey is, one supposes, as close as anyone can be to a professional inquisitor in America. His book is neither defensive nor accusatory in nature; neither an apologia nor an expose, but rather the straightforward account of a highly specialized US Army Reservist called from his civilian job to serve in Afghanistan. His training background was both extensive and impressive: Army Intelligence School at Fort Huachua, Arabic and German at the Monterrey foreign language school, various courses in arcane subjects, and cross training by British counterparts. Then finally it was off to Afghanistan, interrogating Al Queda suspects on their way to Cuba. Mackey reveals the inside of a tough and controversial business that few outsiders can appreciate or really understand. For one thing, deliberate brutality and torture are shunned by intelligence examiners; not only is it strictly forbidden, but the results can never be trusted anyway. Subtlety and outright trickery are much more effective, and interviewers prefer a wide array of psychological games and incredibly devious techniques they often improvise on the spot. Frequently it is a nimble mind-to-mind struggle with captives who are thoroughly schooled in resistance tactics, and consequently their successes can be few. But if the work is often frustrating, it is nevertheless fascinating and highly rewarding, and their occasional successes can be measured in lives. This book is a rare eye-opener intoan elite world that few people know anything about. Adult readers and YAs from all sectors will find it fascinating. KLIATT Codes: SA*—Exceptional book, recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2004, Little, Brown, 483p. illus., Ages 15 to adult.

The Silent Majority or The Anti Federalist

2009-01-13T18:56:00.000-08:00

The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South

Author: Matthew D Lassiter

Suburban sprawl transformed the political culture of the American South as much as the civil rights movement did during the second half of the twentieth century. The Silent Majority provides the first regionwide account of the suburbanization of the South from the perspective of corporate leaders, political activists, and especially of the ordinary families who lived in booming Sunbelt metropolises such as Atlanta, Charlotte, and Richmond.

Matthew Lassiter examines crucial battles over racial integration, court-ordered busing, and housing segregation to explain how the South moved from the era of Jim Crow fully into the mainstream of national currents. During the 1960s and 1970s, the grassroots mobilization of the suburban homeowners and school parents who embraced Richard Nixon's label of the Silent Majority reshaped southern and national politics and helped to set in motion the center-right shift that has dominated the United States ever since.

The Silent Majority traces the emergence of a "color-blind" ideology in the white middle-class suburbs that defended residential segregation and neighborhood schools as the natural outcomes of market forces and individual meritocracy rather than the unconstitutional products of discriminatory public policies. Connecting local and national stories, and reintegrating southern and American history, The Silent Majority is critical reading for those interested in urban and suburban studies, political and social history, the civil rights movement, public policy, and the intersection of race and class in modern America.

Go to: Wines of Spain or Cathers Kitchens

The Anti-Federalist: Writings by the Opponents of the Constitution

Author: Herbert J Storing

Herbert J. Storing's Complete Anti-Federalist, hailed as "a civic event of enduring importance" (Leonard W. Levy, New York Times Book Review), indisputably established the importance of the Anti-Federalists' writings for our understanding of the Constitution. As Storing wrote in his introduction, "If the foundation of the American polity was laid by the Federalists, the Anti-Federalist reservations echo through American history; and it is in the dialogue, not merely in the Federalist victory, that the country's principles are to be discovered."

This one-volume edition presents the essence of the other side of that crucial dialogue. It can be read as a genuine counterpart to the Federalist Papers; as an original source companion to Storing's brilliant essay What the Anti-Federalists Were For (volume I of The Complete Anti-Federalist, available as a separate paperback); or as a guide to exploring the full range of Anti-Federalist writing. The Anti-Federalist makes a fundamental source of our political heritage accessible to everyone.

Preface by Murray Dry
Introduction
Centinel, Letter I
Observations Leading to a Fair Examination of the System of Government Proposed by the Late Convention: Letters from The Federal Farmer, I-VII and XVI-XVII
Essays of Brutus
Pennsylvania
Introduction
The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention of Pennsylvania to Their Constituents
Massachusetts
Introduction
Letters of Agrippa, I-XI
Maryland
Introduction
A Farmer, Essay V
Virginia
Introduction
The Impartial Examiner, Essay I
Speeches of Patrick Henry in the Virginia State Ratifying Convention
New York
Introduction
Speeches by Melancton Smith
Bibliography
Index

End of the American Century or Worst Person In the World

2009-01-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

End of the American Century

Author: David S Mason

"The End of the American Century demonstrates the social, economic, and international decline that marks the end of a period of world dominance that began with World War II. The costs of the war on terror and the Iraq War have exacerbated the already daunting problems of debt, poverty, inequality, and political and social decay." The European Union is more stable in economic and social terms, and countries like India and China are more economically dynamic. These and other nations will soon eclipse the United States, signaling a fundamental transformation of the global scene. This transition will require huge adjustments for American citizens and political leaders alike. But in the end, Americans - and the world - will be better off with a more modest and interdependent United States.

Worst Person In the World: And 202 Strong Contenders

Author: Keith Olbermann

The stinkers, the rascals, the reprobates. . . and the just plain dumb.

(Yes, Bill, he's talking about you.)

Geraldo Rivera. The Coca-Cola Company. Victoria Gotti. Tom Cruise. Various members of the Bush administration. All have earned the dishonor of "Worst Person in the World," awarded by MSNBC's witty and controversial reporter Keith Olbermann on his nightly MSNBC show Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Now, he brings all his bronze, silver, and gold medalists together in this wildly entertaining collection that reveals just how twisted people can be—and how much fun it is to call them out on it.

From tongue-in-cheek observations to truly horrific accounts, Olbermann skewers both the mighty and the meek, the well-known and the anonymous for their misdeeds, including:

Ann Coulter, for, among other things, calling Muslims "ragheads" in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington

Barbara Bush, for making a generous donation to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund earmarked exclusively for the purchase of computer software . . . software sold by her son, Neil

The staff of Your World with Neil Cavuto, for the story about the murders of Iraqi civilians that was accompanied by the on-screen graphic: "All-out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?"

Olbermann also reports on some of the recent fallout from his awards, such as the controversy with John Gibson and the mysterious disappearance of remarks about Cindy Sheehan on Rush Limbaugh's Web site. Plus, he reveals the winner of the most coveted award of all: "Worst in Show."

Letter to a New President or The Art of Political Murder

2009-01-12T19:30:00.000-08:00

Letter to a New President: Commonsense Lessons for Our Next Leader

Author: Robert C Byrd

A legendary Senator advises our next President on the commonsense values necessary to lead our nation United States Senator Robert C. Byrd is the longest-serving member of the United States Senate in the history of our great Republic. Senator Byrd has served the people of West Virginia, and the nation, for fifty-four years, and has served alongside eleven Presidents. He was twice elected by his colleagues to the position of Senate Majority Leader and currently is chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. Byrd has lived through two world wars, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, the resignation of a U.S. President, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and traumatic military conflicts around the globe, including Iraq and Vietnam. Byrd has been a witness to it all. And now, in his ninetieth year of life, he wants to share the commonsense lessons he has learned from his unique vantage point in history.

In Letter to a New President, Byrd recounts lessons drawn from his remarkable life as a young boy growing up poor in the coalfields of southern West Virginia to his meteoric rise to the pinnacles of power in Washington, D.C. From his unique vantage point in history, Byrd focuses his observations on underappreciated and seldom discussed virtues like personal responsibility, careful consideration before making decisions, and a sense of decency and fairness even toward fierce opponents. A student of history and a defender of our Constitution, Byrd looks to the past for lessons and, in Letter to a New President, studies present failures as guides for constructive lessons for the future.

This book will help the next President grapple with the heavy demands of the office. Every American who cares about where this country is heading will find rich wisdom in Byrd's sage advice. Enlightened by a wide-ranging knowledge of American history and a love for the guiding principles of the Constitution, Byrd's observations sharpen the focus of the historical moment in which we find ourselves, as no one but Senator Byrd can.

Publishers Weekly

In this book-length letter to the next president, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) draws on his 56 years of experience in Congress to offer advice, admonition and encouragement. With frequent references to past presidents, especially his personal favorite, Harry Truman, Byrd claims that his passion for the Constitution is only rivaled by his love for his wife. He presents a readable, if slight, survey of past presidencies and a scathing evaluation of the "greatest crisis" in the nation's history brought about by the "failings" of the Bush administration: the buildup to the war in Iraq and the president's bungled handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Chapter headings such as "Bring Back the Fireside Chat" and scads of references to Emerson, Jefferson and Thoreau provide a rich philosophical context to Byrd's political thought, even as much of his advice feels familiar and anodyne: "Build Your Presidency Around Accountability." The book's detailed analysis of the great power and responsibility of the executive branch is timely, and prospective presidents and concerned citizens would be well-advised to read Byrd's book. (July)

What People Are Saying

"Senator Byrd draws on a lifetime of experience to offer a guiding hand to our country's next Commander in Chief. His unfailing faith in God and country provides an example of the best we should hope to find in our leaders as well as any of our fellow citizens."
---President Jimmy Carter

Dear New President     1
Bring Back the Fireside Chat     53
Teach the People About the Constitution     65
No Life Stands Outside of History     75
A Big Lie is Still a Lie: Tell the Truth     87
Build Your Presidency Around Accountability     97
Let the Press do Its Job, Even When that Might Sting     109
We Can do Better Than Photo-op Diplomacy     123
A New Approach to the Rest of the World: Influence     135
Less Partisan Warfare, More Real Debate     151
Don't Forget the Basics: Have the Patience
To Reflect     163
Notes     175
Index     179

Look this: Dignity and Daily Bread or Study Guide for Use with Financial Accounting

The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?

Author: Francisco Goldman

The Art of Political Murder is a riveting narrative reconstruction and investigation into one of present day Latin America's most controversial, bizarre, and historic criminal cases-the murder of Guatemala's great human rights leader, Bishop Juan Gerardi. Goldman's book exposed a cover-up of the crime, and helped change a small country's destiny as it emerged from decades of civil war. It is an unforgettable story of the heroism of young people who risked all to see justice triumph.

The Washington Post - Pamela Constable

The Guatemalan-born author employs a blend of literary prose and factual reportage to keep readers engrossed in a complex tale involving dozens of characters, a thicket of deception and constantly shifting versions of events. He zooms in like a detective on tiny forensic details, scrutinizing casual comments and wisps of evidence until they begin to make sense…The author also plays a crucial role in the book, weaving in and out of the drama as he tracks down nervous witnesses, plucks facts from webs of deception, reflects on the tragic history of his homeland and unforgettably evokes a world of subtle but omnipresent evil that Bishop Gerardi and his colleagues sought to chronicle as a warning to future generations. Above all, The Art of Political Murder is a passionate cry of outrage that should be read and passed on by anyone who believes, as Goldman proves here, that truth is always more improbable than fiction.

The New York Times - Carolyn Curiel

In The Art of Political Murder, his first book of nonfiction, Goldman returns to Guatemala to try to solve a real killing, that of Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, a Roman Catholic human rights advocate. Becoming by turns a little bit Columbo, Jason Bourne and Seymour Hersh, Goldman gives us the anatomy of a crime while opening a window to a misunderstood neighboring country that is flirting with anarchy. More, he offers an overdue indictment of brutal war criminals who were not just behind the one killing, but also contributed to a generation of atrocities…Goldman's intricate and insightful reporting of the crime and the trial recalls that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in News of a Kidnapping…

Publishers Weekly

Novelist Goldman (The Divine Husband, etc.) pursues in his first nonfiction book the infamous murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi, the Guatemalan human rights leader murdered after the release of his multivolume report on the genocidal terror campaign led by the army in the 1980s and '90s, in which 200,000 people disappeared or were killed. The book, which began as a New Yorkerpiece, casts light into the darkest corners of this tortuous case, the U.S.-supported war in Central America and the continuing legacy of violence and corruption. The large cast and myriad details can be overwhelming, but overall Goldman manages a clear narrative (aided by a "dramatis personae" and chronology). Drawing on a wealth of sources, including interviews, declassified documents and court records, his meticulously researched book is an impressive organizational achievement, as well as a vital moral accounting. Goldman-who was baptized in Gerardi's church of San Sebastian, attended by his Guatemalan-born mother-invests this eye-opening account with a layer of personal reflection. Like Latin American writers García Márquez, Vargas Llosa or Carlos Fuentes, his journalism isn't so much a departure from his fiction as an extension of his concerns with the fraught landscapes where "truth" is as contested as the soil underfoot, yet central to battles waged over it. (Sept.)

Kirkus Reviews

Thorough, engrossing summary and analysis of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi's death in 1998. In the forefront of the civil-rights movement in Guatemala, 66-year-old Gerardi had been celebrating the release of a four-volume, 1,400-page account of government-sponsored murder and other atrocities over a period of four decades. Later that same week, he lay dead in the garage of the parish house, his head bashed and bloodied. Better known as a novelist, Goldman (The Divine Husband, 2004, etc.) is also a long-time journalist; he covered the bishop's death for the New Yorker, never imagining at the time that he would be devoting much of the next eight years to the case. And what a case, with a cast of heavies and heroes worthy of the richest novel or film: archetypal fat-cat, blood-soaked military officers; devoted, underpaid public servants; frightened witnesses begging for protection; risk-taking journalists; and cold assassins (both named and unknown) who hurled the brains of their victims into the faces of onlookers and dismembered the brother of one of the prosecutors. A homeless man who turned out to be a former soldier trained in intelligence served as a key witness for the prosecution. A priest was also involved-perhaps as part of a ring of thieves, perhaps as host of a homosexual pleasure dome-and even this priest's dog became a major player. Goldman presents unscrupulous lackeys in the government and in the press who endeavored to discredit the truth-tellers and whistle-blowers. Readers will find themselves as overwhelmed as the author was by complexity and confusion of acronyms, agencies and multiple levels in the justice system. Ultimately, some heads rolled-but were they the rightheads? The only ones?First-rate research and reporting on the darkness of hearts. First printing of 50,000. Agent: Amanda Urban/ICM

Original Meanings or A Continent for the Taking

2009-01-12T08:13:00.000-08:00

Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution

Author: Jack N Rakov

What did the U.S. Constitution originally mean, and who has understood its meaning best? Do we look to the intentions of its framers at the Federal Convention of 1787, or to those of its ratifiers in the states? Or should we trust our own judgment in deciding whether the original meaning of the Constitution should still guide its later interpretation? These are the recurring questions in the ongoing process of analyzing and resolving constitutional issues, but they are also questions about the distant events of the eighteenth century. In this book, Jack Rakove approaches the debates surrounding the framing and ratification of the Constitution from the vantage point of history, examining the range of concerns that shaped the politics of constitution-making in the late 1780s, and which illuminate the debate about the role that "originalism" should play in constitutional interpretation. In answering these questions, Rakove reexamines the classic issues that the framers of the Constitution had to solve: federalism, representation, executive power, rights, and the idea that a constitution somehow embodied supreme law. In each of these cases, Original Meanings suggests that Americans of the early Republic held a spectrum of positions, some drawn from the controversial legacy of Anglo-American politics, others reflecting the course of events since 1776, the politics of the Federal Convention, or the spirited public debate that followed.

Publishers Weekly

Legal conservatives periodically call for judicial decisions based on an interpretation of the Constitution that accords with the "original intent" of those who wrote and ratified it. That's a vexed matter, as Stanford University historian Rakove (The Beginnings of National Politics) shows in this nuanced reconstruction of constitutional debates. First, he explores the difficulty of even divining the understanding of the framers. He goes on to explore James Madison's vital theorizing about federalism, the compromises involved in granting states equal Senate seats and counting slaves in the population, the concept of the Presidency and the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Rakove suggests that the country's political future-whether oriented toward the statehouses or the national capital-depends less on the framers and their constitutional language than on the actions of the American people in the framework that has been created. Moreover, he warns that even Madison's contemporary appeal to originalism was hardly a posture of neutrality. This detailed book will appeal most to students and scholars. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Surveys of Americans consistently reveal the troubling irony that we know very little about the document we profess to revere so highly: the U.S. Constitution. If more books like this nuanced, lucid work were written and read, perhaps this long-standing trend would begin to reverse itself. Rakove, editor of Interpreting the Constitiution: The Debate over Original Intent (Northeastern Univ., 1990), has made a significant and lasting contribution to the scholarship surrounding the adoption of the Constitution. While this persuasive treatment of the ideological and political background of the Constitution will appeal primarily to scholars in the field, the public would be well served by reading this book, particularly since so many appeals and debates are conducted on the meaning of the Constitution. Rakove convincingly shows that while the Constitution's meaning is not always self-evident and that simple and simple-minded appeals to "original intent" should be rejected, neither is the meaning of our foundational political and legal instrument beyond our understanding. Of especial note is Rakove's scrutiny of James Madison. This work ranks with well-known works by Bernard Bailyn, Gordon Wood, Bruce Ackerman, and others. Its focus on the importance of language is reason enough for placing it on one's shelf. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Stephen Kent Shaw, Northwest Nazarene Coll., Nampa, Id.

Kirkus Reviews

Rakove (History/Stanford Univ.; The Beginnings of National Politics, 1979, etc.) demonstrates the historical and theoretical complexity of the seemingly simple notion of a "jurisprudence of original intention"—the theory that judges can interpret the Constitution solely by reference to the opinions of its framers.

Since the 1980s, conservative legal scholars (e.g., Robert Bork) have espoused "originalism" in constitutional interpretation. Adding historical perspective to the legal debate, Rakove here dispels the idea that the Founding Fathers were a monolith; by examining the personal roles of the founders, particularly James Madison, who exercised perhaps the most significant influence over the framing of the Constitution, Rakove shows that the framers were a diverse lot, variegated in their view of the polity they had created. Cmpromise was integral to the politics of constitution-making, Rakove shows, and the need to forge a workable document took precedence over theoretical consistency. The survival of slavery was the most notorious, but not the only, matter on which the framers compromised; the very nuances of federalism itself were unaddressed, leaving a theoretical debate that contributed to the Civil War. Rakove seems to suggest that some of the framers (Jefferson, with his contempt for tradition, stands out), forthright as they were in recreating their political union after the failed Articles of Confederation, would be puzzled at our tendency to worship their creation. Rakove appears to contend that the Constitution was intended to be a living document, not a static, once-and-for-all enumeration of all individual rights and federal powers. "How," asks the author rhetorically, "could those who wrote the Constitution possibly understand its meaning better than those who had the experience of observing and participating in its operation?"

A unique contribution to the historical and legal debate surrounding the Constitution.

	Acknowledgments
	Preface
Ch. I	The Perils of Originalism	3
Ch. II	The Road to Philadelphia	23
Ch. III	The Madisonian Moment	35
Ch. IV	The Politics of Constitution-Making	57
Ch. V	The Concept of Ratification	94
Ch. VI	Debating the Constitution	131
Ch. VII	Federalism	161
Ch. VIII	The Mirror of Representation	203
Ch. IX	Creating the Presidency	244
Ch. X	Rights	288
Ch. XI	Madison and the Origins of Originalism	339
	Coda	366
	A Note on Sources	369
	Notes	371
	Index	421

Books about: Energy Balance through the Tao or Heart Smart for Black Women and Latinas

A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa

Author: Howard W French

In A Continent for the Taking Howard W. French, a veteran correspondent for The New York Times, gives a compelling firsthand account of some of Africa’s most devastating recent history–from the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, to Charles Taylor’s arrival in Monrovia, to the genocide in Rwanda and the Congo that left millions dead. Blending eyewitness reportage with rich historical insight, French searches deeply into the causes of today’s events, illuminating the debilitating legacy of colonization and the abiding hypocrisy and inhumanity of both Western and African political leaders.

While he captures the tragedies that have repeatedly befallen Africa’s peoples, French also opens our eyes to the immense possibility that lies in Africa’s complexity, diversity, and myriad cultural strengths. The culmination of twenty-five years of passionate exploration and understanding, this is a powerful and ultimately hopeful book about a fascinating and misunderstood continent.

The Washington Post - Mort Rosenblum

Few words evoke mystique and misconception like the proper noun Africa, and chroniclers have tried to capture its essence ever since Henry Morton Stanley wrote his swashbuckling diary more than a century ago. Howard W. French, a New York Times correspondent on the continent during four of its particularly dark years, adds substantially to this effort.

The New York Times

There are several powerful set pieces, among them grim scenes in Kikwit, the Zairian heartland of the Ebola virus, in 1995, a narrow escape in Liberia and another in Zaire in the course of duty. There are also some well-judged and bitter remarks about Mobutu's state apparatus, including his dangerous and venal secret police, known as the SNIP; a few hours' detention in a SNIP guardhouse, as this reviewer can testify, are enough to unsettle all but the most intrepid or well-financed journalists. — Jeremy Harding

Publishers Weekly

Although both tragedy and hope are mentioned in the subtitle, this work of reportage on Africa focuses more on the former than the latter. French was first captivated by Africa after college, in 1980, when he joined his parents and siblings in Ivory Coast. Taken by the pride and beauty he found on the continent, he became a journalist there, eventually serving as a bureau chief for the New York Times. His strength as a reporter is evident as he takes the reader across the continent, recounting in vivid detail the genocide in Rwanda and the AIDS and Ebola outbreaks. His prose is evocative without being melodramatic in describing the suffering he saw. The "powerful and eerily rhythmic" wailing of those who had lost loved ones to the Ebola virus "was painful to hear, and clearly bespoke of the recent or imminent deaths of loved ones." French is just as eloquent discussing his ambivalence about covering African crises after criticizing other journalists for their pack mentality in focusing on such crises rather than on giving a more rounded picture of life on the continent. In addition to disease and murder, French focuses his book on Africa's other plague: corrupt tyrants. While his insights into Zaire's Mobutu and Congo's Laurent Kabila are valuable, like many other writers on Africa French excoriates the "treachery and betrayal of Africa by a wealthy and powerful West." But providing some ways to improve life there-to give Africans some hope-is not so easy. As his book shows, French might be exactly the kind of seasoned Africa observer who could help point the way. 8 pages of photos, 1 map. Agent, Gloria Loomis. (Apr. 23) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Foreign Affairs

In this personal memoir of great humanity, French, a New York Times correspondent in West Africa for much of the 1990s, skillfully recounts that decade's most tragic events, from the emergence of the aids crisis to the Rwandan genocide, the start of the Liberian civil war, and the decline and fall of Mobutu Sese Seko's regime in Zaire. Those who remember his remarkable reporting will not be surprised by his telling vignettes of everyday life or by his ability to convey the tragic impact of war on individuals. His portraits of leading personalities in that era's dramas — Charles Taylor, Mobutu, Madeleine Albright — are similarly vivid, and he scathingly criticizes the Clinton administration for reacting to West Africa's murderous civil wars with a mixture of cynicism and carelessness. Disappointingly, French ends his account in 1998, when he left the region. And although his discussion of broader issues, such as the root causes and geostrategic implications of these crises, is not particularly original, this deeply empathetic account of a region in crisis deserves to be read widely.

Kirkus Reviews

History blended with firsthand reportage of postcolonial Africa, "the stage of mankind's greatest tragedies."Center stage, writes New York Times correspondent French, but also sideshow, at least so far as the West is concerned. "We awaken to the place only in fits of coarse self-interest and outright greed," he argues, as when new offshore oil reserves or mineral lodes are discovered. Otherwise, Western governments hold Africa at arm's length: "Serving up atrocities is a business of diminishing returns, and Washington, having experimented with so-called African solutions to African problems, silently recognized its failure and vowed to stay away altogether." In a land sowed with the dragon's teeth of colonial sergeants turned generalissimos, the results of this distancing could only be bloody, and French, who is often moved to anger, spares no chance to lay at least some responsibility for the continent's troubles at foreign doors-and, particularly, those of the Clinton White House, where clucking sympathies and admonitions took the place of any direct action to, say, rein in a client state or tinhorn dictator (Mobutu, Savimbi, Taylor) gone haywire. "It is foolish," French acknowledges, "to think that Washington should carry the burden of blame for most of Africa's problems. . . . [But] it would be dishonest to pretend there is no link between what has perhaps been the least accountable and least democratically run compartment of America's foreign policy-African affairs-and the undemocratic fortunes of the continent." Thus, French suggests, the genocide that swept Rwanda and Burundi in the 1990s might have been curbed, Liberia might have been spared its recent horrors, and more than threemillion Zairians might still be alive had the US, and the other Western powers, acted in a timely way or even paid attention. Of a piece with Daniel Bergner's In the Land of Magic Soldiers (2003): a sobering and much-needed portrait of a land that merits, and requires, our attention. Agent: Gloria Loomis/Watkins Loomis

1	Tiber Island and the ancient port	5
2	The Roman forum	33
3	The imperial city	61
4	Early Christian churches	107
5	Vatican revival	151
6	Renaissance in the river bend	193
7	Baroque expansion	237
8	The survival of history	281

	American National Pride: Whitman and Dewey	1
	The Eclipse of the Reformist Left	39
	A Cultural Left	73
App	Movements and Campaigns	111
App	The Inspirational Value of Great Works of Literature	125
	Notes	141
	Acknowledgments	153
	Index	155

	Preface
1	Varieties of Violence	1
2	Violence as Politics	26
3	Trends, Variations, and Explanations	55
4	Violent Rituals	81
5	Coordinated Destruction	102
6	Opportunism	130
7	Brawls	151
8	Scattered Attacks	170
9	Broken Negotiations	194
10	Conclusions	221
	References	239
	Index	255

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