Environmental Politics Books

Nationalism Reframed or Essentials of International Relations

2009-12-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question Reframed in the New Europe

Author: Rogers Brubaker

Nationalism Reframed is a theoretically and historically informed study of nationalism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Rogers Brubaker develops an original account of the interlocking and opposed nationalisms of national minorities, the nationalizing states in which they live, and the external national homelands to which they are linked by external ties. He then analyzes contemporary nationalisms in historical and comparative perspective, tracing the parallels between the Eastern European nationalisms of today and those of the interwar period.

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Essentials of International Relations

Author: Karen A Mingst

Essentials of International Relations, available in a Third Edition, is widely recognized for its concise, lucid coverage of the fundamental topics of international political theory. Taking a balanced view of major theoretical approaches to international politics-including liberalism and realism, as well as Marxism, feminism, and constructivism-Professor Mingst provides the analytical tools students need to understand world political affairs at the individual, state, and international system levels. The Third Edition has been thoroughly updated and revised to reflect recent global developments, and its brief format affords instructors the flexibility of customizing their curriculum using supplementary readings from the Norton Series in World Politics or other books. Concise but comprehensive, sophisticated yet accessible, Essentials of International Relations remains the premier-and most affordable-brief text in this dynamic field.

	List of Maps	xi
	Preface	xiii
1	Approaches to International Relations
	International Relations in Daily Life	1
	Thinking Theoretically	3
	Developing the Answers	4
	Integrating the Answers	11
	In Sum: Making Sense of International Relations	13
	Where Do We Go from Here?	14
2	The Historical Context of Contemporary International Relations
	The Pre-Westphalian World	18
	The Emergence of the Westphalian System	25
	Europe in the Nineteenth Century	28
	The Interwar Years and World War II	35
	The Cold War	38
	The Post-Cold War Era	49
	In Sum: Learning from History	53
3	Contending Perspectives: How to Think about International Relations Theoretically
	Thinking Theoretically	55
	Theory and the Levels of Analysis	59
	Liberalism and Neoliberal Institutionalism	62
	Realism and Neorealism	65
	The Radical Perspective	71
	Constructivism	74
	Theory in Action: Analyzing the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War	76
	In Sum: Seeing the World through Theoretical Lenses	80
4	The International System
	The Notion of a System	83
	The International System according to Liberals	84
	The International System according to Realists	86
	The International System according to Radicals	95
	Advantages and Disadvantages of the International System as a Level of Analysis	96
	In Sum: From the International System to the State	99
5	The State
	The State and the Nation	101
	Contending Conceptualizations of the State	103
	The Nature of State Power	108
	Using State Power	112
	Models of Foreign-Policy Decisionmaking	121
	Challenges to the State	128
	In Sum: The State and Challenges Beyond	133
6	The Individual
	Foreign-Policy Elites: Individuals Who Matter	137
	Private Individuals	147
	Mass Publics	150
	In Sum: How Much Do Individuals Matter?	155
7	Intergovernmental Organizations, Nongovernmental Organizations, and International Law
	Intergovernmental Organizations	159
	Nongovernmental Organizations	180
	International Law	185
	Realist Views of International Organization and Law	191
	The Radical View of International Organization and Law	192
	In Sum: Do Intergovernmental Organizations, Nongovernmental Organizations, and International Law Make a Difference?	194
8	War and Strife
	The Causes of War	198
	The Changing Character of Warfare and Its Instruments	208
	The Just War Tradition	217
	Approaches to Managing Insecurity	218
	Other Threats to International Security	228
	In Sum: International Security, Old and New	229
9	International Political Economy
	Contending Theoretical Approaches	235
	Key Concepts in Liberal Economics	242
	Power, Competition, and Development in the International Political Economy	244
	The Role of Institutions in Managing Power, Competition, and Development	256
	In Sum: Economic Convergence and Divergence	269
10	Globalizing Issues
	Health and Disease--Protecting Life in the Commons	274
	The Environment--Protecting Space in the Global Commons	280
	Human Rights--Protecting Human Dignity	296
	The Impact of Globalizing Issues	307
	Do Globalizing Issues Lead to Global Governance?	311
	In Sum: Changing You	313
	Glossary	315
	Index	325

Handbook of Gerontology or The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia

2009-12-05T10:04:00.000-08:00

Handbook of Gerontology: Evidence-Based Approaches to Theory, Practice, and Policy

Author: Catherine N Dulmus

A multidisciplinary resource that combines the latest research with the best practices for working with older adults

The Handbook of Gerontology: Evidence-Based Approaches to Theory, Practice, and Policy provides an essential source of important theoretical and applied information on gerontology for all mental health professionals interested in optimizing the health and well-being of older adults. Interdisciplinary and incorporating the most current evidence-based practices in its focus, this timely book considers the many factors that affect the way this growing population experiences the world-and provides a positive and proactive guide to administering care.

Integrating the latest research findings with important practice implications for working with an older client population, the Handbook of Gerontology draws on a multidisciplinary team of expert contributors who provide coverage and insight into a diverse range of topics, including:

• A global perspective on aging

• Elder abuse

• Family caregiving

• Parenting grandchildren

• Depression

• Substance abuse

• Alzheimer's disease

• Successful aging and personality

• Biological and cognitive aspects and theories of aging

An exceptional resource for practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and students, the Handbook of Gerontology is essential reading for anyone who works with older adults.

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The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia (Library of Modern Middle East Studies Series)

Author: David Commins

This is a definitive and authoritative account of the conservative interpretation of Islam that is the official creed of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Wahhabism. Muslim critics have dismissed it as a heretical innovation that manipulated a backward people to gain political control. David Commins dismisses the clichés, examines the nature of Wahhabism, and offers original findings as to how Wahhabism rose to dominance in Arabia and projected its influence in the Muslim world. He also assesses the challenges that it faces from radical militants within the Kingdom.

Tigers Rice Silk and Silt or Environmental Pragmatism

2009-12-04T04:52:00.000-08:00

Tigers, Rice, Silk, and Silt: Environment and Economy in Late Imperial South China

Author: Robert B Marks

Challenging the conventional wisdom of Western environmental historians, this book examines the correlations between economic and environmental changes in the southern imperial Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi (a region historically known as Lingnan, "South of the Mountains") from 1400 to
1850. Marks discusses the impact of population growth on land use patterns, the agro-ecology, and deforestation; the commercialization of agriculture and its implications; the impact of climatic change on agriculture; and the ways in which the human population responded to environmental challenges.

	List of Maps, Figures, and Tables
	Dynasties, Qing Dynasty Emperors' Reign Dates, and Weights and Measures
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction	1
1	"Firs and Pines a Hundred Spans Round": The Natural Environment of Lingnan	16
2	"All Deeply Forested and Wild Places Are Not Malarious": Human Settlement and Ecological Change in Lingnan, 2-1400 CE	53
3	"Agriculture Is the Foundation": Economic Recovery and Development of Lingnan during the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644	84
4	"All the People Have Fled": War and the Environment in the Mid-Seventeenth-Century Crisis, 1644-83	134
5	"Rich Households Compete to Build Ships": Overseas Trade and Economic Recovery	163
6	"It Never Used to Snow": Climatic Change and Agricultural Productivity	195
7	"There Is Only a Certain Amount of Grain Produced": Granaries and the Role of the State in the Food Supply System	226
8	"Trade in Rice Is Brisk": Market Integration and the Environment	249
9	"Population Increases Daily, but the Land Does Not": Land Clearance in the Eighteenth Century	277
10	"People Said that Extinction Was Not Possible": The Ecological Consequences of Land Clearance	309
	Conclusion	333
	Bibliography	346
	Index	371

Book review: Forensic Science Laboratory Manual And Workbook Revised Edition or Proactive Police Management

Environmental Pragmatism

Author: Andrew Light

Environmental pragmatism is a new strategy in environmental thought: it argues that theoretical debates are hindering the ability of the environmental movement to forge agreement on basic policy imperatives. This new direction in environmental philosophy moves beyond theory, advocating a serious inquiry into the practical merits of moral pluralism. Environmental pragmatism, as a coherent philosophical position, connects the methodology of classical American pragmatist thought to the explanation, solution and discussion of real issues.

Forensic Science Laboratory Manual And Workbook Revised Edition or Proactive Police Management

2009-12-02T23:40:00.000-08:00

Forensic Science Laboratory Manual And Workbook, Revised Edition

Author: Thomas Kubic

A laboratory companion to the Forensic Science: An Introduction to Scientific and Investigative Techniques textbook, Forensic Science Laboratory Manual and Workbook, Revised Edition provides many basic, hands-on experiments that can be completed with inexpensive and accessible instrumentation, making this an ideal workbook for non-science majors.

The experiments cover all the typical trace evidence tests including body fluid, soil, glass, fiber, ink, and hair. This revised edition provides numerous new experiments in odontology, anthropology, archeology, chemistry, and trace evidence. It also includes several new chemistry experiments at a slightly higher level to appeal to classes emphasizing chemistry. Experiments involving impression evidence, such as fingerprints, bite marks, footwear, and firearms, as well as forensic archeology, forensic anthropology, the use of digital and traditional photography, and basic microscopy are also featured.

All of the experiments incorporate hands-on elements to facilitate the learning process. Students must apply the scientific method of reasoning, deduction, and problem solving in order to successfully complete the experiments covered and attain a solid understanding of fundamental forensic science.

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Proactive Police Management

Author: Edward A Thibault

Required reading for civil service promotional examinations. "Proactive Police Management" provides a review of the various approaches to police management using a contemporary and proactive approach. The seventh edition has been extensively revised, including new information on technology, operational and fiscal planning, management styles, training techniques, budgeting methods and national security concerns. It continues to balance planning and communication; theory and practice; and authoritative and participatory leadership approaches - emphasizing a consultative management style that enables all stakeholders to effectively anticipate, prevent and react to crime within their community. This book is used for training police supervisors and administrators and is required reading for civil service promotional examinations. The "Prentice Hall's Test Prep Guide to Accompany Proactive Police Management" (ISBN: 0-13-170126-6) is used in conjunction with this title to help law enforcement professionals prepare for their promotional exams. Shows how the combination of new proactive management techniques and the application of new technology are revolutionizing policing. Covers traditional scientific management, the behavioral/systems approach, and the human relations approach. Emphasizes community-policing, problem-oriented policing and intelligence-led policing. Used for training police supervisors and administrators and is required reading for civil service promotional examinations.

Booknews

Provides a review, analysis, and synthesis of the various approaches to police management, including traditional scientific management, the behavioral/systems approach, and the human relations approach. Covers police subculture, basic organizational concepts, operating principles, proactive police leadership, managing the police organization, and collective bargaining. Includes questions, class projects, and key terms for each chapter. This third edition includes updated material on information management and career criminals. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Going Home to the Fifties or Collectivism after Modernism

2009-12-01T18:17:00.000-08:00

Going Home to the Fifties

Author: William Yenn

With the postwar economic boom, a vast middle class emerged. Suburbs exploded across the country, and the new industrial complex cranked out cars, appliances, and home furnishings in record numbers. In Going Home to the Fifties, Bill Yenne guides readers through an idealized neighborhood of the period, from the schools, roads, and commuter trains to the homes, kitchens, and backyards — all drawn from the fantasy worlds created by advertising. Color photos and illustrations are featured in this presentation of the ideal of 1950s suburban living.

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Collectivism after Modernism: The Art of Social Imagination after 1945

Author: Blake Stimson

“Don’t start an art collective until you read this book.” —Guerrilla Girls

“Ever since Web 2.0 with its wikis, blogs and social networks the art of collaboration is back on the agenda. Collectivism after Modernism convincingly proves that art collectives did not stop after the proclaimed death of the historical avant-gardes. Like never before technology reinvents the social and artists claim the steering wheel!” —Geert Lovink, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam

“This examination of the succession of post-war avant-gardes and collectives is new, important, and engaged.” — Stephen F. Eisenman, author of The Abu Ghraib Effect

“Collectivism after Modernism crucially helps us understand what artists and others can do in mushy, stinky times like ours. What can the seemingly powerless do in the face of mighty forces that seem to have their act really together? Here, Stimson and Sholette put forth many good answers.” —Yes Men

Spanning the globe from Europe, Japan, and the United States to Africa, Cuba, and Mexico, Collectivism after Modernism explores the ways in which collectives function within cultural norms, social conventions, and corporate or state-sanctioned art. Together, these essays demonstrate that collectivism survives as an influential artistic practice despite the art world’s star system of individuality. Collectivism after Modernism provides the historical understanding necessary for thinking through postmodern collective practice, now and into the future.

Contributors: Irina Aristarkhova, JesseDrew, Okwui Enwezor, Rubén Gallo, Chris Gilbert, Brian Holmes, Alan Moore, Jelena Stojanovi´c, Reiko Tomii, Rachel Weiss.

Blake Stimson is associate professor of art history at the University of California Davis, the author of The Pivot of the World: Photography and Its Nation, and coeditor of Visual Worlds and Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology. Gregory Sholette is an artist, writer, and cofounder of collectives Political Art Documentation/Distribution and REPOhistory. He is coeditor of The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life.

“To understand the various forms of postwar collectivism as historically determined phenomena and to articulate the possibilities for contemporary collectivist art production is the aim of Collectivism after Modernism. The essays assembled in this anthology argue that to make truly collective art means to reconsider the relation between art and public; examples from the Situationist International and Group Material to Paper Tiger Television and the Congolese collective Le Groupe Amos make the point. To construct an art of shared experience means to go beyond projecting what Blake Stimson and Gregory Sholette call the “imagined community”: a collective has to be more than an ideal, and more than communal craft; it has to be a truly social enterprise. Not only does it use unconventional forms and media to communicate the issues and experiences usually excluded from artistic representation, but it gives voice to a multiplicity of perspectives. At its best it relies on the participation of the audience to actively contribute to the work, carrying forth the dialogue it inspires.” —BOMB

The End of the West or Ending Empire

2009-11-30T13:05:00.000-08:00

The End of the West?: Crisis and Change in the Atlantic Order

Author: Jeffrey Anderson

The past several years have seen strong disagreements between the U.S. government and many of its European allies, largely due to the deployment of NATO forces in Afghanistan and the commitment of national forces to the occupation of Iraq. News accounts of these challenges focus on isolated incidents and points of contention. The End of the West? addresses some basic questions: Are we witnessing a deepening transatlantic rift, with wide-ranging consequences for the future of world order? Or are today's foreign-policy disagreements the equivalent of dinner-table squabbles? What harm, if any, have recent events done to the enduring relationships between the U.S. government and its European counterparts?

The contributors to this volume, whose backgrounds range from political science and history to economics, law, and sociology, examine the "deep structure" of an order that was first imposed by the Allies in 1945 and has been a central feature of world politics ever since. Creatively and insightfully blending theory and evidence, the chapters in The End of the West? examine core structural features of the transatlantic world to determine whether current disagreements are minor and transient or catastrophic and permanent.

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Ending Empire: Contested Sovereignty and Territorial Partition

Author: Hendrik Spruyt

At the dawn of the twentieth century, imperial powers controlled most of the globe. Within a few decades after World War II, many of the great empires had dissolved, and more recently, multinational polities have similarly disbanded. This process of reallocating patterns of authority, from internal hierarchy to inter-state relations, proved far more contentious in some cases than in others. While some governments exited the colonial era without becoming embroiled in lengthy conflicts, others embarked on courses that drained their economies, compelled huge sacrifices, and caused domestic upheaval and revolution. What explains these variations in territorial policy? More specifically, why do some governments have greater latitude to alter existing territorial arrangements whereas others are constrained in their room for maneuver?

In Ending Empire, Hendrik Spruyt argues that the answer lies in the domestic institutional structures of the central governments. Fragmented polities provide more opportunities for hard-liners to veto concessions to nationalist and secessionist demands, thus making violent conflict more likely. Spruyt examines these dynamics in the democratic colonial empires of Britain, France, and the Netherlands. He then turns to the authoritarian Portuguese empire and the break-up of the Soviet Union. Finally, the author submits that this theory, which speaks to the political dynamics of partition, can be applied to other contested territories, including those at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

About the Author:
Hendrik Spruyt is Norman Dwight Harris Professor of International Relations at Northwestern University. He is the author of The SovereignState and Its Competitors, which won the J. David Greenstone Award given by the History and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

Foreign Affairs

This insightful book explores one of the great dramas of the twentieth century: how imperial powers left their colonial territories. Why were the British able to relinquish control of their empire without getting caught in protracted conflicts, while others — such as the French in Indochina and Algeria — were drawn into long and violent struggles? Spruyt argues that the character of government institutions at the "center" was key. The more fragmented the political system, the greater the opportunities for hard-liners who resisted territorial partition to block policy change. Detailed case histories illuminate the domestic politics of imperial endings. Postwar Britain was an open democracy with a strong executive and extensive military oversight, and so political elites were able to deal with secessionist demands unimpeded by veto groups and entrenched interests. The French Fourth Republic, in contrast, lacked civilian control of the military, and undisciplined political parties provided hard-liners with opportunities to resist changes in the status quo. Spruyt also takes a close look at the unraveling of the Soviet empire — a surprisingly swift and peaceful divestiture of territorial control.

What People Are Saying

Charles Lipson
The unwinding of Europe's vast colonial empires is one of the great transitions of the twentieth century. Hendrik Spruyt explains the process with clear, nuanced arguments, backed with historical studies, all designed to show why different imperial powers handled that unwinding so differently. What accounts for the differences, according to Spruyt, are the varied political structures in the metropolitan countries themselves. In some countries-but not in all-groups opposed to decolonization held effective veto power over territorial changes. In developing this 'veto points' approach, Spruyt's Ending Empire provides a powerful analysis of the varied paths that decolonization took. It is a major achievement.

David A. Lake
Ending Empire is a remarkable achievement. Hendrik Spruyt addresses the collapse of overseas empires and, in one case, a multinational state/continental empire. Spruyt shines in his talent for combining theoretically informed analysis with deep historical research across multiple cases.

Charles A. Kupchan
An elegant and compelling account of the politics of decolonization, Ending Empire is a major contribution to the literature on imperialism and to the study of how domestic institutions shape grand strategy.

	Introduction : contested territories and empire	1
1	Institutional frameworks and territorial policy	11
2	The changing fortunes of empire	39
3	The hexagon or the empire : France and the Algerian quagmire	88
4	Whitehall tacks to the wind of change	117
5	Ranking with Denmark : the Dutch fear of imperial retreat	146
6	The first maritime empire and the last : Portugal in Africa	176
7	Russia retreats from the union	204
8	The fourth republic in Jerusalem	234
	Conclusion : contesting sovereignty in a global system	264

Dr Kimball and Mr Jefferson or The Idea of India

2009-11-29T07:53:00.000-08:00

Dr. Kimball and Mr. Jefferson: Rediscovering the Founding Fathers of American Architecture

Author: Hugh Howard

When Thomas Jefferson was born, there were few high-style buildings in America, but in a lifetime full of political accomplishments, he also became the father of America’s new architecture, enabling the Neoclassical to become the de facto national style for public and private buildings. However, in a strange lapse of historical memory, Jefferson’s accomplishments were almost entirely forgotten by the time Kimball arrived on the scene almost a century later.
Dr. Kimball and Mr. Jefferson is a moment-by-moment narrative of the men who created the profession of architecture in America, and Fiske Kimball is the spokesman: As the pioneering writer, scholar, and museum director who first assembled their stories, he takes us along in the surprising paper chase that eventually revealed Jefferson’s architectural genius. Along the way, we also learn his story of dramatic discoveries and his founding of the twin disciplines of historic preservation and architectural history.

Publishers Weekly

As the architect of Monticello and the University of Virginia, among other masterful buildings, Thomas Jefferson is widely considered by contemporary academics to be the most skillful practitioner of early American architecture. In his new retelling, Howard argues persuasively that were it not for Dr. Fiske Kimball, a 20th-century scholar and historian who researched his architectural heritage, we might still think of Jefferson as primarily, and exclusively, a talented statesman. This is not an exhaustive biography-Howard has already written a definitive one on this subject. It's more like a one-act play that alternates between scenes set in Jefferson's late 18th century and Kimball's early 20th century, when he investigates numerous archives. We browse through Jefferson's library, peek over his shoulder as he writes letters and watch him sketch the European buildings that inspire him. Howard's narrative is particularly compelling as he takes us through the decades of efforts that went into Jefferson's laboratory of architectural experimentation-his country home, Monticello. For context, he also includes chapters featuring other practicing architects of the time-Pierre L'Enfant, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Charles Bulfinch. Overall, readers will likely find that Kimball's single-minded passion for all things Jefferson is contagious. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Interwoven stories of America's earliest architects and prodigious scholar Dr. Fiske Kimball (1888-1955), who devoted his career to discovering, restoring and preserving their work. The title is a bit misleading: Although Jefferson does have a significant and signal presence in the work, he is not the only figure Howard discusses. The author has written about the master of Monticello before (Thomas Jefferson, Architect, 2003, not reviewed) and has published frequently on other architectural subjects (House-Dreams, 2001, etc.). Howard begins by sketching the early career of Kimball, who in 1914 discovered a vast cache of Jefferson's architectural drawings, a finding that led to his first book. Howard eventually takes us through Kimball's entire career (ending with his notable and ultimately contentious 30-year tenure as the director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art), periodically interrupting with substantial segments about the lives and accomplishments of America's first builders and architects, most notably William Buckland, John Trumbull, Charles Bulfinch, Benjamin Latrobe, Samuel McIntyre and Robert Mills. Some of these-especially McIntyre and Mills-are names not well-known to the general public, and Howard does a stellar job of telling their human and professional stories. The author includes numerous reproductions of early architectural drawings and, for the most part, lets us know the fates of the structures he discusses. His account of the glorious but long-gone Derby mansion in Salem will make readers wish a preservationist spirit had prevailed in 1815, the year workmen razed the building. Howard's vast research enables him to explore the connections (not always amiable) amongthese men (Mills, for example, met them all). He also explores the social and political forces that often affect the design and placement of public buildings. Howard's discussion of the controversies about the Jefferson Memorial is especially clear and comprehensive. The star here is Kimball, who upstages even Jefferson, emerging as a towering figure in American architecture and architectural scholarship.

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The Idea of India

Author: Sunil Khilnani

The key book on India in the postnuclear era, with a new Introduction by the author.Our appreciation of the importance of India can only increase in light of the recent revelations of its nuclear capabilities. Sunil Khilnani's exciting, timely study addresses the paradoxes and ironies of this, the world's largest democracy. Throughout his penetrating, provocative work, he illuminates this fundamental issue: Can the original idea of India survive its own successes?

Ian Buruma

A masterful rebuttal to all cultural romantics and religious chauvinists . . . [A] splendid book about definitions of the Indian nation. -- The New York Review of Books

Chitra Divakaruni

Especially brilliant is Khilnani's attempt to understand the changing nature of India by studying its urban constructs. -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

Amartya Sen

A splendid-and timely-book . . . Spirited, combative and insight-filled . . . Khilnani has woven a rich analysis of contemporary India and its evolution since independence. I am inclined to agree with [him] on the robustness and staying power of the secular idea of India. -- The Times Literary Supplement

The New York Times Book Review - Judith M. Brown

Khilnani writes with illuminating dexterity, wit and compassion.

Library Journal

Khilnani (politics, Univ. of London) offers a penetrating analysis of the spread of democracy to ever more diverse segments of the Indian body politic. Juxtaposed to this trend is the breakup of the Congress Party's hegemony and the subsequent growth of regional political parties. With the ebbing of congressional power and the elimination of its Socialist economic constraints, the Indian economy has embraced greater growth as the number of Indians living below the poverty line diminishes. Khilnani attributes much of this growth to India's cities, which emerge as paradoxical points of exclusion and economic dynamism when compared with rural India. In the process, national identity has in Khilnani's vision been subsumed by regional political focuses, urban and rural divisions, and greater religious identification. Hence, India's future will necessitate the continuance of a viable democracy sustaining the economic, cultural, and social diversity of the subcontinent. The author skillfully draws out the ironies and paradoxes of Indian history with a subtle, illuminating prose. For informed readers.John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant

The New York Times Book Review - Judith M. Brown

Khilnani writes with illuminating dexterity, wit and compassion.

What a Party or A Peoples History of American Empire

2009-11-28T02:41:00.000-08:00

What a Party!

Author: Terry McAuliff

"I thought I knew Terry McAuliffe as well as anyone, but this time he surprised even me. Who knew Terry could sit still long enough to give us a book this good? What a Party! is a must-read for all of us who love politics, believe in public service, and know that laughter is often the best survival strategy."
President Bill Clinton

"No one knows more about American politics than Terry McAuliffe. He gives us some remarkable insights and knows how to make his accounts both humorous and informative."

Publishers Weekly

The ex-Democratic National Committee chair and political super- fund-raiser lives up to his nickname Mad Dog in this boisterous memoir. McAuliffe is rabidly aggressive toward Republicans (whom he describes as "willing to lie and cheat any way they could"), savaging them on talk shows and facing them down in bristling social encounters. He relentlessly pursues donors, happy to wrestle alligators and sing karaoke for checks ("for $500,000 I didn't mind humiliating myself"). He golfs, dances and plays cards with his political masters Hillary and Bill Clinton ("the Babe Ruth of American presidents"), forever preening over the role his advice and prodigious fund-raising played in their success. But on the exchange of money for access implicit in his activities, he is blustery but evasive. McAuliffe has incisive comments on the Democrats' shortcomings, especially their faintheartedness in fighting Republicans. Though he champions the Democrats as the party of the little guy-contrasting their jeans-and-barbecue shindigs with "swank, hoity-toity" GOP fund-raising events -that stance is undercut by all the name-dropping ("Ben Affleck joined Robin, Marsha, Dorothy and me for a quick tour of the skeet range") and elbow rubbing with grungily dressed billionaires. McAuliffe's inflated self-regard may give more ammunition to Republican opponents than his partisan vitriol does to Democratic allies. Photos. (Feb. 1) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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A People's History of American Empire

Author: Howard Zinn

Adapted from the bestselling grassroots history of the United States, the story of America in the world, told in comics form

Since its landmark publication in 1980, A People’s History of the United States has had six new editions, sold more than 1.7 million copies, become required classroom reading throughout the country, and been turned into an acclaimed play. More than a successful book, A People’s History triggered a revolution in the way history is told, displacing the official versions with their emphasis on great men in high places to chronicle events as they were lived, from the bottom up.

Now Howard Zinn, historian Paul Buhle, and cartoonist Mike Konopacki have collaborated to retell, in vibrant comics form, a most immediate and relevant chapter of A People’s History: the centuries-long story of America’s actions in the world. Narrated by Zinn, this version opens with the events of 9/11 and then jumps back to explore the cycles of U.S. expansionism from Wounded Knee to Iraq, stopping along the way at World War I, Central America, Vietnam, and the Iranian revolution. The book also follows the story of Zinn, the son of poor Jewish immigrants, from his childhood in the Brooklyn slums to his role as one of America’s leading historians.

Shifting from world-shattering events to one family’s small revolutions, A People’s History of American Empire presents the classic ground-level history of America in a dazzling new form.

School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up -A study of empire-building by established politicians and big businesses from the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee through the current Iraq war. As nonfiction sequential art narrative, this stellar volume is compelling both as historical interpretation and you-are-there observation during many eras and in many climes. Konopacki melds realistic and energetic cartoons-Zinn lecturing in the present day, American and Vietnamese soldiers in the jungle, the Shah of Irana's White Revolution-with archival photos and document scraps to create a highly textured visual presentation. Each episode has its own period-specific narrator: Woody Guthrie sings about the Ludlow Massacre, a zoot suiter recounts the convergence of racial politics with popular music, and Zinn remembers his class-conscious boyhood through World War II soldiering and activism undertaken as a Civil Rights-era college professor. Politically charged, this book cana't stand alone as a history text, but it is an essential component for contemporary American government education, as well as an easy work to suggest to both narrative nonfiction and sophisticated comics readers.-Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia

Kirkus Reviews

The unknown history and devastating impact of American imperial activities abroad. In this impressively ambitious, if scattered, new offering from Metropolitan's wide-ranging American Empire Project, left-wing historians Zinn (The Unraveling of the Bush Presidency, 2007, etc.) and Buhle (History/Brown Univ.; Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History, 2008, etc.) collaborate with graphic artist Konopacki on a graphic adaptation of key sections from Zinn's bestselling A People's History of the United States (1980). The book is imagined as a lecture on the ugly side of history, delivered by the lean, aging Zinn to a darkened auditorium, with each episode illustrated by Konopacki's almost childishly simple illustrations, sometimes crudely buttressed with grainy photographs. Occasionally, perky sidebars titled "ZINNformation" pop up to point readers to a modern analogy or an interesting bit of trivia. It's an effective technique for delivering this laundry list of despicable behavior, though at times the illustrations seem less than capable of truly rendering their subjects. After a prologue that describes the government's vengeful, knee-jerk reactions to 9/11 as "part of a continuing pattern of American behavior," the main narrative begins abruptly with the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 and moves on to one head-shaking moment of infamy to another. Being that Zinn is most valuable for his insistence on shedding light on dark corners of American history, the book comes most alive when it is describing little-remembered episodes like the shameful American occupation of the Philippines in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, cleverly enlisting Mark Twain's embittered, virtuallyunknown writings on the subject. The authors' thesis-that America's imperial war machine manufactures conflicts abroad to further its economic interests while stoking consumer demand and tamping down dissent at home-is not developed as fully as it should be, and current wars are strangely missing. An overly episodic but nonetheless powerful teaching tool for the next generation of anti-imperialist activists.

Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics or Political Life of Medicare

2009-11-26T21:29:00.000-08:00

Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics

Author: Jack A Goldston

The aim of the book is to highlight and begin to give "voice" to some of the notable "silences" evident in recent years in the study of contentious politics. The coauthors hope to redress the present topical imbalance in the field. In particular, the authors take up seven specific topics in the volume: the relationship between emotions and contention; temporality in the study of contention; the spatial dimensions of contention; leadership in contention; the role of threat in contention; religion and contention; and contention in the context of demographic and life-course processes.

	Preface
1	Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics: Introduction	1
2	Emotions and Contentious Politics	14
3	Space in Contentious Politics	51
4	It's About Time: Temporality in the Study of Social Movements and Revolutions	89
5	Leadership Dynamics and Dynamics of Contention	126
6	The Sacred, Religious, and Secular in Contentious Politics: Blurring Boundaries	155
7	Threat (and Opportunity): Popular Action and State Response in the Dynamics of Contentious Action	179
8	Contention in Demographic and Life-Course Context	195
9	Harmonizing the Voices: Thematic Continuity Across the Chapters	222
	References	241
	Index	267

Interesting textbook: Éthique D'affaires :Partie prenante et Approche de Direction d'Éditions

Political Life of Medicare

Author: Jonathan Oberlander

In recent years, bitter partisan disputes have erupted over Medicare reform. Democrats and Republicans have fiercely contested issues such as prescription drug coverage and how to finance Medicare to absorb the baby boomers. As Jonathan Oberlander demonstrates in The Political Life of Medicare, these developments herald the reopening of a historic debate over Medicare's fundamental purpose and structure. Revealing how Medicare politics and policies have developed since Medicare's enactment in 1965 and what the program's future holds, Oberlander's timely and accessible analysis will interest anyone concerned with American politics and public policy, health care politics, aging, and the welfare state.

Hamilton Adams Jefferson or To Perpetual Peace

2009-11-25T16:17:00.000-08:00

Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding

Author: Darren Staloff

Alexander Hamilton, the worldly New Yorker; John Adams, the curmudgeonly Yankee; Thomas Jefferson, the visionary Virginia squire—each steered their public lives under the guideposts and constraints of Enlightenment principles, and for each their relationship to the politics of Enlightenment was transformed by the struggle for American independence. Repeated humiliation on America's battlefields banished Hamilton's youthful idealism, leaving him a fervent disciple of enlightened realpolitik and the nation's leading exponent of modern statecraft. After ten years in Europe's diplomatic trenches, Adams's embrace of the politics of Enlightenment became increasingly that of the gadfly of his country. And Jefferson's frustrations as a reformer and then Revolutionary governor in Virginia led him to go beyond his previous enlightened worldview and articulate a new and radical Romantic politics of principle.

Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson is a marvelous reminder that the world of ideas is inextricably bound up in the long trajectory of historical events.

Publishers Weekly

By now it's commonplace to ascribe the principles of the American founding to the Enlightenment, and CUNY historian Staloff offers no startling new information or refreshingly original readings of this period. He contends that the epistemological turn to empiricism, the disenchantment with the metaphysical and the move toward urbanism provide the core of Enlightenment politics, and he uncritically uses these three principles as lenses through which to read the politics of three of America's founders: Hamilton, Adams and Jefferson. Hamilton "promoted rapid industrialization and urban growth fostered by a strong central government capable of projecting its interests and power in the world at large." While Adams shared with John Locke an optimism that scientific education could promote liberty, he knew too well that human nature was corrupt enough to need a political system with checks and balances. Staloff (The Making of an American Thinking Class) gives his most thoughtful readings to Jefferson, who he says fostered a Romantic sensibility in American politics. Jefferson, he says, most changed American politics by showing the need for those politics to be built on an idealistic vision. But among a continuing flood of books about these and other American founders, Staloff's provides little that is new or provocative. (July 4) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Responding to the continuing demand by the reading public for books about the Founding Fathers, Staloff (history, City Coll. of New York; The Making of an American Thinking Class) provides a biographical and intellectual comparison among three major early American statesmen. He shows how the personal experiences and regional cultural traditions of each man shaded his interpretation of the European Enlightenment. The austere, often arrogant Hamilton, born poor but manifestly upwardly mobile (he became the quintessential New Yorker), embraced a boldly realistic interpretation of the new nation's place in the world. The vain, short-tempered, but introspective and honest Adams, a New Englander from the middling farming class, held similar hardheaded views. The charming Jefferson, of the Southern landed gentry, was a Romantic visionary (and undoubtedly the most enduringly popular of this triumvirate) who opted for "enlightened compromises" in office. A scholar who has studied Northern intellectuals, Staloff here devotes most of his study to Jefferson. He prefers citing the papers of all three men to critiquing the work of those who have previously mined these same sources. Intended to be suggestive rather than conclusive, Staloff's is another, but not the definitive, contribution to the growing literature on America's original greatest generation. For a similar comparative treatment of these three (plus James Madison), see Andrew S. Trees's The Founding Fathers and the Politics of Character. Recommended for all collections.-Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Library of Congress Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

To Perpetual Peace

Author: Immanuel Kant

In this short essay, Kant completes his political theory and philosophy of history, considering the prospects for peace among nations and addressing questions that remain central to our thoughts about nationalism, war, and peace.

Ted Humphrey provides an eminently readable translation, along with a brief Introduction that sketches Kant's argument.

Torture Taxi or Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness

2009-02-22T00:42:00.000-08:00

Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights

Author: Trevor Paglen

"We don't kick the shit out of them. We send them to other countries so that they can kick the shit out of them."-A U.S. official involved in CIA renditions

It's no longer a secret: Since 9/11, the CIA has quietly kidnapped more than a hundred people and detained them at prisons throughout the world. It is called "extraordinary rendition," and it is part of the largestU.S. clandestine operation since the end of the Cold War.

Some detainees have been taken to Egypt and Morocco to be tortured and interrogated. Others have been transported to secret CIA-run facilities in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan, where they, too, have been tortured. Many of the kidnapped detainees have ended up at the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo, but others have been disappeared entirely.

In this first book to systematically investigate extraordinary rendition, an award-winning investigative journalist and a "military geographer" explore the CIA program in a series of journeys that takes them around the world. They travel to suburban Massachusetts to profile a CIA front company that supplies the agency with airplanes; to Smithfield, North Carolina, to meet pilots who fly CIA aircraft; to the San Francisco suburbs to study with a "planespotter" who tracks the CIA's movements; and to Afghanistan, where the authors visit the notorious "Salt Pit" prison and meet released Afghan detainees.

They find that nearly five years after 9/11, the kidnappings have not stopped. On the contrary, the rendition program has been formalized, colluding with the military when necessary, and constantly changing its cover to remain hidden from sight.

Trevor Paglen is an expert onclandestine military installations. A widely exhibited artist and photographer, he is the author of the two-volume study Secret Bases, Secret Wars.

A.C. Thompson, winner of a 2005 George Polk Award, is a staff writer at the S.F. Weekly. He is a two-time winner of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency's PASS Award for crime reporting, and twice the recipient of the Western Publication Association's Maggie Award.

Book review: Una storia economica concisa del mondo: A partire dai periodi paleolitici al presente

Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness

Author: Anna K Schwab

With this book, readers will learn how to apply their knowledge and skills in order to create communities that are more resilient to the impacts of hazards. It clearly presents the major principles involved in preparing for and mitigating the impacts of hazards in emergency management. This resource also provides real-world examples of different tools and techniques that emergency managers can use to reduce the impact of different types of hazards.

Pre Code Hollywood or Writing Public Policy

2009-02-20T19:30:00.000-08:00

Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930 - 1934

Author: Thomas Doherty

Pre-Code Hollywood explores the fascinating period in American motion picture history from 1930 to 1934 when the commandments of the Production Code Administration were violated with impunity in a series of wildly unconventional films -- a time when censorship was lax and Hollywood made the most of it. Though more unbridled, salacious, subversive, and just plain bizarre than what came afterwards, the films of the period do indeed have the look of Hollywood cinema -- but the moral terrain is so off-kilter that they seem imported from a parallel universe.

In a sense, Doherty avers, the films of pre-Code Hollywood are from another universe. They lay bare what Hollywood under the Production Code attempted to cover up and push offscreen: sexual liaisons unsanctified by the laws of God or man, marriage ridiculed and redefined, ethnic lines crossed and racial barriers ignored, economic injustice exposed and political corruption assumed, vice unpunished and virtue unrewarded -- in sum, pretty much the raw stuff of American culture, unvarnished and unveiled.

No other book has yet sought to interpret the films and film-related meanings of the pre-Code era -- what defined the period, why it ended, and what its relationship was to the country as a whole during the darkest years of the Great Depression... and afterward.

Publishers Weekly

In early 1930s America, weighed down by the Depression, a vice-ridden, wise-cracking, anarchic antiauthoritarianism ruled Hollywood. Doherty's exhaustive cultural history of the films produced in the last years before the enactment of the Motion Picture Production Code reveals how the ascendancy of sound and a plummeting economy led to four years of wildly edgy films (1930-1934), radically different from the spic-and-span products of classic Hollywood. Most of the films chronicled here--sporting titles like Eight Girls in a Boat, Call Her Savage and Merrily We Go to Hell--have been both forgotten by film historians and unavailable to generations of late-night TV viewers. Doherty begins with the misery and discontent gripping the U.S. in the 1930s, explaining how these forces shaped a motion picture industry just learning how to use the power of sound. He organizes the later chapters around a colorful, trashy array of genres: anarchic comedies; horror, gangster and vice films; over-the-top newsreels; and expeditionary films set in dangerous territory. Doherty's plot summaries at times grow tiresome, but he rarely fails to enliven them with gossip, quips or anecdotes. Ultimately , he shows how the fun came to a crashing halt when the National Legion of Decency and the Production Code Administration, spearheaded by Joseph Breen, launched a massive and astonishingly successful crusade to clean up "the pest hole that infects the entire country with its obscene and lascivious moving pictures." Given the politics swirling around Hollywood's edgier fare in the wake of the shootings in Littleton, Colo., this lurid and all too short-lived chapter of Hollywood history has never seemed more germane. (Sept.) FYI: A series at New York's Film Forum, The Joy of Pre-Code, running from August 20 to September 14, 1999, will feature more than 40 precode films, including many discussed by Doherty. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

From the time shortly after movies learned to talk until 1934, Hollywood producers were guided by a verbal agreement that controlled the content of their work. The public flocked to racy romantic dramas like Red Dust, violent gangster sagas, socially conscious films, and sexy adventures like King Kong and Tarzan and His Mate. But under pressure from church and political leaders, the Production Code soon replaced Mae West with Shirley Temple. This is a fascinating, in-depth look at an overlooked Hollywood era. Doherty (film studies, Brandeis Univ.) re-creates the horse-trading over censorship and the social tensions and casual racism of a young industry, sketched against the backdrop of the Depression at home and the gathering clouds of Nazism in Europe. He also shows how movie self-censorship served the New Deal by promoting "restraint and decorum." Highly recommended for serious movie buffs as well as those interested in the social history of the early Depression.--Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Early sound film is revealed as a morally lax medium ready for the boundaries of the Code and the steadying presence of FDR. In the opening chapter, Doherty (American and Film Studies/Brandeis; Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War II, 1993) sets the scene for the wild era, showing how the Great Depression and the transition to sound technology created nervous studios and cynical, antiauthoritarian audiences. He then surveys popular genres—adventure, gangster, horror, prison, and sex movies, comedies and newsreels, preachment yarns—and illustrates the antigovernment sentiment, sexual ambiguity, and vice that dominated the screen in films such as Wild Boys of the Road, Scarface, and The Sign of the Cross. Although the Production Code was introduced in 1930, it was not until 1934, with the threat of federal regulation and the "calming equilibrium" of President Franklin Roosevelt, that it was adopted by the film industry. For studios, the code's effects were positive: immediately after the establishment of the Production Code Administration, movie attendance increased and studios rebounded. For pre-code headliners, the effects were mixed, as Doherty's analyses of the Marx Brothers and Mae West attest. Just as the need for national unity during the Great Depression gave reason for the Production Code, so postwar prosperity allowed Americans the personal freedom and "wider selection of moral options" that killed it. Ironically, the death knell came from a Hollywood insider: Alfred Hitchcock, with Psycho (1960), the shocking film that left the Code "walking dead." Scholarly but at ease with a Hollywood aside or period slang, this book sits instyle between Andrew Bergman's We're in the Money and Stanley Cavell's Pursuits of Happiness, two other codifications of film eras or genres. As for what was missed, why not have examined the pre-code continental wantonness of Lubitsch films, which make moral and criminal liberties second nature? Providing a nearly complete chronicle and casting unifying light on an unexplored era in film, this may become a standard. Useful appendices include the text of the Production Code. (67 b&w photos, not seen)

New interesting book: Network Security Technologies and Solutions or Madden NFL 08

Writing Public Policy: Practical Guide to Communicating in Public Policy Processes

Author: Catherine F Smith

Writing Public Policy is a hands-on, concise guide to writing and communicating in public policy processes. Designed to help students, practitioners, and other "doers" understand and perform common types of communication used in solving public problems, the book introduces the institutional democratic process in the U.S. and explains the standards and functions of communicating in the public sector.
Coverage includes:
* A general method for planning, composing, and assessing communications in a variety of real-life contexts and situations
* Specific instructions for writing and speaking in public policy processes
* Scenarios that illustrate the complexity in policy processes, highlighting their diversity of contexts--including state agencies and local boards, non-profit organizations, federal government committees, special interest groups, and professional associations--the variety of actors involved, and the range of communication types produced
* Commentary relating the scenarios and examples to the general method
* Checklists of expected standards to enable communicators to assess their products
Highly practical and accessible, Writing Public Policy demonstrates the skills and techniques needed to effectively communicate in the democratic process of making public policy. Ideal for courses in public policy studies, civic writing, and technical/business/legal writing, it is also an invaluable resource for practitioners--and students preparing for careers--in public policy, politics, government, public relations, law, journalism, social work, public health, or in any area concerned with public affairs.

	Introduction : how to use this book
Ch. 1	Public policy making	1
Ch. 2	Communication in the process	8
Ch. 3	Definition : frame the problem	19
Ch. 4	Legislative history : know the record	42
Ch. 5	Position paper : know the arguments	62
Ch. 6	Petitions and proposals : request action or propose policy	76
Ch. 7	Briefing memo or opinion statement : inform policy makers	93
Ch. 8	Testimony : witness in a public hearing	111
Ch. 9	Written public comment : influence administration	125
	Conclusion : ready for change	139

Letters to the Next President or Total Cold War

2009-02-19T14:18:00.000-08:00

Letters to the Next President

Author: Carl Glickman

This 2008 election edition reopens today's critical issues in public education. Once again speaking to the next president, this stellar collection of more than thirty letters speaks to the future of American students and the need for an educated and engaged citizenry. Top education experts, elected officials, business and community leaders, teachers, principals, students, and parents discuss the dangerous shortcomings of current state and federal policies and offer suggestions for what can be done about it.

Note on the 2008 Election Edition     xi
Foreword: Where Do We Start to Sweep?   Bill Cosby     xiii
Acknowledgments     xvii
Introduction   Carl Glickman     1
Schools for All
Journey to a New Life   Rosa Fernandez     9
Helping Me to Raise My Hand   Vance Rawles     14
Creating Schools We Can Trust   Deborah Meier     18
If We Had the Will to See It Happen   Asa G. Hilliard III     27
Getting Our Responsibilities Right   Sophie Sa     35
It's Past Time to Fund What We Mandate   Jim Jeffords     43
Financing America's Future-How Money Counts   William J. Mathis     47
Why We Need Public Education   John I. Goodlad     54
Learning for All
Broken Roads and the Great Mother Earth   Derrick Attakai   Evalena Joey   Britta Mitchell   Melody Riggs   Manuel Thompson   Mark Sorensen     63
In Struggle and Hope   Lisa Delpit     70
Nine Million Voices   Rachel Tompkins     77
How Our High School Makes a Difference   George Wood     85
Putting the Arts Back in America'sABC's   Reynold Levy     94
When Does {dollar}1.00 Equal {dollar}7.00?   Lilian Katz     100
What They Do With the Other 73 Percent of Their Time   Louis B. Casagrande     106
Teaching for All
My Students, My School   Karen Hale Hankins     113
Teaching Darius to Dream   Jacqueline Jordan Irvine     120
Why We Continue to Stay   Jane Ross     127
The Gap Between What We Say and What We Do   Arturo Pacheco     134
Revolving Doors and Leaky Buckets   Richard Ingersoll     141
Standards for All
Choking the Life Out of Classrooms   Sylvia Bruni     151
What My Students Need to Know   Edward C. Montgomery     158
The No-Win Accountability Game   W. James Popham     166
Going Beyond the Slogans and Rhetoric   Pedro Noguera     174
"...And Equal Education for All"   Jeannie Oakes   Martin Lipton     184
A President Who "Gets It"   Thomas Sobol     193
Education for All
The Civic Mission of Schools   John Glenn   Leslie F. Hergert     201
What We All Want for Each of Our Children   Theodore R. Sizer      207
Postcards from America   Michelle Fine   April Burns   Maria Elena Torre     211
Learning to Come Alive   Maxine Greene     223
Voices Closest to the Ones We Love   Ken Rolling   Sandra Halladey     228
A Nation of Learners   Pam Solo     233
Crafting Legislation   Elizabeth DeBray-Pelot     239
Conclusion: Schools That Work for All Children   Linda Darling-Hammond     243
Organizations for Parents, Educators, and Activists     259
Organizational Statement on the No Child Left Behind Act     261
About the Editor and Contributors     267

Book review: Meltdown or Cuba Confidential

Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad

Author: Kenneth Osgood

When President Dwight Eisenhower spoke of waging "total cold war," he was proposing nothing less than a global, all-embracing battle for hearts and minds. His wide-ranging propaganda campaign challenged world communism at every turn and left a lasting mark on the American psyche.

Kenneth Osgood now chronicles the secret psychological warfare programs America developed at the height of the Cold War. These programs—which were often indistinguishable from CIA covert operations—went well beyond campaigns to foment unrest behind the Iron Curtain. The effort was global: U.S. propaganda campaigns targeted virtually every country in the free world.

Total Cold War also shows that Eisenhower waged his propaganda war not just abroad, but also at home. U.S. psychological warfare programs blurred the lines between foreign and domestic propaganda with campaigns that both targeted the American people and enlisted them as active participants in global contest for public opinion.

Osgood focuses on major campaigns such as Atoms for Peace, People-to-People, and cultural exchange programs. Drawing on recently declassified documents that record U.S. psychological operations in some three dozen countries, he tells how U.S. propaganda agencies presented everyday life in America to the world: its citizens living full, happy lives in a classless society where economic bounty was shared by all. Osgood further investigates the ways in which superpower disarmament negotiations were used as propaganda maneuvers in the battle for international public opinion. He also reexamines the early years of the space race, focusing especially on the challenge to American propagandists posed by theSoviet launch of Sputnik.

Perhaps most telling, Osgood takes a new look at President Eisenhower's leadership. Believing that psychological warfare was a potent weapon in America's arsenal, Ike appears in these pages not as a disinterested figurehead, as he's often been portrayed, but as an activist president who left a profound mark on national security affairs.

Osgood's distinctive interpretation places Cold War propaganda campaigns in the context of an international arena drastically changed by the communications revolution and the age of mass politics and total war. It provides a new perspective on the conduct of public diplomacy, even as Americans today continue to grapple with the challenges of winning other hearts and minds in another global struggle.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - Emily Rosenberg

Absorbing and readable.

Pacific Historical Review

Osgood has written probably the best book to date on any aspect of U.S. Cold War propaganda.

American Historical Review

Osgood's penetrating analysis is the work of an astute and accomplished historian.

Journal of Military History

A well-written and beautifully illustrated book that offers valuable insights for those engaged in the global war on terrorism.

Journal of American History

Provocative and disturbing. . . . Deserves a wide audience.

Struggle for Empire or Quarantine

2009-02-18T05:39:00.000-08:00

Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817-876

Author: Eric J Goldberg

Struggle for Empire explores the contest for kingdoms and power among Charlemagne's descendants that shaped the formation of Europe. It examines this pivotal era through the reign of Charlemagne's grandson, Louis the German (826-876), one of the longest-ruling Carolingian kings. Eric J. Goldberg's book brings the enigmatic Louis to life and makes a vital contribution to recent reevaluations of the late Carolingian age.

In the Treaty of Verdun of 843, Louis inherited the eastern territories of the Carolingian empire, thereby laying the foundations for an east Frankish kingdom. But, as Goldberg emphasizes, Louis was never satisfied with his realm beyond the Rhine. Louis was a skilled and cultured ruler who modeled himself on Charlemagne, and he aspired to rebuild his grandfather's empire. This ambition to reunite Europe brought Louis into repeated conflict with other rulers: Carolingian kings, Byzantine emperors, Bulgar khans, Roman popes, and Slavic warlords. While Louis ultimately failed to reunify the empire, his fifty-year reign produced a period of remarkable political consolidation and cultural creativity in central Europe.

By highlighting the ways in which dynastic rivalries, aristocratic rebellions, diplomacy, and warfare shaped Louis's reign, Struggle for Empire uncovers the dynamism and innovation of ninth-century kingship. To trace Louis's evolving policies, Goldberg moves beyond the evidence traditionally used to study his reign-the Annals of Fulda-and exploits the visual arts, liturgy, archeology, and especially charters. The result is a remarkably comprehensive and colorful picture of Carolingian kingship in action.

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Note on Terms and Names	xi
	Abbreviations	xv
	Introduction	1
Part I	Winning a Kingdom	21
1	The Young King, ca. 810-829	23
2	Father and Sons, 830-838	57
3	The Fight for Survival, 838-843	86
Part II	King in East Francia	117
4	Frontier Wars, 844-852	119
5	Consolidation and Reform, 844-852	147
6	Kingship and Government	186
Part III	Visions of Empire	231
7	Drang nach Westen, 853-860	233
8	Trials and Triumphs, 861-870	263
9	The Call of Rome, 871-876	304
	Epilogue	335
Appendix 1	Maps	347
Appendix 2	Genealogies	353
	Selected Bibliography	357
	Index	375

Interesting textbook: Betty Crockers Eat and Lose Weight or Irritable Bowel Syndrome and the MindBodySpirit Connection

Quarantine!: East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892

Author: Howard Markel

" Quarantine! unites the best of the two worlds of social history and clinical history in a narrative style so personal and at times gripping that a reader forgets that the book is meant primarily to be a scholarly text... Markel is as much spinning a complex yarn as he is writing a scrupulously researched chronicle."--Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., New Republic

"Markel does the best job I have seen of depicting the experience of the quarantined--as well as explaining something of the political and etiological/prophylactic debates that framed and legitimated the quarantine itself. Along the way he makes substantive contributions to Jewish history, urban history, and public health history."--Charles E. Rosenberg, University of Pennsylvania

In Quarantine! Howard Markel traces the course of the typhus and cholera epidemics that swept through New York City in 1892. The story is told from the point of view of those involved -- the public health doctors who diagnosed and treated the victims, the newspaper reporters who covered the stories, the government officials who established and enforced policy, and, most importantly, the immigrants themselves. Drawing on rarely cited stories from the Yiddish American press, immigrant diaries and letters, and official accounts, Markel follows the immigrants on their journey from a squalid and precarious existence in Russia's Pale of Settlement, to their passage in steerage, to New York's Lower East Side, to the city's quarantine islands. At a time of renewed anti-immigrant sentiment and newly emerging infectious diseases, Quarantine! provides a historical context for considering some of the significant problemsthat face American society today.

"Beautifully written and thoroughly researched... This is a fine piece of history with a timely and thoughtful message; it deserves a wide readership among both health care professionals and professional historians."--Nancy Tomes, New England Journal of Medicine

"One of the major strengths of the book is the balance between the social construction of disease and the biological realities of illness... Quarantine! therefore provides an important cautionary tale not only for historians, but also for medical professionals who need to deal with modern epidemics in a rational and humane manner."--Heather Munro Prescott, New York History

"With vivid brush strokes Markel sketches in many of the colorful personalities who figured in his tale... Quarantine! is a fascinating and moving account."--Betty Falkenberg, Pakn Treger

Journal of the American Medical Association

This carefully examined, clearly written, and meticulously documented study is an important book. Read with the synoptic study of Alan Kraut, Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes and the "Immigrant Menace", it reminds us again of how disease outbreaks elicit public panic, media frenzy, discrimination, and political opportunism. We need only reflect on political issues of our time surrounding AIDS in Haitians, drug users, incarceration (quarantine) of the homeless for tuberculosis treatment, and "diseased" illegal immigrants to realize that we are not as humane and civilized as we think. Will we be free of stigmatization, will we provide good medical care, proper food and housing, and attention to cultural differences, if we have to quarantine a population?

Daniel R. Hinthorn

The 1892 quarantine as applied to Russian Jews and Italians in New York City during the international outbreak of typhus fever and cholera showed the social and ethical fabric of those in political power as they inconsistently applied quarantine based on race and social status, often without regard for individual civil rights. Societal-imposed barriers (political, economic, cultural, or legal) often cause the ill to be isolated or to feel isolated even if the dreaded quarantine placard is not actually hung in the window. The author succeeds in conveying the feelings of isolation and impotence felt by the diseased disadvantaged. Those who will find this book useful include students of history of medicine, history and development of ethics; persons interested in social theory, public health, legal medicine; and students of microbiology and infectious diseases. The author is a pediatrician with a doctorate in history. Because his roots are in the community that was disenfranchised, he is able to compare the events from the viewpoints of each side. The author contrasts traditional news reports with those from the alternative press, in this case the American Yiddish press. He critiques inconsistently administered quarantine using peer reviewers who spoke or wrote contemporaneously about the public health, and shows how scientific knowledge was not used in decision making. Instead, those in charge made public health decisions at an emotional level similar to decisions prior to scientific advances. The book is well illustrated with black-and-white photographs of people, maps, and buildings at the time of the epidemics. The photograph on the dust cover is of fine quality, helping thereader understand the frustrations of those quarantined. The annotated bibliography is helpful. This book is a must read. It caused me to modify my feelings about quarantine. The ethical treatment of the topic clearly convinced me that a balance between individual rights and the public health must be watched closely to prevent trampling on those without money, status, or an advocate.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: Daniel R. Hinthorn, MD (University of Kansas School of Medicine)
Description: The 1892 quarantine as applied to Russian Jews and Italians in New York City during the international outbreak of typhus fever and cholera showed the social and ethical fabric of those in political power as they inconsistently applied quarantine based on race and social status, often without regard for individual civil rights.
Purpose: Societal-imposed barriers (political, economic, cultural, or legal) often cause the ill to be isolated or to feel isolated even if the dreaded quarantine placard is not actually hung in the window. The author succeeds in conveying the feelings of isolation and impotence felt by the diseased disadvantaged.
Audience: Those who will find this book useful include students of history of medicine, history and development of ethics; persons interested in social theory, public health, legal medicine; and students of microbiology and infectious diseases. The author is a pediatrician with a doctorate in history. Because his roots are in the community that was disenfranchised, he is able to compare the events from the viewpoints of each side.
Features: The author contrasts traditional news reports with those from the alternative press, in this case the American Yiddish press. He critiques inconsistently administered quarantine using peer reviewers who spoke or wrote contemporaneously about the public health, and shows how scientific knowledge was not used in decision making. Instead, those in charge made public health decisions at an emotional level similar to decisions prior to scientific advances. The book is well illustrated with black-and-white photographs of people, maps, and buildings at the time of the epidemics. The photograph on the dust cover is of fine quality, helping the reader understand the frustrations of those quarantined. The annotated bibliography is helpful.
Assessment: This book is a must read. It caused me to modify my feelings about quarantine. The ethical treatment of the topic clearly convinced me that a balance between individual rights and the public health must be watched closely to prevent trampling on those without money, status, or an advocate.

Library Journal

A Ph.D. in the history of science, medicine, and technology, Markel is director of the Historical Center for the Health Sciences at the University of Michigan. Here he skillfully explores the social, cultural, medical, and political issues surrounding the quarantine of East European Jewish immigrants during the typhus and cholera epidemics in 1892 New York City. He cites an impressive array of primary and secondary sources, including Yiddish American newspapers, congressional records, public health records, and the personal correspondence of public health officials and of the immigrants themselves. Using these materials, Markel supports very effectively his assertion that although the epidemics were indeed public health threats, the quarantine of the Jewish immigrants had more to do with prejudice, class distinctions, and political scapegoating than with the consistent employment of the scientific method. Highly recommended for medical history collections, this book would be an excellent companion to Alan M. Kraut's broader Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace (LJ 1/94).Ximena Chrisagis, Wright State Univ., Dayton, Ohio

Kirkus Reviews

A revealing cultural and medical history that demonstrates how eastern European Jews, already subject to a kind of social quarantine, became the scapegoats when typhus and cholera struck New York City in 1892.

Markel, a clinicial historian who now directs the Historical Center for Health Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School, documents the quarantine year through immigrant diaries and letters, Jewish social-agency reports, government files, and the press—both Yiddish and American. Liberal use of photographs, maps, cartoons, diagrams, and drawings add to the impact of Markel's powerful narrative. When an outbreak of typhus fever in January 1892 was traced to the SS Massilia, which carried 268 Russian Jewish immigrants, every single one, sick and healthy alike, along with several thousand healthy Jews with whom they had been in contact, were quarantined on North Brother Island in the East River. The focus was not on treatment of the ill but on isolation of the suspect group and protection of the native-born. Later that year, when cholera struck, Russian Jewish immigrants were again targeted. Whereas the typhus epidemic had been managed by the New York City Health Department, the cholera outbreak brought federal and state authorities into contentious play. Markel reveals how prejudice, fear, and anti-immigrant sentiment shaped both public reaction and official policy. He points out that the intertwining of immigration policy with fear of imported disease and social scapegoating that marked this episode in our history continues to the present day, and he notes that responses to future public health crises will be as much a measure of society's perceptions of health, disease, and individual rights as they are of medical and scientific understanding.

A valuable contribution to the history of public health in America, to New York City history, and to American Jewish history.

Rating

4 Stars! from Doody

Faces of Poverty or Poetics of Relation

2009-02-17T00:27:00.000-08:00

Faces of Poverty: Portraits of Women and Children on Welfare

Author: Jill Duerr Berrick

Most Americans are insulated from the poor; it's hard to imagine the challenges of poverty, the daily fears of crime and victimization, the frustration of not being able to provide for a child. Instead, we are often exposed to the rhetoric and hyperbole about the excesses of the American welfare system. These messages color our perception of the welfare problem in the United States and they close the American mind to a full understanding of the complexity of family poverty. But who are these poor families? What do we know about how they arrived in such desperate straits? Is poverty their fate for a lifetime or for only a brief period? In Faces of Poverty, Jill Duerr Berrick answers these questions as she dispels the misconceptions and myths about welfare and the welfare population that have clouded the true picture of poverty in America.
Over the course of a year, Berrick spent numerous hours as a participant-observer with five women and their families, documenting their daily activities, thoughts, and fears as they managed the strains of poverty. We meet Ana, Sandy, Rebecca, Darlene, and Cora, all of whom, at some point, have turned to welfare for support. Each represents a wider segment of the welfare population--ranging from Ana (who lost a business, injured her back, and temporarily lost her job, all in a short period of time) to Cora (who was raised in poverty, spent ten years in an abusive relationship, and now struggles to raise six children in a drug-infested neighborhood). And as Berrick documents these women's experiences, she also debunks many of the myths about welfare: she reveals that welfare is not generous (welfare families remain below the poverty line evenwith government assistance); that the majority of women on welfare are not long-term welfare dependents; that welfare does not run in families; that "welfare mothers" do not keep having children to increase their payments (women on welfare have, on average, two children); and that almost half of all women on welfare turned to it after a divorce.
At a time when welfare has become a hotly debated political issue, Faces of Poverty gives us the facts. The debate surrounding welfare will continue as each of the 50 states struggles to reform their welfare programs, and this debate will turn on the public's perception of the welfare population. Berrick offers insight into each of the reforms under consideration and starkly demonstrates their implications for poor women and children. She provides a window into these women's lives, brilliantly portraying their hopes and fears and their struggle to live with dignity.

"Berrick proves to be a superb reporter and analyst, compassionate without being maudlin."--The Oakland Tribune

"An absorbing solidly documented study of America's welfare system and the circumstances of five women and their children who are dependent on it....A passionate, perceptive assessment of a complex and timely issue."--Kirkus Reviews

"Battling media stereotypes of welfare recipients as lazy, scheming 'welfare queens,' Berrick...provides probing profiles of five typical welfare mother....She concludes with a tart critique of various welfare reform proposals such as time limits and caps on family grants."--Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly

Battling media stereotypes of welfare recipients as lazy, scheming ``welfare queens,'' Berrick, Director of the Center for Research on Public Social Services at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, provides probing profiles of five typical welfare mothers. The slide into welfare may be triggered by misfortune, such as a workplace injury, or it may seem the inexorable result of a life stuck in a web of misfortune. Many welfare recipients, the author observes, work off the books to augment their meager stipends, as each increment of reported income decreases their checks. Since women on welfare are a diverse lot, some needing a boost, others much more help, Berrick warns that any universal reform will fail. She concludes with a tart critique of various welfare reform proposals such as time limits and caps on family grants. ``Welfare is only part of the dilemma,'' warns Berrick, noting that poverty policy is linked to issues like raising the minimum wage and providing child care and health coverage. (Sept.)

Book review: Adobe PageMaker 70 Basics or Building High Availability Windows Server 2003 Solutions

Poetics of Relation

Author: Edouard Glissant

Édouard Glissant, long recognized in the French and francophone world as one of the greatest writers and thinkers of our times, is increasingly attracting attention from English-speaking readers. Born in Martinique in 1928, Glissant earned a doctorate from the Sorbonne. When he returned to his native land in the mid-sixties, his writing began to focus on the idea of a "relational poetics," which laid the groundwork for the "créolité" movement, fueled by the understanding that Caribbean culture and identity are the positive products of a complex and multiple set of local historical circumstances. Some of the metaphors of local identity Glissant favored--the hinterland (or lack of it), the maroon (or runaway slave), the creole language--proved lasting and influential.

In Poetics of Relation, Glissant turns the concrete particulars of Caribbean reality into a complex, energetic vision of a world in transformation. He sees the Antilles as enduring suffering imposed by history, yet as a place whose unique interactions will one day produce an emerging global consensus. Arguing that the writer alone can tap the unconscious of a people and apprehend its multiform culture to provide forms of memory capable of transcending "nonhistory," Glissant defines his "poetics of relation"--both aesthetic and political--as a transformative mode of history, capable of enunciating and making concrete a French-Caribbean reality with a self-defined past and future. Glissant's notions of identity as constructed in relation and not in isolation are germane not only to discussions of Caribbean creolization but also to our understanding of U.S. multiculturalism. InGlissant's view, we come to see that relation in all its senses--telling, listening, connecting, and the parallel consciousness of self and surroundings--is the key to transforming mentalities and reshaping societies.

This translation of Glissant's work preserves the resonating quality of his prose and makes the richness and ambiguities of his voice accessible to readers in English.

"The most important theoretician from the Caribbean writing today. . . . He is central not only to the burgeoning field of Caribbean studies, but also to the newly flourishing literary scene in the French West Indies." --Judith Graves Miller, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Édouard Glissant is Distinguished Professor of French at City University of New York, Graduate Center. Betsy Wing's recent translations include Lucie Aubrac's Outwitting the Gestapo (with Konrad Bieber), Didier Eribon's Michel Foucault and Hélêne Cixous's The Book of Promethea.

The Pentagon Papers or The Napoleon of New York

2009-02-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

The Pentagon Papers

Author: George C Herring

This book provides a brief and manageable collection of the most important documents on U.S. policymaking in the Vietnam War between 1950 and 1968. Edited by the foremost Vietnam historian, this supplementary text can be used in conjunction with any history of the Vietnam war--Herring's own America's Longest War, for example.

	Preface
	Introduction
1	Origins of Involvement, 1946-1960	1
	Ho Chi Minh's 1946 Appeal for Help	4
	NSC 1952 Policy Study on Southeast Asia	5
	French Seek U.S. Air Intervention at Dienbienphu	11
	U.S. Rejects French Plea	13
	French Response	14
	Instructions to U.S. Delegation to Geneva Conference	14
	Joint Chiefs of Staff 1954 War Plans for Indochina	16
	Geneva Accords, July 1954	18
	U.S. Response to Geneva Accords	21
	Edward Lansdale Report on CIA Operations in Vietnam, 1954-1955	23
	Ambassador Durbrow's Concern About Diem Government, 1960	37
2	John F. Kennedy and the Escalation of the War, 1961-1963	42
	Kennedy Task Force May 1961 "Program of Action"	44
	NSAM 52 May 1961 Program	50
	LBJ May 1961 Report on Asian Trip	51
	Maxwell Taylor Proposes U.S. Combat Troops for Vietnam	55
	McNamara Response to Taylor Proposals	58
	State Department Pessimism on Vietnam	60
	Intelligence Assessment of 1963 Buddhist Protest	62
	Washington Moves Toward Coup	63
	Ambassador Lodge Encourages Coup Planning	65
	CIA Station Chief Assesses Coup Prospects	65
	Lodge Scenario for Removal of Diem	66
	Washington Response to Lodge Proposals	68
	Unravelling of August Coup Plan	69
	Generals Renew Coup Plotting	70
	Washington Response to Minh Overture	72
	Lodge Urges Support for Coup	73
	Washington's Concern About Coup	75
	Lodge Urges Proceeding with Plan	75
	Bundy Outlines Contingency Plans	79
	Lodge Phone Conversation with Diem	81
3	Graduated Response, 1963-1965	83
	McNamara's March 1964 Assessment of Situation in Vietnam	86
	NSAM 288 Plans for Retaliation	93
	U.S. Warnings to North Vietnam	95
	September 1964 Proposals for Escalation	97
	McNaughton Proposals, November 1964	100
	Ambassador Taylor's Meeting with South Vietnamese Generals	103
4	America Goes to War, 1965	107
	Bundy Urges "Sustained Reprisal"	109
	Washington Approves Rolling Thunder	114
	McNaughton's March 1965 Proposals	115
	CIA Assessment of Air War	118
	NSAM 328 Enlarges Ground Forces and Changes Mission	120
	George Ball Opposes Escalation	122
	McNamara Urges Major Expansion of Ground Forces	129
5	Stalemate, 1965-1966	132
	McNamara's November 1965 Assessment of the War	134
	McNamara's Early Doubts	136
	McNaughton Hints at Compromise	137
	Proposal for an Anti-Infiltration Barrier	140
	Johnson Presses for "Coonskins on the Wall"	142
	Walt Rostow on Pol Bombing	144
	JCS Order Pol Attacks	145
	McNamara Seeks to Limit Ground Forces	146
	Westmoreland Asks for Additional Troops	147
	IDA Assessment of the Bombing	148
6	The 1967 Policy Debate	156
	McNamara Opposes Escalation	158
	JCS Oppose Cutback in Bombing	169
	McNamara November 1966 DPM	171
	Westmoreland Requests Additional Troops	173
	JCS Support Westmoreland Request	178
	Johnson, Wheeler, and Westmoreland Discuss Force Needs	180
	McGeorge Bundy Opposes Escalation	183
	Enthoven Opposes Increase in Ground Forces	186
	Rostow Analysis of Air War	187
	McNamara Turns Dove	191
	William Bundy Response to McNamara	201
7	The Tet Offensive and the End of Escalation	205
	CINPAC Late 1967 Report on War	208
	Wheeler's Post-Tet Report to President	210
	LBJ's March 31, 1968 Decisions	217
	Glossary	219
	The Pentagon Papers: A Bibliographical Essay	223

New interesting textbook: Le Dictionnaire international de Direction d'Événement

The Napoleon of New York: Mayor Fiorello La Guardia

Author: H Paul Jeffers

Praise for H. Paul Jeffers

Diamond Jim Brady: Prince of the Gilded Age

"One of the most entertaining historical business narratives in recent memory. The story of this symbol of America’s Gilded Age is filled with such gusto and vigor that even hardcore business readers will be swept away."
–Publishers Weekly

"Superb historical biography of one of the more colorful characters in American history . . . spirited. . . . Jeffers deftly weaves together intriguing stage-setting explanations of the age of robber barons, the crash of 1893, and that unforgettable era of unbridled wealth for the few in 1890s New York. As this marvelous story reveals, Brady’s lavish lifestyle embodies America’s Gilded Age. Highly recommended for all libraries."
–Library Journal

An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland

"A well-written and timely book that reminds us of Grover Cleveland’s courage, commitment, and honesty at a time when these qualities are so lacking in so much of American politics."
–James MacGregor Burns, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award

Colonel Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt Goes to War, 1897—1898

"A handsome narrative of a crucial period in the career of one of our country’s most colorful politicians."
–Publishers Weekly

Booknews

A broadcast journalist turned biographer tells the life story of La Guardia (1882-1947), who was the 99th mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1945. Jeffers says that all his successors have been measured against him, and none has equaled his accomplishments and esteem. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Psychic Life of Abraham Lincoln or Alexander Hamilton

2009-02-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

Psychic Life of Abraham Lincoln

Author: Susan B Martinez

In dreams, he foresaw his sudden death. He consulted oracles, and at age 22 was told by a seer that he would become President of the United States.

Obscurantists and historians have dismissed Abraham Lincoln's psychic involvements which, in his own time, were profound state secrets. But Lincoln's rise to power coincided with the Great Age of Spiritualism and, as a Mystical Unionist, he felt he was controlled by "some other power."

Trauma and heartbreak opened the psychic door for this otherworldly President, whose precognitive dreams, evil omens, and trancelike states are carefully documented here in this bold yet poignant chronicle of tragic beginnings, White House seances, and paranormal eruptions of the Civil War era.

Aided by the deathbed memoir of his favorite medium, Lincoln's remarkable psychic experiences come to life with communications from beyond, ESP, true and false prophecies, as well as thumbnail sketches of the most influential spiritualists in Lincoln's orbit. Surveying clairvoyant incidents in Lincoln's life from cradle to grave, the book also examines the Emancipation Proclamation and the unseen powers that moved pen to hand for its historic signing into law.

About the Author
SUSAN B. MARTINEZ, Ph.D., is an independent scholar, journalist, and activist who received her doctorate in Anthropology from Columbia University in the 1970s. Raised by agnostic/intellectual parents in Brooklyn, New York, she found her way to Spiritualism in the early 1980s and has since researched and wrote on psychic phenomena, specializing in modern spiritualism in the Victorian era. Currently Book Review Editor at the Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies, she lives in the north Georgia mountains.

What People Are Saying

In this informative and intriguing book, Dr. Susan Martinez digs deeply into the documented records of Lincoln's involvement with mediums, and sets forth a preponderance of evidence suggesting he was indeed guided by benevolent spirits in his most crucial decisions. --Michael E Tymn, vice president, Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies, and author of The Articulate Dead

Dr. Martinez presents compelling evidence that one of America's greatest and most beloved presidents had been deeply involved in Spiritualism. She deserves the appreciation not only of Lincoln scholars and admirers, but of those who are attempting to enrich and deepen their own spiritual quest. --Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., author and current Alan Watts Professor of Psychology, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center

Foreword     15
Prologue     19
Introduction     25
Out of the Wilderness     35
"What Next?"     81
The Trimmer     133
"O, Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud?"     175
"This War Is Killing Me"     195
Man of Destiny     221
Notes     261
Bibliography     275
Index     281
About the Author     287

Look this: Maine Collection or Veggie Organic London

Alexander Hamilton: Writings (Library of America)

Author: Alexander Hamilton

One of the most vivid, influential, and controversial figures of the American founding, Alexander Hamilton was an unusually prolific and vigorous writer. As a military aide to George Washington, critic of the Articles of Confederation, proponent of ratification of the Constitution, first Secretary of the Treasury, and leader of the Federalist party, Hamilton devoted himself to the creation of a militarily and economically powerful American nation guided by a strong, energetic republican government. His public and private writings demonstrate the perceptive intelligence, confident advocacy, driving ambition, and profound concern for honor and reputation that contributed both to his astonishing rise to fame and to his tragic early death.

This volume contains more than 170 letters, speeches, pamphlets, essays, reports, and memoranda written between 1769 and 1804. Included are all 51 of Hamilton's contributions to The Federalist, as well as subsequent writings calling for a broad construction of federal power; his famous speech to the Constitutional Convention, which gave rise to accusations that he favored monarchy; and early writings supporting the Revolutionary cause and a stronger central government. His detailed reports as Treasury secretary on the public credit, a national bank, and the encouragement of manufactures present a forward-looking vision of a country transformed by the power of financial markets, centralized banking, and industrial development.

Hamilton's sometimes flawed political judgment is revealed in the "Reynolds Pamphlet," in which he confessed to adultery in order to defend himself against accusations of corrupt conduct, and in his self-destructive pamphlet attack on John Adams during the 1800 presidential campaign. An extensive selection of private letters illuminates Hamilton's complex relationship with George Washington, his deep affection for his wife and children, his mounting fears during the 1790s regarding the Jeffersonian opposition and the French Revolution, and his profound distrust of Aaron Burr. Included in an appendix are conflicting eyewitness accounts of the Hamilton-Burr duel.

Publishers Weekly

Whether lamenting the paucity of power in revolutionary-era Congress or asking a friend to find him a wife in Carolina, founding father Alexander Hamilton was earnest, passionate and articulate. In Hamilton: Writings, Joanne B. Freeman (Affairs of Honor), assistant history professor at Yale, has assembled 170 letters, essays, reports and speeches from 1769 to 1804. Describing himself as "[c]old in my professions, warm in my friendships," Hamilton indeed exhibits a range of expression, emotion and restraint. Extensive wartime correspondence, 51 contributions to The Federalist, the famous speech to the Constitutional Convention, courtship letters and many more items will interest all fans of American history. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The latest in the Library of America series arranges Hamilton's writings in chronological order. The text consists of more than 170 letters, speeches, essays, reports, and memoranda written between 1769 and 1804, including all of Hamilton's material presented in The Federalist. This additionally sports several conflicting eyewitness accounts of Hamilton's lethal duel with Aaron Burr. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Common Wealth or Winning Our Energy Independence

2009-02-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet

Author: Jeffrey D Sachs

From one of the world's greatest economic minds, author of the New York Times bestseller The End of Poverty, a clear and vivid map of the road to sustainable and equitable global prosperity and an augury of the global economic collapse that lies ahead if we don't follow it.

The New York Times - Daniel Gross

Even congenital optimists have good reason to suspect that this time the prophets of economic doom may be on point, with the advent of seemingly unstoppable developments like climate change and the explosive growth of China and India. Which is why Sachs's book—lucid, quietly urgent and relentlessly logical—resonates…Sachs smartly describes how we got here, and the path we must take to avert disaster. The director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the author of The End of Poverty, Sachs is perhaps the best-known economist writing on developmental issues (or any other kind of issues) today. And this is Bigthink with a capital B.

Publishers Weekly

In this sobering but optimistic manifesto, development economist Sachs (The End of Poverty) argues that the crises facing humanity are daunting-but solutions to them are readily at hand. Sachs focuses on four challenges for the coming decades: heading off global warming and environmental destruction; stabilizing the world's population; ending extreme poverty; and breaking the political logjams that hinder global cooperation on these issues. The author analyses economic data, demographic trends and climate science to create a lucid, accessible and suitably grim exposition of looming problems, but his forte is elaborating concrete, pragmatic, low-cost remedies complete with benchmarks and budgets. Sachs's entire agenda would cost less than 3% of the world's annual income, and he notes that a mere two days' worth of Pentagon spending would fund a comprehensive antimalaria program for Africa, saving countless lives. Forthright government action is the key to avoiding catastrophe, the author contends, not the unilateral, militarized approach to international problems that he claims is pursued by the Bush administration. Combining trenchant analysis with a resounding call to arms, Sachs's book is an important contribution to the debate over the world's future. (Mar.)

Lawrence R. Maxted <P>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. - School Library Journal

In his first book, The End of Poverty, development economist and UN special adviser Sachs laid out how extreme poverty in places like Africa could be alleviated. Here, he identifies and offers strategies for dealing with the leading global threats of the coming decades, such as environmental degradation, overpopulation, and resource depletion, arguing persuasively that much of the threat to humanity comes from those living in extreme poverty. He calls for wealthy nations to invest in efforts to improve the conditions of the extremely poor and thereby lessen the impact of extreme poverty on the planet. He explains in detail the goals that need to be met and how governments, not-for-profits, the private sector, and even individuals, can cooperate to achieve them. He reserves much of his criticism for the United States, which he says spends far too much on military technology that will prove ineffective in dealing with the true threats to our security. Though Sachs avoids jargon and writes clearly, the book would be heavy going for casual readers. Nevertheless, his work is an eloquent plea and a solid argument for global economic and political cooperation. Highly recommended for most libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ4/15/07.]

Kirkus Reviews

Economist Sachs (Earth Institute/Columbia Univ.; The End of Poverty, 2005, etc.) limns social, environmental and economic forces that are reshaping the planet-for better or worse remains to be seen. Thanks to technological and agricultural innovations, Sachs writes, economic growth has reached into every corner of the globe, particularly in Asia, and "the world on average is rapidly getting richer in terms of income per person." At the same time, the population continues to grow, increasingly concentrated in vast cities. More people earning more means more consumption. In the face of this and against the likelihood of resource scarcity, can that growth be sustained? Sachs examines the prospects, suggesting that the greater challenge may be simply to lift the poor nations of the world, mostly in Africa, to some sort of health while improving life everywhere. In that regard, he observes, citizens of the United States have suffered the dismantling of social services, a "great right-wing attack [that] . . . has systematically reduced the scope of the social welfare system in health care, job protection, child support, housing support, and retirement security." Yet, he optimistically adds, the financial cost of making "major corrections" is small relative to the size of the U.S. economy, assuming proper prioritizing-the war in Iraq, for instance, is costing "roughly 1 percent of national income each year in direct outlays" that could otherwise subsidize universal healthcare coverage. In Africa, improvement in public investments-assuming corruption in the system can be removed, that is-can spur private investment and even prompt an economic boom. The future need not be grim, Sachs maintains,but getting to a better one will require concerted international effort, UN leadership and private initiative. A welcome contribution to the sustainable-development literature, accessible to nonspecialist readers but most useful to those with grounding in economics and international policy. Agent: Andrew Wylie/The Wylie Agency

What People Are Saying

Common Wealth explains the most basic economic reckoning that the world faces. We can address poverty, climate change, and environmental destruction at a very modest cost today with huge benefits for shared and sustainable prosperity and peace in the future, or we can duck the issues today and risk a potentially costly reckoning in later years. Despite the rearguard opposition of some vested interests, policies to help the world's poor and the global environment are in fact the very best economic bargains on the planet.
—Al Gore, Winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and Former Vice President of the United States

Foreword   Edward O. Wilson     xi
New Economics for the Twenty-first Century
Common Challenges, Common Wealth     3
Our Crowded Planet     17
Environmental Sustainability
The Anthropocene     57
Global Solutions to Climate Change     83
Securing Our Water Needs     115
A Home for All Species     139
The Demographic Challenge
Global Population Dynamics     159
Completing the Demographic Transition     183
Prosperity for All
The Strategy of Economic Development     205
Ending Poverty Traps     227
Economic Security in a Changing World     255
Global Problem Solving
Rethinking Foreign Policy     271
Achieving Global Goals     291
The Power of One     313
Acknowledgments     341
List of Acronyms     347
Notes     349
References     361
Index     371

Interesting book: Revisiting the Culture of the School and the Problem of Change or In Defense of Israel

Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy Insider Shows How

Author: S David Freeman

s. david freeman has had the ear of federal officials since the days of JFK. He helped bring about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Nixon. He headed the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest nuclear program, under Jimmy Carter. From New York to Los Angeles, Freeman has headed agencies and utilities companies, continually working to make utilities more environmentally safe, more efficient, and more cost-friendly to
the customer. He authored Energy: The New Era. He has three children and nine grandchildren. He is currently president of the commission overseeing the Port of Los Angeles and lives in neighboring Marina del Rey.

Fundamentals of Fire Phenomena or Democracy as Problem Solving

2009-02-12T03:36:00.000-08:00

Fundamentals of Fire Phenomena

Author: James G Quintier

Understanding fire dynamics and combustion is essential in fire safety engineering and in fire science curricula. Engineers and students involved in fire protection, safety and investigation need to know and predict how fire behaves to be able to implement adequate safety measures and hazard analyses. Fire phenomena encompass everything about the scientific principles behind fire behavior. Combining the principles of chemistry, physics, heat and mass transfer, and fluid dynamics necessary to understand the fundamentals of fire phenomena, this book integrates the subject into a clear discipline:

• Covers thermochemistry including mixtures and chemical reactions;

• Introduces combustion to the fire protection student;

• Discusses premixed flames and spontaneous ignition;

• Presents conservation laws for control volumes, including the effects of fire;

• Describes the theoretical bases for empirical aspects of the subject of fire;

• Analyses ignition of liquids and the importance of evaporation including heat and mass transfer;

• Features the stages of fire in compartments, and the role of scale modeling in fire.

Fundamentals of Fire Phenomena is an invaluable reference tool for practising engineers in any aspect of safety or forensic analysis. Fire safety officers, safety practitioners and safety consultants will also find it an excellent resource. In addition, this is a must-have book for senior engineering students and postgraduates studying fire protection and fire aspects of combustion.

Interesting textbook: Current Issues in Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Health or Iron Maidens

Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities Across the Globe

Author: Xavier De Souza Briggs

Complexity, division, mistrust, and "process paralysis" can thwart leaders and others when they tackle local challenges. In Democracy as Problem Solving, Xavier de Souza Briggs shows how civic capacity--the capacity to create and sustain smart collective action--can be developed and used. In an era of sharp debate over the conditions under which democracy can develop while broadening participation and building community, Briggs argues that understanding and building civic capacity is crucial for strengthening governance and changing the state of the world in the process. More than managing a contest among interest groups or spurring deliberation to reframe issues, democracy can be what the public most desires: a recipe for significant progress on important problems.

Briggs examines efforts in six cities, in the United States, Brazil, India, and South Africa, that face the millennial challenges of rapid urban growth, economic restructuring, and investing in the next generation. These challenges demand the engagement of government, business, and nongovernmental sectors. And the keys to progress include the ability to combine learning and bargaining continuously, forge multiple forms of accountability, and find ways to leverage the capacity of the grassroots and what Briggs terms the "grasstops," regardless of who initiates change or who participates over time. Civic capacity, Briggs shows, can--and must--be developed even in places that lack traditions of cooperative civic action.

Business Law and the Regulation of Business or Honest Patriots

2009-02-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

Business Law and the Regulation of Business

Author: Richard A Mann

Praised by students for its accurate and straightforward coverage of the law, BUSINESS LAW AND THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS illustrates how legal concepts can be applied to common business situations. All of the cases have the facts and decision summarized for clarity, while the opinion is edited to preserve the language of the court. Both landmark and current cases are included. Portions of the text covering commonly tested areas on the CPA exam are marked to help you succeed on the exam.

Booknews

New edition of a text that provides broad coverage of business law and the legal environment. Mann and Roberts (both of the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the U. of North Carolina) present ten chapters that include many case studies, managerial and consumer insights, practical advice, and ethical and critical thinking questions. Topics cover an introduction to law and ethics, the legal environment of business, contracts, sales, negotiable instruments, agency, business associations, debtor and creditor relations, regulation of business, and property. New to this edition is a cyberlaw chapter and references to web sites containing primary legal materials and other relevant material. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Interesting book: Long Term Care or Psoriasis

Honest Patriots

Author: Donald W Shriver

In Honest Patriots, renowned public theologian and ethicist Donald W. Shriver, Jr. argues that we must acknowledge and repent of the morally negative events in our nation's past. The failure to do so skews the relations of many Americans to one another, breeds ongoing hostility, and damages the health of our society. Yet our civic identity today largely rests on denials, forgetfulness, and inattention to the memories of neighbors whose ancestors suffered great injustices at the hands of some dominant majority. Shriver contends that repentance for these injustices must find a place in our political culture. Such repentance must be carefully and deliberately cultivated through the accurate teaching of history, by means of public symbols that embody both positive and negative memory, and through public leadership to this end. Religious people and religious organizations have an important role to play in this process. Historically, the Christian tradition has concentrated on the personal dimensions of forgiveness and repentance to the near-total neglect of their collective aspects. Recently, however, the idea of collective moral responsibility has gained new and public visibility. Official apologies for past collective injustice have multiplied, along with calls for reparations. Shriver looks in detail at the examples of Germany and South Africa, and their pioneering efforts to foster and express collective repentance. He then turns to the historic wrongs perpetrated against African Americans and Native Americans and to recent efforts by American citizens and governmental bodies to seek public justice by remembering public injustice. The call for collective repentance presents manychallenges: What can it mean to morally master a past whose victims are dead and whose sufferings cannot be alleviated? What are the measures that lend substance to language and action expressing repentance? What symbolic and tangible acts produce credible turns away from past wrongs? What are the dynamics-psychological, social, and political-whereby we can safely consign an evil to the past? How can public life witness to corporate crimes of the past in such a way that descendents of victims can be confident that they will never be repeated? In his provocative answers to these questions Shriver creates a compelling new vision of the collective repentance and apology that must precede real progress in relations between the races in this country.

The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics or Management and Supervision in Law Enforcement

2009-02-09T17:12:00.000-08:00

The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics

Author: Louis Kaplow

The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics presents a unified conceptual framework for analyzing taxation--the first to be systematically developed in several decades. An original treatment of the subject rather than a textbook synthesis, the book contains new analysis that generates novel results, including some that overturn long-standing conventional wisdom. This fresh approach should change thinking, research, and teaching for decades to come.

Building on the work of James Mirrlees, Anthony Atkinson and Joseph Stiglitz, and subsequent researchers, and in the spirit of classics by A. C. Pigou, William Vickrey, and Richard Musgrave, this book steps back from particular lines of inquiry to consider the field as a whole, including the relationships among different fiscal instruments. Louis Kaplow puts forward a framework that makes it possible to rigorously examine both distributive and distortionary effects of particular policies despite their complex interactions with others. To do so, various reforms--ranging from commodity or estate and gift taxation to regulation and public goods provision--are combined with a distributively offsetting adjustment to the income tax. The resulting distribution-neutral reform package holds much constant while leaving in play the distinctive effects of the policy instrument under consideration. By applying this common methodology to disparate subjects, The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics produces significant cross-fertilization and yields solutions to previously intractable problems.

Book review: The Jumbled Jigsaw or John Barleycorn

Management and Supervision in Law Enforcement

Author: Wayne W Bennett

While still the most comprehensive title in the market, making it suitable for courses in supervision, management, and administration, this revision has been streamlined into 17 student-friendly chapters (reduced from 20 in the previous edition) to better match the typical 15-week semester. Bennett/Hess use an extensive pedagogical framework to ensure student learning and provide an accessible text. Despite its comprehensive coverage, this book is very approachable for any level of student. Focusing on cutting-edge management principles, the book gives students an extensive introduction to the subject that will serve them in future careers.

Benefits:

Bennett/Hess present the theoretical information necessary to help students understand key concepts and provide explanations of how these theories apply to real-world situations.
NEW! New media coverage explores how police departments work with the media and how the media effects departments.
NEW! Thoroughly updated statistics and references, as well as updated media examples and vignettes provide current and engaging coverage of key topics in the course.
NEW! The latest news and research articles online?updated daily and spanning four years! InfoTrac College Edition is automatically packaged with every new student copy of this text. You and your students will have 4-month's free access to an easy-to-use online database of reliable, full-length articles (not abstracts) from hundreds of top academic journals and popular sources. Contact your Wadsworth/Thomson Learning representative for more information. Available to North American college and university students only. Journals subject to change.
NEW! New! InfoTrac College Edition exercises have been added to the end of each chapter to enhance student comprehension.
Real-world applications give students practical information on topics such as: problem-solving techniques (Ch. 5), time management strategies (Ch. 6), reporting and analyzing budget variances (Ch. 7), and Affirmative Action, EEO criteria, and how to deal with unions (Ch. 8).
Do You Know questions preview key topics at the beginning of each chapter to focus students on the chapter's most important concepts.
Key topics covered include leadership, team building, conflict resolution skills, and working with the media, resulting in better public relations.
NEW! Based on reviewer comments and in order to become more accessible, length has been considerably reduced. The following chapters are combined: Chapter 2 (The Role of the Manager in Law Enforcement) with Chapter 3 (The Manager and Leadership); Chapter 9 (Managers as Developers) with Chapter 10 (Training and Beyond); Chapter 11 (Motivation: Theory and Practice) with Chapter 12 (Morale: Fostering a "Can Do" Approach); Chapter 13 (Discipline and Problem Behaviors) with Chapter 15 (Conflict-It's Inevitable); and Chapters 18 (Law Enforcement Productivity) with Chapter 19 (Performance Appraisals and Evaluation).
NEW! Increased coverage of community policing and problem-oriented policing is now covered in Chapters 1, 17, and 20 and throughout the text where appropriate.
NEW! Chapter 1 now covers politics and its effect on police departments.
NEW! Includes new coverage of technology such as short and long term planning, (i.e. budgets, records, disbursements), use in training, investigations, officer deployment, and use in patrol cars.
NEW! New information is provided on how departments conduct research and implement plans for meeting internal and external goals (i.e. budgets and new programs).
Booknews
Emphasizing the ways that theory applies to work situations, Bennett, a former Chief of Police, and Hess, an instructor at Normandale Community College in Minnesota, incorporate many examples to share information on subjects such as using technology to increase productivity, community policing, conducting research and implementation plans, and working with the media. They also provide time management tips, motivation techniques, and conflict and stress management systems. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:
PART ONE: MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION: AN OVERVIEW.

The One Percent Doctrine or Jarhead

2009-02-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11

Author: Ron Suskind

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

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

Author: Anthony Swofford

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

The People with No Name or Fight Back

2009-02-07T06:46:00.000-08:00

The People with No Name: Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World, 1689-1764

Author: Patrick Griffin

More than 100,000 Ulster Presbyterians of Scottish origin migrated to the American colonies in the six decades prior to the American Revolution, the largest movement of any group from the British Isles to British North America in the eighteenth century. Drawing on a vast store of archival materials, The People with No Name is the first book to tell this fascinating story in its full, transatlantic context. It explores how these people--whom one visitor to their Pennsylvania enclaves referred to as "a spurious race of mortals known by the appellation Scotch-Irish"--drew upon both Old and New World experiences to adapt to staggering religious, economic, and cultural change. In remarkably crisp, lucid prose, Patrick Griffin uncovers the ways in which migrants from Ulster--and thousands like them--forged new identities and how they conceived the wider transatlantic community.

The book moves from a vivid depiction of Ulster and its Presbyterian community in and after the Glorious Revolution to a brilliant account of religion and identity in early modern Ireland. Griffin then deftly weaves together religion and economics in the origins of the transatlantic migration, and examines how this traumatic and enlivening experience shaped patterns of settlement and adaptation in colonial America. In the American side of his story, he breaks new critical ground for our understanding of colonial identity formation and of the place of the frontier in a larger empire. The People with No Name will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in transatlantic history, American Colonial history, and the history of Irish and British migration.

See also: Coffee Lovers Bible or Sushi

Fight Back: Tackling Terrorism, Liddy Style

Author: G Gordon Liddy

If the unexpected happens, do you know what to do? Learn the Liddy Way to combat personal, professional, and workplace threats to your security -- and come out on top.

G. Gordon Liddy has never shrunk from a fight, and in this book he offers individuals and businesses a clear-eyed, proactive, and deeply informed approach to combating criminal and terrorist threats. Backed by advice from three seasoned professionals who offer military, medical, and personal security perspectives, Liddy includes chapters on:
-How and why terrorists select targets -- and how to minimize your chances of becoming one.
-Assessing your personal and workplace risks: Do you have a plan to protect yourself? Your employees? Your business?
-How to ensure your family's safety in the event of an emergency.
-How to survive a kidnapping and hostage situation.
-Dealing with the cascading effects of natural and man-made disasters on the infrastructure.
-Countering chemical, biological, and weapons attacks: An Emergency Response Handbook.

FIGHT BACK is an essential book for everyone concerned about home and workplace safety.

	Preface : personal security in troubled times
Pt. I	Know your enemy	1
1	Understanding the terrorist threat	3
2	How terrorists attack the international order	20
3	Overview of significant terrorist groups	55
Pt. II	Secure yourself	87
4	Risk assessment and total security management (TSM)	89
5	Personal security	108
6	Securing your workplace	139
7	Defensive landscaping and antiterrorism architecture	164
8	Executive security and hostage survival/recovery	179
9	Conclusions	198
Pt. III	Emergency response handbook	203
10	General preparation	205
11	Nutrition	214
12	Responding to emergencies	217

The Lexus and the Olive Tree or Fatal Purity

2009-02-06T01:34:00.000-08:00

The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization

Author: Thomas L Friedman

As the Foreign Affairs columnist for The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has traveled to the four corners of the globe, interviewing people from all walks of contemporary life — Brazilian peasants in the Amazon rain forest, new entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Islamic students in Teheran, and the financial wizards on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.

Now Friedman has drawn on his years on the road to produce an engrossing and original look at the new international system that, more than anything else, is shaping world affairs today: globalization.

His argument can be summarized quite simply. Globalization is not just a phenomenon and not just a passing trend. It is the international system that replaced the Cold War system. Globalization is the integration of capital, technology, and information across national borders, in a way that is creating a single global market and, to some degree, a global village.

You cannot understand the morning news or know where to invest your money or think about where the world is going unless you understand this new system, which is influencing the domestic policies and international relations of virtually every country in the world today. And once you do understand the world as Friedman explains it, you'll never look at it quite the same way again.

With vivid stories and a set of original terms and concepts, Friedman shows us how to see this new system. He dramatizes the conflict of "the Lexus and the olive tree" — the tension between the globalization system and ancient forces of culture, geography, tradition, and community. He also details the powerful backlash that globalization produces among those who feel brutalized by it, and he spells out what we all need to do to keep this system in balance.

Finding the proper balance between the Lexus and the olive tree is the great drama of the globalization era, and the ultimate theme of Friedman's challenging, provocative book — essential reading for all who care about how the world really works.

Thomas L. Friedman is one of America's leading interpreters of world affairs. Born in Minneapolis in 1953, he was educated at Brandeis University and St. Antony's College, Oxford. His first book, From Beirut to Jerusalem,won the National Book Award in 1988. Mr. Friedman has also won two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting for The New York Times as bureau chief in Beirut and in Jerusalem. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Ann, and their daughters, Orly and Natalie.

Finance&Developement - Ian S. McDonald

In Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman's analysis provides a superb introduction to his topic the equivalent of a Globalization 101 for the general reader. His writing is vivid and topical but it is never dull and Friedman's insights are often penetrating.

Salon - Scott Whitney

This is an important book; not since Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital has a volume come along that so well explains the technical and financial ether we are all swimming through. Like fish oblivious to the surrounding water, we need a Negroponte or a Thomas Friedman to give us some instruction in basic hydrology — or, in the case of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, in globalization. Friedman sees globalization as the one big thing, the defining theory of the post-Cold War era. He cites the Lexus as the pinnacle of the high-quality production that the forces of globalization make possible, the olive tree as the symbol of wealth in pre-modern, "slow" economies.

By "globalization" Friedman means the cluster of trends and technologies — the Internet, fiber optics, digitalization, satellite communications — that have increased productivity and cranked up the speed of international business since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. During this period, the declining cost of communications has led to the "democratization" of finance, information and technology. If your company has replaced the switchboard operator with an automated phone menu, if you have ever received a FedEx package or sent an e-mail, you have felt the effects of globalization.

There is hardly a page in the book without an underlineable passage. (For example: "In the Cold War, the most frequently asked question was: 'How big is your missile?' In globalization, the most frequently asked question is: 'How fast is your modem?'") Globalization has created what Friedman calls the "Electronic Herd" — investors and speculators whose roving hot money "turns the whole world into a parliamentary system, in which every government lives under the fear of a no-confidence vote." Brazil knows the effects of such a vote all too well; so do Thailand and Indonesia.

Sometimes Friedman can be a rather grandiose name-dropper: "As I was traveling with Secretary of State Baker"; "when I interviewed former Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral"; "I ran this by James Cantalup, president of McDonald's International." But as foreign-affairs columnist for the New York Times, he really has talked to all these people. And he has used his remarkable vantage point to provide a readable overview that no academic or narrow-beat reporter could have given us. Occasionally, the habits he has developed as a columnist get in the way. His imaginary arguments between such people as Warren Christopher and Syrian President Hafez el-Assad are a little too cutesy-chatty, and his overly clever chapter titles ("DOScapital 6.0," "Microchip Immune Deficiency," "Globalution") can be annoying. Still, these are quibbles about a genuinely important book.

I have one reservation, though, that isn't a quibble: I would be embarrassed to lend this book to friends overseas. Friedman gets very rah-rah as an American apologist, and he poses no serious objections to the worldview that regards globalization as an international extension of Manifest Destiny. In the gushy tribute to American values he offers on his final pages, you can almost hear the Boston Pops swelling under the patriotic fireworks.

His message, though, can't be easily ignored. According to Friedman, there is no longer a first, a second and a third world; there are just the Fast World and the Slow World. And his message to the Slow World is simple and a bit chilling: Speed up or become road kill.

The New York Times Book Review - Josef Joffe

A brilliant guide for the here and now....Friedman knows how to cut through the arcana of high tech and high finance with vivid images and compelling analogies...A delightfully readable book.

WQ: The Wilson Quarterly - Robert Wright

Friedman...doesn't love globalization; he just thinks it's largely a good thing and, in any event, a fact of life....If this book becomes a basic guide to globalization for American opinion makers, as it well may, that will be a good thing.

Brill's Content - Michael Freedman

An American reading Thomas L. Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree would be hard pressed to feel anything less than exuberant about this nation's prospects.

Richard Eder

...[A] breathtaking tour, one that possesses the exhilarating qualities of flight and the stomach-hollowing ones of free fall....He can be eloquently outraged about the growing gap between rich and poor and the threat to the environment....For the most part...Mr. Friedman accepts the current version of the invisible hand: globalize, or the economic forces that be will condemn you to be left behind. —The New York Times

Gail Jaitlin

Thomas L. Friedman is scaring me. I am reading his new book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree , and suddenly I imagine I am in the middle of an IBM commercial, the kind with brightly colored images of Tibetan monks and African villagers tap-tapping away at laptops. I know that, in fact, Tibetan monks usually live meditative, ascetic lives, and that African villagers sometimes go hungry during times of drought. Yet I am swept up in these images, just as I am in Friedman's cheerful, optimistic book about the new global economy and how it will enrich all our lives.

Don't get me wrong — it's a terrific book. As in his columns for The New York Times, Friedman's writing is illustrative and clear. He uses catchphrases and stories to make clear otherwise complex ideas. For instance, the "Golden Straitjacket" is his term for what a country dons when it accepts the rules of a free-market economy — it accepts the promise of a rising standard of living (the gold) by tossing out old-fashioned ideologies like communism and socialism and accepting the rules (the straitjacket) of capitalism. A country can refuse to put on the Golden Straitjacket, and retain its old systems and values, and try to protect itself from the outside world. But the outside world gets in somehow, through the Internet and cable TV, and more and more citizens find themselves clamoring for the straitjacket. Eventually, the country must put it on, or risk having its citizens fall far behind the rest of the world (or worse, revolt, as happened recently in Indonesia).

Friedman's travel stories (he calls himself a "tourist with an attitude") are wonderful — they leave the reader hungering for a whole bookful — and his optimism about the new global economy is infectious. The central metaphor of the book, which gives the book its title, is the "Lexus and the Olive Tree." The Lexus, the luxury car, represents globalization. The olive tree stands for local concerns, cultural pride, and nationalism. With that pairing, Friedman has done a very neat job of explaining world politics as they now exist. The Cold War determined world politics until very recently; globalization determines them now. The relaxation of trade barriers and taxes, the accessibility of international markets through the Internet and Federal Express, the global stock market — all of these have made it possible for people to become more prosperous than ever before, no matter where they live. What this has done, however, is to make some people very nervous about losing their national or cultural identity. There is a tension now between people's desire for world culture and increased profits, and their desire to remain unique beings in localized cultures and traditions. Friedman illustrates his point by mentioning a few recent news events and telling us whether the Lexus or the olive tree was the winner. (The current war in Yugoslavia would certainly be an example of the olive tree winning out — despite all pressures from the U.S. and the world economy, the Serbs insist on fighting for Kosovo, their olive tree.) The pressures of the global economy seem to demand peace (you can't very well do business with India, for example, if your country is at war with it); Friedman is excited about globalization because he believes it will eventually bring world peace, as soon as the Lexus and the olive tree can be brought into co-existence.

It all sounds rosy, but... And now I come to my one big problem with Friedman's enthusiasm for this faster, barrier-free world. While I think his theories are sound, I am worried (as he does not seem to be) for those who get left behind. Not everyone in the Brazilian rain forest can afford a laptop computer; not everyone in East Lansing, Michigan, is young and supple enough to go through hours and hours of retraining to learn how to use the Net to their advantage. Friedman, who calls these people "turtles" because of their inability or unwillingness to move apace of the quickening world, seems to be saying, "So what? Too bad." The safety nets, such as welfare and unemployment insurance, are falling away, and to them Friedman says good riddance. He uses a jungle metaphor to illustrate the new world order: Everyone is either a lion or a gazelle. The lion wakes up every morning hoping he can catch the slowest gazelle; the gazelle wakes up every morning hoping that she can outrun the fastest lion. In other words, kill or be killed is the rule of the new global economy.

But do we really want our civilization to be run according to the law of the jungle? Friedman thinks so. "[T]he centrally planned, nondemocratic alternatives...communism, socialism, and fascism — helped to abort the first era of globalization [the industrial revolution]...[and] they didn't work." But Friedman is forgetting some of the other responses to dehumanizing industrialization — stunt journalism and labor unions, which banded together in the early 1900s to fight for shorter workdays, higher wages, less life-threatening working conditions, and an end to child labor. Friedman has a very short memory if he believes that pure, unfettered capitalism is necessarily a good thing.

Gail Jaitin is a writer living in Jersey City.

New Republic - David S. Landes

...Friedman believes in, approves of, and enthuses for globalization....A purely material account of economics is hardly the whole story....We can and must find sweeter, more winning ways.

Publishers Weekly

"In the Cold War, the most frequently asked question was 'How big is your missile?' In globalization, the most frequently asked question is 'How fast is your modem?' " So writes New York Times Foreign Affairs columnist Friedman (author of the NBA-winning From Beirut to Jerusalem), who here looks at geopolitics through the lens of the international economy and boils the complexities of globalization down to pithy essentials. Sometimes, his pithiness slips into simplicity. There's a jaunty innocence in the way he observes that "no two countries that both had a McDonald's had fought a war against each other, since each got its McDonald's." For the most part, however, Friedman is a terrific explainer. He presents a clear picture of how the investment decisions of what he calls the "Electronic Herd" — a combination of institutions, such as mutual funds, and individuals, whether George Soros or your uncle Max trading on his PC — affect the fortunes of nations. The book's title, in its reference to both the global economy (the Lexus) and specific national aspirations and cultural identity (the olive tree), echoes Benjamin Barber's Jihad vs. McWorld. Like Barber, Friedman takes note of what may be lost, as well as gained, in the brave new world: "globalization enriches the consumer in us, but it can also shrink the citizen and the space for individual cultural and political expression." The animating spirit of his book, however, is one of excitement rather than fear. Some of the excitement is the joy a good lecturer feels in making the complex digestible. Writing with great clarity and broad understanding, Friedman has set the standard for books purporting to teach Globalization 101.

Patrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical College Library, La Crosse - Library Journal

A two-time Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter and current New York Times columnist, Friedman believes that with the end of the Cold War we are now in the era of the international globalization system. He defines globalization as the integration of finance, stock markets, nations, and technology and explains its dependence on computers, the Internet, transaction speed, and innovation. Friedman catalogs the benefits and pitfalls of globalization in a text so clearly written and with so many examples that one easily forgets that this is a book about economics. He makes a compelling case that international economics is changing and that globalization is inevitable and calls for both the United States and global business to pursue responsible capitalism that would make globalization more effective and fair. He ends with a call for businesses to understand that U.S. military and economic strength provide essential stability. Readers of Friedmans column will recognize many of these concepts. Well written, cogently argued, thought-provoking, and very highly recommended.

The New Republic - David S. Landes

...Friedman believes in, approves of, and enthuses for globalization....A purely material account of economics is hardly the whole story....We can and must find sweeter, more winning ways.

The Washington Monthly - Paul Krugman

Every few years a book comes along that perfectly expresses the moment's conventional wisdom — that says pretty much what everybody else in the chattering classes is saying, but does it in a way that manages to sound fresh and profound.....[This is] the latest in the series.

The Christian Science Monitor - Stephen Humphries

...Friedman deftly accomplishes the impressive task of encapsulating the complex economic, cultural, and environmental challenges of globalization with the sort of hindsight that future historians will bring to bear upon the subject.

The New Yorker - Nicholas Lemann

...Friedman has escaped the most serious occupational hazard for a writer on world affairs: the studiously airy, condescending, patrician tone. He may by hanging out with Them these days, but he's still on Our side. He has a born reporter's inextinguishble interest in everyhting, and a great sense of the telling details. His experience of the world's societies may be broad and thin, yet he quite often finds a fresh, memorable nugget inservice of his view that globalization is the "One Big Thing" in the world today.

Kirkus Reviews

A brilliant guidebook to the new world of "globalization" by Pulitzer-winning New York Times columnist Friedman (From Beirut to Jerusalem, 1988). Like El Niño, globalization is blamed for anything and everything, but few understand just what it really is. In simplest terms, Friedman defines globalization as the world integration of finance markets, nation states, and technologies within a free-market capitalism on a scale never before experienced. Driving it all is what he calls the "Electronic Herd," the faceless buyers and sellers of stocks, bonds, and currencies, and multinational corporations investing wherever and whenever the best opportunity presents itself. It is a pitiless system—richly rewarding winners, harshly punishing losers—but contradictory as well. For nations and individuals willing to take the risk, globalization offers untold opportunity, yet in the process, as the "Electronic Herd" scavenges the world like locusts in the search for profit, globalization threatens to destroy both cultural heterogeneity and environmental diversity. The human drive for enrichment (the Lexus) confronts the human need for identity and community (the olive tree). The success of globalization, Friedman contends, depends on how well these goals can be satisfied at one and the same time. He believes they can be, but dangers abound. If nation states sacrifice too much of their identity to the dictates of the "Electronic Herd," a backlash, a nihilistic rejection of globalization, can occur. If nation states ignore these dictates, they face impoverishment; there simply is no other game in town. Friedman's discussion is wonderfully accessible, clarifying the complex withenlightening stories that simplify but are never simplistic. There are flaws, to be sure. He is perhaps overly optimistic on the ability of the market forces of globalization to correct their own excesses, such as environmental degradation. Overall, though, he avoids the Panglossian overtones that mar so much of the literature on globalization. Artful and opinionated, complex and cantankerous; simply the best book yet written on globalization. (First printing 100,000) (Author tour)

What People Are Saying

Patricia Pomerleau
How do you move forward and build a worldwide operating system that respects people's homes and still empowers individuals, countries, and organizations? The book doesn't give all the answers, but it brings up the issues (Patricia Pomerleau is President and CEO, CEOExpress.com).

Books about: Dominion of Memories or You Can Lead a Politician to Water But You Cant Make Him Think

Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution

Author: Ruth Scurr

“Judicious, balanced, and admirably clear at every point. This is quite the calmest and least abusive history of the Revolution you will ever read.”
—Hilary Mantel, London Review of Books

Since his execution by guillotine in July 1794, Maximilien Robespierre has been contested terrain for historians. Was he a bloodthirsty charlatan or the only true defender of revolutionary ideals? The first modern dictator or the earliest democrat? Was his extreme moralism a heroic virtue or a ruinous flaw?

Against the dramatic backdrop of the French Revolution, historian Ruth Scurr tracks Robespierre's evolution from provincial lawyer to devastatingly efficient revolutionary leader, righteous and paranoid in equal measure. She explores his reformist zeal, his role in the fall of the monarchy, his passionate attempts to design a modern republic, even his extraordinary effort to found a perfect religion. And she follows him into the Terror, as the former death- penalty opponent makes summary execution the order of the day, himself falling victim to the violence at the age of thirty-six.

Written with epic sweep, full of nuance and insight, Fatal Purity is a fascinating portrait of a man who identified with the Revolution to the point of madness, and in so doing changed the course of history.

The London Review of Books - Hilary Mantel

Scurr approaches his complicated story with brisk but sympathetic efficiency.... Her book is a straightforward narrative history, and she is a steady guide through complex events. It is judicious, balanced, and admirably clear at every point. Her explanations are economical and precise, her examples well chosen and imaginative, and her quotations from original sources pointed and apt. It is quite the calmest and least abusive history of the Revolution you will ever read. It works well as a general history of the years 1789-94, besides being a succinct guide to one of its dominant figures.

Publishers Weekly

The short, violent life of Maximilien Robespierre was a mass of contradictions crowned with a supreme irony: this architect of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror would in July 1794 be executed by the same guillotine to which he had consigned so many others. Cambridge University historian Scurr says she has tried to write a biography that expresses "neither partisan adulation nor exaggerated animosity," but even she must conclude that with the Terror, he "kept moving through that gory river, because he believed it necessary for saving the Revolution. He can be accused of insanity and inhumanity but certainly not of insincerity." Robespierre can also be accused of being a revolutionary fanatic who hated atheists, and "became the living embodiment of the Revolution at its most feral"; a dedicated upholder of republican virtues whose hands were smothered in blood; a fierce opponent of the death penalty who helped send thousands to their deaths; and a democratic tribune of the people who wore a sky-blue coat and embroidered waistcoats so aristocratic they wouldn't have been out of place at the court of the Sun King. Scurr's first book scores highly in unraveling not only her subject's complexities but those of his era. 2 maps. (Apr. 29) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Maximilien Robespierre was an ambitious provincial lawyer whose political career came to epitomize the bloody excesses of the French Revolution. Few would argue that his commitment to egalitarian principles was anything less than genuine, but his intransigent commitment to these principles set the basis for a terror-based state whose legacy still haunts the postmodern world. Scurr (history, Cambridge) skillfully uses Robespierre's writings to provide insight into a complex personality of the man called the Incorruptible, who was kind and gentle in private life and a brutal infighter in the public arena. Scurr maintains that Robespierre's iron will sustained the Revolution during its most turbulent period but that within his fanaticism lurked the seeds of his demise. His Reign of Terror eventually devoured him. This is Scurr's first book, and one hopes that it is not her last. She evokes the temper of those times through the copious use of primary sources, and her characterizations of such personalities as Mirabeau, Marat, and Brissot are splendid. This is the best biography of the Incorruptible since David Jordan's The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre over 20 years ago and is highly recommended for academic and public libraries.-Jim Doyle, Sara Hightower Regional Lib., Rome, GA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Fidel Castro or Chinas New Confucianism

2009-02-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

Fidel Castro: Biografнa a dos voces

Author: Ignacio Ramonet

El 13 de agosto el enigmatico dictador cumplirá sus 80 años en esta tierra. En Fidel Castro: Biografía a dos voces, Igancio Ramonet, sociòlogo, teórico de cultura, periodista y una de las voces más representativas del movimiento altermundista, ha logrado desvelar —tras semanas de intensas conversaciones- las claves de la Revolución cubana a través de la biografía humana y política del último «monstruo sagrado» de la política internacional: el polémico Fidel Castro. Testimonio excepcional y análisis histórico, este libro es una auténtica «biografía a dos voces»: la memoria oral del comandante.

¿Cómo fue su infancia? ¿Dónde y cuándo se forjó el rebelde? ¿Cómo eran sus relaciones con Che Guevara? ¿Estuvo el mundo al borde de una guerra nuclear durante la llamada «crisis de los misiles»? ¿Cuántas veces han querido asesinarlo? ¿Qué impresión le causó el papa Juan Pablo II cuando visitó la isla en 1998? ¿Por qué crtica tanto a Felipe González y a José María Aznar mientras alaba la figura del rey Juan Carlos? ¿Qué piensa de la globalización neoliberal, de la guerra de Irak y del presidente Bush? ¿Por qué las autoridades cubanas arrestaron a unos setenta opositores no violentos en marzo de 2003 y aplicaron, ese mismo año la pena de muerte a los secuestrados de una lancha? ¿Existe corrupción en el régimen? ¿Es el socialismo en Cuba realmente «irreversible»? ¿Hacia dónde camina lapolítica y la economía de la isal? ¿Que ocurrirá despues de Fidel Castro?

El exhaustivo cuestionario de Ignacio Ramonet —más de cien horas de entrevistas y de inéditas revelaciones- es al tiempo un recorrido apasionante por la controvertida figura de Fidel Castro y un formidable relato sobre el pasado, el presente y el provenir de la Revolución.

Book review: Simple Recipe Cookbook or Deliciously Easy Vegetables with Herbs

China's New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society

Author: Daniel A Bell

What is it like to be a Westerner teaching political philosophy in an officially Marxist state? Why do Chinese sex workers sing karaoke with their customers? And why do some Communist Party cadres get promoted if they care for their elderly parents? In this entertaining and illuminating book, one of the few Westerners to teach at a Chinese university draws on his personal experiences to paint an unexpected portrait of a society undergoing faster and more sweeping changes than anywhere else on earth. With a storyteller's eye for detail, Daniel Bell observes the rituals, routines, and tensions of daily life in China. China's New Confucianism makes the case that as the nation retreats from communism, it is embracing a new Confucianism that offers a compelling alternative to Western liberalism.

Bell provides an insider's account of Chinese culture and, along the way, debunks a variety of stereotypes. He presents the startling argument that Confucian social hierarchy can actually contribute to economic equality in China. He covers such diverse social topics as sex, sports, and the treatment of domestic workers. He considers the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, wondering whether Chinese overcompetitiveness might be tempered by Confucian civility. And he looks at education in China, showing the ways Confucianism impacts his role as a political theorist and teacher.

By examining the challenges that arise as China adapts ancient values to contemporary society, China's New Confucianism enriches the dialogue of possibilities available to this rapidly evolving nation.

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     xiii
Politics     1
From Communism to Confucianism: Changing Discourses on China's Political Future     3
War, Peace, and China's Soft Power     19
Hierarchical Rituals for Egalitarian Societies     38
Society     57
Sex, Singing, and Civility: The Costs and Benefits of the Karaoke Trade     59
How Should Employers Treat Domestic Workers?     75
The Politics of Sports: From the 2006 World Cup to the 2008 Olympics     91
Education     105
A Critique of Critical Thinking     107
Teaching Political Theory in Beijing     128
On Being Confucian: Why Confucians Needn't Be Old, Serious, and Conservative     148
Appendices
Depoliticizing the Analects     163
Jiang Qing's Political Confucianism     175
Index     231

Dynamic of Destruction or The Unfinished Presidency

2009-02-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War

Author: Alan Kramer

From the Western Front to the Balkans, from Italy to the war in the East, the First World War was the most apocalyptic conflict the world had ever known. Hailed by the New York Times Book Review as both "stimulating, scholarly, and shrewd" and "rich in original ideas," Dynamic of Destruction reveals how and why the civilized nations of Europe descended into an unprecedented orgy of destruction. Using a wide range of examples and striking eye-witness accounts from England, France, Germany, and elsewhere, award-winning historian Alan Kramer brings home the reality of the Great War, painting a picture of an entire continent plunging into a chilling new world of mass mobilization, total warfare, and the celebration of nationalist or ethnic violence--often directed expressly at the enemy's civilian population. Kramer examines the psychological impact of trench warfare, addresses the question of German atrocities (were the Germans particularly barbaric, or was savage behavior common on all sides), and offers a disturbing summation of the war's impact on European culture.

The New York Times - Simon Sebag Montefiore

This stimulating, scholarly and shrewd book is as rich in original ideas and accounts of unfamiliar aspects of World War I as it is energetic in its revisionism.

The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House

Author: Douglas Brinkley

Jimmy Carter left the White House in January 1981, defeated in his bid for reelection and rejected by the American public - but hardly broken. In fact, as Douglas Brinkley's book reveals, he attacked the next phase of his life more determined than ever, outside the scrutinized and politicized Oval Office, to complete a mission to pursue peace in embattled areas throughout the world, from Bosnia to Haiti. Historian Douglas Brinkley has had unique and intimate access to the former president, as well as exclusive access to the postpresidential papers, including Carter's correspondence with fellow world leaders Mikhail Gorbachev, Deng Xiaoping, Margaret Thatcher, and Oscar Arias. Brinkley's book captures Carter's prickly personality and remarkable political life, including the complex relationships he has developed with such international pariahs as Fidel Castro, Kim Il Sung, Hafez al-Assad, and Yasir Arafat. He explores the sometimes difficult relationships Carter has had with the presidents who have succeeded him, and details his extraordinary partnership with Rosalynn, his fearless ally and confidante.

The New York Times Book Review - Godfrey Hodgson

Douglas Brinkley has told the story of Jimmy Carter's second and subsequent comings with critical sympathy and a wealth of research...Like him or not, a reader of this book may well conclude that [Carter] has understood more than anyone imagined, and done more than anyone expected.

Salon - Theo Spencer

He stained our national pride with a failed hostage rescue mission, hobbled us financially with helium-infused inflation and interest rates and, perhaps most unpardonably, made us wait in interminable lines at the gas pump. If you still can't forgive Jimmy Carter for these things, among many others, Douglas Brinkley's faithful chronicle of our 39th president's accomplishments since leaving office should go a good distance toward changing your mind. In The Unfinished Presidency, Brinkley stacks between two covers an exhaustively detailed compilation of all that the man from Plains has done since leaving office. In doing so, he reserves an ultimately positive (if not entirely exalted) place in history for the man he calls a "grinning Georgia overachiever blessed with a tinkerer's restless mind and a zealot's near messianic confidence in his own abilities."

Is Carter messianic or megalomaniacal? Brinkley presents conflicting evidence. We witness Carter making peace in Bosnia, Haiti, North Korea, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia; monitoring elections in Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti and elsewhere; helping eradicate diseases like river blindness from the globe; working to eliminate famine from African countries via the spread of high-yield wheat; and struggling to free some 50,000 political prisoners, all since 1981. In Brinkley's hands, some of this material is gripping, such as Carter's tough-talking efforts to get Haitian coup leader Gen. Raoul Cedras to step down in 1994, minutes before American troops were scheduled to invade the island nation. Other anecdotes are less flattering: Carter grabbing the spotlight by briefing CNN before President Clinton on his work in Haiti, or trying to subvert George Bush's Gulf War plans by sending anti-aggression letters to various world leaders. Carter was, Brinkley writes, "complicating U.S. diplomacy with his unorthodox assumptions of authority."

Throughout all this, Brinkley -- a University of New Orleans professor and National Public Radio commentator who's written well-received books on Dean Acheson and Franklin Roosevelt -- also serves up some behind-the-scenes goodies. These include Carter's friendship with PLO leader Yasir Arafat (one that occasionally bordered on a "love fest") and, more recently, his intimacy with Clinton, who asked the Baptist minister to "pray for him in his hour of darkness."

Brinkley is an admitted Carter acolyte, and a persuasive one, but he ultimately fails to present his subject as a three-dimensional man. He makes it redundantly clear that it's Carter's small-town, overall-wearing values and Christian beliefs -- not the desire to buff his image or win a Nobel Peace Prize -- that keep him marching around the globe. Brinkley constantly refers to his subject as a "pious Christian" whose "bedrock faith" urged him and Rosalyn to "press on, to abandon despair for love and to turn defeat into victory." But he doesn't go far enough in explaining why this man, as journalist James Reston has noted, was so intense that when he dined, his knife "cut into the plate." He doesn't shed light on the Carter who famously told Playboy magazine he "lusted in his heart," or the one whose knee-jerk actions made his postpresidential staffers joke that his motto was "ready, fire, aim." Brinkley's book may lead to Carter's acceptance as one of our greatest ex-presidents, but as far as what motivated the man to become a candidate for that title, we get too much shell and not enough peanut.

Time Magazine

A rich, energetic American story.

Publishers Weekly

Jimmy Carter's post-presidential career as peripatetic global peacemaker has been dismissed by critics as nave and sanctimonious, notes University of New Orleans history professor Brinkley. He retorts here, viewing the former president as a deeply ethical leader, the most principled president since Truman and, as ex-president, a "wandering sage" and true citizen of the world, working to build democracies or resolve conflicts in nations as diverse as Sudan, Haiti, Bosnia and Nicaragua. Whether one agrees with this assessment, his report on citizen Carter's peacemaking missions and public good works provides an extraordinary, in-depth look at the range of Carter's progressive activities since 1980. Brinkley credits him with defusing a potential military showdown with North Korea in 1994 and averting a U.S. invasion of Haiti the same year. He reveals Carter's scorn for Reagan, whom Brinkley considers "immoral to the core." Brinkley documents the Atlanta-based Carter Center's efforts to eradicate disease and improve agricultural efficiency in Africa. His trenchant reporting extends the story detailed in Carter's own books, Everything to Gain (1987) and Talking Peace (1993).

Library Journal

It is widely agreed that Jimmy Carter is among the greatest if not the greatest of all ex-presidents in U.S. history. The book traces Carter's postpresidential life and career since 1980 in great detail and examines the transformation of Carter from "Jimmy Who?" in 1976 to what the author calls the "Jimmy Everywhere" of today. Beginning at the end of his presidency, the author, director of the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy at Rutgers University, charts Carter's trips, freelance and official diplomatic efforts, house building for Habitat for the Humanities, peace-building missions, crisis management overtures, electoral supervision in Nicaragua and elsewhere, and continuing emphasis on human rights. This positive but not fawning book acknowledges the criticisms of Carter's recent foreign policy ventures while giving him high marks for intent and accomplishments. Concluding that "Nothing about the White House so became Carter as his having left it," this thorough and authoritative work will be of keen interest to students of the presidency and foreign affairs. For public and academic collections.Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles

Time Magazine

A rich, energetic American story.

Political Science Quarterly - Erwin C. Hargrove

Brinkley's book is too long and diffuse and will thus discourage readers, but the individual narratives are rich.

Kirkus Reviews

If you wonder why Jimmy Carter was so unsuccessful as a president and outstanding as an ex-president, this book is for you. Carter's reaction to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) captures the essence of the Carter enigma. Promoting a technically impossible "Star Wars" scheme, Carter believed, was dishonest. Yet as historian Brinkley (Univ. of New Orleans; Dean Acheson, 1992) points out, Carter's public condemnation of SDI reveals not only moral conviction, but also an utter inability to consider that the Reagan administration was simply using SDI to pressure the Soviets. As president, Carter was a man of moral absolutes in a world colored in shades of gray. As an ex-president, however, this same quality leaves him undeterred by concerns that prevent public officials from moving forward. To gain peace Carter will sit down with terrorists; tunnel vision can be instrumental when it is the ultimate goal that matters. The moralistic Carter has "turned the establishment of personal rapport with political outlaws into a diplomatic art form," and the world is better off as a result. Brinkley is a sympathetic biographer, but Carter's less admirable traits—unrelenting competitiveness, an occasional mean streak, and the oft-noted self-righteousness—are recognized along with the qualities Brinkley admires. Be forewarned, however: Brinkley is also an encyclopedic biographer. This volume reflects a decision to interrupt work on a complete biography of Carter to write a "short book" on Carter's post-presidency. That this "short book" runs 500 pages reflects Brinkley's emphasis on comprehensiveness, resulting in a sometimes tedious "first he did this, then he did that" tone thatmakes the work less lively than it should be. But there are also delightful vignettes, such as Brinkleyþs discussion of the origins of Habitat for Humanity, that make persevering to the end worthwhile. Carter's post-presidency appears not as an "unfinished" presidency, but rather as the continuation of work that was always about more, for Carter, than being president.

What People Are Saying

Stephen E. Ambrose
The best of the new generation of American historians tells us in vigorous language the story of Carter's quite amazing range of activities, at home and around the world.

Rogues Rebels and Rubber Stamps or Gods Profits

2009-02-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

Rogues, Rebels, and Rubber Stamps: The Politics of the Chicago City Council, 1863 to the Present

Author: Dick W Simpson

In Rogues, Rebels, and Rubber Stamps, Dick Simpson challenges and recasts current theories of Regime Politics as he chronicles the dramatic story of the civic wars in the Chicago City Council since the civil war. At the same time, the author provides a window into the broader struggle for democracy and justice.Simpson points out that through analyzing city council floor fights, battles at the ballot box, and street demonstrations, one can begin to see certain patterns of conflict emerge. These patterns demonstrate that before the Great Depression, fragmented city councils were dominant. The author also discusses how since the Democrats seized control of Chicago government after the Great Depression, Rubber Stamp City Councils have been predominant, although they have been punctuated by brief eras of council wars and chaos. This book is important for anyone wanting to understand the nature of these battles as a guideline for America's future, and is well suited for courses in urban politics, affairs and history.Rogues, Rebels, and Rubber Stamps received an Honorable Mention for the 2001 Society of Midland Authors Book Award for Adult Non-Fiction.

Booknews

This book focuses on the relationships between Chicago city mayors and city councils. It provides a quantitative analysis of 127 years of divided roll call votes, focusing on 15 different councils, evaluating the level of support a specific council had for its mayor. Simpson, who has taught political science for 30 years and served in a variety of political positions in the Chicago and Illinois government, argues that reforms are often introduced by outsiders and ridiculed by those in power, only, over time, to be elevated by media and political leaders to acceptance and even adoption. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

	List of Tables and Illustrations	xi
	Preface	xiii
	Prologue: The Clash in the Council	1
	Revising Regime Studies	3
	Studying the Chicago City Council	7
	Notes	9
Part I	Divided Councils
1	Nineteenth-Century and Civil War Councils: 1833-1871	15
	Mayor and Party Leaders in the Civil War City Council	21
	Civil War Clashes	25
	The Powers of Local Government	40
	The End of the War, 1863-1865	41
	Notes	43
2	The Councils of the Gray Wolves, 1871-1931	46
	The Birth of Chicago Machine Politics, 1871-1905	47
	Edward Dunne's Council, 1905-1907	53
	Fred Busse's Council, 1907-1908	63
	Big Bill Thompson's Councils, 1915-1923 and 1927-1931	69
	Fragmented City Councils	79
	Notes	82
Part II	Rubber Stamp Councils
3	Kelly-Nash Machine Council, 1933-1947	89
	The City Council, 1939-1940	95
	The Chicago Machine	103
	Notes	104
4	Richard J. Daley's Rubber Stamp, 1955-1976	107
	Aldermanic Elections of 1955	111
	The Council of 1955	113
	Richard J. Daley's Last Years	131
	Participatory Versus Machine Politics	150
	Notes	154
5	Michael Bilandic's Interlude, 1976-1979	159
	The Bilandic Council	168
	The Silent Revolution	177
	Notes	180
6	Jane Byrne's Turmoil, 1979-1983	183
	The Byrne Council: Young Turks Come to Power	186
	Tearing Down the Daley Machine	195
	Growing Revolt in the African-American Community	196
	Notes	199
Part III	Council Wars and Chaos
7	Harold Washington's Council Wars, 1983-1987	203
	1983 Campaign	204
	Council Wars	210
	1987 Elections	219
	From Council Wars to Rubber Stamp	220
	The Brief Triumph of Progressive Politics	221
	Notes	224
8	Eugene Sawyer's Chaos, 1987-1989	226
	Sawyer's Selection	226
	The Sawyer City Council	231
	Chaotic Interlude	240
	Notes	242
Part IV	Return to Mayoral Control
9	Daley's Return, 1989-2003	247
	Democratic Primary	249
	General Election	253
	The New Daley Council	253
	The New Daley Machine	287
	Notes	290
Part V	History from the Council Chambers
10	Changing Patterns in Mayor--Council Relations	297
	Roll Call Vote Analysis	300
	Types of Councils	300
	Ideal Types	313
	Studying Other Cities	318
	Notes	319
11	Democracy's Endless Struggle	322
	Enlarging Regime Studies	324
	Chicago's Story	324
	City Council Reform	328
	The Meaning for America	329
	Notes	330
	Postscript and Acknowledgments	331
	Index	333

God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters

Author: Sarah Posner

The intersection of religion and politics is among the most hotly debated.

Between Existentialism and Marxism or Fear No Evil The Classic Memoir of One Mans Triumph over a Police State

2009-02-01T04:41:00.000-08:00

Between Existentialism and Marxism

Author: Jean Paul Sartr

A classic work by the founding father of existentialism, describing his philosophy and its relationship to Marxism.

"Verso's beautifully designed Radical Thinkers series, which brings together seminal works by leading left-wing intellectuals, is a sophisticated blend of theory and thought. The authors whose writings are included in the series have worked tirelessly to expose the mechanisms by which culture and knowledge are manufactured, managed and controlled."—Ziauddin Sardar, New Statesman

New interesting book: Best American History Essays on Lincoln or The European Union

Fear No Evil: The Classic Memoir of One Man's Triumph over a Police State

Author: Anatoly Shcharansky

Temperamentally and intellectually, Natan Sharansky is a man very much like many of us—which makes this account of his arrest on political grounds, his trial, and ten years' imprisonment in the Orwellian universe of the Soviet gulag particularly vivid and resonant.

Since Fear No Evil was originally published in 1988, the Soviet government that imprisoned Sharansky has collapsed. Sharansky has become an important national leader in Israel—and serves as Israel's diplomatic liaison to the former Soviet Union! New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Serge Schmemann reflects on those monumental events, and on Sharansky's extraordinary life in the decades since his arrest, in a new introduction to this edition. But the truths Sharansky learned in his jail cell and sets forth in this book have timeless importance so long as rulers anywhere on earth still supress their own peoples. For anyone with an interest in human rights—and anyone with an appreciation for the resilience of the human spirit—he illuminates the weapons with which the powerless can humble the powerful: physical courage, an untiring sense of humor, a bountiful imagination, and the conviction that "Nothing they do can humiliate me. I alone can humiliate myself."

Publishers Weekly

Sharansky writes of the nine years he spent in the Soviet gulag. ``Told with remarkable calm, even with harrowing humor, Sharansky's gripping and deeply moving account of his prison years is a tribute to human resilience. His sheer courage and moral stature are matched only by his literary skill at conveying the nightmare he endured,'' praised PW . (Jan.)

Compelled to Excel or Markets in Motion

2009-01-30T23:29:00.000-08:00

Compelled to Excel: Immigration, Education, and Opportunity among Chinese Americans

Author: Vivian S Loui

In the contemporary American imagination, Asian Americans are considered the quintessential immigrant success story, a powerful example of how the culture of immigrant families—rather than their race or class—matters in education and upward mobility. Drawing on extensive interviews with second-generation Chinese Americans attending Hunter College, a public commuter institution, and Columbia University, an elite Ivy League school, Vivian Louie challenges the idea that race and class do not matter. Though most Chinese immigrant families see higher education as a necessary safeguard against potential racial discrimination, Louie finds that class differences do indeed shape the students’ different paths to college.

How do second-generation Chinese Americans view their college plans? And how do they see their incorporation into American life? In addressing these questions, Louie finds that the views and experiences of Chinese Americans have much to do with the opportunities, challenges, and contradictions that all immigrants and their children confront in the United States.

Pt. 1	Family journeys to America
1	Mainstream, suburban America	1
2	Urban, ethnic-enclave America	16
Pt. 2	How children make sense of education : a family matter
3	Ethnic culture, immigration, and race in America	37
4	Cultures-in-transition : gender and migration	64
5	"Ending up" at Hunter	83
6	A place at Columbia	104
Pt. 3	The second-generation experience
7	Parental sacrifice and the obligations of children	123
8	Second-generation identities	146
	Conclusion : looking toward the future : a raceless world or a world divided by race?	164

Interesting book: The e Learning Handbook or Parsing Techniques

Markets in Motion: A Financial Market History: 1900 to 2004

Author: Ned Davis

Markets in Motion is a graphical overview of the economic conditions and events that have influenced the U.S. stock market since 1900. Decade by decade, you'll examine how different economic and policitcal environments can be directly correlated to stock market movements. Each decade features graphs displaying the performance of the Dow Jones Average, the Dow Jones price to dividend ratio, industrial production, money supply, consumer price index, T bill rate, and the Discount rate. Embedded on the graphs are short descriptions of important political, economic, and historical events. Use this information to reference similar environments today and gain an edge in determining the future direction of the market.

Dying to Live or The Cell

2009-01-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid

Author: Joseph Nevins

Illegal immigration has become one of the intensely controversial social issues of our day. What are the side effects of the United States' stern position on Mexican immigration? "Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration In an Age of Global Apartheid" is a definitive criticism by author Joseph Nevins of the U.S.'s practices on immigration today. Following the story of Julio Cesar Gallegos, a man who died crossing the border to try to reach his wife and son, it's an eye opening account of immigration that is judicially defined as illegal -- and the cruelty that sometimes lies within. Discussing human rights and homeland security as well, "Dying to Live" is a deftly written treatise on immigration, a must to those who want to further understand the subject. --Midwest Book Review

Booklist

Nevins writes a compelling indictment of this nation's immigration policy directed toward Mexico . . . thoughtful and elucidating exploration of this multifaceted problem.

International Socialist Review

...packs a many-sided, moving, and uncompromising account of the development of U.S. immigration and its associated politics into a short and readable book.

What People Are Saying

Susan Straight
"'Dying to Live' is a compelling, perceptive and invaluable book for our times."--(Susan Straight, author of "Highwire Moon")

Richard Walker
"...a fierce and courageous denunciation of the foul politics of immigration..."--(Richard Walker, professor of geography, UC Berkeley)

Noam Chomsky
"[A] remarkable book."

Mike Davis
"Invisible in life, like most exploited immigrants, Julio Cesar Gallegos now judges us from the hour of his terrible death."--(Mike Davis, author "Planet of Slums" and "In Praise of Barbarians")

David Bacon
"An important, visually moving book that adds to our knowledge of the border and its place in history."--(David Bacon, author "Communities Without Borders: Images and Voices from the World of Migration")

Deepa Fernandes
"Joseph Nevins blows the cover off the scapegoating of "illegal" immigrants by meticulously and grippingly compiling the history of why so many try to come to the U.S. and, tragically, why so many die. This book strikes at our very moral core."--(Deepa Fernandes, author of Targeted, Homeland Security and the Business of Immigration)

The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It

Author: John C Miller

In The Cell, John Miller, an award-winning journalist and coanchor of ABC's 20/20, along with veteran reporter Michael Stone and Chris Mitchell, takes readers back more than 10 years to the birth of the terrorist cell that later metastasized into al Qaeda's New York operation. This remarkable book offers a firsthand account of what it is to be a police officer, an FBI agent or a reporter obsessed with a case few people will take seriously. It contains a first-person account of Miller's face-to-face meeting with bin Laden and privides the first full-length treatment to piece together what led up to the events of 9/11, ultimately delivering the disturbing answer to the question: Why, with all the information the intelligence community had, was no one able to stop the 9/11 attacks?

John Miller is an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, cohost of ABC's 20/20 with Barbara Walters, and one of the few Western reporters ever to have interviewed Osama bin Laden. He lives in New York City.

Michael Stone is a veteran journalist who has covered many of New York's most notorious stories, including John Gotti, Robert Chambers, and the Central Park jogger assault, and is the author of Gangbusters. He lives in New York City.

Chris Mitchell is a senior editor at The Week. His previous collaboration, Jack Maple's The Crime Fighter, inspired the television drama The District. He lives in New York City.

Boston Globe

A riveting, frightening, and illuminating book.

USA Today

It asks the tough questions.

New York Times Book Review

[The authors] bring high credibiltiy to this streetwise, gritty police procedural . . . an important addition to the growing literature . . .

Washington Post Book World

[Has] the feel of a true crime documentary.

KLIATT

When the horror of September 11th was still fresh, nearly everyone craved for a basic and simple explanation of why the unthinkable had suddenly happened to the nation; a book or some sort of thoughtful article that would make everything clear. This book might not do that, but at least it illuminates the chaotic nature of the root situation, and the anarchic mindset that it spawned. Like all conspiracy books, this one presents an impressive scenario, full of revelations, finger pointing, and "what-ifs?" The tale begins ten years ago when one of the authors investigated a small, semi-disorganized Arab hate group. As time went on and events in the Middle East began to boil over, this group; this cell; eventually ended up morphing into Osama bin Laden's New York organization. The authors; professional journalists all; patch together numerous stories, names, anecdotes, and historical vignettes to create an exciting and fast-moving tale of deception and discovery. One of the book's highlights is the account of a clandestine interview that an author had with Osama bin Laden himself. Talking in a small cave in Afghanistan, the terrorist reveals that the Arab world lost all fear of the U.S. after its hasty withdrawal from Somalia. The book's strengths are also its weaknesses. As exciting and convincing as the narrative is, it seems to be a little too much so. The authors know how to ferret out facts and trace people down, but none has any sort of official connection with any police or government agency. Following the new "literary nonfiction" style of writing, they re-create lengthy conversations of years ago, and the inner thoughts and emotions of important characters are freely presented as ifin a screenplay. Surely this book is the first among a long line of titles that will be published on the subject in years to come. It is a good one for the interested reader to begin with, and it will be interesting to see what influence it will have. KLIATT Codes: SA;Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2002, Hyperion, 370p. notes. index., Puffer

Library Journal

9/11 The accusatory books about how the September 11 attacks could have been prevented are being published at a pace not seen since the assassination of JFK. These three reporters combine their considerable expertise and offer a better insight than most, owing to their familiarity with Islamic terrorist groups and Miller's incredible face-to-face interview with Osama bin Laden. They do well in laying the foundation for placing the blame on FBI and CIA officials, going back as far as the PanAm accident in Lockerbie, Scotland, and up to the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen Harbor. Unfortunately, listening to their account of the myriad leads to who was actually behind the various attacks is often confusing. Perhaps the unabridged version would do a better job of separating the various players with similar sounding names. That aside, the authors do manage to pinpoint moments in time when events might have been different if agencies cooperated, the departments of State and Defense were not always at odds, and the age-old practice of self-preservation were not so prevalent in the U.S. government. Read by Miller, this highly intelligent and challenging book sheds light on what culminated in the worst terrorist attack in history. Recommended for all public library and military collections.-Joseph L. Carlson, Lompoc P.L., CA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Leap of Faith or Fate of Liberty

2009-01-28T13:04:00.000-08:00

Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life

Author: Queen Noor

Born in 1951 to a distinguished Arab-American family, Lisa Najeeb Halaby became the fourth wife of King Hussein at age 27. With her husband being not only Jordan's monarch but the spiritual leader of all Muslims, Lisa was unsure what her role would be. This moving memoir provides a timely look at one woman's story against a backdrop of 30 turbulent years: the displacement of over 1 million Palestinians by the creation of Israel, King Hussein's frustrated efforts for peace, and the effect of Saddam Hussein and the Gulf War on Jordan and the royal family. Queen Noor offers intimate new glimpses of King Hussein, Saddam Hussein, Queen Elizabeth, Arafat, and many other world leaders.

Houston Chronicle

Queen Noor has led a more interesting, committed life than the majority of authors writing their memoirs...it's hard to imagine a better story.

New York Times Book Review

Candid...an affecting wifely portrait of King Hussein.

USA Today

The book's ending has real power. Hussein's death from lymphoma was a painful ordeal for him, his wife, his family and his small grieving country.

Yet he conducted himself with kindness and concern for others to the end. If Queen Noor's object was to make the Arab world more human and understandable, she has succeeded. — Deirdre Donahue

The New York Times

Leap of Faith will not dispel its author's impression that she has often been misunderstood. On one hand, this is a glossy and decorous account of the queen's unusual experiences, with a polite tendency to accentuate the positive. ("I urged everyone I worked with to speak freely and offer honest, constructive criticism.") On the other, it is a fiery account of her husband's frustrations in dealing with international diplomacy in general and the United States and Israel in particular. — Janet Maslin

Publishers Weekly

Anyone who loved The King and I will readily warm to the love story of Queen Noor and the late King Hussein of Jordan. Born in America in 1951 as Lisa Halaby, Noor came from a wealthy, well-connected family and was part of Princeton's first co-ed class. Her father's aviation business produced a chance meeting with King Hussein in 1976, and a year or two later Noor realized the king was courting her. He was 41, she was 26. The rumor mills buzzed: was she the next Grace Kelly? Before long, the king renamed her Noor (light in Arabic), and she converted to Islam. They were married in the summer of 1978. From this point on, her story is mostly his, mainly covering his attempts to broker peace in the Middle East. There are meetings with Arafat, Saddam Hussein, American presidents and other leaders. Noor details Hussein's struggles to create Arab unity and his vision of peaceful coexistence with Israel. Her own activities developing village-based economic self-sufficiency projects and improving Jordan's medical, educational and cultural facilities take second place to her husband's struggles on the world stage. And while she occasionally acknowledges her domestic difficulties, Noor is careful not to allow personal problems to become any more than asides. Her pleasing memoir ends with the king's death after his struggle with cancer, although readers may suspect that this smart, courageous woman will remain a world presence for years to come. (On sale Mar. 18) Forecast: The legions of royalty fans will clamor for this long-awaited memoir, and with the queen's appearances on Good Morning America and Larry King Live, an excerpt in this month's Vogue and ubiquitous reviews, it should draw readers. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

We love stories about princesses. This particular royal tale is true and shows that being a contemporary princess (or queen) involves a tremendous amount of responsibility and not a little loneliness. Of Jordanian and Swedish descent, American-born and Princeton-educated Lisa Najeeb Halaby was 26 years old when she became the fourth wife of Jordan's King Hussein in 1978. Upon her conversion to Islam he chose Noor Al Hussein as her Arabic name, meaning "Light of Hussein." The Arab-Israeli conflict and Hussein's efforts at peacemaking are a large part of this work, part love story, part political commentary, told naturally from the Jordanian side. Hussein's stance estranged him at times from other Arabs (in particular Egyptians) as well as from Israelis, a point Noor emphasizes perhaps to make him more appealing to American readers. In addition to raising their four children (and his eight from previous marriages) and traveling with her husband, she chaired the board of the Noor Al Hussein Foundation, which promotes culture and development in Jordan, with an emphasis on women's issues. She now works with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Noor ably reads the introduction, but the rest of the book is narrated by Suzanne Toren, whose precise, cultured tone is exactly what we expect from a queen.-Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Diane Sawyer
Extremely eloquent, very personal, very candid.
—Good Morning America

Chapter 1	First Impressions	1
Chapter 2	Roots	9
Chapter 3	Tehran Journal	35
Chapter 4	An Audience with the King	45
Chapter 5	A Leap of Faith	79
Chapter 6	Honeymoon at Gleneagles	105
Chapter 7	A Young Bride in the Royal Household	127
Chapter 8	Pomp and Circumstance	145
Chapter 9	One Crisis after Another	155
Chapter 10	America through New Eyes	189
Chapter 11	At Home and Abroad	219
Chapter 12	"Women Hold Up Half the Sky"	245
Chapter 13	Parenthood	269
Chapter 14	Growing Pains	289
Chapter 15	Prelude to War	299
Chapter 16	Fire in the Gulf	327
Chapter 17	Test of Faith	337
Chapter 18	A Day Like No Other	351
Chapter 19	The Edge of the Abyss	383
Chapter 20	The White Bird	399
Chapter 21	The Skies Cried	423
	Epilogue	437

Fate of Liberty

Author: Mark E Neely Jr

Abraham Lincoln was known as the Great Emancipator, but he was also the only president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. In fact, Lincoln’s record on the Constitution and civil liberties has fueled more than a century of debate—from charges that he singled out Democrats for harrassment to his depiction as an absolute dictator. Mark E. Neely, Jr.’s Pulitzer Prize-winning history wades straight into the controversy, exploring the whole range of Lincoln’s constitutional polices, as well as showing just who was jailed and why.

According to Neely, Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus was a well-intentioned response to a floodtide of unforeseen events: the direct threat to Washington as Maryland flirted with secession, disintegrating public order in the border states, contraband trade with the South, corruption among army contractors, and the outcry against the first military draft in U.S. history. Drawing on letters from prisoners, records from military courts and federal prisons, as well as memoirs and archives, Neely paints a vivid picture of how Lincoln responded to these problems, how his policies were actually executed, and the virulent debates that followed. Lincoln emerges from this account with his legendary statesmanship intact—mindful of political realities, prone to temper the sentences of military courts, and more concerned with prosecuting the war effectively than with persecuting his opponents.

Neely also explores abuses of power under a regime of martial law: the routine torture of suspected deserters, widespread anti-Semitism among Union generals and officials,and the common practice of seizing civilian hostages. He finds that though the system of justice was flawed, it suffered less from merciless zeal or political partisanship than from inefficiency and the complexities of modern war.

“A major contribution, both to Lincoln literature and to the history of the Civil War.”

—Don E. Fehrenbacher, author of The Dred Scott Case

“This is a brilliant book. Mark Neely has brought to his study of the most bitterly contested aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency his own distinctive blend of scholarship, story-telling, and plain common sense.”

—Geoffrey C. Ward, coauthor of The Civil War (with Ken and Ric Burns)

“This, the most original book about Lincoln in many a year, gives for the first time a true and adequate account of his policies in regard to civil liberties.

—Richard Nelson Current, author of Lincoln’s Loyalists

Fateful Triangle or Congress

2009-01-27T07:51:00.000-08:00

Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians

Author: Noam Chomsky

Chomsky's seminal tome on Mideast politics, a classic in the fields of political science and Mideast affairs, now includes a new introduction, a foreword by Edward Said, and new chapters on the Palestinian uprising, the ongoing "peace process" (including the Oslo and Wye accords), and Israel's war on Lebanon. This new, updated edition highlights the book's lasting relevance.

ColorLines, Spring 2001 - Lamis Adoni

This is an incisive and in depth analysis by one of the most important thinkers of our time on U.S. policy in the Middle East. Chomsky traces the roots of the U.S. alliance with israel and methodically dissects the myth about America's self-declared role as an honest broker of peace in the region. He links U.S. policies to its economic interests, particulary securing the flow of cheap crude oil and sustaining U.S. military prescence and Israeli prowess in the region. A must read to understand what motivates U.S. policies and their repercussions on the people of the Middle East.

Booknews

Here's the 1983 edition with a new introduction by Chomsky, Edward Said's foreword, the Palestinian uprising, and the wearying peace process. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Book review: Patentrecht-Hauptsache: Ein Kurzer Guide

Congress: The Electoral Connection

Author: David Mayhew

In this second edition to a book that has now achieved canonical status, David R. Mayhew argues that the principal motivation of legislators is reelection and that the pursuit of this goal affects the way they behave and the way that they make public policy. In a new foreword for this edition, R. Douglas Arnold discusses why the book revolutionized the study of Congress and how it has stood the test of time. The book also contains a new preface by the author.

State of Emergency or A Great Improvisation

2009-01-26T02:37:00.000-08:00

State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America

Author: Patrick J Buchanan

"The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities," said Theodore Roosevelt. State of Emergency will demonstrate that this is exactly what is happening to America and may now be unstoppable.

The United States of 1960 was a First World nation, 90% of whose people traced their ancestry to Europe, 97% of whom spoke English. We studied the same history and literature in school, went to the same movies, read the same books, listened to the same radio and TV, cherished the same heroes. We were one nation and one people.

That America is dead and gone. The deconstruction of America -- along the lines of culture and values, language and faith, allegiance and loyalty -- has begun. By 2050, Americans of European descent will be a minority in the United States. One hundred million Hispanics with ties of language and loyalty to Mexico and Latin America will be living here, concentrated in the Southwest

It is the thesis of State of Emergency that the Melting Pot is broken beyond repair, that assimilation and Americanization are not taking place, and that only action is to seal and secure America's borders to halt the flow of over a million legal and illegal immigrants a year, and to begin the Americanization of the tens of millions of aliens in our midst can save America. Our civilization cannot survive indefinitely what is going on.

State of Emergency reveals who is doing this to us, why they are doing it, why this is our last chance, and how, if the will is there, we can yet saveAmerica from Balkanization and break-up.

A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America

Author: Stacy Schiff

“Stunning . . . a remarkably subtle and penetrating portrait of Franklin and his diplomacy.”—The New York Review of Books
When Benjamin Franklin embarked for France in 1776, he well understood that he was taking on the greatest gamble of his career. The colonies were without money, munitions, gunpowder, or common cause; dispatched amid great secrecy, across a winter sea thick with enemy cruisers, Franklin was seventy years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessed of the most rudimentary French. His eight-year posting there serves not only as Franklin’s most vital service to his country—it was in large part on account of his fame, charisma, and ingenuity that France underwrote the American Revolution, and it was Franklin who helped negotiate the peace of 1783—but as the most revealing of the man. The French mission would prove the most inventive act in a life of astonishing inventions.
In A Great Improvisation, Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff draws from new and little-known sources to illuminate the least-explored part of Franklin’s life. From these pages emerge a particularly human and yet fiercely determined Founding Father, as well as a profound sense of how fragile, improvisational, and international was our country’s bid for independence.

The New York Times - Walter Isaacson

Franklin was an ideal choice for the mission, as Stacy Schiff shows in this meticulously researched and judicious account of his eight years as a diplomatic dazzler and charmer in Paris.

The Washington Post. - Isabelle de Courtivron

Despite the undeniable impact on U.S.-French relations of two tumultuous centuries, A Great Improvisation reminds us that profound cultural differences between the two societies have not changed all that much -- and thus remain at the root of their conflicting visions of the world. Plus зa change . .

Publishers Weekly

Numerous bestselling volumes have been written recently on the man one biography called "the first American." Pulitzer Prize-winner Schiff (for Vera [Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov]) eloquently adds to our understanding of Benjamin Franklin with a graceful, sly and smart look at his seven-year sojourn in France in his quasi-secret quest to secure American independence by procuring an alliance with the French. Drawing on newly available sources, Schiff brilliantly chronicles the international intrigues and the political backbiting that surrounded Franklin during his mission. "A master of the oblique approach, a dabbler in shades of gray," she writes, "Franklin was a natural diplomat, genial and ruthless." She deftly recreates the glittering and gossipy late 18th-century Paris in which Franklin moved, and she brings to life such enigmatic French leaders as Jacques-Donatien Chaumont, Franklin's closest adviser and chief supplier of American aid, and Charles Vergennes, the French minister of foreign affairs, who helped Franklin write the French-American Alliance of 1778. Franklin also negotiated the peace of 1783 that led not only to the independence of the colonies from Britain but also to a bond between France and America that, Schiff says, lasted until WWII. Schiff's sure-handed historical research and her majestic prose offer glimpses into a little-explored chapter of Franklin's life and American history. Agent, Lois Wallace. (Apr. 2) Forecast: This should receive excellent review coverage, which will boost sales, and perhaps the blurb from Joseph Ellis will help. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Here's breaking news for the Francophobic freedom-fries set: without France, there would have been no United States. "The majority of the guns fired on the British at Saratoga were French," writes ace biographer/historian Schiff (Vera [Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov], 1999; Saint-Exupery, 1994). "Four years later, when the British set down their muskets at Yorktown, they surrendered to forces that were nearly equal parts French and American, all of them fed and clothed and paid by France, and protected by de Grasse's fleet." Moreover, she adds, the French came up with the equivalent of $9 billion to secure American independence. But without Benjamin Franklin, Schiff argues, France likely would not have come to the aid of the fledgling republic. It was not only that Franklin, who a few years before had been an ardent royalist, presented the American cause as an ideal way for France to play knavish tricks on Britain, but also that Franklin was not Silas Deane. The latter, a staid Connecticut businessman, was Congress's representative in Paris, having arrived there just three days after the Declaration of Independence was promulgated; his duties also involved espionage, but Deane was an unable spy. Moreover, he was a bumpkin compared to the British ambassador, who had a grand time announcing every American defeat to the court at Versailles. Franklin's reputation as a sophisticate and man of letters and science preceded him, and he found himself welcome and even lionized. His steady lobbying soon brought material aid to the much-suffering rebels, though the French and Americans forged a partnership "founded on various illusions about the past and a general misunderstanding of the future"; theprofessional French military scorned the American militia as mere rabble, and the French in general felt that the Americans showed too little gratitude to them for their help. Which evens the score, one supposes, for subsequent American complaints that the French have been insufficiently grateful for our help. . . . A lively, well-written, and most timely study of diplomacy in action. Author tour

What People Are Saying

Edmund S. Morgan
Stacy Schiff's extensive scholarship, her eye for the colorful detail, and her lively wit combine to bring alive -- in full dress and in an absorbing narrative -- the cast of statesmen, adventurers, spies, courtiers, patriots and con men who have a part in the story of Benjamin Franklin's negotiations for American independence, and to fix among them America's greatest diplomat, winning his way (and America's) in a style of calculated disarray. An extraordinary book.

Ron Chernow
In sparkling prose, burnished to a high gloss, Stacy Schiff tells the tale of Benjamin Franklin in Paris with piquant humor, outrageous anecdotes worthy of the finest French farce, and a wealth of lapidary observations. Her Paris unfolds as a glittering carnival of spies, rogues, frauds, and flawed reformers, eccentric nobility and perpetually squabbling American diplomats. Towering above all is the protean figure of Franklin, an improbable compound of wit, cunning, hypocrisy, courage, and tireless devotion to his country. C'est magnifique!

Joseph J. Ellis
This is a book to savor. Every page has some new nugget of insight, or some graceful turn of phrase that generates a verbal airburst over the most psychologically agile American of his time, perhaps of all time. Schiff has given a genuine jolt to the recent surge of interest in Franklin, along the way demonstrating why she is generally regarded as one of the most gifted storytellers writing today.

Claude-Anne Lopez
This remarkable book breaks new ground. Stacy Schiff has dug deep into the archives of France (no mean feat!) and brought up a motherlode of gems which, polished by her wit, illuminate the doublespeak of the ambassadorial world, as well as the ferocious backbiting among the colonial envoys. From this maelstrom emerges Franklin, inventing the American foreign service as he had figured out electricity, bifocals, a new stove, the glass armonica -- step by cautious step.

Amanda Foreman
What a brilliant book. A Great Improvisation pays tribute to the extraordinary love affair between monarchist France and the republican Benjamin Franklin. Their child was America, conceived at home and nurtured into maturity by France. It is a story full of intrigue, jealousy and passion. But ultimately it is a celebration of one American's love for his country. Stacy Schiff has written a masterpiece, capturing a fleeting moment when the stars aligned between Congress and Versailles.

Forced Into Glory or Globalization

2009-01-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln and the White Dream

Author: Lerone Bennett

Beginning with the argument that the Emancipation Proclamation did not actually free African American slaves, this dissenting view of Lincoln's greatness surveys the president's policies, speeches, and private utterances and concludes that he had little real interest in abolition. Pointing to Lincoln's support for the fugitive slave laws, his friendship with slave-owning senator Henry Clay, and conversations in which he entertained the idea of deporting slaves in order to create an all-white nation, the book, concludes that the president was a racist at heart—and that the tragedies of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era were the legacy of his shallow moral vision.

New interesting book: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition or Cortez Peters Championship Keyboarding Drills W Home Software and Users Guide

Globalization: Culture and Education in the New Millennium

Author: Marcelo M Suarez Orozco

Globalization defines our era. While it has created a great deal of debate in economic, policy, and grassroots circles, many aspects of the phenomenon remain virtual terra incognita. Education is at the heart of this continent of the unknown. This pathbreaking book examines how globalization and large-scale immigration are affecting children and youth, both in and out of schools. Taking into consideration broad historical, cultural, technological, and demographic changes, the contributors--all leading social scientists in their fields--suggest that these global transformations will require youth to develop new skills, sensibilities, and habits of mind that are far ahead of what most educational systems can now deliver.
Drawing from comparative and interdisciplinary materials, the authors examine the complex psychological, sociocultural, and historical implications of globalization for children and youth growing up today. The book explores why new and broader global visions are needed to educate children and youth to be informed, engaged, and critical citizens in the new millennium.

Drawing from comparative and interdisciplinary materials, the authors examine the complex psychological, sociocultural, and historical implications of globalization for children and youth growing up today. The book explores why new and broader global visions are needed to educate children and youth to be informed, engaged, and critical citizens in the new millennium.

Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers or The Storm Gourmet

2009-01-23T16:04:00.000-08:00

Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers?

Author: Zygmunt Bauman

Zygmunt Bauman is one of the most admired social thinkers of our time. Once a Marxist sociologist, he has surrendered the narrowness of both Marxism and sociology, and dares to write in language that ordinary people can understand—about problems they feel ill equipped to solve. This book is no dry treatise but is instead what Bauman calls “a report from a battlefield,” part of the struggle to find new and adequate ways of thinking about the world in which we live. Rather than searching for solutions to what are perhaps the insoluble problems of the modern world, Bauman proposes that we reframe the way we think about these problems. In an era of routine travel, where most people circulate widely, the inherited beliefs that aid our thinking about the world have become an obstacle.

Bauman seeks to liberate us from the thinking that renders us hopeless in the face of our own domineering governments and threats from unknown forces abroad. He shows us we can give up belief in a hierarchical arrangement of states and powers. He challenges members of the “knowledge class” to overcome their estrangement from the rest of society. Gracefully, provocatively, Bauman urges us to think in new ways about a newly flexible, newly challenging modern world. As Bauman notes, quoting Vaclav Havel, “hope is not a prognostication.” It is, rather, alongside courage and will, a mundane, common weapon that is too seldom used.

What People Are Saying

Paul Gilroy
This thoughtful and elegant little book by one of the world's most humble but distinguished intellectuals conveys a sense that the wisdom of a lifetime is being distilled here in a pithy but above all in a usable form. --(Paul Gilroy, London School of Economics)

Ron Eyerman
Zygmunt Bauman's voice is as exemplary as it is powerful. He writes not only in Max Weber's spirit, but also in that of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, as well as Hannah Arendt and Norbert Elias. This is a very important collection by one of the leading thinkers of our time. --(Ron Eyerman, Yale University)

The Storm Gourmet: A Guide to Creating Extraordinary Meals Without Electricity

Author: Daphne Nikolopoulos

This book proves that, with a little planning and minimal effort, you can eat surprisingly well during power outages. In hurricane season, this book is a crucial resource. It can be used for any emergency or anytime you are without power. And you can use this book for quick, easy meals anytime, especially for camping or for quick summer meals. You will find shopping lists for creating the ultimate emergency pantry; more than 70 recipes using nonperishable and shelf-stable food items; suggested menus for quick, well-balanced meals; a practical guide to growing a storm-proof herb garden; advice, tips, and anecdotes about weathering the storm. The 12-page color insert displays the colorful and appetizing-yes, gourmet!-meals that can be prepared from canned goods with some fresh ingredients.

Library Journal

A survivor of Florida's recent hurricanes and the managing editor of Palm Beach Illustrated magazine, Nikolopoulos was struck by the lack of recipes for interesting meals that could be prepared without cooking appliances. Her attempt to fill that gap might be considered a niche cookbook whose usefulness extends beyond the disaster-stricken public that the author hopes to serve. Although Nikolopoulos claims that her recipes-more than 70 using nonperishable food items, e.g., Cranberry Orange Chicken and Rose Water-Scented Pistachio Pudding-can be prepared in blizzard conditions as well as in tropical climates, there are too many references to picking up tropical fruit from your neighbor's yard to make these dishes truly useful without some adaptation for those living in northern areas. Most of the ingredients are readily available, but some, often crucial items-like orange- and rose-blossom water, guava paste, instant pasta, and the ubiquitous "table cream"-are uncommon. With creativity, however, campers and those who don't have ready access to mangoes and avocados year-round could make use of this book. The recipes are easy to follow, and the variations in meals would certainly be welcomed during a crisis that resulted in power outages for more than a few days. For larger cookbook collections in public libraries, particularly where weather crises or campers create a demand.-Elizabeth Rogers, CEF Lib. Syst., Plattsburgh, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

The Bonus Army or Terrorism in the 21st Century

2009-01-22T10:52:00.000-08:00

The Bonus Army: An American Epic

Author: Paul Dickson

In the summer of 1932, at the height of the Depression, some forty-five thousand veterans of World War I descended on Washington, D.C., from all over the country to demand the bonus promised them eight years earlier for their wartime service. They lived in shantytowns, white and black together, and for two months they protested and rallied for their cause—an action that would have a profound effect on American history.

President Herbert Hoover, Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur, and others feared the protesters would turn violent after the Senate defeated the "bonus bill" that the House had passed. On July 28, 1932, tanks rolled through the streets as MacArthur's troops evicted the bonus marchers: Newspapers and newsreels showed graphic images of American soldiers driving out their former comrades in arms. Democratic candidate, Franklin Roosevelt, in a critical contest with Hoover, upon reading newspaper accounts of the eviction said to an adviser, "This will elect me," though bonus armies would plague him in each of his first three years.

Through seminal research, including interviews with the last surviving witnesses, Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen tell the full and dramatic story of the Bonus Army and of the many celebrated figures involved in it: Evalyn Walsh McLean, the owner of the hope diamond, sided with the marchers; Roy Wilkins saw the model for racial integration here; J. Edgar Hoover built his reputation against the Bonus Army radicals; a young Gore Vidal witnessed the crisis while John dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and Sinclair Lewis wrote about it. Dickson and Allen also recover the voices of ordinary men who dared tilt at powerfulinjustice, and who ultimately transformed the nation: The march inspired Congress to pass the G. I. Bill of Rights in 1944, one of the most important pieces of social legislation in our history, which in large part created America’s middle class. The Bonus Army is an epic story in the saga of our country.

Library Journal

Usually treated as a minor episode during the Great Depression, the Bonus Army (if remembered at all) has served to contrast the leadership styles of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. In 1932, World War I veterans struggling to survive the Depression organized to seek immediate payment of a bonus they were not to have received until 1945. Prolific authors Dickson (Sputnik: The Shock of the Century) and Allen (Spymaster) provide the drama behind this story and give it context. Though Hoover is usually depicted as sending in Gen. Douglas MacArthur to quash the veterans, while FDR sent Eleanor to hear their concerns, the story is revealed to be a great deal more complex. Both Hoover and FDR opposed the bonus on economic grounds. MacArthur, it turns out, was inclined to see Communist plots behind events and therefore ignored presidential instructions. FDR and the Congress ultimately transformed the Bonus Army protest into one of the most significant pieces of legislation in American history: the GI Bill of Rights. That the Bonus Army was an integrated movement, unlike the military at that time, helps make this a fascinating and readable book. Recommended for all libraries.-William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Here a demonstrator is clubbed and tear-gassed, but there real reforms are won: thus unfolds this memorable story of a now-forgotten episode in 20th-century history. The idea that WWI veterans should receive a bonus for their service took years to build and years more to fulfill. As popular historians Dickson (Sputnik, 2001) and Allen (Code Name Downfall, 1995, etc.) write, part of the delay was a matter of political clout; whereas Civil War vets formed a powerful and populous voting bloc and agitated for pensions, by the time Woodrow Wilson sent troops off to war in Europe, his notion was that soldiers would pay for their own life insurance and "there would be no demand for postwar compensation to those who were not injured during their service." Veterans in Oregon thought otherwise, and soon African-American vets from Virginia and hill-country farmers from Tennessee would join in their call for what was now being called a "bonus" for service. When neither Congress nor presidents would cough up, the vets began to organize nationally, and in 1932 thousands arrived in Washington to protest the Senate's defeat of a bill that would have funds for them. Sure that the leaders were Communists, Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur sent in troops, routing the ethnically mixed protestors and killing some. On hearing the news, Franklin Roosevelt reportedly said to an aide, "This will elect me," and indeed it seemed one of the last straws for the Hoover administration. Ironically, the Bonus Army's leadership was far more inclined to the right than the left, so that even as MacArthur was blustering about the Reds, a group of financiers approached a retired Marine Corps general to lead an army ofveterans to stage a coup. The general replied, "If you get these 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more and lick the hell out of you, and we will have real war right at home."The lesson the New Deal government took home: avoid ticking off discontented veterans, whence the GI Bill. A lively, engaging work of history. Agent: Gail Ross/Gail Ross Literary Agency

New interesting book: Entertaining in the Northwest Style or Stir the Pot

Terrorism in the 21st Century

Author: Cindy C Combs

“The book’s major strengths are its content, which is excellent, its organization, which is logical, and the fact that it devotes considerable attention to counterterrorist strategies and operations.”

–Nicholas J. Steneck, The Ohio State University

Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century
Fifth Edition

Cindy C. Combs

Putting terrorism into historical perspective, Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century offers tools like the latest data and numerous case studies to facilitate the critical analysis of terrorist acts and break down what, who, why, and how. The text surveys national and international responses, evaluating their effectiveness and concluding with notes on emerging threats and trends to help readers understand the phenomenon of terrorism and its future.

New and Updated Case Studies
• U.S. Prisoners in the "War on Terror"
• Palestine Liberation Authority
• Iran’s Support Network
• Bin Laden’s Tapes
• Free Militia Training Manual
• Department of Homeland Security
• Animal Liberation Front and PETA
• The PATRIOT Act
• "Fake Bomb" Smuggling
• A.Q. Khan and Nuclear Proliferation

Please visit us at www.pearsonhighered.com

The Imperial Presidency or Peak Everything

2009-01-21T05:38:00.000-08:00

The Imperial Presidency

Author: Arthur Meier Schlesinger

From two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., comes one of the most important and influential investigations of the American presidency. The Imperial Presidency traces the growth of presidential power over two centuries, from George Washington to George W. Bush, examining how it has both served and harmed the Constitution and what Americans can do about it in years to come. The book that gave the phrase "imperial presidency" to the language, this is a work of "substantial scholarship written with lucidity, charm, and wit" (The New Yorker).

1	What the Founding Fathers intended	1
2	Where the Founding Fathers disagreed	13
3	The rise of presidential war	35
4	Congress makes a comeback	68
5	The presidency resurgent : the Second World War	100
6	The presidency ascendant : Korea	127
7	The presidency rampant : Vietnam	177
8	The revolutionary presidency : Washington	208
9	Democracy and foreign policy	278
10	The secrecy system	331
11	The future of the presidency	377
	Epilogue : after the imperial presidency	420

Peak Everything: Waking up to the Century of Declines

Author: Richard Heinberg

The twentieth century saw unprecedented growth in population, energy consumption, and food production. As the population shifted from rural to urban, the impact of humans on the environment increased dramatically.

The twenty-first century ushered in an era of declines, in a number of crucial parameters:

Global oil, natural gas, and coal extraction
Yearly grain harvests
Climate stability
Population
Economic growth
Fresh water
Minerals and ores, such as copper and platinum

To adapt to this profoundly different world, we must begin now to make radical changes to our attitudes, behaviors, and expectations.

Peak Everything addresses many of the cultural, psychological, and practical changes we will have to make as nature rapidly dictates our new limits. This latest book from Richard Heinberg, author of three of the most important books on Peak Oil, touches on the most important aspects of the human condition at this unique moment in time.

A combination of wry commentary and sober forecasting on subjects as diverse as farming and industrial design, this book tells how we might make the transition from the Age of Excess to the Era of Modesty with grace and satisfaction, while preserving the best of our collective achievements. A must-read for individuals, business leaders, and policymakers who are serious about effecting real change.

Richard Heinberg is a journalist, lecturer, and the author of seven books, including The Party's Over, Powerdown, and The Oil Depletion Protocol. He is one of the world's foremost Peak Oil educators.

The New Industrial State or Big Lies

2009-01-20T02:47:00.000-08:00

The New Industrial State

Author: John Kenneth Galbraith

With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works. The United States is no longer a free-enterprise society, Galbraith argues, but a structured state controlled by the largest companies. Advertising is the means by which these companies manage demand and create consumer "need" where none previously existed. Multinational corporations are the continuation of this power system on an international level. The goal of these companies is not the betterment of society, but immortality through an uninterrupted stream of earnings.

First published in 1967, The New Industrial State continues to resonate today.

General Editor's Introduction     ix
Foreword   James K. Galbraith     xi
Acknowledgments     xxv
Introduction to the Fourth Edition     xxvii
Change and the Planning System     1
The Imperatives of Technology     13
The Nature of Industrial Planning     25
Planning and the Supply of Capital     42
Capital and Power     56
The Technostructure     73
The Corporation     89
The Entrepreneur and the Technostructure     108
A Digression on the Firm under Socialism     123
The Approved Contradiction     138
The General Theory of Motivation     162
Motivation in Perspective     176
Motivation and the Technostructure     186
The Principle of Consistency     199
The Goals of the Planning System     207
Prices in the Planning System     223
Prices in the Planning System (Continued)     235
The Management of Specific Demand     245
The Revised Sequence     263
The Regulation of Aggregate Demand     273
The Nature of Employment and Unemployment     289
The Control of the Wage-Price Spiral     305
The Planning System and the Union I     322
The Planning System and the Union II     337
The Educational and Scientific Estate     347
The Planning System and the State I     365
The Planning System and the State II     377
A Further Summary     390
The Planning System and the Arms Race     398
The Further Dimensions     419
The Planning Lacunae     432
Of Toil     443
Education and Emancipation     452
The Political Lead     462
The Future of the Planning System     473
An Addendum on Economic Method and the Nature of Social Argument     489
Index     503

Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth

Author: Joe Conason

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

One Economics Many Recipes or Doonesburycoms The Sandbox

2009-01-19T15:35:00.000-08:00

One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth

Author: Dani Rodrik

In One Economics, Many Recipes, leading economist Dani Rodrik argues that neither globalizers nor antiglobalizers have got it right. While economic globalization can be a boon for countries that are trying to dig out of poverty, success usually requires following policies that are tailored to local economic and political realities rather than obeying the dictates of the international globalization establishment. A definitive statement of Rodrik's original and influential perspective on economic growth and globalization, One Economics, Many Recipes shows how successful countries craft their own unique strategies--and what other countries can learn from them.

To most proglobalizers, globalization is a source of economic salvation for developing nations, and to fully benefit from it nations must follow a universal set of rules designed by organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization and enforced by international investors and capital markets. But to most antiglobalizers, such global rules spell nothing but trouble, and the more poor nations shield themselves from them, the better off they are. Rodrik rejects the simplifications of both sides, showing that poor countries get rich not by copying what Washington technocrats preach or what others have done, but by overcoming their own highly specific constraints. And, far from conflicting with economic science, this is exactly what good economics teaches.

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     1
Economic Growth
Fifty Years of Growth (and Lack Thereof): An Interpretation     13
Growth Diagnostics     56
Synthesis: A Practical Approach to Growth Strategies     85
Institutions
Industrial Policy for the Twenty-first Century     99
Institutions for High-Quality Growth     153
Getting Institutions Right     184
Globalization
Governance of Economic Globalization     195
The Global Governance of Trade As If Development Really Mattered     213
Globalization for Whom?     237
References     243
Index     257

Book about: Worlds Greatest Wines or Quick and Easy Asian Tapas and Noodles

Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox: Dispatches from Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

Author: G B Trudeau

Launched as a military blog (or "milblog") by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau in October 2006, The Sandbox is an online forum through which service members in Afghanistan and Iraq share their stories with readers here at home. In hundreds of fascinating and compelling posts, soldiers write passionately, eloquently, and movingly of their day-to-day lives, of their mission, and of the drama that unfolds daily around them.

A dog adopts a unit on patrol in Baghdad and guards its flank; a soldier chronicles an epic day of close-call encounters with IEDs; an Afghan translator talks earnestly with his American friend about love and theology; a dad far from home meditates on time and history in the desert night under ancient stars; a Chuck Norris action figure witnesses surreal moments of humor in the cramped cab of a Humvee --Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox: Dispatches from Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan presents a rich outpouring of stories, from the hilarious to the thrilling to the heartbreaking, and helps us understand what so many of our countrymen are going through and the sacrifices they are making on our behalf.

"I really feel like most people look at this war as little more than a television event. How many have ever taken the time to stop and think about what we go through every day over here? The bullets, rockets, and IEDs are not the hard part. The hard part is knowing that life goes on back at home." --FC1 (SW) Anthony McCloskey
"The man looks at me, his jaw working in anger. For a brief second, I get the impression that he is going to attack, and then suddenly, as if the energy has gone out of him, his shoulders slump slightly and he looksdown at his brother's body." --1LT Adam Tiffen
"Out here in the desert, Time is King; the minutes are his minions and the months his sabers by which you are knighted. The King controls all that you do, when you come and go, and how long until you see your children." --Capt. Lee Kelley
"It's easy to say "We have to go to war" if you're not we, and it's easy to say "Bring home the troops" if they are not your brothers getting left behind on the return trip." --Spc. Michael O'Mahoney

Great Speeches or One Christmas in Washington

2009-01-19T05:21:00.000-08:00

Great Speeches: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Author: Franklin D Roosevelt

Twenty-seven representative speeches spanning the career of one of the greatest speakers in American political history. High points include FDR's First Inaugural Address; his message to Congress, delivered the day after the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor ("a date which will live in infamy"); and his Fourth Inaugural Address.

Interesting textbook: O Futuro de Música

One Christmas in Washington: Churchill and Roosevelt Forge the Grand Alliance

Author: David J Bercuson

Christmas in Washington is the fascinating, in-depth look at one of the most crucial periods in modern history: the weeks between December 1941 and January 1942, when Churchill and Roosevelt- seemingly on the run after Dunkirk and Pearl Harbor-met at the White House, forging what turned out to be the Grand Alliance- while in the background, a gloomy and confused America went about their Christmas celebrations.

Herwig and Bercuson grippingly recreate the dramatic days of the Washington War Conference of 1941-1942, code-named ARCADIA, using the diaries, meeting notes, personal letters, and detailed minutes that contain day-by day, almost hour-by-hour accounts of these historic events. The authors-whose previous book The Destruction of the Bismarck was the companion to James Cameron's Discovery Channel special Expedition: Bismarck-take a penetrating look at the high level meetings that lasted long into the night and at the scenes behind the scenes: the social events and intrigues, Churchill's booming intrusion into the daily life of the White House, the strained relationship between Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt, the key role played by Roosevelt's close advisor Harry Hopkins. As with any momentous gathering of world leaders, there was high politics and low gossip, and both contributed to earth-shaking events of this momentous time.

Kirkus Reviews

Fighting fascism is hard. Fighting it while arguing who's in charge of the struggle only makes things harder. Multinational military coalitions have been around since the time of the Peloponnesian War, Canadian military historians Bercuson and Herwig write. But WWII imposed requirements of a novel sort on the coalition that formed between Britain and the U.S.; both Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt knew that "Allied victory would demand that their two nations fight virtually as one," and that forging this unity both on the battlefield and in the production of war materiel was essential. Over a ten-day period around Christmas 1941, the two met in Washington to lay the foundations for what Churchill would dub "the grand alliance." Although the two liked each other and shared a highly developed understanding of world politics, their work was complicated by their accompanying retinues, among whose ranks were an American admiral who despised the British and a British air marshal who insisted that American air forces be put under British command. Hammering out logistical details was one problem; Bercuson and Herwig slyly note that supplying Churchill with his vast daily alcohol requirements exhausted the White House booze allowance and required dipping into State Department funds. Determining a workable chain of military command was another; interestingly, we learn, Roosevelt initially recommended that a British general be put in charge of the combined American, British and Dutch forces who made up the first iteration of the Allies. He did so knowing that friction among Commonwealth leaders made an American commander the better choice, information he likely acquired "through Americaninterception and decrypting of British diplomatic radio traffic." Espionage aside, among the highlights of this account is its look at the Allied leaders' timetable for the war, which matched historical events closely in many respects-but also departed from them significantly. Students of WWII, especially of its diplomatic and geopolitical aspects, will want to have a look.

Economics or Into the Devils Den

2009-01-18T16:09:00.000-08:00

Economics: Making Sense of the Modern Economy

Author: Simon Cox

With typical Economist style and clarity, Economist Economics provides accessible and expert analysis that shows how to make sense of the modern economy. Substantially revised from the successful first edition, the book offers an in-depth examination of different aspects of the modern economy. Aimed at those in business, it is organized in four parts:
- The Global Economy, which looks at global balances, China, U.S. influence, and central banks.
- Globalization, which examines the whole issue of globalization and global capital.
- After the New Economy, which analyzes what impact e-economics has had and will have.
- Economic Facts and Fallacies, which spells out basic economic truths and exposes some economic canards.

New interesting textbook: Financial Modelling with Jump Processes or Wireless Communications and Networking

Into the Devil's Den

Author: Dave Hall

In 1996, the Aryan Nations was considered to be the most dangerous white supremacist group in the United States. This brutally violent neo-Nazi organization dreamed of carving an isolated homeland out of the American northwest–a dream they would finance by robbery, intimidation, and murder. For years, the FBI had sought to infiltrate the Aryan Nations, only to be thwarted by the group’s extreme paranoia of new members.

Enter Dave Hall, a tattooed, 350-pound, six-foot-four former biker. A black belt in martial arts, he could fight, drink, and ride with the best–which is to say, the worst–of them. But Hall was no stereotypical biker. A thoughtful, articulate man blessed with a photographic memory and an unshakeable core of decency, Hall was looking for a new direction in life. After Hall was arrested for his minor involvement in a drug deal, FBI special agent Tym Burkey gave him a choice: go to jail or become an informant. Hall didn’t go to jail.

So began a most unlikely partnership, between a hell-raising former biker and a by-the-book FBI man. The oddest of odd couples, they would slowly forge a unique friendship based on trust and support–a friendship that Hall especially would come to value in the months and years ahead.

For what was supposed to be a short-term assignment grew to something much longer, and bigger in scope, as Hall became the Ohio Aryan Nations leader’s right hand man. And more and more, Hall suspected that a significant terrorist action was being planned, something on the order of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Yet with the clock ticking, Hall found his hold onreality crumbling as he was forced into behaviors and beliefs that repelled him. With the ever-present threat of discovery and death hanging over his head, he felt his psyche start to fragment, leading to estrangement from his family and friends, and vicious bouts of insomnia, night terrors, and panic attacks. But it was too late to back out. Together, Hall and Burkey would have to finish their dance with the Devil.

Harrowing and intense, this true-life thriller is a testament to bravery, dedication, and friendship–and a timely reminder that America’s homegrown terrorists can be just as deadly as those from overseas.

Publishers Weekly

In 1996, Dave Hall, an unemployed ex-biker, found himself facing a prison sentence for a minor marijuana charge. With biker friends who associated with the Ohio branch of the Aryan Nations-then considered the FBI's most dangerous domestic terrorist group-and its charismatic, bloodthirsty pastor, Harold "Ray" Redfeairn, Hall agreed to help the FBI infiltrate the AN. Hall encounters this quasi-Christian cult that interprets the Bible as a bizarre racist, anti-Semitic tract and advocates violent revolution to destroy non-Aryan races. Swallowing his disgust, he patiently wins Redfeairn's confidence, eventually becoming his right-hand man and designated successor. As presented here, the world of gun-obsessed, antigovernment fringe groups, whose weapon-worship becomes their ultimate undoing, horrifies and entertains. Hall's work led to several arrests and eventually crippled the AN, which has not recovered. Neither has Hall, who claims, "When you dance with the devil, the devil doesn't change, the devil changes you." The book shifts between Hall's and FBI agent Burkey's perspectives, but the main voice belongs to crime writer Ramsland who knits these stories into a seamless drama filled with suspense, vivid characters and colorful events. (Apr. 15)

Kirkus Reviews

Ex-biker ends up a top FBI informant inside a white supremacist group. In 1996, Hall was living on disability checks in Dayton, Ohio, fixing the occasional motorcycle for friends and taking it easy. That changed after he provided a marijuana connection to a distant relative, who turned out to be working with the feds. Special Agent Burkey persuaded Hall to use his biker-club connections to infiltrate the local chapter of the Aryan Nation. The story of Hall's smooth climb up the AN's chain of command is related in straightforward fashion; his words alternate with Burkey's terse accounts in a dual memoir stitched together by prolific crime scribe Ramsland (Inside the Minds of Healthcare Serial Killers, 2007, etc.). At 6'4" and 350 lbs., sporting abundant tattoos, Hall looked like many other AN members, but he was hardly comfortable in his hatemongering surroundings. He had biracial nieces and nephews, and he viewed his new "friends" as psychopathic losers who couldn't hack real life. But he acted his part well and was soon being groomed for a pastoral position in the AN's pseudo-Christian hierarchy. A paranoid, trigger-happy bunch of KKK rednecks, militia types and Nazi skinheads made highly dangerous companions, but Burkey kept Hall burrowing deeper. A year after the Oklahoma City bombing, the FBI was fiercely focused on preventing another attack by white supremacists like Timothy McVeigh. Pretending to be a bile-filed racist took its toll on the easygoing Hall. By the time he was made privy to plans for truck bombings and the assassination of white-supremacist scourge Morris Dees, he was having panic attacks, knocking back Xanax and drinking himself to sleep. While the knocked-togetherprose shows signs of Ramsland's overly busy schedule, she does a good job of keeping the focus on Hall's problematic double life, relegating the FBI's role to the background. This view of the domestic terrorist underground benefits hugely from an impressively charismatic informant's ringside seat. Informative, plainly recounted trip into a nexus of homegrown evil.

The Ten Things You Cant Say in America or Mao Zedong

2009-01-18T04:56:00.000-08:00

The Ten Things You Can't Say in America

Author: L Elder

Straight Talk From the Firebrand Libertarian Who Struck a Chord Across AmericaLarry Elder tells truths this nation's public figures are afraid to address. In The Ten Things You Can't Say in America, he turns conventional "wisdom" on its head and backs up his commonsense philosophy with cold, hard facts many ignore. Elder says what no one else will:Blacks are more racist than whites.White condescension is mor damaging than white racismThere is no health-care crisisThe War on Drugs is the new Vietnam...and we're losingRepublicans and Democrats are the same beast in different rhetoricGun control advocates have blood on their hands.America's greatest problem? Illegitimacy.The welfare state is our national narcotic.There is no glass ceiling.The media bias: it's real, it's widespread, it's destructive

Publishers Weekly

Los Angeles radio talk-show host and nationally syndicated columnist Elder, who is African-American, has incurred the wrath of many blacks for his outspoken assertion that racism in the U.S. no longer represents a serious threat to blacks' upward mobility. This conversational, bluntly candid manifesto should prove equally controversial. Elder, who favors much less government and much less regulation, blames both Republicans and Democrats for creating and maintaining a bloated welfare state that stifles individual initiative and free enterprise. His "Ten-Point Plan" for transforming America calls for abolishing the IRS; passing a national sales tax; reducing government by 80%; ending welfare and entitlements, including Social Security, Medicare, and farm and tobacco subsidies; legalizing drugs; abolishing the minimum wage (which, he claims, undermines job creation for blacks, teenagers and entry-level workers); and eliminating corporate taxes. He also opposes affirmative action, hate-crime legislation and virtually any regulation of handguns, including registration. Elder (who is slated to host the forthcoming TV show The Moral Court) further accuses the white-run media of condescending to blacks by overemphasizing stories of racism and by subtly applying a lower set of expectations to African-Americans' behavior. Taking swipes at Bill and Hillary Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Johnnie Cochran, Louis Farrakhan and others, he blasts the black leadership, which, he insists, should focus on ways to morally and legally discourage "the young, irresponsible and unwed from having children." In Elder's apt phrase, we have become a nation of "victicrats," people blaming their ills on others and demanding special treatment while refusing to accept personal responsibility. While many readers will consider his prescriptions simplistic, they'll find his candor and straight talk refreshing. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

	Preface	xi
1.	Blacks Are More Racist than Whites	1
2.	White Condescension Is as Bad as Black Racism	67
3.	The Media Bias--It's Real, It's Widespread, It's Destructive	101
4.	The Glass Ceiling--Full of Holes	133
5.	America's Greatest Problem: Not Crime, Racism, or Bad Schools--It's Illegitimacy	154
6.	There Is No Health-Care "Crisis"	169
7.	America's Welfare State: The Tyranny of the Statist Quo	189
8.	Republicans Versus Democrats--Maybe a Dime's Worth of Difference	231
9.	The War Against Drugs Is Vietnam II: We're Losing This One, Too	252
10.	Gun Control Advocates--Good Guys with Blood on Their Hands	268
	Appendix	301
	Notes	319
	Index	339

Mao Zedong: A Penguin Life

Author: Jonathan D Spenc

An intimate history of one of the most formidable and elusive rulers in modern history

From humble origins in the provinces, Mao Zedong rose to absolute power, unifying with an iron fist a vast country torn apart by years of weak leadership, colonialism, and war. This sharply drawn and insightful account brings to life this modern-day emperor and the tumultuous era that he did so much to shape.

God and the State or Body Politics

2009-01-17T16:43:00.000-08:00

God and the State

Author: Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin

Most colorful anarchist explains philosophy of history, oppression by organized religion, etc. Mind-opening.

Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community before the Watching World

Author: John Howard Yoder

About the Author

John Howard Yoder (1927-1997) taught ethics and theology as a professor at Notre Dame University and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. He received his doctorate from the University of Basel, Switzerland. Widely sought around the world as a theological educator, ethicist, and interpreter of biblical pacifism, he is best known for The Politics of Jesus.

Fuller Theological Seminary - Nancey Murphy

"A crucial advance in recent philosophy and theology is (re)discovery of the fact that we do not know what our words mean if we do not know how to put them into practice. Yoder's Body Politics embodies this understanding of the intimate dialectic of thought and life, doctrine and liturgical practice."

Bluffton College - Gerald J. Biesecker-Mast

Binding and loosing, baptism, eucharist, multiplicity of gifts, and open meeting; these five New Testament practices were central in the life of the early Christian community. Some of them are still echoed in the practice of the church today. But the full social, ethical, and communal meaning of the original practices has often been covered by centuries of ritual and interpretation.

John Howard Yoder, in his inimitably direct and discerning style, uncovers the original meaning of the five practices and shows why the recovery of these practices is so important for the social, economic, and political witness of the church today.

"Protestant Christians are often tempted to think of the public practices of the church as ornamental or secondary representations of more fundamental theological realities such as personal spirituality or social ethics. In Body Politics, Yoder shows how the communication practices of the church-from decision making to baptism to table-fellowship-constitute the building materials for God's coming reign."

Just Another Soldier or The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld

2009-01-17T06:31:00.000-08:00

Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq

Author: Jason Christopher Hartley

This is not your father's war

This is Iraq, where a soldier's first duty is reinforcing his Humvee with sheet metal and sand bags. Or, in the absence of plumbing, burning barrels of human waste. Where any dead dog on the side of the road might be concealing an insurgent's bomb and anyone could be the enemy.

At age 17, Jason Christopher Hartley joined the Army National Guard. Thirteen years later, he is called to active duty, to serve in Iraq. Sent to a town called Ad Dujayl, made notorious by Saddam Hussein's 1982 massacre, Hartley is thrust into the center of America's war against terrorism. This is his story.

"If you are distrustful of the media and want to know exactly what's going on in Iraq, you'll have to pray for divine enlightenment, because only god knows what the hell is going on over here. However, if you want to know how it feels to be a soldier in Iraq, to hear something honest and raw, that I can help you with."

Sometimes profane, often poignant, and always nakedly candid, Just Another Soldier takes the reader past the images seen on CNN and the nightly news, into the day to day reality of life on the ground as an infantryman, attached to the 1st Division, in the first war of the 21st century. From the adrenaline rush of storming a suspected insurgent's house, to the sheer boredom of down time on the base, to the horror of dead civilians, Hartley examines his role as a man, as a soldier and as an American on foreign soil. His quest to discover the balance between his compassionate side and his baser instincts, results in a searing portrait of today's Army and a remarkable personal narrative written in a fresh and excitingnew voice. Just Another Soldier is more than a war story; it delivers an intimate look at a generation of young men and women on the front lines of American policy.

Whether you're for or against the war in Iraq, this is essential reading.

Interesting textbook: The Lost Children of Wilder or Robert Moses and the Modern City

The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book

Author: Michael Ratner

The evidence that the Bush administration is guilty of war crimes, presented in the form of a court case brought by one of the premier civil rights organizations in the United States.

"He won't be tried in the United States. He can't be tried by an international tribunal. So Donald Rumsfeld will have to be prosecuted by book."—from The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld

The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld lays out the evidence that high-level officials of the Bush administration ordered, authorized, implemented, and permitted war crimes, in particular the crimes of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Using primary source documents ranging from Rumsfeld's "techniques chart" and Iraqi plaintiffs' statements to the testimony of whistleblowers and key pieces of reportage, the book sets forth evidence of a torture program that took place throughout the world: in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo, secret CIA prisons, and other places unknown.

The accused are accorded a defense drawn from their memos and public statements. Readers are allowed to judge whether the Bush administration has engaged in torture and whom among the administration to hold responsible.

Reminiscent of Christopher Hitchens's bestselling The Trial of Henry Kissinger, The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld constitutes one of the only attempts to hold high-ranking Bush administration officials criminally responsible for their actions.

Includes excerpts from:
• testimony from Abu Ghraib victims and the Tipton Three
• the interrogation log from Mohammed al Qahtani's detainment at Guantánamo
• the Gonzales, Yoo, andBybee memos
• the U.S. Army's Fay/Jones Report on the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib
• the August 2004 Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations
• testimony from the former head of Abu Ghraib, Janis Karpinski
• and analyses by Peter Weiss, Wolfgang Kaleck, Vincent Warren, and others

Publishers Weekly

The Bush administration's security and intelligence-gathering policies have inspired few critiques as thorough as Ratner's. The president of the progressive Center for Constitutional Rights presents a mock trial of 14 U.S. government and military officials, Donald Rumsfeld chief among them; with immunity from criminal prosecution while in office, Bush and Cheney are named as unindicted co-conspirators. The charge is torture and war crimes. The opening statement describes the Bush administration's alleged "torture program" in detail and the role the "defendants" played. The "prosecution evidence" includes statements of former Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo detainees describing tortures such as sleep deprivation, water-boarding and stress positions. Ratner presents the defense primarily through government documents, such as the infamous John Yoo memo rejecting the application of the Geneva Accords to detainees. This "defense" is followed by a rebuttal based on international law that systematically rejects the government's arguments. Of course, a real trial would give the defense an opening and closing statement, and books don't allow for cross-examination. Though his case appears strong, Ratner's conceit will appeal primarily to those who have already voted "guilty." Photos. (Sept.)

To Serve the President or UNIX and Linux Forensic Analysis

2009-01-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

To Serve the President: Continuity and Innovation in the White House Staff

Author: Bradley H Patterson

"Opens a window onto the closely guarded Oval Office turf: the operations, offices, and people of the complete White House team. Describes its organizational structure, recent innovations made in the face of changing events, what people do, while revealing the total size and cost of the contemporary White House team"--Provided by publisher.

Margaret Heilbrun - Library Journal

This is not a policy book. Patterson (The White House Staff: Inside the West Wing and Beyond), veteran of the Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford White Houses, offers his third chronological volume on the what, who, and how of White House staffing. Here, he provides detailed and accessible insight into the George W. Bush White House. The White House staff is part of the Executive Office of the President and now encompasses 135 offices, from policy wonks to speechwriters to Air Force One personnel and Situation Room employees, all working "to assist and advise the president." Using interviews with scores of recent staffers, Patterson moves from office to office, describing how the Bush White House has functioned and changed. From an expert clearly devoted to the cause of White House service; for large presidential collections in all libraries.

Book review: Partisan Politics Divided Government and the Economy or Personal Finance8th Edition

UNIX and Linux Forensic Analysis

Author: Chris Pogu

This book addresses topics in the area of forensic analysis of systems running on variants of the UNIX operating system, which is the choice of hackers for their attack platforms. According to a 2007 IDC report, UNIX servers account for the second-largest segment of spending (behind Windows) in the worldwide server market with $4.2 billion in 2Q07, representing 31.7% of corporate server spending. UNIX systems have not been analyzed to any significant depth largely due to a lack of understanding on the part of the investigator, an understanding and knowledge base that has been achieved by the attacker. The companion DVD provides a simulated or "live" UNIX environment where readers can test the skills they've learned in the book and use custom tools developed by the authors.

The book begins with a chapter to describe why and how the book was written, and for whom, and then immediately begins addressing the issues of live response (volatile) data collection and analysis. The book continues by addressing issues of collecting and analyzing the contents of physical memory (i.e., RAM). The following chapters address /proc analysis, revealing the wealth of significant evidence, and analysis of files created by or on UNIX systems. Then the book addresses the underground world of UNIX hacking and reveals methods and techniques used by hackers, malware coders, and anti-forensic developers. The book then illustrates to the investigator how to analyze these files and extract the information they need to perform a comprehensive forensic analysis. The final chapter includes a detailed discussion of Loadable Kernel Modules and Malware. The companion DVD provides a simulated or "live"UNIX environment where readers can test the skills they've learned in the book and use custom tools developed by the authors.

Throughout the book the author provides a wealth of unique information, providing tools, techniques and information that won't be found anywhere else. Not only are the tools provided, but the author also provides sample files so that after completing a detailed walk-through, the reader can immediately practice the new-found skills.

* The companion DVD for the book contains significant, unique materials (movies, spreadsheet, code, etc.) not available any place else.
* This book contains information about UNIX forensic analysis that is not available anywhere else. Much of the information is a result of the author's own unique research and work.
* The authors have the combined experience of Law Enforcement, Military, and Corporate forensics. This unique perspective makes this book attractive to ALL forensic investigators.

Fire Department Incident Safety Officer or The Logic of Political Survival

2009-01-16T07:06:00.000-08:00

Fire Department Incident Safety Officer

Author: David W Dodson

The best way to reduce firefighter injuries and deaths at incidents is the appointment of a well-prepared proactive Incident Safety Officer(ISO). This book primes aspiring and current Safety Officers to meet and exceed the specific job functions outlined in the 2007 Edition of NFPA 1521: Standard for Fire Department Safety Officer, as well as to aggressively pursue the operation of a highly efficient safety program. Extensively revised, the second edition of Fire Department Incident Safety Officer incorporates topics specifically focused on further developing and improving existing safety programs. Fundamental coverage of job functions for successful handling of incidents involving hazardous materials, technical rescue, wildland fire, and other disasters is accompanied by explanations of the critical skills required to be a proficient Safety Officer, including the processes of reading smoke, anticipating risk, predicting building collapse, and improving firefighter rehabilitation.

The Logic of Political Survival

Author: Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2004 and Winner of the 2004 Best Book Award presented by the Conflict Processes section of the American Political Science Association (APSA)

The authors of this ambitious book address a fundamental political question: why are leaders who produce peace and prosperity turned out of office while those who preside over corruption, war, and misery endure? Considering this political puzzle, they also answer the related economic question of why some countries experience successful economic development and others do not.

The authors construct a provocative theory on the selection of leaders and present specific formal models from which their central claims can be deduced. They show how political leaders allocate resources and how institutions for selecting leaders create incentives for leaders to pursue good and bad public policy. They also extend the model to explain the consequences of war on political survival. Throughout the book, they provide illustrations from history, ranging from ancient Sparta to Vichy France, and test the model against statistics gathered from cross-national data. The authors explain the political intuition underlying their theory in nontechnical language, reserving formal proofs for chapter appendixes. They conclude by presenting policy prescriptions based on what has been demonstrated theoretically and empirically.

	Preface
I	A Theory of Political Incentives	1
1	Reigning in the Prince	3
2	The Theory: Definitions and Intuition	37
3	A Model of the Selectorate Theory	77
II	Policy Choice and Political Survival	127
4	Institutions for Kleptocracy or Growth	129
5	Institutions, Peace, and Prosperity	173
6	War, Peace, and Coalition Size	215
7	Political Survival	273
III	Choosing Institutions	327
8	Institutional Preferences: Change from Within	329
9	The Enemy Outside and Within: War and Changes of Leaders and Regimes	405
10	Promoting Peace and Prosperity	461
	Notes	487
	References	503
	Index	519

Merchant of Death or History Buffs Guide to the Presidents

2009-01-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible

Author: Douglas Farah

Praise for Merchant of Death

"A riveting investigation of the world's most notorious arms dealer—a page-turner that digs deep into the amazing, murky story of Viktor Bout. Farah and Braun have exposed the inner workings of one of the world's most secretive businesses—the international arms trade."
—Peter L. Bergen, author of The Osama bin Laden I Know

"Viktor Bout is like Osama bin Laden: a major target of U.S. intelligence officials who time and again gets away. Farah and Braun have skillfully documented how this notorious arms dealer has stoked violence around the world and thwarted international sanctions. Even more appalling, they show how Bout ended up getting millions of dollars in U.S. government money to assist the war in Iraq. A truly impressive piece of investigative reporting."
—Michael Isikoff, coauthor of Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War

"Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun are two of the toughest investigative reporters in the country. This is an important book about a hidden world of gunrunning and profiteering in some of the world's poorest countries."
—Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

"In Merchant of Death, two of America's finest reporters have performed a major public service, turning over the right rocks that reveal the brutal international arms business at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In Viktor Bout, they have given us a new Lord of War, a man who knows no side but his own,and who has a knack for turning up in every war zone just in time to turn a profit. As Farah and Braun uncover and document his troubling role in the Bush Administration's Global War on Terror, his ties to Washington almost seem inevitable."
—James Risen, author of State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration

"An extraordinary and timely piece of investigative reporting, Merchant of Death is also a vividly compelling read. The true story of Viktor Bout, a sociopathic Russian gunrunner who has supplied weapons for use in some of the most gruesome conflicts of modern times—and who can count amongst his clients both the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the U.S. military in Iraq—is a stomach-churning indictment of the policy failures and moral contradictions of the world's most powerful governments, including that of the United States."
—Jon Lee Anderson, author of The Fall of Baghdad

The Washington Post - Fawaz A. Gerges

…a riveting investigation of the world's most notorious weapons dealer, Viktor Bout, whose post-Cold War arms network has stoked violence worldwide. Although U.S. intelligence officers have tried for years to shut down Bout's operation, Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun reveal that the United States paid firms linked to him as much as $60 million to ferry weapons to the U.S. military and private contractors in Iraq in 2003 and 2004.

Publishers Weekly

While there's no shortage of books on international terrorism, drug cartels and genocide, the international weapons trade has received less attention. Journalists Farah and Braun center their absorbing exposé of this source of global misery on its most successful practitioner, the Russian dealer Victor Bout. Throughout the Cold War, they show, the Kremlin supplied arms to oppressive regimes and insurgent groups, keeping close tabs on customers; after the U.S.S.R. collapsed, the floodgates opened in the 1990s. With weapons factories starved for customers, Soviet-era air transports lying idle and rusting, and dictators, warlords and insurgents throughout the world clamoring for arms, entrepreneurs and organized criminals saw fortunes to be made. The authors paint a depressing picture of an avalanche of war-making material pouring into poor, violence-wracked nations despite well-publicized U.N. embargoes. America denounces this trade, but turns a blind eye if recipients proclaim they are fighting terrorism, they say. Ruthless people who shun publicity make poor biographical subjects, and Bout is no exception. The authors' energetic research reveals that rivals dislike him, colleagues admire him, enemies condemn him, and Bout describes himself as a much-maligned but honest businessman. Although an unsatisfactory portrait, the book surrounds it with an engrossing, detailed description of this wildly destructive traffic. (Aug.)

New interesting textbook: Imperial Hubris or Who Let the Dogs In

History Buff's Guide to the Presidents: Key People, Places, and Events

Author: Thomas R Flagel

Americans have named schools, counties, rivers, cities, and even their own children after U.S. presidents. Their work is in our laws, their words adorn our monuments, and their countenances appear in a trillion places (mostly on our currency). As we prepare to decide who will be the 44th president of the United States, can we truly say we understand the office and its phenomenal history? What do we really known about the men who helped transform a struggling republic into a superpower?

Using detailed top-ten lists, historian Thomas R. Flagel offers a provocative new look at an astonishingly resilient institution. With diligent research, he explores the best, worst, largest, and most controversial facets of an office that some feared would become a monarchy, others hoped would represent all of the people, and John Adams wanted to call "High Highness, the President of the United States of America, and the Protector of their Liberties."

Chapters include:

Elections: the closest races, the most vicious campaigns, and the biggest landslides
Presidential Character: careers, hobbies, the most religious presidents, and the Machiavellians
The Domestic Sphere: the biggest deficit spenders, the most ambitious programs, vetoes, pardons, and the worst fights with the Supreme Court
Foreign Affairs: diplomats, doctrines, and ranking the commanders in chief
The Inner Circle: first ladies and vexing relatives, construction and destruction in the White House, scandals at the highest level, and the real West Wing
In Retrospect: the most underrated and overrated presidents, assassinations andattempted assassinations, and the greatest changes to the presidency itself

Prologue     9
Presidential Character
Top Ten Prepresidential Careers     15
Top Ten Presidential Pastimes     27
Top Ten Overtly Religious Presidents     41
Top Ten Machiavellian Presidents     55
Elections
Top Ten Closest Races     71
Top Ten Landslides     85
Top Ten Most Controversial Elections     99
The Domestic Sphere
Top Ten Debt Presidencies     117
Top Ten Veto Presidents     131
Top Ten Conflicts with the Supreme Court     145
Top Ten Notable Pardons and Commutations     158
Top Ten Assassinations and Attempts     170
Foreign Affairs
Top Ten Doctrines     189
Top Ten Achievements in Diplomacy     203
Top Ten Most Successful Commanders in Chief     221
Top Ten Least Successful Commanders in Chief     240
The Inner Circle
Top Ten Most Influential First Ladies     257
Top Ten Vexing Family Members     272
Top Ten Alterations to the White House     285
Top Ten Most Powerful Offices in the West Wing     297
Top Ten Biggest Scandals     310
Epilogue     327
Lists of the Presidents     335
Notes     347
Bibliography     377
Index     393

The US Intelligence Community or Water

2009-01-13T22:17:00.000-08:00

The US Intelligence Community

Author: Jeffrey T Richelson

The role of intelligence in US government operations has changed dramatically and is now more critical than ever to domestic security and foreign policy. This authoritative and highly researched book provides a detailed overview of America’s vast intelligence empire-its organizations, its operations (from spies on the ground to satellites thousands of miles in space), and its management structure. Relying on a multitude of sources, including hundreds of official documents, author Jeffrey T. Richelson provides an up-to-date picture of the US intelligence community that will allow students to understand the full scope of organizations and activities and will give valuable support to policymakers and military operations. Hailed by the Washington Post Book World as “the authoritative survey of the American cloak-and-dagger establishment,” this important text is now fully revised and updated. The fifth edition includes new material on homeland security intelligence, POW and detainee interrogation, and national intelligence organizations.

Booknews

Richelson is a senior fellow with the National Security Archive. Here he provides an updated edition of his detailed, comprehensive survey of America's intelligence empire<-->its collection and analysis organizations, their activities, and the management structure that oversees those activities. Given this purpose, he does not evaluate the community's effectiveness or comment on its wisdom or morality, though he does address some issues and challenges of the coming century. The data comes from interviews, official documents, and various print sources. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Look this: Your Fat Can Make You Thin or Secrets to Great Health

Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource

Author: Marq de Villiers

In his award-winning book WATER, Marq de Villiers provides an eye-opening account of how we are using, misusing, and abusing our planet's most vital resource. Encompassing ecological, historical, and cultural perspectives, de Villiers reports from hot spots as diverse as China, Las Vegas, and the Middle East, where swelling populations and unchecked development have stressed fresh water supplies nearly beyond remedy. Political struggles for control of water rage around the globe, and rampant pollution daily poses dire ecological theats. With one eye on these looming crises and the other on the history of our dependence on our planet's most precious commodity, de Villiers has crafted a powerful narrative about the lifeblood of civilizations that will be "a wake-up call for concerned citizens, environmentalists, policymakers, and water drinkers everywhere" (Publishers Weekly).

Canadian Geographic - Don Gayton

That water will be the oil of the 21st century has recently become a well-worn refrain among journalists, pollsters and analysts of all types. But few have examined the value of water as Marq de Villiers has in his Governor General Award-winning book. De Villiers, whose essay on water appears on page 50, tracks the moral, philosophical, scientific, economic and ecological concerns about water from prehistorical times to the present and raises troubling questions about the world's water supplies in this accessible, eloquent and enlightening book.

San Francisco Chronicle

....provides a fascinating and disturbing worldwide survey of water delivery.

KLIATT

Anyone who has traveled outside of the U.S., Canada or Western Europe has probably had to think twice about using any local water. Safe at home, we normally do not think too much about our tap water, or if we do, we readily fill up on whatever mineral water strikes our fancy or whatever happens to be on sale. Water makes us face the reality of how precious and dear water is everywhere. It covers the history and social effects of water control, availability and purity from the Danube to our own deserts. Alternately thought provoking and chilling, this is an excellent work. Economics, politics, whole populations and nature itself are so entwined with our use and abuse of water that no one can fail to be brought up short by the arguments of de Villiers. After dealing with the pros and cons of dams, shrinking aquifers, irrigation and re-engineering rivers, de Villiers touches on biotechnology: "What happens though, when farmers can grow more food with less water and with a tenth of the labor?...the complete industrialization of farming. Millions of third world peasants will be out their livelihoods, no longer necessary.... They will be forced into the cities as slum dwellers. . .Is that really what we want? You can look neither at water nor at food in isolation of other systemic problems." (p.272) Former South African, now Canadian, de Villiers shows us that no problem is isolated from our water problems. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Houghton Mifflin, Mariner, 352p. maps. notes. bibliog. index., $15.00. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Katherine E. Gillen; Libn., Luke AFB Lib., AZ , November 2001 (Vol. 35,No. 6)

Library Journal

The author, whose Boer childhood was spent on the edge of the Thirstland in South Africa, has had a lifelong fascination with water and studied water issues while writing his previous books on exploration, history, politics, and travel. His latest, winner of the Governor General s Literary Award for Nonfiction in Canada, depicts the current extent of world water scarcity, engineering efforts, and national and international water policies and briefly provides guidelines for dealing with the coming world water crisis. Like Paul Simon s Tapped Out: The World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About It (LJ 1/99), this book pays special attention to Middle Eastern water issues and to those affecting the United States and its neighbors. However, De Villiers s very readable work provides more in-depth treatment of the hydrology, natural history, and available technologies, while Simon provides more detailed and thoughtful recommendations for preventing and dealing with the anticipated water scarcities. De Villiers concludes somewhat cursorily with a chapter on solutions and manifestos. Still, his entertaining yet thought-provoking narrative style will make this book a good choice for serious summer reading. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. Margaret Aycock, Gulf Coast Environmental Lib., Beaumont, TX Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

This global examination of water, with especial focus on the Aral Sea, The Nile, and the Tigris and Euphrates, includes topics like water in history, desertification, the effect of climate change on rainfall and water tables, the effect of pollution on global water supply, water shortage and social collapse, water wars, the political and ecological consequences of exporting water from one river basin to another, the problem of dams, and the shrinkage of irrigated acreage and underground aquifers. Villiers is the author of six books on travel, exploration, history, and contemporary politics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The New Yorker

The author's argument here is exceptionally persuasive because he does not scold or inveigh but lucidly and readably reports...deVilliers does not despair, and he closes with a chapter on remedies.

Kirkus Reviews

A well-researched, fluent summary of the political and biological state of our global water resources, from Canadian author de Villiers (The Heartbreak Grape, 1993, etc.). The problem is not so much that there isn't enough water, explains the author, although growing populations may put that to the test. It is that water isn't where we want it: too much in the north when we need it in the south; too much seawater when we want freshwater; too much locked up in glaciers when we need it in our highballs or our sprinklers. So we go forth and fight for it, or steal it, or finagle it, or hold back what once flowed by. Twain had it right: "Whiskey is for drinkin'; water is for fightin'." Not that we have treated the water we do have access to with any sort of decency. De Villiers brings a sympathetic regard to the troubled waterscape, from the shrunken befouled Aral Sea to the waterway robbery of the Colorado River to cockamamie schemes from the Soviet bureaucracy to divert the great Arctic rivers. He details the downsides (or at least the overbalancing of cons to pros) of dams, irrigation, and tapping into aquifers—including salinization, siltation, habitat destruction, and microclimate changes. Numerous examples are given up to buttress points that are well-made—of the ripple effects of tinkering with natural systems, for instance—if not earthshaking in their novelty. The value of this book is in giving readers perspective: where mistakes have been made and where thorny water issues are likely to raise their heads in the future. On the other hand, de Villiers's chapter on "solutions" is a blend of wishful thinking(technological answersand population decline) and doomsaying (water wars). Written with grace and an eye for captivating material, making this catalog of water misuses (past, present, and future) all the more poignant.

	Acknowledgments	viii
	Preface	xiii
Part I	The Where, What, and How Much of the Water World
1	Water in Peril	3
2	The Natural Dispensation	27
3	Water in History	46
Part II	Remaking the Water World
4	Climate, Weather, and Water	67
5	Unnatural Selection	85
6	The Aral Sea	105
7	To Give a Dam	117
8	The Problem with Irrigation	136
9	Shrinking Aquifers	146
10	The Reengineered River	166
Part III	The Politics of Water
11	The Middle East	185
12	The Tigris-Euphrates System	204
13	The Nile	216
14	The United States and Its Neighbors	231
15	The Chinese Dilemma	263
Part IV	What Is to Be Done?
16	Solutions and Manifestos	275
	Notes	317
	Bibliography	331
	Index	339

A World Made New or Federal Administrative Law

2009-01-13T12:04:00.000-08:00

A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Author: Mary Ann Glendon

Unafraid to speak her mind and famously tenacious in her convictions, Eleanor Roosevelt was still mourning the death of FDR when she was asked by President Truman to lead a controversial commission, under the auspices of the newly formed United Nations, to forge the world’s first international bill of rights.

A World Made New is the dramatic and inspiring story of the remarkable group of men and women from around the world who participated in this historic achievement and gave us the founding document of the modern human rights movement. Spurred on by the horrors of the Second World War and working against the clock in the brief window of hope between the armistice and the Cold War, they grappled together to articulate a new vision of the rights that every man and woman in every country around the world should share, regardless of their culture or religion.

A landmark work of narrative history based in part on diaries and letters to which Mary Ann Glendon, an award-winning professor of law at Harvard University, was given exclusive access, A World Made New is the first book devoted to this crucial turning point in Eleanor Roosevelt’s life, and in world history.

Finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award

Christian Monitor.com - Merle Rubin

Mary Ann Glendon takes the title of her latest book from the conclusion of Eleanor Roosevelt's nightly prayer: "Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of a world made new."

There is the irony of the quest for human rights: The worst enemies of human rights are human beings themselves. Yet in the aftermath of World War II, a group of far-sighted people brought forth a document designed, as Glendon puts it, "to improve the odds of reason and conscience against power and interest."

On Dec. 10, 1948, without a single dissent, the United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since then, though its principles have often been violated, the declaration has served as an inspiration and a rallying cry for people all over the world.

The story of how this document came to be written and adopted is fascinating from a philosophical perspective, involving questions like: What is a human being? What is society? How do we balance civil and political liberties with economic and social welfare?

It is equally fascinating from the perspective of diplomacy, showing how a group of individuals, disagreeing among themselves, shepherded the declaration through a minefield of international and interpersonal conflict.

The difficulties were daunting. One of the participants, Lebanon's Charles Malik, wrote in his diary: "Intrigue, lobbying, secret arrangements, blocs, etc. It's terrible."

A philosophy professor, Malik added: "Power politics and bargaining nauseate me. There is so much unreality and play and sham that I can't swing myself into this atmosphere and act." But that was before he met Eleanor Roosevelt.

Indeed, Glendon's book reminds us that it is almost impossible to overestimate the greatness of Eleanor Roosevelt. In her role as US delegate to the UN, we can only marvel at Mrs. Roosevelt's combination of high principles and political adroitness. Her devotion to noble goals was equaled by her people smarts, as she parried attacks on US policies, defused tensions, and built bridges of consensus.

The declaration was a group effort, and Glendon shows us what a remarkable group they were. Their numbers included Roosevelt and Malik; as well as P.C. Chang, China's Renaissance man; Renй Cassin, a key figure in de Gaulle's resistance; Carlos Romulo, a fiery Philippine anti-colonialist; and Hansa Mehta of India, who worked to ensure that the declaration would include the rights of women.

Glendon deftly locates these players in the context of an increasingly fraught world. As representatives sought common ground, Arab nations were attacking the new state of Israel, Communists were seizing power in China and Czechoslovakia, and the American-Soviet wartime alliance was falling apart.

A central bone of contention for the framers of the declaration was: To what extent, if any, should the provisions be enforceable? Was it simply, as some argued, a waste of time to issue a declaration that made no provision for punishing violations? Or, if the document were drafted as an enforceable covenant with real teeth, would the US and USSR withdraw their support?

Glendon, a Harvard law professor and a critic of what she considers a combative approach to enforcing rights, defends the less rigorous approach that was in fact adopted. Only the more gradual effects of moral suasion and education, she believes, can lead to the changes that pave the way for legal enforcement of rights. And in this, she argues, the declaration has proved a qualified success, a beacon, showing people the way to a better future.

Glendon mounts a persuasive defense of the declaration's universality. Its framers, as she shows us, consulted a wide range of traditions in defining human rights, creating a structure flexible enough to allow for cultural differences, yet forthright in its enunciation of the fundamentals.

Current mantras of cultural relativism, she points out, give cover to authoritarian leaders seeking to silence criticism, while the growing number of Westerners who have ceased to believe in the idea of truth and falsehood may be even more dangerous.

"It is one thing," she writes, "to acknowledge that the human mind can glimpse truth only partially, quite another to deny its existence altogether." Glendon's fine book enhances our appreciation of the men and women who sought and found a way to enunciate universals.

Publishers Weekly

In 1947, in a world recently ripped apart by the Holocaust, a devastating war and mass displacement, the very idea of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights seemed both impossible and supremely necessary. As the specter of the Cold War loomed, a U.N. delegation, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, began writing what would become the world's first standard statement of human rights. Glendon, a professor of law at Harvard University, has written a compelling, at times thrilling account of how Roosevelt and her cohorts argued and cajoled one another through a series of intellectual, political and moral positions, finally hammering out a statement that was acceptable across national, religious and philosophical lines. While Glendon successfully traces the evolution of the document--which was ratified on December 10, 1948, after six drafts and much debate by the U.N. General Assembly--she also presents a richly textured portrait of a woman driven to public service while simultaneously grieving for her late husband. Roosevelt's politics were also at issue: at one point, she resigned from the U.N. over the U.S. government's initial disapproval of the creation of Israel. Glendon concludes with a legal analysis of the declaration and a lengthy discussion of its applicability today, when many non-Western nations (such as China) claim that the concept of "universal" human rights precepts precludes an acceptance of cultural differences. Glendon's work is a welcome addition to the realm of international law and to the growing body of literature on Eleanor Roosevelt's role in modern politics. Agents, Lynn Chu and Glen Hartley, Writer's Representatives. (Mar. 30) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

When it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the first formal statement of what the phrase human rights actually entailed. Glendon (law, Harvard) has written a legislative history of the Declaration covering both the negotiation process and the ratification debates and process during the years 1946-52. The book is based on extensive access to the diaries and unpublished memoirs of many of the participants as they worked with the horrors of World War II fresh in their minds and against the backdrop of the rapidly chilling Cold War. While the content and phrasing of the Declaration are the product of the many fine minds and strong personalities who worked on it, Eleanor Roosevelt is here given full credit for facilitating the process and steering the group to a final agreement that incorporated the best from many cultural and religious traditions. Recommended for academic libraries and broad Roosevelt collections.--Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A worthy review of the history and impact of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights,"the polestar of an army of international human rights activists." Glendon (Law/Harvard Univ.; A Nation Under Lawyers, 1994) guides the reader through the drafts and redrafts of a document that has been compared to the Declaration of Independence and the French 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man. As a member of the UN Commission on Human Rights and chair of the draft committee, Eleanor Roosevelt used her prestige and popularity to shepherd a document that affirmed the"brotherhood" of human beings in society and spelled out their rights to life, liberty, and"security of person," as well as more controversial civil, political, social, and economic rights. Her committee included Arabs and Jews, Chinese, Russians, and Brits, each with different definitions not only of"rights" but of the relationship and responsibilities of the state to the individual and vice versa. While Roosevelt was the best-known committee member, she wrote very little of the actual Declaration and, regrettably, came to be a mouthpiece for the US State Department on some issues. Nevertheless, she directed a hardworking group, with meetings running late into the night and discussions continuing at her teas and dinner parties. Glendon gives equal credit to committee members whose faith, determination, and skills at negotiating compromise built bridges between Moslem and Christian, for instance, over issues concerning women and marriage. The United Nations General Assembly accepted the Declaration without providing enforcement mechanisms, but this did not bother Roosevelt. She believed strongly that despite its lackoflegal muscle, it would serve as a"moral beacon" for all nations, and in concluding chapters Glendon argues that this is precisely the case. As much about the process and the players as the issues, but worthwhile, sometimes inspiring, reading for students of the shifting politics of human rights. (b&w photos, illustrations)

Federal Administrative Law

Author: Gary Lawson

This Fourth Edition will not change its basic structure and orientation, but it will take into account some very substanital changes in the law. The distinctive features have stayed the same through all editions: strong doctrinal orientation, focus on the historical origins and development of current doctrine, and straightforward organization and presentation that does not hide the ball

If I Only Knew Then or Give Me Liberty

2009-01-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

If I Only Knew Then...: Learning from Our Mistakes

Author: Charles Grodin

UNABRIDGED SELECTIONS

As Charles says, "If you don't get wiser as you get older, then you just get older." The core of this audiobook is about identifying our mistakes, learning from them, and not repeating them. Charles Grodin, a very funny individual who has appeared in movies, television and currently is on WCBS Radio every day, has asked his friends--from Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Shirley MacLaine, Alan Alda, Regis Philbin, Don Hewitt (of 60 Minutes fame), Joe Torre, and others--to share sometimes very revealing memories of the biggest mistake they've made.

Rosie O'Donnell looks back to her college days and her inability to express her love for a close girlfriend. Regis Philbin learned to trust his instincts when an early talk show got cancelled. Irwin Redlener, the Co-founder of The Children's Health Fund, examines a near-mistake--how he almost cancelled a trip to see a grown son who soon after died in a skiing accident. Dr. Nicholas Perricone learns to shift his perspective after witnessing the bravery of a young girl during his internship. Senator Orrin Hatch discusses his mistaken vote against making Martin Luthor King Day a national holiday. And Carol Burnett's hilarious essay explains why meeting Cary Grant turned out to be a big mistake!

This audiobook offers intimate insights into dozens of celebrated figures' lives.

Publishers Weekly

When actor and TV commentator Grodin (It Would Be So Nice if You Weren't Here) asked Shirley MacLaine about her biggest mistake, she suggested he go ask President Bush about his. Others of the 82 celebrity contributors to this collection who look back at lessons learned the hard way squirmed to evade Grodin's "truth or dare," while many have risen to the challenge with painful memories of nervousness, humiliation, social embarrassments, shame, regret, denial and guilt. Recalling an incident when she was 13, Mary Steenburgen can still "feel my face burn with shame at my own snobbery." After Leonard Nimoy ignored a publisher's warning, fans wrongly interpreted the title of his memoir, I Am Not Spock,to mean he was "rejecting the character and all things connected with Star Trek." Walter Cronkite's "biggest mistake" was retiring too soon. The standout piece is by Pete Hamill, who compresses his entire life into five pages as he reflects on the aftermath of his decision to drop out of high school. (Grodin will donate his royalties to HELP USA, which serves the homeless.) (Nov. 1)

Give Me Liberty!: An American History (Single-Volume Edition)

Author: Eric Foner

Offering instructors and students a lower-price alternative to the regular editions of our leading textbooks, the Norton Seagulls feature inviting, clear designs that focus student attention on the texts themselves. These compact books are portable, affordable, and authoritative. The Seagull Edition of Eric Foner's Give Me Liberty! An American History contains the complete text of the regular edition. Acclaimed by instructors and students and adopted at hundreds of colleges and universities across the country, Give Me Liberty! provides a fresh and effective approach to the survey. Its single-author narrative gives students a clear, coherent introduction to American history. The theme of American freedom enriches the narrative, integrates the book's coverage of social and political history, and motivates the study of history by alerting students to how much is at stake in having a knowledge of our past. The book is supported by the same full array of print and electronic ancillaries as the regular edition.

	List of Maps, Tables, and Figures	xvii
	About the Author	xix
	Preface	xxi
Part 1	American Colonies to 1763
1.	A New World	4
	The Expansion of Europe	7
	Peoples of the Americas	12
	The Spanish Empire	15
	The First North Americans	23
	England and the New World	30
	The Freeborn Englishman	35
	Voices of Freedom: From Henry Care, English Liberties, or, The Free-Born Subject's Inheritance (1680)	40
2.	American Beginnings, 1607-1650	44
	The Coming of the English	47
	Settling the Chesapeake	51
	Origins of American Slavery	57
	The New England Way	62
	Voices of Freedom: From John Winthrop, Speech to the Massachusetts General Court (July 3, 1645)	64
	New Englanders Divided	69
	The New England Economy	73
3.	Crisis and Expansion: North American Colonies, 1650-1750	78
	Empires in Conflict	81
	The Expansion of England's Empire	87
	Voices of Freedom: From William Penn, England's Present Interests Discovered (1675)	93
	Colonies in Crisis	94
	The Eighteenth Century: A Growing Society	101
	Social Classes in the Colonies	110
4.	Slavery, Freedom, and the Struggle for Empire to 1763	118
	Slavery and the Empire	121
	Slave Culture and Slave Resistance	130
	An Empire of Freedom	133
	The Public Sphere	138
	The Great Awakening	145
	Imperial Rivalries	148
	Battle for the Continent	151
	Voices of Freedom: From Pontiac, Speeches (1762 and 1763)	156
Part 2	A New Nation, 1763-1840
5.	The American Revolution, 1763-1783	166
	The Crisis Begins	169
	The Road to Revolution	176
	The Coming of Independence	180
	Voices of Freedom: From Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)	185
	Securing Independence	189
6.	The Revolution Within	200
	Democratizing Freedom	203
	Toward Religious Liberty	207
	Defining Economic Freedom	212
	The Limits of Liberty	215
	Slavery and the Revolution	220
	Voices of Freedom: From Petitions of Slaves to the Massachusetts Legislature (1773 and 1777)	224
	Daughters of Liberty	228
7.	Founding a Nation, 1783-1789	234
	America under the Articles of Confederation	237
	A New Constitution	246
	The Ratification Debate and the Origin of the Bill of Rights	253
	Voices of Freedom: From James Madison, The Federalist no. 51, and Anti-Federalist Essay Signed "Brutus" (1787)	254
	We the People	261
8.	Securing the Republic, 1790-1815	270
	Politics in an Age of Passion	272
	Voices of Freedom: From Address of the Democratic-Republican Society of Pennsylvania (December 18, 1794)	281
	The Adams Presidency	283
	Jefferson in Power	290
	The "Second War of Independence"	298
9.	The Market Revolution	306
	A New Economy	309
	Market Society	319
	Voices of Freedom: From Josephine L. Baker, "A Second Peep at Factory Life," Lowell Offering (1845)	328
	The Free Individual	330
	The Limits of Prosperity	335
10.	Democracy in America, 1815-1840	344
	The Triumph of Democracy	346
	Voices of Freedom: From "The Memorial of the Non-Freeholders of the City of Richmond" (1829)	348
	Nationalism and Its Discontents	353
	Nation, Section, and Party	358
	The Age of Jackson	363
	The Bank War and After	373
Part 3	Slavery, Freedom, and the Crisis of the Union, 1840-1877
11.	The Peculiar Institution	386
	The Old South	389
	Voices of Freedom: From John C. Calhoun, Speech in Congress (1837)	398
	Life under Slavery	400
	Slave Culture	409
	Resistance to Slavery	414
12.	An Age of Reform, 1820-1840	422
	The Reform Impulse	424
	The Crusade against Slavery	434
	Black and White Abolitionism	441
	The Origins of Feminism	445
	Voices of Freedom: From Angelina Grimke, Letter in The Liberator (August 2, 1837)	448
13.	A House Divided, 1840-1861	456
	Fruits of Manifest Destiny	458
	A Dose of Arsenic	470
	The Rise of the Republican Party	477
	Voices of Freedom: From William H. Seward, "The Irrepressible Conflict" (1858)	484
	The Emergence of Lincoln	487
	The Impending Crisis	495
14.	A New Birth of Freedom: The Civil War, 1861-1865	502
	The First Modern War	504
	The Coming of Emancipation	514
	The Second American Revolution	524
	Voices of Freedom: From Abraham Lincoln, Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore (April 18, 1864)	525
	The Confederate Nation	532
	Turning Points	536
	Rehearsals for Reconstruction and the End of the War	539
15.	"What Is Freedom?": Reconstruction, 1865-1877	548
	The Meaning of Freedom	551
	Voices of Freedom: From Petition of Committee in Behalf of the Freedmen to Andrew Johnson (1865)	558
	The Making of Radical Reconstruction	562
	Radical Reconstruction in the South	572
	The Overthrow of Reconstruction	577
	Appendix
	Documents
	The Declaration of Independence (1776)	2
	The Constitution of the United States (1787)	4
	From George Washington's Farewell Address (1796)	14
	The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions (1848)	18
	From Frederick Douglass's "What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?" Speech (1852)	20
	The Gettysburg Address (1863)	23
	Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865)	24
	The Populist Platform of 1892	25
	Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address (1933)	28
	Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)	30
	Tables
	Presidential Elections	32
	Admission of States	40
	Population of the United States	41
	Historical Statistics of the United States
	Workforce	42
	Immigration, by Origin	42
	Glossary	43
	Credits	63
	Index	67

Phoenix or Essentials of International Relations

2009-01-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

Phoenix: Commandant of Auschwitz

Author: Rudolf Hoess

A self-portrait, composed by one of the greatest monsters of all time: Rudolf Hoess, the Commandant at Auschwitz, and the man who knew more than almost anyone about how Nazi Germany implemented the Final Solution. Captured by the British after the war, tried, and sentenced to death, he was ordered to write his autobiography in the weeks between his trial and his execution (which fittingly took place in Auschwitz itself). Hoess apparently enjoyed the task, and the most careful checking by researchers showed he took great pains to tell the truth. The result: a vivid and unforgettable picture of the 20th century's defining and most horrific event. Royalties from this book go to the fund to help the few survivors of Auschwitz.

New interesting textbook: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher or The Truth about the Drug Companies

Essentials of International Relations

Author: Karen Mingst

Essentials of International Relations is the best-selling brief text for introductory international relations courses. Professor Mingst's unique framework focuses on the basic concepts and core theories that political scientists use to understand world politics. The Fourth Edition has been thoroughly updated with analysis of important recent events and new Global Perspectives boxes that invite students to consider international issues from the viewpoint of those outside the United States.

Beyond the Age of Innocence or Public Administration Theory Primer

2009-01-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

Beyond the Age of Innocence: A Worldly View of America

Author: Kishore Mahbubani

After publishing articles in leading American journals for over two decades, Kishore Mahbubani was described as "an Asian Toynbee, preoccupied with the rise and fall of civilizations" by The Economist. Trained in philosophy in North America and Asia, and well-experienced in real politik as a diplomat on the world stage, Mahbubani has unusual insight into America's ever more troubled relationship with the rest of the world.

In Beyond the Age of Innocence Mahbubani reveals to us the America that Asia and the rest of the world see. We are a country that has given hope to billions by creating a society where destiny is not determined at birth. After the Second World War, we created a global order which allowed many nations to flourish. But when the Cold War ended, America made a terrible mistake. We started behaving like a normal country, ignoring the plight of others, indifferent to the consequences of our decisions on others. America was imprudent in its policy towards two large masses of mankind: the Chinese and Muslim populations. Guantanamo damaged our moral authority, but Abu Ghraib, paradoxically, may have demonstrated the accountability of American institutions. Still, disillusionment with America has spread to all corners.

To allow any lasting gap between America and the world, Mahbubani argues, would be a colossal strategic mistake for America and a huge loss to the world. But there is still time for the US to change course; and in this thoughtprovoking, visionary book, Mahbubani shows us how.

Book review: Grundlagen der Bestandsverwaltung: Vom Lager bis Verbreitungszentrum

Public Administration Theory Primer

Author: H George Frederickson

In the past thirty years, public administration has developed more systematic patterns of inquiry about the substance of public organization behavior, public management, and public policy implementation. This book explores how the science and art of policy administration is definable, describable, replicable, and cumulative. Frederickson and Smith describe several theories and analytical approaches that contribute to what we know about policy administration. This book asks: Which theories or approaches are the most promising, the most influential? Which are the most important now and likely to be the most important in the future? The purpose of this effort is to set out a detailed description of key theories in contemporary public administration and thus improve the reliability of our knowledge and our understanding of public administration.

	Preface
1	Introduction: The Possibilities of Theory	1
2	Theories of Political Control of Bureaucracy	15
3	Theories of Bureaucratic Politics	41
4	Public Institutional Theory	67
5	Theories of Public Management	95
6	Postmodern Theory	127
7	Decision Theory	161
8	Rational Choice Theory	185
9	Theories of Governance	207
10	Conclusion: A Bright Future for Theory?	229
	References	249
	Index	267

Grace Coolidge or Utilization Focused Evaluation

2009-01-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

Grace Coolidge: The People's Lady in Silent Cal's White House

Author: Robert H Ferrell

When Grace Anna Goodhue wed Calvin Coolidge in 1905, she thought then that marriage "has seldom united two people of more vastly different temperaments and tastes." Warm and vivacious to her husband's dour and taciturn, Grace was to be a contrast to Calvin for years to come. But as Robert Ferrell shows, their marriage ensured her husband's rise to high office.

Ferrell focuses on Grace Coolidge's years in the White House, 1923-1929. Although the president did his best to rein her in—even forbidding her to speak on public issues—Grace quickly became one of the most popular and stylish of first ladies. Among the best-dressed women of her time (famously in red), she became the nation's fashion leader. She also opened the White House to the public, sponsored musicales within its walls, and worked on behalf of the deaf and disabled—all despite a less than supportive spouse. Ferrell recounts how she accomplished all of this, finding strength through the years in her Burlington background, her family, and her faith.

In this lively book Ferrell provides a perceptive and often moving account of Grace Coolidge. From his insightful portrait of her Vermont roots to a frank assessment of the Coolidges and their sons, he offers a fresh perspective on a much-admired woman who was perhaps her husband's greatest political asset.

Ferrell also takes readers inside Grace's strained marriage to the famously taciturn president who kept his wife in the dark about his plans, both political and personal. He offers a much more subtle look at the Coolidges and their relationship in the public eye than we've had, shedding new light on how she managed to deal with his irascibletemper—and how the marriage ultimately triumphed over difficulties that Calvin could not have handled alone.

Alternately charming and analytic, Ferrell's narrative will leave readers with the real sense of Grace Coolidge as a human being and a contributor to the historical legacy of presidential wives. For she did more than simply enliven a quiet White House—she set the tone for a nation and for first ladies to come.

This book is part of the Modern First Ladies series.

What People Are Saying

David Greenberg
More than any other biographer, Ferrell demonstrates how important Grace Coolidge was to her husband's career. She emerges in this account not only as sympathetic but also as significant. A magnet for press coverage, she was sensitive, stylish, much beloved, and nobody's fool. (David Greenberg, author of Calvin Coolidge)

Richard Norton Smith
Ferrell is a graceful stylist and a born storyteller. His Grace Coolidge would be a fascinating subject had she never been first lady--but as this wonderfully readable book makes clear, her husband was lucky, and her country luckier still, that she was. (Richard Norton Smith, author of An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover)

Betty Boyd Caroli
A story that will intrigue--and enlighten. (Betty Boyd Caroli, author of First Ladies)

David Greenberg

More than any other biographer, Ferrell demonstrates how important Grace Coolidge was to her husband's career. She emerges in this account not only as sympathetic but also as significant. A magnet for press coverage, she was sensitive, stylish, much beloved, and nobody's fool. (David Greenberg, author of Calvin Coolidge)

Betty Boyd Caroli

A story that will intrigue—and enlighten. (Betty Boyd Caroli, author of First Ladies)

Richard Norton Smith

Ferrell is a graceful stylist and a born storyteller. His Grace Coolidge would be a fascinating subject had she never been first lady—but as this wonderfully readable book makes clear, her husband was lucky, and her country luckier still, that she was. (Richard Norton Smith, author of An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover)

Utilization-Focused Evaluation

Author: Michael Quinn Patton

The second edition of Patton's classic text retains the practical advice of the original. It shows how to conduct an evaluation in a way that will be useful -- and actually used. Patton has included new stories, new examples, new research findings, and more of his evaluation humour. He adds to the original book's insights into the changes in evaluation during the past decade and incorporates recent research on utilization.

Magnificent Catastrophe or Bodies of Evidence

2009-01-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign

Author: Edward J Larson

In the bestselling tradition of John Adams and 1776
...a riveting story of our Founding Fathers

Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Larson's masterful account revisits the wild ride that was the 1800 presidential election—an election so convulsive and so momentous that Thomas Jefferson would later dub it "America's second revolution." This was America's first true presidential campaign, giving birth to our two-party system and indelibly etching the lines of partisanship that have shaped American politics ever since. Once warm friends, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson faced off as the heads of their two still-forming parties flanked by the brilliant tacticians Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, who settled their own differences in a duel.

Drawing on unprecedented, meticulous research of the day to day unfolding drama, Larson vividly recreates the mounting tension as each state voted and the lead passed back and forth. The outcome remained shrouded in doubt long after the voting ended, and as Inauguration Day approached, Congress met in closed session to resolve the crisis. In its first great electoral challenge, our fragile experiment in constitutional democracy hung in the balance.

The New York Times - Gil Troy

Democratic dialogue demands engagement; popular politics require passion. It is impossible to achieve both the broad participation Americans seek and the quiet contemplation they desire. As long as elections remain free and contested, they will often be "magnificent catastrophes" with partisans scurrying for advantage, campaigns lurching out of control, conscientious citizens becoming both involved and appalled. A master storyteller, Larson illustrates these conclusions through a gripping narrative rather than an explicit analysis…his dramatic tale offers fascinating modern parallels…

Publishers Weekly

John Dossett lends a melodious and erudite tone to this book about the most disastrous presidential election in American history: the 1800 contest between incumbent John Adams and his polymath v-p, populist Thomas Jefferson. Dossett's Jefferson speaks with a slow, suave Virginia drawl, his elegant voice bathing in the rich words that flowed from the founder's pen. His Adams sounds blunt, curmudgeonly and judgmental-as Larson often portrays him. The abridgment narrows the focus of the 1800 election to a horse race between these two very different men, who saw their friendship torn asunder and, many years after the election, pieced together again. Despite the abridgment's careful editing, the audio still has to contend with the weighty and unexciting technical details of backroom politicking and electioneering that shaped the ballot's outcome. But there's plenty to maintain the listener's interest-including slave rebellions, sexual scandals, backstabbing and festering hatred between Alexander Hamilton and the scheming Aaron Burr. History lovers will enjoy this dramatic rendition of one of America's most turbulent political moments. Simultaneous release with the Free Press hardcover (Reviews, May 21). (Oct.)

Donna L. Davey - Library Journal

Larson (history, Pepperdine Univ.; Summer of the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who can bring history alive. His account of the pivotal election that resulted in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and fellow Republican Aaron Burr-competing to replace President John Adams, who was running for reelection-is a well-researched page-turner useful especially for general readers. Punctuated liberally with quotes from diaries and letters and from the era's rollicking and opinionated press, this is an absorbing account of what was effectively America's first presidential campaign. Larson captures the personalities of Jefferson, Adams, Burr, fellow contender Charles C. Pinckney, and Alexander Hamilton and the conflicting ideologies driving their partisanship (e.g., Federalist Hamilton ultimately worked behind the scenes for Federalist Pinckney over Federalist Adams), which solidified our two-party system. Larson shows Burr and Hamilton adeptly spinning their angles by using the day's highly politicized newspapers, thus reinforcing long-standing political partisanship. The election was thrown to the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives to break the electoral tie. Finally, after 36 ballots, Jefferson, a Republican, was elected when Federalist electors in two states ceased to vote. Larson takes a subject both complex and resonant and produces a fine read. Recommended for public and undergraduate library collections.

Kirkus Reviews

Pulitzer Prize-winner Larson (Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory, 2004, etc.) vividly recounts America's first overtly partisan election. In 1799, the single man capable of papering over the young republic's widening political divisions died in retirement at Mount Vernon. There had been no open campaign to succeed Washington in 1796 when the electoral provisions of the untested Constitution uncomfortably yoked Federalist President John Adams to Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, the acknowledged leader of the opposition Republicans. Now, the two prepared to face off in what became, and remains, the most vituperative and dramatic of all U.S. elections. Through newspapers, letters and speeches, Republicans hammered Federalists for offenses amounting to a betrayal of the revolution: their sponsorship of the Alien and Sedition Acts, their support of a standing army, their too-friendly disposition toward organized religion and their dangerous sympathies for monarchy. In turn, Federalists, badly split over Adams's leadership, assailed Republicans for their godlessness and blind devotion to liberty at the expense of the public order and national defense, issues brought into high relief by the bloody excesses of the French Revolution. The colorful cast of Founders included Madison, Jay, Pinckney, Monroe and Samuel Adams; the behind-the-scenes machinations of High Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton and Republican organizer Aaron Burr were especially dramatic. Larson (History/Univ. of Georgia and Pepperdine Univ.) does justice to them all and demonstrates his storytelling mastery by lucidly recounting the political histories and procedures unique to each state and deftlydelineating the issues that dominated the national debate. Astonishingly, the hard-fought, bitterly personal campaign resulted in an Electoral College tie between Jefferson and running-mate Burr, whose maddening refusal to defer to the Sage of Monticello encouraged Federalist mischief. It required 35 Congressional ballots before Jefferson finally prevailed. Smartly conceived, beautifully wrought campaign history, bound to entertain and inform. Agent: B.G. Dilworth/BG Dilworth Agency Inc.

Look this: Grundlagen von Terminwaren und Optionsmärkten mit der CD-ROM

Bodies of Evidence: Forensic Science and Crime

Author: Scott Christianson

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

1	Islam began as a stranger and will return as a stranger	7
2	Holding fast against idolatry	40
3	Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud and the taming of Wahhabi zeal	71
4	Wahhabism in a modern state	104
5	The Wahhabi mission and Islamic revivalism	130
6	Challenges to Wahhabi hegemony	155
	Al al-Sheikh

1	False positives	11
2	Beyond suspicion	42
3	Necessity's offspring	82
4	Zawahiri's head	125
5	Going operational	163
6	Cause for alarm	192
7	Conversations with dictators	221
8	Wages of fear	258
9	Hearts and minds	291

	Foreword to the Paperback Edition
	Preface
	Author's Note
Map	The British Empire in India Before 1947
Map	India in 1997
	Introduction: Ideas of India	1
1	Democracy	15
2	Temples of the Future	61
3	Cities	107
4	Who is an Indian?	150
	Epilogue: The Garb of Modernity	196
	References	209
	Bibliographical Essay	217
	Index	243

Ch. 1	Alexander Hamilton : the enlightenment fulfilled
Ch. 2	John Adams : the enlightenment transcended
Ch. 3	Thomas Jefferson : romantic America

1	Germany remembers	15
2	South Africa in the wake of remembered evil	63
3	Old unpaid debt to African Americans	127
4	Unreflected absences : Native Americans	207
5	Being human while being American : agenda for the American future	263

1	How civilizations perish	1
2	The invasion	7
3	Coming to America	19
4	The face of America : 2050	36
5	Suicide of the GOP	51
6	Roots of paralysis	68
7	A grudge against the Gringo	93
8	The Aztlan plot	119
9	What is a nation?	138
10	The return of tribalism	164
11	Eurabia	187
12	"A nation of immigrants"?	220
13	Last chance	245

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Handbook of Gerontology: Evidence-Based Approaches to Theory, Practice, and Policy

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Tigers, Rice, Silk, and Silt: Environment and Economy in Late Imperial South China

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Forensic Science Laboratory Manual And Workbook, Revised Edition

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Dr Kimball and Mr Jefferson or The Idea of India

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What a Party or A Peoples History of American Empire

What a Party!

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Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics or Political Life of Medicare

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Hamilton Adams Jefferson or To Perpetual Peace

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Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930 - 1934

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Letters to the Next President or Total Cold War

Letters to the Next President

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Quarantine!: East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892

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Lawrence R. Maxted <P>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. - School Library Journal