The Truth or Talking Politics

The Truth (with Jokes)

Author: Al Franken

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

Read also Compassion in Dying or Tao of Bioenergetics

Talking Politics

Author: William A Gamson

Those who analyze public opinion have long contended that the average citizen is incapable of recounting consistently even the most rudimentary facts about current politics; that the little the average person does know is taken at face value from the media reports, and that the consequence is a polity that is ill-prepared for democratic governance. Yet social movements, comprised by and large of average citizens who have become exercised about particular issues, have been a prominent feature of the American political scene throughout American history and they are experiencing a resurgence in recent years.William Gamson asks the question, how is it that so many people become active in movements if people are so generally uninterested and badly informed about issues? The conclusion he reaches in this book is a striking refutation of the common wisdom about the public's ability to reason about politics. Rather than relying on survey data, as so many studies of public opinion do, Gamson reports on his analysis of discussions among small groups of working-class people on four controversial issues: affirmative action, nuclear power, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the troubles in American industry. Excerpts from many of these discussions are transcribed in the book.Gamson analyzes how these same issues have been treated in a range of media material, from editorial opinion columns to political cartoons and network news programs, in order to determine how closely the group discussions mimic media discourse. He finds that the process of opinion formation is more complex than it has usually been depicted and that people condition media information with reflection on their ownexperience or that of people they know. The discussions transcribed in this book demonstrate that people are quite capable of conducting informed and well-reasoned discussions about issues and that although most people are not inclined to become actively involved in politics, the seeds of political action are present in the minds of many. With the appropriate stimulation, this latent political consciousness can be activated, which accounts for the continual creation of social movements.

Subjectivity Identity Difference or Notes from Toyota land

Subjectivity, Identity, Difference: Retrieving Experience for Feminist Politics

Author: Sonia Kruks

In Retrieving Experience, Sonia Kruks engages critically with the postmodern turn in feminist and social theory. She contends that, although postmodern analyses yield important insights about the place of discourse in constituting subjectivity, they lack the ability to examine how experience often exceeds the limits of discourse. To address this lack and explain why it matters for feminist politics, Kruks retrieves and employs aspects of postwar French existential theory—a tradition that, she argues, postmodernism has obscured by militantly rejecting its own genealogy.

Kruks seeks to refocus our attention on the importance for feminism of embodied and "lived" experiences. Through her original readings of Simone de Beauvoir and other existential thinkers—including Sartre, Fanon, and Merleau-Ponty—and her own analyses inspired by their work, Kruks sheds new light on central problems in feminist theory and politics. These include debates about subjectivity and individual agency; questions about recognition and identity politics; and discussion of whether embodied experiences may sometimes facilitate solidarity among groups of different women.

About the Author:
Sonia Kruks is Robert S. Danforth Professor of Politics and has served as the Director of the Women's Studies Program at Oberlin College. She is the author of The Political Philosophy of Merleau-Ponty and Situation and Human Existence: Freedom, Subjectivity and Society and coeditor of Promissory Notes: Women in the Transition to Socialism.

Interesting textbook: Whats Cooking with Mavis or Classic Main Courses

Notes from Toyota-land: An American Engineer in Japan

Author: Darius Mehri

In 1996, Darius Mehri traveled to Japan to work as a computer simulation engineer within the Toyota production system. Once there, he found a corporate experience far different from what he had expected. Notes from Toyota-land, based on a diary that Mehri kept during his three years at an upper-level Toyota group company, provides a unique insider's perspective on daily work life in Japan and charts his transformation from a wide-eyed engineer eager to be part of the "Japanese Miracle" to a social critic, troubled by Japanese corporate practices.

Mehri documents the sophisticated "culture of rules" and organizational structure that combine to create a profound control over workers. The work group is cynically used to encourage employees to work harder and harder, he found, and his other discoveries confirmed his doubts about the working conditions under the Japanese Miracle. For example, he learned that male employees treated their female counterparts as short-term employees, cheap labor, and potential wives. Mehri also describes a surprisingly unhealthy work environment, a high rate of injuries due to inadequate training, fast line speeds, crowded factories, racism, and lack of team support. And in conversations with his colleagues, he uncovered a culture of intimidation, subservience, and vexed relationships with many aspects of their work and surroundings. As both an engaging memoir of cross-cultural misunderstanding and a primer on Japanese business and industrial practices, Notes from Toyota-land will be a revelation to everyone who believes that Japanese business practices are an ideal against which to measure success.

Author Bio:Darius Mehri lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. Robert Perrucci is Professor of Sociology at Purdue University.

Children of Global Migration or Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery

Children of Global Migration: Transnational Families and Gendered Woes

Author: Rhacel Salazar Parreenas

In the Philippines, a dramatic increase in labor migration has created a large population of transnational migrant families. Thousands of children now grow up apart from one or both parents, as the parents are forced to work outside the country in order to send their children to school, give them access to quality health care, or, in some cases, just provide them with enough food. While the issue of transnational families has already generated much interest, this book is the first to offer a close look at the lives of the children in these families.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with the family members left behind, the author examines two dimensions of the transnational family. First, she looks at the impact of distance on the intergenerational relationships, specifically from the children’s perspective. She then analyzes gender norms in these families, both their reifications and transgressions in transnational households. Acknowledging that geographical separation unavoidably strains family intimacy, Parreñas argues that the maintenance of traditional gender ideologies exacerbates and sometimes even creates the tensions that plague many Filipino migrant families.

Book about: Frommers Alaska Cruises Ports of Call 2009 or Jeff Shaaras Civil War Battlefields

Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery

Author: Earl M Maltz

The slave Dred Scott claimed that his residence in a free state transformed him into a free man. His lawsuit took many twists and turns before making its way to the Supreme Court in 1856. But when the Court ruled against him, the ruling sent shock waves through the nation and helped lead to civil war. Writing for the 7-to-2 majority, Chief Justice Roger Taney asserted that blacks were not and never could be citizens. Taney also ruled that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional, upsetting the balance of slave and free states. Earl Maltz now offers a new look at this landmark case, presenting Dred Scott as a turning point in an already contentious national debate. Maltz's accessible account depicts Dred Scott as both a contributing factor to war and the result of a political climate that had grown so threatening to the South that overturning the Missouri Compromise was considered essential. As the nation continued its rapid expansion, Southerners became progressively more fearful of the free states' growing political clout. In that light, the ruling from a Court filled with justices sympathetic to the Southern cause, though far from surprising helped light the long fuse that eventually exploded into Civil War. Maltz offers an uncommonly balanced look at the case, taking Southern concerns seriously to cast new light on why proponents of slavery saw things as they did. He presents the arguments of all the parties impartially, tracks the sequence of increasingly strained compromises between pro- and anti-slavery forces, and demonstrates how political and sectional influences infiltrated the legal issues. He then traces the impact of the case on Northern and Southernpublic opinion, showing how a decision meant to resolve the question of slavery in the territories only aggravated sectional animosity.

Table of Contents:

Editors' Preface     vii
Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     1
The Politics of Slavery, 1785-1842     4
The Supreme Court and Slavery, 1825-1842     19
Slavery in the Territories, 1842-1856     34
The Road to the Supreme Court     60
The Supreme Court in 1856     76
Arguments and Deliberations     101
The Opinions of the Justices     118
The Impact of Dred Scott     140
Dred Scott and the Limits of Judicial Power     155
Chronology     157
Bibliographic Essay     161
Index     169

Landscapes of the Jihad or Nasser

Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity

Author: Faisal Devji

What are the motives behind Osama bin Laden's and Al-Qaeda's jihad against America and the West? Innumerable attempts have been made in recent years to explain that mysterious worldview. In Landscapes of the Jihad, Faisal Devji focuses on the ethical content of this jihad as opposed to its purported political intent. Al-Qaeda differs radically from such groups as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah, which aim to establish fundamentalist Islamic states. In fact, Devji contends, Al-Qaeda, with its decentralized structure and emphasis on moral rather than political action, actually has more in common with multinational corporations, antiglobalization activists, and environmentalist and social justice organizations. Bin Laden and his lieutenants view their cause as a response to the oppressive conditions faced by the Muslim world rather than an Islamist attempt to build states.

Al-Qaeda culls diverse symbols and fragments from Islam's past in order to legitimize its global war against the "metaphysical evil" emanating from the West. The most salient example of this assemblage, Devji argues, is the concept of jihad itself, which Al-Qaeda defines as an "individual duty" incumbent on all Muslims, like prayer. Although medieval Islamic thought provides precedent for this interpretation, Al-Qaeda has deftly separated the stipulation from its institutional moorings and turned jihad into a weapon of spiritual conflict.

Al-Qaeda and its jihad, Devji suggests, are only the most visible manifestations of wider changes in the Muslim world. Such changes include the fragmentation of traditional as well as fundamentalist forms of authority. In the author's view, Al-Qaeda represents a new way of organizing Muslim belief and practice within a global landscape and does not require ideological or institutional unity.

Offering a compelling explanation for the central purpose of Al-Qaeda's jihad against the West, the meaning of its strategies and tactics, and its moral and aesthetic dimensions, Landscapes of the Jihad is at once a sophisticated work of historical and cultural analysis and an invaluable guide to the world's most prominent terrorist movement.

Author Bio:Faisal Devji is Assistant Professor of History at New School University.

Look this: Natural Health for Kids or The Brain Disorders Sourcebook

Nasser: The Last Arab

Author: Said K Aburish

Since the death of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970 there has been no ideology to capture the imagination of the Arab world except Islamic fundamentalism. Any sense of completely secular Arab states ended with him and what we see today happening in the Middle East is a direct result of Western opposition to Nasser's strategies and ideals.

Nasser is a fascinating figure fraught with dilemmas. With the CIA continually trying to undermine him, Nasser threw his lot in with the Soviet Union, even though he was fervently anti-Communist. Nasser wanted to build up a military on par with Israel's, but didn't want either the '56 or '67 wars. This was a man who was a dictator, but also a popular leader with an ideology which appealed to most of the Arab people and bound them together. While he was alive, there was a brief chance of actual Arab unity producing common, honest, and incorruptible governments throughout the region.

More than ever, the Arab world is anti-Western and teetering on disaster, and this examination of Nasser's life is tantamount to understanding whether the interests of the West and the Arab world are reconcilable.

Nasser is a definitive and engaging portrait of a man who stood at the center of this continuing clash in the Middle East.

Publishers Weekly

According to London-based journalist Aburish, his is the 28th biography of Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970). The statistic says much about the appeal of the Egyptian colonel who forced out King Farouk yet failed to modernize an unwilling nation that adored him. Nasser evicted Britain from Suez and funded the Aswan Dam, but, Aburish concedes, could not lead Egypt out of backwardness, corruption and Islamic extremism. This biography has more politics than life in it, and much repetitive and often contradictory history. Once Nasser joins with dissident fellow officers whom he quickly co-opts, the reader learns little more than that he was always a good husband and father, spurned corruption and suffered early on from the heart trouble and diabetes that killed him at 52. Aburish mourns the lost potential of the man he sees as the greatest figure in the region since Saladin, but acknowledges that the inability to delegate authority to anyone not an incompetent and thus likely to unseat him left Nasser unable to achieve real change. The book attempts to explain Nasser's contradictions regarding relations with America (and the CIA), Russia, Israel and his Arab neighbors, but Aburish is unable to persuade even himself. At one point, for example, Nasser's "heir apparent" Zakkaria Mohieddine quarreled with him "and never saw Nasser again," but 15 pages later he is named prime minister "and seldom met his leader alone." Also marred by a propensity for triteness, this biography is unlikely to appeal to readers beyond those who are fixated on Middle Eastern political turmoil. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. Agent, Gile Gordon, Curtis Brown Edinburgh. (Apr.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Thoughtful-though sometimes puzzling-biography of the Arab world's "most charismatic leader since the Prophet Mohammed," and the last to command international influence. Gamal Abdel Nasser's death, more than 30 years ago, marked an end to Arab internationalism, an effort to build a pan-Arab polity. In the place of that populist movement, writes London-based Arabist Aburish (A Brutal Friendship, 1998, etc.), stand, on one hand, corrupt dictatorships ("The House of Saud fails to qualify as an institution, unless perpetuating despotism is elevated to an acceptable form of continuity") and, on the other, Islamic fundamentalism. Many readers may question Aburish's view that the West is the cause of this fundamentalism, but there it is: Nasser's "dreams have been hijacked by the Islamic movements the West created to defeat him." One need not accept that odd thesis, though, to profit from Aburish's account of Nasser's rise to power and his concerted efforts, once he got there, to extend the possibilities of an Egyptian-led Arab enlightenment into the dark corners of the Arab world-which included Saudi Arabia and Iraq, whose governments opposed Nasser at every turn. Aburish also traces the origins of Nasser's growing militancy to a conference of nonaligned nations of 1955, in which China's Chou En-Lai, Yugoslavia's Tito, and India's Nehru separately urged him to lessen his reliance on the West and become an independent, neutral force in the region. Nasser did so, Aburish shows, which set him in opposition to France and England (whence the Suez Crisis of the following year), cost him American support, and drew him into the Soviet camp, even though Nasser remained a middle-of-the-roader through andthrough ("Becoming a revolutionary meant throwing caution to the wind, something Nasser the conservative, ardent nationalist never did"). "For an Arab to excel in administration is rare," Aburish remarks in another curious statement. If so, Nasser was all the more exceptional. Agency: Curtis Brown UK

Table of Contents:

	Introduction: The Painful Truth	1
1.	The Dreamer from Nowhere	7
2.	The Encounter with Power	29
3.	The Road to Suez	57
4.	Give Them Dignity	87
5.	The Dark at the End of the Tunnel	123
6.	And I Shall Divide Your Araby into Two	155
7.	Search for an Honorable Exit	187
8.	Leader of the Arabs	221
9.	The Politics of Decline	249
10.	We Are Defeated	283
	Epilogue: "You Live, Abu-Khalid, You Live"	313
	Notes	321
	Interviews	337
	Select Bibliography	339
	Index	343

Befriend and Betray or Baghdad Diaries

Befriend and Betray: Infiltrating the Hells Angels, Bandidos and Other Criminal Brotherhoods

Author: Alex Cain

The Hells Angels. The Bandidos. Asian triads. Russian mobsters and corrupt cops. Even the KKK. Just part of a day’s work for Alex Caine, an undercover agent who has seen it all.

Alex Caine started life as a working-class boy from Quebec who always thought he’d end up in a blue-collar job. But after a tour in Vietnam and a stretch in prison on marijuana-possession charges, he fell into the cloak-and-dagger world of a contracted agent or “kite”: infiltrating criminal groups that cops across North America and around the globe were unable to penetrate themselves.

Thanks to his quick-wittedness and his tough but unthreatening demeanour, Caine could fit into whatever unsavoury situation he found himself. Over twenty-five years, his assignments ran the gamut from bad-ass bikers to triad toughs. When a job was over, he’d slip away to a new part of the continent or world, where he would assume a new identity and then go back to work on another group of bad guys.

Told with page-turning immediacy, Befriend and Betray gives a candid look behind the scenes at some familiar police operations and blows the lid off others that law enforcement would much prefer to keep hidden. And it offers an unvarnished account of the toll such a life takes, one that often left Caine to wonder who he really was, behind those decades of assumed identities. Or whether justice was ever truly served.

Publishers Weekly

Chilling and gritty, this new account by Caine, an undercover police agent for 25 years, showcases his skills as a shrewd chameleon who could infiltrate any group while tallying their vices and offenses. Following stints in Vietnam and behind bars, he teamed with the cops to penetrate the criminal netherworld populated by cruel Asian triads and street gangs battling for territories and riches. Caine, a tough cookie, was recruited by all of the federal enforcement agencies to get the goods on the big four outlaw bike gangs-the Hells Angels, the Bandidos, the Outlaws and the Pagans-and some of his exploits are the stuff of high-tension torture and lawlessness. His resourcefulness is uncanny, as is his sheer will to survive as he matches wits with a group of Russian mobsters and lawmen on the take. It's to Caine's credit that he lived to tell this riveting tale of bloodshed and corruption. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Feb.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Reviews

Infiltrator-for-hire Caine writes with disarming candor about going undercover everywhere from Newfoundland to Hong Kong. The child of a broken family in a small Quebec town, he was a directionless 20-year-old ne'er-do-well when he signed up in 1969 to fight with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam. A horrific tour of duty, which saw him coordinating extrajudicial assassinations and accidentally killing at least one civilian, left him prone to detachment, something he put to use after returning to Canada. Accidentally getting too friendly with a Vancouver criminal, he informed the police; but instead of giving him a reward, the Mounties signed him up as an informant. The investigation widened into an international operation that sent Caine flying to Hong Kong (along with plenty of cops looking for a taypayer-funded vacation) to move higher up the Triad's chain of command. After that, he became an undercover mercenary specializing in biker gangs. Caine's unassuming demeanor made him fit in better than the undercover officers who overdid it. Indeed, he displays considerable contempt for cops who relish playing the bad boy, portraying one police ambush he witnessed as little more than a gangland hit. Most of the narrative details his work inside the Bandidos, a Pacific Northwest gang, and a long assignment with the Hell's Angels in California. Along the way he also describes operations involving Toronto gangs and the KKK. His personal life suffered from all the role-playing: "My mind is really a graveyard for all the people I've been," he writes. Two marriages broke up, and an investigation involving a family member estranged his sisters. Unlike ATF special agent Jay Dobyns (No Angel, 2009),Caine remains resolutely unromantic about his targets and has no problem doing exactly what the book's title directs. A refreshingly open and clearheaded account of the dirty side of law enforcement.

Interesting textbook: Anna and Michael Olson Cook at Home or Feel Good Cookbook

Baghdad Diaries: A Woman's Chronicle Of War And Exile

Author: Nuha Al Radi

The only available book about daily life in modern Iraq, BAGHDAD DIARIES offers American readers a first-person account of the human toll of war and the price paid by ordinary Iraqi citizens.

The author, Nuha al-Radi, is a cosmopolitan, Western-educated Iraqi woman who writes with surprising humor and stoicism about the reality of daily life in Baghdad during the first Gulf War and the subsequent bleak years under sanctions. She describes the difficulties of day-to-day survival but also the funny and macabre goings-on about town. Following her into exile in Jordan and later Beirut, the diary continues to November 2002. It ends with several dramatic new entries written as Baghdad is bombed again and U.S. troops advance towards the city.

The New York Times

Ms. Radi is a painter and sculptor not a writer, but she has an artist's eye for the telling detail: the birds flying upside down after an air raid, people gathering mementos from a rocket that has fallen into the garden of the Rashid Hotel, bicycles becoming the transport mode of choice as gasoline supplies dry up. — Michiku Kakutani

The Washington Post

Al-Radi looks at Iraq like a woman who insists on viewing a canvas only through a magnifying glass, intimately describing its texture while failing to see the wider scene. But however narrow its focus, Baghdad Diaries offers an unfiltered perspective on a widely misunderstood world. — Frank Smyth

Publishers Weekly

A London-educated Iraqi woman, al-Radi, recounts 10 years in her life, covering the Persian Gulf War in 1991, then the Western embargo on Iraq and finally the years she entitles "exile," which she spent primarily in Lebanon, occasionally visiting the United States. Al-Radi, an artist by training, writes powerful but not ostentatious prose, with abrupt, fragmented and simple sentences as she interweaves the violent, chaotic effects of war with everyday incidents. One may feel the urge to skim the detailing of run-of-the-mill events regarding, say, al-Radi's dog and his adventures. And the artistry and authenticity of al-Radi's voice will be marred for some by her ardent anti-Israel and anti-American sentiments. The author rightly addresses the devastation of war, the inevitable violence wrought on innocent civilians. But she does not address the context in which the Gulf War and the embargo took place. Mention of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and ruthlessness toward his own people is reduced to a bare minimum. Al-Radi singles out Israel for criticism of its policies regarding Lebanon and the Palestinians, at one point comparing Israeli policies to Nazi tactics. There is no question that war is brutal, and al-Radi touchingly portrays the Iraqi plight, but in her eagerness to cast blame, she loses sight of the bigger picture. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Penelope Power - KLIATT

Nuha Al-Radi, a potter, painter and eco-sculptor from a prominent and sophisticated Iraqi family, began her diary in 1991 at the beginning of the Gulf War, writing from her house in Baghdad. She was not privy to government plans (who was?) and her diary reflects the concerns of an ordinary citizen whose country is under attack. She describes the loss of electricity and the subsequent neighborhood feasts, as the people of Baghdad cleaned out their freezers and refrigerators and cooked the soon-to-be spoiled food. Friends and family leave for the safety of the country, hauling their freezers on trucks and barbequing on the way. Water and phone service are unavailable. The lush orchard surrounding her house becomes the site of the "loo" as water is too scarce to use for flushing. On the eighth day of bombardment she writes, "Depression has hit me with the realization that the whole world hates us." With the end of war comes the chaos of defeat. Wild dogs roam the streets and private yards. Shattered windows must be replaced but there are no available materials. The dirt and dust from the bombardment fills the streets and houses and the rain is black. The police force is decimated; thievery and car jacking become rampant. There is no army and the author comments, "We are told to rebel by the West, with what and how?" The subsequent embargo makes life difficult, and in some cases impossible. Medical care is non-existent; a visit to the hospital is useless, as there are neither supplies nor equipment. Despite the grim drain on the amenities of everyday life Nuha Al-Radi's sense of humor cannot be subdued. She gives up painting and begins to sculpt from cast-off automotive parts and stones. Her"Embargo Art" becomes well known. A U.S. representative promises to get her a U.S. tank to put in front of a famous Baghdad hotel; her intention is to paint it and invite people to write comments on it. She will call it "An Anti-Tank Missal," but the representative lets her down. In 1995 the artist left Iraq to show her art in Lebanon and has been an exile since. She says that Beirut is a gathering place for exiles as the Lebanese are famous for their grumbling and complaining and free speech is still allowed. On September 15, 2001 her entry reads "They know the names of the hijackers now and they are all Arabs; God help us." A March 2003 postscript for the Vintage edition records this painful entry: "In the name of peace and humanity, thousands have to be killed. In the name of liberation, in the name of democracy, there will be a military occupation. Would someone please tell me where the democracy lies in 'Either you are with us or against us'?" KLIATT Codes: SA;Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1998, Random House, Vintage, 217p.,

Healthy Voices Unhealthy Silence or When Washington Shut Down Wall Street

Healthy Voices, Unhealthy Silence: Advocacy and Health Policy for the Poor

Author: Colleen Grogan

Public silence in policymaking can be deafening. When advocates for a disadvantaged group decline to speak up, not only are their concerns not recorded or acted upon, but also the collective strength of the unspoken argument is lessened-a situation that undermines the workings of deliberative democracy by reflecting only the concerns of more powerful interests.

In Healthy Voices, Unhealthy Silence, Colleen M. Grogan and Michael K. Gusmano address issues of public silence through the lens of state-level health care advocacy for the poor. They examine how representatives for the poor participate in an advisory board process by tying together existing studies; extensive interviews with key players; and an in-depth, firsthand look at the Connecticut Medicaid advisory board's deliberations during the managed care debate. Drawing on the concepts of deliberative democracy, agenda setting, and nonprofit advocacy, Grogan and Gusmano reveal the reasons behind advocates' often unexpected silence on major issues, assess how capable nonprofits are at affecting policy debates, and provide prescriptive advice for creating a participatory process that adequately addresses the health care concerns of the poor and dispossessed.

About the Author:
Colleen M. Grogan is associate professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago

About the Author:
Michael K. Gusmano is assistant professor of health policy and management and Lauterstein Scholar in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University

New interesting book: Lost Secrets of AyurVedic Acupuncture or Fearless

When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America's Monetary Supremacy

Author: William Silber

When Washington Shut Down Wall Street unfolds like a mystery story. It traces Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo's triumph over a monetary crisis at the outbreak of World War I that threatened the United States with financial disaster. The biggest gold outflow in a generation imperiled America's ability to repay its debts abroad. Fear that the United States would abandon the gold standard sent the dollar plummeting on world markets. Without a central bank in the summer of 1914, the United States resembled a headless financial giant.

William McAdoo stepped in with courageous action, we read in Silber's gripping account. He shut the New York Stock Exchange for more than four months to prevent Europeans from selling their American securities and demanding gold in return. He smothered the country with emergency currency to prevent a replay of the bank runs that swept America in 1907. And he launched the United States as a world monetary power by honoring America's commitment to the gold standard. His actions provide a blueprint for crisis control that merits attention today. McAdoo's recipe emphasizes an exit strategy that allows policymakers to throttle a crisis while minimizing collateral damage.

When Washington Shut Down Wall Street recreates the drama of America's battle for financial credibility. McAdoo's accomplishments place him alongside Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan as great American financial leaders. McAdoo, in fact, nursed the Federal Reserve into existence as the 1914 crisis waned and served as the first chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction: The Legacy of 1914     1
The Opening Salvo     8
The European Gold Rush     26
The Nightmare of 1907     42
Unlocking Emergency Currency     66
Sterling Steals the Spotlight     86
New Street Defies McAdoo     104
Rescue     116
End Game     131
Birth of a Financial Superpower     151
Epilogue: Blueprint for Crisis Control     173
Notes     177
References     201
Index     207

Inheriting the City or Robert F Kennedy

Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age

Author: Philip Kasinitz

Behind the contentious politics of immigration lies the question of how well new immigrants are becoming part of American society. To address this question, Inheriting the City draws on the results of a ground-breaking study of young adults of immigrant parents in metropolitan New York to provide a comprehensive look at their social, economic, cultural, and political lives.

Inheriting the City examines five immigrant groups to disentangle the complicated question of how they are faring relative to native-born groups, and how achievement differs between and within these groups. While some experts worry that these young adults would not do as well as previous waves of immigrants due to lack of high-paying manufacturing jobs, poor public schools, and an entrenched racial divide, Inheriting the City finds that the second generation is rapidly moving into the mainstream—speaking English, working in jobs that resemble those held by native New Yorkers their age, and creatively combining their ethnic cultures and norms with American ones. Far from descending into an urban underclass, the children of immigrants are using immigrant advantages to avoid some of the obstacles that native minority groups cannot.

What People Are Saying

Gish Jen
What a timely and surprising book! The second generation lens brings into focus so many aspects of American life, from the shifting color line to the effects of social policy, the plight of the native born, and the contribution of immigration. Original, relevant, and nuanced, this is a must-read for anyone interested in America today and tomorrow… A wonderful and worthwhile book. --(Gish Jen, author of The Love Wife)

Nathan Glazer
This major study of the children of the great wave of immigration to New York City that has been sustained since the 1960's tells us as much about the fate of the second generation--in education, in occupation and income, in acculturation--as we can presently know. --(Nathan Glazer, co-author of Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City)

Henry Cisneros
How America absorbs immigrants is among the most important yet least understood dimensions of our national experience. The authors offer a nuanced analysis of the sometimes counter-intuitive processes by which this happens. The result provides resonant insights that will shape policies, improve services, and most importantly teach us how and why immigration works. --(Henry Cisneros, Chairman, CityView, and former Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)

Richard Alba
Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age is an eagerly-anticipated volume that will set the standard, and become the point of comparison, for future studies of the children of immigrants and second-generation incorporation. --(Richard Alba, State University of New York at Albany)

Robert D. Putnam
As recent headlines have made clear, the challenge of massive immigration is a defining issue for the twenty-first century. Debate on this volatile and controversial issue will be more enlightened if we get the facts straight. This powerfully documented book is a major contribution toward that end. The authors lay out the complicated, sometimes unexpected, but fundamentally encouraging facts about how the children of today's immigrants are assimilating into American life. If America's leaders can read only one book on this topic, this should be it. --(Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community)

Rubйn G. Rumbaut
Inheriting the City is chock-full of compelling stories of the generation now coming of age in New York. Explaining the divergent fates of young adults of Chinese, Dominican, Russian Jewish, West Indian, and South American origins--compared with their native white, black, and Puerto Rican counterparts--this brilliant study is essential for anyone hoping to grasp the manifold legacies of today's new immigration. --(Rubйn G. Rumbaut, co-author of Immigrant America: A Portrait and Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation)

Aristide R. Zolberg
The authors bring us no simplistic message. The 'melting pot' (if it ever existed) is gone forever. Diversity will persist. But, contrary to the rants of high- and low-brow prophets of doom, it is manageable. Indeed, the diversity resulting from immigration will continue to revitalize New York City and thereby the country as a whole. --(Aristide R. Zolberg, author of A Nation By Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America)

Books about: Eurabia or The Agenda

Robert F. Kennedy: And the Death of American Idealism

Author: Joseph A Palermo

At the forefront of the social movements and political crises that gripped America in the 1950s and 1960s, Robert F. Kennedy saw, advised and led the United States through some of the most epochal events in the 20^th century. This biography chronicles Kennedy’s life from his time as a boy growing up amidst the turmoil of the Great Depression and World War II to his rise as a central figure in the national debate on communism, poverty, civil rights, and the war in Vietnam.

Table of Contents:

Editor's Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction     1
Coming of Age     5
Launching a Public Life     16
Finding His Way in the 1950s     30
His Brother's Keeper     43
Attorney General     63
Tragedy and Rebirth     83
Senator Kennedy, the Cautious Critic     103
Coming Out Against the Vietnam War     115
Presidential Candidate     124
From Victory to Tragedy     137
Conclusion     154
Study and Discussion Questions     159
A Note on the Sources     166
Index     173

Understanding Power or Mandela

Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

Author: Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky is universally accepted as one of the preeminent public intellectuals of the modern era. Over the past thirty years, broadly diverse audiences have gathered to attend his sold-out lectures. Now, in Understanding Power, Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel have assembled the best of Chomsky's talks on the past, present, and future of the politics of power.

In a series of enlightening and wide-ranging discussions -- published here for the first time -- Chomsky radically reinterprets the events of the past three decades, covering topics from foreign policy during the Vietnam War to the decline of welfare under the Clinton administration. And as he elucidates the connection between America's imperialistic foreign policy and social inequalities at home, Chomsky also discerns the necessary steps to take toward social change. With an eye to political activism and the media's role in popular struggle, as well as U.S. foreign and domestic policy, Understanding Power is definitive Chomsky. Characterized by Chomsky's accessible and informative style, Understanding Power is the ideal book for those new to his work as well as for those who have been listening for years.

Publishers Weekly

For the past several decades, Noam Chomsky has become more famous for his trenchant critiques of U.S. foreign policy than for his groundbreaking linguistic theories. In this collection of material from his lectures and teach-ins, public defenders Mitchell and Schoeffel put his challenging, controversial opinions on display. The discussions a format that allows Chomsky to present his views in a conversational, accessible style confirm his wide-ranging engagement with world affairs. Whether the topic is Cambodia (he all but holds the United States responsible for the mass deaths under the Khmer Rouge) or the Middle East (where he sees the peace process as analogous to South Africa's creation of apartheid), he consistently blasts the United States for what he sees as its guiding principle of maintaining its own power while claiming to fight for freedom and democracy. Chomsky, who has published more than 30 books but is best known for his contribution to Manufacturing Consent, a critique of the way public opinion is formed, often excoriates the press for what he sees as a willingness to reflect the views of the "elites" rather than challenge them. But while he maintains a gloomy view of U.S. policies, he preserves a surprising optimism about Americans, arguing that the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements have made citizens more critical of the mass media. Some readers will appreciate the views articulated here and others will be infuriated; but for anyone with an opinion of Chomsky would be wise not to ignore this collection, which provides a useful and wide-ranging introduction to his analysis of power and media in the West. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

MIT-based Chomsky revolutionized linguistics in the late Fifties, but for nearly as long he has been better known as an energetic and constructive debunker of American establishment politics and behavior. However, the current Chomsky contributes nothing to the legacy he established decades ago. These two most recent productions do not reveal systematic efforts to sustain or develop any aspect of his prolifically expressed critique; indeed, they are not so much authored as collaged, with Chomsky's sanction, from talks, after-talk Q&As, and interviews with generally converted interlocutors. Understanding Power draws mainly on vintage utterances from the Nineties, and its most penetrating passage takes on, of all pressing matters, literary theory. Chomsky, who is relentless in condemning the media as incapable of any function other than converting the masses to elite desires, just as relentlessly samples mainstream reporting sources for instances of corporate and government ill doings. In trying to illustrate that he is not a crude conspiracy theorist, he conveys the opposite impression. The shorter 9-11 could not have been planned, of course, though it mostly consists of interviews conducted while the calendar still read September, suggesting both the urgency Chomsky felt to get his perspective on the record and his utter disinclination to reexamine any of his cemented opinions about world affairs. Chomsky condemns the attacks specifically and then suggests that the deaths are entirely the responsibility of capitalist globalization, which nonetheless he asserts is irrelevant to the September 11 actors. However, consistency is even less a priority for Chomsky than humility. Apparently, Chomsky believes that he has discovered the concept of blowback, not to mention imbalance in coverage of the perpetual Israeli-Palestinian murder-and-misery fetish. For him, a direct line runs from Reagan's mining of Nicaragua's harbors to the flying of commercial airliners into buildings. 9-11 is a worthwhile purchase for public libraries intent on demonstrating (or risking) balance; Understanding Power is not half as useful as Chomsky's earlier, authentic innovations in political literature, especially Manufacturing Consent (coauthored with Edward Herman). Libraries truly wishing to ensure representation of the most lucid nonconventional opinion should first check that their subscriptions to the Nation a proud carrier of Chomsky for 40 years are current. Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

See also: L'Environnement Juridique Aujourd'hui (avec 2007 le Guide de Recherche En ligne Légal)

Mandela: The Authorized Biography

Author: Anthony Sampson

Nelson Mandela, who emerged from twenty-six years of political imprisonment to lead South Africa out of apartheid and into democracy, is perhaps the world's most admired leader, a man whose life has been led with exemplary courage and inspired conviction.

Now Anthony Sampson, who has known Mandela since 1951 and has been a close observer of South Africa's political life for the last fifty years, has produced the first authorized biography, the most informed and comprehensive portrait to date of a man whose dazzling image has been difficult to penetrate. With unprecedented access to Mandela's private papers (including his prison memoir, long thought to have been lost), meticulous research, and hundreds of interviews--from Mandela himself to prison warders on Robben Island, from Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo to Winnie Mandela and F. W. de Klerk, and many others intimately connected to Mandela's story--Sampson has composed an enlightening and necessary story of the man behind the myth.

KLIATT

The subtitle is key to why one would recommend this book. Sampson, a journalist, had been a friend of Mandela's for many years and Mandela was pleased to cooperate. He provided many unpublished letters, memoirs written while in jail, and the like, while assuring Sampson that he would leave the judgments to him, the author. This is a long, detailed account and few young people will plod through it. However, Mandela is a true hero to many and even a cursory reading of this work could well show others why he is so adored and respected. His 27 years in prison are described at length. During this time he grew, became more thoughtful, and had a quiet authority over the other prisoners. "My current circumstances give me advantages my compatriots outside jail rarely have.... One is able to stand back and look at the entire movement from a distance, and the bitter lessons of prison life force one to go all out to win the cooperation of all fellow-prisoners...." (p.268). The beginnings of the Soweto riots are discussed, his struggle with the younger, more radical blacks and his leadership of the ANC, his relationship with other factions such as the Zulus and their chief, Buthelezi, the roles of the Americans and the British, and so much more are covered. This is a densely packed work that can be read through by the truly dedicated reader, but with its excellent index it could be read also as reference or for information on one aspect or another of South Africa, its recent history and Mandela's struggle. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1999, Random House/Vintage, 672p, illus, notes, bibliog, index, 21cm, 99-18498, $17.00. Ages16 to adult. Reviewer: Doris Hiatt; January 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 1)

American Empire or Preserving Memory

American Empire: A Debate

Author: Bradley A Thayer

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States emerged as the lone, unrivaled superpower on the world stage. America's military, diplomatic and economic--not to mention its cultural and ideological--presence is felt throughout the world. With few, if any, rivals to its supremacy, the current administration has made an explicit commitment--in its 2002 National Security Strategy--to maintaining and advancing primacy for the U.S. in the world. But, what exactly are the benefits of American hegemony for the U.S. and the world and what are the costs and drawbacks for this fledgling empire. In this short, accessible book Chris Layne and Brad Thayer argue the merits and demerits of American empire. After making their best cases for and against an American empire, subsequent chapters will allow the authors respond to the major arguments presented by their opponent and present their own counter arguments.

American Empire: A Debate will be the first stop for readers interested in deciding for themselves where they stand on this very controversial topic.

Book review: Umbertos Kitchen or Pearls of Kitchen Wisdom

Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum

Author: Edward T Linenthal

Since its first year in 1993, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has attracted visitors more than 15 million visitors, sometimes at the rate of 10,000 a day, each of whom has walked away with an indelible impression of awe in the face of the unimaginable. This lively, honest, behind-the-scenes account details the emotionally complex fifteen-year struggle surrounding the museum's birth.

Deborah Lipstadt

A masterpiece. It mesmerizes the reader.

Raul Hilberg

A brilliant book, incisive and clear . . . reveals the tensions, plunges, and surges that led to this bold museum.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Well-written and exciting . . . A riveting story that does not sensationalize or take sides in the many controversies.

Stephen T. Katz

Linenthal has written an intriguing, highly informative, ‘insider’ account of one of America's most important new cultural institutions. . . . Bravo.

Bandits Prophets and Messiahs or Israels Occupation

Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements in the Time of Jesus

Author: Richard A Horsley

The award-winning investigation that rediscovers the "common people" in the time of Jesus--the masses led by bandit forces, apocalyptic prophets, and messianic leaders.

Look this: Man and Nature or FDRs Fireside Chats

Israel's Occupation

Author: Neve Gordon

This first complete history of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip allows us to see beyond the smoke screen of politics in order to make sense of the dramatic changes that have developed on the ground over the past forty years. Looking at a wide range of topics, from control of water and electricity to health care and education as well as surveillance and torture, Neve Gordon's panoramic account reveals a fundamental shift from a politics of life--when, for instance, Israel helped Palestinians plant more than six-hundred thousand trees in Gaza and provided farmers with improved varieties of seeds--to a macabre politics characterized by an increasing number of deaths. Drawing attention to the interactions, excesses, and contradictions created by the forms of control used in the Occupied Territories, Gordon argues that the occupation's very structure, rather than the policy choices of the Israeli government or the actions of various Palestinian political factions, has led to this radical shift.

Publishers Weekly

Applying the work of Michel Foucault to the contemporary Middle East, this highly theoretical book examines the "means of control used to manage" the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Gordon, a professor of politics at Ben-Gurion University, begins by exploring the diffuse mechanisms of power-in the political, civilian, geographical and economic arenas-used to normalize the occupation in its first years, making the ostensibly temporary occupation permanent. Later chapters take a more specific historical approach, examining a series of events that radically transformed these power structures: the first intifada, the Oslo Accords and the second intifada, which, the author argues, required a reorganization of Israeli power in the Occupied Territories, leading to the disregard of the Palestinians inhabiting those territories. Gordon focuses on the treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and writes for a decidedly scholarly audience; as a result, the book's usefulness beyond academics will likely be limited. (Nov.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Global Environmental Politics or Henry Adams

Global Environmental Politics

Author: David L Downi

When Global Environmental Politics was first published, the environment was just emerging as a pivotal issue in traditional international relations. Today, the environment is considered to be a central topic to discussions of international politics, political economy, international organization, and the relationship between foreign and domestic policy. With new and updated case studies throughout, a revised chapter on improving compliance with international environmental regimes, and a new section on environment within the larger context of sustainable development, this classic text is more complete and up-to-date than any survey of international environmental politics on the market. In addition to providing a concise yet comprehensive overview of global environmental issues, the authors have worked to contextualize key topics such as the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Kyoto Protocol, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, international forest policy, and the trade, development and environment nexus. Environmental concerns from global warming to biodiversity loss to whaling are seen as challenges to transnational relations, with governments, NGOs, IGOs, and MNCs all involved in the multilateral interaction that is necessary to address the ever-complicated subject of global environmental politics.

New interesting textbook: AutoCAD 2008 in 3D or Streaming Media Bible

Henry Adams: History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (Library of America), Vol. 1

Author: Henry Adams

This monumental work, complete in two volumes, culminated Henry Adams' lifelong fascination with the American past. First published in nine volumes from 1889-91, it has been judged one of the greatest historical works in English -- and yet has been out of print for several decades. Adams' History traces the formative period of American nationality from the rise of Thomas Jefferson's Republican party through the War of 1812. Hoping to keep the United States out of Europe's Napoleonic wars, Jefferson's pacificism instead antagonizes both France and England, the two greatest military powers in the world. While the states threaten to duplicate the map of Europe by dissolving into separate, squabbling sections, Madison leads the country into a war with British regulars and Indian tribes that he is illequipped to fight. Yet time is on the side of the American people -- who, despite statesmen and generals, emerge from the conflict a single nation ready to flex its burgeoning muscles. In Adams' ironic narrative, personalities like Bonaparte and Aaron Burr, William "Tippecanoe" Harrison and Andrew Jackson, Shawnee leader Tecumseh and Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture act their glittering parts against a background of inexorable historical forces that transform the United States from a pre-industrial backwater into an emergent world power.

In this first volume, Jefferson's optimistic laissez-faire principles -- designed to prevent American government from becoming a militaristic European "tyranny" -- clash with the realities of European war and American security. The party of small government presides over the Louisiana Purchase, the most extensive use of executive power the country had yet seen. Jefferson's embargo -- a high-minded effort at peaceable coercion -- breeds corruption and smuggling, and the former defender of states' rights is forced to use federal power to suppress them. The passion for peace and liberty pushes the country toward war. In the center of these ironic reversals, played out in a Washington full of diplomatic intrigue, is the complex figure of Jefferson himself, part tragic visionary, part comic mock-hero. Like his contemporary Napoleon Bonaparte, he is swept into power by the rising tide of democratic nationalism; unlike Bonaparte, he tries to avert the consequences of the wolfish struggle for power among nation-states.

The grandson of one president and great-grandson of another, Adams gained access to hitherto secret archives in Europe. The diplomatic documents that lace the history lend a novelistic intimacy to scenes such as Jefferson's conscientious introduction of democratic table manners into stuffily aristocratic state dinner parties. Written in a strong, lively style pointed with Adams' wit, the History chronicles the consolidation of American character, and poses questions about the future course of democracy.

Table of Contents:

Volume 1
I.	Physical and Economical Conditions	5
II.	Popular Characteristics	31
III.	Intellect of New England	54
IV.	Intellect of the Middle States	76
V.	Intellect of the Southern States	91
VI.	American Ideals	107
VII.	The Inauguration	126
VIII.	Organization	148
IX.	The Annual Message	169
X.	Legislation	180
XI.	The Judiciary Debate	193
XII.	Personalities	209
XIII.	The Spanish Court	227
XIV.	The Retrocession	238
XV.	Toussaint Louverture	255
XVI.	Closure of the Mississippi	269
XVII.	Monroe's Mission	285
Volume 2
I.	Rupture of the Peace of Amiens	301
II.	The Louisiana Treaty	319
III.	Claim to West Florida	336
IV.	Constitutional Difficulties	352
V.	The Louisiana Debate	366
VI.	Louisiana Legislation	380
VII.	Impeachments	393
VIII.	Conspiracy	409
IX.	The Yazoo Claims	431
X.	Trial of Justice Chase	449
XI.	Quarrel with Yrujo	467
XII.	Pinckney's Diplomacy	480
XIII.	Monroe and Talleyrand	496
XIV.	Relations with England	516
XV.	Cordiality with England	533
XVI.	Anthony Merry	546
XVII.	Jefferson's Enemies	567
XVIII.	England and Tripoli	581
	Maps
	The States of North Africa	166
	The Coast of West Florida and Louisiana	302

The Lazlo Letters or The Shape of the River

The Lazlo Letters

Author: Don Novello

In letters to stars, dignitaries, and chairmen of the country's most powerful organizations, Don Novello's alter ego Lazlo Toth pestered his victims for photographs, offered outlandish advice, fired off strange inquiries, and more. The strangest part? Practically everyone answered, leaving Toth with a hilarious collection of outlandish correspondence unmatched in the history of American letters.

The Lazlo Letters contains nearly 100 notes to public figures, including then-President Nixon, Vice President Ford ("I've been Vice President of a lot of organizations myself, so I know how you feel."), Bebe Rebozo, Lester Maddox, Earl Butz, and America's top business leaders. The replies, says the author, "classic examples of American politeness."

In an on-going correspondence with the White House, Toth suggests everything from ridiculously corny jokes for the President to use, to a campaign song sung to the tune of "Tea for Two." He asks the president of a bubble bath company just how to use the product, as the packaging instructions specifically state to "keep dry."

"No matter how absurd my letter was, no matter how much I ranted and raved, they always answered," reports the author. "Many of these replies are beautiful examples of pure public relations nonsense." One is not: columnist James Kilpatrick has a lone sentiment for Toth-"Nuts to You!" 247,000 copies in print.

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The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions

Author: William G Bowen

This is the book that has forever changed the debate on affirmative action in America. The Shape of the River is the most far-reaching and comprehensive study of its kind. It brings a wealth of empirical evidence to bear on how race-sensitive admissions policies actually work and clearly defines the effects they have had on over 45,000 students of different races. Its conclusions mark a turning point in national discussions of affirmative action--anything less than factual evidence will no longer suffice in any serious debate of this vital question.

Glenn Loury's new foreword revisits the basic logic behind race-sensitive policies, asserting that since individuals use race to conceptualize themselves, we must be conscious of race as we try to create rules for a just society. Loury underscores the need for confronting opinion with fact so we can better see the distinction between the "morality of color-blindness" and the "morality of racial justice."

Across the country, in courts, classrooms, and the media, Americans are deeply divided over the use of race in admitting students to universities. Yet until now the debate over race and admissions has consisted mainly of clashing opinions, uninformed by hard evidence. This work, written by two of the country's most respected academic leaders, intends to change that. It brings a wealth of empirical evidence to bear on how race-sensitive admissions policies actually work and what effects they have on students of different races.

The authors are the economist William G. Bowen, President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and former President of Princeton University, and Derek Bok, former President of Harvard University andformer Dean of the Harvard Law School. Bowen and Bok argue that we can pass an informed judgment on the wisdom of race-sensitive admissions only if we understand in detail the college careers and the subsequent lives of students-or, to use a metaphor they take from Mark Twain, if we learn the shape of the entire river. The heart of the book is thus an unprecedented study of the academic, employment, and personal histories of more than 45,000 students of all races who attended academically selective universities between the 1970s and the early 1990s.

The study reveals how much race-sensitive admissions increase the likelihood that blacks will be admitted to selective universities and demonstrates what effect the termination of these policies would have on the number of minority students at different kinds of selective institutions. The authors go on to determine how well black students have performed academically in comparison to their white classmates, what success they have had in their subsequent careers, and how actively they have participated in civic and community affairs. The authors also explore the views expressed by graduates of selective colleges about the value of their education and the contributions that a diverse student body has made to their capacity to live and work with people of other races.

In the final chapters, Bowen and Bok relate their findings to the current debate about the wisdom of race-sensitive admissions. They consider whether critics are correct in claiming that such policies harm their intended beneficiaries by forcing minority students to compete with academically superior classmates. They examine alternative policies that have been proposed to increase diversity without relying explicitly on race in the admissions process. They end by reflecting on the thorny question of whether the concept of "merit" is compatible with a deliberate effort to achieve a racially diverse student body.

Authoritative, powerfully argued, and elegantly written, this book is a landmark work in one of the most important debates in recent American history. In the words of Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy, "The Shape of the River should be essential reading for anyone seeking a dependable guide through the morass of competing claims that obscure from public attention the questions that need to be posed and the answers that need to be assessed."

Richard D. Kahlenberg

The Shape of the River makes a business case for diversity, a case that is chilling in its emphasis on efficiency over fairness. Maybe this book will help show that today's affirmative action is not the liberal program that liberals believe it to be. -- Washington Monthly

New York Times

No study of this magnitude has been attempted before. Its findings provide a strong rationale for opposing curent efforts to demolish race-sensitive policies in colleges across the country. . . .The evidence collected flatly refutes many of the misimpressions of affirmative-action opponents.

Los Angeles Times

A compelling new book. . .demonstrates why affirmative action programs can be good for the country. . .The authors prove with facts, not anecdotes, that affirmative action works.

Newsweek

The most ambitious and authoritative study to date of the effects of affirmative action in higher education.

Ronald Dworkin

Offers much more comprehensive statistics and much more sophisticated analysis than has been available before. . . .Impressionistic and anecdotal evidence will no longer suffice. -- The New York Review of Books

The New York Times

No study of this magnitude has been attempted before. Its findings provide a strong rationale for opposing curent efforts to demolish race-sensitive policies in colleges across the country. . . .The evidence collected flatly refutes many of the misimpressions of affirmative-action opponents.

Newsweek

The most ambitious and authoritative study to date of the effects of affirmative action in higher education.

Los Angeles Times

A compelling new book. . .demonstrates why affirmative action programs can be good for the country. . .The authors prove with facts, not anecdotes, that affirmative action works.

David Karen

. . .Bowen and Bok have performed a major service for advocates of affirmative action. . . .[and] have also written a book that underliens the degree to which colleges are useful investments in human capital. -- The Nation

David Gergen

The most comprehensive study ever done of affirmative action in higher education.. .it demands the attention of anyone who cares about American universities. -- U.S. News & World Report

What People Are Saying

Garry Wills
An extensive and intensive study. . .finds that. . .what is good for business. . .is good for society, too -- good for all of us. This report may, at last, make that fact evident even to the most obtuse (Garry Wills is a syndicated columnist).

Robert M. Solow
This important book is a calm, expert, analytical study of race-sensitive college admissions, and what happens afterwards. . . .It tells us many things we didn't know, because untill now there was no way to know them (Robert M. Solow is M.I.T. Noel Laureate in Economics).

Bill Bradley
An invaluable resource for those interested in American higher education and, more generally, race in America.

Randall Kennedy
Written by two of the most respected figures in higher education, The Shape of the River offers the public what has long been needed: a large dose of crucial, unvarnished fact about affirmative action. -- Harvard Law School

Table of Contents:

	List of Figures
	List of Tables
	Preface
Ch. 1	Historical Context	1
Ch. 2	The Admissions Process and "Race-Neutrality"	15
Ch. 3	Academic Outcomes	53
Ch. 4	Advanced Study: Graduate and Professional Degrees	91
Ch. 5	Employment, Earnings, and Job Satisfaction	118
Ch. 6	Civic Participation and Satisfaction with Life	155
Ch. 7	Looking Back: Views of College	193
Ch. 8	Diversity: Perceptions and Realities	218
Ch. 9	Informing the Debate	256
Ch. 10	Summing Up	275
App. A	The College and Beyond Database	291
	App. B. Notes on Methodology	336
App. C	Earnings in Relation to Advanced Degrees, Sector of Employment, and Occupation	362
	App. D. Additional Tables	375
	References	451
	Index	461

Savage Peace or Crime Scene

Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America 1919

Author: Ann Hagedorn

Written with the sweep of an epic novel and grounded in extensive research into contemporary documents, Savage Peace is a striking portrait of American democracy under stress. It is the surprising story of America in the year 1919.
In the aftermath of an unprecedented worldwide war and a flu pandemic, Americans began the year full of hope, expecting to reap the benefits of peace. But instead, the fear of terrorism filled their days. Bolshevism was the new menace, and the federal government, utilizing a vast network of domestic spies, began to watch anyone deemed suspicious. A young lawyer named J. Edgar Hoover headed a brand-new intelligence division of the Bureau of Investigation (later to become the FBI). Bombs exploded on the doorstep of the attorney general's home in Washington, D.C., and thirty-six parcels containing bombs were discovered at post offices across the country. Poet and journalist Carl Sandburg, recently returned from abroad with a trunk full of Bolshevik literature, was detained in New York, his trunk seized. A twenty-one-year-old Russian girl living in New York was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for protesting U.S. intervention in Arctic Russia, where thousands of American soldiers remained after the Armistice, ostensibly to guard supplies but in reality to join a British force meant to be a warning to the new Bolshevik government.
In 1919, wartime legislation intended to curb criticism of the government was extended and even strengthened. Labor strife was a daily occurrence. And decorated African-American soldiers, returning home to claim the democracy for which they had risked their lives, were badly disappointed. Lynchings continued, raceriots would erupt in twenty-six cities before the year ended, and secret agents from the government's "Negro Subversion" unit routinely shadowed outspoken African-Americans.
Adding a vivid human drama to the greater historical narrative, Savage Peace brings 1919 alive through the people who played a major role in making the year so remarkable. Among them are William Monroe Trotter, who tried to put democracy for African-Americans on the agenda at the Paris peace talks; Supreme Court associate justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who struggled to find a balance between free speech and legitimate government restrictions for reasons of national security, producing a memorable decision for the future of free speech in America; and journalist Ray Stannard Baker, confidant of President Woodrow Wilson, who watched carefully as Wilson's idealism crumbled and wrote the best accounts we have of the president's frustration and disappointment.
Weaving together the stories of a panoramic cast of characters, from Albert Einstein to Helen Keller, Ann Hagedorn brilliantly illuminates America at a pivotal moment.

Publishers Weekly

Former Wall Street Journalstaffer Hagedorn (Beyond the River) makes a stylish entry into the history-of-a-year genre with this account of America in upheaval in the wake of WWI. In 1919, both the world and the U.S. were in need of reconstruction: soldiers returning from war needed jobs, and the influenza epidemic wasn't quite under control. Two threads Hagedorn follows are middle-class Americans' fear of Bolshevism, and the struggles of black Americans. U.S. Attorney-General Palmer instigated raids to try to root out leftist activists, and in what may have been "the State Department's first official interference in African-American politics," the agency denied black Americans' request for passports to travel to France and speak to the Paris Peace Conference about racial equality. In a year rife with lynchings in the Deep South, W.E.B. Du Bois, who had urged black Americans to shelve their grievances and fight the Germans, now argued that blacks, having served the nation, deserved to be accorded civil rights. Still, some exciting cultural developments presaged the roaring '20s: F. Scott Fitzgerald's star rose, and the nation's first dial telephones were installed in Norfolk, Va. This vivid account of a nation in tumult and transition is absorbing, and the nexus of global and national upheaval is chillingly relevant. (Apr.)

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

Prologue: Armistice Day 1918     1
Winter: Jubilation and Hope
Gods of War and Peace     19
Spies Are Everywhere     24
Christmas at Villa Lewaro     37
Women and Molasses     46
The List     53
A Mere Slip of a Girl     61
Polar Bears in Peril     80
Sergeant Henry Johnson     91
Trotter and the Passports     104
The Magisterial Wand     114
Blinders     124
Shuffleboard     134
In Like a Lion     143
Out Like a Lion     155
Spring: Fear
Inner Light     163
Make-Believe Riots and Real Bombs     175
It's in the Mail     188
Monsieur Trotter     203
302 Seconds in May     210
What Happened on R Street     218
War of a Different Sort     226
Thrilling Feats     234
Summer: Passion
Missichusetts     249
Paris     262
Independence Day 1919     269
The Narrow Path     279
Miss Puffer Insane?     285
That Certain Point     297
Weapons in Their Hats     308
Kingof the Index     323
"I'll Stay With You, Mary"     334
Autumn: Struggle
"The Right to Happiness"     345
Tugs-of-War and of the Heart     356
Autumn Leaflets     364
Not Exactly Paradise     376
Albert in Wonderland     386
Greatness     391
Armistice Day 1919     398
Falling Ladders     404
All Aboard     408
Boughs of Glory     417
Epilogue: Endings and Beginnings     425
Notes on Sources     447
Notes     455
Selected Bibliography     499
Acknowledgments     511
Index     517

Books about: Adobe InDesign CS3 Bible or The Elder Scrolls IV

Crime Scene: How Forensic Science Solves

Author: W Mark Dal

The Crime Scene: How Forensic Science Works is an affordable trade paperback for those who want to learn more about forensic science and how it is used to solve criminal cases.

This book will appeal to the college student who is studying forensic science, or the person who is interested in learning more about it for a career or course of study in criminal justice. Unlike the popular trade books out there on crime scene investigation, this book doesn’t just focus on the gory details of a crime and how it is solved; rather, it introduces the student to the science of the investigation and what it takes to break a case.

In addition, it will be aligned to criminal justice curriculum and the education of investigators-to-be.

Rebel in Chief or Fiscal Disobedience an Anthropology of Economic Regulation in Central Africa

Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush

Author: Fred Barnes

“You can’t worry about being vindicated, because the truth of the matter is, when you do big things, it’s going to take a while for history to really understand.” —President Bush, in an exclusive interview with Fred Barnes for Rebel-in-Chief

With Rebel-in-Chief, veteran political reporter Fred Barnes provides the defining book on George W. Bush’s presidency, giving an insider’s view of how Bush’s unique presidential style and bold reforms are dramatically remaking the country—and, indeed, the world. In the process, Barnes shows, the president is shaking up Washington and reshaping the conservative movement.

Barnes has gained extraordinary access to the Bush administration for Rebel-in-Chief, conducting rare one-on-one interviews with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and many other close presidential advisers. That access, along with Barnes’s extensive independent reporting and interviewing, produces an eye-opening look at this highly consequential—and controversial—presidency.

Rebel-in-Chief reveals:

• How Bush acts as an “insurgent force” in the nation’s capital—“a different kind of president” who is turning the Washington establishment on its ear

• How Bush is redefining conservatism for a new era—and creating a new Republican majority

• The inside story of how Bush has revolutionized American foreign policy—and how the president's crusade for democracy would have been anathema to Bush himselfonly five years ago

• When and why Bush decided to go into Iraq, even knowing that he was putting his political future at risk

• How a White House aide you've probably never heard of is shaping the Bush vision

• The surprising and important ways Bush's faith affects critical presidential decisions

• How Bush has outmaneuvered his political opponents and surprised members of the press who have dismissed him as an intellectual bantamweight

• How Bush routinely defies conventional wisdom because of his contempt for elite opinion and halfway reforms (“small-ball,” he calls them)—and why he usually wins

George W. Bush billed himself as a “different kind of Republican.” He has proved to be a different kind of president, too. And Fred Barnes’s riveting behind-the-scenes account helps us understand how much this “Rebel-in-Chief ” is reshaping the world around us.

The Washington Post - Jackson Diehl

.The Weekly Standard editor and Fox News pundit convincingly describes a president who thinks and behaves "as an insurgent" in Washington, who scorns small ideas and conventional thinking and who consequently "has found it easy to overturn major policies with scarcely a second thought." Barnes portrays Bush's contempt for Washington elites and the press as a virtue that has allowed him to revolutionize both foreign and domestic policy and fashion a new form of conservatism. The case he makes for Bush's boldness is indisputable, especially in foreign affairs. But the thinness of Bush's counsel in his anti-Washington bubble also stands out.

Library Journal

Barnes (executive editor, the Weekly Standard) argues for the greatness of George W. Bush. Less biography than hagiography, this work is an unabashed love letter to the current president, with its author revealing that he shares Bush's inability to identify any mistakes that the president has made. Barnes notes an interview with Bush, but otherwise no sourcing is given for the book, which could pass for the regurgitated Republican National Committee talking points that one might hear on Barnes's own show on the Fox News Channel. A third of the text defends Bush's Middle East policy; the rest praises his faith and his impact on domestic politics, but the "new majority" Barnes hails is shaky at best, with new fissures opening weekly, while the "new conservatism" is a complete repudiation of traditional conservatism. As for Bush's "rebel" status, it apparently consists of refusing to wear tuxedos or to socialize with the Washington press corps. This book will be demanded by that new conservative choir that enjoys being preached to, but Ronald Kessler's similar, albeit gossipy A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush is more comprehensive and contains actual reporting. Purchase only where there is demand.-Michael O. Eshleman, Kings Mills, OH Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Books about: Case for Vegetarianism or Whats Cooking in the Courtroom

Fiscal Disobedience - An Anthropology of Economic Regulation in Central Africa

Author: Janet L L Roitman

Fiscal Disobedience represents a novel approach to the question of citizenship amid the changing global economy and the fiscal crisis of the nation-state. Focusing on economic practices in the Chad Basin of Africa, Janet Roitman combines thorough ethnographic fieldwork with sophisticated analysis of key ideas of political economy to examine the contentious nature of fiscal relationships between the state and its citizens. She argues that citizenship is being redefined through a renegotiation of the rights and obligations inherent in such economic relationships.

The book centers on a civil disobedience movement that arose in Cameroon beginning in 1990 ostensibly to counter state fiscal authority--a movement dubbed Opération Villes Mortes by the opposition and incivisme fiscal by the government (which for its part was eager to suggest that participants were less than legitimate citizens, failing in their civic duties). Contrary to standard approaches, Roitman examines this conflict as a "productive moment" that, rather than involving the outright rejection of regulatory authority, questioned the intelligibility of its exercise. Although both militarized commercial networks (associated with such activities trading in contraband goods including drugs, ivory, and guns) and highly organized gang-based banditry do challenge state authority, they do not necessarily undermine state power.

Contrary to depictions of the African state as "weak" or "failed," this book demonstrates how the state in Africa manages to reconstitute its authority through networks that have emerged in the interstices of the state system. It also shows how those networks partake of thesame epistemological grounding as does the state. Indeed, both state and nonstate practices of governing refer to a common "ethic of illegality," which explains how illegal activities are understood as licit or reasonable conduct.

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	Introduction : an anthropology of regulation and fiscal relations	1
Ch. 2	Incivisme fiscal	23
Ch. 3	Tax-price as a technique of government	48
Ch. 4	Unsanctioned wealth, or the productivity of debt	73
Ch. 5	Fixing the moving targets of regulation	100
Ch. 6	The unstable terms of regulatory practice	129
Ch. 7	The pluralization of regulatory authority	151

Vietnam or Nazi Germany

Vietnam: Explaining America's Lost War

Author: Gary R Hess

In Vietnam, Gary R. Hess describes and evaluates the main arguments of scholars, participants, and journalists – both revisionist and orthodox in their approach – as they consider why the United States was unable to achieve its objectives. While providing a clear and well-balanced account of the existing historical debate, Hess also offers his own interpretation of the events and opens a dialogue about the usefulness of historical argument in reaching a deeper understanding of the conflict. This concise book is essential reading for students and teachers of the Vietnam War as it provides a clear and well-balanced account of existing historical debate and a thought-provoking look at the future of historical scholarship.

Look this: Virtue Ethics and Professional Roles or Nine Questions

Nazi Germany

Author: Jane Caplan

The history of National Socialism as a movement and a regime remains one of the most compelling and intensively studied aspects of twentieth-century history, one whose significance extends far beyond Germany or even Europe. Featuring ten chapters by leading international experts, this volume presents an up-to-date and authoritative introduction to the history of Nazi Germany.
Opening with an introduction delineating the challenges this period of history has posed to historians since 1945, Nazi Germany continues on with chapters that explain how Nazism emerged as an ideology and a political movement; how Hitler and his party took power and remade the German state; and how the Nazi "national community" was organized around a radical and eventually lethal distinction between the "included" and the "excluded." Later chapters discuss the complex relationship between Nazism and Germany's religious faiths; the perverse economic rationality of the regime; the path to war laid down by Hitler's foreign policy; and the intricate and intimate intertwining of war and genocide. The volume concludes with a final chapter on the aftermath of National Socialism in postwar German history and memory.

Table of Contents:

List of maps

List of contributors

Abbreviations and glossary

Introduction Jane Caplan Caplan, Jane 1

1 The emergence of Nazi ideology Richard J. Evans Evans, Richard J. 26

2 The NSDAP 1919-1934: from fringe politics to the seizure of power Peter Fritzsche Fritzsche, Peter 48

3 Hitler and the Nazi state: leadership, hierarchy, and power Jeremy Noakes Noakes, Jeremy 73

4 Inclusion: building the national community in propaganda and practice Jill Stephenson Stephenson, Jill 99

5 The policy of exclusion: repression in the Nazi state, 1933-1939 Nikolaus Wachsmann Wachsmann, Nikolaus 122

6 Religion and the churches Richard Steigmann-Gall Steigmann-Gall, Richard 146

7 The economic history of the Nazi regime Adam Tooze Tooze, Adam 168

8 Foreign policy in peace and war Gerhard L. Weinberg Weinberg, Gerhard L. 196

9 Occupation, imperialism, and genocide, 1939-1945 Doris L. Bergen Bergen, Doris L. 219

10 The Third Reich in post-war German memory Robert G. Moeller Moeller, Robert G. 246

Further reading 267

Chronology 288

Maps 297

Index 305

Iraq or Christianity and Law

Iraq: Searching for Hope

Author: Andrew Whit

As an envoy for peace, Andrew White is dedicated to religious and political reconciliation in Iraq and has frequently risked his life. In this new edition of his book, which tells a remarkable inside story, Andrew reflects on what he has seen in Iraq during his visits since 2005, including the escalating violence, working with the military and the involvement of the Americans. He also assesses what he considers to be mistakes in the peace process. Among the more dramatic moments are the trial of Saddam, at which Andrew was present; the abduction of the leaders of St George's church and their presumed death; and hostage crises including the death of colleagues. Andrew's personal struggle has been very real, but even at the worst moments, he never loses hope. His picture of life on the ground in Iraq is as compelling as his insights into what goes on behind the political censors. Interspersed in this compelling account are reflections on such profound issues as the nature of evil, the occasional necessity of war and - perhaps the most urgent question - whether religion is part of the problem or the solution.

About the Author:
Canon Andrew White is the former International Director of the Iraqi Institute of Peace and President of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements     iv
Historical note     vi
Preface to second edition     vii
Preface toufirst edition     viii
Making friends with the enemy     1
The struggle begins     16
Why me?     22
Hope, edged with fear     25
Was the war justified?     38
The tale of suffering     45
Is it appropriate to speak of 'evil'?     53
Chaos and horror     55
Who are the insurgents?     54
The pursuit of peace     69
Doesn't religion do more harm than good?     82
Signing up     85
Can there be peace between religions?     95
Striving to set the captives free     98
Where is God in all this?     107
The corridors of power     110
Whose side are the media on?     118
Changing regimes     122
What is so special about Iraq?     133
Signs of new growths     137
A land of hope     144
The darkness and the glory     152
The Baghdad Religious Accord     171
The Dokan Religious Accord     173
Who's who     175

Look this: NOPINESE TRADITIONAL HENOPAL MEDICINE or Faith Healers

Christianity and Law: An Introduction

Author: John Witte Jr

What impact has Christianity had on the law from its beginnings to the present day? This introduction explores the main legal teachings of Western Christianity, set out in the texts and traditions of scripture and theology, philosophy and jurisprudence. It takes up the weightier matters of the law that Christianity has profoundly shaped - justice and mercy, rule and equity, discipline and love - as well as more technical topics of canon law, natural law, and state law. Some of these legal creations were wholly original to Christianity. Others were converted from Jewish and classical traditions. Still others were reformed by Renaissance humanists and Enlightenment philosophers. But whether original or reformed, these Christian teachings on law, politics and society have made and can continue to make fundamental contributions to modern law in the West and beyond.