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.