India or A Long Time Coming

India: An Emerging Giant

Author: Arvind Panagariya

India is not only the world's largest and fiercely independent democracy, but also an emerging economic giant. But to date there has been no comprehensive account of India's remarkable growth or the role policy has played in fueling this expansion. India: The Emerging Giant fills this gap, shedding light on one of the most successful experiments in economic development in modern history.
Why did the early promise of the Indian economy not materialize and what led to its eventual turnaround? What policy initiatives have been undertaken in the last twenty years and how do they relate to the upward shift in the growth rate? What must be done to push the growth rate to double-digit levels? To answer these crucial questions, Arvind Panagariya offers a brilliant analysis of India's economy over the last fifty years--from the promising start in the 1950s, to the near debacle of the 1970s (when India came to be regarded as a "basket case"), to the phenomenal about face of the last two decades. The author illuminates the ways that government policies have promoted economic growth (or, in the case of Indira Gandhi's policies, economic stagnation), and offers insightful discussions of such key topics as poverty and inequality, tax reform, telecommunications (perhaps the single most important success story), agriculture and transportation, and the government's role in health, education, and sanitation.
The dramatic change in the fortunes of 1.1 billion people has, not surprisingly, generated tremendous interest in the economy of India. Arvind Panagariya offers the first major account of how this has come about and what more India must do to sustain its rapid growth andalleviate poverty. It will be must reading for everyone interested in modern India, foreign affairs, or the world economy.

Table of Contents:

Prime Ministers of India     xi
Introduction     xiii
Growth and Economic Reforms
Distinguishing Four Phases     3
Phase I (1951-65): Takeoff under a Liberal Regime     22
Phase II (1965-81): Socialism Strikes with a Vengeance     47
Phase III (1981-88): Liberalization by Stealth     78
Phase IV (1988-2006): Triumph of Liberalization     95
A Tale of Two Countries: India and the Republic of Korea     110
Poverty, Inequality, and Economic Reforms
Declining Poverty: The Human Face of Reforms     129
Inequality: A Lesser Problem     157
Macroeconomics
Deficits and Debt: Is a Crisis around the Corner?     171
The External Sector: On the Road to Capital Account Convertibility?     191
The Financial Sector: Why Not Privatize the Banks?     214
Transforming India
International Trade: Carrying Liberalization Forward     259
Industry and Services: Walking on Two Legs     282
Modernizing Agriculture     311
The Government
Tax Reform: Toward a Uniform Goods and Services Tax     329
Tackling Subsidies and Reforming the Civil Service     351
Telecommunications and Electricity: Contrasting Experiences     370
Transportation: A Solvable Problem     396
Health and Water Supply and Sanitation: Can the Government Deliver?     415
Education: Expenditures or Transfers?     432
Industrial Policy 1990     455
Deriving the Savings-Investment Identity     460
Notes     462
References     484
Index     501

New interesting textbook: Best American Political Writing 2008 or First Ladies

A Long Time Coming: The Inspiring, Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama

Author: Evan Thomas

Since 1984, Newsweek has been renowned for its vivid, in-depth special election coverage of the ordeal of running for the presidency. A year before the election, Newsweek assigns reporters to get inside the campaigns of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Newsweek promises not to publish any information until after the votes are cast, and in exchange, the reporters receive remarkable access. They travel with the candidates, are there at crucial turning points and confidential meetings, and uncover stories not covered in day-to-day reporting.

In this book, a compelling narrative by Evan Thomas, Newsweek shares the inside stories from one of the most exciting elections in recent history, illuminating the personalities and events that influenced the outcome, and taking stock of the key players and key issues for the new administration. This will be an absorbing read for anyone interested in American politics.

Policy Paradox or Washingtons Crossing

Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making

Author: Deborah Ston

Since its debut, Policy Paradox has been widely acclaimed as the most accessible policy text available. Unlike most texts, which treat policy analysis and policy making as different enterprises, Policy Paradox demonstrates that "you can't take politics out of analysis." Through a uniquely rich and comprehensive model, this revised edition continues to show how real-world policy grows out of differing ideals, even definitions, of basic societal goals like security, equality, and liberty. The book also demonstrates how these ideals often conflict in policy implementation. In this revised edition, Stone has added a full-length case study as an appendix, taking up the issue of affirmative action. Clear, provocative, and engaging, Policy Paradox conveys the richness of public policy making and analysis.

Author Biography: Deborah Stone is the David R. Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy at Brandeis University. She has taught in the undergraduate and graduate programs at MIT, Yale, Tulane, and Duke University. She is the senior editor of The American Prospect.

Booknews

Problematizing the basic concepts of policy analysis, this book details the role of struggle in defining ideas like equity, efficiency, liberty, and fairness. Likewise, the tools of policy making<-->incentives, rules, persuasion, legal protections, and the reorganization of authority<-->are recast as complex social processes. Stone (government, Dartmouth College) argues that, at every stage and on every level, values shape policy design and implementation. This edition includes a chapter-length case study of affirmative action policies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Books about: Mastering Windows Server 2003 or Beyond Fear

Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History Series)

Author: David Hackett Fischer

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia.
Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined.
Fischer's richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning.

The New York Times

Leutze's ''Washington Crossing the Delaware'' is a highly romanticized rendition of a pivotal moment in American history, Christmas night of 1776, painted 75 years after the event. David Hackett Fischer's new book, Washington's Crossing, is a highly realistic and wonderfully readable narrative of the same moment that corrects all the inaccuracies in the Leutze painting but preserves the overarching sense of drama. — Joseph J. Ellis

The New Yorker

On December 22, 1776, Washington’s adjutant wrote him that their affairs “were hasting fast to ruin.” Two weeks later, after a harrowing nighttime crossing of the ice-choked Delaware River, Washington’s victories at Trenton and Princeton so shocked the British that the price of government securities fell. Fischer’s thoughtful account describes how Washington, in a frantic, desperate month, turned his collection of troops into a professional force, not by emulating the Europeans but by coming up with a model that was distinctly American. The army Washington fielded had innovative artillery, moved with startling speed, and even, in one of the first recorded instances, synchronized its watches. Trenton convinced many Britons that they were caught in a quagmire, and Americans that they could win. “A few days ago they had given up the cause for lost,” a British businessman wrote. “Now they are all liberty mad again.”

Caspar Weinberger - Forbes

This has been an especially good reading summer for devotees of American Colonial and Revolutionary his-tory. First and, in my opinion, the best of the many new books covering this period is Washington's Crossing--by David Hackett Fischer (Oxford University Press, $35). Professor Fischer is a noted historian, whose Albion's Seed, published in 1989, tells the story of those descendants of the British who settled here and helped create the United States. His Paul Revere's Ride has also been widely and justly praised.

Washington's Crossing tells the complete story of General George Washington's most daring, risky and successful venture early in the war. Following a succession of victories by the British and their mercenary forces, which had resultedin the loss of New York for the Americans, the British were within sight of Philadelphia, where the new American Congress was sitting.

Washington's army had been all but destroyed, and the British were surging across New Jersey. Washington's decision to cross the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776, when it was considered virtually impossible, was a move both bold and foolhardy. A flotilla of small boats crammed with soldiers, guns and horses somehow rowed across the river through one of the East's worst winter snow and ice storms. (The crossing as painted by Emanuel Leutze in 1851 captured this event spiritually and has become a great icon of the Revolution.) By crossing the Delaware, Washington placed the remnants of his army in a position to trap the British behind Trenton and, a few days later, to give that army and the cause for which it fought its first real victory. In many ways the shots fired atTrenton were the shots "heard round the world."

Professor Fischer conveys in a remarkably realistic way what combat and the fog of war are actually like. But, more important, he tells the story of what it was like for Washington to lead a discouraged, underequipped army that was constantly being micromanaged by a divided Congress that couldn't--at least at the beginning--decide whether it wanted independence or, simply, to get the Stamp Act repealed.

For those who still wonder how the Revolutionaries ever defeated the huge British forces arrayed against them, both on land and at sea, this book makes clear that it was the military genius and leadership of George Washing-ton that turned almost certain defeat into victory. Washington's Crossing is an essential and exciting key to a more complete understanding and appreciation of what our ancestors did to win the Revolution.

A new biography, Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Penguin Press, $35), is another superb book I read this summer. Hamilton served as principal aide to General Washington from the early days of the Revolu-tion. This gave him a ringside seat at the formation of the United States and its implausible victory over the British, who had deployed one of the world's finest military machines but lost to a ragtag army of upstarts.

Chernow's splendid, thorough and brilliantly written biography gives us a new understanding of Hamilton's vi-tal role during the war and immediately after as Secretary of the Treasury of this new entity on the world's stage. I doubt that many people realize how much of our country's financial structure we owe to Alexander Hamilton. This book goes beyond the standard fare offered in most American history classes. Hamilton's towering intellect, as well as his many faults, and his long, fierce disagreements with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and many of the other Founding Fathers are presented here with almost shocking candor.

There have been other biographies of Hamilton, but Chernow's is far and away the most comprehensive and compelling of any I have read. It is a fitting tribute to the man who set the U.S. on the path that has made our nation the economic leader of the world.

Another treat for Revolutionary history enthusiasts is The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon S. Wood (Penguin Press, $25.95). This delightful new study focuses on the actual aristocratic and elitist views and opinions of this so-called populist leader, who was one of our best-loved, most influential and renowned spokesmen to the world.

Moving away from Revolutionary times, I next read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography byWilliam F. Buckley Jr. (Regnery Publishing, $29.95). Buckley, a major founder of today's sen-sible conservatism, has led an extraordinary life, which fully matches his extraordinary talents. His subtitle is apt, as the book contains essays on sailing, skiing, music, old friends and colleagues and all manner of other diverse subjects, which are united in that they have all been of interest to one of the best minds and writers in America today.

Publishers Weekly

At the core of an impeccably researched, brilliantly executed military history is an analysis of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River in December 1776 and the resulting destruction of the Hessian garrison of Trenton and defeat of a British brigade at Princeton. Fischer's perceptive discussion of the strategic, operational and tactical factors involved is by itself worth the book's purchase. He demonstrates Washington's insight into the revolution's desperate political circumstances, shows how that influenced the idea of a riposte against an enemy grown overconfident with success and presents Washington's skillful use of what his army could do well. Even more useful is Fischer's analysis of the internal dynamics of the combatants. He demonstrates mastery of the character of the American, British and Hessian armies, highlighting that British troops, too, fought for ideals, sacred to them, of loyalty and service. Above all, Brandeis historian Fischer (Albion's Seed) uses the Trenton campaign to reveal the existence, even in the revolution's early stage, of a distinctively American way of war, much of it based on a single fact: civil and military leaders were accountable to a citizenry through their representatives. From Washington down, Fischer shows, military leaders acknowledged civil supremacy and worked with civil officials. Washington used firepower and intelligence as force multipliers to speed the war for a practical people who wanted to win quickly in order to return to their ordinary lives. Tempo, initiative and speed marked the Trenton campaign from first to last. And Washington fought humanely, extending quarter in battle and insisting on decent treatment of prisoners. The crossing of the Delaware, Fischer teaches, should be seen as emblematic of more than a turning of the war's tide. 91 halftone, 15 maps. 3-city author tour. (Feb.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Foreign Affairs

Brandeis historian Fischer won a large and devoted following with Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in North America. His reading of the early settler communities' attitudes toward questions of liberty and government has influenced a generation of writers seeking to understand the differences between "red" and "blue" America today. In Washington's Crossing, Fischer looks at the darkest months of the American Revolution, when, following devastating defeats in New York and White Plains, Washington's tatterdemalion army, and the American cause, teetered on the brink of collapse. For Fischer, the story of how Washington rallied colonial opinion and rebuilt the army's spirit explains why the Americans were able to win their independence. Unlike the Howes (leading British aristocrats who commanded the formidably equipped British naval and land forces), Washington had to cajole, persuade, and win over a multicultural mob of colonial politicians, officers, and soldiers. Washington, Fischer argues, was doing more than winning a war in these months; he was inventing a style of leadership and a form of politics well suited to American realities.

Library Journal

Most Americans still know the famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware but fewer recall the significance of the event it depicts. Fischer (history, Brandeis; Albion's Seed) puts this pivotal event back into context 5the course of world history. The 1776 campaign was a disaster for the Continental Army. The Howe brothers' organized and successful strategy had roundly defeated the Americans in New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Compounding this was disarray among American commanders, a lack of discipline among the troops, and most enlistments expiring. Many on both sides felt that the rebellion was broken. Washington's bold offensive across the Delaware arguably saved the American cause. The Hessian defeat at Trenton and later at Princeton rejuvenated American hopes and saved Washington's command. In this well-written and -documented history, the author relies on an impressive mix of primary and secondary sources. The firsthand accounts and personal stories of major players from both sides add color to the narrative. The book features copious illustrations; maps; numerous appendixes including troop strength, casualties, weather, and Battle Order; and an excellent historiography of the event. Scholarly but very readable, it is recommended for libraries with an interest in early American history.-Robert Flatley, Kutztown Univ., PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Another stirring effort by the author of Paul Revere's Ride (Oxford, 1994). Readers will again cheer American perseverance, inventiveness, and improvisation as Washington, his officers, and their men turn the early military defeats of Long Island and New York City into victory at Trenton and Princeton. The opening chapter is devoted to the painting Washington Crossing the Delaware. Then the author discusses the British, Hessian, and American military units that were involved in these campaigns and gives background on their officers. This is Fischer's strong suit: he tells stories and gives details that bring history alive. He makes the point that decisions made for varying reasons by converging sets of people determine history. In the hands of such a thorough researcher and talented writer, this is powerful stuff. The bulk of the book deals with the battles and their aftermath. The text is enriched by small reproductions of portraits, many by Charles Willson Peale, of the major players. The last chapter summarizes Fischer's points and would make a good teaching tool by itself.-Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A lively reconstruction of the Continental Army's finest strategic hour. Textbook accounts of Washington's Christmas crossing of the Delaware River are fine as they go. But why did Washington brave the ice-clogged tide in the first place, especially when he would face a supposedly much superior force of British and Hessian troops on the other side? Well, historian Fischer (Paul Revere's Ride, 1994, etc.) answers, the British and Hessians had been beaten up pretty badly in New Jersey throughout the fall of 1776 by American guerrillas, who defied military convention and fought in plain clothes, believing "that they had a natural right to take up arms in defense of their laws and liberties." This uprising, Fischer continues, "created an opportunity for George Washington," who "made the most of it, in a battle that was itself a war of contingencies." The Hessians weren't drunk on Christmas cheer, as the legend has it, when Washington surprised them at dawn (in truth, well past dawn); they were exhausted, having been dogged into near-submission by those guerrillas-women and men-and virtually imprisoned behind the fences and stone walls of Trenton. Washington receives due credit in Fischer's account for seizing the initiative in the face of near-rebellion on the part of supposed comrades such as General Horatio Gates, who declined to take part in operations; his soldiers receive credit too, and so do the British, and so even do the Hessians, each in their turn. Fischer's rendering of the battle and the events leading up to and following it is richly detailed and full of surprises. Who knew that the roads to Trenton were full on that sleety, pitch-black night with farmers and woodcutters, withyoung men out courting, with ministers tending to their flocks? Who knew, against the legend, that the "American attackers had twice as many guns in proportion to infantry than did the Hessian garrison"? A superb addition to the literature of the Revolution, by one of the best chroniclers in the business.

Table of Contents:

	Maps	viii
	Editor's Note	ix
	Introduction	1
	The Rebels	7
	The Regulars	31
	The Hessians	51
	The Plan of the Campaign	66
	The Fall of New York	81
	The Retreat	115
	The Crisis	138
	The Occupation	160
	The Opportunity	182
	The River	206
	The March	221
	The Surprise	234
	Hard Choices	263
	Good Ground	277
	The Bridge	290
	Two Councils	308
	The Battle at Princeton	324
	Aftermath	346
	Conclusion	363
	Appendices	380
	Historiography	425
	Bibliography	459
	Abbreviations	487
	Notes	488
	Sources for Maps	545
	Acknowledgments	547
	Index	551

The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell or In Our Defense

The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq

Author: John Crawford

The only book about the war in Iraq by a soldier on the ground-destined to become a classic of war literature.
John Crawford joined the Florida National Guard to pay for his college tuition-it had seemed a small sacrifice to give up one weekend a month and two weeks a year in exchange for a free education. But one semester short of graduating, and newly married, he was called to active duty-to serve in Kuwait, then on the front lines of the invasion of Iraq, and ultimately in Baghdad. While serving in Iraq, Crawford began writing short nonfiction stories, his account of what he and his fellow soldiers experienced in the war. At the urging of a journalist embedded with his unit, he began sending his pieces out of the country via an anonymous Internet e-mail account.
In a voice at once raw and immediate, Crawford's work vividly chronicles the daily life of a young soldier in Iraq-the excitement, the horror, the anger, the tedium, the fear, the camaraderie. All together, the stories slowly uncover something more: the transformation of a group of young college students-innocents-into something entirely different.
In the tradition of Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried, this haunting and powerful, brutal but compellingly honest book promises to become the lasting, personal literary account of the United States' involvement in Iraq.

Go to: Global Financial Markets or Globalization and the Future of the Welfare State

In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action

Author: C Kennedy

We The People

The Bill of Rights defines and defends the freedoms we enjoy as Americans -- from the right to bear arms to the right to a civil jury. Using the dramatic true stories of people whose lives have been deeply affected by such issues as the death penalty and the right to privacy, attorneys Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy reveal how the majestic priciples of the Bill of Rights have taken shape in the lives of ordinary people, as well as the historic and legal significance of each amendment. In doing so, they shed brilliant new light on this visionary document, which remains as vital and as controversial today as it was when a great nation was newly born.

Publishers Weekly

Does a citizenry's revulsion at hate-mongering outweigh the Ku Klux Klan's claimed right to broadcast racist messages? In what circumstances do national security considerations give government the wherewithal to clamp restrictions on a free press? If a mother suspected of child abuse refuses to tell authorities where the youngster is for fear that the state will take him from her, is she acting within the Fifth Amendment right protecting against self-incrimination? These cases and many other thorny issues addressed in this compelling casebook had legal outcomes that hinged on the courts' interpretation of the Bill of Rights. For each of the 10 amendments, one or more pertinent cases are presented in clear, impartial, jargon-free discussions encompassing the rights to privacy, gun control, FBI surveillance of political activists, minimum wage, flag burning and other issues. Columbia Law School graduates Alderman, a Manhattan attorney, and Kennedy (daughter of JFK) have produced a valuable primer for Supreme Court watchers. BOMC alternate. (Feb.)

Library Journal

The authors use fascinating accounts of real-life controversies to introduce the general reader to the Bill of Rights. Nineteen vignettes illuminate virtually all rights guarantees and demonstrate their contemporary relevance. Of particular interest are the stories about the development of public land held sacred by Native Americans (First Amendment) and the attempt to protect minors testifying in molestation cases (Sixth Amendment). Although the authors emphasize the human side of the Bill of Rights rather than its judicial interpretation, their legal analysis is sound, and the extensive notes and bibliography provide direction for further research. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/90.-- G. Alan Tarr, Rutgers Univ., Camden, N.J.

School Library Journal

YA-- Alderman and Kennedy have taken the Bill of Rights and made it breathe. Their book considers 20 or so Supreme Court cases, the verdicts of which pivot on one of the first Ten Amendments to the U. S. Constitution. The cases chosen are not the landmark, precedent-setting ones with which most people are familiar. Instead, readers will find normal people who, because of circumstance, victimization, or character flaws, end up having their stories studied by the highest court in the land. As the authors acknowledge, ``It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.'' Several life histories read more like soap operas and B-movies than a law text. The writing is clear, direct, and often poignant. There are photographs of some of the protagonists that add to the down-to-earth character of this study. Finally, it is entertaining.-- Vicki Fox, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA

The Leviathan or Power to the People Signed Edition

The Leviathan

Author: Thomas Hobbes

After the publication of his masterpiece of political theory, Leviathan, Or the Matter, and Power of Commonwealth Ecclesiastic and Civil, in 1651, opponents charged Thomas Hobbes with atheism and banned and burned his books. The English Parliament, in a search for scapegoats, even claimed that the theories found in Leviathan were a likely cause of the Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666.

For the modern reader, though, Hobbes is more recognized for his popular belief that humanity's natural condition is a state of perpetual war, with life being "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Despite frequent challenges by other philosophers, Leviathan's secular theory of absolutism no longer stands out as particularly objectionable. In the description of the organization of states, moreover, we see Hobbes as strikingly current in his use of concepts that we still employ today, including the ideas of natural law, natural rights, and the social contract. Based on this work, one could even argue that Hobbes created English-language philosophy, insofar as Leviathan was the first great philosophical work written in English and one whose impact continues to the present day.

About the Author:
Thomas Hobbes was born on Good Friday in 1588. Despite growing up in an impoverished clerical family, he was precociously intelligent and completed a classical education at Oxford. He decided not to follow in his father's footsteps, though, and instead became a tutor within an aristocratic family. When these royalist political connections and a number of personal writings in support of monarchical authority got Hobbes centrally involved in the turmoil of the English Civil War, he feared for his safety and fled to France in 1640. It was while in exile in France that he wrote Leviathan, the work that cemented Hobbes' philosophical reputation as the pre-eminent modern theorist of secular absolutism.

Read also Betty Crockers Italian Cooking or Complete Idiots Guide to Grilling

Power to the People Signed Edition

Author: Laura Ingraham

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

Table of Contents:

Introduction     1
Power to the Family     13
Don't Fence Me...In But Please Fence Them Out!     41
Protecting the People     71
Judging the Judges     101
Keeping It Local     133
Saving our Pornified Culture     157
School's Out...of Control     195
The Revenge of the "Loud Folks"     231
Blinding Us with Science     257
Taking the Real Power Trip     285
Acknowledgments     319
Notes     323
Index     349

The Dark Side or The Terror Presidency

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

Author: Jane Mayer

A dramatic and damning narrative account of how America has fought the
"War on Terror"

In the days immediately following September 11th, the most powerful people in the country were panic-stricken. The radical decisions about how to combat terrorists and strengthen national security were made in a state of utter chaos and fear, but the key players, Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, used the crisis to further a long held agenda to enhance Presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment.

THE DARK SIDE is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world-- decisions that not only violated the Constitution to which White House officials took an oath to uphold, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In gripping detail, acclaimed New Yorker writer and bestselling author, Jane Mayer, relates the impact of these decisions—U.S.-held prisoners, some of them completely innocent, were subjected to treatment more reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition than the twenty-first century.

THE DARK SIDE will chronicle real, specific cases, shown in real time against the larger tableau of what was happening in Washington, looking at the intelligence gained—or not—and the price paid. In some instances, torture worked. In many more, it led to false information, sometimes with devastating results. For instance, there is the stunning admission of one of the detainees, Sheikh Ibnal-Libi, that the confession he gave under duress—which provided a key piece of evidence buttressing congressional support of going to war against Iraq--was in fact fabricated, to make the torture stop.

In all cases, whatever the short term gains, there were incalculable losses in terms of moral standing, and our country's place in the world, and its sense of itself. THE DARK SIDE chronicles one of the most disturbing chapters in American history, one that will serve as the lasting legacy of the George W. Bush presidency.

The New York Times - Alan Brinkley

a powerful, brilliantly researched and deeply unsettling book…The Bush administration is not, of course, the first or only regime to violate civil liberties. John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt all authorized or tolerated terrible violations of civil and human rights, all of them in response to great national and global crises. In some respects, the Bush administration is simply following a familiar path by responding to real dangers with illegal and deplorable methods. But Jane Mayer's extraordinary and invaluable book suggests that it would be difficult to find any precedent in American history for the scale, brutality and illegality of the torture and degradation inflicted on detainees over the last six years; and that it would be even harder to imagine a set of policies more likely to increase the dangers facing the United States and the world.

Publishers Weekly

Following the paper trail left by the blank check the government and the citizenry gave the Bush administration after 9/11, Mayer tracks the nuanced and specific actions that have resulted in a devaluation of American ideals both domestically and abroad. Her talent lies in identifying the key moments, cases, actions and decisions that proved pivotal in empowering a monarchical executive power to avoid checks and balances. Mayer's comprehensive and detailed approach certainly ranks her work higher among the scores of books on the Bush administration. Richard McGonagle has a powerfully resonant and gruff voice that is at times deliberate and works effectively with the tone of this book. Occasionally, however, he seems distant, not monotonic, but projecting the sense he is just going through the motions. A Doubleday hardcover (reviewed online).(Aug.)

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

Christopher Rager - Library Journal

New Yorker writer Mayer (Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984-1988) here examines the Bush administration's controversial policies following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. She focuses on the administration's disregard for international law, specifically its contempt for the Geneva Convention guidelines regarding the humane treatment of prisoners of war. The gravity of her riveting exposA©, which unfolds like a spy novel, is enhanced by actor/narrator Richard McGonagle's (www.richardmcgonagle.com) bass-level reading. A cautionary tale of the abuse and misappropriation of power, it is especially poignant in an election year; recommended for libraries focused on presidential history and current events. [Audio clips available through library.booksontape.comand www.randomhouse.com/audio.-Ed.]

Table of Contents:

Panic     1
Blame     11
The Warning     28
Men of Zeal     44
Detainee 001     72
Outsourcing Torture     101
Inside the Black Sites     139
The Experiment     182
The Memo     213
A Deadly Interrogation     238
Blowback     261
Cover-up     295
Afterword     327
Acknowledgments     336
Endnotes     338
Bibliography     361
A Note on Sources     370
Index     372

Book review: James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights or The Republic

The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration

Author: Jack L Goldsmith

A central player's account of the clash between the rule of law and the necessity of defending America.

Jack Goldsmith's duty as head of the Office of Legal Counsel was to advise President Bush what he could and could not do...legally. Goldsmith took the job in October 2003 and began to review the work of his predecessors. Their opinions were the legal framework governing the conduct of the military and intelligence agencies in the war on terror, and he found many—especially those regulating the treatment and interrogation of prisoners—that were deeply flawed.

Goldsmith is a conservative lawyer who understands the imperative of averting another 9/11. But his unflinching insistence that we abide by the law put him on a collision course with powerful figures in the administration. Goldsmith's fascinating analysis of parallel legal crises in the Lincoln and Roosevelt administrations shows why Bush's apparent indifference to human rights has damaged his presidency and, perhaps, his standing in history. 8 pages of photographs.

The New York Times Book Review - Anthony Lewis

…the record of Bush and his lawyers on torture…is grippingly examined by Jack Goldsmith in The Terror Presidency. Goldsmith is a conservative Harvard law professor who was assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel for nine months in 2003-4. That is where official government opinions on the law are prepared. John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general in the office, prepared the 2002 opinion defining torture narrowly and asserting that the president had supreme power to order its use. Goldsmith withdrew that opinion and replaced it with a much more modest one. It took courage to do that, because he was treated as a traitor by some in the administration—notably David Addington, then Vice President Cheney's counsel, now his chief of staff. And it has taken courage to write this book…Goldsmith's arguments are the more convincing because they are not premised on traditional liberal or civil libertarian views.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

Similar portraits, of course, have been drawn by reporters and other former administration insiders, but Mr. Goldsmith's account stands out by virtue that he was privy to internal White House debates about explosive matters like secret surveillance, coercive interrogation and the detention and trial of enemy combatants. It is also distinguished by Mr. Goldsmith's writing from the point of view of a conservative who shared many of the Bush White House's objectives (and who was an ideological ally of John Yoo, one of the main architects of the administration's legal responses to a post-9/11 world and the author of some of the very opinions Mr. Goldsmith would later call into question). But he found himself alarmed by the Bush White House's obsession with expanding presidential power, its arrogant unilateralism and its willingness to use what he regarded as careless and overly expansive legal arguments in an effort to buttress its policies.

Wade Hampton or Social Work Dictionary

Wade Hampton: Confederate Warrior to Southern Redeemer

Author: Rod Andrew

"Few Southern elites gave more to the Confederate cause or suffered more in its defeat than General Wade Hampton III of South Carolina. One of the South's most illustrious military leaders, Hampton was for a time the commander of all Lee's cavalry and at the end of the war was the highest-ranking Confederate cavalry officer. Yet for all Hampton's military victories, he also suffered devastating losses. He lost a beloved son and a brother, his own home as well as his grandfather's ancestral mansion, and his vast personal fortune. He failed to deter Sherman's legions from capturing his hometown of Columbia and was blamed for the inferno that destroyed it. Previous studies of Hampton have leaned toward hero worship or taken a political approach that considered his personal history irrelevant. Rod Andrew's critical biography demonstrates that Hampton's life is essential to understanding his influence beyond the battlefield and his obsession with vindication for the South." Andrew's analysis of Hampton sheds light on his critical role during Reconstruction as a conservative white leader, governor, U.S. senator, and Redeemer; his heroic image in the minds of white Southerners; and his positions and apparent contradictions on race and the role of African Americans in the New South. Andrew also shows that Hampton's tragic past explains how he emerged in his own day as a larger-than-life symbol - of national reconciliation as well as Southern defiance.

Look this: Simmer or Sizzle or Everyday Cooking for Beginners Break Tha

Social Work Dictionary

Author: Robert L Barker

The dynamic vocabulary of social work, like the profession itself, continues to grow and become more complex. Since the first edition of The Social Work Dictionary in 1987, this essential reference work has been recognized as the definitive lexicon of social work. Now in its fifth edition, The Social Work Dictionary captures more than 9,000 terms, cataloging and cross-referencing the nomenclature, concepts, organizations, historical figures, and values that define the profession. A special historical section represents a chronology of the significant developments in the United States and the world toward social welfare policies, practices, and the betterment of humanity. Used extensively in schools of social work, social service agency libraries, and in social work offices worldwide, The Social Work Dictionary, 5th Edition is a staple in professional libraries. It is unequaled as a study tool for preparing for licensing and certification exams. Every social worker-from professor to student, from novice to experienced professional-should own this unparalleled resource for understanding the language of social work and related disciplines!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Terms and definitions evaluated and edited by an expert editorial review board
• Terms that social workers have adopted for use from sociology, anthropology, medicine, law, psychology, and economics
• Definitions of symptoms and diagnostic labels for various forms of mental disorders as they are understood by social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals

Booknews

Provides the social worker with an abbreviated interpretation of the words, concepts, organizations, historical events, and values that are relevant to the profession. Covers some 8,000 terms, including 2,000 that are new to this edition. Other features include a list of frequently-used acronyms; a list of milestones in the development of social work and social welfare; the NASW Code of Ethics; and resources. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Blacklisted by History or Founding America

Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe Mccarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies

Author: M Stanton Evans

Accused of creating a bogus Red Scare and smearing countless innocent victims in a five-year reign of terror, Senator Joseph McCarthy is universally remembered as a demagogue, a bully, and a liar. History has judged him such a loathsome figure that even today, a half century after his death, his name remains synonymous with witch hunts.

But that conventional image is all wrong, as veteran journalist and author M. Stanton Evans reveals in this groundbreaking book. The long-awaited Blacklisted by History, based on six years of intensive research, dismantles the myths surrounding Joe McCarthy and his campaign to unmask Communists, Soviet agents, and flagrant loyalty risks working within the U.S. government. Evans’s revelations completely overturn our understanding of McCarthy, McCarthyism, and the Cold War.

Drawing on primary sources—including never-before-published government records and FBI files, as well as recent research gleaned from Soviet archives and intercepted transmissions between Moscow spymasters and their agents in the United States—Evans presents irrefutable evidence of a relentless Communist drive to penetrate our government, influence its policies, and steal its secrets. Most shocking of all, he shows that U.S. officials supposedly guarding against this danger not only let it happen but actively covered up the penetration. All of this was precisely as Joe McCarthy contended.

Blacklisted by History shows, for instance, that the FBI knew as early as 1942 that J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the atomic bomb project, had been identified by Communist leaders as a party member; that high-level U.S. officials were warned that AlgerHiss was a Soviet spy almost a decade before the Hiss case became a public scandal; that a cabal of White House, Justice Department, and State Department officials lied about and covered up the Amerasia spy case; and that the State Department had been heavily penetrated by Communists and Soviet agents before McCarthy came on the scene.

Evans also shows that practically everything we’ve been told about McCarthy is false, including conventional treatment of the famous 1950 speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, that launched the McCarthy era (“I have here in my hand . . .”), the Senate hearings that casually dismissed his charges, the matter of leading McCarthy suspect Owen Lattimore, the Annie Lee Moss case, the Army-McCarthy hearings, and much more.

In the end, Senator McCarthy was censured by his colleagues and condemned by the press and historians. But as Evans writes, “The real Joe McCarthy has vanished into the mists of fable and recycled error, so that it takes the equivalent of a dragnet search to find him.” Blacklisted by History provides the first accurate account of what McCarthy did and, more broadly, what happened to America during the Cold War. It is a revealing exposé of the forces that distorted our national policy in that conflict and our understanding of its history since.

Publishers Weekly

Evans's lively book seeks, first, to demonstrate that Communists worked, often successfully, to undermine American security during the Cold War. It tries, second, to defend Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the egregious scourge of American Communists and fellow travelers, against those who, in Evans's (The Theme Is Freedom) view, have unjustly ruined his reputation. On the first point, save for some new details, Evans, a contributing editor to Human Events, treads worn ground. Most scholars, having also used Soviet archives, concede his position and argue now only over secondary matters, like the guilt of Alger Hiss. On the second point, Evans has a tougher case, which he seeks to make as a defense attorney would: by conceding nothing to McCarthy's detractors. Evans is also given to conspiracy thinking-an approach that, by its nature, yields claims that can neither be confirmed nor falsified. Defense attorneys and debaters like Evans follow different rules than historians-they try to score points, not to advance knowledge. Evans is good at the former, his propulsive style carrying much of the argument's burden. But the history Evans relates is already largely known, if not fully accepted.. 20 illus. (Nov. 6)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Bob Nardini - Library Journal

If a book set out to choose the most disreputable American political episode on which to bestow respectable historical standing, Joe McCarthy's era of influence might serve. The Wisconsin senator's brief ascendancy is all but universally seen as a period of shame. In his massively documented work, longtime conservative journalist and editor Evans (former editor, Indianapolis News; The Theme Is Freedom) argues that "the real Joe McCarthy has vanished into the mists of fable and recycled error, so that it takes the equivalent of a dragnet search to find him." In his dragnet, Evans looks closely at FBI files, congressional hearing transcripts, private papers, and other sources, some only recently available, and concludes that just about everything written on McCarthy from his 1950 Wheeling speech to the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings is wrong. Evans's McCarthy, while sometimes lacking nuance, was onto a real problem with the issue of Communists in government, one that his critics, contemporary and ever after, have been less concerned about than they have been with disposing of McCarthy. The author charges most prior historians and biographers with having been light on primary research but steeped in conventional wisdom. His crisply written study may daunt some readers owing to length and may not win over most McCarthy critics. But it will certainly send historians to the primary sources and is recommended for academic and larger public libraries.

Table of Contents:

Third Rail
Prologue: The Search for Joe McCarthy     3
An Enemy of the People     15
The Caveman in the Sewer     26
He Had in His Hand     37
"Stale, Warmed Over Charges"     49
Unthinking the Thinkable     61
Back Story
The Witching Hour     75
The Way It Worked     87
Chungking, 1944     98
Reds, Lies, and Audiotape     110
When Parallels Converged     123
What Hoover Told Truman     135
Inside the State Department     148
Acts of Congress     162
Blowup
Wheeling, 1950     179
Discourse on Method     194
The Tydings Version     206
Eve of Destruction     219
A Fraud and a Hoax     233
Of Names and Numbers     246
The Four Committees     263
File and Forget It     276
All Clear in Foggy Bottom     288
The Man Who Knew Too Much     301
Mole Hunts
The Trouble with Harry     315
A Book of Martyrs     331
Some Public Cases     345
Tempest in a Teacup     360
Little Red Schoolhouse     373
"Owen Lattimore-Espionage R"     385
Dr. Jessup and Mr. Field     399
A Conspiracy So Immense     411
The Battle with Benton     425
Hardball
The Perils of Power     443
Uncertain Voice     455
The Burning of the Books     467
Scott McLeod, Where Are You?     478
The Getting of J. B. Matthews     490
The Moles of Monmouth     502
A Tale of Two Generals     515
The Legend of Annie Lee Moss     528
At War with the Army     542
On Not Having Any Decency     557
End Game
The Sounds of Silence     573
Sentence First, Verdict Later     585
Conclusion: Samson in the Heathen Temple     599
Notes     607
Appendix     631
Acknowledgments     641
Index     644

Read also Yoga for Wellness or The Beauty Prescription

Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Author: Jack N Rakov

Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights, by Various, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars

Biographies of the authors

Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events

Footnotes and endnotes

Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work

Comments by other famous authors

Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations

Bibliographies for further reading

Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

Modern American politicians refer to "the founders" so often that they're in danger of becoming clichйs. But Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail and John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, and the other authors included in this new collection were awholly unique—and complex—group of individuals, graced with extraordinary intellectual powers, a profound dedication to their ideals, and a striking ability to articulate those ideals in clear and passionate prose.

This original anthology of their writings, many of them far less familiar to us than they should be, demonstrates the depth of their thinking—and of their disagreements. It covers the full range of events from 1773 to 1789: that is, from the early debates about whether the North American colonies should declare their independence from England, to the ratification of the Constitution and the first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights).

Among the documents included are papers from the first and second Continental Congresses, the Articles of Confederation, Washington's Farewell Address to his armies, and extensive excerpts from the Federalist papers and the Madison–Jefferson correspondence on the Constitution.

Jack N. Rakove is W.  R. Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1980. He is the author of four books on the American Revolutionary era, including The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress, James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic, and Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, which received the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in History.

Becoming Eichmann or Government Pirates

Becoming Eichmann

Author: David Cesarani

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New interesting textbook: Automotive Service Management or Risk Management for Agriculture

Government Pirates: The Assault on Private Property Rights-And How We Can Fight It

Author: Don Corac

After years of hard work and saving, you finally own a home. But don't get too comfortable. If government officials decide they want your property, they can take it—for a wide variety of shady reasons that go far beyond the usual definition of "public purposes." The courts have allowed these injustices to persist. And there is nothing you can do about it—not yet.

Real estate developer and property rights expert Don Corace offers the first in-depth look at eminent domain abuse and other government regulations that are strangling the rights of property owners across America. Government Pirates is filled with shocking stories of corrupt politicians, activist judges, entrenched bureaucrats, greedy developers, NIMBY (Not-in-My-Backyard) activists, and environmental extremists who conspire to seize property and extort money and land in return for permits. Corace provides the hard facts about individual rights and offers invaluable advice for those whose property may be in danger. It is the one book that every property owner in America has to read.

Revolutionary Characters or Evaluation

Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different

Author: Gordon S Wood

Even when the greatness of the founding fathers isn't being debunked, it is a quality that feels very far away from us indeed: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Co. seem as distant as marble faces carved high into a mountainside. We may marvel at the fact that fate placed such a talented cohort of political leaders in that one place, the east coast of North America, in colonies between Virginia and Massachusetts, and during that one fateful period, but that doesn't really help us explain it or teach us the proper lessons to draw from it. What did make the founders different? Now, the incomparable Gordon Wood has written a book that shows us, among many other things, just how much character did matter.

Revolutionary Characters offers a series of brilliantly illuminating studies of the men who came to be known as the founding fathers. Each life is considered in the round, but the thread that binds the work together and gives it the cumulative power of a revelation is this idea of character as a lived reality for these men. For these were men, Gordon Wood shows, who took the matter of character very, very seriously. They were the first generation in history that was self-consciously self-made, men who understood the arc of lives, as of nations, as being one of moral progress. They saw themselves as comprising the world's first true meritocracy, a natural aristocracy as opposed to the decadent Old World aristocracy of inherited wealth and station.

Gordon Wood's wondrous accomplishment here is to bring these men and their times down to earth and within our reach, revealing to us just who they were and what drove them. In so doing, he shows us that although a lot has changed in two hundred years, to an amazing degree the virtues these founders defined for themselves are the virtues we aspire to still.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

Shrewdly argued ... powerful.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Of those writing about the founding fathers, [Gordon Wood] is quite simply the best.

The Weekly Standard

If we can't turn back the clock, at least we can enjoy a master historian's refreshing reassessment of seven men whose legacies live on.... It has the integrity and, yes, the eccentricity of the Founders it celebrates.

The New York Times Book Review - Jon Meacham

Illuminating ... poignant.

The Washington Post Book World

Elegant ... absorbing ... from one of our leading scholars of the American Revolution.

The Washington Post - Robert Middlekauff

At several points in this volume, most notably the essays on Washington and the epilogue, Wood argues that the founders contributed unwittingly to a democratic and egalitarian society that they never wanted. This is another point in favor of the history Wood provides in this splendid collection: He relates what he would have us believe, explains much of what was done and leaves us with an ironical appreciation of the founders' achievement.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

This volume is at its most powerful when Mr. Wood uses his enormous knowledge of the era to situate his subjects within a historical and political context, stripping away accretions of myths and commentary to show the reader how Washington, say, or Franklin (the subject of a 2004 book by the author) were viewed by their contemporaries. He explains how the reputations of these men waxed and waned over the years, and how changing ideological fashions in history writing have continually remade their images: most notably, how the current academic focus on gender, class and race issues has marginalized the study of politics and political leaders and contributed to the vogue for debunking "elite white males."

Publishers Weekly

Bancroft and Pulitzer Prize-winner Wood suggests that behind America's current romance with the founding fathers is a critique of our own leaders, a desire for such capable and disinterested leadership as was offered by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Provocatively, Wood argues that the very egalitarian democracy Washington and Co. created all but guarantees that we will "never again replicate the extraordinary generation of the founders." In 10 essays, most culled from the New York Review of Books and the New Republic, Wood offers miniature portraits of James Madison, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Paine. The most stimulating chapter is devoted to John Adams, who died thinking he would never get his due in historians' accounts of the Revolution; for the most part, he was right. This piece is an important corrective; Adams, says Wood, was not only pessimistic about the greed and scrambling he saw in his fellow Americans, he was downright prophetic-and his countrymen, then and now, have never wanted to reckon with his critiques. Wood is an elegant writer who has devoted decades to the men about whom he is writing, and taken together, these pieces add perspective to the founding fathers cottage industry. (May 22) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Presenting a series of essays he has published previously and heavily revised here, Pulitzer Prize winner Wood focuses on the Founding Fathers, whose achievements he notes are still so highly ranked by Americans today. Wood is at his best when writing about George Washington and Aaron Burr, noting with regard to the former that his character was perfectly suited to his time: his backing of the proposed federal Constitution was crucial, and he governed with "no precedents to follow." Wood crystallizes his own opinion of Burr by defining him as "a self-assured aristocrat using his public office in every way he could to make money." This book also includes essays on Jefferson, Franklin, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, and, in perhaps the book's one flaw, John Adams. Wood makes much of John Adams's pessimism about the future of the country while glossing over his real contributions to the independence movement and his writing of the Massachusetts Constitution, which is still in use today. All in all, this is a very readable book; recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/06.]-Karen Sutherland, Bartlett P.L., IL Law & Crime Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-There is no shortage of new titles assessing the character and contributions of America's founders, but this excellent book is particularly well suited to high school students. Wood has selected eight remarkable men to profile: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Paine, and Aaron Burr. After describing how their reputations have undergone changes through the years, sometimes honored, sometimes reviled, the author discusses the men in terms of their own times. A chapter is devoted to each one, but these essays are not simple biographical sketches. Wood establishes his subjects' social and economic backgrounds, but then focuses on their personalities and philosophies, revealed through their correspondence. Trying to establish a meritocracy during an age of aristocracy was a daunting process, and the founders often became one another's adversaries. Their shrewd and sometimes caustic observations showed the difficulties involved in coming to a consensus on vital issues. Insecurities, humor, brilliance, and bewilderment abounded, all described in a flowing, lively style. Readers will gain a new understanding and appreciation of these men, and may even be inspired to read some of the comprehensive biographies recommended by the author.-Kathy Tewell, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

In this collection, Pulitzer Prize-winner Wood (History/Brown Univ.; The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, 2004, etc.) elegantly examines the meaning of the Founding Fathers for our time and-an infinitely harder thing to discern-for their own. Obsessed with race, class and gender, today's historians are often more intent on dehumanizing rather than simply debunking, the Founders, Wood notes. Without losing sight of the revolutionaries' often significant faults, he offers a welcome, if ironic, reminder of one of their lasting achievements: creating an egalitarian polity that had no place for aristocrats like themselves again. His meditations on the Founders' relationship to the Enlightenment and the creation of American public opinion bracket profiles of six revolutionaries who have entered the American pantheon and two (Thomas Paine and Aaron Burr) who have not. The author typically begins by discussing how different generations viewed a particular figure, then attempting to ferret out the reasons for that revolutionary's conduct. For instance, he shows that Benjamin Franklin's image as folksy self-made American is at odds with the Philadelphian's pre-revolutionary desire to become a gentleman in London. Above all, the Founders adhered to a "classical ideal of disinterested leadership" that fit their notions of character. This ideal suited a meritocracy such as their own, which broke with the English tradition of a corrupt hereditary aristocracy, but it was out of place in a rapidly evolving America that thrust obscure ordinary men into power. Wood explains his figures and their times in fresh ways, noting, for example, how Madison's frustrations in the Virginia legislature inspiredhim to curb state power at the Constitutional Convention, and why the Democratic-Republican opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 fostered the notion of truth as "the creation of many voices and many minds."Bracing, clear-eyed perspectives on why we are unlikely to see such a politically creative period again.

Book review: CCNA Wireless Official Exam Certification Guide or What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy

Evaluation: A Systematic Approach

Author: Peter H Rossi

The Fifth Edition of this bestselling book has been thoughtfully revised to make it the most useful and comprehensive resource in evaluation research today. New to this edition is: more coverage on meta-analysis, particularly in regard to its use in design and modification of programme intervention; revised and expanded coverage on programme monitoring and management; new chapters on quasi-experimental impact assessments; assessment of full-coverage programmes including a comparison of the differences in these procedures; and more examples and boxed exhibits of local and state evaluations.

The effective organization of the Fourth Edition has been retained, mirroring the way evaluation is practised - from diagnosis of a problem with a social programme through to the final stages of measuring and analyzing a specific programme.

Booknews

New edition of a time-tested text/reference first published in 1979, providing an introduction to the broad set of research activities essential for designing, implementing, and appraising the utility of social programs. Chapters cover diagnostic procedures, tailoring evaluations, program monitoring, impact assessment, assessment of full-coverage programs, measuring efficiency, and the social context of evaluation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Reagan in His Own Hand or American Soldier

Reagan, in His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan That Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America

Author: Kiron K Skinner

Hidden in the archives of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for more than a decade, the writings contained in Reagan, In His Own Hand redefine the way we think about American history of the past quarter century and about the fortieth American president. By revealing an active mind wrestling with the problems of a sluggish economy, social pathologies, welfare reform, and the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union, these never-before-seen documents, many reproduced in his own handwriting, prove Reagan to be both the visionary and intellectual powerhouse behind his administration's landmark policies.

Steve Forbes - Forbes Magazine

This book should once and for all demolish the myth that Ronald Regan was a simple man who only had a couple of strongly held ideas. He was an un-commonly capable communicator, who wisely never conveyed an Al Gore-like policy wonk. In his day many pundits and members of his own party felt Regan was vague on many issues. This volume will be a bit of a surprise to these folks. (5 Feb 2001)

New interesting textbook: April 4 1968 or The Only Grant Writing Book Youll Ever Need

American Soldier

Author: Tommy Franks

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Table of Contents:

	Prologue: D-Day	xi
Part I	Deep Roots
1	Planting Seeds	3
2	"Make 'em a Hand"	27
3	The Crucible	63
Part II	Professional Soldier
4	A New Army	113
5	Flag Rank	145
Part III	Commander in Chief
6	A Dangerous Neighborhood	191
7	A New Kind of War	238
8	Historic Victory	283
Part IV	A Revolution in Warfare
9	Commander's Concept	321
10	The Plan	382
11	Operation Iraqi Freedom	432
12	A Campaign Unlike Any Other	478
	Epilogue	537
	Acknowledgments	565
	Glossary	569
	Index	577

Worth the Fighting For or The Presidents Table

Worth the Fighting For: The Education of an American Maverick, and the Heroes Who Inspired Him

Author: John McCain

In 1999, John McCain wrote one of the most acclaimed and bestselling memoirs of the decade, Faith of My Fathers. That book ended in 1972, with McCain’s release from imprisonment in Vietnam. This is the rest of his story, about his great American journey from the U.S. Navy to his electrifying run for the presidency, interwoven with heartfelt portraits of the mavericks who have inspired him through the years—Ted Williams, Theodore Roosevelt, visionary aviation proponent Billy Mitchell, Marlon Brando in Viva Zapata!, and, most indelibly, Robert Jordan. It was Jordan, Hemingway’s protagonist in For Whom the Bell Tolls, who showed McCain the ideals of heroism and sacrifice, stoicism and redemption, and why certain causes, despite the costs, are . . .

Worth the Fighting For

After five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, naval aviator John McCain returned home a changed man. Regaining his health and flight-eligibility status, he resumed his military career, commanding carrier pilots and serving as the navy’s liaison to what is sometimes ironically called the world’s most exclusive club, the United States Senate. Accompanying Senators John Tower and Henry “Scoop” Jackson on international trips, McCain began his political education in the company of two masters, leaders whose standards he would strive to maintain upon his election to the U.S. Congress. There, he learned valuable lessons in cooperation from a good-humored congressman from the other party, Morris Udall. In 1986, McCain was elected to the U.S. Senate, inheriting the seat of another role model, Barry Goldwater.
During his time in public office,McCain has seen acts of principle and acts of craven self-interest. He describes both ex-tremes in these pages, with his characteristic straight talk and humor. He writes honestly of the lowest point in his career, the Keating Five savings and loan debacle, as well as his triumphant moments—his return to Vietnam and his efforts to normalize relations between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments; his fight for campaign finance reform; and his galvanizing bid for the presidency in 2000.
Writes McCain: “A rebel without a cause is just a punk. Whatever you’re called—rebel, unorthodox, nonconformist, radical—it’s all self-indulgence without a good cause to give your life meaning.” This is the story of McCain’s causes, the people who made him do it, and the meaning he found. Worth the Fighting For reminds us of what’s best in America, and in ourselves.

Publishers Weekly

McCain, with help from his administrative assistant Salter, picks up where the bestselling Faith of My Fathers left off, after his release from a North Vietnamese POW prison. After two decades in Congress, he has plenty of stories to tell, beginning with his first experiences on Capitol Hill as a navy liaison to the Senate, where he became friends with men like Henry "Scoop" Jackson and John Tower. (The latter friendship plays a crucial role in McCain's account of the battle over Tower's 1989 nomination for defense secretary.) He revisits the "Keating Five" affair that nearly wrecked his career in the early '90s, pointedly observing how the investigating Senate committee left him dangling for political reasons long after he'd been cleared of wrongdoing. There's much less on his 2000 presidential campaign than one might expect; a single chapter lingers on a self-lacerating analysis of how he lost the South Carolina primary. (He admits, "I doubt I shall have reason or opportunity to try again" for the White House, and may even consider retiring from the Senate.) Self-criticism is a recurring motif, as the senator berates himself for speaking recklessly or letting his temper get the best of him. He nevertheless takes pride in his status as a maverick and pays tribute to inspirational figures like Theodore Roosevelt, Ted Williams and Robert Jordan, the fictional protagonist of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Luckily for McCain, he's such an engaging storyteller most readers will readily accept these digressions from his own remarkable history. (Sept. 24) Forecast: Though McCain is less in the national eye now, the respect he's earned should mean bestseller status again for him.

Library Journal

More inspirational stories from McCain, following his Faith of My Fathers. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Table of Contents:

Go to: Whole Grain Cookbook or Migraine Cookbook

The President's Table: 200 Years of Dining and Diplomacy

Author: Barry H Landau

THE PRESIDENT'S TABLE: 200 Years of Dining & Diplomacy, by Barry H. Landau, is a sweeping visual history of the American Presidency, as seen through Presidential entertaining from George Washington to George W. Bush. Landau is a presidential historian and one of the foremost collectors of presidential memorabilia and artifacts. He has served eight Presidents and worked with every White House since Lyndon Johnson planning historic events, and has been a frequent network commentator on matters relating to the Presidency and White House protocol.

In this lavishly illustrated history of Presidential dining, Landau brings the back-story of the American Presidency to life. Interweaving stories of dining and diplomacy, he creates a spellbinding narrative from the early days of provincial entertaining in the capital, through the golden era of sumptuous state banquets, to the modern White House dinners of today.

For the very first time, THE PRESIDENT'S TABLE will present the names of every Presidential and White House chef, cook, chief usher and steward. The book will take the reader inside the White House kitchens and reveal an exclusive first time glimpse into the President's personal refrigerator. The magnificent menus and invitations shown on the pages of this book are true works of art done on silk, leather, copper, silver and gold. Landau's collection presented in this unique manner for the first time acknowledges the printers, engravers, and artists who masterfully designed the art of the President's table.

With more than 300 never before seen illustrations from Landau's personal collections, THE PRESIDENT'S TABLEprovides an insightful and entertaining look at our dining habits as the nation grew through social and economic change. The book reveals the parallel growth of the United States and its Chief Executives and the diplomatic and political interests served along with Presidential meals.

"Landau moves on the axis that spins between Washington, New York, and Hollywood," says Larry Bird, a curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, "using his social connections to build the most extensive collection of Presidential memorabilia outside of the Smithsonian, the National Archives or the Presidential libraries."

THE PRESIDENT'S TABLE will fascinate anyone with an interest in American history and politics.

Lisa A. Ennis - Library Journal

An avid collector and student of the realia of presidential history, Landau offers up reproductions of hundreds of pieces from his own collection of menus and related artifacts documenting presidential entertaining at the White House, from the first George to the current one. The rich narrative and illustrations result in an opulent and intimate approach to presidential history by a man who has consulted on matters of protocol and entertaining with many presidents. The book is divided into three parts: Washington to Lincoln, Andrew Johnson to McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush. Each president receives his own chapter, offering highlights of the dining and the diplomacy that took place hand in hand. The result is an eclectic and novel look at our chief executives and the evolving trends in presidential protocol and politics-not to mention the food! While the book is fascinating and visually appealing-the customized menus for White House dinners have always been special, and here Landau cites their artists, engravers, and printers-its greater appeal will be as a coffee-table offering than a history book: historians will be frustrated by the lack of notes or an index. The book does include a list of suggested further reading, however, as well as a full compilation-apparently the first ever- of all presidential chefs, cooks, chief ushers, and stewards. Recommended for public libraries.

What People Are Saying

Arthur Schlessinger Jr.
"The President's Table offers menus that serve as storytellers of a young nation rife with social and economic change, while reflecting the growth and expansion of a burgeoning American Presidency. Barry Landau weaves these previously missing links of Presidential history into a fascinating tapestry and narrative of Presidential lore."

Henry A. Kissinger
"Landau escorts the reader to the Head Table at State Dinners, from George Washington to George W. Bush, and provides a social history that is great fun to read."

Mike Wallace
"The President's Table brings to life an intriguing backstory of the American Presidency: how our Presidents and First Ladies have traditionally mixed diplomacy with dining. Barry Landau presents a unique perspective on American history and presidential politics."

Henry Haller
"The President's Table presents the reader with historical Presidential menus, some of which I have prepared during my twenty-two years as executive chef at the White House. Barry Landau's collection reflects the changing entertaining styles of each Presidential administration. It is interesting to see how the menus have changed over the years."

Body of Secrets or Andrew Jackson

Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency from the Cold War through the Dawn of a New Century

Author: James Bamford

The NSA is the largest, most secretive, and most powerful intelligence agency in the world. With a staff of thirty-eight thousand people, it dwarfs the CIA in budget, manpower, and influence. Recent headlines have linked it to economic espoinage throughout Europe and to the ongoing hunt for the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

James Bamford first penetrated the wall of silence surrounding the NSA in 1982, with the much-talked-about bestseller The Puzzle Palace. In Body of Secrets, he offers shocking new details about the inner workings of the agency, gathered through unique access to thousands of internal documents and interviews with current and former officials. Unveiling extremely sensitive information for the first time, Bamford exposes the role the NSA played in numerous Soviet bloc Cold War conflicts and discusses its undercover involvement in the Vietnam War. His investigation into the NSA's technological advances during the last fifteen years brings to light a network of global surveillance ranging from online listening posts to sophisticated intelligence-gathering satellites. In a hard-hitting conclusion, he warns that the NSA is a two-edged sword. While its worldwide eavesdropping activities offer the potential for tracking down terrorists and uncovering nuclear weapons deals, it also has the capability to listen in on global personal communications.

Like the breakout bestsellers on Cold War espionage, The Sword and the Shield and Blind Man's Bluff, Body of Secrets is must-reading for people fascinated by the intrigues of a shadowy underworld. As one od the most important works of investigative journalism to come out of Washington in years, it should be read by everyone concerned about the inevitability of Orwell's Big Brother.

Wall Street Journal

Part history and part expose, the book offers an anatomy of NSA, seeking to strip away the myth surrounding it...authoritative and engaging.

New York Times Book Review - Joseph Finder

Not only is this the definitive book on America's most secret agency, but it is also an extraordinary work of investigative journalism, a galvanizing narrative brimming with heretofore undisclosed details.

Publishers Weekly

The National Security Agency (NSA), writes Bamford, has made the United States an "eavesdropping superpower," capable of capturing, deciphering and analyzing "signal intelligence"communicationsin whatever form it may exist and from whatever nation it may be transmitted. Yet with a budget ($4 billion a year) and staff (numbering in the tens of thousands) that dwarf its more famous cousin, the CIA, and with a headquarters, known as "Crypto City," that is its own self-contained community, little is known of NSA among the public and, more troublingly, even within other parts of government. Uncovering the secrets of NSA, its history and operations, has become Bamford's life's work, first begun in his now classic The Puzzle Palace (1982) and continued in this significantly revised and expanded present volume. With remarkable access to highly sensitive documents and information, Bamford takes the reader from the beginnings of NSA during the early cold war, through its roles in such watershed events as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, to the amazingly sophisticated developments in information technology taking place within NSA today. What Bamford discovers is at times surprising, often quite troubling but always fascinating. In his conclusion, he is at once awed and deeply disturbed by what NSA can now do: ever more sophisticated surveillance techniques can mean ever greater assaults on the basic right of individual privacy. In a computer system that can store five trillion pages of text, anyone and everyone can be monitored. Writing with a flair and clarity that rivals those of the best spy novelists, Bamford has created a masterpiece of investigative reporting. (On-sale date: Apr. 24) Forecast: Bamford will be doing national media, including NBC's Today show and NPR's Fresh Air. This is the stuff spy thrillers are made from: The Puzzle Palace was a bestseller, and this will be, too. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Book review:

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times

Author: HW Brands

In this, the first major single-volume biography of Andrew Jackson in decades, H.W. Brands reshapes our understanding of this fascinating man, and of the Age of Democracy that he ushered in.

An orphan at a young age and without formal education or the family lineage of the Founding Fathers, Jackson showed that the Presidency was not the exclusive province of the wealthy and the well-born but could truly be held by a man of the people. On a majestic, sweeping scale Brands re-creates Jackson’s rise from his hardscrabble roots to his days as frontier lawyer, then on to his heroic victory in the Battle of New Orleans, and finally to the White House. Capturing Jackson’s outsized life and deep impact on American history, Brands also explores his controversial actions, from his unapologetic expansionism to the disgraceful Trail of Tears. This is a thrilling portrait, in full, of the president who defined American democracy.

Caspar Weinberger - Forbes

H.W. Brands' Andrew Jackson: A Life and Times (Doubleday, $35; due in October 2005) is sure to become the major Jackson biography. A man of many talents and achievements, Jackson was our first populist Presi-dent. He was a very real "man of the people," who did not have the aristocratic background many of the Founding Fa-thers possessed. Far less is known about Jackson than about the others, yet he played a major role in making the U.S. what it is today. He was determined to preserve the union, whose future was much in doubt before he became President. Jackson believed in a participatory democracy, and he practiced it. As a result the U.S. became a far different and much stronger country than it had been in its early years.

The Age of Turbulence or The 12 Step Bush Recovery Program

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

Author: Alan Greenspan

The Age Of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan's incomparable reckoning with the contemporary financial world, channeled through his own experiences working in the command room of the global economy longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. Following the arc of his remarkable life's journey through his more than eighteen-year tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board to the present, in the second half of The Age of Turbulence Dr. Greenspan embarks on a magnificent tour d'horizon of the global economy. The distillation of a life's worth of wisdom and insight into an elegant expression of a coherent worldview, The Age of Turbulence will stand as Alan Greenspan's personal and intellectual legacy.

The Washington Post - Sebastian Mallaby

Greenspan's political memoir, which occupies the first half of the book, is readable, lucid and sometimes a bit thin on the dilemmas of monetary policy. In the book's second half, Greenspan the charmer makes way for Greenspan the technician, and the result is a 250-page essay on globalization. His overviews of Russia, India and China say little that is not familiar to attentive readers of the news. But the last chapter makes a powerful and remarkably self-deprecating point. Readers who persevere will feel rewarded.

The New York Times - Michael Kinsley

Not only can Greenspan discourse lucidly on economic matters, but he has also written the most unexpectedly charming Washington insider memoir since Katharine Graham's a decade ago. The books are very different. The charm of Graham's was its frankness. The publisher of The Washington Post dished and dissed, starting with her mother. Greenspan is the soul of tact. Far too many people are labeled as his "friend." Even the mildest criticism is prefaced by a statement of high regard and/or followed by an expression of regret. He doesn't lay a glove on his mother. The charm of Greenspan's book is its self-portrait.

BusinessWeek - Michael Mandel

Most people will read Greenspan's book for the shock value of his attack on Republicans. But they also will find that Greenspan's well-informed musings offer much more food for thought than the usual government official memoir.

Book review:

The 12-Step Bush Recovery Program: A Lifesaving Guide to Shaking Off the Horrors of the Last Eight Years, with Practical Advice on Relapse, Remission, and Recounts

Author: Gene Ston

The first step is admitting that you have a Bush problem–and that you have ten bucks for this book.

• Do you think that after eight years of George Bush, this country is in good shape?
• Do you feel that the U.S. Constitution has too many Amendments?
• Do you often dream of George Bush in a flight suit?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, it’s time to seek help.

In the tradition of the bestselling Bush Survival Bible, The 12-Step Bush Recovery Program is a lifesaving handbook that will help you recover from the Bush years. This vital guide to post-Bush era wellness features useful discussions of important issues such as Avoiding Relapse, Dealing with Embarrassment, Making Your Home a Recovery Zone, and Staging an Intervention.

George W. Bush isn’t just a nuisance, he’s a problem that afflicts nearly three out of four Americans. So if you or someone you love has a Bush problem, know this: You don’t have to face it alone. Help is within reach. With The 12-Step Bush Recovery Program, you can share in the promise of a better you, a better America, a better world, and a better solar system.

Does The 12-Step Bush Recovery Program work? Just look at these unsolicited testimonials:

“The 12-Step Bush Recovery Program is the best book of its sort that I’ve ever read.”
–G. Washington, Virginia

“Every American should read this book in order to understand the depth of the problem as well as the need for a new president.”
–A. Lincoln, Illinois

“I liked this book, but I stilldon’t understand what it’s about.”
–G. W. Bush, Texas

“Read this book and I will shoot you.”
–D. Cheney, Hades

Table of Contents:

Step 1 Acknowledge the Problem The Environment by Jonathan Z. Larsen 3 Step 2 Understand What You've Been Through Money by Andrew Tobias 13 Step 3 Deal with Embarrassment Women by Gail Evans 23 Step 4 Acknowledge a Higher Power The Media by Matthew Yglesias 32 Step 5 Undergo Detoxification Humor by Tony Hendra 40 Step 6 Find a Sponsor Music by John Hartmann 54 Step 7 Remember the Terrible Things That Have Happened Oil by Gregory Greene 66 Step 8 Consider the People Whose Lives Have Been Harmed Stress by Mark Liponis 76 Step 9 Make Amends International Image by Nathan Richardson 88 Step 10 Avoid Relapse Science by James Gleick 99 Step 11 Carry the Message to Others Gays and Lesbians by Rev. Dr. Mel White 107 Step 12 Say a Prayer Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky 116