New Book Review

The Litigators [Hardcover]

2011-12-10T18:05:00.000-08:00

The Litigators [Hardcover]
John Grisham (Author)

The partners at Finley & Figg—all two of them—often refer to themselves as “a boutique law firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who’ve been in the trenches much too long making way too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy bungalow offices in southwest Chicago.

And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he’s suddenly unemployed, any job—even one with Finley & Figg—looks okay to him.

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Mockingjay (The Final Book of the Hunger Games) - Audio [Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

2011-12-07T04:13:00.000-08:00

Mockingjay (The Final Book of the Hunger Games) - Audio [Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]
Suzanne Collins (Author), Carolyn McCormick (Reader)

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins's groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

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Entangled (Volume 1) [Paperback]

2011-12-07T04:12:00.000-08:00

Entangled (Volume 1) [Paperback]
Barbara Ellen Brink (Author)

One lost summer is time best left forgotten... When Minneapolis divorce attorney, Billie Fredrickson, inherits her uncle's small California winery, she has no intention of actually moving to the west coast and starting a new life. Her only thought is to get it off her hands as quickly as possible. But her return to the winery after an absence of twenty years opens up more than the reading of her uncle's will. Childhood memories, long-buried, begin to surface, prompting more questions than anyone is able or willing to answer. A late night prowler, a break-in at the winery, and an unearthed box of shocking photographs is someone's way of pulling the Welcome mat out from under Billie's feet, but it only makes her dig her heels in deeper. More secrets lie buried beneath Fredrickson Winery's innocent facade and Billie intends to get to the root. But disturbing the past lays bare the skeletons of others, including her mother's. Can she live with the consequences of full disclosure or will she run home where everyone is Minnesota Nice?

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The Hunger Games: Catching fire [Paperback]

2011-12-06T04:34:00.001-08:00

The Hunger Games: Catching fire [Paperback]
Suzanne Collins (Author)

Biography
Suzanne Collins has had a successful and prolific career writing for children's television. She has worked on the staffs of several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains It All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. Collins made her mark in children's literature with the New York Times bestselling five-book series for middle-grade readers The Underland Chronicles, which has received numerous accolades in both the United States and abroad. In the award-winning The Hunger Games trilogy, Collins continues to explore the effects of war and violence on those coming of age. Collins lives with her family in Connecticut.

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Steve Jobs [Hardcover]

2011-12-06T04:33:00.000-08:00

Steve Jobs [Hardcover]
Walter Isaacson (Author)

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

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The Hunger Games [Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

2011-12-06T04:32:00.000-08:00

The Hunger Games [Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]
Suzanne Collins (Author), Carolyn McCormick (Reader)

Starred Review. Reviewed by Megan Whalen Turner
If there really are only seven original plots in the world, it's odd that boy meets girl is always mentioned, and society goes bad and attacks the good guy never is. Yet we have Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, The House of the Scorpion—and now, following a long tradition of Brave New Worlds, The Hunger Games. Collins hasn't tied her future to a specific date, or weighted it down with too much finger wagging. Rather less 1984 and rather more Death Race 2000, hers is a gripping story set in a postapocalyptic world where a replacement for the United States demands a tribute from each of its territories: two children to be used as gladiators in a televised fight to the death.Katniss, from what was once Appalachia, offers to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, but after this ultimate sacrifice, she is entirely focused on survival at any cost. It is her teammate, Peeta, who recognizes the importance of holding on to one's humanity in such inhuman circumstances. It's a credit to Collins's skill at characterization that Katniss, like a new Theseus, is cold, calculating and still likable. She has the attributes to be a winner, where Peeta has the grace to be a good loser.It's no accident that these games are presented as pop culture. Every generation projects its fear: runaway science, communism, overpopulation, nuclear wars and, now, reality TV. The State of Panem—which needs to keep its tributaries subdued and its citizens complacent—may have created the Games, but mindless television is the real danger, the means by which society pacifies its citizens and punishes those who fail to conform. Will its connection to reality TV, ubiquitous today, date the book? It might, but for now, it makes this the right book at the right time. What happens if we choose entertainment over humanity? In Collins's world, we'll be obsessed with grooming, we'll talk funny, and all our sentences will end with the same rise as questions. When Katniss is sent to stylists to be made more telegenic before she competes, she stands naked in front of them, strangely unembarrassed. They're so unlike people that I'm no more self-conscious than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my feet, she thinks. In order not to hate these creatures who are sending her to her death, she imagines them as pets. It isn't just the contestants who risk the loss of their humanity. It is all who watch. Katniss struggles to win not only the Games but the inherent contest for audience approval. Because this is the first book in a series, not everything is resolved, and what is left unanswered is the central question. Has she sacrificed too much? We know what she has given up to survive, but not whether the price was too high. Readers will wait eagerly to learn more.
Megan Whalen Turner is the author of the Newbery Honor book The Thief and its sequels, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia. The next book in the series will be published by Greenwillow in 2010.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire [Hardcover]

2011-11-11T21:46:00.000-08:00

State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire [Hardcover]
Stephen Glain

"In crisp, authoritative writing, the author sets down some scathing portraits, from MacArthur to Rumsfeld, and in a powerful conclusion, exposes the disequilibrium between the U.S. civilian versus military resources throughout the world and the continued “appeasement” by President Obama to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A work of smoldering focus and marshaled evidence."--Kirkus Reviews

"Stephen Glain has written and important and thought-provoking book on the growing militarizing of our foreign policy. It is a hot issue that is getting a great deal of attention in Washington. Steve has done a masterful job of researching ths subject and presenting a compelling case. State vs. Defense is a must-read for all those developing our foreign policy and for those who are interested in this critical issue."--Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, USMC (Retired)

"The United States remains committed to a mindless pursuit of military supresmacy, regardless of cost or consequences. Stephen Glain has got the goods on the militarists who spooked and stampeded the American pople into supporting this bizarre enterprise. His is an urgently important tale, vividly told."--Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

“Stephen Glain's State vs. Defense enters the battle as a battering ram at the Pentagon's gates.”--The Wall Street Journal

About the Author
Stephen Glain has been a journalist for twenty years. He spent four years in Hong Kong writing for the local South China Morning Post before joining the Wall Street Journal in 1991 with stints in Tokyo, Seoul, and then Tel Aviv and Amman. His book Mullahs, Merchants, and Militants was named the best book of 2004 by online magazine The Globalist. His articles on U.S. foreign policy, East Asia, and the Arab world have appeared in The New Republic, The Atlantic, The Nation, the Financial Times, Gourmet, Smithsonian, Newsweek, The National, and elsewhere. Visit his website at www.StephenGlain.com.

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Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine [Paperback]

2011-11-11T21:43:00.000-08:00

Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine [Paperback]
Thomas Paine

Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine written by legendary author Thomas Paine is widely considered to be one of the top 100 greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Thomas Paine is highly recommended. Published by Classic House Books and beautifully produced, Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library.

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The Prince (Dover Thrift Editions)

2010-09-03T21:58:00.001-07:00

The Prince (Dover Thrift Editions) [Paperback]
Niccolò Machiavelli (Author), N. H. Thompson (Author)

Classic guide to acquiring and maintaining political power is refreshing in its directness, yet often disturbing in its cold practicality. Starkly relevant to the political upheavals of the 20th century, this calculating prescription for power remains today, nearly 500 years after it was written, a timely and startling lesson in the practice of autocratic rule that continues to be much read and studied by students, scholars and general readers. Introductory note.

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Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party

2010-08-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party [Paperback]
Max Blumenthal (Author)

Journalist Blumenthal documents the movement of conservative evangelicals from the political wings to center stage, delving into the psyches of those who now lead a Republican Party "fixated on abortion, homosexuality and abstinence education; resentful and angry." Guided by Eric Hoffer's 1951 cult classic The True Believer ("Faith in a holy cause, is to some extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves,") and Eric Fromm's 1941 psychoanalytical study of the Nazi movement (Escape from Freedom), Blumnthal suggests that childhood abuse has shaped the personalities of key leaders, including Focus on the Family guru James Dobson. Blumenthal is at his best examining these characters up close, including presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich and his born-again conversion; John Hagee, a Pentecostal pastor who lauded Hitler for "forcing the Jews to Israel"; Sarah Palin, whose political aspirations first came to her as part of a religious conversion; and evangelical pastor Ted Haggard, a self-proclaimed spiritual warrior caught in a relationship with a male prostitute. For those who enjoyed Jeff Sharlet's Capitol Hill exposé The Family, this makes a spicy follow-up.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Comparative Politics: Domestic Responses to Global Challenges (with InfoTrac and CD-ROM)

2010-08-20T16:05:00.000-07:00

Comparative Politics: Domestic Responses to Global Challenges (with InfoTrac and CD-ROM) [Paperback]
Charles Hauss (Author)

Balancing theory and application, this comprehensive text uses a unique theme to engage students in thinking and discussing comparative politics--the theme of domestic responses to global challenges. COMPARATIVE POLITICS introduces the key concepts and examines the growing interdependence among strong and weak states through the discussion of 12 countries, including the U.S. and the European community. The countries discussed are categorized by economic development, helping students develop their skills of comparison, synthesis and interpretation amongst countries of similar economic status. Students will gain an understanding of some of the most important general trends, an exposure to politics in a number of countries, and a desire to dig more deeply into this fascinating and exciting field of comparative politics.

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How Democratic is the American Constitution? Second Edition

2010-08-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

How Democratic is the American Constitution? Second Edition [Paperback]
Professor Robert A. Dahl (Author)

"A devastating attack on the undemocratic character of the American Constitution." Gordon S. Wood, New York Review of Books "Robert A Dahl is about as covered in honors as a scholar can be... He knows what he is talking about. And he thinks that the Constitution has something the matter with it." Hendrik Hertzberg, New Yorker

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History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy From the Earliest Times to the Death of Lorenzo the Magnificent

2010-08-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy From the Earliest Times to the Death of Lorenzo the Magnificent [Kindle Edition]
Niccolo Machiavelli (Author)

By the author of "The Prince" and "The Discourses", classic works of political science. From the Introduction: "Niccolo Machiavelli, the first great Italian historian, and one of the most eminent political writers of any age or country, was born at Florence, May 3, 1469. He was of an old though not wealthy Tuscan family, his father, who was a jurist, dying when Niccolo was sixteen years old. We know nothing of Machiavelli's youth and little about

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The Age of Reason

2010-08-14T04:41:00.000-07:00

The Age of Reason [Kindle Edition]
Thomas Paine (Author)

Classic work of political science. According to Wikipedia: "Thomas Paine (Thetford, England, 29 January 1737 - 8 June 1809, New York City, U.S.) was an English pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, classical liberal, inventor and intellectual. He lived and worked in Britain until the age of 37, when he migrated to the American colonies just in time to take part in the American Revolution. His main contribution was as the author of the powerful, widely read pamphlet, Common Sense (1776), advocating independence for the American Colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and of The American Crisis, supporting the Revolution."

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Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Political Issues

2010-08-12T15:32:00.001-07:00

Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Political Issues [Paperback]
George McKenna (Author), Stanley Feingold (Author)

Taking Sides volumes present current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. Each issue is thoughtfully framed with an issue summary, an issue introduction, and a postscript or challenge questions. Taking Sides readers feature an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites. An online Instructor’s Resource Guide with testing material is available for each volume. Using Taking Sides in the Classroom is also an excellent instructor resource.

About the Author
McKenna received his Ph.D. at Fordham University. He has taught for 30 years at The City College of New York. He is the coeditor of two books in our Dushkin Taking Sides series: Taking Sides on social issues and on political issues. He has led local civic and environmental groups in New York and New Jersey.

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Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

2010-08-10T05:08:00.000-07:00

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East [Paperback]
Michael B. Oren (Author)

In perhaps one of the most valuable recent works on this subject, Oren, a scholar and Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center, Jerusalem, details events from the Six Day War known in the Arab world as Al-Naksah (the setback) or simply the June war. The book's value lies in its focus and extensive documentation of multilingual resources, including archives, newspapers, reports, books, interviews, and Internet sites. In addition, Oren covers the international, regional, and domestic implications of the war and uses maps to illustrate the geographical changes and military strategies. Many books, e.g., Ahron Bregman's Israel's War: 1947-1993, Tibi Bassam's Conflict and War in the Middle East, 1967-91, and Eric Hammel's Six Days in June, cover a broader period, rely heavily on analysis, or fall short of objectivity. While Oren also recounts some necessary historical context for understanding the war's catalysts and discussing its aftermath, he primarily focuses on the pivotal six days of conflict, dedicating a full chapter for each day. Predictably, the most controversial information is his new findings on an Egyptian top-secret plan that came very close to eradicating Israel's army and nuclear power plant. While this is an essential addition for academic libraries, the book's exhaustive documentary style makes it a lesser candidate for public libraries. Ethan Pullman, Univ. of Pittsburgh Lib.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Essential Readings in World Politics (Third Edition) (The Norton Series in World Politics)

2010-08-08T19:21:00.001-07:00

Essential Readings in World Politics (Third Edition) (The Norton Series in World Politics) [Paperback]
Karen A. Mingst (Editor), Jack L. Snyder (Editor)

Essential Readings in World Politics introduces students to key literature on international relations—from classics in the field to contemporary debates among scholars today. Twenty-five new readings for this edition offer diverse perspectives on current topics such as Iran's nuclear ambitions, global health threats like avian flu, and the international reach of political Islam.

About the Author
Karen A. Mingst is Lockwood Chair Professor at the Paterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. A specialist in international organization, international law, and international political economy, Professor Mingst has written a number of books and articles and has conducted research in Western Europe, West Africa, and Yugoslavia. She has frequently taught the introductory international relations course.

Jack L. Snyder is Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations at Columbia University, writes on international security, international relations theory, and post-Soviet affairs, and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on nationalism, comparative methods, and grand strategy. His books include The Ideology of the Offensive (Cornell University Press, 1984) and Myths of Empire (Cornell, 1991). He is the General Editor of the Norton Series in World Politics.

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Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

2010-08-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

Discourse on the Origin of Inequality [Paperback]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author)

In Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau argues that inequalities of rank, wealth, and power are the inevitable result of the civilizing process. His sweeping account of humanity's social and political development epitomizes the innovative boldness of the Enlightenment, and it is one of the most provocative and influential works of the eighteenth century. This new translation by prize-winning translator Franklin Philip includes all of Rousseau's own notes, and Patrick Coleman's introduction builds on recent key scholarship, considering particularly the relationship between political and aesthetic thought.

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Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (The Institution for Social and Policy St)

2010-08-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (The Institution for Social and Policy St) [Paperback]
Professor James C. Scott (Author)

James C. Scott's research for this book began with an examination of the tensions between state authorities and various "unstable" individuals throughout history, from hunter-gatherer tribes to Gypsies to the homeless. He soon became fascinated, however, by the recurring patterns of failure and authoritarianism in certain social engineering programs aimed at bringing such people fully into the state's fold. Soviet collectivization, the Maoist Great Leap Forward, the precisely planned city of Brasilia--these and other projects around the world, while deeply ambitious, extracted immeasurable tolls on the people they were designed to help.

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The New Atlantis

2010-08-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

The New Atlantis (Kindle Edition)
by Francis Bacon (Author), Brad K. Berner (Editor)

The Philosophical Research Society is a nonprofit organization founded in 1934 for the purpose of assisting thoughtful persons to live more graciously and constructively in a confused and troubled world. The Society is entirely free from educational, political, or ecclesiastical control. Dedicated to an idealistic approach to the solution of human problems, the Society's program stresses the need for the integration of religion, philosophy, and the science of psychology into one system of instruction. The goal of this instruction is to enable the individual to develop a mature philosophy of life, to recognize his proper responsibilities and opportunities, and to understand and appreciate his place in the unfolding universal pattern.

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Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography (Books That Changed the World)

2010-07-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]
Christopher Hitchens (Author)

Hitchens' sprightly Books That Changed the World volume arrives fortuitously, while his atheist screed God Is Not Great (2007) rides high on American best-seller lists. For Paine, though not precisely atheist (he was a deist), contributed vitally to nonbelief through his logical, materialist rejection of biblical literalism. Hitchens inserts scraps of Paine's religious criticism into an appreciation that primarily stresses Paine's advocacy of antimonarchical revolution and constitutional republicanism. Paine's most practically influential writing was the pamphlet Common Sense (1776), which inspired the American Revolution, but Rights of Man (1791–92) is his greatest work. It is largely a reply to Edmund Burke's severely critical Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), and Hitchens discusses it as such, giving Burke his due but affirming Paine's greater liberalism and demonstrating his more accessible and engaging literary style. Though Hitchens eschews discussion of rights per se, including Paine's definition of them, he refreshingly notes his hero's great shortcoming: he didn't see that ideologically driven revolution would lead to tyranny. Olson, Ray

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Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics (Agora Series)

2010-07-27T15:43:00.000-07:00

Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics (Agora Series) [Paperback]
William Bonner (Author), Lila Rajiva (Author)

"…extremely timely…irreverent but thought-provoking examination of the goings on in international finance today… packs a serious punch." (The Independent)

"To say that this book is skeptical or contrarian is like saying Warren Buffett has money....entertaining criticism of anything and everything...I read the full 400 pages in just a few days.."-Rob May at Business Pundit (Top 10 business site) http://www.businesspundit.com/50226711/mobs_messiahs_and_markets.php(Nov. 2007)

"Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets by William Bonner and Lila Rajiva is a fascinating work....downright hilarious...a serious look at an important phenomenon in the human condition."- Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty of the highly rated philosophy site, Radical Academy (Oct. 2007)

"a sharp-witted jaunt through the mass hysteria that’s defined markets and people through the ages" -Money Week (Sept. 2007)

"William Bonner and Lila Rajiva provide the answers in this exhilarating -- if somewhat depressing -- book. Although their insights will often make readers laugh out loud, they will also find themselves wriggling uncomfortably at the manifold idiocies of human behaviour." -The National Post, Canada (Nov. 07)

"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay would be a better choice to begin. Without that context for this book, you'll find yourself gobbling caviar without knowing what it is." - Donald Mitchell, author of The 2000 Percent Solution, December 18, 2007

"A fascinating book," - Alan Caruba in Book Views, December, 2007

"Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets is a tragi-comedy, full of sharp observations, delivered with equally sharp wit. This book's dark and disturbing revelations could leave one depressed and disillusioned, were it not so damn funny." -- Abram Bergen at Blog Critics, December 31, 2007 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Leviathan (Oxford World's Classics)

2010-07-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

Leviathan (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]
Thomas Hobbes (Author), J. C. A. Gaskin (Editor)

Leviathan is both a magnificent literary achievement and the greatest work of political philosophy in the English language. Permanently challenging, it has found new applications and new refutations in every generation. This new edition reproduces the first printed text, retaining the original punctuation but modernizing the spelling. It offers exceptionally thorough and useful annotation, an introduction that guides the reader through the complexities of Hobbes's arguments, and a substantial index.

About the Author
John Gaskin is Professor, Chair, and Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. He is the editor of Hobbes and Hume in World's Classics.

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The Predictioneer's Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future

2010-07-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

The Predictioneer's Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future [Hardcover]
Bruce Bueno De Mesquita (Author)

Mesquita (The Strategy of Campaigning) purports to show how we can predict... and engineer the future� with applied game theory in this provocative tutorial. Mesquita has spent 30 years refining his approach to the science of predictioneering,� and claims a 90% accuracy rate for his mathematical model that predicts choices based on the self-interest of decision makers. Although he argues that accurate prediction relies on science,� he cannot escape the reality that the numbers in his model are based on human, i.e., fallible, assumptions and estimates. The author admits to a few mistakes—he predicted that former first lady Hillary Clinton's health-care reform would become law—but blames any missteps on unforeseen events and uses his model to boldly predict that President Obama is unlikely to quash the terrorist influence in Pakistan and that global warming will prove immune to government prescriptions but will produce its own solutions.� Mesquita claims perhaps too much for his game theory model, but his cogently argued and fascinating brief will appeal to anyone interested in complex national-security issues. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Just and Unjust Wars A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations (Basic Books Classics)

2010-07-20T01:44:00.000-07:00

Just and Unjust Wars A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations (Basic Books Classics) [Bargain Price] [Paperback]
Michael Walzer (Author)

This classic work examines the issues surrounding military theory, war crimes, and the spoils of war from the Athenian attack on Melos to the My Lai massacre. A revised and updated classic treatment of the morality of war written by one of our country's leading philosophers. Just and Unjust Wars examines a variety of conflicts in order to understand exactly why, according to Walzer, "the argument about war and justice is still a political and moral necessity." Walzer's classic work draws on historical illustrations that range all the way from the Athenian attack on Melos to this morning's headlines, and uses the testimony of participants-decision makers and victims alike-to examine the moral issues of warfare.

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A Companion to Marx's Capital

2010-07-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

A Companion to Marx's Capital [Hardcover]
David Harvey (Author)

David Harvey, the renowned lecturer and commentator on Marx, has finally collected his most recent lectures on Marx’s Capital here in one volume. Guiding the reader through the dense, complex and difficult text, Harvey elucidates its various theses and nuances for a broader audience, encompassing both the lay reader and the graduate student, who will surely benefit from Harvey’s original and sometimes critical interpretations of Marx. Where Capital was written in reaction to 19th industrialization, Harvey’s insights update the text for the modern reader, for whom the perils of contemporary capitalism continue to rage strong.

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A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution

2010-07-14T07:01:00.001-07:00

A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution [Bargain Price] [Paperback]
Carol Berkin (Author)

"The majority of historians seem to suggest that the founders knew just what to do--and did it, creating a government that would endure for centuries," writes CUNY historian Carol Berkin in the introduction to A Brilliant Solution. Sitting atop the pedestals we've placed them on, these figures would be "amused" by such notions, she says, because in reality the Constitutional Convention was gripped by "a near-paranoid fear of conspiracies" and might easily have succumbed to "a collective anxiety" over its daunting task. The story of the birth of the U.S. Constitution has been told many times, perhaps best by Catherine Drinker Bowen in Miracle at Philadelphia. Berkin's rendition of these well-known events is clear and concise. It does a bit more telling than showing, but this seems to be in the service of brevity--the main text is only about 200 pages. (Another 100 pages of useful appendices follow, including the full texts of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, plus short biographies of all the convention delegates.) Berkin is an opinionated narrator, unafraid, for instance, to call Maryland's Luther Martin "determinedly uncouth." She also points out that American government has evolved in ways that would make the founders cringe: they believed the presidency would be a ceremonial office (rather than the locus of the nation's political power) and that political parties were bad (when, in fact, they have served democracy well). Readers who want a sure-footed introduction to America's founding would do well to start here. --John J. Miller --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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American Political Tradition

2010-07-13T01:46:00.000-07:00

American Political Tradition [Hardcover]
Richard Hofstadter (Author)

A revised edition of the clasic study of American politics from the Founding Fathers to FDR. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall

2010-07-11T02:06:00.000-07:00

Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]
Amy Chua (Author)

Chua (World on Fire), a Yale law professor and daughter of immigrants, examines a number of world-dominant powers—a none too rigorously defined group that lumps together the Persian, Roman, Mongol and British empires with the contemporary United States—and argues that tolerance and multiculturalism are indispensable features of global economic and military success. Such hyperpowers rise, Chua argues, because their tolerance of minority cultures and religions, their receptivity to foreign ideas and their willingness to absorb and empower talented provincials and immigrants lets them harness the world's human capital. Conversely, hyperpowers decline when their assimilative capacities falter and they lapse into intolerance and exclusion. The sexy concept of a world-dominant hyperpower, in addition to being somewhat erratic—the smallish Dutch Republic makes the cut, while the far-flung (but inconveniently intolerant) Spanish empire doesn't—is doubtful when examining an America that can hardly dominate Baghdad and not much more convincing when applied to earlier hegemons. Chua does offer an illuminating survey of the benefits of tolerance and pluralism, often as a tacit brief for maintaining America's generous immigration policies. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome

2010-07-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome [Hardcover]
Victor Davis Hanson (Editor)

Mr. Hanson's examination of the dangers implicit in pre-emptive warfare is riveting, as is John W.I. Lee's explanation of why the specter of urban warfare was as despised by ancient strategists as it is today by modern warriors. . . . Mr. Hanson and Mr. Luttwak have begun the serious study of what the ancients might have to teach us about a world where traditional nation-states not only have to coexist with armed non-state actors but must negotiate with them on nearly equal terms or sometimes fight them.
(Gary Anderson Washington Times )

This is a worthy edition to the literature of military history.
(Kevin Winter Sacramento Book Review )

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FDR's Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy, and a Presidency in the Balance

2010-05-30T03:50:00.000-07:00

FDR's Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy, and a Presidency in the Balance (Hardcover)
~ Robert Klara (Author)

The April 1945 journey of FDR’s funeral train became a thousand-mile odyssey, fraught with heartbreak and scandal. As it passed through the night, few of the grieving onlookers gave thought to what might be happening behind the Pullman shades, where women whispered and men tossed back highballs. Inside was a Soviet spy, a newly widowed Eleanor Roosevelt, who had just discovered that her husband’s mistress was in the room with him when he died, all the Supreme Court justices, and incoming president Harry S. Truman who was scrambling to learn secrets FDR had never shared with him.

Weaving together information from long-forgotten diaries and declassified Secret Service documents, journalist and historian Robert Klara enters the private world on board that famous train. He chronicles the three days during which the country grieved and despaired as never before, and a new president hammered out the policies that would galvanize a country in mourning and win the Second World War.

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The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, & Selections from His Other Writings (Modern Library)

2010-05-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, & Selections from His Other Writings (Modern Library) (Hardcover)
~ Benjamin Franklin (Author), Stacy Schiff (Introduction)

Franklin’s Autobiography is one of the most famous works in American literature. He started it as a private collection of anecdotes for his son, but soon it was transformed into a work of history, both personal and national, revealing Franklin as the man who, as Herman Melville said, possessed “deep worldly wisdom and polished Italian tact, gleaming under an air of Arcadian unaffectedness.

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The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution: 1980-1989

2010-05-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution: 1980-1989 [Hardcover]
Steven F. Hayward (Author)

“Those who say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look.”
–President Ronald Reagan, January 20, 1981

Hero. It was a word most Americans weren’t using much in 1980. As they waited on gas and unemployment lines, as their enemies abroad grew ever more aggressive, and as one after another their leaders failed them, Americans began to believe the country’s greatness was fading.

Yet within two years the recession and gas shortage were over. Before the decade was out, the Cold War was won, the Berlin Wall came crashing down, and America was once more at the height of prosperity. And the nation had a new hero: Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Reagan’s greatness is today widely acknowledged, but his legacy is still misunderstood. Democrats accept the effectiveness of his foreign policy but ignore the success of his domestic programs; Republicans cheer his victories over liberalism while ignoring his bitter battles with his own party’s establishment; historians speak of his eloquence and charisma but gloss over his brilliance in policy and clarity of vision.

From Steven F. Hayward, the critically acclaimed author of The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, comes the first complete, true story of this misunderstood, controversial, and deeply consequential presidency. Hayward pierces the myths and media narratives, masterfully documenting exactly what transpired behind the scenes during Reagan’s landmark presidency and revealing his real legacy.

What emerges is a compelling portrait of a man who arrived in office after thirty years of practical schooling in the ways of politics and power, possessing a clear vision of where he wanted to take the nation and a willingness to take firm charge of his own administration. His relentless drive to shrink government and lift the burdens of high taxation was born of a deep appreciation for the grander blessings of liberty. And it was this same outlook, extended to the world’s politically and economically enslaved nations, that shaped his foreign policy and lent his statecraft its great unifying power.

Over a decade in the making, and filled with fresh revelations, surprising insights, and an unerring eye for the telling detail, this provocative and authoritative book recalls a time when true leadership inspired a fallen nation to pick itself up, hold its head high, and take up the cause of freedom once again.

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American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies That the Government Tells Us

2010-05-19T09:44:00.000-07:00

American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies That the Government Tells Us [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [Audio CD]
Jesse Ventura (Author), Dick Russell (Author), George K. Wilson (Narrator)

Jesse Ventura tells it like it is, and this time he tackles our government's biggest secrets.

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The Barbarism of Berlin

2010-05-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

The Barbarism of Berlin (Kindle Edition)
by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (Author), eBook-Ventures (Editor)

Check out these other great works (hundreds of volumes):

Ultimate Handheld
Bible Library
(121 volumes, 1 Million + Links)

Ultimate Handheld
Classic Library
(more than 1000 works)

Ultimate Bible
Study Suite
(8 volumes, 1 Million + Links)

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The Death of Conservatism

2010-05-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

The Death of Conservatism (Hardcover)
~ Sam Tanenhaus (Author)

The arguments are more surprising than the conclusions in this slender book that simultaneously celebrates and mourns the end of the harshly ideological strain of conservatism that reached full flower during the presidency of George W. Bush. Tracing the movement's intellectual history from Edmund Burke to Rush Limbaugh, Tanenhaus (Whitaker Chambers), editor of the New York Times Book Review, argues that the contemporary Right define[s] itself less by what it yearns to conserve than by what it longs to destroy—and that pragmatic Democrats like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have usurped the Republicans' once winning focus on social stability. Tanenhaus argues that Republicans must moderate their focus on ideological purity if they are to return from the political wilderness and offers trenchant criticism of the liberal excesses that previously led to a long Democratic exile from the White House. Tanenhaus's positions are not entirely consistent, however; he aligns Nixon with George W. Bush and his destructively revanchist course before praising Nixon's prodigious gifts and sheer intellectual ability. But the author recognizes the need for two strong parties to compete in American politics, and his impeccably well-written book insightfully summarizes the highs and lows of American conservatism over the decades. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Moneychangers

2010-05-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Moneychangers [Hardcover]
Upton Sinclair (Author)

This novel by Upton Sinclair is an account of the Wall Street panic of 1907 and depicts the reality of 'fear and loathing' of the upper class of New York City. A newcomer arrives on the scene from the South. The beautiful and charming Lucy Dupree enters this whirling society of the rich and famous. She is naive and captures the admiration and attention of two of the richest and unscrupulous power brokers (economic fascists) of the era. Their jealous rivalry to destroy each other using mega-stakes financial manipulations of market forces creates a major collapse of Wall Street. Unknown to Lucy she is place at great peril as events create a tsunami amongst the rich and pwerful. Upton's novel is full of characters who in their capitalist royal gowns expose abuses of power that has never before been seen in Ameri(k)a. It continues in our own times via mergers and acquisitions, private equity pools and hedge funds. Although these newer versions of the same old manipulations are now constructed to look decent, be legal and sound necessary in the modern capitalist world. A Collector's Edition.

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What's Wrong With the World

2010-05-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

What's Wrong With the World (Kindle Edition)
by G.K. Chesterton (Author)

PART ONE:

THE HOMELESSNESS OF MAN
I The Medical Mistake
II Wanted: An Unpractical Man
III The New Hypocrite
IV The Fear of the Past
V The Unfinished Temple
VI The Enemies of Property
VII The Free Family
VIII The Wildness of Domesticity
IX History of Hudge and Gudge
X Oppression by Optimism
XI The Homelessness of Jones

PART TWO:

IMPERIALISM, OR THE MISTAKE ABOUT MAN
I The Charm of Jingoism
II Wisdom and the Weather
III The Common Vision
IV The Insane Necessity

PART THREE: F

EMINISM, OR THE MISTAKE ABOUT WOMAN

I The Unmilitary Suffragette
II The Universal Stick
III The Emancipation of Domesticity
IV The Romance of Thrift
V The Coldness of Chloe
VI The Pedant and the Savage
VII The Modern Surrender of Woman
VIII The Brand of the Fleur-de-Lis
IX Sincerity and the Gallows
X The Higher Anarchy
XI The Queen and the Suffragettes
XII The Modern Slave

PART FOUR:

EDUCATION, OR THE MISTAKE ABOUT THE CHILD
I The Calvinism of To-day
II The Tribal Terror
III The Tricks of Environment
IV The Truth About Education
V An Evil Cry
VI Authority the Unavoidable
VII The Humility of Mrs. Grundy
VIII The Broken Rainbow
IX The Need for Narrowness
X The Case for the Public Schools
XI The School for Hypocrites
XII The Staleness of the New Schools
XIII The Outlawed Parent
XIV Folly and Female Education

PART FIVE:

THE HOME OF MAN

I The Empire of the Insect
II The Fallacy of the Umbrella Stand
III The Dreadful Duty of Gudge
IV A Last Instance V Conclusion

THREE NOTES

I On Female Suffrage
II On Cleanliness in Education
III On Peasant Proprietorship

About the Author
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography,Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox". Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories-first carefully turning them inside out."For example, Chesterton wrote the following: Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it. Chesterton is well known for his reasoned apologetics and even those who disagree with him have recognized the universal appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton, as a political thinker, cast aspersions on both liberalism and conservatism, saying: The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an "orthodox" Christian, and came to identify such a position with Catholicism more and more, eventually converting to Roman Catholicism. George Bernard Shaw, Chesterton's "friendly enemy" according to Time, said of him, "He was a man of colossal genius".

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Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism

2010-05-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Paperback)
~ Robert Pape (Author)

Includes a new Afterword

Finalist for the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award

One of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject of suicide terrorism, the esteemed political scientist Robert Pape has created the first comprehensive database of every suicide terrorist attack in the world from 1980 until today. In Dying to Win, Pape provides a groundbreaking demographic profile of modern suicide terrorist attackers–and his findings offer a powerful counterpoint to what we now accept as conventional wisdom on the topic. He also examines the early practitioners of this guerrilla tactic, including the ancient Jewish Zealots, who in A.D. 66 wished to liberate themselves from Roman occupation; the Ismaili Assassins, a Shi’ite Muslim sect in northern Iran in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; World War II’s Japanese kamikaze pilots, three thousand of whom crashed into U.S. naval vessels; and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a secular, Marxist-Leninist organization responsible for more suicide terrorist attacks than any other group in history.

Dying to Win is a startling work of analysis grounded in fact, not politics, that recommends concrete ways for states to fight and prevent terrorist attacks now. Transcending speculation with systematic scholarship, this is one of the most important studies of the terrorist threat to the United States and its allies since 9/11.

“Invaluable . . . gives Americans an urgently needed basis for devising a strategy to defeat Osama bin Laden and other Islamist militants.”
–Michael Scheuer, author of Imperial Hubris

“Provocative . . . Pape wants to change the way you think about suicide bombings and explain why they are on the rise.”
–Henry Schuster, CNN.com

“Enlightening . . . sheds interesting light on a phenomenon often mistakenly believed to be restricted to the Middle East.”
–The Washington Post Book World

“Brilliant.”
–Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc.

About the Author
Robert A. Pape is professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he teaches international politics and is the director of the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism. A distinguished scholar of national security affairs, he writes widely on coercive airpower, economic sanctions, international moral action, and the politics of unipolarity and has taught international relations at Dartmouth College and air strategy for the U.S. Air Force’s School of Advanced Airpower Studies. He is a contributor to The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, and The Washington Post and has appeared on ABC’s Nightline and World News Tonight, National Public Radio, and other national television and radio programs.

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COOKING ALINSKY'S GOOSE: The New Capitalist Cookbook (Warfield Activist Series)

2010-04-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

COOKING ALINSKY'S GOOSE: The New Capitalist Cookbook (Warfield Activist Series) (Kindle Edition)
by Charly Gullett (Author)

Saul Alinsky was a radical Socialist and political activist; his conflict/response model for revolutionary activism has been a tactical compass for every left-leaning political action in America from Abbey Hoffman's Chicago trial to the media attacks on Gov. Sarah Palin. President Barrack Obama demonstrated in 2008 he understood this model even better than Alinsky's star pupil, Hillary Clinton. Incredibly, Alinsky's model can be applied to any political situation, even one in which the target for change is Alinsky's own Socialist America. Using Alinsky's rules to achieve the defeat of Socialism has a certain sweet irony to it. Cooking Alinsky's Goose is a field guide to creating cognitive dissonance across the spectrum of political discourse. It is a "take the gloves off" approach to fighting Socialism in America. The book is controversial in its premise, outrageous in its audacity, and profound in its political scope.

About the Author
Charly Gullett was originally trained as a photo-journalist in the U.S. Army Defense Information School. However, he spent most of his adult life as a self-taught applications engineer specializing in Robotics, Digital Instrumentation and Analog Computer Design. Retiring in 1996 from Intel Corp. as a senior technical author, Gullett was awarded their highest individual achievement award for his ground-breaking work in Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, Gullett's career has included work as a professional photographer, cabinet maker, college teacher, a firearms dealer, and a professional artist who has illustrated over thirty books as well as authoring two books on action shooting and gunsmithing antique firearms.

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The Art of War

2010-04-23T06:36:00.000-07:00

The Art of War (Paperback)
~ Sun Tzu (Author), Samuel B. Griffith (Translator), B. H. Liddell Hart (Foreword)

Written in China over two thousand years ago, Sun Tzu's The Art of War provides the first known attempt to formulate a rational basis for the planning and conduct of military operations. These wise, aphoristic essays contain principles acted upon by such twentieth-century Chinese generals as Mao Tse Tung. Samuel Griffith offers a much-needed translation of this classic which makes it even more relevant to the modern world. Including an explanatory introduction and selected commentaries on the work, this edition makes Sun Tzu's timeless classic extremely accessible to students of Chinese history and culture, as well as to anyone interested in the highly volatile military and political issues in present-day China.

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Hobbes: Leviathan: Revised student edition (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

2010-04-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

Hobbes: Leviathan: Revised student edition (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (Hardcover)
~ Thomas Hobbes (Author), Richard Tuck (Editor)

Hobbes' Leviathan is arguably the greatest piece of political philosophy written in the English language. Since its first publication, Richard Tuck's edition of Leviathan has been recognized as the single most accurate and authoritative text, and for this revised edition Professor Tuck has provided a much-amplified and expanded introduction. Other vital study aids include an extensive guide to further reading, a note on textual matters, a chronology of important events and brief biographies of important persons mentioned in Hobbes' text.

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The Prince (Oxford World's Classics)

2010-04-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

The Prince (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
~ Niccolò Machiavelli (Author), Maurizio Viroli (Author), Peter Bondanella (Translator)

When Machiavelli's brief treatise on Renaissance statecraft and princely power was posthumously published in 1532, it generated a debate that has raged unabated until the present day. Based upon Machiavelli's first-hand experience as an emissary of the Florentine Republic to the courts of Europe, The Prince analyses the usually violent means by which men seize, retain, and lose political power. Machiavelli added a dimension of incisive realism to one of the major philosophical and political issues of his time, especially the relationship between public deeds and private morality. His book provides a remarkably uncompromising picture of the true nature of power, no matter in what era or by whom it is exercised. This fluent new translation is accompanied by an introduction that considers the true purpose of The Prince and dispels some of the myths associated with it. It has the most comprehensive explanatory and critical notes found in any currently available English translation and the most comprehensive bibliography in any edition of the work. It also contains a helpful Glossary of Proper Names, an Index and a map.

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Public Opinion

2010-04-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

Public Opinion (Paperback)
~ Walter Lippman (Author)

Public Opinion is a 1922 book on media and democracy by Walter Lippmann. Among other things, it argues that twentieth century advances in the technology of "the manufacture of consent" amounts to "a revolution" in "the practice of democracy" because this allows the control over public opinion about the world and about the public's interests in that world. Control of public opinion is a means to controlling public behavior

About the Author
Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) was an American intellectual who was a writer, reporter, and political commentator, who twice was awarded, in 1958 and 1962, a Pulitzer Prize for his syndicated newspaper column, “Today and Tomorrow”. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (Great Questions in Politics Series)

2010-04-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (Great Questions in Politics Series) (Paperback)
~ Morris P. Fiorina (Author), Samuel J. Abrams (Author), Jeremy C. Pope (Author)

Morris P. Fiorina is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wendt Family Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. His work has appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's Unfinished Revolution--And Why We Need It More Than Ever

2010-04-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's Unfinished Revolution--And Why We Need It More Than Ever (Paperback)
~ Cass Sunstein (Author)

In 1944, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a State of the Union Address that was arguably the greatest political speech of the twentieth century. In it, Roosevelt grappled with the definition of security in a democracy, concluding that "unless there is security here at home, there cannot be lasting peace in the world." To help ensure that security, he proposed a "Second Bill of Rights"--economic rights that he saw as necessary to political freedom. Many of the great legislative achievements of the past sixty years stem from Roosevelt's vision. Using this speech as a launching point, Cass R. Sunstein shows how these rights are vital to the continuing security of our nation. This is an ambitious, sweeping book that argues for a new vision of FDR, of constitutional history, and our current political scene.

"Eminently readable and thought-provoking, Sunstein's The Second Bill of Rights is part history, part theory, and part survey of social-rights jurisprudence around the globe." (American Prospect)

"Engaging, thoughtful and original." (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Spirited and perfectly conceived." (Washington Post Book World)

"An ingenious argument." (New York Times Book Review)

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Whites, Blacks and Racist Democrats

2010-03-30T03:31:00.000-07:00

Whites, Blacks and Racist Democrats (Hardcover)
~ Wayne Perryman (Author)

On March 18, 2008, after the Jeremiah Wright incident, Senator Barack Obama went on national television and delivered what many called one of the most inspiring and thought provoking speeches ever delivered on the issue of race. After the speech, several news organizations reported that it was time for America to engage in discussions on race. Over the years, we have had several discussions on the subject, most of which focused on the relationship between blacks and whites but seldom have we ever explored the role politics played in the establishing our racist society. Historians report that one political party supported slavery and Jim Crow while the other party opposed them. They also report that one party was known as the "Party of White Supremacy" and the other party was known as "Nigger Lovers." In his book: Dreams From My Father, Senator Obama makes the connection between politics and racism when he tells his readers how white Chicago Democrats vowed to vote Republican before they would vote for a black man (Harold Washington) to be Mayor of Chicago. Whites, Blacks and Racist Democrats is a modified version of the author's previous book: The Drama of Obama Regarding Racism. After reading the Drama of Obama, Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the National NAACP said, "Your captions of political influence on racial issues are thought-provoking and insightful." Whites, Blacks and Racist Democrats is a must-read for every American. Like Chairman Jealous, you will want to read the entire book after reading the first three pages.

About the Author
Rev. Wayne Perryman is an author, lecturer, a former newspaper publisher and radio talk show host and currently serves as a fact-finding investigator in discrimination cases for the plaintiff. Other books by the author: Unfounded Loyalty (2004) and Unveiling the Whole Truth (2007).

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The Kennedy Assassination - 24 Hours After: Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President (Thorndike Press Large Print Nonfiction Series)

2010-03-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

The Kennedy Assassination - 24 Hours After: Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President (Thorndike Press Large Print Nonfiction Series) [Large Print] (Hardcover)
~ Steven M. Gillon (Author)

Library Journal
“The hours following JFK’s assassination were a time of confusion, sadness, and fear, which Gillon vividly describes…. [Gillon] show[s] that the Johnson era, with its Great Society triumphs and Vietnam failure, mirrored LBJ’s combination of actions on that first harrowing day…. Included is an intriguing discussion of the vulnerability of the United States during the 40 minutes between JFK’s death and Johnson’s hearing of it.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Gillon sheds light on Johnson’s calming leadership and insecurities in the hours after Kennedy’s death.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“[N]ew sources enhance…the history of the aftermath.”

Jeff Shesol, author of Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade
"Steve Gillon expertly guides us through the cloud of confusion, grief, rage, and stark terror that followed the shots in Dallas. He immerses us in the moment, rendering events in real time and remarkable detail. As Gillon makes clear, these 24 hours cast a long shadow from which Lyndon Johnson never emerged."

Bruce Schulman, Professor of History, Boston University
“With shrewd judgment and riveting detail, Gillon reconstructs Lyndon Johnson’s chaotic and consequential first twenty-four hours as president. At last, we have a book that asks the right questions about the Kennedy assassination—and one that answers them in a gripping, wholly fair-minded narrative.”

Randy Roberts, Distinguished Professor of History, Purdue University
“The Kennedy Assassination—24 Hours After reads like an American Macbeth—a tale of blood, fierce loyalty, and consuming ambition. From Dealy Plaza to Parkland Hospital, aboard Air Force One and to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., Gillon’s narrative never falters as he dissects the death of one dream and the birth of another.”

Laura Kalman, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
“Steven Gillon's utterly engrossing book enables us to walk in Lyndon Johnson's footsteps on one of the most pivotal days in the nation's history. Bravo!”

Randall B. Woods, author of LBJ: Architect of American Ambition
“Steve Gillon has provided a riveting account of the crucial period immediately following JFK's dramatic assassination. It is you-are-there history at its best as Lyndon Johnson, thrust unexpectedly into the most powerful office in the world, struggled to prevent the killing of a president from precipitating World War II and splintering the nation along ideological and racial lines.”

James T. Patterson, Ford Foundation Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University and author of Brown v. Board of Education
“Few relationships in recent American political history have been icier than those between the Kennedy clan and Lyndon Johnson. This beautifully written and deeply researched book on JFK's assassination and LBJ's first 24 hours as president goes far toward explaining why.”

The Dallas Morning News
“You can almost hear the clock ticking away in this intriguing look at the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. University of Oklahoma professor Steven M. Gillon lays out a tale filled with powerful characters, intrigue, long-held hatreds and calculated lies in the hours following President John F. Kennedy’s Death…. [A] compelling retelling of this great American tragedy.”

Publishers Weekly
“[A] fresh take on John F. Kennedy’s assassination…. Gillon captures the two faces of Johnson – the insecure second-guesser and the brilliant politician – as well as the earliest signs of the Johnson presidency’s eventual failure.”
--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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The Works of Aristotle (with active table of contents) (Kindle Edition)

2010-03-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

The Works of Aristotle (with active table of contents) (Kindle Edition)
by Aristotle (Author)

Four classic works by Aristotle with an active table of contents.

The Athenian Constitution
The Categories
Ethics
The Poetics of Aristotle

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Theories of the Policy Process, Second Edition (Paperback)

2010-03-13T09:05:00.000-08:00

Theories of the Policy Process, Second Edition (Paperback)
~ Paul A Sabatier (Author)

Theories of the Policy Process provides a forum for the proponents of several of the most promising and widely used theoretical frameworks to present the basic propositions of their frameworks, to assess the empirical evidence that has developed, and to discuss promising directions for future research. The first edition contained analyses of Institutional Rational Choice (Ostrom), Multiple Streams (Zahariadis), Punctuated Equilibrium (Jones et al.), Advocacy Coalition Framework (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith), and Policy Diffusion (Berry and Berry). The second edition revises these and adds new chapters on Social Construction and Policy Design (Schneider et al.) and Policy Networks (Adam and Kriesi). It also contains a much more serious analysis of the European literature relevant to each of the frameworks. Finally, the new edition contains a revised chapter by Edella Schlager, presenting a comparative analysis and evaluation of the relevant frameworks, and a concluding chapter by the editor suggesting a number of strategies for improving the state of theorizing in this field.

About the Author
Paul A. Sabatier is political scientist and professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Davis.

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The Rise and Fall of Communism (Hardcover)

2010-03-08T07:08:00.000-08:00

The Rise and Fall of Communism (Hardcover)
~ Archie Brown (Author)

“A riveting and magisterial work.” (Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution and author of THE GREAT EXPERIMENT )

“A sweeping, engrossing history. . . . Brown does a fine job of describing the social and political conditions that led people to embrace communism. And how, when the charms of the system wore off, these people found themselves ensnared by a totalitarianism that gave them no way to opt out.” (Dallas Morning News )

“Archie Brown’s The Rise and Fall of Communsm is a rare thing, meticulously researched history that is immensely readable and, even better, a disinterested overview of the most deeply divisive topic of the past 100 years that has been highly praised by critics on the Right and Left”. (Australian Nonfiction Books of the Year )

“Condensed with information that is both well-researched and well-placed within textbook history, [Brown’s] book is a rewarding read. It is an important book for the time—a sober reflection on the physical, objective results of ideological thought.” (Sacramento Book Review )

“Consistently superb” (Dwight Garner, New York Times )

“For decades this volume will remain a definitive study of communism.” (Literary Review (UK) )

“Historical writing and political analysis of the highest order.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) )

“Ranging wisely and lucidly across the decades and around the world, this is a splendid book.” (William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era )

“Readable and judicious...both controversial and commonsensical…‘The Rise and Fall of Communism’ is a work of considerable delicacy and nuance.” (Salon.com )

“This book requires and deserves space on all important book shelves for decades to come.” (Gary Hart, United States Senator (Ret.) )

“[Brown’s] account is studded with delightfully pertinent and pithy personal observations and anecdotes...It is easy to be polemical about communism. Mr. Brown strives to be fair-minded...As a single-volume account of mankind’s biggest mistake, Mr. Brown’s book is hard to beat.” (The Economist )

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Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

2010-02-27T09:24:00.000-08:00

Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
Michael Hardt (Author), Antonio Negri (Author)

Empire (2000)—the surprise hit that made its term for U.S global hegemony stick and presciently set the agenda for post–9/11 political theory on the left—was written by this same somewhat unlikely duo: Hardt, an American political scientist at Duke University, and Negri, a former Italian parliament member and political exile, trained political scientist and sometime inmate of Rome's Rebibbia prison. This book follows up on Empire's promise of imagining a full-blown global democracy. Though the authors admit that they can't provide the final means for bringing that entity about (or the forms for maintaining it), the book is rich in ideas and agitational ends. The "multitude" is Hardt and Negri's term for the earth's six billion increasingly networked citizens, an enormous potential force for "the destruction of sovereignty in favor of democracy." The middle section on the nature of that multitude is bookended by two others. The first describes the situation in which the multitude finds itself: "permanent war." The last grounds demands for and historical precursors of global democracy. Written for activists to provide a solid goal (with digressions into history and theory) toward which protest actions might move, this timely book brings together myriad loose strands of far left thinking with clarity, measured reasoning and humor, major accomplishments in and of themselves.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

2010-02-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers [Audio Cassette, Bargain Price]
Daniel Ellsberg (Author)

Ellsberg's transformation from cold warrior and Defense Department analyst to impassioned antiwar crusader who released the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in June 1971 makes a remarkable and riveting story that still shocks 30 years later. Avoiding, for the most part, self-justification and self-aggrandizement, he clearly relates the experiences that led him to reject as arrogant lies the premises six presidents presented to the public and Congress to secure support for the Vietnam War. He describes the disjunction between what he saw during visits to Vietnam in the early and mid-'60s, driving through dangerous Viet Cong-held territory, and what was told to the press and public. And he recalls his first reading of the classified documents later known as the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the motives, in his view unprincipled, behind American involvement in Vietnam. Ellsberg creates page-turning human drama and suspense in both his descriptions of his early experience accompanying U.S. combat missions in Vietnam and his days spent underground evading an FBI manhunt after the Times's publication of the Papers. Another strength of this memoir is Ellsberg's vivid recollections of meetings with prominent policymakers, from Henry Kissinger to Senator William Fulbright, that re-create the deep tensions of the Vietnam era. Ellsberg raises serious ethical questions about how citizens, politicians, the press and officials act when confronted with government actions they consider immoral and perhaps illegal. Ellsberg's own answer is history.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Natural Experiments of History

2010-02-12T16:28:00.000-08:00

Natural Experiments of History
Jared Diamond (Editor), James A. Robinson (Editor)

Some central questions in the natural and social sciences can't be answered by controlled laboratory experiments, often considered to be the hallmark of the scientific method. This impossibility holds for any science concerned with the past. In addition, many manipulative experiments, while possible, would be considered immoral or illegal. One has to devise other methods of observing, describing, and explaining the world.

In the historical disciplines, a fruitful approach has been to use natural experiments or the comparative method. This book consists of eight comparative studies drawn from history, archeology, economics, economic history, geography, and political science. The studies cover a spectrum of approaches, ranging from a non-quantitative narrative style in the early chapters to quantitative statistical analyses in the later chapters. The studies range from a simple two-way comparison of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, to comparisons of 81 Pacific islands and 233 areas of India. The societies discussed are contemporary ones, literate societies of recent centuries, and non-literate past societies. Geographically, they include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, western Europe, tropical Africa, India, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific islands.

In an Afterword, the editors discuss how to cope with methodological problems common to these and other natural experiments of history.

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After Victory (Paperback)

2010-02-07T15:43:00.000-08:00

After Victory (Paperback)
~ G. John Ikenberry (Author)

After Victory show[s] how international governance can serve the interests of hegemonic powers.
(Robert Wright The New York Times )

This is a thought-provoking and elegantly written book and an important contribution to our understanding of postwar orders and institutions.
(Peter Liberman Political Science Quarterly )

After Victory is a majestic work that combines many familiar but seemingly unrelated themes into one elegant package of exceptional theoretical and empirical sweep. . . . It should have an enduring impact on the study and practice of international relations.
(Randall L. Schweller Journal of Politics )

This pathbreaking work is one of the most important studies on international order to appear in many years. It will be required reading for all students and scholars of international relations.
(Choice )

The liberal argument that democratic regimes can make a dramatic difference in world affairs has finally achieved intellectual respectability, as this fine book so convincingly maintains.
(Tony Smith Foreign Affairs )

An elegant, penetrating study about the creation and maintenance of international order in global society. . . . This pathbreaking work is one of the most important studies on international order to appear in many years. It will be required reading for all students and scholars of international relations.
(Choice )

This is unquestionably one of the most important books in the field of the past decade.
(International Affairs )

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The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and the Communist Manifesto (Great Books in Philosophy) (Paperback)

2010-02-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and the Communist Manifesto (Great Books in Philosophy) (Paperback)
~ Karl Marx (Author), Fredrick Engels (Author), Martin Milligan (Translator)

Communism as a political movement attained global importance after the Bolsheviks toppled the Russian Czar in 1917. After that time the works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, especially the influential "Communist Manifesto (1848)", enjoyed an international audience. The world was to learn a new political vocabulary peppered with 'socialism', 'capitalism', 'the working class', 'the bourgeoisie', 'labor theory of value', 'alienation', 'economic determinism', 'dialectical materialism', and 'historical materialism'. Marx's economic analysis of history has been a powerful legacy, the effects of which continue to be felt world-wide. Serving as the foundation for Marx's indictment of capitalism is his extraordinary work titled "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts", written in 1844 but published nearly a century later. Here Marx offers his theory of human nature and an analysis of emerging capitalism's degenerative impact on man's sense of self and his creative potential. What is man's true nature? How did capitalism gain such a foothold on Western society? What is alienation and how does it threaten to undermine the proletariat? These and other vital questions are addressed as the youthful Marx sets forth his first detailed assessment of the human condition.

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The Essentials Of Political Analysis (Paperback)

2010-01-27T00:36:00.001-08:00

The Essentials Of Political Analysis (Paperback)
~ Philip H. Pollock III (Author)

Hypothesis testing? Correlation? Did you say logistic regression?? You are probably used to seeing concerned looks on the faces of your methods students. Student anxiety about this course always runs high given the nature of seemingly intimidating material. Philip Pollock's ﬁrst order of business is to get math-phobic students comfortable learning and using the tools of political analysis. His brief and accessible text puts students at ease with a conversational writing style and plenty of real-world and political examples.

Providing a strong conceptual foundation, The Essentials of Political Analysis walks students through the basics--measuring concepts, formulating and testing hypotheses, describing variables--and then, through a companion SPSS volume with easy-to-use canned data sets, prepares them to apply what they learn immediately on the computer. The author's engaging and straightforward prose clearly introduces key terms and concepts while chapter-opening objectives cue students to learning goals. Over eighty tables and ﬁgures enhance important textual material. Class-tested chapter exercises promote skill application and aid student review.

Fans of Pollock's practical introduction to the methods course will appreciate the second edition's many improvements, from more comparative and international material to a brand new chapter on logistic regression. Introducing students to one of the discipline's most widely used statistical tools, students learn the logic of logistic regression, maximum likelihood estimation and how to convert logits into probabilities.

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The Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

2010-01-19T03:04:00.000-08:00

The Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)
~ John Locke (Author)

In The Second Treatise of Government, John Locke answered two objectives: to refute the concept of the monarchy's divine right and to establish a theory reconciling civil liberties with political order. His Letter Concerning Toleration rests on the same basic principles as his political theory; Locke's main argument for toleration is a corollary of his theory of the nature of civil society. The basis of social and political philosophy for generations, these works laid the foundation of the modern democratic state in England and abroad. Their enduring importance makes them essential reading for students of philosophy, history, and political science. Unabridged republication of a standard edition.

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The Enduring Debate: Classic and Contemporary Readings in American Politics, Second Edition (Textbook Binding)

2010-01-16T18:51:00.000-08:00

The Enduring Debate: Classic and Contemporary Readings in American Politics, Second Edition (Textbook Binding)
~ David T. Canon (Editor), Anne M. Khademian (Editor), Kenneth R. Mayer (Editor)

Still the most comprehensive reader available for courses in American government, The Enduring Debate provides breadth and balance in its ninety-four essays. The collection represents a unique blend of classic and contemporary selections of varying length from a variety of scholarly and popular sources. The Second Edition continues to feature a debate section in each chapter: two or more readings exploring different sides of an important issue. Issues tackled in the Second Edition include: free speech on the Internet, campaign finance reform, and the role of the government in the economy.

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Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (7th Edition) (Paperback)

2010-01-13T03:35:00.000-08:00

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (7th Edition) (Paperback)
~ Joseph S. Nye (Author)

Written by renowned scholar and former policymaker Joseph Nye,Understanding International Conflicts is a brief and penetrating introduction to the study of world politics. The text deftly applies a combination of history and theory to evaluate conflict and cooperation among international actors, thus providing students a framework for understanding contemporary issues. From World War I to modern terrorism and information revolutions to global governance, Understanding International Conflicts is a highly readable survey that answers as well as raises compelling questions about the future of international relations. "Sometimes original scholars sound pedantic when addressing central issues of world politics; often policymakers speak in code or platitudes. Not so Professor Nye. As any reader will see, the work in your hands is lucid, direct, and concise. Reading Nye's writing on world politics is like watching Joe DiMaggio play center field or Yo-Yo Ma play the cello: he makes the difficult look easy."--from Robert Keohane's Foreword to Understanding International Conflicts, 7/e.

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LIBERALISM (Lib Works Ludwig Von Mises PB) (Paperback)

2010-01-06T09:06:00.001-08:00

LIBERALISM (Lib Works Ludwig Von Mises PB) (Paperback)
~ LUDWIG VON MISES (Author)

This book presents the theoretical and practical arguments for liberalism. The term comes from the Latin word 'liber' (free). Mises defines liberalism as 'the liberal doctrine of the harmony of the rightly understood interests of all members of a free society, founded on the principle of private ownership of the means of production'. The foundation of liberalism, Mises says, rests on an understanding and appreciation of the institution of private property, social cooperation, the freedom idea, ethics and morality, democracy and the legitimate role of government. Liberalism is not a political party. The liberal program offers no special privileges to anyone; it aims at securing equality under law for everyone, so as to allow equal opportunity to all human beings to make their own choices and decisions. The role of government should be limited to protecting the lives, property, and freedom of its citizens to pursue their own ends and goals.

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Manifesto of the Communist Party (Paperback)

2010-01-03T03:03:00.000-08:00

Manifesto of the Communist Party (Paperback)
~ Karl Marx (Author), Friedrich Engels (Author)

# Paperback: 48 pages
# Publisher: International Publishers; New edition edition (June 1948)
# Language: English

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The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr (Hardcover)

2010-01-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr (Hardcover)
~ Ken Gormley (Author)

Ten years after one of the most polarizing political scandals in American history, author Ken Gormley offers an insightful, balanced, and revealing analysis of the events leading up to the impeachment trial of President William Jefferson Clinton. From Ken Starr’s initial Whitewater investigation through the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit to the Monica Lewinsky affair, The Death of American Virtue is a gripping chronicle of an ever-escalating political feeding frenzy.

In exclusive interviews, Bill Clinton, Ken Starr, Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Susan McDougal, and many more key players offer candid reflections on that period. Drawing on never-before-released records and documents—including the Justice Department’s internal investigation into Starr, new details concerning the death of Vince Foster, and evidence from lawyers on both sides—Gormley sheds new light on a dark and divisive chapter, the aftereffects of which are still being felt in today’s political climate.

About the Author
Ken Gormley is a law professor at Duquesne University, specializing in constitutional law, as well as a nationally renowned expert on Watergate and special prosecutors. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nati

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Understanding Iran: Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad (Hardcover)

2009-12-29T04:40:00.000-08:00

Understanding Iran: Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad (Hardcover)
~ William R. Polk (Author)

Praise for Understanding Iran:

"William Polk has written a superb and insightful historical account of Iran and the evolution of the Persian culture. This should be required reading not just for all those involved in Iranian policy making but for all those interested in understanding this critical nation and society." -- General Anthony C. Zinni USMC (Retired), co-author of Leading the Charge and The Battle for Peace

"A great scholar's brilliant appreciation of Iranian culture and history." -- Dr. Khodadad Farmanfarmaian, former Deputy Prime Minister of Iran
"Essential reading...a study of depth and clarity."--Terrell Arnold, former chairman of the Department of International Studies at the U.S. National War College

“This is an easy read with a very big payoff -- a nuanced understanding of Iran as a complex society whose perceptions and politics are shaped by readily comprehensible history, religious traditions, and recent experience. Polk's writing is erudite but not academic; his prose is lucid and his policy experience shows. If you know someone in the United States government dealing with Iran or the Middle East, give that person this book; the prospects of American policy success vis-à-vis both could go up considerably.” -- Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. (USFS, Ret.), former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs

"The great value of Bill Polk's books is that they take a thoughtful, clear-eyed look at America's entanglement in the Middle East. Understanding Iran is the latest addition to the library of Polk's sharp, smart analysis of a region that America doesn't understand well enough. There are scoops in this book about how close the United States has come to war with the Islamic Republic. But more, there is a deep understanding of Iran, its history and its culture. He tells a story that anyone who cares about America and Iran should read."--David Ignatius, columnnst for the Washington Post and author of "The Increment."

"Engrossing and penetrating. A beautifully written vision of the other which we desperately need."--William H. McNeill, former president of the American Historical Association and chairman of the History Department of the University of Chicago.

Praise for Understanding Iraq:

"A digestible history of this tortured land is something Americans sorely need....And Polk carefully constructs one."--USA Today

"This book will be informative to two groups scarcely on speaking terms: the supporters of President Bush's invasion of Iraq and those implacably opposed to it....William Polk presents the reader with the full sweep of Iraq's history....He gives us a comprehensive tour."--Washington Times

"Haunting....One of the clearest prescriptions for success in Iraq yet to emerge."--Publishers Weekly

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The Cash Nexus: Economics And Politics From The Age Of Warfare Through The Age Of Welfare, 1700-2000 (Paperback)

2009-12-26T01:05:00.001-08:00

The Cash Nexus: Economics And Politics From The Age Of Warfare Through The Age Of Welfare, 1700-2000 (Paperback)
~ Niall Ferguson (Author)

In this scholarly tome, Ferguson (history, Jesus Coll., Oxford; The Pity of War) presents a heavily noted, high-level economic analysis of the impact of economic trends on political change. As he thoroughly analyzes the nexus between economics and politics, he delves deep into the complex relationship among economic principles and international war, political changes in major countries, social liberalization, and national demographics. He challenges the prevailing principles of well-known author Paul Kennedy (The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers), specifically that economic change is the prime mover of political change, contending rather that the conflicting impulses of sex, violence, and power are together more powerful than money. In the book's many dense chapters, Ferguson argues that political institutions have often dominated economic development, and he deftly integrates historical trends and eras, multiple economic principles and theory, as well as modern economic growth and development. This very complex economic analysis will well serve larger university libraries supporting higher-level study in economics, especially international economic theory. Dale Farris, Groves, TX
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder (Hardcover)

2009-12-24T00:53:00.001-08:00

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder (Hardcover)
~ Vincent Bugliosi (Author)

Famed Charles Manson prosecutor and three time #1 New York Times bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi has written the most powerful, explosive, and thought-provoking book of his storied career.

In The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, Bugliosi presents a tight, meticulously researched legal case that puts George W. Bush on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of nearly 4,000 American soldiers fighting the war in Iraq. Bugliosi sets forth the legal architecture and incontrovertible evidence that President Bush took this nation to war in Iraq under false pretenses—a war that has not only caused the deaths of American soldiers but also over 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women, and children; cost the United States over one trillion dollars thus far with no end in sight; and alienated many American allies in the Western world.

As a prosecutor who is dedicated to seeking justice, Bugliosi, in his inimitable style, delivers a non-partisan argument, free from party lines and instead based upon hard facts and pure objectivity.

A searing indictment of the President and his administration, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder also outlines a legally credible pathway to holding our highest government officials accountable for their actions, thereby creating a framework for future occupants of the oval office.

Vincent Bugliosi calls for the United States of America to return to the great nation it once was and can be again. He believes the first step to achieving this goal is to bring those responsible for the war in Iraq to justice.

About the Author
Vincent Bugliosi received his law degree in 1964. In his career at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single loss. His most famous trial, the Charles Manson case, became the basis of his true-crime classic, Helter Skelter, the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing history. Two of Bugliosi's other true-crime books--And the Sea Will Tell and Outrage--also reached #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. No other American true-crime writer has ever had more than one book that achieved this ranking. His latest book, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was also a New York Times bestseller, and is being made into a ten-part HBO miniseries, for which Tom Hanks will be a producer. Bugliosi lives with his wife of many years in Los Angeles.

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Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (Paperback)

2009-12-23T01:02:00.000-08:00

Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (Paperback)
~ Ann Coulter (Author), Rush Limbaugh (Foreword)

"Liberals have been wrong about everything in the last half century," writes conservative pundit Ann Coulter, author of the bestselling anti-Clinton tome High Crimes and Misdemeanors. They've been especially wrong about Republicans, she writes. The bulk of Slander, in fact, is a well-documented brief dedicated to the proposition that most of the media despises anybody whose political opinions lie an inch to the right of the New York Times editorial page. This is hardly an original observation, though few have presented it with such verve. Coulter is the shock-jock of right-wing political commentary, able to dash off page after page of over-the-top but hilarious one-liners: "Liberals dispute slight reductions in the marginal tax rates as if they are trying to prevent Charles Manson from slaughtering baby seals." There's a certain amount of irony about an author who says "liberals prefer invective to engagement" also declaring, "The good part of being a Democrat is that you can commit crimes, sell out your base, bomb foreigners, and rape women, and the Democratic faithful will still think you're the greatest." But then carefully measured criticism never has been Coulter's shtick--or her appeal. Fans of Rush Limbaugh and admirers of Bernard Goldberg's Bias won't want to miss Slander. --John Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order (Paperback)

2009-12-21T15:18:00.000-08:00

Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order (Paperback)
~ Noam Chomsky (Author), Robert W. McChesney (Author)

In this thought-provoking new collection of essays, Noam Chomsky examines democracy in theory vs. democracy in action. The brilliant thinker reveals how the political and economic principles that have prevailed are far removed from those that are popularly proclaimed.

About the Author
Noam Chomsky is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author most recently of Hegemony or Survival, 9/11, and Power and Terror.

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Invisible Prey (Kindle Edition)

2009-12-19T16:30:00.001-08:00

Invisible Prey (Kindle Edition)
by John Sandford (Author)

Constance Bucher is in her eighties, wealthy, and lives in a lovely Twin Cities home brimming with antiques. Bucher and her maid slip into past tense when intruders bludgeon them to death and trash the house. The victim's social standing is enough for the governor to assign his top investigator, Lucas Davenport, to investigate. The easy solution would be to label the crime a junkie killing, but when a painting stored in the attic (and worth a cool half-million) turns up missing, it's clear that this was no random attack. Aided by an imaginative intern, Davenport uncovers a series of similar crimes across the Midwest in which the victims were all old, wealthy art collectors. Concurrently, Davenport is working on a politically sensitive case in which a local politician has been accused of having sexual relations with a 15-year-old. And maybe her mother. Or maybe they're angling for a civil payday as opposed to criminal justice. The latest in the Preyseries is more thriller than mystery; the villains are revealed early, and the plot is advanced through the bad guys' point of view. Davenport unravels their scheme by pulling on a small thread, and it's his immersion into the murky world of art, antiques, museums, and donors that gives this one its cachet. As always for Sandford, entertaining and intelligent reading. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Human Action Scholar's Edition (Kindle Edition)

2009-12-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

Human Action Scholar's Edition (Kindle Edition)
by Ludwig von Mises (Author)

This is a cause for celebration!

For several years, Laissez Faire Books has been attempting to arrange for a paperback edition of Ludwig von Mises's masterpiece, Human Action. Although Human Action was first published in 1949 (a German-language edition, Nationaloekonomie, was published in 1940, then completely rewritten in English), no paperback edition has ever been permitted by its publishers. Now, after literally years of negotiations, we are proud to announce the first paperback edition, thus potentially making it available to a much wider audience.

Its place in history:

Why is Human Action so important? Why has it been revered and honored ever since it was first published? Why is it regarded both as an historic classic and a contemporary masterpiece, by virtually every friend of liberty who has read it? To answer these questions is to understand the special place in history of Ludwig von Mises, and the special place in the body of his works of this truly magnificent achievement.

Our century has properly been called the Era of Statism. In our time, every known form of statism has been tried, from Communism to Fabian Socialism to Fascism, military dictatorships, neomercantilist states, revived monarchies, theocracies, national socialism, and the welfare state-- you name it. That's because by the turn of the century, Classical Liberalism--with its advocacy of individualism, private property, laissez faire capitalism, free trade and limited government--had been soundly defeated by its numerous adversaries. By the eve of the first World War, scarcely a single intellectual figure survived to champion these splendid ideals. And no wonder, for under the constant assaults of all varieties, Classical Liberalism had been badly damaged. It needed to be reconstructed if it was to survive at all.

It was then that one young man, working virtually alone, burst on the scene with a new vision of Classical Liberalism. He had flirted with a mild version of socialism, rejected it, and gone on to reason his way to a more consistent and rigorous case for capitalism than anyone had ever before set forth. -- Roy A. Childs, Jr.

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The Coming Insurrection (Semiotext(e) / Intervention) (Paperback)

2009-12-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

The Coming Insurrection (Semiotext(e) / Intervention) (Paperback)
~ The Invisible Committee (Author)

Thirty years of "crisis," mass unemployment, and flagging growth, and they still want us to believe in the economy. . . . We have to see that the economy is itself the crisis. It's not that there's not enough work, it's that there is too much of it.
—from The Coming Insurrection

The Coming Insurrection is an eloquent call to arms arising from the recent waves of social contestation in France and Europe. Written by the anonymous Invisible Committee in the vein of Guy Debord—and with comparable elegance—it has been proclaimed a manual for terrorism by the French government (who recently arrested its alleged authors). One of its members more adequately described the group as "the name given to a collective voice bent on denouncing contemporary cynicism and reality." The Coming Insurrection is a strategic prescription for an emergent war-machine to "spread anarchy and live communism."

Written in the wake of the riots that erupted throughout the Paris suburbs in the fall of 2005 and presaging more recent riots and general strikes in France and Greece, The Coming Insurrection articulates a rejection of the official Left and its reformist agenda, aligning itself instead with the younger, wilder forms of resistance that have emerged in Europe around recent struggles against immigration control and the "war on terror."

Hot-wired to the movement of '77 in Italy, its preferred historical reference point, The Coming Insurrection formulates an ethics that takes as its starting point theft, sabotage, the refusal to work, and the elaboration of collective, self-organized forms-of-life. It is a philosophical statement that addresses the growing number of those—in France, in the United States, and elsewhere—who refuse the idea that theory, politics, and life are separate realms.

Intervention series
Distributed for Semiotext(e)

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The Social Contract [UNABRIDGED] (Paperback)

2009-12-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

The Social Contract [UNABRIDGED] (Paperback)
~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author), G.D.H. Cole (Translator) "MAN was

Great Ideas... is the right name for these slim, elegant paperbacks... They are written with precision, force, and care. (The Wall Street Journal) Penguin Books hopes to provide an economical remedy for time-pressed readers in search of intellectual sustenance. (USA Today) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (Paperback)

2009-12-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (Paperback)
~ Chalmers Johnson (Author)

This no-holds-barred indictment of what Johnson calls the post-Cold War American "global empire" is not for the faint of heart. Among the opening images is a plastic bag containing three pairs of bloodied men's underwear gathered as evidence from the brutal 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by two American marines and an American sailor, a crime that was officially passed off as an aberration but may qualify more accurately as another move in the endgame of, in Johnson's astringent phrase, "stealth imperialism." In his highly critical appraisal of the global U.S. military presence, Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute and prolific commentator on Japan and Asia, focuses on the effects of "blowback," a term coined by the CIA to denote the unintended consequences of policies that were in many cases kept secret from the American public. From anti-Chinese pogroms carried out by U.S.-trained soldiers in Indonesia to the viciously suppressed 1980 pro-democracy demonstration in Kwangju, South Korea, Johnson examines the fallout from what he sees as American "economic colonialism." Detailed assessments of American engagement in Japan, Korea and China are coupled with closer-to-home observations on the liquidation of American jobs in places such as Birmingham, Ala., and Pittsburgh, the latter yet another consequence of the massive U.S. trade deficit with the countries of East Asia. Brazenly spending ever-swollen defense budgets, Johnson argues, the Pentagon is fueling an "antiglobalization time bomb" that could blow up at any moment. His chilling conclusion--backed by copious and livid detail--is that a nation reaps precisely what it sows. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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What I Believe (Hardcover)

2009-12-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

What I Believe (Hardcover)
~ Tariq Ramadan (Author)

Tariq Ramadan is very much a public figure, named one of Time magazine's most important innovators of the twenty-first century. He is among the leading Islamic thinkers in the West, with a large following around the world. But he has also been a lightning rod for controversy. Indeed, in 2004, Ramadan was prevented from entering the U.S. by the Bush administration and despite two appeals, supported by organizations like the American Academy of Religion and the ACLU, he is still barred from the country at this time.
In What I Believe, Ramadan attempts to set the record straight, laying out the basic ideas he stands for in clear and accessible prose. He describes the book as a work of clarification, directed at ordinary citizens, politicians, journalists, and others who are curious (or skeptical) about his positions. Aware that that he is dealing with emotional issues, Ramadan tries to get past the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding to speak directly, from the heart, to his Muslim and non-Muslim readers alike. In particular, he calls on Western Muslims to escape the mental, social, cultural, and religious ghettos they have created for themselves and become full partners in the democratic societies in which they live. At the same time, he calls for the rest of us to recognize our Muslim neighbors as citizens with rights and responsibilities the same as ours. His vision is of a future in which a shared and confident pluralism becomes a reality at last.

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Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (Issues of Our Time) (Paperback)

2009-12-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (Issues of Our Time) (Paperback)
~ Kwame Anthony Appiah (Author), Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Series Editor)

In a world more interconnected than ever, the responsibilities and obligations we share remain matters of volatile debate. Weighing in on a discourse that includes both visions of "clashing civilizations" and often equally misguided cultural relativism, Ghana-born Princeton philosopher Appiah (In My Father's House) reclaims a tradition of creative exchange and imaginative engagement across lines of difference. This cosmopolitan ethic, which he traces from the Greek Cynics and through to the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, must inevitably balance universals with respect for particulars. This balance comes through "conversation," a term Appiah uses literally and metaphorically to signal the depth of encounters across national, religious and other forms of identity. At the same time, Appiah stresses conversation needn't involve consensus, since living together mostly entails just getting used to one another. Amid the good and bad of globalization, the author parses some basic cultural-philosophical beliefs—drawing frequent examples from his own far-flung multicultural family as well as from impersonal relationships of exchange and power—to focus due attention on widespread and unexamined assumptions about identity, difference and morality. A stimulating read, leavened by cheerful, fluid prose, the book will challenge fashionable theories of irreconcilable divides with a practical and pragmatic worldview that revels in difference and the adventure of a shared humanity. This is an excellent start to Norton's new Issues of Our Time series. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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George Washington's Rules of Civility (Paperback)

2009-12-13T07:01:00.000-08:00

George Washington's Rules of Civility (Paperback)
~ George Washington (Author), Adam Haslett (Author)

# Paperback: 65 pages
# Publisher: Akashic Books (September 1, 2004)
# Language: English

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Aristotle: Politics (Loeb Classical Library No. 264) (Hardcover)

2009-12-13T06:59:00.000-08:00

Aristotle: Politics (Loeb Classical Library No. 264) (Hardcover)
~ Aristotle (Author), H. Rackham (Translator)

The past few years have seen a spate of new translations of classic texts in philosophy, in part because of more complete texts on which to base the translations and in part because of a desire to render the texts in a more contemporary English. Simpson (classics and philosophy, CUNY) has produced a fresh and lively translation that is perhaps more logically ordered. He makes a strong case for rearranging the standard order of the books of the Politics to provide a sequence more in keeping with Aristotle's intentions, positioning Books 7 and 8 to follow Book 3. The text begins with a translation of Book 10, Chapter 9 of the Nicomachean Ethics, which Simpson argues is a precursor to the Politics. A comparison with standard translations, such as those of Jowett and Barker, indicates that Simpson put much effort into this version and clarified a number of points that earlier translations left unclear. An excellent addition to all academic and major public libraries.?Terry C. Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Second Treatise Of Government (Paperback)

2009-12-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

Second Treatise Of Government (Paperback)
~ John Locke (Author)

The Second Treatise is notable for a number of themes which Locke develops therein. It begins with a depiction of the state of nature, wherein individuals are under no obligation to obey one another but are each themselves judge of what the law of nature requires. It also covers conquest and slavery, property, representative government, and the right of revolution. A classic of political theory. The Second Treatise outlines a theory of civil society. Locke begins by describing the state of nature, a picture much more stable than Thomas Hobbes' state of "war of every man against every man," and argues that all men are created equal in the state of nature by God. From this, he goes on to explain the hypothetical rise of property and civilization, in the process explaining that the only legitimate governments are those which have the consent of the people. Thus, any government that rules without the consent of the people can, in theory, be overthrown.

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The Origins of Totalitarianism (Paperback)

2009-12-10T02:04:00.000-08:00

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Paperback)
~ Hannah Arendt (Author)

Schocken's is the first hardcover edition of Arendt's 1951 volume to be available in decades. The book begins its study with European anti-Semitism in the 1800s and moves up to Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany, which the author fled in the 1930s. This edition sports a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize winner Samantha (Library Journal )

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The Savage Wars Of Peace: Small Wars And The Rise Of American Power (Paperback)

2009-12-09T01:22:00.000-08:00

The Savage Wars Of Peace: Small Wars And The Rise Of American Power (Paperback)
~ Max Boot (Author)

As editorial features editor of the Wall Street Journal, Boot (Out of Order: Arrogance, Corruption, and Incompetence on the Bench) has a reputation as a fire-breathing polemicist and unabashed imperialist. This book addresses America's "small wars" in chronological order, dividing the action from 1801 to the present into three sections ("Commercial Power," "Great Power" and "Superpower") to argue that "small war missions are militarily doable" and are now in fact a necessity. Beginning with a description of going to work on September 11 as the World Trade Center tragedy displaced the WSJ newsroom, Boot quickly gets down to some historical detail: from the U.S. expedition against the Barbary pirates to violent squabbles in Panama, Samoa, the Philippines, China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Beirut, Grenada, Somalia and Bosnia. Examples of wars "that were fought less than `wholeheartedly,' " of wars "without exit strategies" and wars "in which U.S. soldiers act as `social workers' " are decried. Each of the 15 short chapters might have been the focus of a separate in-depth book, so Boot's take is once over very lightly indeed. While America's and the world's small wars certainly seem more and more related, Boot's historical descriptions are too thin to provide a solid foundation for relating one war to another. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Utopia (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

2009-12-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

Utopia (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
~ Thomas More (Author), Paul Turner (Editor, Translator, Introduction)

Revised introduction; new chronology and further reading

Translated with an Introduction by Paul Turner.

About the Author
Thomas More was born in 1478. He succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor of England, but came into conflict with the king, Henry VIII, by refusing to acknowledge him as sole head of the church. Charged with high treason, More steadfastly refused to takean oath impugning the pope's authority or upholding the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He was beheaded in 1535. Paul Turner was educated at Winchester and King's College, Cambridge, and became an Emeritus Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford.

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Mein Kampf Official Nazi Translation (Paperback)

2009-12-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

Mein Kampf Official Nazi Translation (Paperback)
~ Adolf Hitler (Author)

This is the Official Nazi English Translation of Mein Kampf. It was recently rediscovered after all copies were thought to have been destroyed. This is one of the rarest Mein Kampf editions ever made and it passed from hand to hand without the owners knowing what it truly was or the value for 65 years. Finally, in 2009, the full story has not only been revealed but the text is available for the world to read. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry wanted to produce an English language version of Mein Kampf. However, they were also leery about revealing too much. In spite of this, they decided to go ahead and hired a British man to create a translation for the Nazi government which would later become the Official Nazi Translation written in 1936-37. The man was James Murphy and he had some sympathies for Nazi politics which made them trust him enough to begin a translation. This edition was translated while he was living in Germany. Over time, Murphy's opinions about the Nazi government changed. The Nazi government decided they no longer cared for him after he made some critical remarks and told him he had to leave. He left quickly without his translation into English. The Nazi government completed the translation and it was printed within Germany from the presses of the Nazi printing office. It is unknown exactly when the book was published but it was found in a prison camp which opened in 1938 and was liberated in 1945 so the book must have been published sometime during those dates. This is a very rare historical version which has previously been unknown. If you have already read Mein Kampf then you will find the differences fascinating. If you have not yet read it, then this version can quickly spark your curiosity. Find out what the official Nazi version contains today.

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In Afghanistan: Two Hundred Years of British, Russian and American Occupation (Hardcover)

2009-12-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

In Afghanistan: Two Hundred Years of British, Russian and American Occupation (Hardcover)
~ David Loyn (Author)

Loyn's dense chronicle of foreign meddling in Afghanistan reveals the country's long history of confounding the optimism of invaders.� The stories that Loyn (Frontline), a longtime BBC correspondent with considerable experience in Afghanistan, recounts bear this out with chilling inevitability—generations of British, Soviet and most recently American leaders are confounded by shifting regional allegiances and unanticipated violent religious movements. Loyn's book is packed with details and anecdotes about the personalities that shaped the country, such as the Scottish adventurer Mountstuart Elphinstone, who first explored the region in 1808 armed only with Alexander the Great's account as guide; Abdur Habibullah, the obese turn of the century Afghan emir who rode around on a tricycle; and Charlie Wilson, whose funding of the mujahideen during the Soviet invasion is given an appropriately darker shading than in the recent book and film. Loyn's book suffers at times from a surfeit of dates and names without clear organization, and his eagerness to equate past conflicts and leaders to current ones results in frenetic time jumping. Nevertheless, the weight of the material that Loyn has gathered makes his book extremely valuable given our current circumstances. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Democracy in America: Abridged Edition (P.S.) [ABRIDGED] (Paperback)

2009-12-01T02:37:00.000-08:00

Democracy in America: Abridged Edition (P.S.) [ABRIDGED] (Paperback)
~ Alexis de Tocqueville (Author), Scott A. Sandage (Author)

"No better study of a nation's institutions and culture than Tocqueville's Democracy in America has ever been written by a foreign observer; none perhaps as good."
--The New York Times

Praise for the work of Joseph Epstein:

"Epstein is one of the premier contemporary American essayists...What is so remarkable about Epstein as an essay writer is that he'll begin a discussion at some personal place...and end up in another place relevant to us all. He enjoys making language work, not making it jump through hoops for show." --Booklist

"Joseph Epstein is an essayist in the brilliant tradition of Charles Lamb. He moves so effortlessly from the amusingly personal to the broadly philosophical that it takes a moment before you realize how far out into the intellectual cosmos you've been taken."
--Tom Wolfe

"Joseph Epstein's essays no more need his identifying byline than Van Gogh's paintings need his signature. Epstein's style--call it learned whimsy--is unmistakable; for Epstein addicts, indispensable."
--George Will

"Joseph Epstein is the liveliest, most erudite and engaging essayist we have." --James Atlas

"If Epstein's ultimate ancestor is Montaigne, his more immediate master is Mencken. Like Mencken, he has fashioned a style that successfully combines elegance and even bookishness with street-smart colloquial directness. And there is nothing remote or aloof about him."
--John Gross, Chicago Tribune --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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The Road to Serfdom (Hardcover)

2009-11-29T02:24:00.000-08:00

The Road to Serfdom (Hardcover)
~ F. A. Hayek (Author)

A classic work in political philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, and economics, The Road to Serfdom has inspired and infuriated politicians, scholars, and general readers for half a century. Originally published in England in the spring of 1944 when Eleanor Roosevelt supported the efforts of Stalin, and Albert Einstein subscribed lock, stock, and barrel to the socialist program The Road to Serfdom was seen as heretical for its passionate warning against the dangers of state control over the means of production. For F. A. Hayek, the collectivist idea of empowering government with increasing economic control would inevitably lead not to a utopia but to the horrors of nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

First published by the University of Chicago Press on September 18, 1944, The Road to Serfdom garnered immediate attention from the public, politicians, and scholars alike. The first printing of 2,000 copies was exhausted instantly, and within six months more than 30,000 were sold. In April of 1945, Reader's Digest published a condensed version of the book, and soon thereafter the Book-of-the-Month Club distributed this condensation to more than 600,000 readers. A perennial best-seller, the book has sold over a quarter of a million copies in the United States, not including the British edition or the nearly twenty translations into such languages as German, French, Dutch, Swedish, and Japanese, and not to mention the many underground editions produced in Eastern Europe before the fall of the iron curtain.

After thirty-two printings in the United States, The Road to Serfdom has established itself alongside the works of Alexis de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill, and George Orwell for its timeless meditation on the relation between individual liberty and government authority. This fiftieth anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Milton Friedman, commemorates the enduring influence of The Road to Serfdom on the ever-changing political and social climates of the twentieth century, from the rise of socialism after World War II to the Reagan and Thatcher "revolutions" in the 1980s and the transitions in Eastern Europe from communism to capitalism in the 1990s.

F. A. Hayek (1899-1992), recipient of the Medal of Freedom in 1991 and co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and the principal proponent of libertarianism in the twentieth century.

On the first American edition of The Road to Serfdom:
"One of the most important books of our generation. . . . It restates for our time the issue between liberty and authority with the power and rigor of reasoning with which John Stuart Mill stated the issue for his own generation in his great essay On Liberty. . . . It is an arresting call to all well-intentioned planners and socialists, to all those who are sincere democrats and liberals at heart to stop, look and listen." Henry Hazlitt, New York Times Book Review, September 1944

"In the negative part of Professor Hayek's thesis there is a great deal of truth. It cannot be said too often at any rate, it is not being said nearly often enough that collectivism is not inherently democratic, but, on the contrary, gives to a tyrannical minority such powers as the Spanish Inquisitors never dreamt of." George Orwell, Collected Essays

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The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek) (Paperback)

2009-11-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek) (Paperback)
~ F. A. Hayek (Author), W. W. Bartley III (Editor)

Hayek gives the main arguments for the free-market case and presents his manifesto on the "errors of socialism." Hayek argues that socialism has, from its origins, been mistaken on factual, and even on logical, grounds and that its repeated failures in the many different practical applications of socialist ideas that this century has witnessed were the direct outcome of these errors. He labels as the "fatal conceit" the idea that "man is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes."

"The achievement of The Fatal Conceit is that it freshly shows why socialism must be refuted rather than merely dismissed—then refutes it again."—David R. Henderson, Fortune.

"Fascinating. . . . The energy and precision with which Mr. Hayek sweeps away his opposition is impressive."—Edward H. Crane, Wall Street Journal

F. A. Hayek is considered a pioneer in monetary theory, the preeminent proponent of the libertarian philosophy, and the ideological mentor of the Reagan and Thatcher "revolutions."

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The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) (Hardcover)

2009-11-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) (Hardcover)
~ Professor James C. Scott (Author)

For two thousand years the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries) have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them—slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and warfare. This book, essentially an “anarchist history,” is the first-ever examination of the huge literature on state-making whose author evaluates why people would deliberately and reactively remain stateless. Among the strategies employed by the people of Zomia to remain stateless are physical dispersion in rugged terrain; agricultural practices that enhance mobility; pliable ethnic identities; devotion to prophetic, millenarian leaders; and maintenance of a largely oral culture that allows them to reinvent their histories and genealogies as they move between and around states.

In accessible language, James Scott, recognized worldwide as an eminent authority in Southeast Asian, peasant, and agrarian studies, tells the story of the peoples of Zomia and their unlikely odyssey in search of self-determination. He redefines our views on Asian politics, history, demographics, and even our fundamental ideas about what constitutes civilization, and challenges us with a radically different approach to history that presents events from the perspective of stateless peoples and redefines state-making as a form of “internal colonialism.” This new perspective requires a radical reevaluation of the civilizational narratives of the lowland states. Scott’s work on Zomia represents a new way to think of area studies that will be applicable to other runaway, fugitive, and marooned communities, be they Gypsies, Cossacks, tribes fleeing slave raiders, Marsh Arabs, or San-Bushmen.

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How Languages Are Learned (Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers) (Paperback)

2009-11-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

How Languages Are Learned (Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers) (Paperback)
~ Patsy M. Lightbown (Author), Nina Spada (Author)

This book is a comprehensive and readable introduction to how languages are learned. It presents the main theories of first and second language acquisition, and, with the help of activities and questionnaires, discusses their practical implications for language teaching.

About the Author
Patsy M. Lightbown is Distinguished Professor Emerita at Concordia University in Montreal and Past President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics. Her research focuses on how instruction and feedback affect second-language acquisition in classrooms where the emphasis is on "communicative" or "content-based" language teaching. The contexts for her work have included elementary schools in Canada and, more recently, dual-language bilingual classes in the U.S. Nina Spada is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Modern Language Centre, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her main areas of professional interest are second language acquisition, classroom research in L2 teaching and learning, and English as a Second Language.

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Justice: A Reader (Paperback)

2009-11-11T16:59:00.000-08:00

Justice: A Reader (Paperback)
~ Michael J. Sandel (Editor)

"Michael Sandel is one of the most popular and influential college professors in America. For more than twenty years, hundreds of students at a time have packed into a Harvard University lecture hall to hear his discourses on justice; and hundreds have streamed out feeling a surprisingly personal connection with their gifted teacher. This book reveals Sandel's secret recipe for enthralling students with timeless questions of law, justice, and morality in a decidedly contemporary context."--Anita L. Allen, Professor of Philosophy and Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
"This thoughtful, stimulating, and convenient collection brings a range of classic moral and political philosophers--from Aristotle to John Stuart Mill--to bear on a range of contemporary controversies about justice. It invites readers to discover how their views on contemporary questions might be clarified, deepened and challenged by an encounter with enduring debates in moral and political philosophy."--Russell Muirhead, Associate Professor, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin
"This outstanding collection successfully blends historical and contemporary thought, on issues of theoretical and practical importance, to illuminate the main problems of justice. It is accessible to undergraduates in philosophy, with breadth and depth enough to engage the experienced philosophical reader hoping to rethink some central debates."--Michele Moody-Adams, Director and Hutchinson Professor of Ethics and Public Life, Cornell University

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Them: Adventures with Extremists (Paperback)

2009-11-08T00:49:00.000-08:00

Them: Adventures with Extremists (Paperback)
~ Jon Ronson (Author)

U.K. journalist Ronson offers a look into the world of political, cultural and religious "extremists" who dwell at the edges of popular culture and the conspiracy theorists who love them. His only criteria for groups' inclusion as extremists is "that they have been called extremists by others," which may explain why the Anti-Defamation League is profiled along with the modern-day KKK, radical Northern Ireland Protestant spokesperson Dr. Ian Paisley and a former BBC sportscaster who believes the world is ruled by a race of alien lizards. The best as well as most timely and unsettling of these essays follows Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical Islamic militant, on his often bumbling effort to organize British Muslims into a jihad. (Bakri was arrested after September 11.) Ronson's journalism is motivated less out of a duty to inform the public than a desire to satisfy his own curiosity. At the heart of the book is Ronson's quest to find the Bilderberg Group, a secret cabal said to meet once a year to set the agenda of the "New World Order." Fortunately for the reader, his efforts lead somewhere: an informant tracks Bilderberg to a golf resort in Portugal; later, a prominent British politician and Bilderberg founder discusses it on the record. Once viewed up close through Ronson's light, ironic point of view, these "extremists" appear much less scary than their public images would suggest. It is how he reveals the all-too-real machinations of Western society's radical fringe and its various minions that makes this enjoyable work rather remarkable. (Jan.)Forecast: In the U.K., Ronson's book was accompanied by a five-part BBC documentary, which helped make him into a star. If he can capitalize on media appearances here, this may turn into a quick cult hit.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (College Edition) (The Norton Series in World Politics) (Paperback)

2009-11-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (College Edition) (The Norton Series in World Politics) (Paperback)
~ John J. Mearsheimer (Author)

The central tenet of the political theory called "offensive realism" is that each state seeks to ensure its survival by maximizing its share of world power. Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, sets out to explain, defend and validate offensive realism as the only theory to account for how states actually behave. He proceeds by laying out the theory and its assumptions, then extensively tests the theory against the historical record since the Age of Napoleon. He finds plenty of evidence of what the theory predicts that states seek regional dominance through military strength. Further, whenever a condition of "unbalanced multipolarity" exists (i.e., when three or more states compete in a region, and one of them has the potential to dominate the others), the likelihood of war rises dramatically. If history validates offensive realism, then the theory should yield predictions about the future of world politics and the chances of renewed global conflict. Here Mearsheimer ventures into controversial terrain. Far from seeing the end of the Cold War as ushering in an age of peace and cooperation, the author believes the next 20 years have a high potential for war. China emerges as the most destabilizing force, and the author urges the U.S. to do all it can to retard China's economic growth. Since offensive realism is an academic movement, readers will expect some jargon ("buckpassing," "hegemon"), but the terms are defined and the language is accessible. This book will appeal to all devotees of political science, and especially to partisans of the "tough-minded" (in William James's sense) approach to history. Maps.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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An Outcast of the Islands (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

2009-11-01T16:00:00.001-08:00

An Outcast of the Islands (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
~ Joseph Conrad (Author), J. H. Stape (Editor), Hans van Marle (Editor)

Founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, the Everyman Library has always tried to make the best books ever written available to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible price. Unique editorial features that help Everyman Paperback Classics stand out from the crowd include: a leading scholar or literary critic's introduction to the text, a biography of the author, a chronology of her or his life and times, a historical selection of criticism, and a concise plot summary. All books published since 1993 have also been completely restyled: all type has been reset, to offer a clarity and ease of reading unique among editions of the classics; a vibrant, full-color cover design now complements these great texts with beautiful contemporary works of art. But the best feature must be Everyman's uniquely low price. Each Everyman title offers these extensive materials at a price that competes with the most inexpensive editions on the market-but Everyman Paperbacks have durable binding, quality paper, and the highest editorial and scholarly standards. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Utopia (Kindle Edition)

2009-11-01T15:59:00.001-08:00

Utopia (Kindle Edition)
by Thomas More (Author)

In Utopia, More paints a vision of the customs and practices of a distant island, but Utopia means 'no place' and his narrator's name, Hythlodaeus, translates as 'dispenser of nonsense'. This fantastical tale masks what is a serious and subversive analysis of the failings of More's society. Advocating instead a world in which there is religious tolerance, provision for the aged, and state ownership of land, Utopia has been variously claimed as a Catholic tract or an argument for communism andit still invites each generation to make its own interpretation.

About the Author
Thomas More was born in 1478. He succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor of England, but came into conflict with the king, Henry VIII, by refusing to acknowledge him as sole head of the church. Charged with high treason, More steadfastly refused to takean oath impugning the pope's authority or upholding the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He was beheaded in 1535. Paul Turner was educated at Winchester and King's College, Cambridge, and became an Emeritus Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford.

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Leviathan (Kindle Edition)

2009-10-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

Leviathan (Kindle Edition)
by Thomas Hobbes (Author)

The Leviathan is the vast unity of the State. But how are unity, peace and security to be attained? Hobbes's answer is sovereignty, but the resurgence of interest today in Leviathan is due less to its answers than its methods. Hobbes sees politics as a science capable of the same axiomatic approach as geometry: he argues from first principles to human nature to politics. \nThis book's appeal to the twentieth century lies not just in its elevation of politics to a science, but in its overriding concern for peace.

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Reveille for Radicals (Paperback)

2009-10-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

Reveille for Radicals (Paperback)
by Saul Alinsky (Author)

First published in 1946 and updated in 1969 with a new Introduction and Afterword, this volume represents the fullest statement of the political philosophy and practical methodology of one of the most important figures in the history of American radicalism. Like Thomas Paine before him, Saul Alinsky, through the concept and practice of community organizing, was able to embody for his era both the urgency of radical political action and the imperative of rational political discourse. His work and writing bequeathed a new method and style of social change to American communities that will remain a permanent part of the American political landscape.

"Alinsky is that rarity in American life, a superlative organizer, strategist, and tactician who is also a social philosopher."

-- Charles E. Silberman

"He cannot be bought; he cannot be intimidated; and he breaks all the rules."

-- The Economist

(London)

"I consider him to be one of the few really great men of our century."

-- Jacques Maritain

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The Republic (Kindle Edition)

2009-10-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

The Republic (Kindle Edition)
by Plato (Author)

Famous philosophical treatise of the fourth century b.c. concerns itself chiefly with the idea of justice, as well as such Platonic theories as that of ideas, the criticism of poetry, and the philosopher’s role. Source of the famous cave myth and prototype for other imaginary commonwealths, including those of Cicero, St. Augustine, and More. Benjamin Jowett translation.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek

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Discourse on Political Economy and The Social Contract (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

2009-09-10T01:37:00.000-07:00

Discourse on Political Economy and The Social Contract (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author), Christopher Betts (Translator)

Great Ideas... is the right name for these slim, elegant paperbacks... They are written with precision, force, and care. -- The Wall Street Journal

Penguin Books hopes to provide an economical remedy for time-pressed readers in search of intellectual sustenance. -- USA Today --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Great Ideas... is the right name for these slim, elegant paperbacks... They are written with precision, force, and care. (The Wall Street Journal) Penguin Books hopes to provide an economical remedy for time-pressed readers in search of intellectual sustenance. (USA Today) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Globalization Reader (Blackwell Readers) (Paperback)

2009-09-08T19:10:00.001-07:00

Globalization Reader (Blackwell Readers) (Paperback)
by Frank J. Lechner (Editor), John Boli (Editor)

"A terrific place to start if one wants to get a sense of why globalization is attracting the attention of so many scholars, government officials and lay people." George Ritzer, University of Maryland, author of The McDonaldization of Society

"An authoritative and commodious collection, The Globalization Reader confronts an issue that now dominates social science discussion. Through an intelligent and judicious selection of key texts, Lechner and Boli explore the debates, explanations, experiences, and dimensions of the globalization process. The Reader covers the field systematically and expertly. Simply the best reader on globalization." Bryan S. Turner, University of Cambridge

"With this large, excellent selection of pieces written on globalization, we'll have something to recommend to our friends and students who want to know the best opinions on this most important of subjects. Many of the authors are critics from the left, others embrace globalization, and there is a good sprinkling of both official and unofficial views. It's a timely and well-done volume." Daniel Chirot, University of Washington

".the book deserves acknowledgement as a solid introduction, which maps out tthe major themes and issues that confront newcomers to the terrain." Progress in Development Studies

“This third edition of The Globalization Reader, edited by Frank J. Lechner and John Boli, has been substantially expanded and improved. This is, undoubtedly, the best volume of its kind on the market. Undergraduate students, in particular, will find it invaluable, while more advanced students and those seeking an excellent introduction to the field will benefit enormously. I strongly recommend it and Lechner and Boli are to be congratulated for their very carefully selected collection of excerpts and for their equally helpful introductions to the main sections.”
Roland Robertson, University of Aberdeen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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See No Evil [ABRIDGED] (Audio CD)

2009-09-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

See No Evil [ABRIDGED] (Audio CD)
by Robert Baer (Author)

?See No Evil is a compelling account of America?s failed efforts to ?listen in? on the rest of the world, especially the parts of it that intend to do us harm.?
?Wall Street Journal

?Robert Baer was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field
officer in the Middle East.?
?Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker -- Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

“See No Evil is a compelling account of America’s failed efforts to ‘listen in’ on the rest of the world, especially the parts of it that intend to do us harm.”
–Wall Street Journal

“Robert Baer was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field
officer in the Middle East.”
–Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker

From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs (Hardcover)

2009-09-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs (Hardcover)
by Ray Takeyh (Author)

Since the 1979 revolution that transformed Iran, some U.S. decision makers have treated the Islamic Republic as a political monolith, ignoring internal disagreements and political factions in favor of broadly painting Iran's leadership as evil. Takeyh (Hidden Iran) argues credibly that this approach has been to our own peril, as the foreign policies of Iran are often an expression of domestic politics, no matter how opaque these politics may seem to outsiders. Rather than continue to try to contain Iran by means of a broad-based Arab alliance, an approach that's been failing for decades, Takeyh argues that the U.S. must instead conceive a situation whereby Iran... sees benefit in limiting its ambitions. In his previous book, Takeyh expressed an unassailable optimism that Iran will change and was on an inexorable path to greater openness—almost regardless of who was in power. Takeyh is more pessimistic in his predictions now, writing that Iran has confounded the West's anticipation of a forward historical progression. By failing to acknowledge his own shifting understanding of the situation, Takeyh misses an opportunity to provide a genuinely honest—however inconsistent—assessment. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"Superb...anyone wishing to understand why restored American-Iranian ties are so elusive, but also so critical, should turn to this important work, a riveting and consistently insightful study of revolutionary Iran and its still troubled place in the world."--New York Times
"Elegant anatomy of Iran's foreign policy since 1979."--Malise Ruthven, New York Review of Books
"Guardians of the Revolution is a "must read' for policy makers in Iran, in the United States, and throughout the world. Thirty years after the Revolution, this is the only comprehensive book in any language on the dynamics of change in Iranian domestic and foreign policy since the revolution. Timely and balanced, it should command the attention of the Obama administration in reviewing America's policy toward Iran."--R. K. Ramazani, Edward R. Stettinius Professor of Government, University of Virginia
"Ray Takeyh is one of our country's most insightful observers of Iran. In this book, he offers an interesting portrait of how and why Iran's approach to the world has evolved since the revolution. His explanations of the interplay of different groups within the elite and the rise of the new right are thought provoking and raise important questions for policy-makers. If one wants to understand the different forces affecting Iranian foreign policy, Takeyh's book is a good place to start."--Dennis Ross, author of Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World
"Ray Takeyh has given us a succinct, well-written, and cool-headed analysis of Iran's foreign policy since the 1979 revolution. This book should be read by academics working on contemporary Iran as well as by foreign-policy experts in Washington grappling with the issue of how to deal with Tehran."--Ervand Abrahamian, author of A History of Modern Iran
" A useful aid.... [This book] provides a narrative background to the insights in his earlier Hidden Iran. Takeyh's two books together offer as instructive a portrait as one can find of politics in Tehran and why it generates sometimes maddening Iranian postures toward the outside world."--The National Interest

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