Americas Constitution or Imperial Tense

America's Constitution: A Biography

Author: Akhil Reed Amar

In America’s Constitution, one of this era’s most accomplished constitutional law scholars, Akhil Reed Amar, gives the first comprehensive account of one of the world’s great political texts. Incisive, entertaining, and occasionally controversial, this “biography” of America’s framing document explains not only what the Constitution says but also why the Constitution says it.

We all know this much: the Constitution is neither immutable nor perfect. Amar shows us how the story of this one relatively compact document reflects the story of America more generally. (For example, much of the Constitution, including the glorious-sounding “We the People,” was lifted from existing American legal texts, including early state constitutions.) In short, the Constitution was as much a product of its environment as it was a product of its individual creators’ inspired genius.

Despite the Constitution’s flaws, its role in guiding our republic has been nothing short of amazing. Skillfully placing the document in the context of late-eighteenth-century American politics, America’s Constitution explains, for instance, whether there is anything in the Constitution that is unamendable; the reason America adopted an electoral college; why a president must be at least thirty-five years old; and why–for now, at least–only those citizens who were born under the American flag can become president.

From his unique perspective, Amar also gives us unconventional wisdom about the Constitution and its significance throughout the nation’s history. For one thing, we see that the Constitution has been farmore democratic than is conventionally understood. Even though the document was drafted by white landholders, a remarkably large number of citizens (by the standards of 1787) were allowed to vote up or down on it, and the document’s later amendments eventually extended the vote to virtually all Americans.

We also learn that the Founders’ Constitution was far more slavocratic than many would acknowledge: the “three fifths” clause gave the South extra political clout for every slave it owned or acquired. As a result, slaveholding Virginians held the presidency all but four of the Republic’s first thirty-six years, and proslavery forces eventually came to dominate much of the federal government prior to Lincoln’s election.

Ambitious, even-handed, eminently accessible, and often surprising, America’s Constitution is an indispensable work, bound to become a standard reference for any student of history and all citizens of the United States.

The New York Times - James Ryerson

Amar does not present a single, unifying argument; his project is too wide-ranging for that. But he does convey a distinctive attitude toward the Constitution, one that manages to be reverential and celebratory without succumbing to the triumphalism that the often breathless tenor of his prose might lead you to expect. ("America's Constitution beckons," reads the book's sonorous opening sentence, "a New World Acropolis open to all.")

Publishers Weekly

You can read the U.S. Constitution, including its 27 amendments, in about a half-hour, but it takes decades of study to understand how this blueprint for our nation's government came into existence. Amar, a 20-year veteran of the Yale Law School faculty, has that understanding, steeped in the political history of the 1780s, when dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation led to a constitutional convention in Philadelphia, which produced a document of wonderful compression and balance creating an indissoluble union. Amar examines in turn each article of the Constitution, explaining how the framers drew on English models, existing state constitutions and other sources in structuring the three branches of the federal government and defining the relationship of the that government to the states. Amar takes on each of the amendments, from the original Bill of Rights to changes in the rules for presidential succession. The book squarely confronts America's involvement with slavery, which the original Constitution facilitated in ways the author carefully explains. Scholarly, reflective and brimming with ideas, this book is miles removed from an arid, academic exercise in textual analysis. Amar evokes the passions and tumult that marked the Constitution's birth and its subsequent revisions. Only rarely do you find a book that embodies scholarship at its most solid and invigorating; this is such a book. Agent, Glen Hartley. (On sale Sept. 13) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

With so much attention surrounding recent Supreme Court decisions and the nominations of the next Supreme Court justice and federal judges, citizens interested in learning more about the intellectual and political origins of the Constitution are fortunate to have this new book as a resource. Amar (Yale Law Sch.; The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction) has written a lucid and truly engaging history of the Constitution and its amendments. The opening chapter reviews the history of the constitutional convention and ratification process with all the drama of Catherine Drinker Bowen's Miracle at Philadelphia or Richard B. Morris's Witness at the Creation. The remaining chapters review each article or amendment, section by section and occasionally word by word, and explain the ideas behind the words, that is, the historical, intellectual, and political knowledge that the framers drew upon and incorporated in the document. In many ways, the work is like an annotated version of the Constitution itself but in essay form. It may also be seen as a lay reader's edition of Philip B. Kurland's five-volume The Founders' Constitution. An excellent book that provides a real service and deserves a wide audience; highly recommended.-Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A needed explication of a document that all Americans should know-but that few have ever read. Many professors don't assign the Constitution itself in courses in constitutional law. "The running joke," writes Amar (Law/Yale Univ.; The Bill of Rights, 1998), "is that reading the thing would only confuse students." There is reason to think so, for the Constitution has its confusions and contradictions. Yet, as Amar fluently demonstrates, its flaws are its virtues, for the Constitution does work like no other document of its time: It encodes the self-government of a "continental" nation and people and provides an elaborate system of checks and balances not only of the three branches of federal government, but also of the federal government as against the governments of the various states. In the second matter, Amar notes that the states entered the constitutional convention as sovereign entities but ceased to be so after ratification, for the idea that they comprised "a more perfect union" eliminated the possibilities of the unilateralism contained in the Articles of Confederation. The author charts the arguments advanced by federalists and antifederalists on such philisophical issues as the nature of the presidency and the presumed ability of the federal government to end slavery. The ultimate genius of the document, he suggests, has been its ability to embrace both the will of the state and the will of the people-the "we the people" who demanded more jury safeguards, for instance, than the original Article III offered, and the guarantees of the Bill of Rights, and progressive taxation. Among amendments to consider now, he remarks, is a recasting of the rules of succession: "Much asAmericans responded to the tragedy of November 22, 1963 by revising the Constitution's succession system, so Americans in the wake of September 11, 2001 have good reason to rethink our statutory succession system before tragedy strikes again." Data-rich, but seldom ponderous.

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Imperial Tense: Prospects and Problems of American Empire

Author: Andrew J Bacevich

Bacevich has drawn together a stimulating collection of arguments on a subject of compelling current importance.

New York Review of Books

The essays collected...are a curious amalgam of military hubris and cultural anxiety: they dutifully document both America's truly awesome military reach and the widespread national uncertainty about what to do with it.

Virginia Quarterly Review

He has done the ongoing debate about America's role in the world a great service by bringing these pieces together in a convenient package.

Publishers Weekly

There's a host of issues surrounding the U.S. and what many see as its empire as it pushes to confront terrorism-and this balanced collection of mostly scholarly articles addresses many of them. For the most part, the pieces are nuanced, examining subtleties in a world where the U.S. is the sole global power. There are no epiphanies, but pieces discuss such topics as how the U.S. can both confront authoritarian regimes and promote human rights, how American policy should change in order to prevent a further international backlash and whether the U.S. is doomed to fall, like previous empires. Some of the articles gathered by Bacevich (American Empire) hew to familiar arguments-a few, like journalist Charles Krauthammer, argue unabashedly for American power; others seem stuck in a pompous, crude anti-Americanism, as when John Millbank calls on the West "to abandon our global idolatrous worship of sacralized absolute sovereignty, and the formally neutral market." But these pieces are the exceptions. To the editor's credit, the essays appear to be carefully chosen, with an equal number critical and accepting of America's increasing global power. At their best, they display a measure of wit, as when one essayist writes: "Whatever its fate, America, too, will live on-for its Constitution, its movies, and for having placed the first man on the moon." (Sept. 26) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

David Pryce-Jones
Bacevich has performed a valuable service.

Walter Lafeber
First-rate...a most valuable collection.

Richard H. Kohn
This captivating collection addresses the most important issue facing the United States in the coming century. (Richard H. Kohn, University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Former Chief Of Air Force History For The U.S.A.F. (1981-1991))

Table of Contents:

	Introduction
I	Back to an Imperial Future?
	America's Responsibility, America's Mission	5
	Liberal Imperialism	10
	In Defense of Empires	29
	The Unipolar Era	47
	America's Driver for World Domination	66
II	The Nature of American Empire
	The New Rome	81
	New Rome, New Jerusalem	93
	Universal Nation	102
	Playground Bully	111
	In Search of Absolute Security	119
	An Empire Unlike Any Other	134
	What Empire?	146
III	Imperial Strategies
	Sovereignty, Empire, Capital, and Terror	159
	Sheriff and Missionary	172
	Imperial Ambitions	183
	Imperial Limits	202
	Imperial Choices	211
IV	Imperial Prospects
	A Citizen's Response	229
	The Empire's Coming Crisis	238
	Who Will Do the Dirty Work?	245
	Index	261

The Massacre at el Mozote or 1967

The Massacre at el Mozote

Author: Mark Danner

In December 1981 soldiers of the Salvadoran Army's select, American-trained Atlacatl Battalion entered the village of El Mozote, where they murdered hundreds of men, women, and children, often by decapitation. Although reports of the massacre — and photographs of its victims — appeared in the United States, the Reagan administration quickly dismissed them as propaganda. In the end, El Mozote was forgotten. The war in El Salvador continued, with American funding.

When Mark Danner's reconstruction of these events first appeared in The New Yorker, it sent shock waves through the news media and the American foreign-policy establishment. Now Danner has expanded his report into a brilliant book, adding new material as well as the actual sources. He has produced a masterpiece of scrupulous investigative journalism that is also a testament to the forgotten victims of a neglected theater of the cold war.

Publishers Weekly

Based in large part on his extensive account published in the December 6, 1993, issue of the New Yorker , National Magazine Award winner Danner's engrossing study reconstructs events that took place some dozen years before. In December 1981, over 750 men, women and children were killed in El Mozote, El Salvador, and the surrounding hamlets. Although at the time it was covered on the front pages of both the New York Times and the Washington Post , the reports were not enough to derail Ronald Reagan's push to prove that the El Salvadoran government was ``making a concerted and significant effort to comply with internationally recognized human rights.'' Why the government chose to ignore stories in the nation's two leading newspapers is one part of Danner's sad, well-researched book. The other is why El Mozote was attacked at all. Populated by evangelical Christians who, unlike Catholic neighbors fed on liberation theology, did not abet the rebel FMLN, the people of El Mozote believed they would be spared when the army decided to wipe out insurgents and their supporters. After several days of brutal rapes and murders, a handful of people managed to escape to the rebels, setting in motion press reports and the under-investigated, coyly couched American embassy reply that allowed the U.S. to continue its massive subsidies. Danner has disinterred an event that is an equal indictment of Salvadoran brutality and American blindness. (May)

Library Journal

In October 1992, the international community was shocked to hear of the recovery from shallow graves of 25 bodies, all but two of them children, near the ruined church of Santa Catarina in the village of El Mozote, El Salvador. Shortly thereafter, another 100 corpses were discovered elsewhere in the village. After 11 years of investigation, political pressure, and intense lobbying efforts by human rights groups, civil libertarians, and concerned individuals, the truth of what really happened in 1981 in this remote Salvadoran village finally began to emerge, a flashback to the infamous My Lai massacre of the Vietnam War. The situation in El Mozote was similar: villagers caught in the political crossfire between rival groups during a brutal war, trying to remain on friendly terms with their own soldiers while fearing to alienate the opposition. Danner's well-written account, which first appeared in The New Yorker and has been expanded here, does a good job of presenting evidence based on eyewitness accounts and reveals the callousness of U.S. Central American policy (the killers were American-trained soldiers of the Salvadoran Army). Especially recommended for Latin American collections.-Philip Y. Blue, Dowling Coll. Lib., Oakdale, N.Y.

Book about: Shaking up Parkinson Disease or Molecules at an Exhibition

1967: Israel, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East

Author: Tom Segev

“A marvelous achievement . . . Anyone curious about the extraordinary six days of Arab-Israeli war will learn much from it.”—The Economist

Tom Segev’s acclaimed One Palestine, Complete and The Seventh Million overturned accepted views of the history of Israel. Now, in 1967, he brings his masterful skills to the watershed year when six days of war reshaped the country and the entire region.

Going far beyond a military account, Segev re-creates the apocalyptic climate in Israel before the war as well as the country’s bravado after its victory. He introduces the legendary figures—Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Lyndon Johnson—and an epic cast of soldiers, lobbyists, refugees, and settlers. He reveals as never before Israel’s intimacy with the White House, and the political rivalries that sabotaged any chance of peace. Above all, Segev challenges the view that the war was inevitable, showing that behind the bloodshed was a series of disastrous miscalculations.

Vibrant and original, 1967 is sure to stand as the definitive account of that pivotal year.

The New York Times - Ethan Bronner

You need not agree with Mr. Segev's conclusions on how things could have been done differently to benefit from his research and narrative … Mr. Segev makes a compelling and fresh case that the war was at least partly a result of a delicate and vulnerable moment in Israeli history, and his exploration of that moment is — while too long — persuasive and engaging.

The New York Times Book Review - David Margolick

Segev's look into the origins of the occupation is invaluable. His research is prodigious, his intelligence obvious, his ability to reconstruct complex chains of events impressive. He writes clearly and confidently and has an eye for the telling, and often witty, detail.

Foreign Affairs

The author of One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate has written another masterful history. In this case, he covers not a quarter century but roughly a year: the run-up to the June 1967 war, the six days of combat, and the immediate aftermath. Although the actions, and inactions, of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the United States, and others are duly recorded, Segev sticks essentially to the Israeli side of the story, providing a dramatic day-by-day narrative of individual Israelis, the public, and the politicians responding to the crisis set off when Nasser sent troops into the Sinai and announced a blockade of the Strait of Tiran. Segev depicts a cautious old-guard political leadership, seeking to avoid war, or at least postpone war until tangible international support was assured, but ultimately bowing to the demands for an immediate strike by the military leadership (which came to the brink of considering a coup). His carefully drawn portraits of the civilian and military leaders, warts and all, make for an interpretation of "the year that transformed the Middle East" that is less than epic and borders on the tragic. The final section of this big book is tellingly entitled "They Thought They Had Won."<

Library Journal

From Ha'aretz columnist/historian Segev. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A lucid history of a year that began in agony and self-doubt and ended with a nation made powerful and purposeful. In the mid-1960s, writes Ha'aretz columnist Segev (One Palestine, Complete, 2000, etc.), most Israelis were convinced that the Arab nations surrounding them would one day resume their goal of destroying Israel, and, moreover, "that Israelis could offer nothing to induce them to recognize the state and make peace." At home, Israelis found a fresh enemy in new militant and terrorist Palestinian organizations-but also in inflation and an economy guaranteed to frustrate anyone seeking to grow rich, or even make a living. Televisions and autos were new to many; so was Coca-Cola, that seal of modernity's approval. Israelis, writes Segev, were cautious but enthusiastic travelers, always glad to huddle with other Israelis abroad; yet at home there were considerable divisions and inequalities, political and economic, between Ashkenazi and Sephardim. In short, the nation was undergoing a crisis of confidence fueled by very real threats, but also existential ones. The broad-front attack by Egypt and Syria (and soon Jordan) changed much of that, unifying the nation-and revealing some of the hidden quirks that shape history but are seldom described, such as Ezer Weizman's response to that Jordanian attack. "Israel could have responded by defeating the Jordanian army without taking the West Bank and Jerusalem," Segev charges, but did so because Weizman felt it necessary to humiliate King Hussein. Elsewhere, Segev chronicles war crimes on the part of the Israeli army, documents failed intelligence that cost many lives and recounts unseemly demands on the part of LBJ, all of which add to theoverall newsworthiness of this fine book. What is clear is that Israeli resolve grew-and became more rigid-as a direct result of the 1967 war, which, Segev notes in closing, had a "troublesome permanency; everything that would now happen occurred in its shadow."Absorbing and convincing: an exemplary work of journalistic history. Agent: Deborah Harris/Harris/Elon Literary Agency

At Americas Gates or Criminal Investigation

At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943

Author: Erika Le

With the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese laborers became the first group in American history to be excluded from the United States on the basis of their race and class. This landmark law changed the course of U.S. immigration history, but we know little about its consequences for the Chinese in America or for the United States as a nation of immigrants.
At America's Gates is the first book devoted entirely to both Chinese immigrants and the American immigration officials who sought to keep them out. Erika Lee explores how Chinese exclusion laws not only transformed Chinese American lives, immigration patterns, identities, and families but also recast the United States into a "gatekeeping nation." Immigrant identification, border enforcement, surveillance, and deportation policies were extended far beyond any controls that had existed in the United States before.
Drawing on a rich trove of historical sources--including recently released immigration records, oral histories, interviews, and letters--Lee brings alive the forgotten journeys, secrets, hardships, and triumphs of Chinese immigrants. Her timely book exposes the legacy of Chinese exclusion in current American immigration control and race relations.

Read also The Age Free Zone or Your Heart

Criminal Investigation

Author: James Gilbert

With interest in criminal investigation at an all time high, the newest edition of this popular text is particularly useful. One of the most comprehensive reviews of the investigative process available, it covers the fascinating history and future implications of field. A thorough discussion of cutting-edge investigative methods and technology employed to combat emerging crimes prepares readers to enter the next generation of criminal investigation. Using detailed crime scene examples, it links specific investigative techniques and laboratory techniques that are most effective for each particular crime. Relevant websitesclose each chapter to guide readers to the wealth of Internet resources. Full discussion of methods and technology such as Low Copy DNA, the expanding federal DNA database (CODIS), ballistic fingerprinting, face recognition systems and biometrics.Features a variety of jobs such as a criminal profiler, ATF Special Agent, Gang Investigator, etc. to provide insight into individual job duties and case incidents. Complete exploration of narcotics and dangerous drug investigation. Includes detailed crime laboratory techniques. Links investigative techniques with all major types of property and violent crime. Covers emerging types of criminal activity such as consumer fraud, identity theft, computer crime, stalking, cyberstalking, hate crimes, and the latest drug crimes. Serves as excellent resource for those currently in law enforcement.

Booknews

An introduction for students or practitioners of law enforcement with no prior knowledge of investigation. Develops an analytical understanding of the investigation process by merging theoretical and practical aspects. Between chapters on history and prospects, legally defines each commonly encountered major crime and discusses it in terms of current status, offender characteristics, and investigative techniques. First published in 1980 by Bell & Howell, and updated here from the 1993 Prentice-Hall edition. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

An analytic understanding of the investigative process is the desired goal of this text, achieved through merging theoretical and proven practical aspects of crime detection and solution. This is an appropriate introductory text for students; it's also designed to serve as a reference for law enforcement practitioners. The fifth edition covers newly emerging crimes such as computer crimes, stalking, cyberstalking, gangs, and hate crimes; there is comprehensive treatment of the investigation of narcotics and dangerous drugs, behavioral profiling, crime laboratory techniques, and crime-specific investigative techniques. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1	Historical origins of criminal investigation	1
Ch. 2	Introduction of basic concepts	31
Ch. 3	The investigative method	48
Ch. 4	Note-taking and reports	66
Ch. 5	The crime scene focus	78
Ch. 6	Interviewing	100
Ch. 7	Traditional sources of information	131
Ch. 8	Computer-aided investigations and computer crime	153
Ch. 9	Burglary	173
Ch. 10	Robbery	208
Ch. 11	Homicide and aggravated assault	236
Ch. 12	Rape and sexual offenses	282
Ch. 13	Larceny	309
Ch. 14	Narcotics and drug investigations	343
Ch. 15	Youth gang investigations	393
Ch. 16	Special investigations	407
Ch. 17	Suspect identification	441
Ch. 18	The investigator in court	467
Ch. 19	The future of criminal investigation	477

Abortion and Life or Our Undemocratic Constitution

Abortion and Life

Author: Jennifer Baumgardner

"In her role as author and activist, Jennifer Baumgardner has permanently changed the way people think about feminism . . . and will shape the next hundred years of politics and culture."-The Commonwealth Club of California, hailing Baumgardner as one of Six Visionaries for the Twenty-First Century

"If Jennifer Baumgardner ever needs another mom, I'll be the first in line to adopt her. She's smart, fearless, and a formidable force for change."-Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

In Abortion & Life, author and activist Jennifer Baumgardner reveals how the most controversial and stigmatized Supreme Court decision of our time cuts across eras, classes, and race. Stunning portraits by photographer Tara Todras-Whitehill of folk singer Ani DiFranco, authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Gloria Steinem, and others accompany their elucidating accounts of their own abortion experiences.

In this bold new work, Baumgardner explores some of the thorniest issues around terminating a pregnancy, including the ones that the pro-choice establishment has been the least sensitive or effective in confronting.

Jennifer Baumgardner is the producer/creator of the award-winning film I Had an Abortion. She is the co-author (with Amy Richards) of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future and Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism (both Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Her most recent book is Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (FSG, 2007). She writes regularly for women's magazines like Glamour, Elle, and Allure, as well as more political outlets such as TheNation, Harper's, and NPR's All Things Considered. She lives in New York City.

Publishers Weekly

Activist, filmmaker (of I Had an Abortion) and co-author (Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future) Baumgardner dedicates her work to spreading awareness about abortion. Graced with black and white photo portraits by Tara Todras-Whitehill of women wearing Baumgardner's shirt, reading simply "I had an abortion," the emphasis is on the testimony of these patients, revealing not only how common the procedure is (one in three women, according to the Guttmacher Institute) but how diverse those women and their situations are. Baumgardner begins with a brief history of abortion legislation in America, from pre-Roe v. Wade restrictions to clinic workers and doctors protested, threatened and murdered (as in the case of Buffalo doctor Barnett Slepian). Still, as Baumgardner says, it's the record of "our lives that might provide the best road map to strengthening women's reproductive freedoms." Included is a comprehensive listing of abortion resources, and 10 percent of the book's profits go to the New York Abortion Access Fund.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents:

Introduction 9

Ch. 1 A Brief History of Abortion 19

Ch. 2 The "I Had an Abortion" Project 41

Ch. 3 The Rise of Pro-Voice 49

Ch. 4 Can You Be a Feminist and Pro-Life? 63

Ch. 5 Portraits and Stories of Women Who've Had Abortions: Florence Rice, Gloria Steinem, Sally Aldrich, Barbara Ehrenreich, Marion Banzhaf, Loretta Ross, Jackie Wos, Gillian Aldrich, Amy Richards, George Monos and Denise Oswald, Ani DiFranco, Sebastiana Correa, A'yen Tran, Robin Ringleka, and Jenny Egan 73

Ch. 6 Let's Talk 131

Afterword: Truth to Power 141

Resource Guide 145

Appendix 167

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Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It)

Author: Sanford Levinson

Levinson argues that too many of our Constitution's provisions promote either unjust or ineffective government. Under the existing blueprint, we can neither rid ourselves of incompetent presidents nor assure continuity of government following catastrophic attacks. Less important, perhaps, but certainly problematic, is the appointment of Supreme Court judges for life. Adding insult to injury, the United States Constitution is the most difficult to amend or update of any constitution currently existing in the world today. Democratic debate leaves few stones unturned, but we tend to take our basic constitutional structures for granted. Levinson boldly challenges the American people to undertake a long overdue public discussion on how they might best reform this most hallowed document and construct a constitution adequate to our democratic values.

"Admirably gutsy and unfashionable."
--Michael Kinsley, The New York Times

"Bold, bracingly unromantic, and filled with illuminating insights. He accomplishes an unlikely feat, which is to make a really serious argument for a new constitutional convention, one that is founded squarely on democratic ideals."
--Cass R. Sunstein, The New Republic

"Everyone who cares about how our government works should read this thoughtful book."
--Washington Lawyer

Administrative Law for Public Managers or Battle for Social Security

Administrative Law for Public Managers

Author: David Rosenbloom

This book focuses on the essentials that public managers should know about administrative law—why we have administrative law, the constitutional constraints on public administration, and administrative law’s frameworks for rulemaking, adjudication, enforcement, transparency, and judicial and legislative review. Rosenbloom views administrative law from the perspectives of administrative practice, rather than lawyering with an emphasis on how various administrative law provisions promote their underlying goal of improving the fit between public administration and U.S. democratic-constitutionalism. Organized around federal administrative law, the book explains the essentials of administrative law clearly and accurately, in non-technical terms, and with sufficient depth to provide readers with a sophisticated, lasting understanding of the subject matter.

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Battle for Social Security: From FDR's Vision To Bush's Gamble

Author: Nancy J Altman

This book illuminates the politics and policy of the current struggle over Social Security in light of the program's compelling history and ingenious structure. After a brief introduction describing the dramatic response of the Social Security Administration to the 9/11 terrorist attack, the book recounts Social Securityâs lively history. Although President Bush has tried to convince Americans that Social Security is designed for the last century and unworkable for an aging population, readers will see that the President's assault is just another battle in a longstanding ideological war. Prescott Bush, the current Presidentâs grandfather, remarked of FDR, "The only man I truly hated lies buried in Hyde Park." The book traces the continuous thread leading from Prescott Bush and his contemporaries to George W. Bush and others who want to undo Social Security. The book concludes with policy recommendations which eliminate Social Security's deficit in a manner consistent with the program's philosophy and structure.

The Washington Post - Robert G. Kaiser

The context provided by Altman, who chairs the Pension Rights Center's board, may actually offer the best single explanation for Bush's humiliating failure to "reform" Social Security or even build significant support for his ideas. As she demonstrates, the Social Security program has become a pillar of American life that supports millions of Americans -- one that we take for granted, like death and taxes.

Library Journal

Social Security is still the most relied-upon government program, and one hotly contested by many conservatives. Enacted in 1935 to deal with unemployment, disability, and poverty-especially among the elderly-it included unemployment relief and a longer-term program that grew into compulsory old-age retirement insurance. Politicians have railed at it, boosted benefits before elections, and fought ideological battles as to whether the government should provide insurance at all. Each time Social Security was in "crisis," a consensus was forged to restore its fiscal health. In this timely book, Altman (Harvard Law Sch.), who assisted Alan Greenspan in 1983's Social Security amendments, provides a detailed and fascinating look at the birth, development, and currently endangered status of Social Security, directing fire at President Bush's efforts to undermine Social Security with private accounts, noting that at no time in the past 70 years has any President proposed changes that could destroy it. Private accounts would do nothing about projected deficits, he says, but they would cause benefit cuts both in old-age payments and in programs that aid disabled workers and families that have lost a breadwinner. Altman concludes by offering suggestions that would remedy Social Security's shortfall and ensure that it remains a program of social insurance for all Americans. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-Duncan Stewart, Univ. of Iowa Libs., Iowa City Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: From the Poorhouse to Free Parking.

Chapter 2: Social Security’s Grandfather.

Chapter 3: Essential Insurance, Poor Welfare.

Chapter 4: Bold Woman, Cautious Men.

Chapter 5: A Teeny-Weeny Bit of Socialism.

Chapter 6: Dirty Tricks.

Chapter 7: Ready, Set, Start Again.

Chapter 8: Dr. Win-the-War Replaces Old Dr. New Deal.

Chapter 9: Third Time’s the Charm.

Chapter 10: All American Program (Minus a Tiny Splinter Group).

Chapter 11: Visible Gains, Subterranean Tremors.

Chapter 12: The Sky is Falling and Social Security Is Bust.

Chapter 13: Aging Gracefully.

Chapter 14: A Leninist Strategy.

Chapter 15: The Drumbeat Finds a Drummer.

Chapter 16: The Ideal, Pain-Free (For Almost Everyone) Way to Strengthen Social Security.

Chapter 17: From FDR's Vision to Busg's Gamble.

Acknowledgments.

Notes.

Recommended Reading.

Index.

Mastering Windows Network Forensics and Investigation or Conscience of a Liberal

Mastering Windows Network Forensics and Investigation

Author: Steve Bunting

This comprehensive guide provides you with the training you need to arm yourself against phishing, bank fraud, unlawful hacking, and other computer crimes. Two seasoned law enforcement professionals discuss everything from recognizing high-tech criminal activity and collecting evidence to presenting it in a way that judges and juries can understand. They cover the range of skills, standards, and step-by-step procedures you’ll need to conduct a criminal investigation in a Windows environment and make your evidence stand up in court.

New interesting textbook: Six Sigma Quality Improvement with MINITAB or Secrets of Figure Creation with Poser 5

Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda

Author: Paul Wellston

"Never separate the lives you live from the words you speak,” Paul Wellstone told his students at Carleton College, where he was professor of political science.

Wellstone has lived up to his words as the most liberal man in the United States Senate, where for the past decade he has been the voice for improved health care, education, reform, and support for children. In this folksy and populist memoir, Wellstone explains why the politics of conviction are essential to democracy.

Through humor and heartfelt stories, Paul Wellstone takes readers on an unforgettable journey (in a school bus, which he used to campaign for door-to-door) from the fields and labor halls of Minnesota to the U.S. Senate, where he is frequently Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott’s most vocal nemesis. Along the way, he argues passionately for progressive activism, proves why all politics is personal, and explains why those with the deepest commitment to their beliefs win.

Wall Street Journal

Wellstone promised to be what Washingtonians always say their city desperately needs: a colorful character. No one was disappointed. He still considers himself an activist, and his book reads like the work of an activist.

National Journal

A call to arms aimed at politically like-minded Americans, time and again The Conscience of a Liberal argues that a grassroots movement of progressives can defy the odds.

Washington Monthly

Wellstone relishes the role of the lonely hero taking on powerful bullies, and irritates his jaded colleagues with his stubborn stand on principles.

Publishers Weekly

Minnesota Senator Wellstone opens this memoir with his attendance at the funeral service of archconservative Barry Goldwater. Wellstone was there because as a boy he had read Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. Paradoxically, he credits his admiration for Goldwater's political integrity with providing the moral basis for his own liberalism. And he is very liberal, indeed. After reading this lucid and personal book, however, even those of opposite views would find it hard not to admire him. Wellstone presents two propositions. The first, that integrity in politics is essential, will be widely applauded. The second, that liberal political values reflect mainstream American values, will receive a mixed reception. At the core of this account is Wellstone's desire to mobilize voters to organize around issues he believes important to the country's well-being. The litany of societal problems addressed is broad and includes health care, education and testing, economic justice (welfare reform) and campaign finance reform. About each, Wellstone provides cogent and thought-provoking facts, figures and expert opinions, as well as personal stories that humanize the damage and loss of human potential he sees flowing from current public policies. He also offers solutions consistent with his view that government is capable of making a positive difference. The book is, for the most part, pleasantly free of partisan invective; his criticisms are generally oblique. Wellstone's 1996 Senate campaign adds drama. The only senator facing reelection who voted against welfare reform, he survived an extremely negative campaign, even by modern standards. Many readers will be glad he did. (May 22) Forecast: With millions of voters disappointed that their man barely (and, some would argue, unfairly) lost the recent presidential election, Wellstone offers reassurance that liberal values are still alive and well in Washington. As he tours New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, along with his home state, the senator will surely attract die-hard liberal readers with his concise but thoughtful tome. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

An inspiriting call for active citizen politics from Minnesota Senator Wellstone, a dyed-in-the-wool liberal whose passion for participatory politics is as enlivening as a breath of fresh air and as heart-gladdening as all things generous, inclusive, and discerning have a way of being. Wellstone's is a politics of compassion, in pursuit of "affordable child care, good education for children, health security, living-wage jobs that will support families, respect for the environment and human rights, and clean elections and clean campaigns," for he is a devout believer in electoral politics. His book is anecdotally rich, not in the manner of self-serving testimonials, but rather as examples of how politics can work on the local, personal level, outside the ridiculous folkways of the Senate floor, where issues give way to maneuvering. He is not content here to simply provide a laundry list of American governmental failures—many of which stem from economic injustices, in his opinion—but he endeavors to convey a sense of how grassroots organizing and participatory democracy ("the challenge is to make a place for all Americans at the decision-making table") can educate an electorate still firmly behind the Bill of Rights to demand action on all fronts, from true welfare reform, where market forces aren't left to tend the hen house, to agricultural subsidies going where they are most needed, rather than agribusinesses. He provides insights into the pathetic defeat of health-care reform, a sobering portrait of how the Senate works, and why stumping in the hustings is not just effective politics (his own campaign is a worthy example), but fundamental to democracy. Wellstone also has aremarkable way of making what sounds naïve in other mouths sound sincere and realizable from his: "Politics is not about money and power games. It is about improving people's lives, about making our country better." Running counter to the tide, Wellstone's progressive, populist voice is as rare and bracing as that of our national bird. Author tour

The Revolution Betrayed or Art of Coming Home

The Revolution Betrayed

Author: Leon Trotsky

Written in 1936 and published the following year, this brilliant and profound evaluation of Stalinism from the Marxist standpoint prophesied the collapse of the Soviet Union. Trotsky employs facts, figures, and statistics to show how Stalinist policies rejected the enormous productive potential of the nationalized planned economy engendered by the October Revolution.

New interesting textbook: Cuidado Dirigido:O que É e Como Ele Trabalha

Art of Coming Home

Author: Craig Storti

Expecting that home will be the way it was when you left? Are you instead shocked to discover that both you and home have changed? The Art of Coming Home offers the solid advice you need to reduce the stress of making the transition home.

Leave-taking, the honeymoon stage, reverse culture shock, and eventual readjustment -- The Art of Coming Home lays out the four stages of the reentry process and details practical strategies for dealing with the challenges you will face each step of the way. Veteran trainer, consultant, and world adventurer Craig Storti sketches the workplace challenges faced by returning business executives as well as the reentry issues of spouses, younger children, and teenagers. He also addresses in detail the special issues faced by exchange students, international volunteers, military personnel and their families, and missionaries and their children.

Whether you are a recent returnee or are just now thinking of moving abroad, The Art of Coming Home sets itself apart as it brings the process of returning home right to the heart of the overseas experience.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

The Challenge Of Living Abroad
Many executives have experienced the combination of anticipation and anxiety as they prepare for a posting abroad. What many executives fail to anticipate is the culture shock they experience on returning home. Cross-cultural specialist Craig Storti addresses these experiences in his clearly written book called The Art of Crossing Cultures.

'It's Not the Heat...'
The expatriate transition will differ greatly, of course, depending on where you are coming from and where you are going. A new and (to the newcomer) uncomfortable climate, doing without ("the list of things 'they don't have here' sometimes seems to have been designed with you personally in mind," Storti notes); the loss of routines; and unfamiliar faces are some of the elements of what Storti labels "country shock."

Country shock, however, is just a sideshow to the main event: culture shock. The weather is one thing. Dealing with "different, deeply held beliefs and instincts about what is natural, normal, right and good" is another.

'The Fried Ants Are Delicious'
The first step in dealing with culture shock, according to Storti, is to abandon expectations of cultural sameness. People in foreign countries are going to act differently. Expatriates must then take steps to learn about the culture around them. They will then come to understand and even expect the behaviors and attitudes of the people in their new country.

"The message of this book," Storti notes, "is not that you must uncritically embrace all local behavior no matter how strange or offensive, but only that you should not reject behaviors before you have understood them."

The result might surprise you. As one foreign aid worker in East Africa wrote, "All in all, [this] is a really nice place to live and work. The people are friendly, the beaches are great, and the fried ants are delicious."

Why Soundview Likes This Book
The Art of Crossing Cultures is typical of the titles published by Intercultural Press, a small Maine publisher that specializes in authoritative, how-to guides on cross-cultural relations. Any person facing the prospect of going abroad would do well to start with this title. Then, request the Intercultural Press catalogue for more detailed guides on specific countries. Copyright (c) 2002 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction	xiii
1	Coming Home	1
	The Issues	3
	What the Returnee Can Do	37
2	The Stages of Reentry	45
	Leave-Taking and Departure	47
	The Honeymoon	49
	Reverse Culture Shock	51
	Readjustment	59
3	The Return of the Employee	67
	Issues for the Employee	68
	Issues for the Organization	79
	What the Organization Can Do	82
	What the Employee Can Do	95
	The Stages of Workplace Reentry	98
4	The Return of Spouses and Children	103
	Issues for the Spouse	104
	What Spouses Can Do	111
	Issues for Younger Children	113
	What Parents Can Do for Younger Children	114
	Issues for Teenagers	116
	What Parents Can Do for Teenagers	128
	What Teens Can Do	132
5	Special Populations	137
I.	Exchange Students	138
	The Issues	139
	What Exchange Students and Their Families Can Do	148
II.	International Voluntary Organizations	150
	The Issues	151
	What Returning Volunteers Can Do	158
III.	Military Personnel and Their Families	160
	The Issues	161
	What Military Returnees and Their Families Can Do	169
IV.	Missionaries and Missionary Children	170
	Issues for Missionaries	171
	Issues for Missionary Children	175
	What Missionaries and Their Children Can Do	180
	Epilogue	185
	Useful Resources	189
	Bibliography	193
	Index	199

Turnaround or New Yorks Bravest

Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games

Author: Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, Governor of Massachusetts, built a career turning around troubled companies. As the CEO of Bain Capital and Bain & Company, he and his firm helped propel the success of hundreds of companies, from venture start-ups to the world's largest corporations. In 1999, the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games Organizing Committee turned to him to take over and run the Salt Lake Olympic Games. Romney was reluctant—and with good reason.

Sullied by scandal, on the brink of financial disaster, and with federal investigators, bankers, and the press at its door, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's senior managers admitted the organization was paralyzed. But Romney had too much American patriotism to let it become a catastrophe for his country. So he accepted the biggest turnaround challenge of his life.

In Turnaround, Romney reveals how he tackled the seemingly insurmountable obstacles facing the Salt Lake Winter Games. In Turnaround, you'll learn how Romney and his management team:

-eliminated a financial crisis and delivered a profitable Olympic Games;
-built a culture of excellence that inspired gold medal performances from the employees;
-skillfully won the support of government officials, corporate sponsors, local residents, athletes and the international Olympic movement.

With Romney at the helm, and through the teamwork, tenacity, and creativity of the staff he assembled and supported, the organizing committee succeeded against the odds in producing one of the finest Olympic Games ever - a proud moment for America, a great installment in Olympic history, and a valuable object lesson in what effective management and leadership can do.

Publishers Weekly

It's not well remembered, but the planned 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics were scandal-ridden and in complete disarray until Romney took over as CEO in early 1999. In this management primer, he makes his rescue job seem very simple: he came in, displayed a positive attitude and hired competent, committed people, and the result was a successful Olympics that few had thought possible. That same attitude is displayed throughout this book, as Romney is quick to credit those around him for the games' success. He's thorough as he details how he revamped the budget, kept costs down and marketed the games to sponsors. His self-deprecating honesty is refreshing and appealing. As he writes after emphasizing the importance of selling the games: "I know there are people out there who love to sell, but it is far from my favorite thing." He's also honest about his criticism of the Salt Lake City leaders who were tainted by their efforts to buy votes from International Olympic Committee members to get the city the games. The same traits that make Romney, now the governor of Massachusetts, an unobtrusive leader don't always serve the book; some readers will want to see more sparks fly. But those looking for a training manual in how to run a high-profile organization will be rewarded. Agent, Mel Berger. (Aug. 4) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Books about: Indian Home Cooking or Southern on Occasion

New York's Bravest: Eight Decades of Photographs from the Daily News

Author: Patrice OShaughnessy

On September 11, the world was shown the face of bravery. As one woman so poignantly put it: As we ran out, they ran in. These heroes were doing the job they do each day, protecting more than 8 million residents in the area of 320 square miles that is New York City. That horrible day, we were made heartbreakingly aware of the risks these people take daily; risks their loved ones knew all too well.

First-hand witnesses to the heroism of the FDNY, the photographers of The Daily News knew these risks too. They have been covering the life and death situations the human drama that fire creates since the founding of the The Daily News in 1919.

These seasoned photographers of the Daily News have chased firetrucks in their radio cars since the earliest days of photojournalism, photographing children and animals being rescued from burning buildings, and capturing the disbelief on the faces of those gazing at the remnants of their lives, going up in smoke. These photographers know intimately the faces of those left behind in covering the all too many funerals, mourning with the families a loss felt not only across a city of millions, but acutely within a deeply bonded fraternity across the country.

Culled from the archive of The Daily News, consisting of more than 6 million images, this book represents more than eighty years of the world renowned New York City Fire Department in action, fighting fires, rescuing lives, and bringing peace and order to chaos, fear, and destruction.

In the Fire Department of New York, there are more than 11,400 Fire Officers and Firefighters. In addition, the FDNY includes 2,800 EMS and Paramedics personnel. This book is a tribute to their dedication, bravery, and humanity.

Library Journal

The world discovered New York's firefighters in the thick of their department's greatest single loss and paradoxically one of its greatest achievements-the evacuation of thousands from the burning Trade Center towers. But the courage and skill displayed last September were, argues Golway, the culmination of three centuries of firefighting culture developed doing hazardous work in an increasingly vertical city. Golway is city editor and columnist for the New York Observer and coauthor of The Irish in America, but more to the point for this moving history, he is the son and grandson of New York City firemen and no stranger to the "culture of firefighting." In So Others Might Live, the first full history of the FDNY in 60 years, Golway shows the department's emergence from amateur bucket brigades into the beginnings of a specialized force and up to the present, never letting a memorable figure or vivid moment escape his narrative. The book is simultaneously a social history of the changing city and a dramatic record of the disasters that have assaulted and periodically reshaped it: Manhattan's great fire of 1776 made thousands homeless and leveled a quarter of the city's structures, for instance, while city firefighters played a crucial role during America's worst riot-the draft riots of 1863-before establishing New York's first professional force two years later. Golway's narrative updates a classic history by Costello, Our Firemen: A History of the New York Fire Departments Volunteer and Paid, originally published in 1887 and now abridged and republished under a new name. Costello delivers all the sooty romantic lore in high style ("Onward, still onward, swept the fiery bosom of destruction") while detailing the evolution of a firefighting force that is the recognizable progenitor of the one that rushed up into the burning towers. Another worthy companion to Golway's book is New York's Bravest: Eight Decades of Photographs from the Daily News, which records 80 years of New York firefighting through 166 pages of dramatic picture stories-children plucked breathlessly from harm, a building transformed by hosing during a winter fire into a glittering ice palace, the seven-alarm blaze caused by a jet collision over Brooklyn in December 1960-that have been the life's blood of the photo tabloid since its creation in 1919. The book concludes with the department's worst fire of all. "It has been more than two centuries since Benjamin Franklin wrote of the love firefighters had for each other," Golway observes in So Others Might Live. "In the ruins of the Twin Towers, in the memorials for the fallen, in the embraces and salutes and unchanged rituals, the world saw the power of that love."-Nathan Ward, "Library Journal" Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Grants Lieutenants or Sputnik

Grant's Lieutenants: From Cairo to Vicksburg

Author: Steven E Woodworth

"In the long run, the relationships commanders forge with subordinates are no less important than the decisions they make on a battlefield. Informed, insightful and sometimes surprising, these eleven essays extend and revise our perspective on Grant during the first three years of the Civil War. Highly recommended."—Mark Grimsley, author of The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865

Author Biography: Steven E. Woodworth is associate professor of history at Texas Christian University and author of Jefferson Davis and His Generals, Davis and Lee at War, and While God is Marching On.

Contributors: Stacy D. Allen, Benjamin Franklin Cooling, Blake Dunnavent, William B. Feis, Lesley J. Gordon, Earl J. Hess, John F. Marszalek, Tamara A. Smith, Terrence J. Winschel, Steven E. Woodworth

See also: Everything for Sale or The Lost Promise of Civil Rights

Sputnik: The Shock of the Century

Author: Paul Dickson

On October 4, 1957, America looked up at the sky and caught its breath. Soaring through space was the Soviet satellite Sputnik. With its launch, the Soviets had won the space race, demonstrated their unsurpassed technology- and struck fear in the heart of a complacent post-war America.

Although Sputnik was unmanned, its story is intensely human. Here, an investigative reporter recounts it all, from the satellite's top-secret creation to the strategic positioning of Soviet spokesmen around the world, which made this the biggest breaking-news event in history. Using declassified documents, Dickson reveals buried Soviet state secrets-and the reason Eisenhower was secretly pleased about the launch. From Cold War bomb raid drills to today's science in the classroom, from the 1960s race to the moon to the birth of the Internet, Sputnik helped shape American life forever

Publishers Weekly

Dickson (The Electronic Battlefield) chronicles in detail the Soviet satellite Sputnik. The Soviet Union was propelled into international prominence on October 4, 1957, by becoming the first nation to successfully launch a satellite, beating the American program by several months. The Soviet spacecraft panicked Americans, who constantly looked up into the sky, spoke in hushed tones and feared that the satellite presaged an atomic attack. President Eisenhower remained calm and tried to lead the country through the media-generated crisis, but the Sputnik "debacle" helped the Democrats in the next election. Dickson chronicles the history of rocket research, including Nazi successes during WWII. American and Soviet troops vied to seize German scientists and hardware. Dickson examines the feuding between the services for control of the space program and candidly exposes the reasons for the lag in American research. Eisenhower gets high marks for his quiet mastery of the situation, pleased that the Soviets were first into space, since that set off a race to improve American education, even as it fueled an outbreak of UFO hysteria. Dickson, whose bibliography runs to 19 pages, completely understands the lure and lore of Sputnik and has done a solid job of synthesizing prior books on the subject. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Space exploration is often portrayed as a U.S.-U.S.S.R. race, with the Soviet Union winning the initial lap by launching Sputnik, the earth's first artificial satellite. Yet as Dickson (The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary) reveals, for the United States, the race was also an internal competition, with the military (particularly Wernher von Braun's rocket team) and the Eisenhower administration grappling for control of the national space program. Eisenhower, who sought to demilitarize space and thereby open the skies to U.S. espionage satellites, eventually triumphed, establishing NASA as a civilian agency and successfully testing a clandestine satellite launch. Focusing on internal rivalries and including pre-Sputnik material, Dickson's book complements Robert A. Divine's The Sputnik Challenge (LJ 3/1/93), which considers the aftermath of Sputnik; James Killian's personal Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower: A Memoir of the First Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (LJ 1/15/78. o.p.); and the scholarly Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite (Harwood Academic, 2000; also issued as NASA Technical Memorandum 113448). For public and academic libraries. Nancy R. Curtis, Univ. of Maine Lib., Orono Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The devastating impact of a Soviet satellite on the American public in the '50s. When Sputnik was put into orbit on October 4, 1957, Leave It to Beaver was first airing on TV. The juxtaposition of these two images-one of Communist technological superiority, the other of American gee-whiz innocence-is journalist Dickson's structural theme here. The US, like the Soviet Union, raided Nazi Germany after 1945, removing scientific equipment and personnel for re-use in the Cold War. That the Soviet Union was the first to exploit this science comes as no surprise to Dickson, who credits Sputnik with giving the complacent US the wakeup call it needed to advance in the space race. American scientists and the US military scoffed at scientist Robert Goddard, who could have vaulted the country in front of all others in the field of rocket technology. While his work was given little support, Germans and Soviets were studying and building on his designs. After the war, as the Americans and Soviets dissected German rockets, the US still didn't take the technology seriously. The army, navy, and air force all had their own missile programs, with the army's team under former Nazi Wernher von Braun probably being the most advanced and the most overlooked. With the launching of Sputnik, everything changed. Whereas US rockets could barely reach the upper reaches of the atmosphere, the Soviet Union had placed in space an object that flew over North America several times a day. In an era when nuclear war seemed imminent, the military saw the importance of such devices for spying on the enemy. Von Braun and others were given the green light. On a larger level, the American public also got into the act: itrejected decadent cars like the Edsel and advocated advanced science curriculums in the schools. The Internet even owes its existence to Sputnik, the author claims-precursors to the Web were created by rocket researchers. An excellent treatment of one of the early chapters of the Cold War.

What People Are Saying

Susan Eisenhower
Dickson's book not only presents a thoughtful analysis of the impact Sputnik had on the dawning of the Space Age, but also serves as a valuable resource for understanding the historical context of the debates now taking place on issues such as National Missile Defense and the future of space.
— Susan Eisenhower, president of the Eisenhower Institute

Walter Cronkite
Paul Dickson's indefatigable research and reportorial lucidity have given us a fascinating history of the event that forever changed our world.

Vinton Cerf
Paul Dickson re-creates the fire, furor, frustration, and flamboyance of the early space age. Sputnik's arrival set off a tidal wave in the affairs of men.
— Vinton Cerf, coinventor of the Internet

Sergei Khrushchev
Sputnik is an insightful look at the way Sputnik changed the world, especially the United States—boosting its education and research (Sergei Khrushchev, author of Nikita Khrushchev; Creation of a Superpower and senior fellow of the Watson Institute of International Studies).

Well written and informative, the book is a magnificent assessment of Cold War history as seen through the advancement of rocketry and space exploration.
— (Francis Gary Powers Jr., founder of the Cold War Museum).

Table of Contents:

	Introduction	1
1.	Sputnik Night	9
2.	Gravity Fighters	28
3.	Vengeance Rocket	49
4.	An Open Sky	76
5.	The Birth of Sputnik	94
6.	Red Monday	108
7.	Dog Days	134
8.	American Birds	168
9.	Ike Scores	191
10.	Sputnik's Legacy	223
	Epilogue	246
Appendix	Sputnik's Long, Lexical Orbit	249
	Author's Note, Acknowledgments, and Dedication	255
	Notes	258
	Bibliography	276
	Index	294

Scandal of Evangelical Politics or A Second Opinion

Scandal of Evangelical Politics: Why Are Christians Missing the Chance to Really Change the World?

Author: Ronald J Sider

Evangelicals today probably have more political influence in the U.S. than at any time in the last century--but they may not be certain what to do with it. It has been difficult to develop a unified voice on pressing issues such as social justice and moral renewal. The Scandal of Evangelical Politics provides evangelical Christians with a systematic political philosophy to guide and sustain political activism. Soundly based in biblical principles and guided by a careful study of society, this book will guide readers into more thoughtful and effective political activity.
Practical, balanced, and nonpartisan, The Scandal of Evangelical Politics will be a welcome resource during the race for the 2008 presidential election.

Publishers Weekly

Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, offers the most balanced and thoughtful example of the recent spate of books on evangelicals in politics. Rather than telling evangelicals how to vote, he teaches them how to think, using biblical and historical examples as well as contemporary findings to persuade his readers. When evangelicals entered political life in great numbers in the 1970s and '80s, he says, they did so without careful judgment; their approach was "Ready. Fire. Aim." This book can be seen as a kind of remedial course, exploring when and why political action is important for Christians. It offers a methodology of ethical discernment rather than a laundry list of hot-button issues, though Sider does tackle tough questions such as abortion, same-sex marriage, environmentalism and what constitutes a "just" war. While he supports democracy and a free market economy as the two best devices for promoting fundamental human rights for the greatest numbers of people, he argues that Christians need to concern themselves more with "the least of these"-the poor and disabled who often get trampled when materialism is unchecked. Powerful, well-researched and timely, Sider's book has the potential to shape a new generation of evangelical activists. (Feb.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Library Journal

The "scandal" of Evangelical politics is that there is no comprehensive, consistent Evangelical political philosophy despite extensive Evangelical engagement within politics. Sider (theology, holistic ministry, and public policy, Palmer Theological Seminary) sets out to offer a basic political philosophy that is faithful to Evangelical ideals throughout the political spectrum. This book offers a refreshing willingness to admit the political mistakes of Evangelicals in order to learn from them. The basic question Sider asks is, "What should Evangelicals try to legislate?" He addresses this in two ways. First, he offers a normative framework and methodology based on Evangelical interpretation of biblical principles. Second, he applies this framework to such issues in the Evangelical mindset as the state, justice, human rights, sanctity of life, family, war, environment, and international affairs. Overall, this work represents a worthwhile attempt in seeking a unified Evangelical political voice that is objective and holistic. It is essential reading for American Evangelicals, and it is useful for those trying to understand Evangelical political actions. Recommended for all libraries.-Dann Wigner, Wayland Baptist Univ. Lib., Plainview, TX

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments     9
Preface     11
The Scandal of Evangelical Political Engagement
Tragic Failure, New Opportunity     15
A Better Approach
Developing a Faithful Methodology     27
The Biblical Story and Politics     49
Building a Solid Framework: From Biblical Paradigms and Societal Analysis to an Evangelical Political Philosophy
The State: Its Nature, Purpose, and Limits     79
Justice     101
Human Rights, Democracy, and Capitalism     127
The Sanctity of Human Life     145
Marriage and Family     157
Religious Freedom, Church, and State     171
Peacemaking, Just War, and Nonviolence     191
Creation Care     209
Nation-States and International Affairs     219
Loving One's Neighbor through Faithful Political Engagement
Biblical Balance, Historic Opportunity     233
Bibliography     243
Notes     253

New interesting book: Commercio internazionale

A Second Opinion: Rescuing America's Healthcare

Author: Arnold S Relman

The U.S. healthcare system is failing. It is run like a business, increasingly focused on generating income for insurers and providers rather than providing care for patients. It is supported by investors and private markets seeking to grow revenue and resist regulation, thus contributing to higher costs and lessened public accountability. Meanwhile, forty-six million Americans are without insurance. Health care expenditures are rising at a rate of 7 percent a year, three times the rate of inflation.

Dr. Arnold Relman is one of the most respected physicians and healthcare advocates in our country. This book, based on sixty years' experience in medicine, is a clarion call not just to politicians and patients but to the medical profession to evolve a new structure for healthcare, based on voluntary private contracts between individuals and not-for-profit, multi-specialty groups of physicians. Physicians would be paid mainly by salaries and would submit no bills for their services. All health care facilities would be not-for-profit. The savings from reduced administrative overhead and the elimination of billing fraud would be enormous. Healthcare may be our greatest national problem, but the provocative, sensible arguments in this book will provide a catalyst for change.

The American Prospect

Arnold Relman has produced a book that is likely the most concise and best analysis of the American health-care debacle now available.

Socialist Worker

A Second Opinion: Rescuing America's Health Care makes a concise, convincing case for why we need to eliminate the for-profit health care industry in the U.S. and replace it with a single-payer system.

Publishers Weekly

Relman, a professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, offers his diagnosis of what has gone wrong with American health care, along with a radical solution. In clear, eloquent prose, Relman explains how the rush to commercialize medicine harms both physicians and patients. Contrary to free-market dogma, Relman asserts, in medecine the profit imperative "increases costs; it may also jeopardize quality or aggravate the system's inequity." Relman's proposal: a single-payer insurance program supported by an earmarked, progressive health care tax, coupled with a reformed delivery system in which all hospitals would be not-for-profit and most physicians would be salaried employees of not-for-profit prepaid group practices. Relman acknowledges that today's political reality doesn't favor his program. Instead, it is fueling the drive for so-called consumer-driven health care (CDHC); in theory, by forcing consumers to pay for their own health care (for example, through high-deductible catastrophic insurance), CDHC promotes more prudent choices. But Relman calls CDHC "an illusion that bears little resemblance to the realities" for seriously ill patients.. He predicts that in a decade or so, when CDHC has failed to solve the health care crisis, the country may be ready to try his plan. (May 23)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down or Use of Force

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: Greatest Closing Arguments Protecting Civil Liberties

Author: Michael S Lief

The second volume in a must-have trilogy of the best closing arguments in American legal history

Every day, Americans enjoy the freedom to decide what we do with our property, our bodies, our speech, and our votes. However, the rights to these freedoms have not always been guaranteed. Our civil rights have been assured by cases that have produced monumental shifts in America's cultural, political, and legal landscapes.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down showcases eight of the most exciting closing arguments in civil law -- from the Amistad case, in which John Quincy Adams brought the injustice of slavery to the center stage of American politics, to the Susan B. Anthony decision, which paved the way to success for women's suffrage, to the Larry Flynt trial, in which the porn king became an unlikely champion for freedom of speech. By providing historical and biographical details, as well as the closing arguments themselves, Lief and Caldwell give readers the background necessary to fully understand these important cases, bringing them vividly to life.

Book review: Windows Server 2008 Server Core or Oracle Database 11g DBA Handbook

Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics

Author: Robert J Art

The fifth edition of this classic text retains the best from earlier editions and adds sixteen new selections that highlight emerging issues, such as NATO expansion, intervention in ethnic conflicts, and the relevance of force in the twenty-first century. Strategies for using force, together with case studies that illustrate the general principles, are hallmarks of the text. A theme that runs throughout the book is the effect of new technologies on military strategy and the utility of force. Praise for previous editions: "The Use of Force" continues to offer a most stimulating blend of contemporary and traditional perspectives on international relations, very valuable for students new to the subject, but essential also for the experienced researcher trying to maintain his or her bearings. The contributions are chosen for their readability and their timelessness. The perspective is always realistic, in the best sense of the term." -George Quester, University of Maryland "A very useful compendium of articles on critical questions of military force in world politics." -Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Harvard University "A very useful and balanced collection that covers many facets of the problem, logically organized by two of the most sensible scholars in the field." -Richard K. Betts, The Brookings Institution

Author Biography: Robert J. Art is professor of international relations at Brandeis University. Kenneth N. Waltz is adjunct professor of political science at Columbia University and research associate of the Institute of War and Peace Studies.

The Future of Reputation or Shanghai Diary

The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet

Author: Daniel J Solov

Teeming with chatrooms, online discussion groups, and blogs, the Internet offers previously unimagined opportunities for personal expression and communication. But there’s a dark side to the story. A trail of information fragments about us is forever preserved on the Internet, instantly available in a Google search. A permanent chronicle of our private lives—often of dubious reliability and sometimes totally false—will follow us wherever we go, accessible to friends, strangers, dates, employers, neighbors, relatives, and anyone else who cares to look. This engrossing book, brimming with amazing examples of gossip, slander, and rumor on the Internet, explores the profound implications of the online collision between free speech and privacy.

 

Daniel Solove, an authority on information privacy law, offers a fascinating account of how the Internet is transforming gossip, the way we shame others, and our ability to protect our own reputations. Focusing on blogs, Internet communities, cybermobs, and other current trends, he shows that, ironically, the unconstrained flow of information on the Internet may impede opportunities for self-development and freedom. Long-standing notions of privacy need review, the author contends: unless we establish a balance between privacy and free speech, we may discover that the freedom of the Internet makes us less free.

 

Table of Contents:

Preface     vii
Introduction: When Poop Goes Primetime     1
Rumor and Reputation in a Digital World
How the Free Flow of Information Liberates and Constrains Us     17
Gossip and the Virtues of Knowing Less     50
Shaming and the Digital Scarlet Letter     76
Privacy, Free Speech, and the Law
The Role of Law     105
Free Speech, Anonymity, and Accountability     125
Privacy in an Overexposed World     161
Conclusion: The Future of Reputation     189
Notes     207
Index     237

New interesting book: Name Dropping or NeoVouchers

Shanghai Diary

Author: Ursula Bacon

About the Author

Ursula Bacon is a seasoned author. She has written the popular Nervous Hostess Cookbook and is a publisher and co-founder of BestSeller Consultants Inc..

Kingdom Coming or Age of Reform

Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism

Author: Michelle Goldberg

"A potent wakeup call to pluralists in the coming showdown with Christian nationalists."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Michelle Goldberg, a senior political reporter for Salon.com, has been covering the intersection of politics and ideology for years. Before the 2004 election, and during the ensuing months when many Americans were trying to understand how an administration marked by cronyism, disregard for the national budget, and poorly disguised self-interest had been reinstated, Goldberg traveled through the heartland of a country in the grips of a fevered religious radicalism: the America of our time. From the classroom to the mega-church to the federal court, she saw how the growing influence of dominionism-the doctrine that Christians have the right to rule nonbelievers-is threatening the foundations of democracy.

In Kingdom Coming, Goldberg demonstrates how an increasingly bellicose fundamentalism is gaining traction throughout our national life, taking us on a tour of the parallel right-wing evangelical culture that is buoyed by Republican political patronage. Deep within the red zones of a divided America, we meet military retirees pledging to seize the nation in Christ's name, perfidious congressmen courting the confidence of neo-confederates and proponents of theocracy, and leaders of federally funded programs offering Jesus as the solution to the country's social problems.

With her trenchant interviews and the telling testimonies of the people behind this movement, Goldberg gains access into the hearts and minds of citizens who are striving to remake the secular Republic bequeathed by our founders into aChristian nation run according to their interpretation of scripture. In her examination of the ever-widening divide between believers and nonbelievers, Goldberg illustrates the subversive effect of this conservative stranglehold nationwide. In an age when faith rather than reason is heralded and the values of the Enlightenment are threatened by a mystical nationalism claiming divine sanction, Kingdom Coming brings us face to face with the irrational forces that are remaking much of America.

Publishers Weekly

In an impressive piece of lucid journalism, Salon.com reporter Goldberg dives into the religious right and sorts out the history and networks of what to most liberals is an inscrutable parallel universe. She deconstructs "dominion theology," the prevalent evangelical assertion that Christians have a "responsibility to take over every aspect of society." Goldberg makes no attempt to hide her own partisanship, calling herself a "secular Jew and ardent urbanite" who wrote the book because she "was terrified by America's increasing hostility to... cosmopolitan values." This carefully researched and riveting treatise will hardly allay its audience's fears, however; secular liberals and mainstream believers alike will find Goldberg's descriptions of today's culture wars deeply disturbing. She traces the deep financial and ideological ties between fundamentalist Christians and the Republican Party, and discloses the dangers she believes are inherent to the Bush administration's faith-based social services initiative. Other chapters follow inflammatory political tactics on wedge issues like gay rights, evolution and sex education. Significantly, her conclusions do not come off as hysterical or shrill. Even while pointing to stark parallels between fascism and the language of the religious right, Goldberg's vision of America's future is measured and realistic. Her book is a potent wakeup call to pluralists in the coming showdown with Christian nationalists. (May 15) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Salon.com editor Goldberg examines the growing belief among some Chirstians that they have a right to take over governing in Christ's name. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

American democracy and the Enlightenment itself are menaced by would-be theocrats and their Republican operatives, contends Salon.com reporter Goldberg. The author brands conservative Christian influence in public life as proto-fascist and a Western version of Islamism. In her view, the subversives are everywhere, passing anti-gay-marriage initiatives and lobbying for anti-abortion judges; more subversives are on the way, because homeschooling is simply an incubator for revolution. The menace is "Christian nationalism," a movement whose tenets Goldberg seeks to relate to the Reconstructionist theology of the late R.J. Rushdoony. He was a genuine theocrat, a postmillennialist who held that Christ would return after believers had thoroughly Christianized the world. In contrast, premillennial American evangelicals hold that Christ will return to a collapsing world, which implies that political reform by believers would ultimately be futile. One of the great stories in the history of the past generation has been the search of newly vibrant American evangelicalism for a political theory. The author infers that Reconstructionism is the new master philosophy, in part because conventional politicians and religious leaders sometimes appear at the same public events as Reconstructionists; she makes no mention of the systematic efforts by some evangelicals to engage Catholic social theory. Goldberg does provide some good reporting, however. She shows that the fiscal controls on the Bush Administration's faith-based initiatives are loose. During her investigation of abstinence-only sex education, she allows its proponents to make a case she finds unpersuasive but plausible. Nonetheless, the authordeclares that now is the time to fight the Christian nationalists, not to placate them. She ends by exhorting her readers to retake the country from the grassroots up. If you think that Christianity is the new Communism, then this is the book for you.

Read also The Breast Cancer Prevention and Recovery Diet or Master Lams Walking Chi Kung

Age of Reform

Author: Richard Hofstadter

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A classic study of American political thought that analyzes the passion for progress and reform from 1890 to 1940.

Artwise Rome Museum Map Laminated Museum Map of Rome Italy Streetwise Maps or God and Gold

Artwise Rome Museum Map - Laminated Museum Map of Rome, Italy - Streetwise Maps

Author: Streetwise Maps

2007 UPDATED Artwise Rome Museum Map - Laminated Museum Map of Rome, Italy - Streetwise Maps

This travel map covers the following areas:
Main Rome Map 1:17,000
Rome Metro Map
Rome Museum Index

About STREETWISE® Maps

STREETWISE® is the first map to be designed with modern graphics and is the originator of the laminated, accordion-fold map format. We've set the standard that every map company has imitated but never duplicated. Our mission is to make you feel comfortable, to make you feel safe in a place where you've never been before and to enable you to experience a familiar place more fully.

The company was founded in 1984 by Michael Brown, who had been in international publishing for many years, setting up subsidiaries for textbook publishers. In the 1970's, Brown traveled extensively throughout Africa, India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Brown would take a large paper map, cut out the city center, folded it up and slip it into his pocket, thus preventing him from looking like a tourist in areas where discretion is the better part of travel. This was his tool for surviving.

After many years on the road, Brown settled back in New York and decided to start his own business, based on the adaptations he had made to maps in his travels. His goal was to give someone the ability to navigate easily in unfamiliar terrain.

He started with a new map format: the accordion fold. Such a simple idea, but at the time it was revolutionary. No more struggling to fold an awkward, oversized paper map. This new format would enable the user to blend in like a native, instead of stick out like a tourist. Brown then added lamination to ensure that the mapwould be a lasting tool.

More important than the format was the design of the map itself. It had to be a map that not only succeeded above and beyond any map he had used, but was esthetically appealing as well. The look of it had to be as striking as the functionality. Color was introduced in a way that was never seen before in a map - vivid purple for water, soothing gray for the background of street grids, gold to highlight elements of the map. Clarity, conciseness and convenience in a very stylish package.

Building the business was a 24 hour job. Brown sold the maps during the day, zipping around Manhattan making deliveries on his Harley Davidson. At night he packed the orders and did the design work. More titles were added, each title requiring months of research and design.

Today, STREETWISE® produces over 130 titles for major destinations, regions and countries throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and Asia. We have grown from the back of a motorcycle to selling millions of maps around the world.

Yet each title is still painstakingly researched and updated. STREETWISE® is one of the only, if not THE only map company that conducts research by walking or driving an area to ensure accuracy. After all, what good is the map if what you hold in your hands doesn't match what you see on the street sign? This lengthy fact checking results in superior accuracy; in effect, we've done the work, now you have the adventure.

In the end, it's not about the map, it's about getting out and finding your own authentic experience wherever you go. It's about being in a city or a region and discovering things that you never thought you would find. You can do this if you have confidence and you have confidence if you have a great map. STREETWISE® is the great map that you need.

The New York Times

"Don't leave home without STREETWISE."

Travel + Leisure Magazine

"STREETWISE is an absolute travel essential."

Book review: The Craving Cure or Or Perish in the Attempt

God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World

Author: Walter Russell Mead

A stunningly insightful account of the global political and economic system, sustained first by Britain and now by America, that has created the modern world.

The key to the two countries' predominance, Mead argues, lies in the individualistic ideology inherent in the Anglo-American religion. Over the years Britain and America's liberal democratic system has been repeatedly challeged—by Catholic Spain and Louis XIV, the Nazis, communists, and Al Qaeda—and for the most part, it has prevailed. But the current conflicts in the Middle East threaten to change that record unless we foster a deeper understanding of the conflicts between the liberal world system and its foes.

Kirkus Reviews

A Council on Foreign Relations scholar examines the biggest geopolitical story of modern times: the birth, rise and continuing growth of Anglo-American power. For the past 400 years, notwithstanding the continually renewed opposition from the rest of the world, the Anglo-Americans, with the British handing the baton to the United States, have emerged from every conflict more powerful. Meanwhile, they view themselves as virtuously defending and advancing liberty, protecting the weak, providing opportunity to the poor, introducing principles of democracy and creating more just societies, even as their enemies see only cruelty and greed and a ruthless plot against decency and morality. Mead (Power, Terror, Peace, and War: America's Grand Strategy in a World at Risk, 2004, etc.) explains all this and more in his ingenious critique of the brilliantly successful methods and the occasional madness of the English-speaking peoples, from Cromwell to Reagan, Berkeley to Bush. Detailing first the common cultural heritage, he then demonstrates how they have dominated in warfare. He outlines the reasons for their global success (sea power has been the core geopolitical strategy) and analyzes the synthesis of historical experience and religious belief that accounts for their unique and powerful ideology. Finally, he explains why they have been so consistently wrong in believing that their mix of commerce, Christianity, the English language and democratic institutions would convert all opponents and put an end to all strife. He frankly assesses how things stand in the world and how they got this way. Yet, while generally approving of the Anglo-American enterprise, Mead avoids triumphalism. He correctlyacknowledges and explains the resentments and fears of those unable or unwilling to play by the sometimes confusing and often frightening rules of the Anglo-American system. In less skillful hands, this thesis might have drowned in abstruse reasoning or academic jargon, but Mead enlivens the text with numerous amusing and illustrative anecdotes, artful literary allusions and helpful invocations of great historians and philosophers. A remarkable piece of historical analysis bound to provoke discussion and argument in foreign-policy circles. First printing of 40,000