Barbara Jordan or The Global Cold War

Barbara Jordan: Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder

Author: Barbara Jordan

Revered by Americans across the political spectrum, Barbara Jordan was "the most outspoken moral voice of the American political system," in the words of former President Bill Clinton, who awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. Throughout her career as a Texas senator, U.S. congresswoman, and distinguished professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Barbara Jordan lived by a simple creed: "Ethical behavior means being honest, telling the truth, and doing what you said you were going to do." Her strong stand for ethics in government, civil liberties, and democratic values still provides a standard around which the nation can unite in the twenty-first century.

This volume brings together several major political speeches that articulate Barbara Jordan's most deeply held values. They include:

• "Erosion of Civil Liberties," a commencement address delivered at Howard University on May 12, 1974, in which Jordan warned that "tyranny in America is possible"
• "The Constitutional Basis for Impeachment," Jordan's ringing defense of the U.S. Constitution before the House Judiciary Committee investigating the Watergate break-in
• Keynote addresses to the Democratic National Conventions of 1976 and 1992, in which Jordan set forth her vision of the Democratic Party as an advocate for the common good and a catalyst of change
• Testimony in the U.S. Congress on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and on immigration reform
• Meditations on faith and politics from two National Prayer Breakfasts
• Acceptance speech for the 1995 Sylvanus Thayer Award presented by the Association ofGraduates of the United States Military Academy, in which Jordan challenged the military to uphold the values of "duty, honor, country"

Accompanying the speeches, some of which readers can also watch on an enclosed DVD, are context-setting introductions by volume editor Max Sherman. The book concludes with the eloquent eulogy that Bill Moyers delivered at Barbara Jordan's memorial service in 1996, in which he summed up Jordan's remarkable life and career by saying, "Just when we despaired of finding a hero, she showed up, to give the sign of democracy.... This is no small thing. This, my friends, this is grace. And for it we are thankful."

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Biography of Barbara Jordan, with Student Comments
• My Personal Introduction of Barbara Jordan
• Erosion of Civil Liberties: Commencement Speech, Howard University, May 11, 1974
• The National Political Stage
  • Rising to the Occasion: The Constitutional Basis for Impeachment, U.S. House Judiciary Committee Impeachment Hearings, July 25, 1974
  • Center Stage: Democratic National Convention Keynote Address, July 12, 1976
  • The Spotlight after Congress: Democratic National Convention Keynote Address, July 13, 1992
• Barbara Jordan's Take on Three Twenty-First-Century Political Issues
  • Confirmation of Supreme Court Justices: Testimony in Opposition to the Nomination of Robert Bork, September 17, 1987
  • Immigration Reform: Congressional Testimony as Chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, March 29, 1995
  • Religious Faith and Politics: Prayer at the National Prayer Breakfast, February 2, 1978; Address at the National Prayer Breakfast, February 2, 1984
• The Sylvanus Thayer Award
  • Unswerving Dedication to Principle: 1995 Sylvanus Thayer Award Citation, West Point, October 5; Barbara Jordan's Thayer Award Acceptance
• Epilogue: Remarks of Bill Moyers at the Memorial Service for Barbara Jordan, University of Texas at Austin, January 28, 1996
• Notes

Interesting textbook: C Templates or Beginning OpenGL Game Programming

The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times

Author: Odd Arne Westad

The Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States indelibly shaped the world we live in today--especially international politics, economics, and military affairs. This volume shows how the globalization of the Cold War during the 20th century created the foundations for most of today's key international conflicts, including the "war on terror." Odd Arne Westad examines the origins and course of Third World revolutions and the ideologies that drove the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. towards interventionism. He focuses on how these interventions gave rise to resentments and resistance that, in the end, helped to topple one and to seriously challenge the other superpower. In addition, he demonstrates how these worldwide interventions determined the international and domestic framework within which political, social and cultural changes took place in such countries as China, Indonesia, Iran, Ethiopia, Angola, Cuba, and Nicaragua. According to Westad, these changes, plus the ideologies, movements and states that interventionism stirred up, constitute the real legacy of the Cold War. Odd Arne Westad is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2004 he was named head of department and co-director of the new LSE Cold War Studies Centre. Professor Westad is the author, or editor, of ten books on contemporary international history including Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946-1950 (2003) and, with Jussi Hanhimaki, The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts (2003). In addition, he is a founding editor of the journal Cold War History.

Foreign Affairs

Starting with the inquiry headed by Owen Roberts into why the United States was caught by surprise at Pearl Harbor and concluding with the 9/11 Commission, this neat and readable little book describes and evaluates the use of blue-ribbon panels to defuse crises of confidence in the government's handling of national security. The other cases were prompted by revelations about the CIA's forays into domestic spying in 1975, the problems of finding a basing mode for the MX missile, and the Iran-contra scandal. The emphasis, as the subtitle indicates, is on the utility of these panels for political damage control at home, which turns out to be quite significant, and the importance of the selection of the panel members and their relationship to the White House. If the book deserves criticism, it is that although it discusses national security issues, it fails to provide international context or consider how these various scandals changed the terms of U.S. foreign policy.