tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6767257264301359082024-03-13T03:26:51.989-07:00Economic Development BookUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-80881865485343495652009-12-05T08:44:00.000-08:002009-12-05T08:55:07.830-08:00The Origins of the Second World War or Multinational Enterprise and the Globalization of Networks of Knowledge<h4>The Origins of the Second World War </h4> <p>Author: <strong>R J Overy</strong> <p><p><P>The Origins of the Second World War explores the reasons why the Second World War broke out in September 1939 and not sooner, and why a European war expanded into world war by 1941. </P><P>Richard Overy argues that this was not just ‘Hitler’s War’ but one that had its roots and origins in the decline of the old empires of Britain and France and the rise of ambitious new powers in Germany, Italy and Japan. Any explanation of the outbreak of hostilities must be multinational in scope taking into account the basic instability of the international system that had still not recovered from the shocks of the Great War. </P><P>In this third edition:</P><P>· The role of Italy in the approach to war has been re-evaluated</P><P>· Overy addresses recent revelations about Soviet policy in the 1930s, particularly exploring Soviet military planning and preparations </P><P>· Arguments about Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement are rethought and reassessed.</P><P>This new edition has now been completely overhauled, updated, expanded and reset. With a comprehensive documents section, colour plates, guide to who’s who, a chronology and lists of further reading, The Origins of the Second World War will provide an invaluable introduction to any student of this fascinating period.</P><P>Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He has authored 17 books on the Third Reich, the Second World War and air warfare which include:The Air War 1939-1945 (2nd ed, 2006),Why the Allies Won(2nd ed, 2006) and The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia (2004)which won both the Wolfson and the Hessell Tiltman Prizes for History in 2005.</P> </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><P>Chronology<P>Who's Who<P>Glossary<P>Maps<P>Pt. 1 Background 1<P>1 Explaining the Second World War 3<P>Pt. 2 Analysis 11<P>2 The International Crisis 13<P>3 Economic and Imperial Rivalry 31<P>4 Armaments and Domestic Politics 46<P>5 War Over Poland 62<P>6 From European to World War 82<P>Pt. 3 Assessment 93<P>7 Hitler's War? 95<P>Pt. 4 Documents 101<P>1 The Treaty of Versailles and Germany 102<P>2 The Covenant of the League 103<P>3 The search for a settlement 103<P>4 American 'appeasement' 104<P>5 Stalin anticipates war 104<P>6 The 'Hossbach memorandum' 105<P>7 Preparation for war before Munich 106<P>8 The Munich Conference 107<P>9 The Munich Agreement 108<P>10 Economic pressure on Japan 109<P>11 Mussolini's vision of empire 110<P>12 Hitler's dream of world power 111<P>13 Economic appeasement 112<P>14 Britain and Germany in the Balkans 112<P>15 The Four-Year Plan 113<P>16 Economic dangers for Britain 114<P>17 The crisis in France 114<P>18 'Peace for our time' 115<P>19 The change of mood in the west 115<P>20 Hitler plans to crush Poland 116<P>21 Chamberlain guarantees Poland 117<P>22 The Franco-British 'war plan', 1939 117<P>23 British intelligence on Germany 118<P>24 Stalin warns the west after Munich 119<P>25 The Franco-British failure in Moscow 119<P>26 The Soviet reaction to German advances, 1939 120<P>27 The German-Soviet Pact 121<P>28 Hitler gambles on western weakness 122<P>29 The last gasp of appeasement 123<P>30 Bonnet's doubts about war 123<P>31 Poland in the middle 124<P>32 The last days of peace 125<P>33 Chamberlain's 'awful Sunday' 125<P>34 Berlin proposes peace 126<P>35 The Tripartite Pact 127<P>36 Preparation for total mobilization in Germany 128<P>37 The Barbarossa Directive128<P>38 The German attack on Russia 129<P>39 Russia raises the price for co-operation 129<P>40 Japan decides on war 130<P>41 Creating the new world order 130<P>References 133<P>Index 145 <p>Book about: <strong><a href="http://canadian-cooking.blogspot.com/2009/12/osmotic-dehydration-and-vacuum.html">Osmotic Dehydration and Vacuum Impregnation or Cassandras Psychic Party Games</a></strong> <h4>Multinational Enterprise and the Globalization of Networks of Knowledge </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Peter J Buckley</strong> <p><p>This book analyzes the role of knowledge within multinational enterprised (MNEs), its spatial dimensions and its transfer within enterprises. It includes conceptual pieces on the global networks of MNEs and pays special attention to Asian network firms. It introdues the concept of the 'global factory' - a framework for the understanding of spatially distributed activities under the control (though not necessarily the ownership) of a local firm. The book also critically examines the concept of globalization and contrasts this with the process of regional integration. It examines knowledge transfer processes in MNEs with particular reference to technology transfer to China. The Chinese theme is taken further by an analysis of the role of foreign direct investment in the transformation of China.</p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-78469692502197247672009-12-04T03:32:00.000-08:002009-12-04T03:43:07.242-08:00Biosecurity in the Global Age or Becoming Asian American<h4>Biosecurity in the Global Age: Biological Weapons, Public Health, and the Rule of Law </h4> <p>Author: <strong>David P Fidler</strong> <p><p>Biosecurity comprehensively analyzes the dramatic transformations that are reshaping how the international community addresses biological weapons and infectious diseases. <br><br>The book examines the renewed threat from biological weapons, and explores the new world of biological weapons governance. Gostin and Fidler argue that the arms control approach in the Biological Weapons Convention no longer dominates. Other strategies have emerged to challenge the arms control approach, and the book identifies four important policy trends—the criminalization of biological weapons, regulation of the biological sciences, management of the biodefense imperative, and preparation for biological weapons attack. <br><br>The book also explores the challenges to public health resulting from new security threats. The authors look at the linkages between security and public health policy, both at the national and international level. For instance, Gostin and Fidler scrutinize the difficulty of developing policies that improve defenses against both biological weapons and the threat of infectious diseases from new viral strains. <br><br>The new worlds of biological weapons and public health governance raise the importance of crafting policy responses informed by the rule of law. Thinking about the rule of law underscores the importance of finding globalized forms of biosecurity governance. The book explores patterns in recent governance initiatives and advocates building a “global biosecurity concert” as a way to address the threats biological weapons and infectious diseases present in the early 21st century.<br><br> </p><br><br> <p>Book about: <strong><a href="http://for-children-books.blogspot.com/2009/12/amazing-peace-or-skippyjon-jones.html">Amazing Peace or Skippyjon Jones</a></strong> <h4>Becoming Asian American: Second-Generation Chinese and Korean American Identities </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Nazli Kibria</strong> <p><p><P>In Becoming Asian American, Nazli Kibria draws upon extensive interviews she conducted with second-generation Chinese and Korean Americans in Boston and Los Angeles who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s to explore the dynamics of race, identity, and adaptation within these communities. Moving beyond the frameworks created to study other racial minorities and ethnic whites, she examines the various strategies used by members of this group to define themselves as both Asian and American.</P><P>In her discussions on such topics as childhood, interaction with non-Asian Americans, college, work, and the problems of intermarriage and child-raising, Kibria finds wide discrepancies between the experiences of Asian Americans and those described in studies of other ethnic groups. While these differences help to explain the unusually successful degree of social integration and acceptance into mainstream American society enjoyed by this "model minority," it is an achievement that Kibria's interviewees admit they can never take for granted. Instead, they report that maintaining this acceptance "requires constant effort on their part." Kibria suggests further developments may resolve this situation -- especially the emergence of a new kind of pan--Asian American identity that would complement the Chinese or Korean American identity rather than replace it.</P> </p><h4>Reed Ueda</h4><p>Nazli Kibria is one of the outstanding scholars on the sociology of Asian Americans, as well as in the general field of sociology of race and ethnicity. Becoming Asian American greatly advances knowledge of the dynamic interaction of race, ethnicity, and individual identity in American life. Her case studies offer a fresh, solid approach to discovering what it is like for immigrant racial minorities to become American in our time and indicates a great deal about the future of the American nation. </p><h4>John Lie</h4><p>Nazli Kibria presents a rich body of interview data on the changing and diverse nature of Asian-American identity, particularly among Chinese and Korean Americans, making a very solid and sustained contribution to the burgeoning literature within Asian-American studies. Through Kibria's wonderful interviews, we hear very interesting meditations on ethnic identity. She also does a good job of raising important sociological questions about race and immigration. This book may very well become a landmark in the field. </p><h4>What People Are Saying</h4><p><strong>Reed Ueda</strong><br>Nazli Kibria is one of the outstanding scholars on the sociology of Asian Americans, as well as in the general field of sociology of race and ethnicity. Becoming Asian American greatly advances knowledge of the dynamic interaction of race, ethnicity, and individual identity in American life. Her case studies offer a fresh, solid approach to discovering what it is like for immigrant racial minorities to become American in our time and indicates a great deal about the future of the American nation. (Reed Ueda, Tufts University) </p><br><p><strong>John Lie</strong><br>Nazli Kibria presents a rich body of interview data on the changing and diverse nature of Asian-American identity, particularly among Chinese and Korean Americans, making a very solid and sustained contribution to the burgeoning literature within Asian-American studies. Through Kibria's wonderful interviews, we hear very interesting meditations on ethnic identity. She also does a good job of raising important sociological questions about race and immigration. This book may very well become a landmark in the field. (John Lie, University of Michigan) </p><br><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Preface and Acknowledgments</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Ch. 1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Asian Americans and the Puzzle of New Immigrant Integration</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Ch. 2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Growing up Chinese and American, Korean and American</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">27</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Ch. 3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Everyday Consequences of Being Asian: Ethnic Options and Ethnic Binds</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">67</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Ch. 4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">College and Asian American Identity</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">102</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Ch. 5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Model Minority at Work</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">131</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Ch. 6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Ethnic Futures: Children and Intermarriage</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">159</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Ch. 7</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Becoming Asian American</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">197</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">References</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">207</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">215</TD></TABLE> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-70100968660291171262009-12-02T22:20:00.000-08:002009-12-02T22:31:11.913-08:00Dirty War Clean Hands or Hunting Nazis in Munich<h4>Dirty War, Clean Hands: ETA, the GAL and Spanish Democracy </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Paddy Woodworth</strong> <p><p><P>"Democracy is defended in the sewers as well as in the salons". This is how Spanish prime minister Felipe GonzГЎlez responded to allegations that his government was fighting the Basque separatist group ETA with its own methods: indiscriminate terrorism. shooting up crowded bars, bombing busy streets, torturing kidnap victims. For three years the GAL (Anti-terrorist Liberation Groups), created mayhem in the French Basque Country, where ETA had its "sanctuary".<br><br> In 1986, the French government began to hand over ETA suspects to the Spanish police in large numbers and the GAL campaign stopped. But this "dirty war" had already created widespread support for ETA among the first generation of Basques to grow up under democracy, and its consequences reverberate to this day. The GAL's links to the Spanish security forces, and finally to GonzГЎlez's own cabinet, have been revealed, despite all the resources of 'State secrecy', by controversial magistrates like Baltasar GarzГіn.<br><br> Over the last 15 years, the GAL scandal has fatally undermined GonzГЎlez's reputation as a democrat and EU statesman and raised fundamental questions about Spain's much-praised transition to democracy. The GAL investigations have stretched the relationship between government and judiciary to breaking point, and sent ministers and generals to prison. GonzГЎlez himself may still face charges. <br><br>Paddy Woodworth, who has covered Spain for the "Irish Times" and other media since the 1970s, has interviewed both the GAL's surviving victims and the GAL's leading protagonists. He has followed the investigations in the Spanish media and courts for many years. The result is a unique and dramaticnarrative and analysis of what happens when a democratic administration fights fire with fire. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">List of Illustrations</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Acknowledgements</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Map of GAL Attacks in Basque Country</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Map of GAL Attacks in Bayonne</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Prologue</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Pt. I</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">An Ancient People, A Modern Conflict</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">'Only 5,000 Years Ago'</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">17</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Boys Become Giant-Killers</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">33</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The First Dirty War</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">44</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Pt. II</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">A Dirty War Run By Democrats</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Clean Hands in Government</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">63</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Fear Crosses the Border</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">71</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Under Siege in the Sanctuary</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">87</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">7</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">ETA Between Two Fires</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">101</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">8</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Bombing Biarritz</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">116</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">9</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">A Revolutionary Doctor</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">124</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">10</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">A Black Lady Stalks the Bars</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">139</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">11</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Massacre at the Monbar</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">156</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">12</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Shooting Women and Children Too</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">161</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">13</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The GAL's War is Over</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">170</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Pt. III</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Placing Blame: Investigating the Investigators</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">14</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Grounds for Suspicion</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">177</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">15</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Protecting Senor X</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">200</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">16</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">State Terrorism in the Dock</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">230</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">17</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Recollections in Tranquillity</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">245</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">18</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">A Cascade of Confessions</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">259</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">19</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Old Bones Tell Their Story</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">281</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">20</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Who's Cheating Who?</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">295</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">21</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Paper Chase</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">313</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">22</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">A Divided Democracy</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">335</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">23</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">A Minister in the Dock</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">356</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">24</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Judgement and Response</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">379</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Pt. IV</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Conclusions: Cleaning Up After A Dirty War</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">25</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Waking from the Nightmare</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">407</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Epilogue</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">420</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Chronology of GAL Attacks</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">433</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Chronology of GAL Investigations</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">437</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Some Notes on the Spanish Constitution, Judiciary and Legal System</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">444</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Glossary</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">449</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Bibliography</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">458</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">462</TD></TABLE> <p>See also: <strong><a href="http://web-browsers-books.blogspot.com/2009/12/information-seeking-in-electronic.html">Information Seeking in Electronic Environments or 3ds Max 8 Essentials</a></strong> <h4>Hunting Nazis in Munich: People and Places in Third Reich Munich </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Joachim von Halasz</strong> <p><p>Discover Hitler's secret sites in Munich. See where Eva Braun and Heinrich Himmler where born and grew up. Learn where the Nazi movement started in 1919 and how it was defeated in 1945.<br><br>Gain first hand access to more than 100 historical sites of Third Reich Munich, described in short profiles and pinpointed on city maps. The book is illustrated with more than 60 archive images, some never published before. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-71331574334724751392009-12-01T16:57:00.000-08:002009-12-01T17:08:09.376-08:00The Faith of Barack Obama or Masters of Paradise<h4>The Faith of Barack Obama </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Stephen Mansfield</strong> <p><p><p><b>DISCOVER</b> the <b>NEW FACE</b> of <b>RELIGION</b> in <b>AMERICAN POLITICS</b></p> <p>The 2008 presidential campaign has been among the most religiously charged of any in American history. At the heart of the "faith-based" controversies that have marked this season is the faith of Barack Obama. His religiously-informed political liberalism, his relationship with the fiery Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his years of exposure to "Black liberation theology," and his more than two decades at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago have forced matters of faith and race onto the national stage.</p> <p>Yet Obama's faith is of more than just political importance. He is helping to give voice to a religious left just now reclaiming its voice in American culture. He is also symbolizing and summoning a new generation who are deeply religious, philosophically postmodern, and passionately oriented to social justice. As important, he is issuing a call for a new era of racial harmony, a harmony he exemplifires as the son of a black African father and a white American mother.</p> <p>In this fast-paced and insightful look at Obama's faith, best-selling author Stephen Mansfield approaches his subject "kindly and generously," in an attempt to understand who Obama is and how he will lead. Given that Obama is likely to be a feature on the American political landscape for decades to come, this book serves as an essential guide by a leading author to one of the most important stories in our time.</p> </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p><P>As a veteran communications professional, it comes as no surprise that Mansfield commands an easygoing conversational speaking style that helps buffer some of the potentially loaded issues he chooses to tackle. While he may be best identified by his ties to the conservative evangelical community, Mansfield possesses the ability to explore divergent ideologies while acknowledging some of his personal red flags with a tone of utmost respect. Listeners in search of a definitive, comprehensive Obama spiritual biography may not find the level of dramatic new revelations they were hoping for, but Mansfield succeeds in adding thoughtful theological and political context to events and experiences. Perhaps the most captivating section involves Mansfield's account of a Sunday visit to Trinity United Church of Christ, the congregation from which Senator Obama resigned his membership following publicity surrounding controversial statements by founding pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Mansfield presents an analysis of Obama's distinctly postmodern journey that will generate valuable discussion across the religious spectrum. <I>A Thomas Nelson hardcover. (Oct.)</I></P>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><br><br> <p>New interesting book: <strong><a href="http://business-textbook.blogspot.com/2009/12/complete-interview-procedures-for.html">Complete Interview Procedures for Hiring School Personnel or Sexual Harassment and the Law</a></strong> <h4>Masters of Paradise: Organized Crime and the Internal Revenue Service in the Bahamas </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Alan Block</strong> <p><p>This is the story of organized crime's penetration of the islands and the corruption of its high officials during the time The Bahamas became politically independent of Great Britain. It describes secret U.S. Internal Revenue Service operations aimed at American criminals involved in Bahamian-based tax scams and similar crimes. Block paints a devastating picture of a symbiotic relationship among off-shore tax havens in The Bahamas, sophisticated American criminals, and complacent public officials in the United States. Block shows how important links in the international traffic in cocaine were forged in The Bahamas, in full view of American officials. Masters of Paradise, now available in paperback, raises major questions about American law enforcement officials' commitment to fighting complex international crime during the 1960s and the 1970s. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-55147991714112236142009-11-30T11:45:00.000-08:002009-11-30T11:56:13.019-08:00Disciplinary Revolution or The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation<h4>Disciplinary Revolution: Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Philip S Gorski</strong> <p><p>What explains the rapid growth of state power in early modern Europe? While most scholars have pointed to the impact of military or capitalist revolutions, Philip S. Gorski argues instead for the importance of a disciplinary revolution unleashed by the Reformation. By refining and diffusing a variety of disciplinary techniques and strategies, such as communal surveillance, control through incarceration, and bureaucratic office-holding, Calvin and his followers created an infrastructure of religious governance and social control that served as a model for the rest of Europe—and the world. <br>. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Preface and Acknowledgments</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Body and Soul: Calvinism, Discipline, and State Power in Early Modern Europe</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Disciplinary Revolution from Below in the Low Countries</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">39</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Disciplinary Revolution from Above in Brandenburg-Prussia</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">79</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Social Disciplining in Comparative Perspective</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">114</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Conclusion</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">157</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Notes</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">173</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Bibliography</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">209</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">237</TD></TABLE> <p>New interesting textbook: <strong><a href="http://sobre-livros.blogspot.com">The New Rules of Marketing and PR or Making It All Work</a></strong> <h4>The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation: The Decade of the 1890s and the Establishment of America's First Five Military Parks </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Timothy B Smith</strong> <p><p>"Smith's book is the first to look at the process of battlefield preservation as a whole. He focuses on how each of these sites was established and the important individuals - the congressmen, the former soldiers, the veteran commissioners who were the catalysts for the creation of these parks." The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation is a watershed book that will be of interest to any reader who wishes to have a better understanding of how such preservation efforts were initiated. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-63474263455154406622009-11-29T06:32:00.000-08:002009-11-29T06:43:48.657-08:00The Age of Diminished Expectations 3rd Edition or Beslan<h4>The Age of Diminished Expectations, 3rd Edition: U.S. Economic Policy in the 1990s </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Paul Krugman</strong> <p><p><P>Paul Krugman's popular guide to the economic landscape of the 1990s has been revised and updated to take into account economic developments of the years from 1994 - 1997. New material in the third edition includes:<BR><br><ul> <li>A new chapter--complete with colorful examples from Llyod's of London and Sumitomo Metals--on how risky behavior can lead to disaster in private markets.</li> <li>An evaluation of the Federal Reserve's role in reining in economic growth to prevent inflation, and the debate over whether its targets are too low.</li> <li>A look at the collapse of the Mexican peso and the burst of Japan's "bubble" economy.</li> <li>A revised discussion of the federal budget deficit, including the growth concern that Social Security and Medicare payments to retiring baby boomers will threaten the solvency of the government.</li> </ul><br><br>Finally, in the updated concluding section, the author provides three possible scenarios for the American economy over the next decade. He warns us that we live in age of diminished expectations, in which the voting public is willing to settle for policy drift--but with the first baby boomers turning 65 in 2011, the economy will not be able to drift indefinitely. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>This book occupies fairly rare territory: the middle ground. Krugman's most likely scenario for the 1990s is neither crash nor boom but a continuation of the 1980s, with some unemployment, more inflation, and only slow growth in income. Surprisingly, Krugman notes, the public will continue to be satisfied with this performance. Designed for the general reader, the book covers the important economic problems and proposed solutions. One also discovers which problems should be real concerns and which are even amenable to solution. Recommended especially for public libraries as a well-balanced introduction to the 1990s.-- Richard C. Schiming, Mankato State Univ., Minn. </p><h4>Booknews</h4><p>Targets human factors and how they affect the implementation of any kind of automation in the information system environment. Includes discussion of: accurately portraying the apparent whimsy of upper management; tactics, strategy negotiation, and politics; reorganization, new employers, and new management. A rare, non-technical, non-apocalyptic account of the economy. Krugman (economics, MIT) describes more than predicts, but does think there will be no bust, no boom, a few whimpers, a sigh or two: things could be better, but they could be worse, and we don't expect much anymore. Originally published as a Washington Post Company Briefing Book. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><table><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Foreword</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Preface</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">I</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Roots of Economic Welfare</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">9</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Productivity Growth</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">13</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Income Distribution</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">23</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Employment and Unemployment</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">31</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">II</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Chronic Aches and Pains</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">39</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Trade Deficit</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">43</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Inflation</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">59</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">III</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Policy Problems</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">69</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Health Care</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">73</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">7</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Budget Deficit</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">85</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">8</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Embattled Fed</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">101</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">9</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Dollar</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">111</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">10</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Free Trade and Protectionism</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">123</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">11</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Japan</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">137</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">IV</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Financial Follies</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">155</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">12</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Savings and Loan Scandal</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">159</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">13</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Corporate Finance</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">169</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">14</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Global Finance</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">185</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">V</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">American Prospects</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">203</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">15</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Happy Ending</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">207</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">16</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Hard Landing</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">213</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">17</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Drift</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">225</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">233</TD></table> <p>See also: <strong><a href="http://sobre-livros.blogspot.com">Official Guide for GMAT Review or Debt Cures They Dont Want You to Know About</a></strong> <h4>Beslan: The Tragedy of School No. 1 </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Timothy Phillips</strong> <p><p><P>On the morning of September 1, 2004, the children of Beslan were excited about the start of a new school year. But as traditional festivities got underway, heavily armed terrorists stormed the school playground, changing ordinary lives in the southern Russian town forever. At least 330 parents and children were killed, some in the massive explosions that tore through the gymnasium, some caught in the crossfire of a three-hour gun battle between the Russian forces and the terrorists. This riveting account not only covers the three days of unimaginable terror and suffering that followed, but includes the people of Beslan speaking in their own words about their ordeal and about their lives in this deeply fractured region. The human story of the siege is here—including the terrible toll that thirst, hunger, and sleeplessness took on the hostages, and the bravery of those who dealt with the terrorists, such as the elderly headmistress of the school and the doctor who tried to relieve the children's suffering. This account also examines the authorities’ response to the siege, finding it wanting, and ultimately places the events of September 2004 in their wider context of centuries of conflict and enmity in the Caucasus.</P> </p><h4>Scotsman</h4><p>Timothy Phillips [is] a brave and sensitive writer whose book alternates between a minute-by-minute account of the Chechen separatists' three-day siege and a decade-by-decade summary of its causes-incompetence, arrogance, social decay and corruption. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-11684503569949003802009-11-28T01:20:00.000-08:002009-11-28T01:31:43.082-08:00Prescription for Survival or American Gunfight<h4>Prescription for Survival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Bernard Lown</strong> <p><p><P><B>About the Author:</B><BR>Bernard Lown, M.D. Cofounder of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize </p><br><br> <p>Read also <strong><a href="http://finance-textbook.blogspot.com/2009/02/cases-to-accompany-contemporary.html">Cases to Accompany Contemporary Strategy Analysis 5th Edition or Object Solutions</a></strong> <h4>American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman--and the Shoot-out That Stopped It </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Stephen Hunter</strong> <p><p><i>American Gunfight</i> is the fast-paced, definitive, and breathtakingly suspenseful account of an extraordinary historical event -- the attempted assassination of President Harry Truman in 1950 by two Puerto Rican Nationalists and the bloody shoot-out in the streets of Washington, D.C., that saved the president's life.<p>Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Stephen Hunter, the widely admired and bestselling novelist and author of such books as <i>Havana, Hot Springs</i>, and <i>Dirty White Boys</i>, and John Bainbridge, Jr., an experienced journalist and lawyer, <i>American Gunfight</i> is at once a groundbreaking work of meticulous historical research and the vivid and dramatically told story of an act of terrorism that almost succeeded. They have pieced together, at last, the story of the conspiracy that nearly doomed the president and how a few good men -- ordinary guys who were willing to risk their lives in the line of duty -- stopped it.<p>It is a book about courage -- on both sides -- and about what politics and devotion to a cause can lead men to do, and about what actually happens, second by second, when a gunfight explodes. <p>It begins on November 1, 1950, an unseasonably hot afternoon in the sleepy capital. At 2:00 P.M. in his temporary residence at Blair House, the president of the United States takes a nap. At 2:20 P.M., two men approach Blair House from different directions. Oscar Collazo, a respected metal polisher and family man, and Griselio Torresola, an unemployed salesman, don't look dangerous, not in their new suits and hats, not in their calm, purposeful demeanor, not in their slow, unexcited approach. What the three White House policemen and one Secret Service agent cannot guess is that under each man's coat is a 9mm German automatic pistol and in each head, a dream of assassin's glory. <p>At point-blank range, Collazo and then Torresola draw and fire and move toward the president of the United States. <p>Hunter and Bainbridge tell the story of that November day with narrative power and careful attention to detail. They are the first to report on the inner workings of this conspiracy; they examine the forces that led the perpetrators to conceive the plot. The authors also tell the story of the men themselves, from their youth and the worlds in which they grew up to the women they loved and who loved them to the moment the gunfire erupted. Their telling commemorates heroism -- the quiet commitment to duty that in some moments of crisis sees some people through an ordeal, even at the expense of their lives.</p><h4>The Washington Post - Ted Widmer</h4><p>The definitive history of this attempted murder has now been written by Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge Jr. True to their topic, theirs is an unlikely conspiracy: Hunter is a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for this newspaper and Bainbridge a journalist and former legal writer in Baltimore. It's a bit unclear what drew them to each other or to this topic, but they attack it with verve.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, engaged in a sustained gun battle with Secret Service agents at Blair House. Their goal was to assassinate President Harry Truman. It's curious that the two men haven't found a place in popular memory like other presidential assailants. But this attempt deserves attention because it was explicitly political and because it permanently altered Secret Service practices. Hunter, esteemed for his film criticism and macho adventure novels, teams up with former Baltimore Sun journalist Bainbridge for this richly detailed account of the motives and destinies of virtually everyone connected to the skirmish. This is an ambitious attempt to achieve time-lapse history. The actual confrontation took less than a minute; rather than save it up for the end, the authors spread it across much of the book, interspersed with background material on the participants. The book reads like the product of a film lover/action novelist and a journalist rather than a work of history, with the shootout described in stream-of-consciousness, and melodramatic, cliff-hanging chapter endings. To the authors' credit, though, interpretations are presented as such, and their handling of the recorded events is not only convincing but compelling. Agent, Esther Newberg. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Novelist/film critic Hunter, along with Baltimore Sun journalist Bainbridge, brings cinematic flair to this investigation of the 1950 attempt by Puerto Rican nationalists to assassinate Truman. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Journalists Hunter and Bainbridge reconstruct an attempt on Harry Truman's life, an event that "was of course gigantic news-for about a week."The principal actors in the November 1950 attempt were two Puerto Rican nationalists, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, devotees of a lawyer-revolutionary named Pedro Albizu Campos. The extent of their connection to Campos was not known until long after the attack, yet the operative principle was simple: If any attempt were made on Campos's life in Puerto Rico, then cells would activate in the U.S. and kill Truman. The witness may not have been entirely reliable, and in all events of the assassination effort, there was a certain amount of dumb luck: Truman was staying across the street from the White House, which was being renovated, a fact that a helpful cab driver had to point out to Collazo and Torresola; Collazo had few qualifications apart from a commitment to the cause; much of the attack was concocted on the spot. Yet Torresola was able to shoot several guards and get within ten yards of Truman before being taken down. It all makes for an intrinsically interesting story, but the authors tend to tell everything they can about any particular point of play, layering on incidental details about the lives of D.C. cops and expounding on the history and geography of Puerto Rico while drifting much too often into breathless Dragnet-speak: "The president is in the window he is thirty feet from Griselio who stands unnoticed at the stairway to Lee House the men on the other side haven't noticed him yet he's shot at three men and downed them all the president is thirty feet away and he has a straight line-of-sight picture to that window and therestands the president of the United States so he is very much in the kill zone."Those with patience for run-on sentences may enjoy this long footnote to history. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Authors' Note 1<br>Introduction 3<br>A Drive Around Washington 5<br>Griselio Agonistes 12<br>Revolution 18<br>The Odd Couple 36<br>Mr. Gonzales and Mr. De Silva Go to Washington 40<br>Early Morning 50<br>Baby Starches the Shirts 54<br>Toad 62<br>The New Guy 74<br>The Buick Guy 83<br>The Guns 86<br>The Ceremony 100<br>Indian Summer 104<br>The Big Walk 109<br>Oscar 113<br>"It Did Not Go Off" 128<br>Pappy 133<br>The Next Ten Seconds 138<br>Resurrection Man 141<br>So Loud, So Fast 152<br>Upstairs at Blair 156<br>Downstairs at Blair 161<br>Borinquen 167<br>Oscar Alone 181<br>The End's Run 184<br>Good Hands 186<br>The Colossus Rhoads 194<br>Oscar Goes Down 200<br>The Second Assault 203<br>Pimienta 206<br>Point-Blank 223<br>The Man Who Loved Guns 228<br>The Dark Visitors 236<br>Mortal Danger 240<br>The Neighbor 243<br>American Gunfight 244<br>The Good Samaritan 252<br>The Policemen's Wives 258<br>The Scene 260<br>Inside the Soccer Shoe 267<br>Who Shot Oscar? 273<br>The Roundup 278<br>Taps 286<br>Oscar on Trial 289<br>Deep Conspiracy 298<br>Cressie Does Her Duty 308<br>Oscar Speaks 310<br>- R - I - 317<br>Epilogue: Destinies 323<br>Source Notes 327<br>Bibliography 339<br>Acknowledgments 349<br>Index 355 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-92001360924247590282009-11-26T20:09:00.000-08:002009-11-26T20:20:00.559-08:00Thucydides and the Ancient Simplicity or A House Built on Sand<h4>Thucydides and the Ancient Simplicity </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Gregory Cran</strong> <p><p>Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is the earliest surviving realist text in the European tradition. As an account of the Peloponnesian War, it is famous both as an analysis of power politics and as a classic of political realism. From the opening speeches, Thucydides' Athenians emerge as a new and frightening source of power, motivated by self-interest and oblivious to the rules and shared values under which the Greeks had operated for centuries. Gregory Crane demonstrates how Thucydides' history brilliantly analyzes both the power and the dramatic weaknesses of realist thought.<br> The tragedy of Thucydides' history emerges from the ultimate failure of the Athenian project. The new morality of the imperialists proved as conflicted as the old; history shows that their values were unstable and self-destructive. Thucydides' history ends with the recounting of an intellectual stalemate that, a century later, motivated Plato's greatest work.<br> Thucydides and the Ancient Simplicity includes a thought-provoking discussion questioning currently held ideas of political realism and its limits. Crane's sophisticated claim for the continuing usefulness of the political examples of the classical past will appeal to anyone interested in the conflict between the exercise of political power and the preservation of human freedom and dignity. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Acknowledgments</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Sherman at Melos: Realpolitik Ancient and Modern</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">21</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Truest Causes and Thucydidean Realisms</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">36</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Representations of Power before and after Thucydides</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">72</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Power, Prestige, and the Corcyraean Affair</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">93</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Archaeology I: The Analytical Program of the History</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">125</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Archaeology II: From Wealth to Capital: The Changing Politics of Accumulation</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">148</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">7</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Rule of the Strong and the Limits of Friendship</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">172</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">8</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Archidamos and Sthenelaidas: The Dilemma of Spartan Authority</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">196</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">9</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Melian Dialogue: From Herodotus's Freedom Fighters to Thucydides' Imperialists</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">237</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">10</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Athenian Theses: Realism as the Modern Simplicity</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">258</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">11</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Conclusion: Thucydidean Realism and the Price of Objectivity</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">294</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Bibliography</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">327</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">343</TD></TABLE> <p>New interesting textbook: <strong><a href="http://financial-software.blogspot.com/2009/11/real-world-adobe-photoshop-cs4-for.html">Real World Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers or ASPNET in a Nutshell</a></strong> <h4>A House Built on Sand: Exposing Postmodernist Myths about Science </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Noretta Koertg</strong> <p><p>Cultural critics say that "science is politics by other means," arguing that the results of scientific inquiry are profoundly shaped by the ideological agendas of powerful elites. They base their claims on historical case studies purporting to show the systematic intrusion of sexist, racist, capitalist, colonialist, and/or professional interests into the very content of science. In this hard-hitting collection of essays, contributors offer crisp and detailed critiques of case studies offered by the cultural critics as evidence that scientific results tell us more about social context than they do about the natural world. Pulling no punches, they identify numerous crude factual blunders (e.g. that Newton never performed any experiments) and egregious errors of omission, such as the attempt to explain the slow development of fluid dynamics solely in terms of gender bias. Where there are positive aspects of a flawed account, or something to be learned from it, they do not hesitate to say so. Their target is shoddy scholarship. <br> Comprising new essays by distinguished scholars of history, philosophy, and science, this book raises a lively debate to a new level of seriousness. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>This book is the latest and most explosive bomb to be launched in the "science wars." Recently, a cadre of historians and philosophers of science have attempted to deconstruct the scientific process by examining its underlying social metaphors. Many scholars, especially practicing scientists, view these efforts with undisguised disdain. The essays here, which are by scientists and philosophers, debunk postmodernist science studies by exposing their purported biases, errors, and fallacies. Essentially, they deconstruct the deconstructionists. For example, Michael Ruse asks, "Is Darwinism Sexist?" while Alan Sokal tackles "What the Social Text Affair Does and Does Not Approve." Although some olive branches are extended, the overall tone is aggressive. Academics on both sides of the debate will need this book. Expect a counterattack.--Gregg Sapp, Univ. of Miami Lib., Coral Gables, FL </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-55977520535391458572009-11-25T14:57:00.000-08:002009-11-25T15:08:18.301-08:00Cannibal Island or Inclusion<h4>Cannibal Island: Death in a Siberian Gulag </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Nicolas Werth</strong> <p><p><P>During the spring of 1933, Stalin's police rounded up nearly one hundred thousand people as part of the Soviet regime's "cleansing" of Moscow and Leningrad and deported them to Siberia. Many of the victims were sent to labor camps, but ten thousand of them were dumped in a remote wasteland and left to fend for themselves. <i>Cannibal Island</i> reveals the shocking, grisly truth about their fate.<P>These people were abandoned on the island of Nazino without food or shelter. Left there to starve and to die, they eventually began to eat each other. Nicolas Werth, a French historian of the Soviet era, reconstructs their gruesome final days using rare archival material from deep inside the Stalinist vaults. Werth skillfully weaves this episode into a broader story about the Soviet frenzy in the 1930s to purge society of all those deemed to be unfit. For Stalin, these undesirables included criminals, opponents of forced collectivization, vagabonds, gypsies, even entire groups in Soviet society such as the "kulaks" and their families. Werth sets his story within the broader social and political context of the period, giving us for the first time a full picture of how Stalin's system of "special villages" worked, how hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens were moved about the country in wholesale mass transportations, and how this savage bureaucratic machinery functioned on the local, regional, and state levels.<P><i>Cannibal Island</i> challenges us to confront unpleasant facts not only about Stalin's punitive social controls and his failed Soviet utopia, but about every generation's capacity for brutality--including our own.<P> </p><h4>Foreign Affairs</h4><p><p>Often the details in a single instance sear more deeply than the most gruesome tally of large numbers. Werth, part of the team that prepared the 2004 seven-volume documentary history of the Soviet gulag, here describes the unimaginable inhumanity of the 1933 deportation of 10,000 "dйclassй" and "socially harmful elements" to a small uninhabitable island on the river Ob, deep in the wilds of western Siberia. Although the unspeakable suffering of these thousands -- including the starvation that led to the acts that gave the nameless island a name -- is his centerpiece, Werth describes in rich detail the transformation of the vast western Siberian wilderness into the dumping ground for millions of "de-kulakized" peasants, minority groups from the borderlands, the socially marginal, criminals, and the utterly innocent. Meant in a grotesquely misconceived fashion to rid the cities of undesirables while producing economic development in the harshest of locales, these "special settlements" are a part of the gulag's least-known history. Werth corrects that in plain and clear language, leaving the story to convey its own excruciating eloquence.< </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Foreword Jan T. Gross ix<br>Preface xiii<br>Glossary xxi<br>A "grandiose plan" 1<br>Western Siberia, a Land of Deportation 23<br>Negotiations and Preparations 59<br>In the Tomsk Transit Camp 86<br>Nazino 121<br>Conclusion 171<br>Epilogue, 1933-37 181<br>Acknowledgments 194<br>Notes 195 <p>Interesting textbook: <strong><a href="http://healthy-foods-books.blogspot.com/2009/11/escopetas-descargadas-or-language-of.html">Escopetas Descargadas or Language of Baklava</a></strong> <h4>Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Steven Epstein</strong> <p><p>As a society, we have learned to value diversity. But can some strategies to achieve diversity mask deeper problems, ones that might require a different approach and different solutions? With <I>Inclusion</I>, Steven Epstein argues that in the field of medical research, the answer is an emphatic yes.<BR><BR>Formal concern with diversity in American medical research, Epstein shows, is a fairly recent phenomenon. Until the mid-1980s, few paid close attention to who was included in research subject pools. Not uncommonly, scientists studied groups of mostly white, middle-aged men—and assumed that conclusions drawn from studying them would apply to the rest of the population. But struggles involving advocacy groups, experts, and Congress led to reforms that forced researchers and pharmaceutical companies to diversify the population from which they drew for clinical research. That change has gone hand in hand with bold assertions that group differences in society are encoded in our biology—for example, that there are important biological differences in the ways that people of different races and sexes respond to drugs and other treatments.<BR><BR>While the prominence of these inclusive practices has offered hope to traditionally underserved groups, Epstein argues forcefully that it has drawn attention away from the tremendous inequalities in health that are rooted not in biology but in society. There is, for instance, a direct relationship between social class and health status—and Epstein believes that a focus on bodily differences can obscure the importance of this factor. Only when connected to a broad-based effort to address health disparities, Epstein explains, can amedical policy of inclusion achieve its intended effects.<BR><BR>A fascinating history, powerful analysis, and call to action, <I>Inclusion</I> will be essential reading for medical professionals, policymakers, and any concerned citizen. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-33571266058804872702009-02-21T23:21:00.000-08:002009-02-21T23:28:59.792-08:00Contentious Politics or Growing Apart<h4>Contentious Politics </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Sidney Tarrow</strong> <p><p><P>Revolutions, social movements, religious and ethnic conflict, nationalism and civil rights, and transnational movements: these forms of contentious politics combine in Charles Tilly's and Sidney Tarrow's <i>Contentious Politics</i>. The book presents a set of analytical tools and procedures for study, comparison, and explanation of these very different sorts of contention. Drawing on many historical and contemporary cases, the book shows that similar principles describe and explain a wide variety of struggles as well as many more routine forms of politics. Tilly and Tarrow have written the book to introduce readers to an exciting new program of political and sociological analysis. </p><br><br> <p>Read also <strong><a href="http://buecher-2008.blogspot.com/2009/02/sicherheitsanalyse.html">Sicherheitsanalyse</a></strong> <h4>Growing Apart: Oil, Politics, and Economic Change in Indonesia and Nigeria </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Peter Lewis</strong> <p><p><br>"<I>Growing Apart</I> is an important and distinguished contribution to the literature on the political economy of development. Indonesia and Nigeria have long presented one of the most natural opportunities for comparative study. Peter Lewis, one of America's best scholars of Nigeria, has produced the definitive treatment of their divergent development paths. In the process, he tells us much theoretically about when, why, and how political institutions shape economic growth."<BR>—Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution <br> <br>"<I>Growing Apart</I> is a careful and sophisticated analysis of the political factors that have shaped the economic fortunes of Indonesia and Nigeria. Both scholars and policymakers will benefit from this book's valuable insights."<BR>—Michael L. Ross, Associate Professor of Political Science, Chair of International Development Studies, UCLA<br>"Lewis presents an extraordinarily well-documented comparative case study of two countries with a great deal in common, and yet with remarkably different postcolonial histories. His approach is a welcome departure from currently fashionable attempts to explain development using large, multi-country databases packed with often dubious measures of various aspects of 'governance.'"<BR>—Ross H. McLeod, Editor, <I>Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies</I><br>"This is a highly readable and important book. Peter Lewis provides us with both a compelling institutionalist analysis of economic development performance and a very insightful comparative account of the political economies of two highly complex developing countries, Nigeria and Indonesia. His well-informed accountgenerates interesting findings by focusing on the ability of leaders in both countries to make credible commitments to the private sector and assemble pro-growth coalitions. This kind of cross-regional political economy is often advocated in the profession but actually quite rare because it is so hard to do well. Lewis's book will set the standard for a long time."<br>—Nicolas van de Walle, John S. Knight Professor of International Studies, Cornell University<br> <br>Peter M. Lewis is Associate Professor and Director of the African Studies Program, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-8309001829683896332009-02-20T18:10:00.000-08:002009-02-20T18:17:11.090-08:00The Condition of the Working Class in England or A Matter of Justice<h4>The Condition of the Working Class in England </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Friedrich Engels</strong> <p><p><P>This, the first book written by Engels during his stay in Manchester from 1842 to 1844, is the best known and in many ways the most astute study of the working class in Victorian England. The fluency of his writing, the personal nature of his insights, and his talent for mordant satire all combiine to make Engels's account of the lives of the victims of early industrial change an undeniable classic.<br> </p><br><br> <p>Books about: <strong><a href="http://pt-livros.blogspot.com/2009/02/o-manual-de-excelencia-de-facilitador.html">O Manual de Excelência de Facilitador</a></strong> <h4>A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution </h4> <p>Author: <strong>David A Nichols</strong> <p><p><P>Fifty years after President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce a federal court order desegregating the city's Central High School, a leading authority on Eisenhower presents an original and engrossing narrative that places Ike and his civil rights policies in dramatically new light.<P>Historians such as Stephen Ambrose and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., have portrayed Eisenhower as aloof, if not outwardly hostile, to the plight of African-Americans in the 1950s. It is still widely assumed that he opposed the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 <I>Brown v. Board of Education</i> decision mandating the desegregation of public schools, that he deeply regretted appointing Earl Warren as the Court's chief justice because of his role in molding <I>Brown,</i> that he was a bystander in Congress's passage of the civil rights acts of 1957 and 1960, and that he so mishandled the Little Rock crisis that he was forced to dispatch troops to rescue a failed policy.<P>In this sweeping narrative, David A. Nichols demonstrates that these assumptions are wrong. Drawing on archival documents neglected by biographers and scholars, including thousands of pages newly available from the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Nichols takes us inside the Oval Office to look over Ike's shoulder as he worked behind the scenes, prior to <I>Brown,</i> to desegregate the District of Columbia and complete the desegregation of the armed forces. We watch as Eisenhower, assisted by his close collaborator, Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr., sifted through candidates for federal judgeships and appointed five pro-civil rights justices to the Supreme Court and progressive judges to lower courts.We witness Eisenhower crafting civil rights legislation, deftly building a congressional coalition that passed the first civil rights act in eighty-two years, and maneuvering to avoid a showdown with Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas, over desegregation of Little Rock's Central High. <P>Nichols demonstrates that Eisenhower, though he was a product of his time and its backward racial attitudes, was actually more progressive on civil rights in the 1950s than his predecessor, Harry Truman, and his successors, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Eisenhower was more a man of deeds than of words and preferred quiet action over grandstanding. His cautious public rhetoric -- especially his legalistic response to <I>Brown</i> -- gave a misleading impression that he was not committed to the cause of civil rights. In fact, Eisenhower's actions laid the legal and political groundwork for the more familiar breakthroughs in civil rights achieved in the 1960s. <P>Fair, judicious, and exhaustively researched, <I>A Matter of Justice</i> is the definitive book on Eisenhower's civil rights policies that every presidential historian and future biographer of Ike will have to contend with.<br> </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p><P>Former professor Nichols (<I>Lincoln and the Indians</I>) spotlights President Eisenhower's efforts "to eliminate discrimination within the definite areas of Federal responsibility," aiming to end the "myth" that Eisenhower was personally and politically opposed to the enactment and enforcement of civil rights legislation. Nichols builds his argument on Eisenhower's actions: desegregation of the District of Columbia and the armed forces, as well as his support of justice Earl Warren and use of the military to enforce the <I>Brown</I>v. <I>Board of Education</I>decision. He attributes skepticism about Eisenhower's motives to the president's "restrained rhetorical style," arguing that Eisenhower's embrace of "a traditional interpretation of the separation of powers" led to his silences. That he "was a gradualist and shared misconceptions about black people common to white politicians of his era" may have played a role as well. That "he called firmly for obedience to law... yet undermined that demand by asserting how little law could accomplish" certainly diminished his civil rights reputation. Nichols takes potshots at Harry Truman and Warren, attributes Lyndon Johnson's actions to "his presidential ambitions" and John F. Kennedy's "promises of progress" to "campaign rhetoric," giving this otherwise balanced study an opinionated bent. B&w photos not seen by <I>PW</I>. <I>(Sept.)</I></P>Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Sympathetic assessment of Ike's civil-rights record. It's likely to be controversial as well. Nichols (Lincoln and the Indians: Civil War Policy and Politics, 1978) forthrightly acknowledges Eisenhower's gradualism in civil rights. He was born, after all, in 1890, six years before Plessy v. Ferguson; the old general had a racial blind spot that prevented him from fully understanding the plight of black Americans. Moreover, Eisenhower genuinely distrusted the power of statutory law to change hearts or vanquish prejudice and little understood how his repeated, public articulation of this mantra demoralized passionate advocates who'd waited too long for equality. His deeds, however, were less passive than his rhetoric; Nichols persuasively argues that Eisenhower did more than any other white politician in the 1950s to advance the civil rights agenda. The president acted unilaterally to desegregate Washington, D.C., to eliminate employment discrimination by firms handling federal contracts and to vigorously follow through on desegregating the armed forces. Ike proposed and effected passage of the first civil rights legislation since 1875, notwithstanding successful efforts by southern Democratic power brokers to weaken the bill. With the aid of his indispensable Attorney General, Herbert Brownell, Eisenhower made excellent judicial appointments in the deep South, where the likes of Frank Johnson and John Minor Wisdom proved instrumental in the legal struggle to implement Brown v. Board of Education. Even more important was his impact on the Supreme Court; all of his nominees staunchly upheld civil rights, most notably Chief Justice Earl Warren. Eisenhower demonstrated his reverence for thefederal courts, his devotion to the law and his fierce sense of his own duty by becoming the first president since Reconstruction to order federal troops into a southern state, sending them to Arkansas in 1957 to enforce integration in Little Rock's schools. Nichols focuses on the facts, but he also offers a careful analysis of why Ike has not received proper historical credit. Revelatory reading. Agent: Will Lippincott/Lippincott Massie McQuilkin </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Introduction 1<br>The Candidate 5<br>Invoking Federal Authority 23<br>The President and Brown 51<br>A Judiciary to Enforce Brown 75<br>The President and the Chief Justice 91<br>Confronting Southern Resistance 111<br>The Civil Rights Act of 1957 143<br>The Little Rock Crisis 169<br>Military Intervention in Little Rock 189<br>Rising Expectations 214<br>The Final Act 235<br>Leading from Gettysburg 264<br>Conclusion: A Matter of Justice 273<br>Notes 283<br>Acknowledgments 335<br>Index 337 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-11465051772003085822009-02-19T09:31:00.000-08:002009-02-19T09:38:21.415-08:00UFOs and the National Security State or Conquests and Cultures<h4>UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover-up, 1941-1973 </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Richard M Dolan</strong> <p><p><p>Richard M. Dolan is a gifted historian whose study of U.S. Cold War strategy led him to the broader context of increased security measures and secrecy since World War II. One aspect of such government policies that has continued to hold the public's imagination for over half a century is the question of unidentified flying objects.<p>UFOs and the National Security State is the first volume of a two-part detailed chronological narrative of the national security dimensions of the UFO phenomenon from 1941 to the present. Working from hundreds of declassified records and other primary and secondary sources, Dolan centers his investigation on the American military and intelligence communities, demonstrating that they take UFOs seriously indeed.<p>Included in this volume are the activities of more than fifty military bases relating to UFOs, innumerable violations of sensitive airspace by unknown craft and analyses of the Roswell controversy, the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel, and the Condon Committee Report. Dolan highlights the development of civilian anti-secrecy movements, which flourished in the 1950s and 1960s until the adoption of an official government policy and subsequent "closing of the door" during the Nixon administration.<p> </p><br><br> <p>Books about: <strong><a href="http://livre-de-traduction.blogspot.com/2009/02/systemes-informatiques-de-bibliotheque.html">Systèmes informatiques de Bibliothèque :de l'Automation de Bibliothèque aux Solutions d'Accès D'information Distribuées</a></strong> <h4>Conquests and Cultures: An International History </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Thomas Sowell</strong> <p><p>This book is the culmination of 15 years of research and travels that have taken the author completely around the world twice, as well as on other travels in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and around the Pacific rim. Its purpose has been to try to understand the role of cultural differences within nations and between nations, today and over centuries of history, in shaping the economic and social fates of peoples and of whole civilizations. Focusing on four major cultural areas(that of the British, the Africans (including the African diaspora), the Slavs of Eastern Europe, and the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere—<i>Conquests and Cultures</i> reveals patterns that encompass not only these peoples but others and help explain the role of cultural evolution in economic, social, and political development. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Sowell presents this as the final volume in a trilogy that includes <i>Race and Culture</i> (1994) and <i>Migration and Culture</i> (1996). Like its predecessors, the book incorporates two principal themes: that racial, ethnic and national groups have their own particular cultures, and that those cultures are mutable. Sowell offers four case studiesthe British, the Africans, the Slavs and the American Indiansin evidence for his argument that the antecedents, processes and consequences of conquest generate broad-spectrum interactions and responses. Cultures in contact with each other usually influence each other even if the matrix is based on domination/submission, he explains. Brutal conquests can lead to the spread of advanced skills. Cultural borrowing is accompanied by genetic diffusion, and both make a mockery of biological racism and behavioral stasis. The key distinction among human communities is, for Sowell, "human capital"the spectrum of individual and collective learned behaviors that produce distinctive patterns of skills and attitudes. The positive form of this capital is based on flexibilityreceptivity to cultural transfers and willingness to apply those transfers in different contexts. Sowell, an economist by training and a conservative by conviction, emphasizes the wealth-creating aspects of human capital and argues for the centrality of achievement to developing group self-esteem. He references his arguments to a wide range of sources from a broad spectrum of disciplines. Academic specialists are likely to join critics of Sowell's emphasis on cultural malleability in accusing him of using the tools of scholarship to support his preconceptions. Sowell's conclusion that the course of history is determined by what peoples do with their opportunities is nevertheless an emotionally and intellectually compelling challenge to determinism in all its variant forms, from Marxism to multiculturalism.</p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Sowell, a scholar-in-residence at the Hoover Institution and author of several books in the social sciences, examines ways in which military victories throughout history have caused both conquerors and the conquered to change dramatically. The Roman and British Empires, several African tribes, Eastern European Slavs, and Western Hemisphere Indians are presented as civilizations that grew economically and culturally, or declined precipitously, as they clashed with foreign armies. Sowell's scholarship is evident as he examines the interplay of religion, language, education, technology, and other factors in the development of nations. An example is his discussion of the Slavic people as both victors and losers against Celts, Germans, Turks, and others. The third in a trilogy that includes <i>Race and Culture</i> (LJ 7/94) and <i>Migrations and Cultures</i> (LJ 3/1/96), this book bears comparison to Fernand Braudel's A History of Civilization (LJ 10/1/93). Its readable style and impressive scope make it suitable for all libraries. <br.— Norman Malwitz, Queens Borough Public Library, Jamaica, NY</p><h4>Booknews</h4><p>Culminates a trilogy by exploring the role of cultural differences within nations and between nations, today and over centuries of history, in shaping the economic and social fates of peoples and whole civilizations. Based on the observation that the history of civilizations cannot be understood without examining the cultural impact of conquest. Looks at the British, the Africans, the Slavs, and the Western Hemisphere Indians. <p>Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Oregon</p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Hoover Institution scholar-in-residence Sowell concludes a trilogy that began with <i>Race and Culture</i> (1994) and <i>Migrations and Cultures</i> (1996) by consideringþin sometimes stimulating, sometimes muddled fashion; the momentous consequences of long-term military occupation on subject peoples. The history of conquests, Sowell writes, applies not just to the past; itþs also "about how we came to be where we are economically, intellectually, and morally." Beginning with the British (who were subjugated by the Romans, only to create their own empire more than a millennium later), Sowell goes on to analyze the complex interaction between conquering and subject peoples in the case of the Africans, the Slavs of eastern Europe, and Western Hemisphere Indians. Sowell acutely details ways that geography can spur or stall industry (e.g., the lack of mineral deposits and navigable waterways retarded commerce in the Balkans while western Europe began to pull ahead). Even more important than geographic assets, however, is what Sowell calls "human capital" the combination of skills, experience, and orientation. The Scots, for instance, following their absorption into England, achieved a renaissance of science and medicine. Sowell aims to be hard-headed, challenging notions that all cultures are equally worthy. Often, however, his conclusions are simplistic. He criticizes postcolonial African leaders, for instance, for studying "soft" subjects rather than "hard" ones such as math, science, engineering, and medicine, but he doesnþt say that in the West, business growth has frequently been created by marketers who have studied English, psychology, law, and even politics.Moreover, except in the case of the Soviet Union, many of his sources are more than a decade old. This lack of recent specialized studies leads to omissions that call into question some of his conclusions (e.g., while noting that Ireland's economy sputtered into the late 1980s, he doesn't mention that country's more recent boom). Fascinating analysis vitiated, over the course of this trilogy, by repetition, insulting national comparisons, and superficial history.<P> </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-23572098529849487992009-02-18T04:19:00.000-08:002009-02-18T04:26:07.887-08:00Politics in Plural Societies or The Martyrs of Karbala<h4>Politics in Plural Societies: A Theory of Democratic Instability </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Alvin Rabushka</strong> <p><p><br><br><br><br> <br><br><br><br><p><b>Longman Classics in Political Science</b> <p>In revising classic works in political science, Longman celebrates the contributions its authors and their research have made to the discipline. The Longman Classics in Political Science series honors these authors and their work. Providing students with an updated context, each title in the series includes a new foreword, written by one of today’s top scholars, offering a fresh, in-depth analysis of the book and its enduring contributions. <p><b>Politics in Plural Societies: A Theory of Democratic Instability</b> <p><b>Alvin Rabushka<br> Kenneth A. Shepsle </b> <p>This landmark study in the field of comparative politics is being celebrated for its return to print as the newest addition to the Longman Classics in Political Science series. Politics in Plural Societies presents a model of political competition in multiethnic societies and explains why plural societies, and the struggle for power within them, often erupt with interethnic hostility. <p>Distinguished scholars Alvin Rabushka and Kenneth A. Shepsle collaborate in this reissue of their classic work to demonstrate–in a new epilogue–the pertinence of the arguments and evidence offered when the book was originally published. They apply this thesis to the multiethnic politics of countries that are of great interest today: Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, and more. <p><b>Features</b> <ul> <li>Develops and tests a formal model of political cooperation and conflict in multiethnic societies. <li>Offers comparisons amongst 18 countries based on theoretically developed categories, rather than byregion of the world. <li>Brings formal theory together with sound empirical analysis, directly comparing the predictions of theory with the evidence of real-world politics. <li>Examines the problems of orderly government in multiethnic societies and the difficulties in implementing solutions. </ul> <p><b>Visit us at ablongman.com/polisci</b> </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Part I 1<br>The Plural Society 2<br>Bases of Cultural Pluralism 8<br>The Theory of Plural Society: J. S. Furnivall 10<br>The Theory of Plural Society: Conceptual Development 12<br>A Definition of Plural Society 20<br>Summary 21<br>Theoretical Tools 23<br>Politics and Preference Aggregation 24<br>Utility and the Risk Environment 32<br>Intensity 43<br>Salience 55<br>Summary 61<br>Distinctive Features of Politics in the Plural Society: A Paradigm 62<br>Ethnic Preferences 63<br>A Paradigm of Politics in the Plural Society 74<br>Plural Societies: Some Variations 88<br>Summary 91<br>Part II 93<br>The Competitive Configuration 94<br>Guyana 95<br>Belgium 105<br>Ethnic Politics in Trinidad and Malaya 120<br>Ethnic Competition: The Politics of Demand Generation and the Bankruptcy of Moderation 124<br>Ethnic Advantage: The Manipulation of Electoral Rules 127<br>The Paradigm and Surinam: A Prognosis 127<br>Majority Domination 129<br>Ceylon 129<br>Majority Dominance: Five Additional Cases 141<br>Nationalist Politics: The Absence of Interethnic Cooperation 143<br>The Ethnic Basis of Political Cohesion 147<br>Ambiguity, Moderation, and the Politics of Outbidding 150<br>Machinations: The Manipulation of Ethnic Politics 153<br>Violence: Communities in Conflict 156<br>The Dominant Minority 158<br>South Africa 158<br>Rhodesia 169<br>Burundi 173<br>Fragmentation 177<br>Properties of Fragmented Societies 177<br>Fragmentation: The Proliferation of Ethnic Groups 178<br>Political Parties: The Absence of Brokerage Institutions 187<br>Authoritarian Rule: The Fragility of Democracy 202<br>Conclusion 206<br>Conclusions 207<br>Switzerland: The Persistent Counterexample 208<br>(R[subscript x]) Prescriptions for the Plural Society: Some Applications of the Theory 213<br>A Final Question 217<br>Epilogue 219<br>Bibliography 243<br>Index 255 <p>New interesting book: <strong><a href="http://science-computer-book.blogspot.com">iMovie 08 iDVD 08 for Mac OS X Visual QuickStart Guide or Sams Teach Yourself Programming with Java in 24 Hours</a></strong> <h4>The Martyrs of Karbala: Shi'i Symbols and Rituals in Modern Iran </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Kamran Scot Scot Aghai</strong> <p><p>This innovative study examines patterns of change in Shii symbols and rituals over the past two centuries to reveal how modernization has influenced the societal, political, and religious culture of Iran. Shi'is, who support the Prophet Mohammads progeny as his successors in opposition to the Sunni caliphate tradition, make up 10 to 15 percent of the worlds Muslim population, roughly half of whom live in Iran. Throughout the early history of the Islamic Middle East, the Sunnis have been associated with the state and the ruling elite, while Shi'is have most often represented the political opposition and have had broad appeal among the masses. Moharram symbols and rituals commemorate the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE, in which the Prophet Mohammads grandson Hoseyn and most of his family and supporters were massacred by the troops of the Umayyad caliph Yazid.<br> <p> Moharram symbols and rituals are among the most pervasive and popular aspects of Iranian culture and society. This book traces patterns of continuity and change of Moharran symbols and rituals in three aspects of Iranian life: the importance of these rituals in promoting social bonds, status, identities, and ideals; ways in which the three major successive regimes (Qujars, Pahlavis, and the Islamic Republic), have either used these rituals to promote their legitimacy, or have suppressed them because they viewed them as a potential political threat; and the uses of Moharram symbolism by opposition groups interested in overthrowing the regime.<br> <p> While the patterns of government patronage have been radically discontinuous over the past two centuries, the roles of these rituals in popular society and culture have been relatively continuous or have evolved independently of the state. The political uses of modern-day rituals and the enduring symbolism of the Karbala narratives continue today.<br> <p> Kamran Scot Aghaie is assistant professor of Islamic and Iranian history at the University of Texas at Austin.<br> <p> </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-40138972062024223082009-02-16T23:07:00.000-08:002009-02-16T23:14:27.363-08:00Right from the Beginning or Law as Politics<h4>Right from the Beginning </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Patrick J Buchannan</strong> <p><p>Warm and self-deprecating, surprisingly witty, honest to a fault about his political views, and not quite as knee-jerk a Reagan conservative as I've been led to expect. Mr. Buchanan has a secret weapon: charm.<br>—<I>The New York Times</I></p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Syndicated columnist Buchanan begins this memoir by explaining why he refused to be enlisted as the conservative Republicans' choice to succeed Reagan as president. As he discusses his Irish Catholic roots, growing up in Washington, D.C., and Chevy Chase, Md., and attending that ``citadel of liberalism,'' Columbia's journalism school, he looks back with nostalgic affection to the 1950s. His eight years working for Nixon are covered in one short chapter, and about Reagan, this White House insider says even less. In a book that is part autobiography, part political agenda, Buchanan advocates prayer in the schools, the death penalty, support for the government of South Africa, laser-based nuclear weaponry and repeal of the amendment that limits a president to two terms. He defends Oliver North, morally condemns AIDS victims and thunders against the liberal ``milquetoast'' Catholic Church of the 1980s. Conservative Book Club selection. (May) </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>$18.95. autobiog Buchanan, columnist and television commentator, writes about his beliefs. His autobiography is a veritable celebration of Catholicism and masculinity, replete with accounts of youthful pranks, scrapes, and arrests. Raised by his father to be a fighter, Buchanan welcomed conflict and glided effortlessly into the politics of confrontation. The final two chapters of his book are highly polemical and will undoubtedly alienate some: He urges the elimination of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, decries superpower arms control negotiations, and asserts that ``America's place should be at South Africa's side, sheltering this tormented country from her enemies.'' Politics aside, persistent references to streets and neighborhoods could prove irksome to readers unfamiliar with the metropolitan D.C. area.Kimberly G. Allen, Georgetown University Law Lib., Washington, D.C. </p><br><br> <p>Books about: <strong><a href="http://financial-software.blogspot.com/2009/02/digital-sensations-or-business.html">Digital Sensations or Business Intelligence</a></strong> <h4>Law As Politics: Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism </h4> <p>Author: <strong>David Dyzenhaus</strong> <p><p>While antiliberal legal theorist Carl Schmitt has long been considered by Europeans to be one of this century's most significant political philosophers, recent challenges to the fundamental values of liberal democracies have made Schmitt's writings an unavoidable subject of debate in North America as well. In an effort to advance our understanding not only of Schmitt but of current problems of liberal democracy, David Dyzenhaus presents translations of classic German essays on Schmitt alongside more recent writings by distinguished political theorists and jurists. Neither a defense of nor an attack on Schmitt, Law as Politics offers the first balanced response to his powerful critique of liberalism.<p>One of the major players in the 1920s debates, an outspoken critic of the Versailles Treaty and the Weimar Constitution, and a member of the Nazi party who provided juridical respectability to Hitler's policies, Schmitt contended that people are a polity only to the extent that they share common enemies. He saw the liberal notion of a peaceful world of universal citizens as a sheer impossibility and attributed the problems of Weimar to liberalism and its inability to cope with pluralism and political conflict. In the decade since his death, Schmitt's writings have been taken up by both the right and the left and scholars differ greatly in their evaluation of Schmitt's ideas. Law as Politics thematically organizes in one volume the varying engagements and confrontations with Schmitt's work and allows scholars to acknowledge-and therefore be in a better position to negotiate-an important paradox inscribed in the very nature of liberal democracy.<p>Law as Politics will interest political philosophers, legal theorists, historians, and anyone interested in Schmitt's relevance to current discussions of liberalism. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Foreword</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Acknowledgments</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction: Why Carl Schmitt?</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Pt. I</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Political Theory and Law</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism: Systematic Reconstruction and Countercriticism</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">23</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Concept of the Political: A Key to Understanding Carl Schmitt's Constitutional Theory</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">37</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">From Legitimacy to Dictatorship - and Back Again: Leo Strauss's Critique of the Anti-Liberalism of Carl Schmitt</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">56</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Hostis Not Inimicus: Toward a Theory of the Public in the Work of Carl Schmitt</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">92</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Pluralism and the Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">109</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Liberalism as a "Metaphysical System": The Methodological Structure of Carl Schmitt's Critique of Political Rationalism</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">131</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Carl Schmitt and the Paradox of Liberal Democracy</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">159</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">Pt. II</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Legal Theory and Politics</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Carl Schmitt on Sovereignty and Constituent Power</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">179</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The 1933 "Break" in Carl Schmitt's Theory</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">196</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">The Dilemmas of Dictatorship: Carl Schmitt and Constitutional Emergency Powers</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">217</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Revolutions and Constitutions: Hannah Arendt's Challenge to Carl Schmitt</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">252</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Carl Schmitt's Internal Critique of Liberal Constitutionalism: Verfassungslehre as a Response to the Weimar State Crisis</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">281</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Notes on Contributors</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">313</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">315</TD></TABLE> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-2214947430636531812009-02-15T17:55:00.000-08:002009-02-15T18:02:17.916-08:00Netroots Rising or The Man from Clear Lake<h4>Netroots Rising: How a Citizen Army of Bloggers and Online Activists Is Changing American Politics </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Lowell Feld</strong> <p><p>The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional "top-down" central broadcasters to new "bottom-up" decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb's "rag-tag army" of bloggers and netroots activists who provoked and exposed the gaffe that proved fatal to George Allen's senatorial bid.<P>Veteran online campaigners Feld and Wilcox recount and analyze many other political campaigns in which netroots activism was decisive or instructive, including: U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's downfall, Tim Kaine's election as Virginia governor, Howard Dean's and Wes Clark's presidential campaigns, Ned Lamont's primary victory over Joe Lieberman in Connecticut.<P>The authors conclude with an assessment of the prospects for Netroots 2.0. Will the netroots hordes "crash the party" or will they work out an uneasy cohabitation with the traditional party power elite?<BR><P><B>About the Author:</B><BR>Lowell Feld is a political consultant and netroots specialist<BR><P><B>About the Author:</B><BR>Nate Wilcox is a political and public affairs consultant with the WebStrong Group, advising clients such as Senators John Kerry and Tom Harkin on online strategy </p><h4>Donna L. Davey, Margaret Heilbrun - Library Journal</h4><p><P>These two Democratic political consultants offer a rich, even gripping narrative, well sourced, of our century's transformation in political engagement by means of "netroots." The "Deaniacs," the draft Clark effort, the campaign against Tom DeLay, and Jim Webb's unlikely victory (Feld coordinated Webb's online fundraising) are among the stories told here. Feld and Wilcox are not sure what the future holds for the netroots phenomenon, but their book has long-term value for large public and undergraduate libraries. [eBook 978-0-313-34661-3. $43.95.]</P></p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Foreword Markos ("Kos") Moulitsas Zuniga vii<br>Preface xi<br>Acknowledgments xvii<br>Introduction xix<br>Doing Everything Wrong 1<br>Howard Dean and the Killer Ds 11<br>Activists Build a Movement, Insiders Kill It 29<br>Taking on DeLay, Inc. 51<br>What a Difference a Year Makes 75<br>Drafting an American Hero 95<br>Win One, Lose One 123<br>Combat Boots vs. Cowboy Boots 135<br>What's Next for the Netroots? 165<br>Notes 173<br>Bibliography 181<br>Index 191 <p>See also: <strong><a href="http://men-diseases-book.blogspot.com/2009/02/bob-greenes-total-body-makeover-or.html">Bob Greenes Total Body Makeover or Transforming Emotions with Chinese Medicine</a></strong> <h4>The Man from Clear Lake: Earth Day Founder Gaylord Nelson </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Bill Christofferson</strong> <p><p>On Earth Day 1970 twenty million Americans displayed their commitment to a clean environment. It was called the largest demonstration in human history, and it permanently changed the nation's political agenda. By Earth Day 2000 participation had exploded to 500 million people in 167 countries.<p> The seemingly simple idea—a day set aside to focus on protecting our natural environment—was the brainchild of U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. It accomplished, far beyond his expectations, his lifelong goal of putting the environment onto the nation's and the world's political agendas.<p> A remarkable man, Nelson ranks as one of history's leading environmentalists. He also played a major role as an early, outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, and as a senate insider was a key player in civil rights, poverty, civil liberties and consumer protection issues.<p> The life of Nelson, a small town boy who learned his values and progressive political principles at an early age, is woven through the political history of the twentieth century. Nelson's story intersects at times with Fighting Bob La Follette, Joe McCarthy, and Bill Proxmire in Wisconsin, and with George McGovern, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Russell Long, Walter Mondale, John F. Kennedy, and others on the national scene.</p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-44330343383969166172009-02-14T12:41:00.000-08:002009-02-14T12:48:47.698-08:00Lighting the Way or Attack Politics<h4>Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Karenna Gore Schiff</strong> <p><p><P>Karenna Gore Schiff's nationally bestselling narrative tells the fascinating stories of nine influential women, who each in her own way, tackled inequity and advocated change throughout the turbulent twentieth century.</P><P>Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who was born a slave and fought against lynching; Mother Jones, an Irish immigrant who organized coal miners and campaigned against child labor; Alice Hamilton, who pushed for regulation of industrial toxins; Frances Perkins, who developed key New Deal legislation; Virginia Durr, who fought the poll tax and segregation; Septima Clark, who helped to register black voters; Dolores Huerta, who organized farm workers; Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias, an activist for reproductive rights; and Gretchen Buchenholz, one of the nation's leading child advocates.</P> <P>Gore Schiff delivers an intimate and accessible account of the nine trail-blazing women who deserve not only to be honored but to have their example serve as beacons.</P> <P>Karenna Gore Schiff has worked as a journalist, lawyer, and most recently, Director of Community Affairs for the Association to Benefit Children. The eldest daughter of Al and Tipper Gore, she lives in New York City with her husband and two children. This is her first book.</P> </p><h4>The New York Times - Alexandra Starr</h4><p>… it is amazing to contemplate just how much these women were able to accomplish. They were intimately involved in some of the defining crusades of the 20th century, agitating for the end of Jim Crow laws in the South, basic worker protections and child labor regulations.<p> The fact that it's almost incomprehensible today that those policies were ever controversial speaks to the lasting nature of these women's legacies.</p><h4>The Washington Post - Sara Sklaroff</h4><p>That Schiff can write fluently of the faults and failures of these women bespeaks a triumph of feminism: Our heroes are not so fragile that we need coddle their memories. Wells-Barnett allows pride to cloud her judgment; Hamilton makes an incorrect scientific finding about the 1902 Chicago typhoid epidemic that allows city officials to stage a fatal coverup; even Anthony has a bad moment, criticizing Wells-Barnett for having the gall to take a husband. These are not paper-doll heroines: They are fully realized, flesh-and-blood women, flawed but all the more impressive for such complexity … at its best, <i>Lighting the Way</i> is solid popular social history, like a textbook for advanced high school students. By which I mean no insult: If these women's lives were now routinely taught in our schools, Schiff could consider her work a major success.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Schiff, who is most notably Al Gore's oldest daughter and a lawyer and journalist, has put together a collective biography of nine outstanding American women of the 20th century-some unjustly little known. The more celebrated are Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931), an African-American journalist who brought the horrors of lynching to public attention; Mother Jones (c. 1837-1930), an Irish immigrant and lifelong crusader for workers' rights; and Frances Perkins (1882-1965), the first woman Cabinet member, appointed by FDR. Schiff also illuminates less renowned but highly influential figures, including Alice Hamilton (1869-1970) a physician and pioneer in calling attention to the dangers of industrial poisons, and Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987), child of a former slave, who became a teacher and tireless advocate for racial equality. Several of the subjects are still alive, like Dolores Huerta, cofounder with Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers, and Gretchen Buchenholz, who established the Association to Benefit Children. Schiff has done excellent research, and though her prose isn't especially stylish, she shows her heroines as fully rounded figures. She points out, for example, that Wells-Barnett's feud with the NAACP was counterproductive and that Mother Jones's opposition to women's suffrage limited her reach. (Feb. 8) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>KLIATT</h4><p>In this collection of nine biographies, Schiff writes about women who were highly influential in the area of social justice. Some are better known than others, and the author highlights the important contributions of each and also points out some of their mistakes, which made them less effective, but very human. Many of the women knew each other or were strongly influenced by the others; three areas of social justice—workers' rights, women's and children's rights and civil rights—are well represented. Mother Jones, Alice Hamilton and Delores Heurta worked to protect workers' rights and their health; and Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet member worked within the government to create legal protections for workers. Ida B. Wells worked to stop lynching, Virginia Durr to abolish poll taxes, Septima Clark to educate people to be able to vote. Helen Rodriguez-Trias and Gretchen Buchenholz work on children's and women's health issues. These crusaders' childhoods and private lives are part of the larger picture and none are painted as saints, but instead as real women who sacrificed, made mistakes and achieved greatness. This is a wonderful book that will be an inspiration for girls especially. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>In this spirited and engaging first book, Schiff, daughter of former Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore, profiles nine women who helped change the course of history by overcoming injustice in their own lives. Selected because they resonated with Schiff personally, these stories show how "political movements are built from the ground up, often by people who never receive credit for their eventual successes." The book is well researched and illustrated with black-and-white photographs throughout. Biographical details are placed in historical context, resulting in rich portraits that illustrate each woman's impact upon specific conditions of her day. For example, Schiff describes the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in her essay on Frances Perkins, FDR's secretary of labor, and explains the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 that orphaned Ida B. Wells, who became an antilynching activist and journalist. Schiff's other past and present women include the greater and lesser known: Mother Jones, Alice Hamilton, Virginia Durr, Septima Poinsette Clark, Dolores Huerta, Helen Rodriguez-Trias, and Gretchen Buchenholz, who founded the child advocacy organization where Schiff works. A prominent display of the dates of each woman's life would have helped general readers get oriented. Recommended for public libraries.-Donna L. Davey, Tamiment Lib., NYU Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Lawyer and activist Schiff resurrects nine little-known heroines who played a crucial role in America's humanitarian development. The best antidote to current cynicism about politics, notes former vice president Al Gore's eldest, is to offer "stories of those who fought against it by keeping politics grounded in public service." Her narrative of grassroots activism begins with Ida B. Wells's 1890s campaign to bring the lynching of blacks to greater public attention and closes with Gretchen Buchenholz's dogged, ongoing crusade to promote the welfare of New York City's homeless families through the Association to Benefit Children (where Schiff formerly served as director of community affairs). Many of the stories discern the connection between personal experience and the crusade for social justice: After losing her husband and four children during the 1867 yellow-fever epidemic, Mother Jones transformed her devastation into tireless work for miners and children forced into unspeakable labor. Among other women featured is public-health official Alice Hamilton, whose work identifying unsafe factory conditions gained her a grudging invitation to teach at Harvard in 1919, making her the first woman to be appointed to the faculty, and Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet member, who paved an important direction in labor relations under FDR. Virginia Durr and Septima Poinsette Clark, as far apart in race, class and upbringing as two Southern women could be, helped turn back the pernicious tide of racism during the civil-rights era. Mexican-American Dolores Huerta collaborated with Cesar Chavez in establishing basic human rights for farm workers. Placed at the head of the beleaguered LincolnHospital's Pediatrics Collective in the South Bronx in 1970, Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias grew over the years into a passionate critic of forced sterilization and inequities of healthcare. Schiff takes particular note of the fact that many of her subjects sacrificed a happy home life to pursue their missions, entangled in the age-old conflict between family and work. Important reading for young and old alike. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Ida B. Wells-Barnett</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Mother Jones</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">51</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Alice Hamilton</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">95</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Frances Perkins</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">130</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Virginia Durr</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">190</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Septima Poinsette Clark</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">252</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Dolores Huerta</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">297</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Helen Rodriguez-Trias</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">341</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Gretchen Buchenholz</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">390</TD></TABLE> <p>New interesting book: <strong><a href="http://politics-islam.blogspot.com">Against the Terror of Neoliberalism or Fundamentals of Fire Fighter Skills</a></strong> <h4>Attack Politics: Negativity in Presidential Campaigns since 1960 </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Emmett H Buell</strong> <p><p><P>Ask most Americans, and they'll tell you that presidential campaigns get dirtier and more negative with every election. But Emmett Buell and Lee Sigelman suggest that may not be as true as we think. From Jimmy Carter's use of "fear arousal" in attacking Ronald Reagan to George Bush's allusions to the "L word" to disparage Michael Dukakis's liberalism, Buell and Sigelman show how, over the last dozen elections, negativity may have been well publicized but hasn't increased—and that John Kennedy waged the most negative campaign of all.<P>Buell and Sigelman focus on both presidential and vice-presidential nominees as sources and targets of attacks and also examine the actions of surrogate campaigners like the Swift Boat Vets. Drawing on the <I>New York Times</I> as a research base—more than 17,000 campaign statements extracted from nearly 11,000 news items—they provide a more comprehensive assessment of negativity than anything previously attempted.Beginning in 1960, Buell and Sigelman categorize campaigns according to their level of competitiveness—from runaways like 1964 to dead heats like 2000 and 2004—to demonstrate how candidates go negative as circumstances warrant or permit. They break down negativity into different components, showing who attacked whom, how frequently, on what issues, how they did it, and at what point in the campaign. They also compare their findings with previously published accounts of these campaigns—including first-hand accounts by candidates and their confidants. And, as an added bonus, each chapter features "echoes from the campaign trail" that reflect the invective exchanged by rival campaigns. <I>Attack Politics</I> pinsdown much about negative campaigning that has previously been speculated on but never subjected to such systematic research. It offers the best overview yet of modern presidential races and is must reading for anyone interested in the vagaries of those campaigns.This book is part of the <I>Studies in Government and Public Policy</I> series. </p><h4>Donna L. Davey, Margaret Heilbrun - Library Journal</h4><p><P>Political and media junkies will appreciate-and even be surprised by-the who, what, when, and how that Buell (public policy, Denison Univ.) and Sigelman (political science, George Washington Univ.) present up through the 2004 election. Looking at both presidential and vice-presidential nominees, they base their findings on campaign statements quoted in the <i>New York Times</i>, as well as published accounts by those involved in the campaigns. Cogent research and analysis, plus choice quotes, mean this deserves a place in every political history collection.</P></p><h4>What People Are Saying</h4><p><strong>Richard Lau</strong><br>This tour de force joins John Geer's In Defense of Negativity as a 'must read' for all scholars studying negative campaigns, but also for students of political communication, democratic deliberation, and campaign strategy more generally. (Richard Lau, author of <I>Negative Campaigning: An Analysis of U.S. Senate Campaigns</I>) </p><br><p><strong>James W. Ceaser</strong><br>In this remarkable book Buell and Sigelman provide not only the most systematic treatment of negative campaigning, but also the best account yet written of the development of the modern presidential campaign. Both political scientists and practitioners will want to have this work ready at hand in their library; it is the indispensable 'bible' on the subject. (James W. Ceaser, coauthor of <I>Red over Blue: The 2004 Elections and American Politics</I>) </p><br><p><strong>Richard Lau</strong><br><P>This tour de force joins John Geer's In Defense of Negativity as a 'must read' for all scholars studying negative campaigns, but also for students of political communication, democratic deliberation, and campaign strategy more generally. (Richard Lau, author of <I>Negative Campaigning: An Analysis of U.S. Senate Campaigns</I>) </p><br><p><strong>James W. Ceaser</strong><br><P>In this remarkable book Buell and Sigelman provide not only the most systematic treatment of negative campaigning, but also the best account yet written of the development of the modern presidential campaign. Both political scientists and practitioners will want to have this work ready at hand in their library; it is the indispensable 'bible' on the subject. (James W. Ceaser, coauthor of <I>Red over Blue: The 2004 Elections and American Politics</I>) </p><br><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-30016633055278375152009-02-13T07:28:00.000-08:002009-02-13T07:35:11.157-08:00Charlie Wilsons War or Your Government Failed You<h4>Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History </h4> <p>Author: <strong>George Cril</strong> <p><p>In a little over a decade, two events have transformed the world we live in: the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of militant Islam. Charlie Wilson's War is the untold story behind the last battle of the Cold War and how it fueled the new jihad. George Crile tells how Charlie Wilson, a maverick congressman from east Texas, conspired with a rogue CIA operative to launch the biggest, meanest, and most successful covert operation in the Agency's history. <br><br> In the early 1980s, after a Houston socialite turned Wilson's attention to the ragged band of Afghan "freedom fighters" who continued, despite overwhelming odds, to fight the Soviet invaders, the congressman became passionate about their cause. At a time when Ronald Reagan faced a total cutoff of funding for the Contra war, Wilson, who sat on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee, managed to procure hundreds of millions of dollars to support the mujadiheen. The arms were secretly procured and distributed with the aid of an out-of-favor CIA operative, Gust Avrakotos, whose working-class Greek-American background made him an anomaly among the Ivy League world of American spies. Nicknamed "Dr. Dirty," the blue-collar James Bond was an aggressive agent who served on the front lines of the Cold War where he learned how to stretch the Agency's rules to the breaking point. <br><br> Avrokotos handpicked a staff of CIA outcasts to run his operation: "Hilly Billy," the logistics wizard who could open an unnumbered Swiss bank account for the U.S. government in twelve hours when others took months; Art Alper, the grandfatherly demolitions expert from the Technical Services Division who passed on his dark arts to the Afghans; Mike Vickers, the former Green Beret who created a systematic plan to turn a rabble of shepherds into an army of techno Holy warriors. <br><br> Moving from the back rooms of the Capitol, to secret chambers at Langley, to arms-dealers conventions, to the Khyber Pass, Charlie Wilson's War is brilliantly reported and one of the most detailed and compulsively readable accounts of the inside workings of the CIA ever written. </p><h4>The New York Times</h4><p><i>Charlie Wilson's War</i> is a behind-the-scenes chronicle of a program that is still largely classified. Crile does not provide much insight into his reporting methods, but the book appears to be based on interviews with a number of the principals. The result is a vivid narrative, though a reader may wonder how much of this story is true in exactly the way Crile presents it. Still, few people who remember Wilson's years in Washington would discount even the wildest tales. — <i>David Johnston</i></p><h4>The Washington Post</h4><p>The stories George Crile tells in <i>Charlie Wilson's War</i> must be true -- nobody could make them up. This is a rousing tale of jihad on the frontiers of the Cold War, infighting at the CIA and horse-trading in Congress, spiced by sex, booze, ambition and larger-than-life personalities. — <i>Thomas Lippman</i> </p><h4>Ken Auletta</h4><p>An amazing tale, made all the more amazing because it was missed by the press. George Crile has written a book revealing the extraordinary details and intrigue of a secret war, and that alone would be a monumental achievement. But he has also written a book about how power works in Washington, about how the C.I.A. succeeded in this war but failed because it armed an ally who became our enemy, about how we might better understand Islamic fundamentalism, about how a solitary Congressman guilefully moved the U.S. government, and all of this comes with a breathtaking cast of characters worthy of a LeCarre novel. Only it's all true. And just as vivid.</p><h4>Dan Rather</h4><p>Americans often ask: 'Where have all the heroes gone?' Well a lot of them come roaring through in this tour de force of reporting and writing. Tom Clancy's fiction pales in comparison with the amazing, mesmerizing story told by George Crile. By resurrecting a missing chapter out of our recent past, Charlie Wilson's War provides us with the key to understanding the present.</p><h4>Christian Science Monitor - Gerard DeGroot</h4><p>A cross between Tom Clancy and Carl Hiassen, with the distinguishing feature that it's all apparently true. . . . Throw in a middle-aged Texan belly dancer, an assortment of Congressional looinies, a few beauty queens, some ruthless Afghan rebels, and a murderous Pakistani dictator who only wants to be understood.</p><h4>PW Daily</h4><p>Crucial and timely. . . . Criles book, with its investigative verve and gripping narrative, is a comprehensive political assessment and sobering account of the power structures that run parallel to, but apparently unknown by, official government authorities.</p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Put the Tom Clancy clones back on the shelf; this covert-ops chronicle is practically impossible to put down. No thriller writer would dare invent Wilson, a six-feet-four-inch Texas congressman, liberal on social issues but rabidly anti-Communist, a boozer, engaged in serial affairs and wheeler-dealer of consummate skill. Only slightly less improbable is Gust Avrakotos, a blue-collar Greek immigrant who joined the CIA when it was an Ivy League preserve and fought his elitist colleagues almost as ruthlessly as he fought the Soviet Union in the Cold War's waning years. In conjunction with President Zia of Pakistan in the 1980s, Wilson and Arvakotos circumvented most of the barriers to arming the Afghan mujahideen-distance, money, law and internal CIA politics, to name a few. Their coups included getting Israeli-modified Chinese weapons smuggled into Afghanistan, with the Pakistanis turning a blind eye, and the cultivation of a genius-level weapons designer and strategist named Michael Vickers, a key architect of the guerrilla campaign that left the Soviet army stymied. The ultimate weapon in Afghanistan was the portable Stinger anti-aircraft missile, which eliminated the Soviet's Mi-24 helicopter gunships and began the train of events leading to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and its satellites. A triumph of ruthless ability over scruples, this story has dominated recent history in the form of blowback: many of the men armed by the CIA became the Taliban's murderous enforcers and Osama bin Laden's protectors. Yet superb writing from Crile, a 60 Minutes producer, will keep even the most vigorous critics of this Contra-like affair reading to the end. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Raymond Puffer - KLIATT</h4><p>This is a fast-paced and highly colored account, presumably true, of how a freewheeling Congressman teamed up with an Oliver North-ish CIA employee to funnel arms and money to the Afghan <I>mujahideen</I> fighting the Soviet takeover of their country. The subtitle pretty well sums up not only what the book is about, but also its literary style and its target audience. Author George Crile is a CBS television producer, and has put his Washington insider's knowledge to good use. Representative Charles Wilson (D-TX), a 60ish and undeniably handsome politician, was frequently described as a freewheeling party boy with a perennial midlife crisis. Never really a Congressional insider in spite of his longevity, he was most noted for an extremely hawkish view of foreign affairs. The Speaker of the House viewed him as something of a loose cannon, but also as someone who could be useful if he could be held in check. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan brought everything together. Wilson leapt into extracurricular action, making under-the-table connections and deals that raised money, bought weapons, and got them into rebel hands. In the end he not only helped the mountain guerillas but also managed to spare his party and the House Leadership some discomfort. The combination of James Bond-like action, a noble cause, and sexual escapades proves too much for Crile, and he makes the most of the story. His narrative is fast-moving, supercharged, and overheated, chock-full of high drama and sexual innuendo. In short, it is great fun. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2003, Grove Press, 550p. illus. notes. index., Ages 15 to adult.</p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>A follow-up to "Charlie Did It," a piece on CBS's 60 Minutes that Crile produced with Robert Anderson in 1990, this book is an account of Texas representative Wilson's efforts to aid covert CIA activities to get military aid to Afghanistan's Mujahideen guerrillas, who were fighting the occupying Soviet Red Army in the 1980s. As a member of the powerful House Defense Appropriations and Intelligence Oversight committees, Wilson was in a good position to play a role in the "Great Game" and may have seen himself as a new Lawrence of Arabia. This work must be based on unacknowledged interviews with the main participants, for there is no bibliography and few reference notes; more documentation could surely have been provided. With its colorful international cast of characters, this book provides powerful background for understanding our current predicament. But while this may have been the largest covert operation in U.S. history, it was not the most important; that honor goes to Operation Bodyguard, which hid the D-day invasion plan from Hitler. An interesting and readable story that is suitable for academic and large public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/02; illustrations and index not seen.]-Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>So, let's see. We arm Afghan rebels to fight the Soviets. The Afghans drive the Russians out of their country. We ignore the Afghans. They stew for a few years and hook up with Osama bin Laden. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Introduction: A Strange Award at Langley <br> <p>See also: <strong><a href="http://canadian-cooking.blogspot.com/2009/02/alcohol-gender-and-culture-or-single.html">Alcohol Gender and Culture or Single Malt Whiskey</a></strong> <h4>Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Richard A Clark</strong> <p><p>Richard Clarke's dramatic statement to the grieving families during the 9/11 Commission hearings touched a raw nerve across America. Not only had our government failed to prevent the 2001 terrorist attacks, but it has proven itself, time and again, incapable of handling the majority of our most crucial national security issues, from Iraq to Katrina and beyond. This is not just a temporary failure of our current leadership—it is a systemic problem, the result of a pattern of incompetence that must be understood, confronted, and prevented. Clarke's first book, the number one bestseller <i>Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror</i>, explained how the United States had stumbled into a struggle with violent Islamist extremists. Now, in <i>Your Government Failed You</i>, Clarke looks at why these unconscionable failures have continued and how America and the world can succeed against the terrorists. Yet Clarke also goes far beyond terrorism, to examine the inexcusable chain of recurring U.S. government disasters. Despite the lessons of Vietnam, there is Iraq. A trail of intelligence failures litters the Washington landscape. From Katrina to color codes and duct tape, "homeland security" has been an oxymoron. Why does the superpower continue to bobble national security? <p>Clarke minces no words in his examination of the breadth and depth of the mediocrity, entropy, and collapse endemic in America's national security programs. In order for the United States to stop its string of strategic mistakes, we first need to understand why they happen. Drawing on his thirty years in the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community, Clarke gives us a privileged, if horrifying, look into the debacle of government policies, discovering patterns in the failures and offering ways to stop the cycle once and for all. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>With more than 30 years of government experience, Clarke knows what he's talking about when he says government is failing American citizens. He spends a tremendous amount of time exploring how and where specific areas of the government are failing the public. Listeners will be reeling at Clarke's words; he doesn't hesitate to assign blame to specific individuals, including himself and others who are still in power. What is missing from his book is legitimate ways of fixing and mending the long-term problems of government in an election-driven political environment. Clarke attempts to address this, but fails to fully comprehend the numerous powers needed to generate some of the transitions that he wants. Clarke has a decent voice, though often his staggered speech reminds one of William Shatner. Like many nonprofessional narrators, the production abounds with body shifting, throat noises and other distracting sounds. A HarperCollins hardcover. <BR>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-30857912312582138522009-02-12T02:16:00.000-08:002009-02-12T02:23:02.461-08:00When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden or The Destruction of the European Jews<h4>When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden: What the Government Should be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Bill Maher</strong> <p><p>A book with original new posters for America's new war… from Bill Maher…that takes some explaining! In a nutshell…these are posters with messages of how everyone can do things to help fight future terrorism, the kind of posters our government SHOULD be making and plastering everywhere. <p> Since we live in an era where pandering is expected and therefore essential to politics, the American government no longer asks citizens to sacrifice, as it did in World War I, World War II and during the Cold War. In posters from those eras we see a government unafraid to call upon its people to curb travel, save tin, buy bonds or plant a garden. <p> Maher has looked through books of these old posters (several will be reprinted at the beginning of the book), and some from 60 or 80 years ago are eerily perfect for today's struggle. "Should brave men die so you can drive?" Our government does not make that same link for its citizens today, although it is just as true. Rather the current administration spent government millions on an ad campaign we've all seen, "I helped the terrorists by doing drugs," even though drugs fund a negligible amount of terrorist activity and oil, ultimately, almost all of it. Whenever somebody tells Maher that drugs fund terrorism, he always says, "It's SUVs that fund terrorism." That, and messages like that, is what these posters say. How can we think differently and act differently to live safer in a better world. <p> This is a practical book - chock-full of things that can actually be done. When we become smarter, more caring, less materialistic, less myopic and greedy…we will win. We will all win! Maher says, "Since I'm NOT the government, some of my posters exhort us to put the kind of pressure on the government itself that would result for example, in airport security personnel with at least a high school diploma." <p> About the Author: In 1993 comic Bill Maher created the perfect forum for his quick-witted comedic talents: "Politically Incorrect." He brought together some of the most interesting politicians, entertainers, and journalists to participate in some of the most controversial, topical comical discussions. On September 9, 2001, a remark he made on his show caused quite an uproar: "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away, that's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly." <p> On 6/28/02 "Politically Incorrect" went off the air…leaving a big void. <p> Maher was born in New York and raised in River Vale, NJ. He graduated from Cornell University with a degree in English. He currently resides in Los Angeles. He and his show won four cable Ace Awards and was nominated for an Emmy in 2001. He is the author of Does Anybody Have a Problem With It: Politically Incorrect's Greatest Hits. He has had five HBO specials, and has made many appearances on Letterman and Leno.</p><h4>Book Magazine</h4><p>Maher targets terrorism in this book of essays that challenge our national addictions to oil, drugs and SUVs. "The countries that have the money to offer large cash awards to the families of suicide bombers ... are getting that money from people using lots of oil, " he points out. Maher is known for his controversial opinions, but the arguments he presents are really just common sense. In the end, his revealing ideas are less radical than patriotic. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Maher, host of the now-defunct TV debate show Politically Incorrect (which many believe was canceled in response to Maher's riff on the word "cowardly" after the September 11 attacks), brings his latest series of irreverent rants to audio. As the title (inspired by a WWII poster) indicates, this time his target is our nation's role in the war on terrorism. Though he initially sounds a bit restrained, Maher soon warms to his role as reader and gives the spirited, slick and sarcastic delivery for which he's so well known. His opinions on airport security, a spoiled citizenry, empty demonstrations of patriotism and Americans' love affair with cars (which creates a dependence on oil), may dilute some political fine points, but they contain the kind of factoids ("If we increased fuel efficiency by 2.7 miles per gallon, it would eliminate our need for oil from the Persian Gulf") and commonsense logic that often get the so-called "average Joe" riled up. Fans will delight in the Maher-isms that abound here (e.g., many Muslims think of bin Laden as "Michael Jordan, Bill Gates and Batman all rolled into one"). And throughout, Maher keeps listeners in-the-now with qualifiers like "at the time this audio was recorded," befitting his reputation as an outspoken observer of current events. Several postcard reproductions of WWII-style posters created for the book are included in the packaging. Simultaneous release with the New Millennium hardcover (Forecasts, Nov. 4). (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Maher is going to tick off a lot of people with this book-and he's happy to do so. The controversial host of the recently canceled TV show Politically Incorrect delivers his views on everything from the stupidity of airline security measures and legalizing marijuana to the futility of sticking flags on our cars as a way of showing support for the "war on terrorism." "Bull puckey!" says Maher and proceeds to infuriate, agitate, irritate, and lambaste most of the government's actions following the events of September 11, 2001. He spares no one in his denunciation of what he considers ineffective reactions to the attacks on our country. Do you drive an SUV? Do you put up a lavish display of Christmas lights on your front lawn every year? Do you believe the "war" on drugs is winnable? Well, be prepared to be caustically told that you're part of our country's problems. The author is a satirist and an astute political commentator who spares few people in his description of what he feels is wrong with this country. All libraries should add this item to their audio collections-and then wait for the barrage of complaints from patrons who will vehemently disagree with Maher's observations.-Joseph L. Carlson, Allan Hancock Coll., Lompoc, CA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>School Library Journal</h4><p>Adult/High School-At first glance, the format of this volume might fool readers into thinking that they are looking at a comedic picture book. The cover, a take-off on a World War II U.S. propaganda poster, shows Maher driving along with a ghostly Osama bin Laden. The book tells readers that to waste gasoline (read oil) by driving alone in an SUV is to help the enemy. The author feels that not enough has been done to prevent further catastrophic terrorist attacks and contends that the government involved the public during World War II by making the best use of propaganda. He argues that Americans have been led to believe that the current war can best be fought if we go about business as usual, pay less in taxes, and continue to buy consumer goods, even if they tie us to regimes in the Middle East known to be financing terror. This book is filled with controversial and perhaps politically incorrect statements, and each essay is likely to provoke a good argument; posters designed for this title illustrate the author's thesis. For example, one depicts SUVs ("Selfish Use Vehicles") adorned with American flags and shows his impatience with people who, after September 11, turned their vehicles into "traveling country fairs." Teens should be taken with this opportunity to validate their opinions or to reevaluate their life choices. The sexually explicit and irreverent language will be familiar to most high school students.-Don Guerriero, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>What People Are Saying</h4><p><strong>Michael Moore</strong><br>Bill Maher has the courage to speak his mind-no matter what the consequences-something you can't say about most people these days. And he's damn funny! Now, more than ever, the country needs his outrage. Agree or disagree with him, there is no question that what he has written in this book should be front and center in the great national debate and I, for one, am thrilled that this cantankerous s.o.b. is still there doing battle for the republic we all love.</p><br><p><strong>Larry King</strong><br>Bill Maher has inherited the mantle of Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift and he wears it with aplomb. If he were living in any other time or in one of many other countries he would truly be in danger of being put to death for his legendary ability to say the unthinkable and say it better (and before) anyone else. When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden is destined to be the most talked about book of the year</p><br><p><strong>Al Franken</strong><br>After September 11th, when Bill Maher offended easily-offended people with a widely (and in many cases, deliberately) misunderstood remark, Ari Fleisher said that people need to watch what they say and do. In this very funny but ultimately serious, provocative but truly patriotic book, Bill prescribes what Americans can do to defend our nation. And please put this blurb as far away from Ann Coulter's as possible.</p><br><p><strong>Ann Coulter</strong><br>Bill Maher loves America, hates conventional thinking, and, despite his curmudgeonly image, has a heart of gold. In the war on terrorism, we could use a little less tolerance and sensitivity and a little more manly anger. In this book, Bill leads the way hilariously.</p><br><br><br> <p>Interesting textbook: <strong><a href="http://accounting-software-books.blogspot.com/2009/02/microsoft-office-2007-or-essentials-of.html">Microsoft Office 2007 or Essentials of Business Information Systems</a></strong> <h4>The Destruction of the European Jews (Third Edition) </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Raul Hilberg</strong> <p><p>The Destruction of the European Jews is widely considered the landmark study of the Holocaust. First published in 1961, Raul Hilberg's comprehensive account of how Germany annihilated the Jewish community of Europe spurred discussion, galvanized further research, and shaped the entire field of Holocaust studies. This revised and expanded edition of Hilberg's classic work extends the scope of his study and includes 80,000 words of new material, particularly from recently opened archives in eastern Europe, added over a lifetime of research. It is the definitive work of a scholar who has devoted more than fifty years to exploring and analyzing the realities of the Holocaust.<p>Spanning the twelve-year period of anti-Jewish actions from 1933 to 1945, Hilberg's study encompasses Germany and all the territories under German rule or influence. Its principal focus is on the large number of perpetrators — civil servants, military personnel, Nazi party functionaries, SS men, and representatives of private enterprises — in the machinery of death. <p>Author Biography: Raul Hilberg is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Vermont </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-32464047088047537922009-02-10T21:03:00.000-08:002009-02-10T21:10:47.081-08:00Quest for Absolute Security or Another City<h4>Quest for Absolute Security: The Failed Relations Among U.S. Intelligence Agencies </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Athan Theoharis</strong> <p><p>In its 2004 report on 9/11, the Kean Commission criticized U.S. intelligence for having failed to anticipate the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Basing its findings on the premise of absolute security, the commission faulted the FBI for not adopting a creative and aggressive approach to the terrorist threat, and both the FBI and the CIA for their inadequate cooperation. But, says distinguished historian Athan Theoharis in his new book, absolute security is an illusory quest that is certain to nurture disappointment-and worse. His compelling analysis traces the troubled history of relations among American intelligence agencies and points out the historical myopia that characterizes the Kean Commission's findings and recommendations. </p><h4>Political Science Quarterly</h4><p>Provides expert history as an important context for understanding the lead-up to current debates and controversies on how to organize, operate, and protect homeland security in the wake of September 11. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Award-winning FBI historian Theoharis (The FBI and American Democracy, 2004, etc.) brings a unique perspective to the question of how and why the intelligence community failed to uncover the 9/11 terrorists and prevent the attack. His balanced, meticulously researched history begins in 1882, when the Office of Naval Intelligence was established. Theoharis describes the proliferation of intelligence agencies over the 100 years since the formation of the FBI in 1908, but dismisses this as a principal cause of the 9/11 failure. Instead, he blames the intelligence community's cult of excessive secrecy, which he attributes to their attempt "to shape the political culture" by focusing more on extralegal political subversion than on potential criminal activities. He describes how this attitude was abetted by the willingness of presidents from FDR on to empower the extralegal activities of the FBI-and later the CIA and NSA-by using secret executive authorizations to bypass congressional oversight. He disagrees with many of the conclusions of the National Commission on Terrorist Acts, which in 2004 cited deficiencies in information-sharing as the primary reason for the intelligence breakdown prior to 9/11. Theoharis also disagrees with the commission's recommendation that oversight be centralized in the executive branch, calling for more congressional oversight rather than less. Using the intelligence services to consolidate their own power has been a prime objective of many presidents, he contends, and it has led to significant intelligence failures and constitutional abuses. An important, provocative book, sure to be widely discussed. </p><h4>What People Are Saying</h4><p><strong>John Prados</strong><br>"<I>The Quest for Absolute Security</I> shows anew his mastery of the Bureau's history." </p><br><p><strong>Geoffrey R. Stone</strong><br>"Convincingly demonstrates the dangers to liberty inherent in the...authority over intelligence activities and the need for aggressive congressional oversight."--(Geoffrey R. Stone, author of <I>War and Liberty: An American Dilemma</I>) </p><br><p><strong>Nadine Strossen</strong><br>"Theoharis's compelling and timely book showcases the history of civil liberties in our society....a penetrating, persuasive assessment."--(Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, and professor of law at New York Law School) </p><br><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Acknowledgments vii<br>Introduction 3<br>The Origins of U.S. Intelligence, 1882-1919 11<br>A Period of Transition, 1919-1936 28<br>The Origins of the National Security State, 1936-1945: Part I, Domestic Intelligence 46<br>The Origins of the National Security State, 1940-1945: Part II, Foreign Intelligence 82<br>Bureaucracy and Centralization, 1945-1952 99<br>Secrecy and the Loss of Accountability, 1952-1965 131<br>The Breakdown of the Cold War Consensus, 1965-1978 170<br>Reaffirmation of the National Security State, 1979-2005 221<br>Hopes and Realities 262<br>Notes 269<br>Index 294 <p>Book about: <strong><a href="http://canadian-cooking.blogspot.com/2009/02/one-dish-meals-from-popular-cuisines-or.html">One Dish Meals from Popular Cuisines or Six Plates Over Texas</a></strong> <h4>Another City: Urban Life and Urban Spaces in the New American Republic </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Dell Upton</strong> <p><p><P>In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, burgeoning American cities like New Orleans and Philadelphia seemed increasingly chaotic. Noise, odors, and a feverish level of activity on the streets threatened to overwhelm the senses. Growing populations placed new demands on every aspect of the urban landscape—streets, parks, schools, asylums, cemeteries, markets, waterfronts, and more. In this unique exploration of the early history of urban architecture and design, leading architectural historian Dell Upton reveals the fascinating confluence of sociological, cultural, and psychological factors that shaped American cities in the antebellum years.</P><P> </P><P>Through contemporary travel accounts, diaries, and correspondence, as well as maps, architectural drawings, paintings, and prints—many previously unpublished—Upton investigates not only <I>how</I> buildings were designed, streets were laid out, and urban space was put to use, but also <I>why</I>. He offers original insights into the way cities were imagined, and an extensive selection of illustrations recreates the various features of the urban landscape in the nineteenth century. </P><P> </P> </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-15292992528273303672009-02-09T15:51:00.000-08:002009-02-09T15:58:26.410-08:00Making Waves and Riding the Currents or Schmoozing with Terrorists<h4>Making Waves and Riding the Currents: Activism and the Practice of Wisdom </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Charles Halpern</strong> <p><p>This inspiring memoir is about working for a more just, compassionate, and sustainable world, while cultivating the wisdom that supports and deepens this work. Everyone who is trying to make waves - to bring about needed social and institutional change - will enjoy this real-world guide to effectively navigating the currents to achieve success while also maintaining balance, compassion, and hope. Charles Halpern, one of America's most distinguished public interest advocates and social innovators, shares his revealing experiences and learnings along a journey from corporate attorney to activist and social entrepreneur. People of all ages will learn about integrating the inner and outer work of their lives through the practice of wisdom. </p><br><br> <p>Look this: <strong><a href="http://sobre-livros.blogspot.com/2009/02/lei-de-contrato-basica-de-paralegals-5e.html">Lei de Contrato Básica de Paralegals, 5E</a></strong> <h4>Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal Their Global Plans--to a Jew! </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Aaron Klein</strong> <p><p>In a time of unprecedented danger for the West, it's crucial that Americans understand the true nature of the adversaries we face and how we are making them bolder each day. Join Aaron Klein, award-winning journalist and radio commentator, as he schmoozes and kvetches with radical clerics, suicide bombers, the parents of potential child "martyrs" and the leaders of the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations. Here's the real story behind today's war headlines, told from the unique perspective of a Jew meeting—and eating—with his deadliest enemies. Among the highlights of Schmoozing with Terrorists: Why do the terrorists tell Klein that Hillary Clinton is the jihadist choice for president? Which anti-war politicians and celebrities meddling in Middle East politics are jihadist favorites? What compels someone to blow themselves up in order to kill others? What would day-to-day life be like in America if the terrorists win? (Madonna and Britney Spears take note!) </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-51964936091503111422009-02-08T10:38:00.000-08:002009-02-08T10:45:35.857-08:00Power Energy and the New Russian Imperialism or And His Lovely Wife<h4>Power, Energy, and the New Russian Imperialism (PSI Reports Series) </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Anita Orban</strong> <p><p>Russia is the world's foremost energy superpower, rivaling Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer and accounting for a quarter of the world's exports of natural gas. Russia's energy reserves account for half of the world's probable oil reserves and a third of the world's proven natural gas reserves. Whereas military might and nuclear weapons formed the core of Soviet cold war power, since 1991 the Russian state has viewed its monopolistic control of Russia's energy resources as the core of its power now and for the future. Since 2005, the international news has been filled with Russia's repeated demonstrations of its readiness to use price, transit fees, and supply of gas and oil exports as punitive policy instruments against recalcitrant states that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, striking in turn the Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, and Lithuania. Orban reveals for the first time in Power, Energy, and the New Russian Imperialism Russia's readiness to wield the same energy weapon against her neighbors on the west, all of them former Soviet satellite states but now EU and NATO member nations: the three Baltic nations and the five East European nations of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia. Orban shows how the Kremlin since 1991 has systematically used Russian energy companies as players in a concerted neo-mercantilist, energy-based foreign policy designed to further Russia's neo-imperial ambitions among America's key allies in Central East Europe. Her unprecedented analysis is key to predicting Russia's strategic response to American negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic to host the US missile shield. She alsoreveals the economic and diplomatic modus operandi by which Russia will increasingly apply its energy clout to shape and coerce the foreign policies of the West European members of the EU, as Russia's contribution to EU gas consumption increases from a quarter today to three-quarters by 2020. Orban proves that Russia's neo-mercantilist energy strategy in East Europe is not at all dependent on the person of Putin, but began under Yeltsin and continues under Medvedev, the former chairman of Gazprom. </p><br><br> <p>See also: <strong><a href="http://economic-development-book.blogspot.com/2009/02/bloody-business-or-immigrant-acts.html">A Bloody Business or Immigrant Acts</a></strong> <h4>. . . And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Connie Schultz</strong> <p><p>The first time I heard it, I laughed.<br>Oh, come on, I thought. He didn’t just say that.<br>We were at a restaurant in southern Ohio, where a hundred or so Democrats and a handful of young campaign workers had gathered to hear my husband, Sherrod Brown, announce for the seventh time in two days why he was running for the United States Senate. <br>The party chairman of the county stood up at the lectern and in a loud, booming voice, introduced “Congressman Sherrod Brown–and his lovely wife.”<br>By Week 40 of the campaign, I had been introduced that way nearly a hundred times. I stopped counting once we hit the 50 marker. I knew I was not the point at these gatherings, and I was so proud of the man who was.<br>Also, I realized I was getting cranky about something I could not change. If I couldn’t rely on a sense of humor, I was in for one long year on the campaign trail.<br><br>Writing with her trademark warmth, wit, and common sense, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz reveals the rigors, adrenaline joys, and absolute madness of a new marriage at midlife and campaigning with her husband, now the junior senator from Ohio. She describes the chain of events leading up to Sherrod’s decision to campaign for Senate (he would not run without his wife’s unequivocal support) in a state where no Democrat had won statewide office for twelve years. She writes about the moment her friends in the press became not so friendly; the constant campaign demands on her marriage and family life; a personal tragedy that came out of the blue. She gives us a candid behind-the-scenes look at the often ludicrous trials and tribulations of being anopinionated columnist, a political wife, and a newly married woman in her forties, and the rigors of political life: audacious bloggers, ruthless adversaries, campaign fatigue, political divas, the no-small-planes agreement, and staffers young enough to be her children suddenly directing her and her husband’s every move.<br>Filled with eye-opening revelations about the election process, . . . <i>and His Lovely Wife</i> illuminates through one woman’s story a marriage, our political system, our working lives, and our nation. Connie Schultz is outspoken, passionate, and very public about her opinions–in other words, every political consultant’s nightmare, and every reader’s dream. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p><P>Schultz (<I>Life Happens</I>) gives a frank and adoring account of standing by her man, Sherrod Brown, in his run for U.S. Senate from Ohio. Ashtabula-bred Schultz and Democratic Congressman Brown, both middle-aged, longtime divorced single parents, married in 2004, and by the middle of the next year had decided he would quit his congressional seat and oppose two-term Republican Sen. Mike DeWine. While a supportive and loving wife, Schultz is also a feminist, devoted to her work as a journalist (she won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005); she reluctantly gave in to the pressure to take a sabbatical from her <I>Cleveland Plain Dealer</I>column during the course of the campaign. However, she became a valuable tool to her husband's success, from forcing his handlers to give the exhausted candidate time to recoup to trotting out her working-class family's hard-luck story when convenient. There are many funny moments (Brown was criticized for his unruly curls and his "cheap suits"), and DeWine's negative ads (led by Republican strategist Karl Rove) prompted Brown's team, in Hillary Clinton's words, to "deck him" with an ad of its own. (Schultz's own newspaper didn't endorse Brown.) Eventually, he won, and Schultz could happily return to her column. Her diary is upbeat, sometimes overly but affably composed. <I>(July)</I></P>Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information </p><h4>Joel W. Tscherne - Library Journal</h4><p><P>Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at the <i>Cleveland Plain Dealer</i>, is married to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio. In early 2006, she took a leave of absence from the newspaper both to work on her husband's campaign and to avoid any criticism for partisan writing. Here, she recounts the ups and downs of his eventually successful campaign, particularly in the face of new styles of journalism, mounting campaign costs, and the stress of running for office (Brown was long considered the underdog). She also discusses the campaign's effect on their personal lives, including the touching story of her father's impassioned support of her husband and the pain of his death early in the campaign. Finally, she assesses the complexity of appealing to a wide range of potential voters without sacrificing their own core beliefs, particularly in traditionally Republican sections of the state. While not meant as an academic study of modern political campaigning, the book does an excellent job of articulating the ordeal. Strongly recommended for public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, <i>LJ</i>2/1/07.]</p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Schultz may have won a Pulitzer Prize, a Robert F. Kennedy Award, two National Headliner awards, and more, but during husband Sherrod Brown's successful run for Congress, she was just his "lovely wife." A smart insider's view of campaigning. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Is Ohio's junior senator planning a 2012 run for president?For someone who claims to have at one point been uncomfortable with campaigning, Schultz (Life Happens, 2006), a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and wife of Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), sure does enough of it in this book. The story of her life during election season opens two years after Schultz and Brown married, and two weeks after Brown decided to give up a safe congressional seat to run against Mike DeWine, a two-term Republican incumbent in 2004's most famous swing state. One morning, as Schultz watched, two men in bespoke suits leap out of a car and attempt to steal the family's garbage. They were thwarted by Schultz and her disabled dog, but, clearly, the stage was set for drama. The campaign only got dirtier from there: Soon DeWine's attack ads were using images of 9/11; critics demanded to know why Schultz kept her name; and Brown's ex-wife had to clarify that, though they may have endured a bitter divorce, Brown is neither a bad man nor a wife beater. While Schultz delivers a chilling account of the hits she, her family and her career took, giving the now-cliched term "battleground state" new life, she often dwells too lovingly on minor slights-it seems every reporter, every senior citizen, every blogger who slighted her or her husband is mentioned here-and wastes time establishing salt-of-the-earth credibility for herself and her husband when she could be bringing their characters to life. The book has all the elements we've seen in the autobiographies of politicians preparing a big run: canned home truths; hard-knock upbringings; genealogies proving a connection to the common man; and-most irritating of all-attemptsto humanize through small "quirky" details. We learn, for example, that Schultz likes Brown's hair curly, not cropped, and that Brown does romantic things for their anniversary-but Brown himself remains a cipher. A book disappointingly devoid of substance. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-83356948019607485542009-02-07T05:26:00.000-08:002009-02-07T05:33:06.705-08:00A Bloody Business or Immigrant Acts<h4>A Bloody Business: America's War Zone Contractors and the Occupation of Iraq </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Gerald Schumacher</strong> <p><p>As the U.S. Army shrinks, a private army steps into the breach. <i>A Bloody Business</i> offers an unprecedented look behind the scenes and into the ranks of this mercenary force (numbering as many as 15,000 today) who guard supply convoys, train foreign soldiers, provide security for foreign leaders and dignitaries—and whose workplaces are the most dangerous hot spots on the planet. With its insights into who these men are, what drives them, where they come from, how they prepare, and what they do, this book provides a uniquely close-up and complete picture of the private army behind America’s military muscle. <br> <br>The author interviewed security contractors and their families, high-ranking coalition officials, and was in Iraq, where he witnessed how private soldiers fought ambushes, trained Iraqi forces, escorted high-level officials in dangerous conditions, and saw the contractor side of the Iraq war. Includes action on the supply lines and front lines of this unique conflict, and the stories of the contractors who live it every day. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Retired army colonel Schumacher polishes the public image of private wartime contractors in this informative if relentlessly glowing account of these "unrecognized and unappreciated patriots" in Iraq and Kuwait. Schumacher gained access to employees from contracting firms MPRI and Crescent Security, and his perspective is one of deep affection and respect-for people who put themselves in harm's way to provide security for diplomats, to move convoys of precious materials and to rebuild the broken infrastructure of war-torn countries. Describing the day-to-day operations of the trucking, training and security contractors he interviewed in Kuwait and Iraq, Schumacher argues that they don't work for the money (MPRI workers' pay comes to under $20 an hour) but out of a sense of adventure, patriotism and expertise. The author's voice is unpretentious but swaggering, tough but sentimental; he's as critical of the Bush administration for its ill-conceived strategies as of the media for what he considers prejudice. There's not much in the way of subtle policy debate or comprehensive analysis ("Department of Defense outsourcing to civilian contractors is an efficient, short-term solution"), but Schumacher writes with a keen sense of justice and empathy as he recounts the harrowing tales of these contractors-for-hire. B&w photos. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. </p><br><br> <p>New interesting book: <strong><a href="http://business-textbook.blogspot.com/2009/02/technology-and-strategy-or-business.html">Technology and Strategy or Business Data Communications</a></strong> <h4>Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Lisa Low</strong> <p><p>In Immigrant Acts, Lisa Lowe argues that understanding Asian immigration to the United States is fundamental to understanding the racialized economic and political foundations of the nation. Lowe discusses the contradictions whereby Asians have been included in the workplaces and markets of the U.S. nation-state, yet, through exclusion laws and bars from citizenship, have been distanced from the terrain of national culture.<p>Lowe argues that a national memory haunts the conception of Asian American, persisting beyond the repeal of individual laws and sustained by U.S. wars in Asia, in which the Asian is seen as the perpetual immigrant, as the "foreigner-within." In Immigrant Acts, she argues that rather than attesting to the absorption of cultural difference into the universality of the national political sphere, the Asian immigrant-at odds with the cultural, racial, and linguistic forms of the nation-displaces the temporality of assimilation. Distance from the American national culture constitutes Asian American culture as an alternative site that produces cultural forms materially and aesthetically in contradiction with the institutions of citizenship and national identity. Rather than a sign of a "failed" integration of Asians into the American cultural sphere, this critique preserves and opens up different possibilities for political practice and coalition across racial and national borders.<p>In this uniquely interdisciplinary study, Lowe examines the historical, political, cultural, and aesthetic meanings of immigration in relation to Asian Americans. Extending the range of Asian American critique, Immigrant Acts will interest readers concerned with race and ethnicity in the United States, American cultures, immigration, and transnationalism. </p><h4>Women's Review of Books</h4><p>...[Examines] the outsider status of Asians...in twentieth-century America....also [looks] to culture as a source for the creation of alternative notions of identity, community and politics.</p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><table><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Preface</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT"></TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Immigration, Citizenship, Racialization: Asian American Critique</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Canon, Institutionalization, Identity: Asian American Studies</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">37</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Asian American Differences</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">60</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Imagining Los Angeles in the Production of Multiculturalism</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">84</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Decolonization, Displacement, Disidentification: Writing and the Question of History</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">97</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Unfaithful to the Original: The Subject of Dictee</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">128</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">7</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Work, Immigration, Gender: Asian "American" Women</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">154</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Epilogue</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">174</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Notes</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">177</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Bibliography</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">223</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">241</TD></table> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-69357577789662583782009-02-06T00:14:00.000-08:002009-02-06T00:20:56.498-08:00First Person or Last Samurai<h4>First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Vladimir Putin</strong> <p><p><P>The astonishingly frank and revealing self-portrait of the most powerful man in Russia, President Valdimir Putin. <P> Who is this Vladimir Putin? Who is this man who suddenly--overnight and without warning--was handed the reigns of power to one of the most complex, formidable, and volatile countries in the world? How can we trust him if we don't know him? <P><i>First Person</i> is an intimate, candid portrait of the man who holds the future of Russia in his grip. An extraordinary compilation of over 24 hours of in-depth interviews and remarkable photographs, it delves deep into Putin's KGB past and explores his meteoric rise to power. No Russian leader has ever subjected himself to this kind of public examination of his life and views. Both as a spy and as a virtual political unknown until selected by Boris Yeltsin to be Prime Minister, Putin has been regarded as man of mystery. Now, the curtain lifts to reaveal a remarkable life of struggles and successes. Putin's life story is of major importance to the world. </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>Prior to his sudden rise to the Russian presidency, Putin was virtually a mystery; this transcript of recent interviews goes a long way toward filling the blanks in his past. In eight chapters of q&a, punctuated with anecdotes from friends and family members, Putin recounts his boyhood in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), the three years he spent as a KGB intelligence officer in Dresden, his return to the collapsed USSR and decision to enter politics and, finally, the day Boris Yeltsin asked him to take up the Kremlin reins. In Russia, this slim volume surfaced quickly during the brief interim between Yeltsin's resignation and the March elections. But rather than focusing on his political views and ideology, the interviewers devote the bulk of the text to Putin's biography--an indication of just how unknown the new Russian president is to his constituency. And the book succeeds in humanizing the uncharismatic politician. Through his childhood memories, readers learn that the gaunt, stoic man in the newsreels was once a spunky teen cruising the streets of Leningrad in search of girls and judo matches and dreaming of being a Soviet secret agent. Putin, it would seem, was just the socialist boy-next-door, or, in his own unironic words: "a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education." The question he leaves unanswered is: how does such an ordinary and unassuming guy find himself the president of Russia in an era of unabashed political intrigue? (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.| </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>This book, which transcribes 24 hours of interviews that three Russian journalists conducted with the Russian president, seeks to answer the pressing question: Who is Vladimir Putin? We read of his grim childhood, adolescence, education, early professional life, interests (judo, intelligence work), and marriage. Nothing particularly remarkable here. Then came the collapse of communism, and Putin's dazzling ascent began, but just why is still not altogether clear. What comes through of the man? An intense patriot, a religious believer, and a family man, Putin is characterized by stern rectitude, even priggishness, and lacks a sense of humor. He insists on Russia's European nature and says that he is committed to democracy. The questioners are polite but not toadying, pressing him on the Chechen War and high-level cronyism and corruption in the Kremlin. An interesting start to what is sure to become a growth industry of books on Russia's new president; for all public libraries.--Robert H. Johnston, McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. </p><h4>Booknews</h4><p>Three people, presumably journalists, interviewed the Russian president six times for about four hours each, and arranged the questions and answers into a chronological account of his life and career. The translator is Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) </p><h4>The Times Literary Supplement - Amy Knight</h4><p>What they want is an end to the unpredictabilityand chaos that characterized the Yeltsin era. Judging from this book, Vladimir Putin is the ideal man for the job.</p><br><br> <p>New interesting textbook: <strong><a href="http://business-software-books.blogspot.com/2009/02/outdoor-photographers-landscape-and.html">Outdoor Photographers Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2 or Conquest in Cyberspace</a></strong> <h4>Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Mark Ravina</strong> <p><p>The dramatic arc of Saigo Takamori's life, from his humble origins as a lowly samurai, to national leadership, to his death as a rebel leader, has captivated generations of Japanese readers and now Americans as well - his life is the inspiration for a major Hollywood film, <i>The Last Samurai</i>, starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. In this vibrant new biography, Mark Ravina, professor of history and Director of East Asian Studies at Emory University, explores the facts behind Hollywood storytelling and Japanese legends, and explains the passion and poignancy of Saigo's life. Known both for his scholarly research and his appearances on The History Channel, Ravina recreates the world in which Saigo lived and died, the last days of the samurai. <br> <br><i>The Last Samurai</i> traces Saigo's life from his early days as a tax clerk in far southwestern Japan, through his rise to national prominence as a fierce imperial loyalist. Saigo was twice exiled for his political activities -- sent to Japan's remote southwestern islands where he fully expected to die. But exile only increased his reputation for loyalty, and in 1864 he was brought back to the capital to help his lord fight for the restoration of the emperor. In 1868, Saigo commanded his lord's forces in the battles which toppled the shogunate and he became and leader in the emperor Meiji's new government. But Saigo found only anguish in national leadership. He understood the need for a modern conscript army but longed for the days of the traditional warrior. <br> <br>Saigo hoped to die in service to the emperor. In 1873, he sought appointment as envoy to Korea, where he planned to demand that the Korean king show deferenceto the Japanese emperor, drawing his sword, if necessary, top defend imperial honor. Denied this chance to show his courage and loyalty, he retreated to his homeland and spent his last years as a schoolteacher, training samurai boys in frugality, honesty, and courage. In 1876, when the government stripped samurai of their swords, Saigo's followers rose in rebellion and Saigo became their reluctant leader. His insurrection became the bloodiest war Japan had seen in centuries, killing over 12,000 men on both sides and nearly bankrupting the new imperial government. The imperial government denounced Saigo as a rebel and a traitor, but their propaganda could not overcome his fame and in 1889, twelve years after his death, the government relented, pardoned Saigo of all crimes, and posthumously restored him to imperial court rank. <br> <br>In <b>THE LAST SAMURAI</b>, Saigo is as compelling a character as Robert E. Lee was to Americans-a great and noble warrior who followed the dictates of honor and loyalty, even though it meant civil war in a country to which he'd devoted his life. Saigo's life is a fascinating look into Japanese feudal society and a history of a country as it struggled between its long traditions and the dictates of a modern future. <br> </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p>Known as the "Robert E. Lee" of Japan, Saigo- (1828-77) first helped overthrow the feudal Tokugawa regime and establish Meiji Japan in1868, then in 1877 led a bloody, futile uprising against the new government. He feared the impersonal, commercial, and centralized nation would destroy samurai traditions of personal honor, regional loyalty, and social service. Ravina (director, East Asian Studies Program, Emory Univ.) is a careful scholar who nevertheless writes an action-filled story that resonates today. He shows us that Saigo- was no reactionary, though he harked back to the tradition of the socially responsible Confucian warrior who valued community, not class exploitation or individual advancement. Especially interesting is Ravina's presentation of Saigo- 's legacy in popular culture, where he became a folk hero, forcing the government to elevate him posthumously to a reconciling national martyrdom. Fascists and right-wing patriots from the 1930s to today have evoked samurai tradition, but their efforts are exposed as tawdry exploitation by this engrossing and thoughtful history. Highly recommended for all college and larger public libraries. [Interest in this period may be driven by the new Tom Cruise film of same name and period, though it is not based on this book.-Ed.]-Charles W. Hayford, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Note to the Reader</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">ix</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Acknowledgments</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">xiii</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Introduction</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">1</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">1</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">"Powerfully Sentimental": Saigo's Early Years in Satsuma</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">13</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">2</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">"A Man of Exceptional Fidelity": Saigo and National Politics</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">43</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">3</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">"Bones in the Earth": Exile and Ignominy</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">77</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">4</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">"To Shoulder the Burdens of the Realm": The Destruction of the Shogunate</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">107</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">5</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">"To Tear Asunder the Clouds": Saigo and the Meiji State</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">151</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%">6</TD><TD WIDTH="70%">"The Burden of Death is Light": Saigo and the War of the Southwest</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">191</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Notes</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">215</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Bibliography</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">240</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Sources</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">255</TD><TR><TD WIDTH="20%"></TD><TD WIDTH="70%">Index</TD><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="RIGHT">257</TD></TABLE> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-8598854248584241902009-02-04T19:00:00.000-08:002009-02-04T19:07:22.514-08:00My Life as a Spy or Sex Science and Stem Cells<h4>My Life as a Spy </h4> <p>Author: <strong>John A Walker</strong> <p><p>John A. Walker Jr. was a Chief Warrant Officer and communications specialist for the US Navy. In 1985, he was arrested for selling classified secrets to the Soviet Union. Upon his arrest it was revealed that he had been acting as a spy from 1968 to 1985 and that his son, brother, ex-wife, and an acquaintance had also participated in the espionage ring. Altogether, their actions constituted one of the most serious security breaches in US history. In 1990, the New York Times stated, "Mr. Walker provided enough code-data information to alter significantly the balance of power between Russia and the United States."<br>What motivated a career naval officer to become a spy during the height of the Cold War? Over the years, statements by Walker have been reported in various books, newspapers, and other media outlets, but Walker has never told his own story-till now. Walker has decided to make public a private document that he originally wrote for his children to explain his actions. Among the reasons he gives for publishing this work is the following statement:<br><br>"As I grew older, I came to understand that the wars that had taken place during my entire life were just a symptom of a larger national policy. I watched my uncles and aunt go off to World War II, my brother to Korea, and myself to Vietnam, all of which were waged on foundations of lies. Voltaire said that history is a lie agreed upon by historians. How true.<br>"I cannot classify myself as a visionary or idealist, but just a simple citizen who became angry by the government lies. I did conclude that the US system of government was broken, so I felt justified in breaking some rules in order to help save it.... Why did Ifeel responsible or qualified to end the pattern of perpetual war? I cannot answer my own questions. But then, my insane stunt seemed to have worked. By the admission of both the US and the USSR, I provided the most extensive intelligence ever to the Soviets. With my material in hand, the Soviet government eventually realized the US planned no attack upon them, so my actions have contributed greatly to the Soviet Union's decision to end the Cold War." </p><h4>Library Journal</h4><p><P>Walker was a communications specialist in the U.S. Navy, and from 1968 to 1985 he passed cryptographic secrets to the KGB so the Soviets could track U.S. fleet movements. Here, he justifies his treason through criticism of Cold War American society and includes fascinating details of his actions. He claims that the information he provided allowed the Kremlin to see that the Reagan administration was not preparing for a nuclear war and helped lead to the fall of the USSR. Walker explains his motivation: he was upset at the dangerous and expensive falsehoods of the Cold War, he thought that the assassination of President Kennedy was an organized coup by corporate/government leaders, and he wanted the money. It is ironic that this traitor is outraged that his spying partner and longtime friend Jerry Whitworth betrayed him to the FBI; Walker also blames his ex-wife and Whitworth's wife. His book is suitable for the espionage collections of all libraries to complement Pete Earley's <I>Family of Spies</I> , Howard Blum's <I>I Pledge Allegiance</I> , and Robert W. Hunter and Lynn Dean Hunter's <I>Spy Hunter</I> .-Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL</I> </P> </p><h4>Kirkus Reviews</h4><p>Straight from the federal pen, an unrepentant traitor's mea culpa. Busted for spying for the Soviet Union 23 years ago, Walker claims that, because his "children deserved an explanation of my activities," he wrote a memoir that swelled to nearly 600 pages. When his attorney lost it, he says, he started over; thus this book, which is plainly more than a decade old, since he writes of "recent" trips by Bill Clinton on various diplomatic missions. If there is news here, it is largely of a kind we have heard before, thanks to such vehicles as The Falcon and the Snowman: Minor player sells out his country for modestly ideological reasons, in this case putatively having to do with disgust over the waste of resources and effort over a cooked-up Cold War; gets used to the cash and other payoffs of treason; recruits a dim bulb or two in the moral equivalent of a Ponzi scheme; and finally gets caught. Walker protests that the technological secrets he delivered to the Soviets proved that the Cold War was a sham, allowing Gorbachev to put an end to it. To gauge by this ineptly written book, though, Walker is no rocket scientist, which makes one wonder why the Soviets bothered with him. The Soviets seem to have wondered the same thing, having slated Walker for special handling following one too many foul-ups on the part of his psychotic ex-wife and other members of his loose circle. One matter of true interest comes when Walker describes old classified documents that he handled detailing orders for the American D-Day landings of World War II, which Bill Clinton ordered declassified and then rescinded that directive. Was it, as Walker says, because the documents showed "a serious blunder of notfollowing the invasion plan, perhaps landing our troops in the wrong place due to sheer incompetence"?For Cold War completists only. One hopes that Walker will not profit from this defiant scribble. </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5>Foreword 7 Chapter 1 The Crime 11 Chapter 2 The True Believer 23 Chapter 3 The Lies 35 Chapter 4 Playing the Game 41 Chapter 5 The CIA Gets a War 51 Chapter 6 The Cold War Myth 55 Chapter 7 A Couple of Good Years 59 Chapter 8 Heading Downhill 69 Chapter 9 The Nadir 89 Chapter 10 The Spy 99 Chapter 11 Would the World Change? 119 Chapter 12 The Weak Link 131 Chapter 13 A CIA Mole 143 Chapter 14 Seeing the Light 153 Chapter 15 The Bomb 165 Chapter 16 Back to Sea 169 Chapter 17 The Nam 175 Chapter 18 The 25,000-Mile Dead Drop 185 Chapter 19 Looking for a New Enemy 193 Chapter 20 The Turbulent Seventies 195 Chapter 21 Vietnam and a Secret Mission 207 Chapter 22 New Thoughts on War 213 Chapter 23 Forge a Clearance, Recruit a Spy 215 Chapter 24 My Last Tour of Duty 229 Chapter 25 Overdue Divorce 239 Chapter 26 A New Life, a New Cold War 251 Chapter 27 Around the World 263 Chapter 28 Drug Smugglers 271 Chapter 29 Rescuing Cynthia 277 Chapter 30 Annus Horribilis 289 Chapter 31 Family Problems 293 Chapter 32 RYAN and Reagan 299 Chapter 33 Michael 311 Chapter 34 The End Draws Near 325 Epilogue 345 <p>Book review: <strong><a href="http://body-care-book.blogspot.com">Dr Perricones 7 Secrets to Beauty Health and Longevity or What Every Woman Should Know About Fertility and Her Biological Clock</a></strong> <h4>Sex, Science, and Stem Cells: Inside the Right-Wing Assault on Reason </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Diana DeGett</strong> <p><p><P>Sex, Science, and Stem Cells<P><BR>INSIDE THE RIGHT WING ASSAULT ON REASON<P><BR>Congresswoman Diana DeGette<P> <P>A top congresswoman’s stinging rebuke of those who politicize science and sex.<P>“Over time, I realized that the politicization of science by the Republicans and the religious right was at its most insidious over any issue relating to human reproduction. This brought me to the inevitable conclusion that too many of our elected officials are simply incapable of thinking rationally about sex. I could think of no other explanation. The disconnect was so transparent that some of our older male politicians couldn’t even talk about any aspect of human sexuality without biting their lips to avoid snickering like schoolboys.”<BR>— From the Introduction </p><h4>Publishers Weekly</h4><p>U.S. Congresswoman DeGette, of Colorado, doesn't mince words regarding religious conservatives in congress who have been pushing, since Reagan, for abstinence-only sex education, a ban on stem cell research, and other ways of "undermining scientific progress in the name of God." Calling this "political malpractice" of a "malignant, self-serving, and unconscionable" sort, DeGette's riveting insider's account reveals how conservatives have controlled the agenda on woman's issues, especially after the 2000 election. Though her opponents are largely Republicans, DeGette works with moderates and conservatives across the aisle while facing opposition from anti-choice Democrats, as in a crucial vote to prevent a ban on stem cell research. DeGette also writes movingly about her daughter's diabetes, which made stem cell research a personal cause; sadly but predictably, her triumphant legislation, crafted across party lines and with the support of Nancy Reagan, is dashed by a Bush veto. DeGette's report from the D.C. front lines is often infuriating, but her exposure and takedown of conservatives' more outrageous arguments (against, for instance, insurance coverage of government workers' birth control) provide reason to hope for a backlash. <BR>Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. </p><br><br> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-676725726430135908.post-73839048874543655192009-02-03T13:48:00.000-08:002009-02-03T13:55:01.591-08:00The David Suzuki Reader or American Business Values<h4>The David Suzuki Reader </h4> <p>Author: <strong>David Suzuki</strong> <p><p>In these provocative essays - some reprinted, others previously unpublished - leading environmentalist David Suzuki explores the limits of knowledge and the connectedness of all things; looks unflinchingly at the destructive forces of globalization, political shortsightedness, and greed; cautions against blind faith in science, technology, politics, and economics; and provides inspiring examples of how and where to make those changes that will matter to all of us and to future generations. He also offers a vision of hope based on our love of children and nature. <P>In this time of global unrest and uncertainty, Suzuki provides an important reminder of common bonds and of what really matters. Written with clarity and passion, this book is essential reading for anyone who admires David Suzuki, who wants to understand what science can and can't do, or who wants to make a difference. </p><br><br> <p>See also: <strong><a href="http://sobre-livros.blogspot.com">Entender e Dirigir Comportamento Organizacional</a></strong> <h4>American Business Values: A Global Perspective </h4> <p>Author: <strong>Gerald Cavanagh</strong> <p><p><P><B></B> This book challenges readers to examine problems and to be aware of biases. It provides the tools to make informed ethical judgments, and tells readers what is required to form good moral habits and character. <B></B> The primary focus of this book is on American business values, but it also examines how those values are influencing people throughout the world, and how American values are, in turn, being influenced by other peoples. <B></B> For business advisors and consultants, as well as corporate managers.<BR></P> </p><br><br> <p><h5>Table of Contents:</h5><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>(NOTE:<I> Each chapter ends with Summary and Conclusions, Discussion Questions, and Cases</I>.)</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>1. A Free Market for Ethical Values.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>Freedom and Markets. Public Trust in Corporations and Executives. Shareholder Value. Living for Today. Advertising and Media Shape Values. Values of Free Enterprise. Case: College Test. Case: Confidentiality Of E-Mail.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>2. Maturity and Moral Development.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>Lack of Maturity Brings Stress. Moral Development. Personal Values of Businesspeople. Need for Ethics in Business. Case: Inflated Resume. Case: Drug Test. Case: Bank Deposit Insurance.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>3. Ethical Behavior in Business.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>Facts, Values, and Acts. Ethical Norms for Business Actions. Solving Ethical Problems. Good Habits Build Character and Virtue. Ethics in Business Education. Case: Double Expense Account. Case: Peta Vs. Pfizer. Case: Tax Assessment Kickback.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>4. Historical Roots Of Business Values.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>Questioning The Past. Listening to Our Forebears. Enterprise Values in The New World. Case:Purchasing Freedom for Slaves. Case: Tax-Free Camera. Case: Radar Detector.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>5. Factories, Immigrants, and Ideology.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>Capitalism and Individualism Steer Business Practices. Ideology and Values. The Necessity of an Ideology for Business. Case: Educational Reimbursement. Case: Safe Drug.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>6. Critics of Capitalism.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>The Marxist Critique. Free Enterprise Questioned from Within. Alternatives to Individualism and Capitalism: Cooperatives. Case: Nike and Sweatshops. Case: California Sweatshop. Case: Superior's Expense Report.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>7. Personal Values and the Firm.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>The Firm Forms Workers: Socialization. Why People Work: Motivation and Ideology. Pressure for More Work. Balancing Work-Life Conflict. Case: The Purchasing Manager's Car. Case: CEO and Sex: Astra USA. Case: Local Manager in Trouble. Case: The Boss’s Work Time.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>8. Rebuilding Trust In Business.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>Loss Of Integrity. Managing For Self Or Firm. Leaders Affect The Culture and Ethics Of a Firm. The Corporation Serves Society. Strategic Planning For Ethics Builds Trust. Case: Ebola Virus and Entertainment. Case: Stock Purchase Deal. Case: Home Depot and Certified Wood. Case: Company Controller.</P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>9. Globalization and American Values.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>Global Firms As Corporate Citizens. Business and Global Poverty. Global Ethical Conduct: Laws, Codes And Reporting. Challenges for the Global Firm. Case: Merck and the Orphan Drug. Case: Made in the U.S.A. Or Asia. Case: Exxonmobil and Global Warming.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>10. Business Values for the Future.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal></B>Today's Business Values. A Viable Business Creed. Planning and Forecasting. Future Business Values. Case: America's Most Admired Corporations. Case: Ford Motor Interfaith Network. Case: Local Manager in Trouble.</P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in" soNormal> </P><B> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in" soNormal>Appendix I. Caux Round Table <I>Principles For Business.</I></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in" soNormal> </P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in" soNormal>Appendix II. United Nations <I>Global Compact With Business.</I></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal> </P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" soNormal>Resources.</P></B> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0