Government Books - Page 11

Struggle for Democracy, The (8th Edition) (MyPoliSciLab Series)

Edward S. Greenberg, Benjamin I. Page

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

big disappointment 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The provider sent me a confirmation that I had paid for the book but never sent me the confirmation that they sent it out. I ordered it in plenty of time to receive it before classes started. I got it on the last day available (two weeks into the semester) before filing a complaint with amazon. In between classes starting and actually having the book I wrote multiple emails inquiring when the book was going to be shipped. They went unanswered. When I finally received the book, there was no notification that it had been sent. The book was in worse condition than advertised, and the address to and from were both addressed to me. So if the book had been the wrong edition then I couldn't have returned it, or if I had gotten a replacement book (which I was planning on doing if it didn't come in by the deadline) I still couldn't have returned it.

Editorial Review:

This critical thinking approach to American government asks students to evaluate the quality of democracy in America today within a unique framework that offers a holistic view of our system. The eighth edition of this best-selling text has been completely updated through the 2006 midterm elections. Continuing to offer its lively, critical thinking approach to the course, The Struggle for Democracy is organized around two themes: "Using the Democracy Standard" and "Using the Framework." The first theme, woven throughout the narrative of the entire book, asks students to evaluate the health and vitality of American democracy today against a "democratic ideal" that is carefully defined in the first chapter. The text's second theme, "Using the Framework," asks students to look at the structures underlying our political system--such as the economy, society, cultural values, technology--and examine how these structures affect, and are affected by, our political system.

The Vision of the Anointed Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy

Thomas Sowell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 110 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The man does his homework 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is a brilliant book. I'm an historian (I teach history at a community college) and have studied, in depth, the philosophic background and history of the rise of modern secular ideology and its utopian vision--the people Sowell refers to as "the anointed" (and it is an accurate term). Sowell is hated by these people for two reasons: he's black and thus does not fit their stereotype of the down-trodden African-American, and his argumentation, which attacks some of the actual consequences of "the anointed's" philosophy, is buttressed by a wide ranging array of facts and evidence. To one who truly understands the philosophy of modern secularism, Sowell's book makes perfect sense and provides the factual data which proves absolutely many of the harmful effects of these "anointed" views.

If you truly read it, this book will make you mad. That there are people out there--who have power, and that's frightening--who want to tell you what to believe, who turn violent criminals loose on a whim, who'll take children away from their parents based upon their own view of how those children should be raised, who flat-out lie to the American people in order to gain the control they want...anybody who believes in freedom will burn in anger while reading this book. The American people, in general, have a sense that there is something wrong with our country, that there has been a gradual decline and degradation over the last generation or so. But most of them can't quite put their finger on what it is. Read this book and you'll find out why. Then come take my history course and I'll give you the historical background to all of it.

What Sowell writes about isn't happening by chance. As incredible as it is to decent, thinking Americans, there are actually people in this country who believe "the anointed's" philosophy. That they can get away with some of the things Sowell describes in this book tells us how stealthily they've stolen this country from the honest, moral people who built and who are still the backbone of it.

Editorial Review:

The nationally bestselling author of Race and Culture and Inside America presents a devastating examination of the mind-set behind the failed social policies of the past 30 years, whose defects have led to crises on education, crime, and family dynamics, "An important and incisive book."--New York Times Book Review.

La audacia de la esperanza: Reflexiones sobre cómo restaurar el sueño americano (Vintage Espanol) (Spanish Edition)

Barack Obama

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

En La audacia de la esperanza, el senador demócrata Barack Obama reclama una política diferente—una política para quienes están cansados del agrio partidismo, una política que se basa en la fe, la participación de todos y la nobleza de espíritu que es parte esencial de “nuestro improbable proyecto de democracia”.

En el corazón de este libro está la visión del senador Obama de cómo podemos superar nuestras divisiones para enfrentar los problemas concretos. Él examina la creciente inseguridad económica de las familias estadounidenses, las tensiones raciales y religiosas dentro del cuerpo político y las amenazas transnacionales—desde el terrorismo hasta las pandemias—que se congregan más allá de nuestras costas. En sus anécdotas acerca de su familia, amigos, miembros del Senado y hasta del presidente, existe un poderoso deseo de establecer conexiones: la plataforma de un consenso político radicalmente optimista.

Como senador y abogado, profesor y padre, cristiano y escéptico, y sobre todo como estudioso de la historia y de la naturaleza humana, el senador Obama ha escrito un libro de un poder transformador.

The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World

Bjorn Lomborg

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Total reviews: 333 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bjørn Lomborg, a former member of Greenpeace, challenges widely held beliefs that the world environmental situation is getting worse and worse in his new book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. Using statistical information from internationally recognized research institutes, Lomborg systematically examines a range of major environmental issues that feature prominently in headline news around the world, including pollution, biodiversity, fear of chemicals, and the greenhouse effect, and documents that the world has actually improved. He supports his arguments with over 2500 footnotes, allowing readers to check his sources. Lomborg criticizes the way many environmental organizations make selective and misleading use of scientific evidence and argues that we are making decisions about the use of our limited resources based on inaccurate or incomplete information. Concluding that there are more reasons for optimism than pessimism, he stresses the need for clear-headed prioritization of resources to tackle real, not imagined, problems. The Skeptical Environmentalist offers readers a non-partisan evaluation that serves as a useful corrective to the more alarmist accounts favored by campaign groups and the media. Bjørn Lomborg is an associate professor of statistics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Aarhus. When he started to investigate the statistics behind the current gloomy view of the environment, he was genuinely surprised. He published four lengthy articles in the leading Danish newspaper, including statistics documenting an ever-improving world, and unleashed the biggest post-war debate with more than 400 articles in all the major papers. Since then, Lomborg has been a frequent participant in the European debate on environmentalism on television, radio, and in newspapers.

From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know And Must Communicate to the Public, Second Edition

Bernice Buresh, Suzanne Gordon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As nurses face the ongoing challenges of an increasing need for their services combined with economic pressures, members of the largest profession in health care must become more visible, vocal, and influential. The first communication guidebook designed expressly for nurses, From Silence to Voice helps nurses understand and overcome the self-silencing that often leads RNs to downplay their own expertise and their contributions to the care of the sick and the health of the public. Bernice Buresh and Suzanne Gordon teach nurses, nurse educators, and nurse researchers critical skills they can use to explain their work to other health-care professionals, journalists, policymakers, and political representatives.

From Silence to Voice features stories about nurses who ensure that patients receive appropriate, timely, and even life-saving care, nurses who make all the difference while crises are underway but whose contributions are neglected in medical charts and thank-you notes, nurses who are left out altogether or obscured by the generic "nurse." However, the book also provides detailed accounts of nurses who do make their voices heard, who do make their concerns public— and it shows how those successes can be duplicated. Buresh and Gordon draw on real-world examples that will help nurses to

- gain respect for themselves as professionals,

- communicate well with both patients and health-care colleagues,

- understand how the news media work,

- collaborate with public relations professionals,

- write effective letters to the editor and publish op-ed pieces,

- appear on television and radio, and

- promote research on nursing.

Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter

Rick Shenkman

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Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Politicians tell us constantly that they trust the wisdom of "The American People." New York Times best-selling author Rick Shenkman explains why we shouldn't--at least when it comes to politics.

Levees break in New Orleans. Iraq descends into chaos. The housing market teeters on the brink of collapse. Americans of all political stripes are heading into the 2008 election with the sense that something has gone terribly wrong with American politics. But what exactly?

Democrats blame Republicans and Republicans blame Democrats. Greedy corporate executives, rogue journalists, faulty voting machines, irresponsible defense contractors--we blame them, too. The only thing everyone seems to agree on, in fact, is that the American people are entirely blameless.

In Just How Stupid Are We?, best-selling historian and renowned myth-buster Rick Shenkman takes aim at our great national piety: the wisdom of the American people. The hard truth is that American democracy is more direct than ever--but voters are misusing, abusing, and abdicating their political power. Americans are paying less and less attention to politics at a time when they need to pay much more: Television has dumbed politics down to the basest possible level, while the real workings of politics have become vastly more complicated.

Shenkman offers concrete proposals for reforming our institutions--the government, the media, civic organizations, political parties--to make them work better for the American people. But first, Shenkman argues, we must reform ourselves.

The Plan: How to Rescue Society the Day the Oil Stops--or the Day Before

Edwin Black

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Energy Talking Points for McCain and Obama 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Edwin Black, already an award-winning journalist and investigator for his previous books such as "IBM and the Holocaust" and "War Against the Weak", deserves an award for national service for producing his latest work "The Plan: How to Save America the Day After the Oil Stops--or Perhaps the Day Before." This book should shake up all Americans, and their political establishment, to wake up and take notice of the United States' peril. America has become dependent on foreign countries to feed its oil addiction.

Do Senators McCain and Obama have a Plan of their own to address the ramifications of a shortfall in supplies of petroleum to the US? Have they considered the potential chaos that would ensue in the US if the purveyors of oil come up short?

Edwin Black has certainly done his homework in accessing government documents, anonymous sources, and government websites. Just one of the possibilities Black points out is that should there be a military strike in the Strait of Hormuz near Iran, the US would have to tap its Strategic Petroleum Reserve immediately. Within days, America would have to beg its allies to supply its oil habit. Given that President George W. Bush was unable to secure additional oil production from supposed-ally Saudi Arabia this year, it should be clear to most that the situation begs a solution.

Black is able to suggest a Plan to break the habit of oil consumption through a program that includes retrofitting vehicles and tapping into alternative sources of energy that will free Americans from dependence on countries such as Venezuela and Iran, which have made clear their geopolitical enmity towards the U.S. His latest book, The Plan, is alarming but should move Americans - and the current presidential election - towards discussing how technologies currently available and in development can be harnessed to free their country and start what could promise to be another Industrial Revolution.

Editorial Review:

A controversial and bitter-pill crisis plan to rescue America once the oilstops. The must-have go-to book once the oil stops or perhaps justbefore it does. Companion to the best selling, award-winning InternalCombustion (St. Martins 2006). See www.Planforoilcrisis.com pluswww.internalcombustionbook.com. By the author of IBM and the Holocaust and Internal Combustion.

Bush at War

Bob Woodward

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Total reviews: 223 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bush at War focuses on the three months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, during which the U.S. prepared for war in Afghanistan, took steps toward a preemptive strike against Iraq, intensified homeland defense, and began a well-funded CIA covert war against terrorism around the world. The narrative is classic Woodward: using his inside access to the major players, he offers a nearly day-by-day account of the decision-making processes and power battles behind the headlines. Woodward's information is based on tape-recorded interviews of over a hundred sources (some unnamed), including four hours of exclusive interviews with the president, along with notes from cabinet meetings and access to some classified reports.

Woodward's analysis of President Bush's leadership style is especially fascinating. A self-described "gut player" who relies heavily on instinct, Bush comes across as a man of action continually pressing his cabinet for concrete results. The revelation that the president developed and publicly stated the so-called Bush Doctrine--the policy that the U.S. would not only go after terrorists everywhere but also those governments or groups which harbor them--without first consulting Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is particularly telling. Other principals are examined with equal scrutiny. Though National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice emerges as soft-spoken and even tentative during group meetings, it becomes clear that Bush is dependent on her for candid advice as well as for conveying his thoughts to his cabinet. The relationship between Powell and Rumsfeld (and to a lesser degree Powell and Cheney) is often strained, exposing their differences regarding how to deal with Iraq and whether coalition building or unilateralism is most appropriate. Woodward also describes how CIA director George Tenet prepared a paramilitary team to infiltrate Afghanistan to set the groundwork for invasion, and how this ushered in a new era of cooperation between the defense department and the CIA. A worthwhile and often enlightening read, this is a revealing and informative first draft of the Bush legacy. --Shawn Carkonen

Democratic National Convention 2008: Obama's Mile High Moment

The Denver Post

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Book Review 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I actually bought this book because my daughter's picture is in it. As I flipped through the rest of the book, it seemed like there was too much focus on the police and altercations between demonstrators and the police. (Of course, the way Denver prepared for massive terrorist attacks, it would have been difficult to take a picture that didn't include police!)

Editorial Review:

Democratic National Convetion 2008 is a photographic tribute of the DNC in Denver. For one memorable week in the summer of 2008, the ambitions of a groundbreaking politician and a rising city matched perfectly. US senator Barack Obama, the first African American presidential nominee of a major political party, made his way west to accept his historic nomination before a massive gathering under the stars. And a burgeoning city eager to take its role as a great metropolitan area put on a show unlike any the national political parties had ever seen before.

Dozens of journalists and photographers from The Denver Post and Media News Group were on hand, day and night, to record every scene and document every word of the convention. The results were remarkable, for the man, for the city, for the newspaper, for the nation.

Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America

Mark Levin

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Total reviews: 229 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Conservative talk radio host, lawyer, and frequent National Review contributor Mark R. Levin comes out firing against the United States Supreme Court in Men in Black, accusing the institution of corrupting the ideals of America's founding fathers. The court, in Levin's estimation, pursues an ideology-based activist agenda that oversteps its authority within the government. Levin examines several decisions in the court's history to illustrate his point, beginning with the landmark Marbury v. Madison case, wherein the court granted itself the power to declare acts of the other branches of government unconstitutional. He devotes later chapters to other key cases culminating in modern issues such as same-sex marriage and the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. Like effective attorneys do, Levin packs in copious research material and delivers his points with tremendous vigor, excoriating the justices for instances where he feels strict constit utional constructivism gave way to biased interpretation. But Levin's definition of "activism" seems inconsistent. In the case of McCain-Feingold, the court declined to rule on a bill already passed by congress and signed by the president, but Levin, who thinks the bill violates the First Amendment, still accuses them of activism even when they were actually passive. To his talk-radio listeners, Levin's hard-charging style and dire warnings of the court's direction will strike a resonant tone of alarm, though the hyperbole may be a bit off-putting to the uninitiated. As an attack on the vagaries of decisions rendered by the Supreme Court and on some current justices, Men in Black scores points and will likely lead sympathetic juries to conviction. --John Moe