Politics Books - Page 6

Machiavelli The Prince (Crofts Classics)

Niccolo Machiavelli

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 284 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Poor Translation 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This review was submitted on the web page presenting Mansfield's translation.

I have been using Wootton's translation of The Prince in a university program where the texts are set by the faculty. This year we changed to the Mansfield translation and I've requested that we return to Wootton's.

In his attempt to provide an "accurate" translation of the Italian, Mansfield made the mistake of many translators in overlooking the clarity of his English prose.

For example, where Wootton writes, "he increased the strength of one of the most powerful Italian states," Mansfield writes, "he . . . increased the power of a power in Italy." (15) There are other odd uses of diction in Mansfield, for example, where Wootton speaks of a "founder," Mansfield uses the word "introducer." (23) And though concise in places, Mansfield has a tendency to write long sentences, perhaps in imitation of the Italian, where Wootton is more to the point.

If you're still not convinced, compare the following passages:

Wootton: "So, too, with those who, having been private citizens, were made emperors of Rome because they had corrupted the soldiers. Such rulers are entirely dependent on the goodwill and good fortune of whoever has given them power. Good will and good fortune are totally unreliable and capricious."

Mansfield: ". . . as also those emperors were made who from private individual [sic] attained the empire through corrupting soldiers. These persons rest simply on the will and fortune of whoever has given a state to them, which are two very inconstant and unstable things."

Editorial Review:

What makes this well-annotated translation stand out from others is an insightful introduction by editor Thomas G. Bergin--especially helpful for achieving a better understanding of the times and the political scene in which Machiavelli worked, lived, and wrote. Also included are a list of important dates in Machiavelli's life, an index of proper names in the text and notes, and a selected bibliography.

Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China

Leslie T. Chang

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An eye-opening and previously untold story, Factory Girls is the first look into the everyday lives of the migrant factory population in China.


China has 130 million migrant workers—the largest migration in human history. In Factory Girls, Leslie T. Chang, a former correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Beijing, tells the story of these workers primarily through the lives of two young women, whom she follows over the course of three years as they attempt to rise from the assembly lines of Dongguan, an industrial city in China’s Pearl River Delta.

As she tracks their lives, Chang paints a never-before-seen picture of migrant life—a world where nearly everyone is under thirty; where you can lose your boyfriend and your friends with the loss of a mobile phone; where a few computer or English lessons can catapult you into a completely different social class. Chang takes us inside a sneaker factory so large that it has its own hospital, movie theater, and fire department; to posh karaoke bars that are fronts for prostitution; to makeshift English classes where students shave their heads in monklike devotion and sit day after day in front of machines watching English words flash by; and back to a farming village for the Chinese New Year, revealing the poverty and idleness of rural life that drive young girls to leave home in the first place. Throughout this riveting portrait, Chang also interweaves the story of her own family’s migrations, within China and to the West, providing historical and personal frames of reference for her investigation.

A book of global significance that provides new insight into China, Factory Girls demonstrates how the mass movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and transforming Chinese society, much as immigration to America’s shores remade our own country a century ago.

The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower

Robert Baer

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Over the past thirty years, while the United States has turned either a blind or dismissive eye, Iran has emerged as a nation every bit as capable of altering America’s destiny as traditional superpowers Russia and China. Indeed, one of this book’s central arguments is that, in some ways, Iran’s grip on America’s future is even tighter.

As ex–CIA operative Robert Baer masterfully shows, Iran has maneuvered itself into the elite superpower ranks by exploiting Americans’ false perceptions of what Iran is—by letting us believe it is a country run by scowling religious fanatics, too preoccupied with theocratic jostling and terrorist agendas to strengthen its political and economic foundations.

The reality is much more frightening—and yet contained in the potential catastrophe is an implicit political response that, if we’re bold enough to adopt it, could avert disaster.

Baer’s on-the-ground sleuthing and interviews with key Middle East players—everyone from an Iranian ayatollah to the king of Bahrain to the head of Israel’s internal security—paint a picture of the centuries-old Shia nation that is starkly the opposite of the one normally drawn. For example, Iran’s hate-spouting President Ahmadinejad is by no means the true spokesman for Iranian foreign policy, nor is Iran making it the highest priority to become a nuclear player.

Even so, Baer has discovered that Iran is currently engaged in a soft takeover of the Middle East, that the proxy method of war-making and co-option it perfected with Hezbollah in Lebanon is being exported throughout the region, that Iran now controls a significant portion of Iraq, that it is extending its influence over Jordan and Egypt, that the Arab Emirates and other Gulf States are being pulled into its sphere, and that it will shortly have a firm hold on the world’s oil spigot.

By mixing anecdotes with information gleaned from clandestine sources, Baer superbly demonstrates that Iran, far from being a wild-eyed rogue state, is a rational actor—one skilled in the game of nations and so effective at thwarting perceived Western colonialism that even rival Sunnis relish fighting under its banner.

For U.S. policy makers, the choices have narrowed: either cede the world’s most important energy corridors to a nation that can match us militarily with its asymmetric capabilities (which include the use of suicide bombers)—or deal with the devil we know. We might just find that in allying with Iran, we’ll have increased not just our own security but that of all Middle East nations.The alternative—to continue goading Iran into establishing hegemony over the Muslim world—is too chilling to contemplate.

From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 (Oxford History of the United States)

George C. Herring

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation in print. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize-winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of prestigious Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. From Colony to Superpower is the only thematic volume commissioned for the series. Here George C. Herring uses foreign relations as the lens through which to tell the story of America's dramatic rise from thirteen disparate colonies huddled along the Atlantic coast to the world's greatest superpower.
A sweeping account of United States' foreign relations and diplomacy, this magisterial volume documents America's interaction with other peoples and nations of the world. Herring tells a story of stunning successes and sometimes tragic failures, captured in a fast-paced narrative that illuminates the central importance of foreign relations to the existence and survival of the nation, and highlights its ongoing impact on the lives of ordinary citizens. He shows how policymakers defined American interests broadly to include territorial expansion, access to growing markets, and the spread of an "American way" of life. And Herring does all this in a story rich in human drama and filled with epic events. Statesmen such as Benjamin Franklin and Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman and Dean Acheson played key roles in America's rise to world power. But America's expansion as a nation also owes much to the adventurers and explorers, the sea captains, merchants and captains of industry, the missionaries and diplomats, who discovered or charted new lands, developed new avenues of commerce, and established and defended the nation's interests in foreign lands.
From the American Revolution to the fifty-year struggle with communism and conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, From Colony to Superpower tells the dramatic story of America's emergence as superpower--its birth in revolution, its troubled present, and its uncertain future.

The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

G. Edward Griffin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 183 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Highly Recommended Book!! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This Book traces the International Bankers attempt to control the nations of the world through a privately owned central bank, manipulating and controlling the money supply creating recessions, depressions and financing wars.our Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution warned the nation of an institution like a central bank.''Give me control over a nations currency and I care not who writes its laws''wrote Rothschild! those that control the federal Reserve control the world.



Fiat money created out of nothing(unbacked by gold) issued by a private bank the federal reserve and charging interest on it,what a scam!!this is the cause of our current global economic crises!!!

Editorial Review:

Where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The money magicians' secrets are unveiled. We get a close look at their mirrors and smoke machines, their pulleys, cogs, and wheels that create the grand illusion called money. A dry and boring subject? Just wait!

You'll be hooked in five minutes. Reads like a detective story - which it really is. But it's all true. This book is about the most blatant scam of all history. It's all here: the cause of wars, boom-bust cycles, inflation, depression, prosperity.

Creature from Jekyll Island is a "must read." Your world view will definitely change. You'll never trust a politician again - or a banker.

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

Tim Weiner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 136 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Wealth of information 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is extremely well-written and includes a wealth of previously unknown information. Basically it starts with the creation of the CIA and continues to the present. It provides details that pretty well shows how the leaders of the CIA operated mostly on what they believed was wanted of the CIA versus what was actually wanted. And, in many cases, the CIA operated on only what it's leaders wanted. I am completely amazed at the intricacy of operations between our Government and other countries.

An amazing history of the CIA. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is a real eye-opener, and I highly recommend it.

I never expected the CIA to have world leaders on their payroll. I was shocked, for example, to find that King Hussein of Jordan was on the CIA's payroll. Some leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and South American countries were also on the CIA's payroll (and some still are). Now that this book is out, how will the people of these nations feel? How do the Jordanians feel, for example, knowing that their former King worked for the CIA? One question with a self-answer goes through my mind: Do leaders govern for the good of their people or for their self-interest and preservation?

Since its creation in 1947, the CIA stood as an elite force representing the power of the United States. But according to the author, this is an illusion. This book will demonstrate that in fact the CIA failed in most of its goals, and did not live up to its mandate. According to the book, the CIA has been incompetent, naïve, chaotic, and a danger to American interests. For example, the CIA was unable to foresee the fall of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Shah of Iran and the coming of the ayatollah Khomeini, and more recently, the Indian nuclear tests, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the events of 9/11. The CIA also gave wrong information to the Bush administration in 2001 and 2002, claiming that Iraq was an imminent threat to the US and that it possessed weapons of mass destruction. This information led to an unjustified and chaotic invasion of Iraq. According to the author, the CIA is a blundering and incapable organization. This will come as a surprise to many.

The author has read over 15,000 declassified materials in order to write this book. His book is factual and very well written. It reads like a Le Care novel. This is one of the most interesting and self-absorbing books I have read in a very long time. If you are interested in world politics and history, read this book!

The book is divided into six parts.

Part one discusses the CIA under Truman, 1945 to 1953. This is the story of the beginning of the CIA when they still knew nothing about espionage. Most missions undertaken by the CIA during those years were suicide missions. All, yes all, undercover CIA agents were either killed or captured during those years. This came as a surprise to me. I never imagined the CIA to have failed so miserably.

Part two discusses the CIA under Eisenhower, 1953 to 1963. Those were the years the CIA suddenly realized that it had no plan. With its agents dead, it suddenly realized that it had traitors in its midst. Those were the years the CIA learnt to topple regimes, and started meddling in the affairs of other countries. In those days, the CIA operated outside the law, and it thought it could continue to do so indefinitely.

Part three discusses the CIA under Kennedy and Johnson, 1961 to 1968. Those were the years the CIA had more courage than wisdom, and the beginning of its long slide downwards. The chapter on the Cuban missile crisis was extremely interesting, and new information is revealed from newly declassified documents. Who had motives to kill president Kennedy? Read the book to find possible explanations.

Part four discusses the CIA under Nixon and Ford, 1968 to 1977. Those were the years the CIA decided to change the concept of a secret service, and was almost destroyed. Those were also the years the CIA caught a lot of hell. The CIA proved to be very ineffective.

Part five discusses the CIA under Carter, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, 1977 to 1993. The CIA was very distrusted during those years. They were in fact asleep at the helm! They had no idea what to do when the Berlin Wall finally comes down.

Part six discusses the CIA under Clinton and George W. Bush, 1993 to 2007. Those were the years the CIA could not gather ant useful facts. Clinton read the news in newspapers before the CIA had any clue what was going on. The CIA made grave mistakes.

Editorial Review:

With shocking revelations that made headlines in papers across the country, Pulitzer-Prize-winner Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers here why nearly every CIA Director has left the agency in worse shape than when he found it; and how these profound failures jeopardize our national security.

Patriotic Grace: What It Is and Why We Need It Now

Peggy Noonan

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this long season of searing political attacks and angry partisan passions, Peggy Noonan's Wall Street Journal column has been must reading for thoughtful liberals and conservatives alike.

Now she issues an urgent, heartfelt call for all Americans to see each other anew, realize what time it is, and come together to support the next President—whoever he is. Because it is not the threats and challenges we face, but how we face them that defines us as a nation.

The terrible events of 9/11 brought us together in a way not seen since World War II. But the stresses and divisions of the Bush years have driven us apart to a point that is unhealthy and destructive.

Today, Noonan argues, the national mood is for a change in our politics and it is well past time for politicians to catch up. Americans are tired of the old partisan divisions and the campaign tricks that seek to widen and exploit them. We long for leaders who can summon us to greatness and unity, as they did in the long struggles against fascism and communism.

In this timely little book, written in the pamphleteering tradition of Tom Paine's Common Sense, Noonan reminds us that we must face our common challenges together—not by rising above partisanship, but by reaffirming what it means to be American.

Leading Change

John P. Kotter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Good leadership advice, but narrow and out-dated 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

John Kotter is a business professor at Harvard University who writes "Leading Change" as a guide to business leaders, helping them to transform their stagnant, ineffective, hierarchical companies into more effective, responsive, team-oriented ones. To help companies and leaders make this transition, he presents eight sequential steps that must be followed in order and done well.

These eight steps are:

1. Establish a sense of urgency (fight complacency)

2. Create a guiding coalition (both influential leaders and effective managers)

3. Develop a widely inspiring vision and strategy for achieving it

4. Communicate the vision, communicate the vision, and communicate the vision even more.

5. Give the employees authority to creatively experiment concerning how to best make the vision a reality

6. Make sure you point out things to celebrate as you make progress toward your goals; it rewards appropriate behavior and, besides, people need to celebrate once in a while.

7. Understand Bowen Family Systems Theory--that when you change one thing, everything else changes with it. Systemic change is difficult work that produces a whole lot of anxiety and unintended consequences.

8. Make sure that, once the changes are made, they become engrained in the new culture of he company; make them "the way we do things around here."

Kotter does get credit for being comprehensive and for being among the first to write a leadership book of this sort (copyright 1996). He appears correct in all of his arguments and this reader has difficulty finding flaws in his eight steps. He appropriately balances task-orientation and relationship-orientation and distinguishes between leading and managing. Furthermore, he is the only author I've come across that understands how Family Systems Theory plays out in an organization undergoing change.

However, the book is outdated. Newer authors like Jim Collins, John Maxwell, and Kouzes & Posner have refined Kotter's ideas and presented them in a more readable, more applicable, and more modern way (again, 1996 copyright).

Kotter limits his ideas and examples to the large, highly structured business world; other authors deliberately address leadership within smaller businesses, schools, non-profits, and other environments. Kotter writes before the internet was widely used; other books keep rapid communication advancements in mind. The obligatory quotes from people I've never heard of who praise the book say over and over again how highly readable Kotter's prose is; I found the prose dry and could cite many examples from this genre which are much more readable.

The ideas Kotter presents are not bad; in fact they're quite good and have blazed the trail for other leadership books. However, "Leading Change" could certainly use an updated edition. Other authors have taken many of Kotter's ideas, refined them, re-worked them, and present them in a manner much more helpful to a wider audience.

I neither recommend this book nor do I contest it. You would do well to read "Leading Change," but you would do better to read some of the authors listed above.

Editorial Review:

In "Leading Change", John Kotter examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors. He identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in attempting to create change and offers an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm's agenda: establishing a greater sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering others to act, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the future. This highly personal book reveals what John Kotter has seen, heard, experienced, and concluded in 25 years of working with companies to create lasting transformation.

Truman

David McCullough

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Total reviews: 287 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hailed by critics as an American masterpiece, David McCullough's sweeping biography of Harry S. Truman has captured the heart of the nation. The life and times of the thirty-third President of the United States, Truman provides a deeply moving look at an extraordinary, singular American. From Truman's small-town, turn-of-the-century boyhood and his transforming experience in the face of war in 1918, to his political beginnings in the powerful Pendergast machine and his rapid rise to prominence in the U.S. Senate, McCullough shows, in colorful detail, a man of uncommon vitality and strength of character. Here too is a telling account of Truman's momentous decision to use the atomic bomb and the weighty responsibilities that he was forced to confront on the dawning of a new age. Distinguished historian and prize-winning author David McCullough tells one of the greatest of American stories in this stirring audio adaptation of his Truman---a compelling, classic portrait of a life that shaped history.

Separation Of Power

Vince Flynn

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Total reviews: 110 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

CIA director Thomas Stansfield is dead -- and many individuals in the nation's capital are pleased to hear. However, their happiness is short-lived because Stansfield's successor -- his protégé Dr. Irene Kennedy -- plans on pursuing Stansfield's goals -- a fact Stansfield's fiercest enemies refuse to accept.

Israel has discovered that Saddam Hussein is close to entering the nuclear arms race -- and they've vowed to stop the Iraqi madman before he can get his hands on the ultimate weapon. With the Middle East teetering on the precipice of chaos and devastation, the president of the United States is forced to act.

The commander in chief's secret weapon? None other than the CIA's top counterterroism operative, Mitch Rapp. With the haunting specter of World War III looming, Rapp races against time and impossible odds -- navigating the deadly alleys of Baghdad, tearing through the corruption-riddled streets of Washing ton, D.C., and taking drastic measures against anyone who gets in his way.

With action that sizzles and true-to-life insider detail, Separation of Power showcases New York Times bestselling author Vince Flynn at his shell-shocking best.