History & Theory Books - Page 13

The Savage Wars Of Peace: Small Wars And The Rise Of American Power

Max Boot

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 67 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Reviewed and debated everywhere, this book has become a key volume in the case for a new policy of interventionism.

America's "small wars," "imperial wars," or, as the Pentagon now terms them, "low-intensity conflicts," have played an essential but little-appreciated role in its growth as a world power. Beginning with Jefferson's expedition against the Barbary Pirates, Max Boot tells the exciting stories of our sometimes minor but often bloody landings in Samoa, the Philippines, China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Russia, and elsewhere. Along the way he sketches colorful portraits of little-known military heroes such as Stephen Decatur, "Fighting Fred" Funston, and Smedley Butler.

From 1800 to the present day, such undeclared wars have made up the vast majority of our military engagements. Yet the military has often resisted preparing itself for small wars, preferring instead to train for big conflicts that seldom come. Boot re-examines the tragedy of Vietnam through a "small war" prism. He concludes with a devastating critique of the Powell Doctrine and a convincing argument that the armed forces must reorient themselves to better handle small-war missions, because such clashes are an inevitable result of America's far-flung imperial responsibilities.

The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy

T.R. Reid

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Total reviews: 79 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In May 2004, the European Union will add ten new member states-including Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, among others-to become a union of twenty-five nations. While this might seem a fairly innocuous and minute shift of political semantics for most Americans, the enlargement will increase the population of the EU to 450 million citizens, making it larger (in population) and richer (in GDP) than the United States-not to mention that the EU has more trade than the United States and more votes on the UN Security Council and all other international organizations. This New Europe is determined to flex its political and economic muscle on the world stage. The Continent has moved much further than most Americans realize toward the dream of a "United States of Europe," to borrow Winston Churchill's term.

T. R. Reid's The United States of Europe lays bare the ways in which the EU is positioning itself to be a global counterweight and second superpower, on equal footing with the U.S.A. Reid traces the rise of the EU from the days when Churchill and other visionaries set out in the post-World War II rubble to find a means to end war in Europe. He shows how this remarkably successful effort to "create peace" also created a global economic and political power that is often at odds with the United States. This drive toward unity has been accelerated by the powerful mood of anti-Americanism (or, at least, anti-Bushism) that has swept the Continent since the war in Iraq.

In addition to the political ramifications of the EU, The United States of Europe shows the great impact this alliance is having on the global economic market. The euro, which now has more daily users than the dollar, is fast becoming a reserve currency and a new standard for global finance, a globally recognized replacement for the once-almighty dollar. Unification has spawned a generation of European corporate managers who have led firms like Nokia, Airbus, BP, Vodafone, and Red Bull to catch and surpass their U.S. competitors in global markets.

The European Union, from its beginnings as an experiment in statecraft, has rapidly emerged as a resounding success; yet Americans have so far managed to ignore the geopolitical revolution under way across the Atlantic. Reid's book shows how quietly-and not so quietly-Europe is developing itself into an economic, political, and cultural powerhouse.

The Mind of Jihad

Laurent Murawiec

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Their own words 5 out of 5 stars.
53 of 54 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer should focus on the book, not celebrate his own prejudices and bigotry--as the previous reviewer of this book has done. Has he even read it? This valuable, cooly rational work is not a rant of any sort, but a careful historical analysis, based upon decades of studying the background material. Author Murawiec does not impose his own pre-formed views; instead, he does exactly what a serious researcher should do: He allows terrorists and the extremist thinkers who formed their beliefs to speak in their own words. Upon hundreds of occasion in this book, we hear the chilling, to-the-point (of the sword) writings, pronouncements and sermons of radical Islamist thinkers over the centuries. The author does, in my view, a brilliant, pithy job of describing how certain streams within Islam (not Islam as a whole) have constructed their own deviant theologies of death. Does the previous reviewer object to we, the people, hearing what our enemies have said for themselves? If we are ever to get beyond the totalitarian prejudices on both the extreme political left and right in our own country, it will be because concerned citizens read and think about serious works such as this (no mind develops if fed only comfortable, unchallenging food). And let us remember: Over the centuries and unto this day, the all-or-nothing fanatics who have afflicted Islam have killed far, far more Muslims than they have killed non-Muslims. The problem isn't faith, but fanaticism that corrupts faith. On a lesser level, unfair reviews scribbled down in a fit of political pique only make things worse. If we are unwilling to hear that which is uncomfortable, it will be far more difficult for us to do what is right. I strongly recommend this book for serious readers.

Editorial Review:

This book examines contemporary jihad as a cult of violence and power. All jihadi groups, whether Shiite or Sunni, Arab or not, are characterized by a similar bloodlust. Murawiec characterizes this belief structure as identical to that of Europe's medieval millenarians and apocalyptics, arguing that both jihadis and their European cousins shared in a Gnostic ideology: a God-given mission endowed the Elect with supernatural powers and placed them above the common law of mankind. Although the ideology of jihad is essentially Islamic, Murawiec traces the political technologies used by modern jihad to the Bolsheviks. Their doctrines of terror as a system of rule were appropriated by radical Islam through multiple lines of communication. This book brings history, anthropology, and theology to bear to understand the mind of jihad that has declared war on the West and the world.

The Essentials Of Political Analysis

Philip H. Pollock III

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Hypothesis testing? Correlation? Did you say logistic regression?? You are probably used to seeing concerned looks on the faces of your methods students. Student anxiety about this course always runs high given the nature of seemingly intimidating material. Philip Pollock's first order of business is to get math-phobic students comfortable learning and using the tools of political analysis. His brief and accessible text puts students at ease with a conversational writing style and plenty of real-world and political examples.

Providing a strong conceptual foundation, The Essentials of Political Analysis walks students through the basics--measuring concepts, formulating and testing hypotheses, describing variables--and then, through a companion SPSS volume with easy-to-use canned data sets, prepares them to apply what they learn immediately on the computer. The author's engaging and straightforward prose clearly introduces key terms and concepts while chapter-opening objectives cue students to learning goals. Over eighty tables and figures enhance important textual material. Class-tested chapter exercises promote skill application and aid student review.

Fans of Pollock's practical introduction to the methods course will appreciate the second edition's many improvements, from more comparative and international material to a brand new chapter on logistic regression. Introducing students to one of the discipline's most widely used statistical tools, students learn the logic of logistic regression, maximum likelihood estimation and how to convert logits into probabilities.

Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf

Adolf Hitler

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Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Provides a valuable insight into the development of ideas that were to shape Hitler's foreign policy after 1933."-Jeremy Noakes, The Times Literary Supplement

"The text bears all of Hitler's hallmarks, along with a terrifying, sustained belief in war and violence as a means to ensure that Germany would flourish."-Publishers Weekly

"He envisaged the German people becoming involved in a series of wars for Lebens-raum culminating in an epic battle against America."-Michael Smith, Daily Telegraph

"The Second Book is in many ways more important than Mein Kampf."-Guardian

"I have never known anyone to say this is a forged document."-Volker Berghahn, The New York Times

"Hitler admires the 'young, racially select' American people and the nation's restrictive immigration policies at the time."-The New York Times

"Far more than Mein Kampf, the Second Book establishes the grandiose scale of Hitler's ambitions."-Dennis Showalter, Colorado College

"More clearly than ever, Hitler sketched out the worldwide struggle against the Jews which he and his party had to lead."-Richard Overy, Guardian

Hitler's Second Book is the first complete and annotated edition of the manuscript Hitler dictated shortly before his rise to power four year after publishing Mein Kampf. It contains a catalog of shocking policy statements and previously undisclosed plans of world conquest at the core of Nazi ideology that Hitler concluded were too provoca-tive for publication.

The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future

Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Scott Burns

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Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

One of Library Journal's Best Business Books of 2004, Winner in the category of Economics in the 2004 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc. and CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2004

In 2030, as 77 million baby boomers hobble into old age, walkers will outnumber strollers; there will be twice as many retirees as there are today but only 18 percent more workers. How will America handle this demographic overload? How will Social Security and Medicare function with fewer working taxpayers to support these programs? According to Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns, if our government continues on the course it has set, we'll see skyrocketing tax rates, drastically lower retirement and health benefits, high inflation, a rapidly depreciating dollar, unemployment, and political instability. The government has lost its compass, say Kotlikoff and Burns, and the current administration is heading straight into the coming generational storm.

But don't panic. To solve a problem you must first understand it. Kotlikoff and Burns take us on a guided tour of our generational imbalance, first introducing us to the baby boomers— their long retirement years and "the protracted delay in their departure to the next world." Then there's the "fiscal child abuse" that will double the taxes paid by the next generation. There's also the "deficit delusion" of the under-reported national debt. And none of this, they say, will be solved by any of the popularly touted remedies: cutting taxes, technological progress, immigration, foreign investment, or the elimination of wasteful government spending.

So how can the United States avoid this demographic/fiscal collision? Kotlikoff and Burns propose bold new policies, including meaningful reforms of Social Security, and Medicare. Their proposals are simple, straightforward, and geared to attract support from both political parties. But just in case politicians won't take the political risk to chart a new direction, Kotlikoff and Burns also offer a "life jacket"— guidelines for individuals to protect their financial health and retirement.

American Government

Alan R. Gitelson, Robert L. Dudley, Melvin J. Dubnick

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A practical, basic textbook 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This book offers a foundation for political concepts and historic background about the U.S. Using standard survey course format, the author skims the broad topics of government from the core documents, including the Declaration and the Constitution, to the general structures and processes of governing. While I must conclude with a prior reviewer that the writing is unexciting, I have yet to find THE basic government text equivalent of "Democracy - Not 4 Dummies"

Excellent introduction to Politics 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

American Government covered everything and anything on politics. I could not have asked for a better introduction on politics! It covered everything from the US Constitution to interest groups and the bureaucracy. If you are interested in politics, but need a simple, solid introduction, this book is for you! However, I found the book was difficult to read, as it was poorly written and tedious at times. Although this book is probably the best intro to Government around, do not buy it if you have a short attention span.

Editorial Review:

For each chapter, the Student Handbook includes focus points, a study outline, key terms, notes about possible misconceptions, a data check, practice exam questions, and special application projects, as well as answers to all chapter exercises (excluding the essay questions).

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 3 (Penguin Classics)

Karl Marx

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A rationalization for slavery and slaughter 1 out of 5 stars.
8 of 84 people found this review helpful.

The book that spawned the deaths of over 100 million people in the 20th Century is, ironically, only a boring litany of economic fallacies. The poverty of the labor theory of value, the absurdity of economic progress without a price system, and the necessary terror that accompanies socialism are all exposed in detail in George Reisman's CAPITALISM. All of you poor proletarians with computers out to read how effortlessly a real economist dismantles your dogma.

Editorial Review:

Unfinished at the time of Marx's death in 1883 and first published with a preface by Frederick Engels in 1894, the third volume of "Das Kapital" strove to combine the theories and concepts of the two previous volumes in order to prove conclusively that capitalism is inherently unworkable as a permanent system for society. Here, Marx asserts controversially that - regardless of the efforts of individual capitalists, public authorities or even generous philanthropists - any market economy is inevitably doomed to endure a series of worsening, explosive crises leading finally to complete collapse. But he also offers an inspirational and compelling prediction: that the end of capitalism will culminate, ultimately, in the birth of a far greater form of society.

The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World

John O'Sullivan

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Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

History as it should be written: fact-filled, detached and light on the bias 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Very readable, smooth flowing inter-weaving of the stories of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II and how, working together, they changed the world. This is history as it should be written. Fact-filled. Detached. Light on the bias. Fascinating. The book is quick to read and hard to put down.

This is the story of three disparate personalities and their unlikely (and synchronous) rises to power. The elderly B-movie actor. The school-marmish scold. The non-Italian Catholic living under the thumb of officially atheistic communism. Together, they defeat the scourge of communism while simultaneously rescuing their respective polities from the slow death spiral of the 60s and 70s, whether than be Reagan resurrecting American swagger and putting the U.S. economy on sound footing, or Thatcher curing Britain of Euro-sclerosis, or the Holy Father rescuing the Catholic church for the suffocating forces of modernism and "reform."

This is an essential history of late 20th Century America and Great Britain. It is an essential history of the recent Catholic church. It is also very much a history of Poland, for it is that land that it is at the center of this narrative. Ronald Reagan always believed that the key to ending the Cold War lay with Poland. And it is events in Poland, from the papal visits, to the strike at the Gdansk shipyard, from the martial law of Jaruszelski, to the rise of Lech Walesa and Solidarity, that shape this story. Reagan's insight into the centrality of Poland proved astonishingly right.

This book is not just for us Republicans. For example, one Carter Era figure prominently and positively figures in events here: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's national security advisor. Brzezinski has not gotten enough credit for seizing control of events in Poland from the late Carter administration through the Reagan administration. This book gives him delayed credit.

Two (minor) criticisms of this book. First, the Holy Father drops out of the narrative, for the most part, in the last third of the book. More Pope, please! Second, the equation of the bombing of Mrs. Thatcher's hotel in 1984, does not really parallel the 1981 assassination attempts on President Reagan and Pope John Paul II. It's a reach that doesn't work. But these are very minor blemishes on a masterful book.

Editorial Review:

The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister is a sweeping, dramatic account of how three great figures changed the course of history, as told by John O'Sullivan, former editor of National Review and the Times of London, who knew all three and has conducted exclusive interviews that shed extraordinary new light on these giants of the twentieth century.

Political Science: An Introduction (9th Edition)

Michael G. Roskin

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

"Unbiased?" Yeah, right! 1 out of 5 stars.
40 of 64 people found this review helpful.

Let me start by admitting I have the Seventh Edition (2000), not the 2002 version. However, I doubt that there could be much improvement. This "textbook" can only be the product of gross incompetence or extreme bias, I will let you decide which.

For example, page 340 reads "It is true that some regimes commit acts of great evil; military regimes in Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala killed thousands on the slightest suspicion of leftism. But how is it that these military regimes came to power? Why does system breakdown recur repeatedly in such contries?"

So, does the author not know that we, the US, overthrew the democratically elected Arbenz in Guatemalla, and Allende in Chile? Everyone else knows this...and does the author not know that Chile, prior to this installation of Pinochet, was the one stable democracy in Latin America? So how then is Chile a case of this "recur(ing) repeatedly? (sic)" It happened once. Does the fact that two of his three examples of internal "system breakdown" leading to regime change actualy represent partially, or largely, the external actions of a superpower interfering in the internal affairs of weaker soveriegn countries not seem to be problematic? How can these be used as examples of internal processes when everyone knows what really happened, and that is not it? The author, in order to assert this, must be grossly ignorant of history (thereby disqualifying him as a viable authority in the field) or, knowing history, must be intentionally and knowingly distorting it for political reasons (thereby making him unquestionably biased, intellectually dishonest, and also therefore unsuited for the field).

On top of that we have the unfortunately normal systemic incompetence of the Political Science field in general. "Theory" and "causation" are words which they have no grasp of the meaning of in academic discourse. Methodology is a joke; a pile of correlations mushed together with assertions and assumptions (some already disproven for a few decades elsewhere) to create just-so stories does not make a legitimate theory or even hypothesis. We know too much about human nature, via studies done in Psychology, Neurobiology, and Evolutionary Psychology, and empirical information from anthropology, primatology, and ethology, and theoretical and empirical knowledge supplied by evolutionary biology, to just "assume" that humans are rational and go merrily on our way as Political Science is still doing. There is a huge body of knowledge on this question now, entire books debate it back and forth. It is in no way legitimate to simply plead ignorance and continue to build huge mental constructs of how the world works based on assumptions we in no way can justify making given what is known.

If this field were in any way deserving of the word "science," the knowledge that a fundamental "assumption" was seriously in doubt would result in massive questioning of the veracity of the ideas based on that assumption. That has not happened.

I urge you all not to waste your money on this book, I could give many more equally damning examples but the above should suffice. I also suggest that Evolutionary Psychology would be a far more profitable course of study if you want to know about human political behavior.

Editorial Review:

Exceptionally up-to-date and rich in cross-national examples, Political Science  offers an unbiased and thorough introduction to the basic concepts and theories of political science. With a critical look at the major theories, it exposes students to many ways of thinking, and challenges them to think critically. Emphasizing both U.S. and comparative politics provides students with a solid foundation for connecting their studies ot what is happening in the world around them.