History & Theory Books - Page 4

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:

Sowell presents a devastating critique of the mind-set behind the failed social policies of the past thirty years. Sowell sees what has happened during that time not as a series of isolated mistakes but as a logical consequence of a tainted vision whose defects have led to crises in education, crime, and family dynamics, and to other social pathologies. In this book, he describes how elites—the anointed—have replaced facts and rational thinking with rhetorical assertions, thereby altering the course of our social policy.

A Brief History of Neoliberalism

David Harvey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Neoliberalism is Libertarianism;it is directly opposed to A Smith's approach 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Harvey(H) has written an interesting book that ,unfortunately,confuses neoliberalism(libertarianism)with conservatism.This erroneous view is at center stage in the book whenever Adam Smith's name shows up in the discussions.H is badly mistaken when he claims that Smith's view was that "...the hidden hand of the market was the best device for mobilizing even the basest of human instincts..."(Harvey,p.20)such as greed.Smith's view was heavily qualified- in many cases such an approach would work but in other cases it would not work.For instance, consider the myth spread by the economics profession that Smith was opposed to tariffs.Smith was opposed to protective tariffs only.He favored revenue tariffs and retaliatory tariffs if there was any probability greater than 0 that such retaliation would result in the offending country removing the impediment to free trade.He would completely reject the neoliberal approach(IMF,WB,WTO) to the removal of protective tariffs,which was to end them as quickly as possible.Smith's policy is the exact opposite.Such tariffs are to be removed in very slow steps and in a careful manner so as not to create a problem of severe unemployment,which is exactly what has happened in practically ever country that has had to ask for the financial "help" of the Neoliberals.
It is not true that the Adam Smith Institute(Harvey,p.57) in New York supports the approach laid out by Smith in BOTH The Theory of Moral Sentiments(TMS,6th edition,1790) or the Wealth of Nations(WN,1776).The Adam Smith Institute is a libertarian organization whose members have no idea about what Smith said,either in theory or in practice(applied policy).
Finally,Neoliberalism is a failure by the standards of freedom contained in BOTH TMS and WN,and not just in TMS(Harvey,p.185).There is absolutely no conflict between the standards of freedom laid out in the best version of TMS, which was the sixth edition,and the WN.
Smith was the first to realize that there was a dark side(severe externality) to the combined operation of the Invisible Hand and the division of labor process.He spent 7 pages [Modern Library(Cannan)edition,pp.734-741)]pointing out that only the government ,by providing free,universal education to all, if necessary,could remedy this undepletable externality that could destroy the capabilities of the working and middle classes.

Harvey can earn 5 stars from me once he revises the coverage of Adam Smith so that it reflects what it was Smith actually said and recommended as policy and not what some economist ,who only knows how to manipulate a bivariate or multivariate version of the normal probability distribution,claims that Smith said or meant.

Editorial Review:

Neoliberalism--the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action--has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. Writing for a wide audience, David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism and The Condition of Postmodernity, here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization came from and how it proliferated on the world stage. Through critical engagement with this history, he constructs a framework, not only for analyzing the political and economic dangers that now surround us, but also for assessing the prospects for the more socially just alternatives being advocated by many oppositional movements.

The Communist Manifesto: Complete With Seven Rarely Published Prefaces

Karl Marx

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Enlightening 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Short, conscise, easy to read, and thought provoking. This manifesto sums up the communist credo in just a few short pages. It gave me a better understanding of where the communist philosophy orginated--necessity.

Never have so many extrapolated so much out of so little. 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

A concept born in a simpler time used as an excuse for many things from Socialism to controlled capitalism. As with any pivotal work one should read it for his/her self. There is always the chance of misinterpretation by an individual, but if you do not read this then you are just accepting someone's word anyway.
This is more than an economics book it is a way of life. It sounds good on paper but makes a lot of assumptions. Instead of worrying about workability, look at the logic that is built on assumptions of that time (written, in 1848). Add this to your library.

You can pick a side (pro or con) and make a stand if you like; but look at the size of this book and realize that many people will just use the title and build their own case. You will have read the real thing. And be sure to balance it with. "The Capitalist Manifesto" by Louis O. Kelso

The Capitalist Manifesto ~ by Louis O. Kelso

Editorial Review:

This title is the classic communist party manifesto which started this one and a half decade political movement. The seven rarely published prefaces, mostly written by Frederick Engels after the death of Karl Marx, are included making this publication the complete communist manifesto. Although this title is known as one of the most famous left-wing propagandist publications, it serves as a lesson for thos of all political philosophys. The Communist Manifesto should be required reading when studying political science, radicalism and radical political thought.

Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989

Michael R. Beschloss

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Unreadable & badly off-target much of the time 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

How did Michael Beschloss get to be "America's Leading Presidential Historian?" I can only assume it is because he has a talent for getting himself on TV again & again...because it certainly isn't because of dreadful efforts such as this.

Setting content aside for a moment --- how can any literate person regard this as well-written? It reads like a Power Point presentation, or more specifically, like research notes which were never revised into a coherent narrative. It's hard to have narrative at all when your chapters are only 5 pages long! Suffice it to say, I found the writing to be such an irritant that I ultimately never finished the book. Life is too short to read crappy writing.

As for the content itself, this is all ground which has been well-covered many times before and Beschloss' conclusions are generally quite unremarkable. When he isn't stating the obvious, Beschloss is dumbing down the subject matter to make it appear more simple than it really was.

Just as an example, I would point to Andrew Jackson & the Bank War. Exactly how is this courageous? Jackson was enjoying tremendous popular support when he went in for the kill against the 2nd BUS, and he was as convinced of his own rectitude as any man ever has been. Also, it is grossly inaccurate to characterize the 2nd BUS as corrupt. Nicholas Biddle may have been a ruthless autocrat, but nobody could accuse him of corruption. That label would be more accurately applied to Jackson's "pet banks" into which Jackson put government deposits, and which were largely responsible for the catastrophic Panic of 1837. Does Beschloss provide anything more than the most shallow of analysis? Of course not.

I never would have purchased this in the first place, but it was part of a book club shipment which I opened by mistake, thinking that it was another (better-written) book. It was only the first of many regrets.

Editorial Review:

Presidential Courage is a brilliantly readable and inspiring saga about crucial times in American history when a courageous President dramatically changed our future. Like Beschloss's previous book, The Conquerors, it was a New York Times bestseller for months.

With surprising new sources and a dazzling command of history and human character, Beschloss brings to life those flawed, complex men -- and their wives, families, friends and foes. Never have we had a more intimate, behind-the-scenes view of Presidents coping with the supreme dilemmas of their lives. For Americans who must choose Presidents and assess them once they are elected, Presidential Courage sets a lasting standard by showing us the best in Presidential leadership.

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

Noam Chomsky

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Total reviews: 97 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

“It’s hard to imagine any American reading this book and not seeing his country in a new, and deeply troubling, light.”—The New York Times Book Review
The United States has repeatedly asserted its right to intervene militarily against “failed states” around the globe. In this much-anticipated follow-up to his international bestseller Hegemony or Survival, Noam Chomsky turns the tables, showing how the United States itself shares features with other failed states—suffering from a severe “democratic deficit,” eschewing domestic and international law, and adopting policies that increasingly endanger its own citizens and the world. Exploring the latest developments in U.S. foreign and domestic policy, Chomsky reveals Washington’s plans to further militarize the planet, greatly increasing the risks of nuclear war. He also assesses the dangerous consequences of the occupation of Iraq; documents Washington’s self-exemption from international norms, including the Geneva conventions and the Kyoto Protocol; and examines how the U.S. electoral system is designed to eliminate genuine political alternatives, impeding any meaningful democracy.
Forceful, lucid, and meticulously documented, Failed States offers a comprehensive analysis of a global superpower that has long claimed the right to reshape other nations while its own democratic institutions are in severe crisis. Systematically dismantling the United States’ pretense of being the world’s arbiter of democracy, Failed States is Chomsky’s most focused—and urgent—critique to date.

Globalization and Its Discontents

Joseph E. Stiglitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 109 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This powerful, unsettling book gives us a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of global financial institutions by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. Renowned academic economist Joseph E. Stiglitz served seven years in Washington, as chairman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and as chief economist at the World Bank. In this book, Stiglitz recounts his experiences in such places as Ethiopia, Thailand, and Russia. He finds repeatedly that the International Monetary Fund puts the interests of its "largest shareholder," the United States, above those of the poorer nations it was designed to serve. This insider's account of global economic policy will be hailed for its courage and honesty. Those seeking to understand why globalization has engendered the hostility of protesters in Seattle and Genoa will find the reasons here. While this book includes no simple formula on how to make globalization work, Stiglitz provides a reform agenda that will provoke debate for years to come.

On War

Carl Von Clausewitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 66 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Geo-Political Student 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Very well written. A must have book for any student or practicioner of the Art and Strategy of War and/or the History of War.

Strategy ? - This book is required reading. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This classic is required reading for any scholar or other person interested in strategic thinking, military command and decision making, leadership of large scale or complex endeavors.

The Definitive Von Clausewitz 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I purchased the Everyman's Library edition of Von Clausewitz's On War for my husband, who is a military officer. He was deeply dissatisfied with the Penguin edition, which is awful in every respect, and so I went in search of an unabridged publication. The Everyman's library version is affordable at around twenty dollars, and expertly translated by the Princeton scholars Howard and Paret (who have a much more expensive but otherwise identical Princeton press edition published). It includes the entire unfinished work, including the books that focus on specifics of military tactics left out of the Penguin edition.
My only complaint about this excellent edition, which incidentally features a very helpful "how to read this book" section, is that it is somewhat cheaply bound and may not hold up to prolonged and intense study over the years. It would be nice to have an attractively bound copy for display in a library or office, as well. I fear we may begin to lose pages if we are not careful, but at twenty dollars, the book is replaceable. Steer clear of penguin, and go straight to Howard and Paret. You won't be sorry.

Editorial Review:

If, in the next place, we keep once more to the pure conception of War, then we must say that the political object properly lies out of its province, for if War is an act of violence to compel the enemy to fulfil our will, then in every case all depends on our overthrowing the enemy, that is, disarming him, and on that alone.

Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy

Michael Soussan

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The year is 1997, Michael Soussan, a fresh-faced young graduate takes up a new job at the U.N.’s Oil-for-Food Program, the largest humanitarian operation in the organization’s history. His mission is to help Iraqi civilians survive the devastating impact of economic sanctions that were imposed following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

As a gaffe-prone novice in a world of sensitive taboos, Soussan struggles to negotiate the increasing paranoia of his incomprehensible boss and the inner workings of one of the world’s notoriously complex bureaucracies. But as he learns more about the vast sums of money flowing through the program, it becomes clear that all is not what it seems. Soussan becomes aware that Saddam Hussein is extracting illegal kickbacks, a discovery that sets him on a collision course with the organization‘s leadership. On March 8, 2004, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed editorial, Soussan becomes the first insider to call for “an independent investigation” of the U.N.’s dealings with Saddam Hussein. One week later, a humiliated Kofi Annan appointed Paul Volcker to lead a team of sixty international investigators, whose findings resulted in hundreds of prosecutions in multiple countries, many of which are still ongoing.

Backstabbing for Beginners is at once a witty tale of one man’s political coming of age, and a stinging indictment of the hypocrisy that prevailed at the heart of one of the world’s most idealistic institutions.

The Wit & Wisdom of Winston Churchill

James C. Humes, Richard M. Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Utterly Delightful 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

A compact book with more than 1,000 quotations and anecdotes you can enjoy at any time.

Here are just a few:

Violet Asquith, the irrepressible daughter of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, found a kindred spirit in Churchill, who served in her father's Cabinet.

Once, in a flight of philosophical gloom, she turned to her dinner partner and said, "Winston, in terms of infinity, we are cosmic dust - we are just worms."

"Perhaps, Violet", Churchill replied, "but I am a glowworm."

* * *

If "Franglais" has been only recently coined to describe the bastardizing of the French language by English words, Churchill may have been the sire of this hybrid argot. Sometimes his additions to the noble Gallic tongue were even more attrocious than his accent.

During some delicate negotions at Casablanca, the stubborn Charles de Gaulle denounced an Allied plan to fuse him and his rival, French general Henri Giraud. Churchill, glaring at the Gaulle, delivered this concoction: "Si vous m'obstaclerez, je vous liquiderai!" (If you obstacle me, I will liquidate you!) A bewildered de Gaulle backed off.

* * *

In 1900, the twenty-six-year-old Churchill, after just being elected to Parliament, made a speaking tour of America. In Washington, he was introduced to a majestically endowed woman from Richmond, Virginia, who prided herself upon her devotion to the "lost cause of the Confederacy." Her family were Democrats who had opposed the Repubican policy of Reconstruction.

Anxious that Churchill should know her sentiments, she remarked as she gave him her hand, "Mr. Churchill, you see before you a rebel who has not been Reconstructed."

"Madam," he replied with a deep bow that surveyed her decolletage, "reconstruction in your case would be blasphemous."

Editorial Review:

An extremely entertaining compendium of bon mots, anecdotes, and trivia about Winston Churchill from a leading Churchill lecturer and performer -- useful for speakers, students, of history, and World War II buffs, as well as general readers.

The Prince (Special Student Edition)

Niccolò Machiavelli

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A guide to gaining and maintaining power 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book was written by the famous Italian statesman Niccolo Machiavelli in 1531. This book is a classic and I was pleasantly surprised that the content was not dated and the principles translate easily into the modern worlds of business and politics.
The author wrote this book as an instruction guide for governing princes in the 1500's when Italy was divided into city states and were being defeated by many foreign powers. I belive that the work is directed to Lorenzo de Medici by a letter included in the work and because at the end of the writing Machiavelli calls for a prince to unite and lead Italy against its oppressors.
The book is not unethical as I had imagined from my understanding of the ruthlessness of Machiavellian ethics. The author is only explaining tactics to use to maintain power in a kingdom or city state that are pragmatic for his time period.
Here are some examples of principles from the book:
1. When conquering a territory keep the current laws and institutions in place, but eliminate all the family of the defeated prince.
2. When trouble is sensed ahead of time it can be easily remedied, if you wait for it to show itself, it is to late.
3. Whoever is responsible for another becoming powerful, ruins himself.
4. There is no surer way of keeping possesion than by devastation.
5. Men do you are harm either because they hate you or they fear you.
6. Violence must be inflicted once and for all, it must be over quickly.
7. Build your power through the people.
8. Power is maintained through religious institutions.
9. Neglect the art of war and you lose your state.
10. If you act virtuously, you will be undone by those who are not, make use of this or not according to need.
The above is just a small sampling of the lessons in this book. My review can not do this book justice, it is full of wisdom and life lessons. It is a guide book for business leaders and politicians. I strongly suggest adding this book to your home library and referring to it often

Editorial Review:

Special Student Edition has a special margin on each page to allow students to make notations. Complete translated text with an introduction on the life of Machiavelli.