21st Century Books - Page 3

State of Denial: Bush At War, Part III

Bob Woodward

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Audio Amazon Marketplace: 75 new & used starting at $0.43

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 315 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

THE DETAILED, INSIDE STORY OF A WAR-TORN WHITE HOUSE

Bob Woodward examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to the Congress, and often to themselves in State of Denial. Woodward's third book on President Bush is a sweeping narrative from the first days George W. Bush thought seriously about running for president, through the recruitment of his national security team, the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the struggle for political survival in the second term.

State of Denial answers the core questions: What happened after the invasion of Iraq? Why? How does Bush make decisions and manage the war that he chose to define his presidency? And, is there an achievable plan for victory? After more than three decades of reporting on national security decision making, including his two #1 national bestsellers on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush at War and Plan of Attack, Woodward provides the fullest account, and explanation, of the road Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the White House staff have walked.

The Assault on Reason (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series)

Albert Gore

Amazon Price: $28.76 List Price: $31.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Thorndike Press Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $15.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 341 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

a well written book on the state of american democracy 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It's hard to be objective about this book. Those who give it high
marks no doubt betray their political leanings. Regardless, I do think
that Gore put together a straightforward thesis, and defended it
very well: The basis of democracy in America is an informed and
rational body of voters. Through skillful and deliberate machinations on many different
levels - primarily by relying on one-way media which limit the political
discourse, and evoking primal responses through a variety of
scare tactics - the typical voter no longer reasons, but is being
manipulated by the political machinery. While the Bush administration and its pals in
Congress are singled out as consummate practitioners of such politics,
I think they simply represent the pinnacle of this hypocrisy.

I do believe that Gore got many things right here. Although he bases a few arguments
on recent research in neuroscience which may not have the wide ranging implications
suggested, he reasons well.

Although he reserves the harshest criticism for the current (Bush) administration,
I think this is a clear indictment of the modern political process in the US. As such,
it must also perhaps be read as an apology for Gore's own role in this process.
I do not think this was lost on him, and therefore makes it harder to think of the
book as the writings of a sore loser.

Editorial Review:

A #1 New York Times bestseller: A visionary analysis of the degradation of our public sphere and its consequences for our democracy

Nobel Peace Prize winner, bestselling author, activist, and political icon, Al Gore has become one of the most respected and influential public intellectuals in America today. The Assault on Reason takes an unprecedented look at how faith in the power of reason—the idea that citizens can govern themselves through rational debate—is now under assault. The marketplace of ideas, once open to everyone through the printed word, has been corrupted by the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith. By leading us to an understanding of what we can do to restore the rule of reason, Gore has written a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking.

Democratic National Convention 2008: Obama's Mile High Moment

The Denver Post

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fulcrum Pub Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $9.06

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Subjects -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Subjects -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century

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.

Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives

Jim Sheeler

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Press HC, The Amazon Marketplace: 58 new & used starting at $12.59

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> Grief & Bereavement
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Grief
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, Jim Sheeler’s unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead; Final Salute Is a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn them

They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door. “The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know,” said Major Steve Beck.

Since the start of the war in Iraq, marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines.

Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead marine’s name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark.

In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Salute is the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.

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

Noam Chomsky

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Holt Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 76 new & used starting at $5.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Iraq
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Democracy

Customer Reviews:
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.

The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina

Frank Rich

Amazon Price: $30.36 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Audio Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $1.21

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> U.S.

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 142 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Stop the presses: the Administration engages in P.R.! 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 8 people found this review helpful.

My experience with this book: in short, ennui and déjà vu, not to borrow too much from the French. As to be expected by now, we get breathless reporting on how the Administration tries to spin the press and put its actions in the most favorable light possible. Imagine that. And, as to be expected, we also get the yawn-inducing laundry list of supposed sins, along with generally poor editing and overall intellectual sloppiness. Briefly:

* Blame for Bush for not being alcoholic *enough* to swear off the booze: "He was never a clinical alcoholic, never drank during the day (or every day), never needed to seek out A.A. or any other treatment" (pp 12-13).

* "already extant" stem-cell lines (p 20). Suggestion: if you're going to use words like "extant," you should make sure you know what they mean. It's a redundancy to say "already extant," since the word means "already existing."

* Blaming America for the terrorist attacks. Regarding the pre- 9-11 culture: "A decade of dreaming was coming to an end. The dream had been simple--that Americans could have it all without having to pay any price" (p 22).

ASIDE. It's funny and ironic that so many neo-Puritans are on the left, from Al Gore to Mike Bloomberg to the theater critic. People who think that a necessary adjunct to life is suffering for our sins, whether those sins be religious or secular, real or imagined, individual or institutional.

* Blaming Bush for not going back to the capital fast enough after the terrorist attack: "September 11 was the first time since the British set fire to the White House in 1814 that a president abandoned the capital for security reasons" (p 24). First, to point out the obvious, Bush was in Florida when the Mohammedans attacked. He wasn't in the White House, so couldn't have "abandoned" it. Second, if Flight 93 hadn't crashed in Pennsylvania, Bush might have been killed in Flight 93's attack.

* "The farther away Americans were from 9/11, both in time and geography, the faster it faded" (p 38). Wrong. New York was the epicenter of the attacks yet also one of quickest to become anti-Bush and anti-war.

ASIDE. It's factually-challenged statements like the one above that make me think the theater critic really needs to get out of his bubble and see the rest of the U.S. The Upper West Side is an awfully small part of America. If you're an Upper West Side liberal who thinks people west of the Hudson River are rubes and hicks, fine. Just don't pretend to speak for them.

* Enron was "the greatest single financial patron of Bush's political career" (pp 42-43). This is just a really mentally challenged factual assertion. Companies cannot donate to politicians. 2 U.S.C. §441b(a).

* "Bush had never run a successful business" (p 51). The Texas Rangers baseball franchise wasn't a successful business?

* "Well before the missed Qaeda signals of the summer of 2001..." (p 51). Like the missed "Al" (or "al" -- the book can't make up its mind) in front of "Qaeda" in that sentence?

* The 9/11 Commission supposedly concluded that Mohammed Atta's meeting in Prague with Ahmad al-Ani, the Iraqi intelligence officer, "never took place" (pp 65, 128). Wrong. The CIA director told the 9/11 Commission: "`Atta may also have traveled outside of the U.S. in early April 2001 to meet an Iraqi intelligence officer, although we are still working to corroborate this'" (9/11 Report p 386). This statement has never been retracted or modified.

* The book is smart enough not to directly claim Bush's "sixteen words" about Iraq seeking uranium from Africa were false. The book *implies* that by concentrating on the forged uranium purchase offer documents (pp 71-72, 97-100, 143), but in point of fact, as the theater critic probably knows, chances are good that Iraq *did* seek uranium from Niger. See the Senate Intelligence Committee Report of July 7, 2004 p. 42.

* "No American weapons inspectors...would ever find any weapons" of mass destruction (p 102). Wrong. In fact, about 500 chemical weapons had been found in Iraq as of early 2006, according to the National Ground Intelligence Center, the successor to the Iraq Survey Group. (U.S. House of Representatives - Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, June 21, 2006). It's true that these weapons were mostly left over form the Iran-Iraq war, and were not new weapons or weapons produced by mobile laboratories -- but it's flat-out false to say that no WMDs were found in Iraq.

* The book seems shocked that pre- 9/11 the Bush Administration was planning for a possible showdown with Saddam Hussein (pp 113, 218), but fails to mention that the overthrow of Saddam had been an explicit U.S. policy since the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. Of *course* there would be pre-9/11 and pre-Iraq War discussions about overthrowing Saddam. That and the fact that he was ordering constant attacks on U.S. planes in the no-fly zones. If a country tries to shoot down your planes thousands of times, isn't that country at war with you?

* The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were supposedly "Rove minions" (p 137). Oh? Prove it. The theater critic provides some six degrees of separation stuff to back up this claim, like the fact that the Swifties' communications director once worked for a group that was bankrolled by a Bush donor (pp 139-140). That's riveting evidence all right. George Tenant would call it a slam dunk. Face it, the theater critic has squat because if Rove really had been controlling the Swifties, that would be explosive, because it is illegal for a political campaign to coordinate with an outside, 527 group. 2 U.S.C. §441a(a)(7). Which is likelier: the left has overlooked a chance to nail Rove for a crime -- or the theater critic is talking out of his hat?

* In 2004 the Rovian attack machine set out to have Kerry "literally stripped of his medals" (p 137). No, the only person who "literally stripped" John Kerry of his medals was John Kerry. He did that all by himself when he took his medals off and threw them over the White House fence.

ASIDE. "literally stripped." Wow. Literally? So Rove is just going to walk up to Kerry and strip those medals off of him?

* Supposedly Kerry was opposed to same-sex marriage (p 151). That's both true and false. It's true that by Election Day 2004 Kerry said he opposed same-sex marriage. But it's false because Kerry at one point did support it ("Kerry Signed Letter Backing Gay Marriage," USA Today, Feb 11, 2004) but later flip-flopped on the issue.

* Bush's flight suit he wore to the aircraft carrier Lincoln was a "costume" (p 156). Because the theater critic seems to be factually deficient regarding military matters, let me point out that a flight suit is required gear for flying a plane. It's a "costume" in the same sense a fire fighter's clothing and helmet is a "costume."

* The book describes the Jayson Blair plagiarism and fabrication scandal, and the Memogate scandal, then goes on to say: "These scandals played perfectly into the Administration's insidious efforts to blur the boundary between its reality and actual reality" (p 163). So let me get this straight: story fabrication and libel are "actual reality" and anyone trying to say otherwise has an alternative reality? Unbelievable.

* Rove supposedly was the source of the Valerie Plame leak (pp 179-180). Wrong. Actually, it was Richard Armitage. See "Hubris" by Isikoff and Corn.

* The book spends a lot of time blasting Bush for the feds' Katrina response (pp 198-205), but makes no mention of the incompetent New Orleans and Louisiana response, as well as the Posse Comitatus problem. I'm not saying that what the theater critic has to say about Bush and Katrina is factually incorrect, it's just distorted because it omits the other pieces of the picture.

* I thought the book would be too smart to fall into the Iraq / "imminent threat" trap but apparently the theater critic couldn't help himself. He implies the Administration said or believed that Saddam was an imminent threat (p 211). Wrong. Bush never said Saddam posed an "imminent threat" or imminent anything. In fact, in his 2003 State of the Union Speech, Bush said just the opposite, that we should attack Saddam *before* he became an imminent threat: "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late."

Overall, I have to admit that while the book breaks no new ground in any way, it *is* clever enough not to fall for some of the standard anti-Bush lies -- for example that Iraq never sought uranium from Africa or that Bush declared the war to be over in the May 1, 2003 "Mission Accomplished" speech. The theater critic does seem to be aware that there are facts other than those in his alternative universe. That's a bit of a relief at this stage, and bumps this book up to two stars.

Editorial Review:

New York Times columnist Frank Rich reviews the trajectory of fictions spun by the Bush administration from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, revealing the most brilliant spin campaign ever conducted.

Unabridged CDs - 8 CDs, 10 hours

Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush

Thomas E. Woods Jr., Kevin R. C. Gutzman

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Crown Forum Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $11.37

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“Let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
—Thomas Jefferson

The United States Constitution—the bedrock of our country, the foundation of our federal republic—is . . . dead.

You won’t hear that from the politicians who endlessly pay lip service to the Constitution. It’s the dirty little secret that bestselling authors Thomas E. Woods Jr. and Kevin R. C. Gutzman expose in this provocative new book. The fact is that government officials—Democrats and Republicans, presidents, judges, and congresses alike—long ago rejected the idea that the Constitution possesses a fixed meaning limiting the U.S. government’s power.

In case you’ve forgotten, this idea was not a minor aspect of the Constitution; it was the document’s very purpose.

Woods and Gutzman round up the suspects responsible for the death of the government the Founding Fathers designed. Going right to the scenes of the crimes, they dissect twelve of the most egregious assaults on the Constitution—some virtually unknown. In chronicling this “dirty dozen,” the authors show that the attacks began long before presidents declared preemptive wars, congresses built pork-barrel bridges to nowhere, and Supreme Court justices began to behave as our supreme legislators.

In Who Killed the Constitution? Woods and Gutzman

• REVEAL the federal government’s “great gold robbery”—the flagrant assault on the Constitution you never heard about in history class
• DESTROY the phony case for presidential war power
• EXPOSE how the federal government has actively discriminated to end . . . discrimination
• TEAR DOWN the “wall of separation” between church and state—an invention that completely contradicts what the Constitution says
• DARE to touch the “third rail of American jurisprudence,” Brown v. Board of Education—showing why a government decision that seems “right” isn’t necessarily constitutional

Never shying away from controversy, Woods and Gutzman reveal an unsettling but unavoidable truth: now that the federal government has broken free of the Constitution’s chains, government officials are restrained by little more than their sense of what they can get away with.

Who Killed the Constitution? is a rallying cry for Americans outraged by government run amok and a warning to take heed before we lose the liberties we are truly entitled to.

Plan of Attack

Bob Woodward

Amazon Price: $23.36 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks By: Simon & Schuster Audio Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $3.90

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 255 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.

Based on interviews with 75 key participants and more than three-and-a half hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush, Plan of Attack is part presidential history charting the decisions made during 16 critical months; part military history; and part a harrowing spy story as the CIA dispatches a covert paramilitary team into northern Iraq six months before the start of the war.

What emerges are astonishingly intimate portraits: President Bush in war cabinet meetings and in private conversation; Dick Cheney, the focused and driven vice president; Colin Powell, the conflicted and cautious secretary of state; Donald Rumsfeld, the controlling war technocrat; George Tenet, the activist CIA director; Tommy Franks, the profane and demanding general; Condoleezza Rice, the ever-present referee and national security adviser; Karl Rove, the hands-on political strategist; other key members of the White House staff and congressional leadership; and foreign leaders ranging from British Prime Minister Blair to Russian President Putin.

Plan of Attack provides new details on the intelligence assessments of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the planning for the war's aftermath.

Bush at War

Bob Woodward

List Price: $28.00 By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 347 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( B ) -> Bush, George
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 223 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Award-winning author and journalist Bob Woodward turns his attention to the presidency of George W. Bush. Before the acts of terrorism on 11 September, George W. Bush's presidency had been beset by numerous problems. Not only was it in many peoples eyes invalid, very few people took him seriously as a world statesman. Then following one violent mindless act of terrorism, George W. Bush became a president that his country could rely on, one they felt they could trust to lead them through these difficult times. And the world saw a man who was decisive and resolute, a president who was seemingly determined to route out the people who had carried out the heinous acts. But one year after the attacks how has the 44th President of the United States fared? And what were the actual behind the scenes discussions that took place whilst the country was rocked by the crisis? Bob Woodward has been shadowing the President since those fateful events, he was allowed unprecedented access to closed-door meetings and briefings and this masterful book is a look at what really happened.

Fair Game: How a Top CIA Agent Was Betrayed by Her Own Government

Valerie Plame Wilson

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $2.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

On July 6, 2003, four months after the United States invaded Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson's now historic op-ed, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," appeared in The New York Times. A week later, conservative pundit Robert Novak revealed in his newspaper column that Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a CIA operative. The public disclosure of that secret information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and the Wilsons' civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration. Much has been written about the "Valerie Plame" story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now. Some of what has been reported about her has been frighteningly accurate, serving as a pungent reminder to the Wilsons that their lives are no longer private. And some has been completely false -- distorted characterizations of Valerie and her husband and their shared integrity.

Valerie Wilson retired from the CIA in January 2006, and now, not only as a citizen but as a wife and mother, the daughter of an Air Force colonel, and the sister of a U.S. marine, she sets the record straight, providing an extraordinary account of her training and experiences, and answers many questions that have been asked about her covert status, her responsibilities, and her life. As readers will see, the CIA still deems much of the detail of Valerie's story to be classified. As a service to readers, an afterword by national security reporter Laura Rozen provides a context for Valerie's own story.

Fair Game is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power.