21st Century Books - Page 4

Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11

Lynn Spencer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

On the azure blue morning of 9/11 the skies were pronounced "severe clear," in the parlance of airline pilots; a gorgeous day for flying. Nearly 5,000 flights were cruising the skies over America when FAA Operations Manager Ben Sliney arrived at the Command Center for his first day on that job. He could never have anticipated the historic drama that was about to unfold as Americans who found themselves on the front lines of a totally unprecedented attack on our homeland sprang into action to defend our country and save lives.

In this gripping moment-to-moment narrative, based on groundbreaking reporting, Lynn Spencer brings the inspiring true drama of their unflinching and heroic response vividly to life for the first time, taking us right inside the airliner cockpits and control towers, the fighter jets and the military battle cabs. She makes vital corrections to the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report, and reveals many startling, utterly unknown elements of the story.

As a commercial pilot herself, for whom the attacks hit terribly close to home, she knew that the true scope and nature of the response so brilliantly improvised that morning by those in the thick of the action -- with so little guidance from those at the highest levels -- had not at all been captured by the news coverage or the 9/11 Commission. To get to the truth, she went on a three-year quest, interviewing hundreds of key players, listening to untold hours of tapes and pouring through voluminous transcripts to re-create each heart-stopping moment as it happened through their eyes and in their words as the drama unfolded.

From the shocking moment at 7:59 a.m. that American 11 fails to respond to a controller's call, until the last commercial flight has safely landed and military jets rule the skies, all Americans will find themselves deeply moved and amazed by the grace and fierce determination of these steely men and women as they draw on all of their exquisite training to grasp, through the fog of war, what is happening, put their lives on the line, and mount an astonishing response.

This beautifully crafted and deeply affecting account of the full story of their courageous actions is a vital addition to the country's understanding of a day that has forever changed our nation.

America: The Last Best Hope Vol. 1: From the Age of Discovery to a World at War

Dr. William J. Bennett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great trip thru the history of our country 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Bennett has done an outstanding job of documenting the often chaotic, confusing story of the founding and development of our country in a very easy to read and comprehend book. It's become one of my permanent references on US history.

Very good. 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I think all Americans should know how our great nation came to be, and what is happening now to threaten it's sovereignty and constitution. Since 911, we have been to willing to give up our freedom and prosperity in hopes of some security. Now our economy, our republic, the balance of power between national govt. branches, and our constitutional liberties and values are being rapidly eroded in the name of the "war on terror". I highly recommend Ron Paul's book, Revolution: A Manifesto. We must set a good example for the rest of the world by following our constitution, not interfere with the internal affairs of other nations, such as imposing sanctions, puppet governments, much less threaten massive war on those who "might" have weapons of mass destruction!

Editorial Review:

This is a thriving account of the virtues of our great country and the many brave, virtuous men and women who have made it the proud, powerful nation it is today. Telling a sweeping tale of human initiative, struggle, vice, and victory, Bennett conveys what is unique about America.

America: The Last Best Hope (Volume II): From a World at War to the Triumph of Freedom (America: the Last Best Hope)

William J. Bennett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

BUY THIS! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Bill Bennet writes well and presents an informative history that does not "read" like a history text. I have both volumes, and though I considered myself well-versed on American history, he pointed out aspects of our nation's history that had been left out of my education.

American History At Its Best 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Reading this book brought back memories of studying US History the first time as a child. Now as an adult I am much more prepared to put things in perspective and realize how often in our history we have dealt with many of the same issues. Goes to show you that we haven't always learned from our mistakes.

Great History 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have read both volumes of Bill Bennett's history of the U.S. America, The Last Best Hope is filled with celebration of the greatness that is America. Please read this book and learn what has made America the last best hope, the dreams of all those who have sought America as their refuge, who have come here not to denigrate or change America but to revel in our greatness. I am so thankful that Dr. Bennett put forth the effort to teach history as it should be taught, not as so many social historians want to teach it, i.e. all is wrong with America and that we are a failed experiment. Highest recommendation.

Editorial Review:

Respected scholar William Bennett reacquaints America with its heritage in the second volume of America: The Last Best Hope (Volume II). This engaging narrative slices through the cobwebs of time, memory, and prevailing cynicism to reinvigorate America with an informed patriotism.

The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008

Sean Wilentz

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

One of the nation's leading historians offers a groundbreaking and provocative chronicle of America's political history since the fall of Nixon.

The past thirty-five years have marked an era of conservatism. Although briefly interrupted in the late 1970s and temporarily reversed in the 1990s, a powerful surge from the right has dominated American politics and government. In The Age of Reagan, Sean Wilentz accounts for how a conservative movement once deemed marginal managed to seize power and hold it, and the momentous consequences that followed.

Ronald Reagan has been the single most important political figure of this age. Without Reagan, the conservative movement would have never been as successful as it was. In his political persona as well as his policies, Reagan embodied a new fusion of deeply right-leaning politics with some of the rhetoric and even a bit of the spirit of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. In American political history there have been a few leading figures who, for better or worse, have placed their political stamp indelibly on their times. They include Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt—and Ronald Reagan. A conservative hero in a conservative age, Reagan has been so admired by a minority of historians and so disliked by the others that it has been difficult to evaluate his administration with detachment. Drawing on numerous primary documents that have been neglected or only recently released to the public, as well as on emerging historical work, Wilentz offers invaluable revelations about conservatism's ascendancy and the era in which Reagan was the preeminent political figure.

Vivid, authoritative, and illuminating from start to finish, The Age of Reagan raises profound questions and opens passionate debate about our nation's recent past.

Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (American Empire Project)

Chalmers Johnson

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Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The long-awaited final volume of Chalmers Johnson’s bestselling
Blowback trilogy confronts the overreaching of the American empire and the threat it poses to the republic
In his prophetic book Blowback, Chalmers Johnson linked the CIA’s clandestine activities abroad to disaster at home. In The Sorrows of Empire, he explored the ways in which the growth of American militarism and the garrisoning of the planet have jeopardized our stability. Now, in Nemesis, he shows how imperial overstretch is undermining the republic itself, both economically and politically.
Delving into new areas—from plans to militarize outer space to Constitution-breaking presidential activities at home and the devastating corruption of a toothless Congress—Nemesis offers a striking description of the trap into which the dreams of America’s leaders have taken us. Drawing comparisons to empires past, Johnson explores in vivid detail just what the unintended consequences of our dependence on a permanent war economy are likely to be. What does it mean when a nation’s main intelligence organization becomes the president’s secret army? Or when the globe’s sole “hyperpower,” no longer capable of paying for the vaulting ambitions of its leaders, becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all times?
In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that financial bankruptcy could herald the breakdown of constitutional government in America—a crisis that may ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation.

Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America's Enemies

Peter W. Galbraith

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Called by New York Times columnist David Brooks the "smartest and most devastating" critic of President George W. Bush's Iraq policies, Peter Galbraith was the earliest expert to describe Iraq's breakup into religious and ethnic entities, a reality now commonly accepted.

The Iraq war was intended to make the United States more secure, bring democracy to the Middle East, intimidate Iran and Syria, help win the war on terror, consolidate American world leadership, and entrench the Republican Party for decades. Instead,

• Bush handed Iran its greatest strategic triumph in four centuries
• U.S. troops now fight to support an Iraqi government led by religious parties intent on creating an Iranian-style Islamic republic
• As part of the surge, the United States created a Sunni militia led by the same Baathists the U.S. invaded Iraq to overthrow administration gave Iran and North Korea a free pass to advance their nuclear programs
• Obsessed with Iraq's nonexistent WMD, the Bush administration gave Iran and North Korea a free pass to advance their nuclear programs
• Turkey, a key NANATO ally long considered a model pro-Western Muslim democracy, became one of the most anti-American countries in the world
• U.S. prestige around the world reached an all-time low

Iraq: Galbraith challenges the assertion that the surge will lead to victory. By creating a Sunni army, the surge has, in fact, contributed to Iraq's breakup and set the stage for an intensified civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. If the United States wishes to escape the Iraq quagmire, it must face up to the reality that the country has broken up and cannot be put back together.

Iran: Having helped Iran's allies take control in Baghdad, the Bush administration no longer has a viable military option to stop Iran's nuclear program. Galbraith discusses how a president more pragmatic than Bush might get Iran to freeze its nuclear program as part of a package deal to upgrade relations between two countries equally threatened by Sunni extremism.

Turkey, Syria, and Israel: A war intended to make Israel more secure, undermine Syria's Assad regime, and strengthen ties with Turkey has had the opposite result.

Nationalism: In the coming decades, other countries may follow Iraq's example in fragmenting along ethnic and religious lines. Galbraith draws on his considerable experience in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia to predict where and what the United States might do about it.

The United States: George W. Bush substituted wishful thinking for strategy and as a result made America weaker. Galbraith provides some rules for a national strategy that will appeal equally to conservatives and liberals -- indeed, to anyone who believes the United States needs an effective national security strategy.

The Puzzle Palace: Inside the National Security Agency, America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization

James Bamford

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Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1947, the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand signed a secret treaty in which they agreed to cooperate in matters of signals intelligence. In effect, the governments agreed to pool their geographic and technological assets in order to listen in on the electronic communications of China, the Soviet Union, and other Cold War bad guys--all in the interest of truth, justice, and the American Way, naturally. The thing is, the system apparently catches everything. Government security services, led by the U.S. National Security Agency, screen a large part (and perhaps all) of the voice and data traffic that flows over the global communications network. Fifty years later, the European Union is investigating possible violations of its citizens' privacy rights by the NSA, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public advocacy group, has filed suit against the NSA, alleging that the organization has illegally spied on U.S. citizens.

Being a super-secret spy agency and all, it's tough to get a handle on what's really going on at the NSA. However, James Bamford has done great work in documenting the agency's origins and Cold War exploits in The Puzzle Palace. Beginning with the earliest days of cryptography (code-making and code-breaking are large parts of the NSA's mission), Bamford explains how the agency's predecessors helped win World War II by breaking the German Enigma machine and defeating the Japanese Purple cipher. He also documents signals intelligence technology, ranging from the usual collection of spy satellites to a great big antenna in the West Virginia woods that listened to radio signals as they bounced back from the surface of the moon.

Bamford backs his serious historical and technical material (this is a carefully researched work of nonfiction) with warnings about how easily the NSA's technology could work against the democracies of the world. Bamford quotes U.S. Senator Frank Church: "If this government ever became a tyranny ... the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government ... is within the reach of the government to know." This is scary stuff. --David Wall

Against All Enemies: Inside America's War On Terror

Richard A. Clarke

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 486 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Buyer Beware 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

As targets of the political mass suggestion discussed in my reviews of: Propaganda, U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947-1960 (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication), and Dictators, Democracy, and American Public Culture: Envisioning the Totalitarian Enemy, 1920s-1950s, we must be careful with books like this from an "insider". The pattern is the same on all these books "written" by insiders who have "left" the administration: There is one and ONLY one controversial assertion given in the book (the hook to generate sales and publicity), with the remainder of the book running parallel with the party line.

I have no doubt, given corroborating evidence from other authors, that Clarke is correct that Bush and his cabinent were planning an Iraq invasion well before 9/11. The "Downing Street Memo" is the smoking gun on this.

The much bigger purpose of this book, in my opinion, is simply to disseminate the party line, yet again, that Osama bin Laden is the boogeyman, that his world-threatening military is al-qaeda, and that they can deliver mass destruction anytime, anywhere (you know, the Cold War program). It's the repeat, repeat, repeat that we get from George Tenet, Michael Scherer (sp) and all others who are wittingly or unwittingly part of the propaganda campaign.

The only question on Clarke is: is he witting or unwitting? The answer, however, is moot. As long as he is spewing party-line propaganda, his books are worthless to a suspicious public.

Editorial Review:

A #1 New York Times Bestseller

"The Bush administration has squandered the opportunity to eliminate al Qaeda." No one has more authority to make that claim than Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He knows, better than anyone, why we failed to prevent 9/11 and how President Bush reacted to the attack. Against All Enemies is both a powerful history of our confrontation with terrorism and a searing indictment of the current administration.

The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Indexed Hardcover, Authorized Edition)

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks

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Total reviews: 204 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A useless report full of omissions and lies 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The report was censored & omits anything the government does not want you to know. Even the co-chair of the commission admits that it's full of lies.

If you want to read this fictional account of what happened on 9/11, why buy the book? You can download the entire report for free.

9/11 Ommission Report 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It's shocking to read the user reviews and realize that many of these individuals had not done a minute worth of research themselves. It's very easy to pick up a book, with no foreknowledge of any sort, and take all the "facts" for granted. An interesting thing occurs with this book and the reader, when you dissect the simplest of fragments of evidence, and put them in retrospect.

I'll admit, I may differ from an average reader of this book in the sense that I would not approach it casually, nor openly. At the very beginning, the book lists details of the "hijackers" check-ins into the airport. Very random details are given, indeed most of the information is superfluous. A fundamental point that the book fails to mention is that nearly half of the hijackers have been found in Saudi Arabia, or Pakistan, or Iran, and none have a spec of history in connection with any terrorist organization. But the most disgusting thing about the fact is, that if these hijackers were on those planes, and if the planes had collided and exploded upon impact with the towers, than, undeniably, they should all be deceased. How is it then, that these hijackers can be traced halfway across the world?

My last example for this review is the alleged stabbings of some passengers and attendants in the plane. An audio recording, released by the FBI to the families of the deceased, presents the voice of Betty Ong, explaining that she, and 2 other of fellow employees had been stabbed and could not enter the cockpit. What is my argument? A young women, and two of her friends had been stabbed. The situation in the plane is hostile, but she, is extremely, frighteningly, and observably casual, but stumbling with uncertainty. As tough as an individual may be, no one would sound as if he is reading off a script when making an emergency call about being stabbed, presumably bleeding to death. Search the recording for yourself.

We have a powerful search tool in our homes; the computer. Research is quick and simple. Even in the very beginning of the book, these and other important uncertainties surface. I suggest for any reader of this book to also buy "911 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions." In this way, you will be able to judge between the truths and half truths.
2/5.

Editorial Review:

The commission has produced a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for the immediate response to the attacks. It also provides recommendations designed to safeguard against future attacks.

The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama

Gwen Ifill

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Editorial Review:

In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential victory and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.

Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama (all interviewed for this book), and also covers numerous up-and-coming figures from across the nation. Drawing on exclusive interviews with power brokers such as President Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, his son Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict, the race/ gender clash, and the "black enough" conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history.

The Breakthrough is a remarkable look at contemporary politics and an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy in the age of Obama.