Political Science Books - Page 25

Environmental Science: Towards a Sustainable Future

Richard T. Wright, Bernard J. Nebel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A Classic of the Genre 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Dr. Wright's text has really become a classic of the environmental science field for good reason: it elucidates the basic principles of environmental science with depth and readability. This tome is not in its 10th edition because it lacks merit. On the contrary, this text presents the relevant topics in a more organized and rigorous manner than any other on the shelf. Students gain a fundamental grounding in the topics and issues of this emerging field, no mean task considering their great breadth.

The reviewers who have rated this book poorly have done so largely based on personal political doctrine. These people have missed the point. If Dr. Wright (or any other scientist) expresses distate for the current administration's stance on environmental issues, it is precisely because this administration has ignored and censored valid science in furthering their political agenda. Dr. Wright is merely advocating that the existing science be examined fairly and openly so that we can deal with pressing environmental issues like global climate change in the best possible manner.

Bottom line: a great introduction to environmental science, but not pleasant reading for members of the flat earth society.

Editorial Review:

Known for its currency and readability, this book focuses on enabling readers to critically evaluate the latest environmental issues and to apply that understanding to situations and events in their everyday lives. It explores the interactions of humans within the natural environment and probes issues thoroughly examining their scientific basis, their history, and society's response. The authors discuss sustainable development and public policy in terms of how they shape the present and future. Topics covered include ecosystems and how they work; the human population; renewable resources; energy; pollution and prevention; and more. For anyone interested in environmental science, environmental studies, and environmental biology.

The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 (Nazi Germany and the Jews)

Saul Friedlander

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With The Years of Extermination, Saul Friedländer completes his major historical work on Nazi Germany and the Jews. The book describes and interprets the persecution and murder of the Jews throughout occupied Europe. The enactment of German extermination policies and measures depended on the cooperation of local authorities, the assistance of police forces, and the passivity of the populations, primarily of their political and spiritual elites. This implementation depended as well on the victims’ readiness to submit to orders, often with the hope of attenuating them or of surviving long enough to escape the German vise.

This multifaceted study—at all levels and in different places—enhances the perception of the magnitude, complexity, and interrelatedness of the many components of this history. Based on a vast array of documents and an overwhelming choir of voices—mainly from diaries, letters, and memoirs—Saul Friedländer avoids domesticating the memory of these unprecedented and horrific events. The convergence of these various aspects gives a unique quality to The Years of Extermination. In this work, the history of the Holocaust has found its definitive representation.

The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban

Sarah Chayes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Interesting but poorly written 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 12 people found this review helpful.

An utterly confusing account of the war in Afghanistan. Its merit is that it gives the reader a probably realistic impression of the complexity and intransparency of Afghan politics and history...nothing is what it seems. Its flaws are chronological disorder, personal grudges and reporter-centrism...("look at me getting the real dope against all odds" and "look at me, the only sensitive observer").

Editorial Review:

As a former star reporter for NPR, Sarah Chayes developed a devoted listenership for her on-site reports on conflicts around the world. In The Punishment of Virtue, she reveals the misguided U.S. policy in Afghanistan in the wake of the defeat of the Taliban, which has severely undermined the effort to build democracy and allowed corrupt tribal warlords back into positions of power and the Taliban to re-infiltrate the country. This is an eyeopening chronicle that highlights the often infuriating realities of a vital front in the war on terror, exposing deeper, fundamental problems with current U.S. strategy.

Just And Unjust Wars: Incorporating The Lessons Of Operation Desert Storm

Michael Walzer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

All Is Not Fair in Love and War 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Walzer's historical approach to examining just war theory is, I think, the most useful way to understand morality in war. That is so because empirical facts back up all the philosophical evaluations. Walzer describes experience and draws conclusions here; he is laying a philosophical foundation and implying, if not prescribing, moral norms from which the rules have been extracted. Be forewarned, he does not cut the reader any slack. This book requires some serious attention to the author's train of thought.

Just war theory has two categories: the justice of going to war, and the justice of fighting once in a war. Walzer's discussion usefully and clearly separates the two and examines via historical events what we regard as right and wrong within each sphere. In doing this he has done the modern world a tremendous service. His logical breakdown speaks to thousands of years of tradition about what thinkers have considered right and wrong in war. One of the best outcomes of this landmark work is the complete debunking of the notion that "all is fair in love and war." That is the path of least moral resistance (or as Clausewitz would say, "friction"), yet we all know that soldiers are honored for fighting well and loathed for behaving like armed thugs and murderers. What is amazing from the discusion is the realization that Walzer knows he has to attack that age-old notion, something our collective sense of justice has historically always rejected. Yet it remains a prevailing idea for many. Originally coined by the Romans it seems (Walzer quotes them, "In war the laws are silent"), they themselves were self-consciously contrite over the fates they inflicted on the Greeks and Carthaginians. The book rates five stars for rigorously addressing this issue alone.

Some make the mistake of thinking Walzer is a pacifist--far from it. On the otherside some critics find his argument about "supreme emergency" a moral failure and a cop-out. The case of Nazi Germany is his paradigmatic case of supreme emergency, one where normal rules may be relaxed, if ever so little, because of the especially pernicious nature of state-sponsored genocide. In contrast Walzer does not see Imperial Japan, for instance, as having represented a supreme emergency, and so the atomic bombings and the fire bombings of cities could not be morally justified. Readers may want to compare his view to Paul Fussell's perspective in the essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb." Walzer's argument here has lent unintended tacit support to many ideas about torturing terrorists at Gitmo and elsewhere. It's pretty obvious Dick Cheney, for instance, thinks the same relaxation of restraints would apply to Islamic terror (but the analogy seems weak). I recommend readers to Tim Challans' book Awakening Warrior for a critique of Walzer's idea of supreme emergency and a very impressive logical attack upon the recent trend toward torturing POW's in prisons outside the USA.

Significantly for current events, readers interested in the distinction between pre-emptive and preventive war will find a well articulated argument in Just and Unjust Wars. The US attack on Iraq was and still is often justified as pre-emptive. That impulse on the part of the neo-conservatives who devised or whipped up the casus belli reflects, I think, a need to cloak a morally questionable war in the robes of legitimacy. There is no way that attack can be justified under the historically accepted norms of "pre-emption." Michael Walzer's well-thought distinction between pre-emption and prevention makes sense even in the milieu of asymmetric warfare against terror and Islamic radicalism, and it clearly shows why the Iraq war was a moral mistake from the start, regardless of its practical success down the road, if we are fortunate enough to see that. The moral precedent of engaging in preventive war will continue to haunt America long into the future. The fact that Iraq was not even on the spectrum where the fine line between pre-emption and prevention exists is a telling aspect of the overall ongoing strategic fiasco. Where one fails to recognize the moral high ground, one is doomed to moral failure. Walzer was vocal about the run-up to war in 2003, and those who read his book would do well to find his comments about the Iraq invasion; they are edifying in terms of understanding the overall argument in this book and, not coincidentally, where we are going in this role as the world's police force.

Editorial Review:

A classic treatment of the morality of war written by one of our country’s leading philosophers, with a new introduction considering the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. Just and Unjust Wars examines a variety of conflicts in order to understand exactly why, according to Walzer,“the argument about war and justice is still a political and moral necessity.” Walzer’s classic work draws on historical illustrations that range all the way from the Athenian attack on Melos to this morning’s headlines, and uses the testimony of participants—decision makers and victims alike—to examine the moral issues of warfare.

The Stranger Beside Me: The Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Ann Rule

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 179 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great, fascinating book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I am 28 and so was only a young girl when Bundy was executed. I had heard of him, but was not familiar with the extent of his crimes. Working in the forensic field, I am fascinated with the stories of true crime and serial killers. I am an avid reader but sometimes it is hard for me to find non-fiction books that really hold my attention. Not the case with this book. I received this book for my birthday and started it as soon as I finished the book I was reading at the time. I couldn't put it down!

The original book ended before Bundy was executed but there are several follow-ups at the end that really carry the story through to today. Because Rule knew Bundy, she is able to provide much insight and goes above and beyond just the facts.

I highly recommend this book if you are at all interesting in knowing more about one of the most notorious serial killers of all time.

Editorial Review:

Ted Bundy was handsome, charming, a brilliant law student, and on the verge of a dazzling career. On January 24, 1989, he was executed for the murders of three young women, having confessed to taking the lives of at least thirty-five more. This is the story of one of the most fascinating killers in American history--of his magnetic power, his bleak compulsion, his double life, his string of helpless victims. It is also the story of Ann Rule, a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass murderer. Little did she realize that the "Ted" the police were seeking was the same Ted who worked with her at a Seattle crisis clinic, a man who had become her close friend and confidant. As she began to put the evidence together, a terrifying picture emerged of the man she thought she knew. Twenty years after it was first published, The Stranger Beside Me remains a gripping, explosive true-crime classic. 8 pages of photographs.

The Interpersonal Communication Book

Joseph A. Devito

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Offering the perfect balance of theory and practical skills, this market-leading text equips students to make reasoned and effective communication decisions. Recognized for its ability to help students understand the crucial connection between theory and practice, the Ninth Edition includes a new feature called "Ask the Researcher" in which renowned researchers provide practical, and sometimes provocative, answers to questions often raised by students in the course. An entirely new chapter--Unit 22 "Interpersonal Communication and Relationships in the Workplace"--extends DeVito's trademark coverage of interpersonal relationships into the workplace. Further supporting the text's mission to provide students with an interactive and engaging introduction to interpersonal communication, the Ninth Edition features an exciting new integrated text and technology learning system. Contextually-placed web icons in the text's margins direct students to the book's Companion Website where they engage in interactive exercises or simulations that help them gain a better understanding of concepts presented in the text. Superior coverage of cultural diversity, expanded coverage of ethics, and new discussions of the effects of technology make The Interpersonal Communication Book, Ninth Edition, the best choice for preparing students to communicate successfully in today's world.

Kids Are Americans Too

Bill O'reilly, Charles Flowers

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Good Kid Primer 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great book for Kids on being a Citizen. Non-political and great examples of where rights of each individual overlap. I bought 10 copies for the Boy Scouts to read while earning their Citizenship Merit Badges.

Editorial Review:

Four-time #1 bestselling author and veteran television news journalist Bill O'Reilly has more than 5 million copies of his books in print to date! His first book for young fans, The O'Reilly Factor for Kids, held the honorable distinction of being the #1 bestselling nonfiction title for kids in 2005 according to Nielsen's The Book Standard.

Back again with a dialogue on rights that will have everyone talking, O'Reilly and his coauthor Charles Flowers dole out the kind of blunt, cogent, commonsense commentary you count on them for. Together they explore timely questions being debated in and out of courts today, including:

• Can a kid wear an anti-gay T-shirt on campus?
• Does a school newspaper have the right to bad-mouth a principal?
• Does a mother have the right to eavesdrop on her daughter's telephone conversations?

Some of the answers will surprise you. Some will empower you. All will make you think.

The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation

Drew Westen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

couldn't finish it 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a very narrow book. I got it thinking it would lend some real light on what makes one person a conservative and another a liberal, what personality traits might make one person favor one party over another, what neuroses and what healthy traits might be at play when voters pull certain levers.

Instead, it's really just one more partisan take on the world of late 20th and early 21st century American politics. In particular, the author seems really only interested in how the Democrats can do better by borrowing a page from the Republicans' playbook - in particular, in using emotion in political advertising.

There's very little here that is really of any interest beyond such a narrow partisan agenda. The author's typical strategy is to hammer away at some very basic construct from cognitive psychology (neural networks, say), discuss some ad (typically in a rhetorical, not a psychological, fashion), then state - once again - that emotion plays a role in politics. Doh! I guess you have to be a Democratic strategist for this last bit to be really anything more than a no-brainer.

There is very little discussion of research beyond a study here and a study there (including the author's own). I thought for sure that a psychology professor at a fine institution such as Emory might have quite a bit to say. Surely there's more out there than this. This is, however, very much a political book, not a psychological one.

Editorial Review:

Through a bravura tour of American political leaders and their appeals to the electorate, Drew Westen shows that Americans don't vote with their heads but with their hearts--and that Democratic politicians had better wise up in their approach. The Political Brain is a serious and groundbreaking investigation into the role of emotion in deciding the outcome of elections. It looks at data across several presidential elections from the 1950s through 2000, examines the evidence for the role of emotion in driving voting behavior, and provides a "clinical" view of a number of campaign ads, debate lines, and personal profiles of the candidates who have sought to win our hearts.

Sacred Games

Vikram Chandra

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Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Seven years in the making, Sacred Games is an epic of exceptional richness and power. Vikram Chandra's novel draws the reader deep into the life of Inspector Sartaj Singh—and into the criminal underworld of Ganesh Gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in India.

Sartaj, one of the very few Sikhs on the Mumbai police force, is used to being identified by his turban, beard and the sharp cut of his trousers. But "the silky Sikh" is now past forty, his marriage is over and his career prospects are on the slide. When Sartaj gets an anonymous tip-off as to the secret hide-out of the legendary boss of G-Company, he's determined that he'll be the one to collect the prize.

Vikram Chandra's keenly anticipated new novel is a magnificent story of friendship and betrayal, of terrible violence, of an astonishing modern city and its dark side. Drawing inspiration from the classics of nineteenth-century fiction, mystery novels, Bollywood movies and Chandra's own life and research on the streets of Mumbai, Sacred Games evokes with devastating realism the way we live now but resonates with the intelligence and emotional depth of the best of literature.

The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 2: The Middle Ages

S. Wise Bauer, Susan Wise Bauer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This read-aloud series is designed for parents to share with elementary-school children. Enjoy it together and introduce your child to the marvelous story of the world's civilizations.

Now more than ever, other cultures are affecting our everyday lives—and our children need to learn about the other countries of the world and their history. Susan Wise Bauer has provided a captivating guide to the history of other lands. Written in an engaging, straightforward manner, The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 2: The Middle Ages weaves world history into a story book format. Who discovered chocolate? What happened to the giant Fovor of the Mighty Blows? Why did the Ottoman Turks drag their war ships across dry land?

The Story of the World covers the sweep of human history from ancient times until the present. Africa, China, Europe, the Americas—find out what happened all around the world in long-ago times. Designed as a read-aloud project for parents and children to share together, The Story of the World includes each continent and major people group. Volume 2: The Middle Ages, is the second of a four-volume series and covers the major historical events in the years 400 to 1600 CE, as well as including maps, illustrations, and tales from each culture.