Political Science Books - Page 34

Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies: Issue by Issue Responses to the Most Common Claims of the Left from A to Z

Gregg Jackson

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Total reviews: 77 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

THE CONSERVATIVE S POLITICAL BIBLE. Let s say you re listening to a loony liberal, debating some dopey Democrat, or arguing with a gaggle of goofy lefties. Wouldn t it be great to have the facts to combat all those liberals lies? Well, here it is: finally, the book that sets the record straight! Radio host and author Gregg Jackson has written THE authoritative answer book for conservatives concerning our nations key concerns: Abortions, terrorism, the Patriot Act, separation of church and state, immigration, the environment, homosexual marriage, taxes, deficits, school vouchers, gun control, health care, social security, education, media bias, and President Bush s real record of achievements. What makes Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies so important is that it gives conservatives, right-leaning independents, and even disaffected Democrats the truth they need to counter common liberal claims. Issue by issue, the book offers clear and concise conservative responses and comebacks. Here is a brilliant, A-to-Z reference book that gives readers clear-cut answers on today s most pressing political and social issues. Conservative Comeback to Liberal Lies should be in the hands of every red-blooded conservative in America!

Utopia: Thomas More

Thomas More

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Total reviews: 53 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Utopia: Not As Free As You Might Think 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

When Thomas More wrote UTOPIA in 1516, he attempted to postulate how human beings could create a society that would be as nearly perfect as possible. At least that is what is commonly believed that he tried to do. For those who have read his book, they immediately see some troubling issues. The first sticky point is to define what he meant by the term "utopia." Did he mean a totally democratic state; such as the ancient Greeks had, in which each citizen had direct voting in all issues? Or perhaps More was simply updating Plato, who saw his Republic as a society governed by a carefully selected breed of rulers who would rule an equally carefully selected brood of subjects? Or again, was More attempting to strike an impossible balance between the burgeoning rise of Renaissance humanism with a stifling set of conflicting Christian religions? It is too easy for moderns to suggest that he was merely holding up Utopia as a fun-house type mirror by which he wished his contemporaries could see themselves reflected as zigzag images and perhaps be ashamed enough--or exhorted enough--to alter their behavior for the better. We today are tempted to judge his meaning by 20th century standards, which do not always draw a clear distinction among the virtues that More's Renaissance contemporaries took for granted but today we dismiss as outdated, or worse, irrelevant.

The book itself has two parts. The first includes More, who places himself in the book as a traveler to Antwerp who meets Peter Giles, who in turn introduces him to Raphael Hythloday, a name that Moore punningly notes that in Greek means "nonsense speaker." Hythloday mentions that he journeyed with Amerigo Vespucci to America and along the way encountered the mythical land of Utopia. This first part is slow reading in that More does little more than discuss some general reforms of potential benefit to England, most of which involved agrarian, economic, judicial, military, and criminal justice matters, all of which obliquely suggest that what worked in Utopia might work in England as well. It is the second part that has generated considerable controversy as to what More really meant his readers to grasp.

For those who come to the second part of UTOPIA and expect a 16th century version of Eden, the results are profoundly shocking. When More details the basic government setup as one in which its citizens are living in a ruthless police state with the death penalty meted out for a variety of reasons, readers suddenly grasp that Utopia may not be all that different from Plato, who similarly envisioned his society as one free from the degenerating influences of poetry and the basic tenets of free speech. When this sobering concept sinks in, then the term "utopia" begins to lose its cache as a synonym for a land of unrivalled happiness. But if these readers look at Utopia through the eyes of More and not their own, then a different Utopia arises. As an educated classicist fully versed in traditional Christian orthodoxy, More was trained to evaluate any social structure according to the non-Christian but humanistic Cardinal Virtues of wisdom, fortitude, temperance, and justice, and then compare these to the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity. More made it clear that both sets of virtues were needed to make Utopia an enduring entity. More was not optimistic enough to truly believe the social inequities in England (or Utopia for that matter) could be so easily eliminated merely by rearranging the pieces of the social pie. What humans of any society needed to ensure genuine freedom from tyranny was mastery of the far more unmanageable Seven Deadly Sins. Of these More suggests that by downplaying the importance of gold, by limiting the nature and amount of material wealth, and by forcing all citizens from the highest to lowest to share in all types of drudgery, that the worst of the sins, Pride, will be vanquished, thus leaving Utopia as ready to endure in the face of what to other and less advanced societies would be tantalizing but deadly temptations.

What emerges then in Utopia is a mythical land based on equally mythical virtues that can house a citizenry such as never existed in human history nor is likely to. But More felt that even if his contemporaries managed to alter for the better their profligate ways, then a small sliver of Utopia might result. For More and perhaps for us today, that might be good enough.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1516, Saint Thomas More's Utopia is one of the most important works of European humanism. Through the voice of the mysterious traveler Raphael Hythloday, More describes a pagan, communist city-state governed by reason. Addressing such issues as religious pluralism, women's rights, state-sponsored education, colonialism, and justified warfare, Utopia seems remarkably contemporary nearly five centuries after it was written, and it remains a foundational text in philosophy and political theory.

Preeminent More scholar Clarence H. Miller does justice to the full range of More's rhetoric in this new translation. Professor Miller includes a helpful introduction that outlines some of the important problems and issues that Utopia raises, and also provides informative commentary to assist the reader throughout this challenging and rewarding exploration of the meaning of political community.

The President's House: A History (v. 1)

William Seale

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This engaging history of the house that has served as home to U.S. presidents for more than two centuries revises and enlarges William Seale's 1986 classic account of the White House's architectural, social, and cultural history. Besides updating the original volumes, the new edition includes chapters on the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. An epilogue covers the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush years. The President's House is an unforgettable account of the White House from its origins during the nation's beginning to today, a continuing story of adapting and altering, yet always keeping close to the original image and purpose of the landmark. Seale carefully documents the ways in which different presidents and their families used and lived in the White House, showing not only the lives of the first families but also scores of characters known and unknown who achieve importance in the story and play their parts in the keeping and management of the house -- butlers, housemaids, caterers, gardeners, coachmen, architects, interior decorators, and even fortune-tellers.

Filled with behind-the-scenes glimpses of the private and public lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, this richly detailed social history includes 175 images culled from the White House files and other archival collections.

Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency

James Bamford

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Total reviews: 148 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A no-holds-barred examination of the National Security Agency packed with startling secrets about its past, newsbreaking revelations about its present-day activities, and chilling predictions about its future powers and reach.

The NSA is the largest, most secretive, and most powerful intelligence agency in the world. With a staff of thirty-eight thousand people, it dwarfs the CIA in budget, manpower, and influence. Recent headlines have linked it to the economic espionage throughout Europe and to the ongoing hunt for the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

James Bamford first penetrated the wall of silence surrounding the NSA in 1982, with the much-talked-about bestseller The Puzzle Palace. In Body of Secrets, he offers shocking new details about the inner workings of the agency, gathered through unique access to thousands of internal documents and interviews with current and former officials. Unveiling extremely sensitive information for the first time, Bamford exposes the role the NSA played in numerous Soviet bloc Cold War conflicts and discusses its undercover involvement in the Vietnam War. His investigation into the NSA's technological advances during the last fifteen years brings to light a network of global surveillance ranging from on-line listening posts to sophisticated intelligence-gathering satellites. In a hard-hitting conclusion, he warns that the NSA is a two-edged sword. While its worldwide eavesdropping activities offer the potential for tracking down terrorists and uncovering nuclear weapons deals, it also has the capability to listen on global personal communications.

Like the breakout bestsellers on Cold War espionage The Sword and the Shield and Blind Man's Buff, Body of Secrets is must-reading for people fascinated by the intrigues of a shadowy underworld. As one of the most important works of investigative journalism to come out of Washington in years, it should be read by everyone concerned about the inevitability of Orwell's Big Brother.

The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion

Matt Taibbi

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Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A REVELATORY AND DARKLY COMIC ADVENTURE THROUGH A NATION ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN—FROM THE HALLS OF CONGRESS TO THE BASES OF BAGHDAD TO THE APOCALYPTIC CHURCHES OF THE HEARTLAND


Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi set out to describe the nature of George Bush’s America in the post-9/11 era and ended up vomiting demons in an evangelical church in Texas, riding the streets of Baghdad in an American convoy to nowhere, searching for phantom fighter jets in Congress, and falling into the rabbit hole of the 9/11 Truth Movement.
Matt discovered in his travels across the country that the resilient blue state/red state narrative of American politics had become irrelevant. A large and growing chunk of the American population was so turned off—or radicalized—by electoral chicanery, a spineless news media, and the increasingly blatant lies from our leaders (“they hate us for our freedom”) that they abandoned the political mainstream altogether. They joined what he calls The Great Derangement.
Taibbi tells the story of this new American madness by inserting himself into four defining American subcultures: The Military, where he finds himself mired in the grotesque black comedy of the American occupation of Iraq; The System, where he follows the money-slicked path of legislation in Congress; The Resistance, where he doubles as chief public antagonist and undercover member of the passionately bonkers 9/11 Truth Movement; and The Church, where he infiltrates a politically influential apocalyptic mega-ministry in Texas and enters the lives of its desperate congregants. Together these four interwoven adventures paint a portrait of a nation dangerously out of touch with reality and desperately searching for answers in all the wrong places.
Funny, smart, and a little bit heartbreaking, The Great Derangement is an audaciously reported, sobering, and illuminating portrait of America at the end of the Bush era.

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

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Total reviews: 17 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.

Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches

John W. Dean

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Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Broken Logic... Dean Cherry Picks and Ignores History 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book was disappointing, especially after reading Dean's previous book, "Conservatives Without Conscience," which was much more on point and accurate.

The main problem with Dean's analysis is that he blames almost every government malfunction on the GOP, with the most emphasis on the last 8 years, but also on Reagan. While Bush and his party lap-dogs have done a lot of damage and deserve to be criticized, it is irresponsible to blame them entirely for all the deception, crony-ism, and corruption in D.C. And that's what Dean does - He deducts that everything will get back to "normal" when democrats regain control of congress.

Dean must have a short-term memory, because the practice of hiring party hacks and cronies to run government agencies for political expediency and power goes back to Woodrow Wilson, Hoover, and exploded under FDR. And the trend has continued ever since. Has Dean ever heard of the Bay of Pigs or the Branch Davidians at Waco? And the Clinton's... I guess Dean believes that everything with that Administration was on the up-and-up without any conflict of interest.

Dean is constantly asserting that he's a "Goldwater Republican," but he continually belies this by questioning the very foundations of Goldwater conservatism, and accusing the basic philosophy of conservatism to be counter-effective to efficient and civil government. That opinion is fine if you believe in more liberal approaches, but to say you're a Goldwater Conservative and then espouse liberal talking points is talking out of both sides of your mouth. (Especially in the last chapter where he gives hypothetical scenarios where conservative principles are played out in policies leading to the demise of what he believes is holy. God forbid the supreme court defend the 2nd amendment!!). Dean is clearly confused if he thinks he's anywhere near conservative.

This doesn't mean that some of his points aren't well taken - his criticism of the Bush administration is on target, citing abuse after abuse from things such as general White House procedures in communicating with the opposition party in Congress, to by-passing Constitutional protocol and the system of checks and balances.

But Dean missed badly with his blasting of Republicans stacking the Supreme Court. He seems to think that it's okay for Democrats to nominate liberal judges, but it's some sort of crime against the people for Republicans to nominate conservative judges. To call it a double standard is a gross understatement. According to Dean, liberal politicians are always fair and civil, never resort to crony-ism, never make back-room deals, and always, always have America's best interest in mind - they are lily-white and without sin.

Of course, history says otherwise.

For a more interesting and accurate take on the current GOP debacle, I would recommend "Impostor" by Bruce Bartlett, and "Conservatives Betrayed," by Richard Viguerie. Also worth mentioning is "The Elephant in the Room," by Ryan Sager.

The GOP deserves to be lambasted, but honestly so.

Editorial Review:

The concluding volume of The New York Times bestselling trilogy

One of today’s most outspoken and respected political commentators asks: How can our democracy function when the key institutions of government no longer operate as intended by the Constitution? Stepping back to assess three decades of nearly continuous Republican rule, John W. Dean surveys the damage done to the three branches of government and traces their decline through the presidencies of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I , and Bush II. Speaking to what the average moderate citizen can do to combat extremism, authoritarianism, incompetence, and the Republicans’ deliberate focus on polarizing social issues, Broken Government is a must-have book for voters this election year.

Guerilla Warfare

Che Guevara

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Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Don't buy this. 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.

You're better off going to the library and checking this one out there. I didn't care for this book at all. Only good as if you want to build your personal reference books library.

Insightful...yet seriouly outdated. 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Ernesto "Che" Guevera was the leader of a tin pot commie insurgency.
In this book it outlines how to gain followers for your cause,care and feeding of your guerillas, how to spread propoganda and how to use hit and run attacks againsted a large incompetent 3rd world military force.

This book could be useful for possibly an anarchy situation (causing one rather than surviving one) create your own communist mercenary group, or further reading for those in the middle class who read "Motorcycle Diaries" and value all of Che's "wisdom" ... zen master he is not.

I hope every terrorist reads this book and goes by it to the letter...The information is so hopelessly obsolete!

All good for the perspective terrorist or social misfit. For me as a former Soldier the only value this book had is showing the basic mindset of a common terrorist.

Knowing how our enemies think, makes it easier to defeat them. And rest assured we are killing scores of insurgents like Che on an hourly basis...and the terrorists are losing, believe me.

This book is the true companion of his other Magnum Opus "The Motorcycle Diaries"

In conclusion: You can get some useful yet obsolete info on how terrorists work but this is no Art of War.

More like the "The complete idiot's guide" version. Ernesto Che Guevara is a ovverated retard. Read for a good laugh.

Editorial Review:

This indispensable book includes three of Che Guevara’s most influential essays describing his tactical philosophy of fighting a guerrilla war in Latin America. Guerrilla Warfare, written in 1960, outlines Guevara’s doctrine for guerrilla fighters, especially against Caribbean-style dictatorships. In Guerrilla Warfare: A Method (1963) and Message to the Tricontinental (1967), Guevara modified some of his earlier tenets. These latter two works move away from his earlier dogmatism, suggesting that Marxist revolution was possible even in purportedly democratic regimes. All three essays reflect his deeply held belief that a small, rural-based guerrilla army could trigger a revolution.

Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England

Alison Weir

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Editorial Review:

Isabella arrived in London in 1308, the spirited twelve-year-old daughter of King Philip IV of France. Her marriage to the heir to England’s throne was designed to heal old political wounds between the two countries, and in the years that followed, she would become an important figure, a determined and clever woman whose influence would come to last centuries. But Queen Isabella’s political machinations led generations of historians to malign her, earning her a reputation as a ruthless schemer and an odious nickname, “the She-Wolf of France.”

Now the acclaimed author of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Alison Weir, reexamines the life of Isabella of England, history’s other notorious and charismatic medieval queen. Praised for her fair looks, the newly wed Isabella was denied the attentions of Edward II, a weak, sexually ambiguous monarch with scant taste for his royal duties. As their marriage progressed, Isabella was neglected by her dissolute husband and slighted by his favored male courtiers. Humiliated and deprived of her income, her children, and her liberty, Isabella escaped to France, where she entered into a passionate affair with Edward II’s mortal enemy, Roger Mortimer. Together, Isabella and Mortimer led the only successful invasion of English soil since the Norman Conquest of 1066, deposing Edward and ruling in his stead as co-regents for Isabella’s young son, Edward III. Fate, however, was soon to catch up with Isabella and her lover.

Many mysteries and legends have been woven around Isabella’s story. She was long condemned as an accessory to Edward II’s brutal murder in 1327, but recent research has cast doubt on whether that murder even took place.

Isabella’s reputation, then, rests largely on the prejudices of monkish chroniclers and prudish Victorian scholars. Here Alison Weir gives a startling, groundbreaking new perspective on Isabella, in this first full biography in more than 150 years. In a work of extraordinary original research, Weir effectively strips away centuries of propaganda, legend, and romantic myth, and reveals a truly remarkable woman who had a profound influence upon the age in which she lived and the history of western Europe.

Engaging, vibrant, alive with breathtaking detail and unforgettable characters, Queen Isabella is biographical history at its finest.


From the Hardcover edition.

Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America

Mark Levin

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Total reviews: 229 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Educational and Fascinating 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I recommend this book to everyone. The information contained in this book is not only educational, but it is pertinent to the cultural battle that is underway today by liberals using activist judges to circumvent our constitution. An easy read, and a must read, and you will understand how the courts are having an effect upon you and your children, whether you realize it or not, by bypassing the legislative process to make the government do things we would never vote for in a million years.

More Greatness from the Great One 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

What's the most pressing problem facing our nation? Well, there are a ton to choose from. You could say external forces looking to exterminate us. That would certainly be valid, but I'm always been more of an implosion versus explosion guy in terms threats. Frankly, I think our own seditionists are the biggest threat to our liberty. They'll bring down this country far earlier than any terrorists ever will. Over the last forty years the radicals have marched through our organizations, universities, and government and allowed what was once the counter-culture to become the culture. Nowhere is this more true than in our judiciary wherein the laws crafted by our representatives in the legislature have been struck down by judges who think it is their role to teach us what we should really want.

In the words of former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall: You do what you think is right and let the law catch up. Only, it's not the judiciary's role to make laws and that's why Mark Levin penned his masterpiece Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America. The book came out in 2005 so, as always, I got to its pages a little late. Unfortunately, nothing is going to change in the immediate future so it remains pertinent. Some of you may know Mark Levin's name, but, honestly, before this year I never listened to his talk radio show. After a month I discovered he's the best host out of them all. He also excels at writing. Essentially, Men in Black mirrors his approach to verbal conservatism: it's insightful, concise, and ruthlessly on topic. There's not a wasted word here. What I found most attractive about its narrative is that he makes extensive use of primary source documents. He lets the justices, in their opinions, tell their own tale. The book is a compilation of history and cogent analysis. He discusses specifically several of the 100 justices who have been members of the Supreme Court, and their flaws were readily apparent. They were men, not gods.

Levin offers readers an outstanding discussion of the most important court cases in our nation's history. Many of them I had read about before but have long since forgotten. His discussion of religion in Chapter 3 and the establishment clause was thoroughly enlightening. Specifically, we see how cases like Everson v. Board of Education created the fallacious doctrine of there being a "wall of separation" between church and state. Justice Rehnquist's opinion in Wallace v. Jeffree illustrates the method by which this notion was created. "Justices in the Bedroom" in Chapter Five was a standout as well, but most topical was Chapter Ten, "Silencing Political Debate." To what extent does McCain-Feingold erode our liberties? Right now it's hard to say. I agree with the author that advertising is speech, and the recent letter Obama sent to the Justice Department concerning the William Ayers ad put out by a 527 organization is an example of how the left will take advantage of any loophole as a means to silence their critics. Overall, we are not as free as we used to be and Mark Levin's Men in Black illustrates why this is the case.

Editorial Review:

The bestselling Men in Black--first time in paperback! Lawyer and hugely popular radio talk show host Mark Levin throws the book at out-of-control liberal judges who ignore the Constitution, dismantle the rights of American citizens, and make up their own coercive law from the bench.