General Books - Page 13

Two treatises of government (Hafner library of classics)

John Locke

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Most Representative Thinker in Anglo-American Tradition 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

John Locke (1632-1704) wrote "Second Treatise of Government" in 1690, it was the main political philosophical source that our "Founding Fathers" went to in writing the "Declaration of Independence" and in forming our government. I think you should know something of Locke to understand what influenced his thinking. His father was a small landowner, attorney, Puritan and his political sympathies were with the Cromwell Parliament. Like Hobbes, Locke attended Oxford Univ. and did not think much about the curriculum or his professors. Most of his education came from reading books in the Univ. library. Renee Descartes and Sir Isaac Newton's writings greatly influenced Locke. Like Hobbes, he took a tutoring job teaching the son of the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, and traveled Europe. His friendship with the Earl was beneficial in obtaining government appointments. During the political unrest in England, (1679-83) he fled to Holland because his liberal notions put him at odds with the government.

Locke writes the "Second Treatise of Government" to justify the Revolt of 1688 and the ascension of William of Orange to the English throne. The book argues against two lines of absolutist ideas. The first is Sir Robert Filmer's "patriarchal theory of divine right of kings; secondly, Hobbes argument for the sovereign's absolute power in his book "Leviathan." Locke argues that government emanates from the people. Locke's treatise rests like other political writings on its interpretation of human nature. He sees our nature opposite the way Hobbes did, decent and not as selfish or competitive. Man is more inclined to join society through reason and not fear. Man prefers stability to change.

His very important contribution to "law of nature" theory was his bias toward individualism. In state of nature, before government, men were free independent, equal enjoying inalienable rights "chief among them being life, liberty, and property." Where have you read that before? Property rights receive much attention in this treatise. Locke argues that government based on consent of man can still preserve freedom independence and equality.

His political writing had immediate influence in the world and influenced our founding fathers in their struggle against tyranny. He is an excellent writer and his theories are easy to understand by the laymen. As a graduate student of political philosophy, I recommend if you have an interest in politics, philosophy, or government then you must read Locke's "Second Treatise of Government"

Editorial Review:

Published in 1690, Locke's works were immensely influential in the politics of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and provided the foundation for liberal democracy.

All the President's Men

Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 96 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Must Read for all Americans 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I purchased this book after seeing the movie, again, on TCM a couple of weeks ago. If you like the movie, you'll love the book.

I was just 7-8 years old while Woodward and Bernstein were writing their Watergate stories for the Washington Post and knew very little about the details that led to President Nixon's ultimate downfall. Until now. I couldn't put this book down. It is filled with every detail of the Watergate break-in and the subsequent events that brought down the Nixon White House. The book covers everything, step by step, from learning of the Watergate break-in to Nixon being connected to many, many "dirty tricks" (and you won't believe some of them! Wow!) played to assure him a win in the election. Woodward and Bernstein labored day and night for the truth and refused to publish their stories until they were sure they had it. They protected their sources and never gave up even when it would have been VERY easy to do so. They asked tough questions, tracked down elusive witnesses and kept the public informed with their reporting. They saw a wrong and devoted that part of their lives to their investigation until the public was completely aware of the truth. Ultimately, they brought down a president, but their reporting exposed a White House that cared more about winning an election-- and one that pursued illegal activities to do it--than it did about protecting the citizens of the country that elected them. Woodward and Bernstein seem to be exactly what the forefathers had in mind when they provided for a "free press" in our Constitution.

Editorial Review:

THE PORTRAIT OF A PRESIDENT UNDER INVESTIGATION

Beginning with the story of a simple burglary at Democratic headquarters and then continuing with headline after headline, Bernstein and Woodward kept the tale of conspiracy and the trail of dirty tricks and dark secrets coming -- delivering the stunning revelations and pieces in the Watergate puzzle that brought about Nixon's scandalous downfall. Their explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post and toppled the President. This is their book that changed America.

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 173 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

EXCELLENT WORK BUT COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I had quite mixed emotions about this particular work. To begin with, the book was not what I expected. When I read several of the prereleases from the publisher I was expecting a more scholarly work, one that was a bit heaver on the research side, and less of the "rant" side. But to my somewhat disappointment, which is really neither here or there, it is probably more my problem than the authors. Expectations can so often let you down and the author really should not be held responsible for my not doing my research closer.

First, I am not a theologian, far from it. I do though have a great interest in this particular subject. I am what I would consider to be a Christian, although by the standards as outlined in this work, a rather poor one, or so it would seem. I have done a tremendous amount of reading on this subject and am in a position that I am fortunately (or unfortunately, depending upon how you look at it) able to observe first hand many of the phenomena outlined in this volume. Secondly, I have for quite a number of years, held the belief that the religious right; those of the Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and their ilk type, represent one of the greatest threats to this country since it was founded. I have felt that the apparent take over by these men and their followers of the Republican Party has been both amazing and frightening. It absolutely sickens me when this group asserts that they represent Christianity...I simply do not like being soiled with the same label.

Now as to this book. The author has made an attempt, and I must say, has made some very good points, to compare the religious right, i.e. fundamentalists and literalists with Fascism. Many of the examples the author provides us are down right scary and completely dead on. Personally knowing some of these folks; their beliefs and attitudes and teachings, I do feel the author makes a strong case. These people are indeed a great threat to our freedom and the stabilization of the world in general. It is at this point where I start having problems with the author's work. It would not take someone with a lot of intelligence to make some of the very same claims against the extreme left in our society, and their arguments would be just as valid as this author's!

Intolerance, be it from the left or right, is an odious and dangerous thing! People who tell you how to live your life and that their way is the only way, should be watched quite closely! On the other hand, I myself am as guilty as the next when it comes to the religious right as I find I have a very low tolerance level. I Suppose I need to work on that.

On the plus side of this work, I do feel this is one that everyone should read so that there is an awareness of the potential dangers out there for we as individuals, and we as a nation. Now this book had a definite agenda, there is no doubt about that. Personally I read books that have agendas with a jaundice eye. I guess what I am trying to say, is that I question this type of book and take a closer look than I do others. As my personal beliefs tend to lean toward this author's views, I had to agree with about 80 percent of his message. Like all such books though, it will not persuade either side, left or right, Christian or non Christian one way or another. For me it only reinforced what I already felt. Then I read a work such as this that disagrees with my feelings and experience, then I usually believe only about 20 percent of what I am being fed. Guess that is sort of human nature.

I enjoyed the book, agreed with most of it, but felt the author's propensity to rant made it much less effective than it could have been. In many ways he, the author, was practicing the same dreadful thing he was so critical of, that being intolerance. I do recommend this one as a read, but a read that should be tempered with common sense and certainly should not be taken as the ultimate authority on the subject. I am giving this one four stars. It could have been five stars had it been approached differently, and I probably should actually give in three or two stars simply because, in many ways, the author blew it.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Editorial Review:

Veteran journalist Chris Hedges challenges the Christian Right's religious legitimacy and argues that at its core it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism and a hatred for the open society. He argues that the movement's yearning for apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual inquiry are laying the foundation for a new, frightening America.

The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain

George Lakoff

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Finally I Understand What a Frame Is 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

All Lakoff's previous books were excellent but left me wondering, "What's a frame?" This book answers that question, and goes well beyond that. If you haven't read any of Lakoff's books, start with this one. It is by far the best!

The last chapter, which contains no politics, is an overview of the New 21st-Century Enlightenment we are entering. This chapter really is superb, destined to be a classic that changes our philosophical understanding of the world. And since philosophy determines what type of government people will adopt, politics is a natural field to use for examples. This book is like Isaac Newton's Principia. It's full of new knowledge, not about what we think, but how we think. How we go about understanding and reasoning about abstract concepts. If I tried to summarize the book I'd end up quoting the entire book.

18th-Century Enlightenment said reason can solve all problems. If that were so then all these controversial issues would have been solved by now. Progressives and conservatives both reason quite well, yet they still arrive at opposite conclusions. Discussing the issues doesn't work. Yet we still insist on doing that because 18th-Century Enlightenment tells us it should work.

Rather than talking about issues you disagree on, which is exactly the wrong thing to do, you should instead talk about issues which you agree on. Find what issue a conservative has adopted a progressive view on, and discuss that issue. By discussing an issue a conservative has adopted a progressive view on, you are helping to reinforce their progressive mode of thinking. It's brain exercise! The more they exercise their progressive mode of thinking, the stronger it gets. The more you get them to discuss issues where they already have adopted a progressive view, the more their progressive mode of thinking is strengthened. As their progressive mode of thinking gets exercised and strengthened, they will tend more and more to use progressive thinking on other issues.

It's that simple. And that different.

Editorial Review:

The New York Times bestselling author of Don't Think of an Elephant! explains the science behind how we make political decisions.

Come on, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors

Bill Cosby, Alvin F. Poussaint

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 84 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

fresh perspective from inside the community 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I enjoyed the fresh, new perspective, from an African American about the true condition of the black community. Too bad it is not shared by the popular leaders from these community - rather opting to play the ever played-out "blame "the man" game."

Come on Bill!! 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Easy read. Facts are very interesting. Too bad the people who actually read this book, are not necessarily the people who should read this book.

Editorial Review:

Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint have a powerful message for families and communities as they lay out their visions for strengthening America, or for that matter the world. They address the crises of people who are stuck because of feelings of low self-esteem, abandonment, anger, fearfulness, sadness, and feelings of being used, undefended and unprotected. These feelings often impede their ability to move forward. The authors aim to help empower people make the daunting transition from victims to victors. Come On, People! is always engaging, and loaded with heart-piercing stories of the problems facing many communities.

The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies

Bryan Caplan

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Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The greatest obstacle to sound economic policy is not entrenched special interests or rampant lobbying, but the popular misconceptions, irrational beliefs, and personal biases held by ordinary voters. This is economist Bryan Caplan's sobering assessment in this provocative and eye-opening book. Caplan argues that voters continually elect politicians who either share their biases or else pretend to, resulting in bad policies winning again and again by popular demand.

Boldly calling into question our most basic assumptions about American politics, Caplan contends that democracy fails precisely because it does what voters want. Through an analysis of Americans' voting behavior and opinions on a range of economic issues, he makes the convincing case that noneconomists suffer from four prevailing biases: they underestimate the wisdom of the market mechanism, distrust foreigners, undervalue the benefits of conserving labor, and pessimistically believe the economy is going from bad to worse. Caplan lays out several bold ways to make democratic government work better--for example, urging economic educators to focus on correcting popular misconceptions and recommending that democracies do less and let markets take up the slack.

The Myth of the Rational Voter takes an unflinching look at how people who vote under the influence of false beliefs ultimately end up with government that delivers lousy results. With the upcoming presidential election season drawing nearer, this thought-provoking book is sure to spark a long-overdue reappraisal of our elective system.

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000

Paul M. Kennedy

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Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Flawed premises lead to wrong conclusions 2 out of 5 stars.
8 of 16 people found this review helpful.

Kennedy's book chronicles the decline of the British empire, and argues that the American empire is next. This is because, he says, both empires suffered or currently suffer from "imperial overstretch," that unhappy state of affairs where military and defense obligations outweigh the benefits accrued from the subject territories. This is a seriously flawed premise which, at best, fits the British empire only loosely, and the United States not at all.

The British empire did spend heavily in the years leading up to WW I (which Kennedy argues led to its decline) but Britain actually spent less on defense, as a percentage of GDP, than the other great powers at the time.

The "overstretch" thesis is even less apposite in the context of the United States. First, the U.S. is not an "empire" as Kennedy defines it. Second, U.S. military obligations have not risen in proportion to its GDP to the height of the Vietnam War. Third, Kennedy fails to adequately explain a logical link between military expenditures and economic decline. He does attempt to explain the link in purely economic terms, i.e., the massive amounts spent to sustain a military force, but he does not explain how military spending, which declined relative to GDP, is somehow different than social welfare spending, which has taken an increasingly large share of GDP.

What appears to suffer most from "overstretch" is Kennedy's thesis itself.

Editorial Review:

About national and international power in the "modern" or Post Renaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen and fallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the "new monarchies" in W. Europe.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

On the Move

Bono

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Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

It's a good read but... 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

...it's the kind of book that you'd read when you stumble across it at a library rather than actually order online. It takes no more than 15 minutes to finish reading the book (basically, Bono's speech to politicians about how they can help Africa). If you're an avid reader and looking for something that encapsulates your mind for at least a couple of hours, then skip this book.

I love Africa. I love Bono. If you know both well enough, there is nothing new that this book can tell you about him or the continent.

Editorial Review:

"The one thing, on which we can all agree, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums and in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality." --Bono

This small book, based upon the speech given by Bono at the 2006 NPB, delivers an inspiring and powerful message. Here, in Bono's own words, is a reflection on his own faith and a challenge to people of all faiths to reach across boundaries and come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call "the least of these."

End of History and the Last Man

Francis Fukuyama

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Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Fascinating, thought--provoking, but out of date 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

In this fascinating and highly thought-provoking book, American philosopher Francis Fukuyama argues that the war at the beginning of human history was a battle for prestige or recognition. And, history has unfolded as a search to find a balance between the drives for victory of one over another to gain that recognition. In the eighteenth century, history effectively began to end as people embraced the liberal democratic/capitalist system that granted mutual recognition.

Now, history is not over for those outside this system, and nations can return to history if they move away from the liberal democratic/capitalist system. Along the way, the author unfolds his argument for the drive for recognition as the engine of human history, explains how we got to where we are, and what the future may eventually bring for the human race. The author makes his argument in a clear, compelling manner that puts great force behind his argument.

I do, though, have several complains against this book. First of all, I have the 1992 edition, and some of what I have to say may not apply to later editions. But, as the West now stands in a crisis situation in world history, it is easy to see that some of what has happened in the last 15 years was not anticipated by Mr. Fukuyama.

Chapter 7 of this book is entitled, No Barbarians At The Gates. Well, in point of fact, the West faces two sets of Barbarians at the gates. The first set of barbarians are in fact within the gates, and is the newly militant Liberalism with its drive to extinguish freedom (think of Dr. Heidi Cullen's desire to remove American Meteorological Society accreditation to any meteorologist who expresses skepticism towards man-made global warming) in its drive for radical equality. This is in fact the "excess of isothymia" that the author mentioned was possible in chapter 29, but he did not expect it to be coupled with an external threat.

Second of all, on page 45, Dr. Fukuyama states that Islam poses "a grave threat to liberal practices," but then immediately moves away from the threat of Islam, as if wishing it out of existence. In point of fact, with the West's inability and even downright refusal to maintain its borders, the "post-historic" world has been invaded by people from the "historic" world, and militant Islam is now working with some success to undermine the liberal democratic system from within the very heart of the "post-historic" world.

Therefore, while I do think that this book is quite correct in its view of the drive for recognition and the victory of the liberal democratic/capitalistic system, I do think that it does not do a good job of anticipating what would (and did!) come next. The "post-historic" world has proved itself unable (at least so far) to protect itself against the "historic" world, and it is uncertain that it will be philosophically able to protect itself without a turn to towards the "megalothymia" that the good doctor so fears.

So, overall, I would highly recommend this book as a fascinating philosophical look at the modern world, but I would not say that it goes so far as to explain where we are now and where we are truly heading. I give this book a somewhat guarded recommendation.

Editorial Review:

Fukuyama's profound inquiry leads the reader to the question of whether humanity will eventually reach a stable state in which it is at last completely satisfied, or whether there is something about the condition of humans that will always lead them to smash this ultimate equilibrium and plunge the world back into chaos.

Congress and Its Members

Roger H. Davidson, Walter J. Oleszek

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The tension between Congress as a lawmaking institution and Congress as a collection of re-election-minded politicians has proven to be a powerful and effective way to understand Congress and the legislative process. Over nine editions, thousands of students have benefited from Davidson and Oleszek's tightly organized framework, as well as from their engaging and vivid narrative. Helping students understand the institution's evolution, Congress and Its Members paints broad brush strokes, while effectively showing enough color and detail to ground students in important concepts.

Each chapter of the tenth edition will feature new analysis of the most recent and important scholarship. While the authors discuss the overall position and prospects for congressional government, they will include up-to-the-minute details on:

• the 2004 congressional elections and ongoing party realignment indicating Republican dominance for the foreseeable future;
• the state of campaign finance, including performance under the McCain-Feingold legislation;
• the majority leader's efforts to strengthen his powers and the role of the new Democratic leaders in challenging the GOP's agenda;
• party realignment from the standpoint of floor voting, including the decline of the middle;
• the consequences of war for the legislative branch and for the separation of powers, as well as reorganization due to homeland security and intelligence reform;
• the new rules for the 109th Congress, with the possibility of changes in the Senate's filibuster rule and unusual procedures to pass legislation;
• the outlook for a second term president and the role of the minority party in challenging an assertive White House;
• big government conservatism, new regulatory trends, the rules and tools for effective oversight, and the shadow government of contractors;
• legislative-judicial conflicts, including controversies in naming judges to the federal bench;
• the return of deficits, the growing use of earmarks, congressional budget reforms, and the conflict between discretionary versus entitlement spending.