General Books - Page 9

The Devil's Highway: A True Story

Luis Alberto Urrea

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Devils Highway 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Excellent story. Highly recommend to others. Great eye opener to be thankful for everything we have. Great book!!

heartbreaking 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Luis paints the scary picture of crossing the desert. He puts humans behind the names of the crossers, border protrol, and the cyotes. Based on true events that happen everyday. This is a must read for everyone in the United States.

A MUST read for every American 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Definitely worth reading. This is in my top-five of all time. Well written. Great research. Easy to read. Compelling story. Read it.

Insightful account of the most disastrous failed border crossing 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Urrea writes a compelling and insightful, account of the disastrous trek across the border ending in the death of 14 Mexican hopefuls. The narrative begins with a brief look into the Border Patrol Agent(s)/Agency and various fragile border dynamics. The meat of the book comes in the second half and it will keep your interest as the detailed fateful journey is unfolded. This is done in part by the authors ability to create and capture the imagery of the Devils Highway landscape and history. I would recommend this book for anyone wanting a look into the shadowy Border Crossing world or just a story capturing a journey of a harsh desert landscape gone wrong in every way!

Editorial Review:

In this work of grave beauty and searing powerone of the most widely praised pieces of investigative reporting to appear in recent yearswe follow 26 men who in May 2001 attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadly region known as the Devils Highway, a desert so harsh and desolate that even the Border Patrol is afraid to travel through it, a place that for hundreds of years has stolen mens souls and swallowed their blood. Only 12 of the men made it out.

International Relations, 2008-2009 Update, Brief Edition (4th Edition) (MyPoliSciKit Series)

Joshua S. Goldstein, Jon C. Pevehouse

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An outstanding effort 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

International Relations, 2008-2009 Update (8th Edition) (MyPoliSciKit Series) (Paperback)by J. Goldstein is superb and gives a first hand knowledge on the intricacies and vastness of international relations with perfect clarity. Even a lay man can feel enriched once he goes through the book.

The best thing is that it is a perfect continuation and consummation on its earlier version with every facility for the reader to search out any particular topic.

But I think time has come for the authors to write a separate volume on current events like the Iraqi crisis, the nuclear stand off with N. Korea, issues in Kosovo, NATO's rift with Russia, terrorism and a host of other issues. It is then that we may see many illuminating analyses hitherto not done on those issues.

Gautam Maitra
Author of 'Tracing the Eagle's Orbit: Illuminating Insights Into Major US Foreign Policies Since Independence.'

Editorial Review:

Thoroughly updated to cover world affairs to 2008, International Relations, Brief Edition, offers the same approach and coverage as the bestselling survey text but in a more streamlined and flexible format. From war, trade, and development to terrorism, human rights, and the environment, this text focuses on all of the major issues in international security and political economy as well as transnational issues. With the broadest discussion of theoretical perspectives, the most current coverage of international events, and the strongest emphasis on critical thinking, International Relations includes all the tools students need to engage the discipline's concepts and to understand what is happening in the world today. Joshua Goldstein and Jon Pevehouse's lively writing, abundant visuals, and seamless integration of learning technology make this text a favorite of instructors and students alike.

The Anarchist Cookbook (C-066)

William Powell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 161 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

An angry kid's blog, circa 1970 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

When I was 16, back in the 1980's, my friend and I bought copies of this book to try and see what kind of explosives we could make. These recipes are dangerous, ineffective, and could potentially burn your house down. Smoking banana peels is not a good idea. Gunpowder is dangerous to home manufacture in any quantity. The recipes only partly work, the booby traps are a farce, and the whole book only makes sense to an immature mind that can picture fighting a guerilla insurgency against invading Soviet scum (moi, circa 1984). Fact of the matter is, children have access to far more dangerous ideas and images on the web than they do out of this book which if serialized and published as a blog, would have gotten the author some mild notoriety but nothing more so than young people airing ridiculous ideas and their body parts on line. As an adult with a child of my own, I can understand the why behind the book, the historical context around it, and the desire by many reviewers, including myself and the author, to just bury the book, but I don't think it needs any more attention than pictures of Barbara Streisand's house, Obama-girl, Britney-Lindsey-Paris, and leaked financial documents from a Swiss bank. Stop looking! Don't stop thinking.

On Liberty (Broadview Literary Texts)

John Stuart Mill

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Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The great defender of individual liberty 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

John Stuart Mill, 1806-73, worked for the East India Co. helped run Colonial India from England. Minister of Parliament 1865-68 he served one term. Maiden speech was a disaster his second was great success. He was first MP to propose that women should be given the vote on equal footing with the men who could vote. He got 1/3 support, England gives franchise to women after U.S. He was a great Feminist, his essay "Subjection of Women" is written with great passion and prose. It was a brave position for him to take he was ridiculed for it. He favored democracy, and letting more men from lower classes the right to vote, but believed that people that are more educated should have more votes then less educated because they would make better decisions about what government should do. He would have wanted to extend education to the masses, so that all may have gotten 2-3 votes and so on. He didn't think it should be extended to where a small elite could carry the day on votes. The idea was that if the working class, and middle class, where divided on an issue, the people with more intelligence would have the power to tip the balance. Mill thought that people with more education would probably not only be better able to make political decisions, especially in terms of intellectually being able to see what would be best for the government to do, but that they would also be more concerned about the common good publicly then people in general. He was intensely educated by his father James. John could read Greek, and Latin at 6 yrs.; his Dad tutored him at home. Dad thought environment was everything. He was treated like an adult, never played games with kids; he had a very cerebral upbringing. He had a period of depression in his twenties, it changed his philosophy, and he recognized the importance of developing feelings along with the intellect, this is something that he stressed in his work. He read poetry to get out of depression; he became devoted to poetry and became a romantic. He fell in love with a married woman Harriet Taylor, was a platonic relationship, after her husband's death they married 3 years later and probably never consummated the marriage maybe due to his having syphilis. His dedication to "On Liberty" is to her, very devoted to each other. Both buried together in Avignon France where they used to vacation.

Mill as a moral theorist subscribed to a theory we call Utilitarianism. It means---In some way morality is about the maximization of happiness. Whether actions are right or wrong depends on how happiness can be most effectively maximized. I say in some way, because there are allot of different kinds of Utilitarians. Allot of different ways of saying exactly how it is the maximization of happiness comes into morality. Therefore, happiness is clearly an important idea for Utilitarians. Mill has a hedonistic view of happiness, he thinks that happiness can be defined in terms of "pleasure in the absence of pain." What is distinctive about Mill in this area is that he believes that some kinds of pleasure are better than others are, and add more to a person's happiness than other kinds of pleasures. He believes in what he calls, "higher quality pleasures." These are pleasures, he says, that we get from the exercise of faculties that only human beings happen to have. So the intellect, imagination, the moral feelings, these are the sources of higher quality pleasures people use. His view seems to be that a certain quantity of intellectual pleasure just adds more to your happiness, and a given quantity of some lower pleasure like a kind we would share with the animals such as sensation, taste, sexual pleasure, etc. His "higher quality pleasures" in a way echo Aristotle's ethics. The idea of those things that make us distinctly human that are the real key to our happiness, that is in Mill also. It is not as limited to reason and intellect as Aristotle thinks. Mill recognizes the importance of the appreciation of beauty, aesthetic pleasure, and moral pleasure. He frankly owes a debt to Aristotle that he never properly acknowledges, never gives him proper credit.

"On Liberty" is Mill's is his most widely read and enduring work. It is an indispensable essay on political thought, which strenuously argues for individual liberty. He is defending what he calls the "liberty principle." It is a principle that guarantees individuals quite a bit of personal freedom. "That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." These quoted sentences in John Stuart Mill's book, "On Liberty," embody the crux of his argument; that the power of the state must intrude as little as possible on the liberty of its citizenry. In essence, Mill was against using the power of the state through its lawmaking apparatus to compel citizens to conduct themselves in ways that society deems moral or appropriate. Mill thought that people had not only a right, but also a duty to develop their intellectual faculties, which is indispensable to maximize their happiness. He believed that society improved for all its citizens when they where left unfettered to the maximum extent possible, allowing them to use their imagination and intellect to improve themselves. Mill postulates a theory that societies usually institute laws based primarily on "personal preference" of its citizenry instead of established principles. This lack of clarity of opinion often leads to the government frequently interfering in the lives of its citizens unnecessarily. For Mill, there are very few times when the state can infringe on the personal liberty of others. Firstly, the state has the right to promulgate laws that prevent a person's actions from harming others. Secondly, the state must protect those citizens who are not mature enough to protect themselves, such as children. Thirdly, he exempts, "... backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage." In Mill's view, immature societies need a benevolent leader to rule them until they have developed to a point where they, "... have attained the capacity of being guided to their own improvement by conviction or persuasion ..." Mill said this third exemption did not apply to any of the countries in Europe. Mill believed that forced morality by the state on its citizen's liberties was destructive to their inward development, and could even lead to a violent reaction by them against the government.


There are different parts of his defense of this, different arguments that he gives. He has a long chapter on freedom of speech and press. He has some very specific reasons why he thinks those freedoms are important. Always in the background for Mill is the idea of development, and making it possible for more people to enjoy these higher quality pleasures. How do we help people develop their distinctly human faculties, in ways that will help them enjoy their higher quality pleasures? Because for him that is the way, we maximize the total amount of happiness that is enjoyed in the world, and that is the object of morality as far as he is concerned. Utilitarianists believe that maximizing happiness is ultimately, what morality is all about. That does not mean maximizing your own happiness that means maximizing the total amount of happiness that is enjoyed, not only by yourself but also by everybody else as well.

Roger Kimball, in his book "Experiments Against Reality" wrote, "On Liberty" was published in 1859, coincidentally the same year as "On the Origin of Species." Darwin's book has been credited--and blamed--for all manner of moral and religious mischief. But in the long run "On Liberty" may have effected an even greater revolution in sentiment.

I read this book for a graduate class in Philosophy. Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

Editorial Review:

Mill predicted that "[t]he Liberty is likely to survive longer than anything else that I have written...because the conjunction of [Harriet Taylor's] mind with mine has rendered it a kind of philosophic text-book of a single truth, which the changes progressively taking place in modern society tend to bring out in ever greater relief." Indeed, On Liberty is one of the most influential books ever written, and remains a foundational document for the understanding of vital political, philosophical and social issues. In addition to its many useful appendices, this new edition includes a chronology, bibliography, and a substantial introduction which outlines Mill's life and works, and sets this central work of 1859 in the context of both his own intellectual development and of the play of ideas and political forces in Victorian society.

Power to the People

Laura Ingraham

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 135 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Many Sermon Topics 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The book was well written and organized in a topical way so as to make it easy to actually teach straight from it. Her writings are such that it will make a great resource for future sermon preparation. The stats, quotes, etc are priceless. The book will endure for a long time and it's truths never ending.

Editorial Review:

The #1 New York Times bestseller--now in paperback! Top-rated radio personality Laura Ingraham issues a call to arms in Power to the People--a plea to reinvigorate our birthright of liberty, to reconnect to our American heritage, and to revive our commitment to traditional, conservative principles. Ingraham exposes the threats we face from an emboldened cultural Left, global dogmatists, science worshippers, and politicians who spend more time on their hair than on constituency outreach. She also offers real-world solutions for how we can demand more from our leaders and ourselves. Power to the People will not just rile up Ingraham's millions of fans, it will also incite readers to do their part to protect the country that we love. "It is ours to lose," she writes, "and there are many at home and abroad who are more than willing to take it from us. Let's get to work."

Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

Joseph Schumpeter

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good Analysis, Bad Predictions 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

CS+D is one of the greatest books on political economy in the twentieth century. Schumpeter wrote this book when his generation was about to reach a fork in the road. What would the postwar world look like? Could Capitalism survive? Can Socialism work well enough to replace Capitalism? Was the dictatorial socialism of the USSR the wave of the future or could we have some form of democratic socialism? Schumpeter offered concise general answers to these questions. No, Capitalism cannot survive, and yes socialism can work.

In retrospect we can see that Schumpeter was wrong. However, there is no denying the greatness of this book. While Schumpeter's prediction of the demise of Capitalism was exaggerated, this is to some extent an understandable error. Schumpeter was right about how Capitalism would be attacked, but he overestimated the chances for the success of this attack. Capitalism did come under attack from the carping criticism of intellectuals. Many of those who you might expect to defend Capitalism remained silent. Yet capitalism survived anyway. Schumpeter's assertion that socialism can work is less defensible. Schumpeter also erred in predicting the obsolescence of the entrepreneurial function.

We can now use 20-20 hindsight to criticize Schumpeter for his general predictions. Or we could recognize that many of his individual supporting arguments are thought provoking, if not correct. Schumpeter had some good insights into democracy. His ideas on creative destruction and monopoly are important. Schumpeter does a good job discussing Marx too.

The important thing to remember while reading CS+D, is that you can learn much from it even though its major predictions failed the test of time. The issues explored in CS+D are vastly complex and involve elements that are hard to measure, let alone predict. One can be right on nine out of ten supporting arguments and still get the wrong answer in the end.

CS+D stands along side Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and Keynes' The General Theory as one of the most important and influential books of this mid Twentieth Century. Aside from its historical importance CS+D has many good insights. Schumpeter is worth reading despite the fact that his major predictions have failed. Read CS+D for its detailed analysis of economic and political systems, not for its general predictions regarding the postwar world.

Editorial Review:

Schumpeter's contention in this text that the seeds of capitalism's decline were internal, and his equal and opposite hostility to centralist socialism have perplexed, engaged and infuriated readers since the book's publication in the 1940s. By refusing to become an advocate for either position Schumpeter was able both to make his own original contribution and to clear the way for a more balanced consideration of one of the most important social movements of the 20th century.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History

Thomas E. Woods Jr.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 257 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Politically Incorrect Guide to American History 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I am a history lover and always want to hear the truth. A lot was left out of my history classes when I was a kid. I am glad to see a book like this on the market. It is past time to get the truth out to the children of today instead of the watered down information that is out there now.

it's no secret 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

"...and it's no secret that Stalin starved his people." maybe it's no secret. neither is it a secret that mao murdered millions of innocent chinese. but it is very un-pc to acknowledge such things, because it leads into dangerous un-pc areas the progressive thought police want to keep you away from. Students might get the wrong ideas about unimportant things such as communism and communist aggression, mccarthyism, nationalism, american sovereignty, private property, freedom and gun ownership; things which really aren't issues in today's world in which we are all citizens of the global village.

Editorial Review:

Almost everything you know about American history is wrong, because most textbooks and popular history books are written by left-wing academic historians who treat their biases as fact. But fear not, Professor Thomas Woods has written the perfect antidote. This delightful book--funny and inviting, but factually sound--shatters the myths about American history and separates fact from fiction.

Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Collectivism Against Individuality 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 10 people found this review helpful.

The fallacy is in his assumption that individuals must forfeit all sovereignty to the state. The second specious argument is in the creation of a General Will. The third is that the general will will not do anything to harm any of the individuals within the collective.

The collectivist social contract was most assured well intentioned, but it's opposition to individualism has obviously anti-individualist consequences.

This is evident in his support of democratic censorship. If the general will is offended, then censorship is justified.

In his desire to create equality, he justifies both socialism and communism, and democracy in its purest form - majority rule.

Social cohesiveness 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 8 people found this review helpful.

From page 186:
"It is impossible to live in peace with people one believes to be damned"

From page 187:
"But anyone who dares to say `outside the church there is no salvation should be expelled from the state unless the state is the church and the Prince the Pontiff"

The Social Contract was written in 1762. It is my understanding many of the Founding Fathers of the United States had read the book and this work certainly had a major influence on French thought, therefore on the French Revolution. French society suffered many wrongs because of religious intolerance and it had a major effect on the author's thoughts. In my Faith, in my thoughts those who do not accept Jesus Christ as their Savior are damned to Hell. I believe there is one true Universal church. A church not made bricks and mortar, but of souls. While this definition of church does include a denomination, the theology is in disagreement with what Rousseau believed to be of a benefit to social cohesiveness. He be believed people should only have positive dogmas which did include earthly punishment for sin, that people should seek to do God's will; God has a watchful eye over people and government. The author certainly had a problem with one believing that God damns those of other Christian constructs. He wanted to outlaw or redefine the Catholic Faith and Protestantism to fit into his idea of social cohesiveness. His idea of religious tolerance gets a more sympathetic ear today then when written.

Rousseau contributed to the thoughts of man. That man gives up certain rights in a civil society. That only through government does anyone truly has his rights protected. That it is only through some sort of social agreement that ones civil rights and property rights are protected. My physical security is no longer just dependent on me. It is through the organization of men I can own, I can do without fear that another will deny simply because of my absence or more might.

Partiality and equality. Equality is not to have a right beyond that of another individual Partiality is to have more rights then another individual because who your Father is, wealth, friendship with the Prince, or any other reason. Rousseau did not dismiss partiality from society, but he did ask it only be set up through the general will of the people. He therefore argued that people should associate together for the purpose of forming a political argument. He wanted each person to come to conclusions based on the strength of argument. How debate could not be obtained without alliance and organization of debate is not dealt with. Freedom of association is not dealt with in the book.

The General Will is determined by the majority. Rousseau recognizes the particular will of the individual is often in disagreement with the general will. Compromise is needed and an individual is generally better off because of government action then if no action were taken. The author decries sectionalism ( beliefs or ideas that grow out of living in a different geographic area and beliefs coming forth from other associations). He does not have an idea how this can be eliminated.

The author speaks on many topics on the determination what is the best form of government. The author makes a distinction between the prince as the one who enforces the law and the lawmaker. Rousseau discusses how population, climate, geographic landscape, beliefs of the public and education effect the form of government and the ability to be governed. This book I believe made a major contribution on how we think about government and society.

Basic Political Writings

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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

Rousseau Comments on Society and the General Will of Man 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "The Basic Political Writings," have a two part effect. Rousseau uses the first portion of the book, the discourses on science and the arts, the origin of inequality, and political economy, to describe the basic policies of then modern society. Rousseau describes the creation of society as a threat against the laws of nature. Rousseau also explains that the origin of society coincides with the concept of personal property. From there society develops by who controls whom into a political system. Rousseau comments on several points in "The Social Contract." In the first book of "The Social Contract" Rousseau explains the limiting of the human spirit by the bonds of society. This is the origin of the infamous line, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." Books two and three describe the attitudes of a nation and its responsibilities to both other nations and its own people. The final book of "The Social Contract" affirms the point that a nation cannot destroy the general will of the people. "The Basic Political Writings" are considered an excellent resource on society simply for its commentary on the general will. Rousseau's writings are amazing when coupled with the later thoughts of Karl Marx in "The Communist Manifesto." Obvious correlation's can be made between Rousseau's commentary and Marx's ideals of the creation of a communist society. Although these writings may not be for the average reader, the points they make extremely thought provoking.

A Small Place

Jamaica Kincaid

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The lovely tourists 1 out of 5 stars.
12 of 34 people found this review helpful.

I had to read this book for a Multicultural Literature class at my Uni, and, far from being informative, all it did was fill with me a contempt of my own. I am not a racist by any means, but when confronted with such a bitter, snide voice as the one Kincaid displays, I find myself unconsciously getting defensive. When she says, "you are a tourist; you are ugly," I find myself saying, "Fine, I'll keep my money and let you trade with seashells and beads." Kincaid is a master of the self-fulfilling prophecy: she says Antiguans are so oppressed and so downtrodden and so angry, and rather than doing anything to help it, she's exacerbating it by using such a bitter, over-the-top voice.

Other reviewers have stated that the vision of Antigua portrayed is a warped and extremely limited one, biased by Kincaid's apparent small mindedness, and I must confess that I'm glad to hear that. To think that the entire island is solely occupied by bitter people who imagine themselves to be ex-slaves would make me steer clear of the area any time I go on vacation.

Because, yes, I am a tourist. And no, being a tourist does not automatically make anyone ugly, despite what Kincaid's bitter rant might say.