Political Doctrines Books - Page 12

Tocqueville: Democracy in America (Library of America)

Alexis de Tocqueville

Amazon Price: $24.30 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Library of America Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $17.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Political
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> History & Theory

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Alexis de Tocqueville, a young aristocratic French lawyer, came to the United States in 1831 to study its penitentiary systems. His nine-month visit and subsequent reading and reflection resulted in Democracy in America (1835–40), a landmark masterpiece of political observation and analysis. Tocqueville vividly describes the unprecedented social equality he found in America and explores its implications for European society in the emerging modern era. His book provides enduring insight into the political consequences of widespread property ownership, the potential dangers to liberty inherent in majority rule, the importance of civil institutions in an individualistic culture dominated by the pursuit of material self-interest, and the vital role of religion in American life, while prophetically probing the deep differences between the free and slave states. The clear, fluid, and vigorous translation by Arthur Goldhammer is the first to fully capture Tocqueville’s achievements both as an accomplished literary stylist and as a profound political thinker.

Unprotected

Miriam Grossman

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sentinel Trade Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $4.90

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Sexuality -> Human
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

more ideological than scientific 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 5 people found this review helpful.

In June 2007 the author, Miriam Grossman MD, became a Senior Fellow at the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, a conservative non-profit that counts Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly and Michelle Malkin as members. Readers that share CBLPI's ideological outlook will love this book. Readers that don't share CBLPI's outlook (myself included) will find much of this book disagreeable. Additionally, like most ideologically-motivated works (liberal or conservative), the author relies heavily on observation and anecdotal evidence instead of rigorous scientific studies.

Editorial Review:

Our campuses are steeped in political correctness—that’s hardly news to anyone. But no one realizes that radical social agendas have also taken over campus health and counseling centers, with dire consequences.

Psychiatrist Miriam Grossman knows this better than anyone. She has treated more than 2,000 students at one of America’s most prestigious universities, and she’s seen how the anything- goes, women-are-just-like-men, “safer-sex” agenda is actually making our sons and daughters sick.

Dr. Grossman takes issue with the experts who suggest that students problems can be solved with free condoms and Zoloft. What campus counselors and health providers must do, she argues, is tell uncomfortable, politically incorrect truths, especially to young patients in their most vulnerable and confused moments. Instead of platitudes and misinformation, it’s time to offer them real protection.

What You Should Know About Politics...But Don't: A Nonpartisan Guide to the Issues

Jessamyn Conrad

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Arcade Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $8.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Public Policy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Practical Politics

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

ItÕs a very exciting time in American politics. Voter turnout in primaries and caucuses across the nation have shattered old records. More than ever, in this election year people are paying attention to the issues. But in a world of sound bites and deliberate misinformation and a political scene that is literally colored by a partisan divideÑblue vs. redÑhow does the average educated American find a reliable source thatÕs free of political spin?

What You Should Know About Politics . . . But DonÕt breaks it all down, issue by issue, explaining who stands for what, and whyÑwhether itÕs the economy, the war in Iraq, health care, oil and renewable energy sources, or climate change. If youÕre a Democrat, a Republican, or somewhere in between, itÕs the perfect book to brush up on a single topic or read through to get a deeper understanding of the often-mucky world of American politics.

Polls have shown that interest in the presidential campaign traditionally peaks 3Ð6 weeks before the elections. But this is also a book that transcends the season. ItÕs truly for anyone who wants to know more about the issues, which are perennial issues that will continue to affect our everyday lives.

The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt

Amazon Price: $12.92 List Price: $19.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harvest Books Amazon Marketplace: 58 new & used starting at $6.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> History & Theory

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A difficult book, but perhaps the best on the topic... 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

First let me say I read this book in reverse order. The text is divided into three sections, "Anti-Semitism," "Imperialism" and "Totalitarianism." I started out intending to read the final section only, and it is possible to read that part alone and not be entirely lost. However, after reading the third part I decided to go back and read the section on Imperialism as well. I will say that some basic knowledge of the conditions of Europe and Russia are definitely helpful in understanding the book. I was very well served by some lectures on WW2 and dictatorships of the 20th century I listened to recently.

This book can be a difficult read and it does take time to get through. It is densely packed and written with a philosophical style, German philosophy in particular. I should say there wasn't anything in the book that totally left me lost, that I simply did not understand. One of the difficulties of the book is the length of sentences at times, very long and drawn out thoughts with more thoughts and qualifiers and paradoxes in between, forcing one to re-read the sentence to make sure you got the point. In short this book is not overly friendly to the casual, modern reader, but it's probably still the best book on the topic that it covers. Another good one is the out of print "Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy" by Friedrich and Brzezinski, less on the origins and more on the nature of Totalitarian states of the past century. And with specific chapters on subjects such as agriculture, labor, industry and education (to give some examples) you can guess it is going to be a little more detailed than this one.

I'm going to present here what I consider a quick summary, and indeed it is impossible to give anything BUT a "summary" of a text like this because the detail leaves one at a loss to express its real depths.

Imperialism

In the Imperialism section Arendt spends much time speaking of the drive to send "idle capital and idle labor" abroad to be productive, and for Western European imperialism this went to Africa. The Western Imperialism model has a rather "white man's burden" to it. The drive often expressed was for profit, but was ultimately about expansion for its own sake. Those on the ground were of two types: adventurers, the dragon slayers of their time who believed they were benefiting humanity in some way, the other were of a sort of "mobster class" who enjoyed danger and a land far from home where they could get away with almost anything. Imperialism led to the beginning of "race thinking" as something more serious than it had been before. The Eastern European form of imperialism took a rather different model, created by societies which had not experienced a nation-state and which were more rootless than those found in Britain with its well-rooted peasant society. The pan-movements with their belief in tribal nationalism became influential but remained vague at first in their purpose and goals, and were part of the drive behind what Arendt calls Continental Imperialism; essentially land-locked imperialism opposed to overseas imperialism. In a bitter twist of irony these pan-movements used the model (consciously or unconsciously) of the Jews of a "chosen" people to make their claim to history. These Continental imperialists had lived not under constitutional government but under bureaucracy where it was "rule by decree" which was "power directly applied" opposed to law, leading to an unpredictable nature of what power was and how it would function from one day to the next. Arendt makes an interesting aside here about Kafka and how he viewed power and something one could not understand and the "naturalness of human guilt." Furthermore, as this Eastern form of imperialism grew, they transformed their governments at home. Theirs was not a patriotism or celebration of government, but a tribal nationalism and love for their race itself; on the contrary government was often bitterly hated by the Continental imperialists. In short these imperialists' formed movements which transcended parties and government and focused on the national above all, for example in Austria, pan-Germanic there bitterly opposed the Austrian government but loved their German heritage. And following the First World War a new class of virtually "non-people" were created; refugees who had no place to call home and as a result they also had no rights.

Totalitarianism

In the totalitarianism section Arendt begins by discussing how classes disintegrated into a classless society, the hypocritical society of the bourgeoisie was rejected along with it's insistence on individualism and competition. Private life too was something which was opposed although at the same time that the society was a large mass, it remained full of atomized, insecure individuals. Where the mob had been created in the colonial pillages, now these men became leaders of the early totalitarian movements. In short, following the First World War there was an immense level of dissatisfaction with the status quo and parties. Once the totalitarian movements were formed, terror and propaganda was used to realize their ideology, terror being the biggest factor, existing well after propaganda disappeared. The totalitarian idea justifies itself based on an "inevitable history" philosophy, claiming to have the key to history and acting in accord with something which cannot be refuted because it will always be proven in the future, with the side benefit that when one carries out atrocities one is just doing the inevitable. Furthermore, a reality is created where the conspiracies and ideals of totalitarianism come true, a spell is cast over people's minds which captivates them in a world which is better than the real world and things that happen in reality are interpreted by the ideology so they are internally consistent. Totalitarian organization has a sort of onion-structure, those in the center more radical and going outward from there and toward the outside world one finds less radicalism. The benefit of this is three-fold. First those in higher layers despise those in lower ones as gullible and this gullibility of the innumerable "average man" makes the lies more believable for those lower down and outside of the movement itself. Second, as one goes up this ladder of gullibility, cynicism increases and this attitude will never force the leader to speak the truth because lying fits their cynical mode of "the means satisfying the ends." Only those most gullible and low on the hierarchy believe the day-to-day and contradictory lies, those higher believe in the ideology and power of pure organization. Third, the final and outermost layer, "Front Organizations" presents the movement to the outside, non-totalitarian world. This layer functions to separate average members from the outside world while presenting a facade of normalcy to the outside world itself. This layering can be repeated within layers, creating more radical factions and insecurity in those less radical. In the structure of totalitarianism one also sees a parallel to secret societies with their conspiracies, rituals (ideologies in this case) and an "us vs. them" mentality. But according to Arendt it's a "secret society in daylight" because they openly declared their ideals and their appeal to the discontented masses was not their hidden conspiracies but the ideology itself which gives their life order and purpose. Once a totalitarian movement comes to power it must remain just that, in movement and not tied to any one nation, global rule always the goal. And settling down in a governmental structure and function would mean death for a movement deserving of the title. Furthermore, the pre-existing parts of the government and organizations are left in place, but become a facade behind which the party reigns in complete control. Fully indoctrinated party elites coordinate activity within these government organizations which gives the appearance of continuity from the pre-totalitarian stage. The leader is all important. Orders came down from the leader into a "shapeless" organizational structure, these orders are "intentionally vague" and with the ideological indoctrination of the elite factions they know how to interpret them. Often these elites will give them an even more radical spin than might have been intended to gain favor over other groups. But ultimately power granted to groups is constantly shifted around, as are people within them to keep comradeship from developing among members. In reality there is no hierarchy or independent levels of authority, only the will of the leader which comes down from above to groups who's power could be taken away tomorrow without reason given. In this sense the leader is "everywhere" and the one authority of the land; and without intervening levels of independent authority totalitarianism is opposed to the notion of "authority" itself. The role of the secret police is the most important perhaps above all others, even the army. "Objective enemies" are created, people who have not committed crimes, but who MIGHT commit them in the future because of "tendencies." The secret police ultimately have an ideological function, one is never certain who a member may be, and personal conversation is restricted because of suspicion. When a person or groups' power is taken away without explanation one is left in a paranoid state to wonder about the reasons power was taken away, and every word one has spoken. In this situation freedom ceases to exist, and one does not even need to exercise it in order to be punished and indeed disappear entirely from the face of the earth. And after someone is disappeared suspicion immediately falls on those close to them, driving wedges between individuals and maintaining an atomized society. The concentration camps serve as "laboratories" where the ultimate, logical ends of the ideology and the fundamental belief that "all things are possible" are both tested. Despite wars of aggression and oppression in history, never before was there a belief that all things were possible; perhaps being a perversion of modernism and science. Despite the horrific accounts of the camps, outsiders are incapable of understanding their true nature and purpose; instead it all dissolves into emotion and revulsion. Those sent to the camps seem entirely random and fear no longer exists because no matter what one does or does not do there is the possibility of being disappeared. Thus the concepts of justice, morality and eventually individuality and human dignity within the camps are completely eliminated through torture. Rebellion against such a system becomes meaningless when it assures the murder of oneself along with family and friends, and even more, the disappearance of ones meager attempt at rebellion from history. Human spontaneity and individual will are eliminated; thus totalitarianism is truly only achieved under the conditions of the camps. Totalitarianism is something new; it defies law and claims to operate entirely by some laws of History or of Nature, claiming lawlessness and legitimacy at the same time. The function of terror is to help History or Nature "overcome" human freedom which only slows down the inevitable future utopia. The "ideology" is something new in politics as well; it's looking at an idea and seeing MOVEMENT in it, seeing a logic which explains the world. When it is adopted one sees a "reality behind reality" and totalitarianism takes the idea to its logical extreme and final conclusion. Arendt concludes with a look toward the future saying that isolation of men from one another leads to uncertainty about one's self and one's beliefs. This loneliness creates men who are more willing to accept totalitarian ideas and conclusions about the world, and this condition of loneliness is growing even today, thus totalitarianism and ideological thinking will always be a threat.

Editorial Review:

Generally regarded as the definitive work on totalitarianism, this book is an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political movements. Arendt was one of the first to recognize that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were two sides of the same coin rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. “With the Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt emerges as the most original and profound-therefore the most valuable-political theoretician of our times” (New Leader). Index.

The Entrepreneurial Imperative: How America's Economic Miracle Will Reshape the World (and Change Your Life)

Carl J. Schramm

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: Collins Business Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $5.51

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Popular Economics -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Small Business & Entrepreneurship -> Entrepreneurship

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

Editorial Review:

In 2004, Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation, the world's leading foundation for entrepreneurship, published a groundbreaking essay with a radical premise: that Americans literally have no conception of the secret that truly underlies our economic success, and that for the United States to survive and continue to lead the world's economy, it is imperative we learn to understand and employ that secret.

The secret that has led the American economy to become the world's strongest? Our unparalleled skill as entrepreneurs. As Schramm compellingly shows in this sweeping manifesto, entrepreneurship alone—not anything else—can give America the necessary leverage to remain an economic superpower. Not technology, since everyone now has the same technology, or access to it. Not education—we are years behind other nations in this area. Not basic manufacturing, long since moved overseas from the United States. And not capital markets, now truly global entities.

Drawing on detailed research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation and on his decades of experience as an entrepreneur himself and as a leader and mentor to other entrepreneurs, Schramm persuasively demonstrates in detail what this entrepreneurial imperative means for the way we run universities and foundations, lead companies, make personal job decisions, and even conduct our foreign affairs. The Entrepreneurial Imperative will change not only the way our government, corporations, and nonprofits operate, but also our day-to-day lives as working Americans.

Political Ideologies, Fourth Edition: An Introduction

Andrew Heywood

Amazon Price: $31.45 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Palgrave Macmillan Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $25.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Ideologies
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Freedom & Security -> Censorship

Editorial Review:

This revised and updated fourth edition of the leading text on political ideologies contains a new chapter on multiculturalism, consideration of the changing nature of ideological discourse, including the transition from "traditional" to "new" ideologies, and coverage of the impact on the major ideolgoical traditions of developments such as globalization and the "war on terror".

33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask

Thomas E. Jr Woods

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $9.19

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> Political Doctrines -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

News flash: The Indians didn’t save the Pilgrims from starvation by teaching them to grow corn. The “Wild West” was more peaceful and a lot safer than most modern cities. And the biggest scandal of the Clinton years didn’t involve an intern in a blue dress.

Surprised? Don’t be. In America, where history is riddled with misrepresentations, misunderstandings, and flat-out lies about the people and events that have shaped the nation, there’s the history you know and then there’s the truth. In 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask, New York Times bestselling author Thomas E. Woods Jr. reveals the tough questions about our nation’s history that have long been buried because they’re too politically incorrect to discuss, including:

Are liberals really so antiwar?

Was the Civil War all about slavery?

Did the Framers really look to the American Indians as the model for the U.S. political system?

Did Bill Clinton actually stop a genocide in Kosovo, as we’re told?

The answer to all those questions is no. Woods’s eye-opening exploration reveals just how much of the historical record has been whitewashed,overlooked, and skewed beyond recognition. 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask will have you wondering just how much of your nation’s past you haven’t been told.

World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism

Norman Podhoretz

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Doubleday Amazon Marketplace: 65 new & used starting at $10.60

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> International -> Relations
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Freedom & Security -> International Security

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 64 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For almost half a century—as a magazine editor and as the author of numerous bestselling books and hundreds of articles—Norman Podhoretz has helped drive the central political and intellectual debates in this country. Now, in this beautifully written and powerfully argued book, he takes on the most controversial issue of our time—the war against the global network of terrorists that attacked us on 9/11.
 
In World War IV, Podhoretz makes the first serious effort to set 9/11 itself, the battles that have followed it in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the war of ideas that it has provoked at home into a broad historical context. Through a brilliant telling of this epic story, Podhoretz shows that the global war against Islamofascism is as vital and necessary as the two world wars and the cold war (“World War III”) by which it was preceded. He also lays out a compelling case in defense of the Bush Doctrine, contending that its new military strategy of preemption and its new political strategy of democratization represent the only viable way to fight and win the special kind of war into which we were suddenly plunged.
 
Different in certain respects though the Islamofascists are from their totalitarian predecessors, this new enemy is equally dedicated to the destruction of the freedoms for which America stands and by which it lives. But it took the blatant aggression of 9/11 to make most Americans realize that war had long since been declared on us and that the time had come to fight back. Past administrations, both Republican and Democratic, had failed to respond with appropriate force to attacks by Muslim terrorists on American citizens in various countries, and even the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 was treated as a criminal act rather than an act of war. All this changed after 9/11, when the whole country rallied around President Bush’s decision to bring the war to the enemy’s home ground in the Middle East.
 
The successes and the setbacks that have followed are vividly portrayed by Podhoretz, who goes on to argue that, just as in the two great struggles against totalitarianism in the twentieth century, the key to victory in World War IV will be a willingness to endure occasional reverses without losing sight of what we are fighting against, what we are fighting for, and why we have to win.

Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal (7th Edition)

Terence Ball, Richard Dagger

Amazon Price: $77.44 List Price: $87.80 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: Longman Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $61.74

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> Political Doctrines -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Terrible Excuse for P.I. Literature. 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 26 people found this review helpful.

Just like it's companion book, this Political Ideologies textbook was blatantly biased. I find it mind-boggling that anyone could consider this a fair, ethical, and balanced treatment of the subjectmatter. Just like the other text, this book is filled with sweeping generalizations, liberal and left-wing indoctrination, and a severe lack of critical thought of ALL ideologies. I had to endure reading this book as well in a political science course, and it's a sure sign of the times. It's always those who claim to be the most "open-minded" who are in actuality, the least open-minded. I'm tired of the lip service and would actually appreciate it if authors like this would actually practice what they preach.
Instead of presenting all the material in a straight-forward manner, the authors take sides. This is extremely unethical writing. When presenting historical events and ideas it is practically crimminal to write a book like this with its extremely biased points-of-view. This book too, is filled with little breadth and little depth. Its not the side these authors are taking which irritates me, it's the fact that a side is taken at all. Extremely poor acedemcis here, and a complete lack of ethics here! Those who rate this book highly belie themselves as supportors of indocrination, instead of a fair treament of the materials represented. Not recommended at all.
As for the authors,..."I get it!" We know that you're hippies and that you spent your college days fighting against the War, and "the man", but when you start to write and act in the same manner as those you disagreed with, it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black!

Editorial Review:

The new edition of this innovative book introduces the ideas and ideals that shake and shape our political world. Covering the gamut of contemporary political ideologies, from the standard categories of liberalism, conservatism, and socialism to emerging ideological alternatives, the fourth edition features expanded discussions of green political ideologies and native people's liberation. For those interested in political theory and ideologies.

The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West

Mark Lilla

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Knopf Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $14.29

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Germany -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Religious passions are again driving world politics. The quest to bring political life under God’s authority has been revived, confounding expectations of a secular future. In this major book, Mark Lilla reveals the sources of this age-old quest—and its surprising role in shaping Western thought.

The story could not be more timely. Most civilizations in history have been organized on the basis of a political theology – a myth or revelation about the correct ordering of society. Yet due to a crisis in Western Christendom nearly five hundred years ago, a novel intellectual challenge to political theology arose in Europe. By portraying religion as an expression of human nature, not a divine gift, modern Western thinkers found a way to free politics from God’s authority and build barriers against destructive religious passions.

But the temptations of political theology are always present, even in the West. As Lilla vividly shows, the urge to reconnect politics to religion remained strong and took novel forms in modern European thought. By the Second World War a forceful political messianism had arisen, justifying the most deadly ideologies of the age.

Making us question what we thought we knew about religion, politics, and the fate of civilizations, Lilla reminds us of the modern West’s unique trajectory and what is required to remain on it.