General Books - Page 13

The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America

Ronald Brownstein

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Interesting But Disappointing 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Brownstein's book provides a wealth of detail and some really interesting US political history for a little over a century. The book is well researched, at least in a historical sense. I don't believe he absolutely proves his case that partisanship is the worst that it has ever been because it has clearly been very bad in the past. Unfortunately, though I believe Brownstein tried very hard for impartiality, his bias, perhaps unwitting, shows through. Republicans are nearly always excessive and provocative, Democrats are nearly always only responding to Republican over reach. Democrat solutions are almost always conveyed as the only realistic ones. To be fair, he doesn't completely whitewash Democrats, it's more a matter of scale. As to be expected, he gives major media a pass for the most part, while indicting Fox for partisanship. Even so, I would have give the book four stars instead of three simply because of the useful information it contains and the fact that it's well written. But when the 'Fairness' doctrine is offered up as one of the solutions to the problem that was a real crippler. Any objective observer knows that there is no problem with people's access to opposing points of view, the only problem is that the liberal left for decades had almost total control of the media and they simply can't accept that the right now has at least a semblance of a public voice. Too bad the LA Times mentality showed through in the end.

Editorial Review:

A “timely and compelling” analysis of America’s bitterly divisive partisan politics (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

In recent years American politics has seemingly become much more partisan, more zero-sum, more vicious, and less able to confront the real problems our nation faces. What has happened?

In The Second Civil War, respected political commentator Ronald Brownstein diagnoses the electoral, demographic, and institutional forces that have wreaked such change over the American political landscape, pulling politics into the margins and leaving precious little common ground for compromise. The Second Civil War is not a book for Democrats or Republicans but for all Americans who are disturbed by our current political dysfunction and hungry for ways to understand it—and move beyond it.

Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism

Sean Hannity

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Total reviews: 1669 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nearly three years have passed since that tragic day in September. Since then, our wounds have healed, but our senses and memories have dulled.

At first, the nation rallied behind its leader. But by the time the confrontation with Iraq presented itself, our courage and moral certainty seemed to fade in the face of partisan bickering and posturing.

Now the political left and the Democratic Party are trying to use the demanding aftermath of the war to exploit our national cause for their own political advantage.

How could we allow ourselves to forget so soon?

--from Deliver Us from Evil

Sean Hannity's first blockbuster book, the New York Times bestseller Let Freedom Ring, cemented his place as the freshest and most compelling conservative voice in the country. As the host of the phenomenally successful Hannity & Colmes on the Fox News Channel and The Sean Hannity Show on ABC Radio, Hannity has won a wildly devoted fan base. Now he brings his plainspoken, take-no-prisoners style to the continuing War on Terror abroad -- and liberalism at home -- in Deliver Us from Evil.

"Evil exists," Hannity asserts. "It is real, and it means to harm us." And in these pages he revisits the harsh lessons America has learned in confronting evil in the past and the present, to illuminate the course we must take in the future. Tracing a direct line from Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin through Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, he reminds us of the courage and moral clarity of our great leaders. And he reveals how the disgraceful history of appeasement has reached forward from the days of Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter to corrupt the unrepentant leftists of the modern Democratic Party -- from Howard Dean and John Kerry to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

As Americans face the ongoing war against terrorists and their state sponsors around the world, Sean Hannity reminds us that we must also cope with the continuing scourge of accommodation and cowardice at home. With his trademark blend of passion and hard-hitting commentary, he urges Americans to recognize the dangers of putting our faith in toothless "multilateralism" when the times call for decisive action. For only through strong defense of our freedoms, at home and around the world, can we preserve America's security and liberty in the dangerous twenty-first century.

Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America

Newt Gingrich

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 102 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Why is this man not a choice for the upcoming election? 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Newt makes so much sense in his spoken word as well as here in his book. I only wish more people would read it and get a clue.

Buy if you drink the Republican kool Aid 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you are one of the brain washed masses who live, eat and sleep Republican then help the economy and waste your money on this book. If you actually have a brain and can think rationally then dont waste your money.

This is pretty much a mindless vision of how the Repubs want the world to run.

What is funny is this guy mentioning God. He should write about what God has to say about ADULTERY which he has committed.

This book, like most repub's writings is a joke.

Newt for president! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

After reading this book I am convinced this is the man to follow. I look forward to reading the next, and I hope one day he considers running for president.

Editorial Review:

America's future in the twenty-first century, argues Newt Gingrich, will be determined by the decisions we make now. His book is a grass roots call to action--and will set the debate for the new administration and Congress.

Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad

Frances Moore Lappe

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Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Winner of the 2008 JAMES BEARD HUMANITARIAN AWARD, 2008 NAUTILUS SMALL PRESS GOLD AWARD and 2008 NAUTILUS SILVER AWARD in the category of Social Change/Activism

Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity & Courage in a World Gone Mad is a little book with a big message. Frances Moore Lappe--author of fifteen books, including three-million-copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet--distills her world-spanning experience and wisdom in a conversational yet hard-hitting style to create a rare "aha" book. In nine short chapters, Lappe leaves readers feeling liberated and courageous. She flouts conventional right-versus-left divisions and affirms readers' basic sanity--their intuitive knowledge that it is possible to stop grasping at straws and grasp the real roots of today's crises, from hunger and poverty to climate change and terrorism. Because we are creatures of the mind, says Lappe, it is the power of "frame"--our core assumptions about how the world works--that determines outcomes. She pinpoints the dominant failing frame now driving out planet toward disaster. By interweaving fresh insights, startling facts, and stirring vignettes of ordinary people pursuing creative solutions to our most pressing global problems, Lappe uncovers a new, empowering "frame" through which real solutions are emerging worldwide.
She writes: "My book's intent is to enable us to see what is happening all around us but is still invisible to most of us. It is about people in all walks of life who are penetrating the spiral of despair and reversing it with new ideas, ingenious innovation--and courage."

Unprotected

Miriam Grossman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

more ideological than scientific 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 16 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.

Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory

David Ray Griffin

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Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

By virtue of his previous four books on the subject, David Ray Griffin is widely recognized as one of the leading spokespersons of the 9/11 truth movement, which rejects the official conspiracy theory about 9/11. Although this movement was long ignored by the US government and the mainstream media, recent polls have shown that (as Time magazine has acknowledged) the rejection of the official theory has become "a mainstream political phenomenon." It is not surprising, therefore, that the government and the corporately controlled media have shifted tactics. No longer ignoring the 9/11 truth movement, they have released a flurry of stories and reports aimed at debunking it.

In the present book, David Ray Griffin shows that these attempts can themselves be easily debunked. Besides demonstrating the pitiful failure of Debunking 9/11 Myths (published by Popular Mechanics and endorsed by Senator John McCain), Griffin riddles recent reports and stories put out by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Time magazine as well as a new book by the chairmen of the 9/11 Commission. He also responds to criticisms of the 9/11 truth movement by left-leaning and Christian publications--which one might have expected to be supportive.

Throughout these critiques, Griffin shows that the charge that is regularly leveled against critics of the official theory-that they employ irrational and unscientific methods to defend conclusions based on faith-actually applies more fully to those who defend the official theory.

This book, by debunking the most prevalent attempts to refute the evidence cited by the 9/11 truth movement, shows that this movement's central claim-that 9/11 was an inside job-remains the only explanation that fits the facts.

The No Spin Zone: Confrontations with the Powerful and Famous in America

Bill O'Reilly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 456 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

no spin zone 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Bill wrote a great book.No Spine Zone was terrific.My grandma read it to me and explained and answered my questions.
Thanks Bill for a great book.

Editorial Review:

Bill O’Reilly is even madder today than when he wrote his last book, The O’Reilly Factor, and his fans love him even more. He’s mad because things have gone from bad to worse in politics, in Hollywood, in every social stratum of the nation. True to its title, The No Spin Zone cuts through all the rhetoric that some of O’Reilly’s most infamous guests have spewed to expose what’s really on their minds, while sharing plenty of his own emphatic counterpoints along the way.

Shining a searing spotlight on public figures from President George W. Bush and Senator Hillary Clinton to the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to his former CBS News colleague Dan Rather, The No Spin Zone is laced with the kind of straight-shooting commentary that has made O’Reilly the voice of middle America’s disenfranchised.

Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism

Ann Coulter

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Total reviews: 2022 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

“Liberals’ loyalty to the United States is off-limits as a subject of political debate. Why is the relative patriotism of the two parties the only issue that is out of bounds for rational discussion?”

In a stunning follow-up to her number one bestseller Slander, leading conservative pundit Ann Coulter contends that liberals have been wrong on every foreign policy issue, from the fight against Communism at home and abroad, the Nixon and the Clinton presidencies, and the struggle with the Soviet empire right up to today’s war on terrorism. “Liberals have a preternatural gift for always striking a position on the side of treason,” says Coulter. “Everyone says liberals love America, too. No, they don’t.” From Truman to Kennedy to Carter to Clinton, America has contained, appeased, and retreated, often sacrificing America’s best interests and security. With the fate of the world in the balance, liberals should leave the defense of the nation to conservatives.

Reexamining the sixty-year history of the Cold War and beyond—including the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Whittaker Chambers–Alger Hiss affair, Ronald Reagan’s challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” the Gulf War, and our present war on terrorism—Coulter reveals how liberals have been horribly wrong in all their political analyses and policy prescriptions. McCarthy, exonerated by the Venona Papers if not before, was basically right about Soviet agents working for the U.S. government. Hiss turned out to be a high-ranking Soviet spy (who consulted Roosevelt at Yalta). Reagan, ridiculed throughout his presidency, ended up winning the Cold War. And George W. Bush, also an object of ridicule, has performed exceptionally in responding to America’s newest threats at home and abroad.

Coulter, who in Slander exposed a liberal bias in today’s media, also examines how history, especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, has been written by liberals and, therefore, distorted by their perspective. Far from being irrelevant today, her clearheaded and piercing view of what we’ve been through informs us perfectly for challenges today and in the future.

With Slander, Ann Coulter became the most recognized and talked-about conservative intellectual of the year. Treason, in many ways an even more controversial and prescient book, will ignite impassioned political debate at one of the most crucial moments in our history.


From the Hardcover edition.

Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America

Garrison Keillor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 83 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Entertaining prose but simplistic thesis 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The thesis can be summed up in just a few words: Democrats good. Republicans bad.

Luckily, Keillor takes his time with the argument and I got the most enjoyment from the book reading the little stories and limericks that he uses to get his point across. The style is wonderful, but the content was very boring.

Editorial Review:

In this thoughtful, deeply personal work, one of the nation’s best-loved voices takes the plunge into politics and comes up with a book that has had all of America talking. Here, with great heart, supple wit, and a dash of anger, Garrison Keillor describes the simple democratic values—the Golden Rule, the obligation to defend the weak against the powerful, and others—that define his hard-working Midwestern neighbors and that today’s Republicans seem determined to subvert. A reminiscence, a political tract, and a humorous meditation, Homegrown Democrat is an entertaining, refreshing addition to today’s rancorous political debate.

* A New York Times bestseller
* Updated and revised with a new introduction for the 2006 midterm elections
* A Featured Alternate Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club

They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons

Jacob Heilbrunn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Nuanced and non-polemical 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

For summaries of the content, see the material on this website from "Publisher's Weely" and the "Book Descripton." Each does a good job.

In my opinion this book is excellent. It captures differences among the neo-cons (personalities as well as political thinking), and describes how their positions, alliances, etc. have changed over time.

The author's politics are conservative (I am not) but thoughtful. Although critical, he is not on a witch-hunt. I consider the book eminently fair, not given to name-calling and exaggeration. In addition to the usual suspects, some surprise actors appear in the neo-con chronology, including Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

On a few topics the book left me wanting more information and/or analysis. (1) Given the heavy (predominant) Jewish presence among leading neo-con spokespersons, and the Biblical element in chapter headings, I hoped for more explanation of links between neo-con thinking and the Jewish Bible (aka Old Testament). No such luck. (2) The (self-described as Jewish) author's conclusions about how neo-con politics serves Israel leave me in something of a fog. Is the message like that of the then president of General Motors who famously said, "What's good for GM is good for America" (as in, what's I think is best for Israel automatically is good/best for the USA)? I am not sure whether the author is tip-toeing around this issue lest he be excoriated as a "self-hating Jew"/anti-Semite, or is making a nuanced point that escapes my understanding.
Nevertheless, this book ias a great read, and hard to put down.

Editorial Review:

From its origins in 1930s Marxism to its unprecedented influence on George W. Bush's administration, neoconservatism has become one of the most powerful, reviled, and misunderstood intellectual movements in American history. But who are the neocons, and how did this obscure group of government officials, pundits, and think-tank denizens rise to revolutionize American foreign policy?

Political journalist Jacob Heilbrunn uses his intimate knowledge of the movement and its members to write the definitive history of the neoconservatives. He sets their ideas in the larger context of the decades-long battle between liberals and conservatives, first over communism, and now over the war on terrorism. And he explains why, in spite of their misguided policy on Iraq, they will remain a permanent force in American politics.