General Books - Page 17

Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism

Michelle Goldberg

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Total reviews: 86 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"A potent wakeup call to pluralists in the coming showdown with Christian nationalists."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Michelle Goldberg, a senior political reporter for Salon.com, has been covering the intersection of politics and ideology for years. Before the 2004 election, and during the ensuing months when many Americans were trying to understand how an administration marked by cronyism, disregard for the national budget, and poorly disguised self-interest had been reinstated, Goldberg traveled through the heartland of a country in the grips of a fevered religious radicalism: the America of our time. From the classroom to the mega-church to the federal court, she saw how the growing influence of dominionism-the doctrine that Christians have the right to rule nonbelievers-is threatening the foundations of democracy.

In Kingdom Coming, Goldberg demonstrates how an increasingly bellicose fundamentalism is gaining traction throughout our national life, taking us on a tour of the parallel right-wing evangelical culture that is buoyed by Republican political patronage. Deep within the red zones of a divided America, we meet military retirees pledging to seize the nation in Christ's name, perfidious congressmen courting the confidence of neo-confederates and proponents of theocracy, and leaders of federally funded programs offering Jesus as the solution to the country's social problems.

With her trenchant interviews and the telling testimonies of the people behind this movement, Goldberg gains access into the hearts and minds of citizens who are striving to remake the secular Republic bequeathed by our founders into a Christian nation run according to their interpretation of scripture. In her examination of the ever-widening divide between believers and nonbelievers, Goldberg illustrates the subversive effect of this conservative stranglehold nationwide. In an age when faith rather than reason is heralded and the values of the Enlightenment are threatened by a mystical nationalism claiming divine sanction, Kingdom Coming brings us face to face with the irrational forces that are remaking much of America.

Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939

Wolfgang Schivelbusch

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Honest, Insightful and Thought Provoking 5 out of 5 stars.
31 of 32 people found this review helpful.

Mr. Schivelbusch, in this remarkably well researched and startling book draws parallels between the programs and leadership styles of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Franklin Roosevelt. He shows how many similarities there were to be found between each of these very different men. His purpose is not to demonize FDR, excuse the Nazis and Fascists or even to mitigate the failure of the average German and Italian to stand up their leaders. It is, rather, to provide a warning to the future that populism can shift from the benign to the monstrous. It is must reading for the general reader.

Having been a fan of Mr Schivelbusch's varied work for many years, I recently had the opportunity to dine with him at the home of friends of mine. I was interested to learn that he was a man of the Left, whose views were very different from mine. It is a tribute to his ability as a scholar that I never would have guessed his affiliations. He follows the truth where he finds it and never lets his own biases seep into his work.

He is a careful and diligent researcher. By way of example, T. Harry Williams' Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Huey Long merely casts doubt on those who attribute to Long the most famous of his quotes to the effect that "when Fascism comes to America, it will come in the guise of anti-Fascism." Williams does not make any serious attempt to track down the origin of the attribution, something you would expect from the author of a nearly 1000 page biography. In this short work, in a learned and careful footnote, Schivelbusch offers a variety of possible sources for this quote. THAT is careful research!

I highly recommend Three New Deals.

Editorial Review:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal is regarded today as the democratic ideal, a triumphant American response to a crisis that forced Germany and Italy toward National Socialism and Fascism. Yet in the 1930s, before World War II, the regimes of Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler bore fundamental similarities. In this groundbreaking work, Wolfgang Schivelbusch investigates the shared elements of these three "new deals"--focusing on their architecture and public works projects--to offer a new explanation for the popularity of Europe's totalitarian systems. Writing with flair and concision, Schivelbusch casts a different light on the New Deal and puts forth a provocative explanation for the still-mysterious popularity of Europe's most tyrannical regimes.

Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis

Jimmy Carter

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Total reviews: 277 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Timely Observations 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Thoughts of a deeply religious man, who was a former Naval Officer and who also bore the burdens of our nation's highest office. Simple truths, well spoken.

Editorial Review:

In OUR ENDANGERED VALUES, Jimmy Carter describes quite personally his own involvement and reactions to some disturbing societal trends that have taken place during the past few years. These changes involve both the religious and the political worlds as they have increasingly become intertwined, and include some of the most crucial and controversial issues of the day - frequently encapsulated under 'moral values'. Many of these matters are under fierce debate, and include pre-emptive war, women's rights, terrorism, civil liberties, homosexuality, abortion, the death penalty, science and religion, environmental degradation, nuclear arsenals, America's global image, fundamentalism, and the welding of religion and politics. Carter, sustained by his own lifelong faith, assesses these issues in a forceful and unequivocal, but balanced and courageous way. OUR ENDANGERED VALUES is a book that his millions of readers have eagerly awaited.

On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting for

Rick Perry

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Well written book, but flawed by misinformation and the authors biases/views 3 out of 5 stars.
17 of 22 people found this review helpful.

EDITED REVIEW.
As a long time scout and scouter, I have delved into the scouting movement and its history and have a large personal library of both BSA works and books about the BSA.

While this work is well written (much better then Hans Zieger's work), it is flawed by the misinformation given, and to a degree the author's beliefs and biases. The author is entitled to his views, but the misinformation is more problematic. THIS REVIEW DEALS ONLY WITH THE FACTUAL ERRORS OF HIS BOOK, not the 'truths' (his views) that he puts forth.

Some examples.

* Baden-Powell did NOT create scouting to train future soldiers. He created scouting to create better individuals and citizens. As an officer, he was very different from the stereotype of the british solder. His military scouting program was different from the typical drilling/boot camp type of training. In it, small groups of men learned self reliance and independence thru activities and games. B-P thought military training was inappropriate for youth ("drilling is not scouting") and spent a lot of time adapting his scouting program to be appropriate for youth. Even after he established scouting, some critics claimed he was trying to create future soldiers, and formed rival groups like the "Peace Scouts". Other critized B-P for failing to create future soldiers and formed rival groups like the "Empire Scouts".

* William Boyce did not get lost in the fog of London, that is a myth created by James West. Boyce was lost in London (but no fog) and was helped by a scout and later taken to scout HQ. But he did not meet B-P or the like. That's all embellishments and such added by West. Furthermore, Boyce had little involvement with the BSA after it was incorporated. It was others who got involved and saved the org and brought on board James West.

* the information on page 49-50 on the senior scouting programs is full of errors. I've researched this area extensively and have a website on it.

* B-P's wife Olave did NOT start Girl Guides. B-P did before he was married, then turned the program over to his sister Agnes. Olave got involved later. Juliet Low had been involved with the Girl Guides in the UK and brought it to the states, renaming it the Girl Scouts of the USA.

I did like it for its celebration of scouting and its positive values. But I am always annoyed by misinformation given about scouting.

Editorial Review:

In On My Honor, Texas governor Rick Perry, through the legacy of the Boy Scouts of America, takes dead aim at the moral relativism of the secular humanist movement, indicting its corrosive impact on the culture. Examining the left's legal assaults on the Boy Scouts of America - which span more than 30 years - Perry offers prescient insight into the multi-faceted war, which pits the proponents of traditional American values against the radical leftist movement that seeks to tear down our social foundations.

On My Honor underscores the depth to which the culture warriors of the left will go to force their secular humanist minority view upon American society and revered American institutions. It is a revealing look at a culture war that rages close to the surface of American life, and it is a must read for any American concerned that our society is slipping from the high moral ground of liberty to the valley of license.

Political Ideologies: Their Origins and Impact

Leon P. Baradat

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I Still Keep Referring to This Book 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I keep going back to this book in all my political readings. It succinctly categorizes the major ideologies, gives brief histories, and places them in the larger picture to make the whole of political ideology more digestible. In the process, it clarifies left/right labels and dispels many of the myths that the general public has, infected by spin machines and AM radio.

I personally didn't see a pro-Marxist tilt in the book. Yet many of us who have grown up in Cold War McCarthyite America may reflexively call any book that vaguely mentions Karl Marx without dismissing him right off as "pro-Marxist."

Baradat is at his best when he steps back and shows each ideology as being part of the ebb and flow of history, of revolution and counter-revolution.

"Political Ideologies" works well as a board to dive into heavier works.

Editorial Review:

Organized chronologically, this book explains the evolution of political thought over the past three centuries and describes political ideologies in the context of the social, economic, and political circumstances in which they developed. It provides readers with a complete understanding of political ideologies and how these concepts relate to their own lives. New problems that demand solutions have arisen, and we need a firm understanding of our values and the political system under which we live. Covers ideologies, political attitudes, nationalism, democratic theory, capitalism, the democratic process, anarchism, socialist theory, applied socialism, facism, feminism, ecologism, and environmentalism. An excellent reference work for anyone involved in international relations or politics and policy.

And Justice for Some: An Expose of the Lawyers and Judges Who Let Dangerous Criminals Go Free

Wendy Murphy

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A scathing exposé of the judges and lawyers who put criminals’ rights ahead of victims’ rights

When Wendy Murphy was a young prosecutor, she learned that the deck is stacked in favor of criminal defendants. Between their arrest and (potential) conviction, murderers, rapists, and drug dealers get more than a fair shake—they get an unfair advantage, often at the expense of their victims.

In many states, for instance, defendants can subpoena a victim’s private medical and counseling files, without any justification. They can threaten victims with brutal cross-examinations if they dare to testify. They can put on "dog and pony show" defenses that have nothing to do with the truth—and even lie under oath with virtually no risk of being prosecuted for perjury.

These kinds of injustices make Murphy fighting mad. She’s made it her mission to help the victims who get the least protection from our twisted legal system. And in her first book, she guides readers through one horror story after another about judges and lawyers who bend over backward to let the worst offenders go free.

You’ll meet judges who unapologetically declare that they care more about their liberal ideology than about the pain and suffering of abuse victims. Judges who let child molesters walk free because they’re "too frail" to go to prison. Defense attorneys who take big money from wealthy child molesters, then twist the Bill of Rights beyond recognition. And even a few prosecutors who go easy on criminals for their own selfish reasons.

Murphy’s true stories will shock you, but they will also inspire you to join the fight for a more rational system. This is an important book that is sure to infuriate America’s legal establishment.

The Limits to Capital, New Edition

David Harvey

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The most thorough exposition of Marxist political economy in print 5 out of 5 stars.
50 of 50 people found this review helpful.

David Harvey is actually a geographer, but from reading this book, one would think him one of the great political economists. Based on this work alone, he should be in the popular range of Stiglitz, Schumpeter, Milton Friedman etc., but it is not likely that such 'honor' will ever befall a Marxist theorist. Nevertheless everyone interested in Marxist economics, for whatever reasons, simply must read this book.

Harvey's discussion of capitalism from a Marxist perspective is extraordinary clear, sharp and thorough. So much in fact that it is probably the most consistently in-depth exposition of capitalism from every aspect since "Capital" itself. This also makes it hard to review it, since one hardly knows where to begin.

Fortunately for political economy newbies (and this book is definitely the best kind of "introductory overview" you could give to an intellectual person), Harvey starts at the same point "Capital" starts, then works his way through. First he gives a clear exposition of the general framework of Marxist theory: the law of value, the differences between value, use value and exchange value, the mode of production etc. All this is done quite well, though there are of course many many such general descriptions available in print. Harvey does seem to skip over the "transformation problem" somewhat, which may annoy those who consider it a major hurdle. Harvey, in my view with good reason, does not.

The next two chapters discuss production, distribution, surplus value and its realization and the relation to supply and demand. Particularly useful here are his explanations of the importance of the concept of value composition of capital, and the reduction of skilled to simple labour, where he addresses one of Von Böhm-Bawerk's better critiques of Marxism.

The next part of the book is perhaps the core of the book. Here, Harvey delves into the organization of capital, the various forms which it can take and how these interrelate, and the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. He shows how the various manifestations of capital can interfere with each other's functioning and how this creates the tendency towards crises. He then posits the problem of overaccumulation (rather than underdevelopment) as the first 'layer' or 'cut' of crisis theory.

After the reader has grasped all this, the second crucial part of the book follows in a rapid manner, introducing first the problematic of fixed capital and its relation to the law of value, and then the role of credit in capitalism. The first is not very satisfactorily resolved and is in my view probably the weakest part of his theory. Alan Freeman has since given a quite different solution to the same issue, but that does not seem to really solve the problem either. Perhaps this is one of the things Marxist political economy has yet to fully solve.

Harvey's demonstration of the role of credit is however masterful and extremely enlightening for the many who are confused by the vast array of forms in which credit appears in modern society. His emphasis on the importance of understanding the so-called "fictitious capital", that is advanced capital not yet backed by actual value through production, allows him to show the second major appearance of crises in capitalism as well as explaining the theory of rent in Marxism, which forms the subject of the chapter thereafter. He corrects Marx' somewhat excessively anti-distributive theory of rent and explains the role of agricultural technology. Harvey is in many parts of this chapter rather confusing in his terminology, but a careful reader can certainly grasp the issue.

At the end of the book Harvey can finally follow up on his own area of expertise. By explaining the role of spatial and temporal relations in the flow of capital and the necessity of 'exporting' the internal contradictions of capitalist social relations, he is able to form a theory of imperialism that is largely in accordance with that of Lenin, but without the theory of underdevelopment. It also puts a good perspective on Marx & Engels' many journalistic articles about India and colonialism. Finally he combines this with the earlier two aspects to form the third 'cut' of capitalist crisis theory, which takes every aspect of capitalism in its modern appearance into account.

On the whole, Harvey has done an unparallelled and magisterial work in creating an exposition of capitalism that is at once as in-depth as "Capital" and much clearer (and shorter!) than that, although of course without Marx no such thing could ever have been made.
There are a few things nevertheless not covered (fully) in the book. Harvey pays surprisingly little attention to urban geography and (sub)urbanization as a factor in capitalism. Furthermore his theory of the state is a hodgepodge of different roles, which he never unites into one whole. Finally, people experienced in handling Marxist theory might have problems with Harvey's generally structuralist approach, which leaves relatively very little room for the autonomous significance of class struggle. Harvey mostly relegates that to the fields of production processes and labour mobility. Because of this, Lebowitz' "Beyond Capital" should probably be read alongside it as a complementary contribution, analyzing the same from the side of wage-labour.

Editorial Review:

Widely praised as an exciting, insightful exposition and development of Marx's critique of political economy, Harvey updates his classic text with a discussion of the turmoil in world markets today.

The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought

John Gibson

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Total reviews: 353 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the United States of America, a nation overwhelmingly Christian, literally any sign of Christmas in public can now lead to complaints, litigation, angry protests, threats, and bruised feelings. Every year the limitations get tighter and tighter and spread to more and more communities, far from the big liberal cities. And as Fox News Channel’s John Gibson reveals in this shocking exposé, it’s not happening by accident.

Secular liberals say they’re just protecting the constitutional rights of non-Christians who don’t want to see or hear about Christmas. But what about the constitutional rights of millions of Americans who simply want to celebrate their traditional holiday—without insulting anyone else but also without having to hide behind closed doors?

Gibson unveils the coordinated work of American Civil Liberties Union lawyers, professional atheists, and Christian haters who have taken the war on Christmas to your front door.

The War on Christmas is heating up, maybe in your own town. Don’t let it catch you unprepared.

The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization

Patrick J. Buchanan

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Total reviews: 411 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

An important trend that is often ignored by the mainstream media 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

If birth rates are the best indication of a how much a people values itself, it's customs and it's traditions, then certainly Europeans and White Americans are in the pangs of self-loathing and self hatred. Nations and cultures usually die from internal causes and certainly the European way of life is rotten at the core. Europe and the American culture inherited from Europe is literally suicidal. Bucahanan does an outstanding job of laying out all of the grim statistics. The most important statistic is this: birth rates are exploding in the third world and developing nations while birth rates are exceedingly miniscule in the most developed nations of Europe, North america and Japan. What this means for the future no one can be certain but it is certainly an important phenomenon (maybe the most important trend in all of sociology) and one that for politically correct reasons does not receieve its due consideration in the mainstream media.

Editorial Review:

The national bestseller that shocked the nation--The Death of the West is an unflinching look at the increasing decline in Western culture and power.

The West is dying. Collapsing birth rates in Europe and the U. S., coupled with population explosions in Africa, Asia and Latin America are set to cause cataclysmic shifts in world power, as unchecked immigration swamps and polarizes every Western society and nation.
The Death of the West details how a civilization, culture, and moral order are passing away and foresees a new world order that has terrifying implications for our freedom, our faith, and the preeminence of American democracy.

The Death of the West is a timely, provocative study that asks the question that quietly troubles millions: Is the America we grew up in gone forever?

Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939

Albert Hourani

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The genesis of Arab modern thought 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This book is an extensive version of Hisham Sharabi's Arab Intellectuals. It highlights the reaction of the Arab intellectual circles to the expanding European influence that had reached the Arab world by the early 19th century.
Hourani, however, presents a more thorough description of the life and thought of the most prominent Arab thinkers of the time including Jamaluddine Al-Afghani and Muhammad Abdo among others as opposed to Sharabi's brief account on the life and works of these people.
Despite the academic nature of this work, grasping what's in it is easy and not at all complicated. Hourani's narration is well-researched and elegant while his translation of the original texts is also remarkable. The end result is an accurate account that invites the admiration of the readers.
This book is so much needed for those who are interested to understand the evolution of Arab thought over the past two centuries and how this evolution was interrupted with the discovery of oil and the advent of imperialism.

Editorial Review:

Arabic thought in the liberal age is the most comprehensive study of the modernizing trend of political and social thought in the Arab Middle East. Albert Hourani studies the way in which ideas about politics and society changed during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, in response to the expanding influence of Europe. His main attention is given to the movement of ideas in Egypt and Lebanon. He shows how two streams of thought, the one aiming to restate the social principles of Islam, and the other to justify the separation of religion from politics, flowed into each other to create the Egyptian and Arab nationalisms of the present century. The last chapter of the book surveys the main tendencies of thought in the post-war years. Since its publication in 1962, this book has been regarded as a modern classic of interpretation. It was reissued by the Cambridge University Press in 1983 and has subsequently sold over 8000 copies.