Government Books

The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism

Andrew Bacevich

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Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From an acclaimed conservative historian and former military officer, a bracing call for a pragmatic confrontation with the nation's problems

The Limits of Power identifies a profound triple crisis facing America: the economy, in remarkable disarray, can no longer be fixed by relying on expansion abroad; the government, transformed by an imperial presidency, is a democracy in form only; U.S. involvement in endless wars, driven by a deep infatuation with military power, has been a catastrophe for the body politic. These pressing problems threaten all of us, Republicans and Democrats. If the nation is to solve its predicament, it will need the revival of a distinctly American approach: the neglected tradition of realism.

Andrew J. Bacevich, uniquely respected across the political spectrum, offers a historical perspective on the illusions that have governed American policy since 1945. The realism he proposes includes respect for power and its limits; sensitivity to unintended consequences; aversion to claims of exceptionalism; skepticism of easy solutions, especially those involving force; and a conviction that the books will have to balance. Only a return to such principles, Bacevich argues, can provide common ground for fixing America’s urgent problems before the damage becomes irreparable.

Mike's Election Guide 2008

Michael Moore

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In his first book in five years, Michael Moore brings us the definitive guide to the 2008 election.

After a diastrous war, the failure to catch bin Laden, millions of families who have lost their homes, the Katrina debacle, soaring gas prices feeding record oil company profits, and the largest national debt caused by the biggest spending and borrowing administration in American history, the country has had it with conservatives, right-wingers and Republicans. A thrilling election season is now upon us. Obama vs. McCain. One candidate has promised a presidency different from any other, one that will take us forward to embrace the hope of the 21st century. The other candidate says he has no idea how to use a computer.

Welcome to MIKE'S ELECTION GUIDE -- Michael Moore's effort to make sense of the this fall's race for the White House and Congress. In it, Moore answers the nation's most pressing questions: "Why is John McCain so angry?,""Do the Democrats Still Drink from a Sippy Cup and Sleep with the Light On?," Can I get into the Electoral College with only a 2.0 gpa?" and "How many Democrats does it take to lose the most winnable election in American history?"

It's a great year to be an American and a voter. Don't miss out on all the fun! And don't miss out on MIKE'S ELECTION GUIDE -- it's the indispensable book that belongs in every American's back pocket this season.

The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism

Ron Suskind

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Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation's struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantánamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today's shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world. In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of "The Armageddon Test" —a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world's nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency. While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate—and often daring—brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani émigré, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor's son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she's been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions—human solutions—to so much that has gone wrong. For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hope—along with the moral clarity and earned optimism—at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read.

Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism

Kevin Phillips

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Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The bestselling author reveals how the U.S. financial sector has hijacked our economy and put America’s global future at risk

In American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips warned us of the perilous interaction of debt, financial recklessness, and the increasing cost of scarce oil. The current housing and mortgage debacle is proof once more of Phillips’s prescience, and only the first harbinger of a national crisis. In Bad Money, Phillips describes the consequences of our misguided economic policies, our mounting debt, our collapsing housing market, our threatened oil, and the end of American domination of world markets. America’s current challenges (and failures) run striking parallels to the decline of previous leading world economic powers—especially the Dutch and British. Global overreach, worn-out politics, excessive debt, and exhausted energy regimes are all chilling signals that the United States is crumbling as the world superpower.

“Bad money” refers to a new phenomenon in wayward megafinance—the emergence of a U.S. economy that is globally dependent and dominated by hubris-driven financial services. Also “bad” are the risk miscalculations and strategic abuses of new multitrillion-dollar products such as asset-backed securities and the lure of buccaneering vehicles like hedge funds. Finally, the U.S. dollar has been turned into bad money as it has weakened and become vulnerable to the world’s other currencies. In all these ways, “bad” finance has failed the American people and pointed U.S. capitalism toward a global crisis. Bad Money is the perfect follow- up to Phillips’s last book, whose dire warnings are now proving frighteningly accurate.

Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia

Ahmed Rashid

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author provides a shocking analysis of the crisis in Pakistan and the renewed radicalism threatening Afghanistan and the West.

Ahmed Rashid is “Pakistan’s best and bravest reporter” (Christopher Hitchens). His unique knowledge of this vast and complex region allows him a panoramic vision and nuance that no Western writer can emulate.

His book Taliban first introduced American readers to the brutal regime that hijacked Afghanistan and harbored the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Now, Rashid examines the region and the corridors of power in Washington and Europe to see how the promised nation building in these countries has pro-gressed. His conclusions are devastating: An unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a renewed al’ Qaeda profiting from a booming opium trade, and a Taliban resurgence and reconquest. While Iraq continues to attract most of American media and military might, Rashid argues that Pakistan and Afghanistan are where the conflict will finally be played out and that these failing states pose a graver threat to global security than the Middle East.

Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and the crisis in Pakistan are only the beginning. Rashid assesses what her death means for the region and the future. Rashid has unparalleled access to the figures in this global drama, and provides up-to-the-minute analysis better than anyone else. Descent Into Chaos will do for Central Asia what Thomas Rick’s Fiasco did for Iraq — offer a blistering critique of the Bush administration and an impassioned call to correct our failed strategy in the region.

American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials, 2007 (American Government and Politics Today)

Barbara A. Bardes, Mack C. Shelley, Steffen W. Schmidt

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Editorial Review:

The best-selling book published for American Government, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS TODAY: THE ESSENTIALS helps students experience the excitement that comes from active, informed citizenship in a concisely organized package. Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt's text is renowned nationwide for its balanced, unbiased, comprehensive, and up-to-date coverage of constitutional, governmental, political, social, and economic structures and processes. The overriding theme is the importance of informed active citizenship. The pedagogy underscores this theme by soliciting critical thinking about political issues and encouraging students to become involved the political process. With keen awareness of its audience, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS TODAY: THE ESSENTIALS incorporates current examples, the Internet, and other media to stimulate learning and excitement about American government. This truly interactive text gives students more than reading material-it gives them tools to become good citizens.

Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter

Rick Shenkman

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Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Levees break in New Orleans. Iraq descends into chaos. The housing market teeters on the brink of collapse. Americans of all political stripes are heading into the 2008 election with the sense that something has gone terribly wrong with American politics. But what exactly? Democrats blame Republicans and Republicans blame Democrats. Greedy corporate executives, rogue journalists, faulty voting machines, irresponsible defense contractors-we blame them, too. The only thing everyone seems to agree on, in fact, is that the American people are entirely blameless. In Just How Stupid Are We?, best-selling historian and renowned myth-buster Rick Shenkman takes aim at our great national piety: the wisdom of the American people. The hard truth is that American democracy is more direct than ever-but voters are misusing, abusing, and abdicating their political power. Americans are paying less and less attention to politics at a time when they need to pay much more: Television has dumbed politics down to the basest possible level, while the real workings of politics have become vastly more complicated. Shenkman offers concrete proposals for reforming our institutions-the government, the media, civic organizations, political parties-to make them work better for the American people. But first, Shenkman argues, we must reform ourselves.

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

Sandy Tolan

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Total reviews: 61 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Courageous Friendship 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The Lemon Tree is a true gem amid the harsh cacophony of literature surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This compelling true story weaves together two histories--at once the histories of two families and two peoples--connected to the same house and the same land.

In 1936, Ahmad Khairi built a home for his young family in the Palestinian town of Ramla, which was then part of the British Mandate. As Ahmad's children, including his eldest son Bashir, grew up in this lovingly built house--with its majestic lemon tree in the backyard--the Eshkanazi family faced an uncertain future in Nazi-aligned Bulgaria. Though they could not have imagined it at the time, the two families' lives would become deeply connected even as history places them on opposite sides of a volatile conflict.

The encounter begins when Bashir, who as a child was forced to flee Ramla during the 1948 war, travels back to his childhood home following the Six Day War in 1967. To his surprise, he is warmly welcomed inside by Dalia Eshkanazi, an Israeli college student whose family of Holocaust survivors immigrated to the newly formed state when she was an infant. It is the beginning of an incredible friendship that perseveres in spite of the impassioned political disagreement and painful history that stands between them.

Tolan takes no liberties with the history, basing the story on extensive interviews and archival research. The Lemon Tree reads part like a vividly detailed novel and part like a history text, placing the moving stories of Dalia and Bashir within several decades of rich historical context. By blending these personal and historical narratives, the story offers a unique window into the conflict, beyond the political complexities and ideological abstractions. Tolan's retelling is sensitive to both narratives, empathetically portraying the traumas, insecurities, and yearnings of each side.

While The Lemon Tree offers inspiring proof that reconciliation and dialogue are possible, the book leaves open the question of how much these personal connections can impact the conflict. Although she sympathizes with Bashir and other refugees, Dalia fears an influx of Arabs and clashes with him over the right of return. Bashir, for his part, never recognizes Israel and insists that recent Jewish immigrants should "go back where they came from." Accused by Israel of being in the PFLP, Bashir is arrested in connection with a terrorist bombing; he denies involvement and is eventually released, but Dalia believes he is guilty. Later, Bashir reveals a hidden childhood trauma that sheds light on his enmity toward Israel. Both, especially Bashir, continue to show a fundamental mistrust for the other side.

Almost miraculously, they are able to sustain their friendship despite all this, and the affection and caring between them is genuine. While giving no easy answers, their story stands as a ray of hope for the possibility of coexistence in spite of a difficult history.

Editorial Review:

In 1967, Bashir Al-Khayri, a Palestinian twenty-five-year-old, journeyed to Israel, with the goal of seeing the beloved old stone house, with the lemon tree behind it, that he and his family had fled nineteen years earlier. To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Ashkenazi Landau, a nineteen-year-old Israeli college student, whose family fled Europe for Israel following the Holocaust. On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the aftermath of war and tested over the next thirty-five years in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967. Based on extensive research, and springing from his enormously resonant documentary that aired on NPR’s Fresh Air in 1998, Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, suggesting that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and reconciliation.

American Government: Power and Purpose, Tenth Brief Edition

Theodore J. Lowi, Benjamin Ginsberg, Kenneth A. Shepsle

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Editorial Review:

American Government, Brief Tenth Edition, is the only brief text that offers an analytical approach, comprehensive coverage of the core concepts and major topics of American politics, and lots of pedagogical help for students.

American Government: Continuity and Change, 2008 Edition (Hardcover) (9th Edition)

Karen J. O'Connor, Larry J. Sabato

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Easy to study from 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I had to purchase this book for a U.S. government class that I took. I found this book well organized with memorable examples. Moreover, it has key words and concepts printed on the edges, which makes it easy to study and helps to focus on the main points. The authors also took advantage of graphic organizers. Furthermore, they picked up current events and created "to-think-about boxes." I love history, but always thought that politics is a bit tedious. Yet, with the exception of one or two topics I found this book very engaging.

Awesome Seller! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 7 people found this review helpful.

The book was in great shape as it was described! Shipping was fast! Transaction was smooth and great!