Levels of Government Books - Page 3

Economic Development (10th Edition) (Addison-Wesley Series in Economics)

Michael P. Todaro, Stephen C. Smith

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Economic Development , 10/e is the leading textbook in this field, providing a complete and balanced introduction to the requisite theory, the driving policy issues, and the latest research. Principles and Concepts: Economics, Institutions, and Development: A Global Perspective; Comparative Economic Development; Classic Theories of Economic Growth and Development; Contemporary Models of Development and Underdevelopment. Problems and Policies: Domestic: Poverty, Inequality, and Development; Population Growth and Economic Development: Causes, Consequences, Controversies; Urbanization and Rural-Urban Migration: Theory and Policy; Human Capital: Education and Health in Economic Development; Agricultural Transformation and Rural Development; The Environment and Development; Development Policymaking and the Roles of Market, State, and Civil Society. Problems and Policies: International and Macro: International Trade Theory and Development Strategy; Balance of Payments, Developing-Country Debt, and Issues in Macroeconomic Stabilization; Foreign Finance, Investment, and Aid: Controversies and Opportunities; Finance and Fiscal Policy for Development; Some Critical Issues for the Twenty-First Century. For all readers interested in economic development.

First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan

Gary Schroen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Introduction to the War in Afganistan 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

An interesting introduction to the people involved on the ground, just days after 9/11, in the early stages of the war in Afganistan.

The focus is on the interaction between the CIA teams and their Northern Alliance allies. Most of the book covers the inner circle of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assasinated immediately prior to 9/11. Near the end, you get a brief introduction to Hamid Karzai, the current President of Afganistan. The brief mention of Professor Abdul Sayyaff was a suprise to me. I did not realize the namesake of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in the Philippines was fighting with the Northern Alliance.

Schroen thinks very highly of himself and, although he seems to respect their capabilities, is compelled to point out mistakes made by the Special Forces operators and the military in general. If you have ever read books by the FBI profiler John Douglas, you will recognize the general tone.

Overall a good book about very brave men who were willing to take significant risks for their country.

Editorial Review:

While America held its breath in the days immediately following 9/11, a small but determined group of CIA agents covertly began to change history. This is the riveting first-person account of the treacherous top-secret mission inside Afghanistan to set the stage for the defeat of the Taliban and launch the war on terror.

As thrilling as any novel, First In is a uniquely intimate look at a mission that began the U.S. retaliation against terrorism–and reclaimed the country of Afghanistan for its people.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late

Thom Hartmann

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent intro to the writings and thoughts of Thom Hartmann 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I've been a fan of Thom Hartmann, mostly listening to his daily radio talk show on air America. I liked this book because it covered so many topics about which he often speaks. Mostly, though, it is a great book on the topic of what we must do to understand and act to save our dwindling environmental resources.

Editorial Review:

While everything appears to be collapsing around us -- ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars -- we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children’s children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio’s web movie Global Warning, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture’s blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem. Thom Hartmann’s comprehensive book, originally published in 1998, has become one of the fundamental handbooks of the environmental activist movement. Now, with fresh, updated material and a focus on political activism and its effect on corporate behavior, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight helps us understand--and heal--our relationship to the world, to each other, and to our natural resources.

Wilderness and the American Mind, Fourth Edition

Roderick Nash

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Wilderness: One of America's Most Important Ideas 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Those who have been so quick to pronounce the "death" of environmentalism surely have not taken Roderick Frazier Nash's Wilderness and the American Mind into account. With roots in European Romanticism, and blossoming in mid-19th Century writings of Thoreau and Emerson, the idea of wilderness is one of the most important ideas America has contributed to the world.

The wilderness idea has no abler chronicler than Roderick Nash, whitewater rafting guide, adventurer, descendent of Canadian explorers and professor emeritus of environmental studies, who first published this book in 1967 and has taken it through four editions. His entertaining narrative covers the life of Muir and the early preservation struggles of The Sierra Club. He provides special insight into Aldo Leopold and sets the whole discussion of Leopold's land ethic in its historical context.

While wilderness is everywhere under assault, many still understand the continuing need to preserve our wilderness system, a network of wild areas free from all other human activities. In fact, it's difficult to come away from Nash's book without understanding that wilderness is an intrinsic American value.

The most articulate advocate of wilderness was Theodore Roosevelt, who believed the modern American was in danger of becoming an "overcivilized" man, who has lost strength and higher virtue in a trend toward "slothful ease." Nash gives great credit to Roosevelt and shows how his ideas and experiences contributed to later 20th Century concepts of environmental preservation.

America, according to Roosevelt, needed to preserve the remnants of the pioneer environment because, "no nation facing the unhealthy softening and relaxation of fibre that tends to accompany civilization can afford to neglect anything that will develop hardihood, resolution, and the scorn of discomfort and danger."

Wilderness evokes deep sentiments in the mystic chords of American memory. It is not merely a political movement thought up in the 1960s--a trend that will fade as baby boomers age and our present generation of environmental leaders moves on. Nash shows us how wilderness came to be that way and suggests the wilderness idea is likely to endure at the vital center of our national psyche.

The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

Cliff Stoll

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 155 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I love this book. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

As you can see from the reviews here, many people also love this book.

I love the trip down memory lane that this book provides. Sure is fun to go back to a more innocent time and remember what it was like before the internet became huge. If you remember archie, gopher, kermit, then this is a book for you.

Even if you're too young to remember this time, it would be quite fun to watch WAR GAMES and then read this book. I love the writing style--this is a real page-turner.

Editorial Review:

A sentimental favorite, The Cuckoo's Egg seems to have inspired a whole category of books exploring the quest to capture computer criminals. Still, even several years after its initial publication and after much imitation, the book remains a good read with an engaging story line and a critical outlook, as Clifford Stoll becomes, almost unwillingly, a one-man security force trying to track down faceless criminals who've invaded the university computer lab he stewards. What first appears as a 75-cent accounting error in a computer log is eventually revealed to be a ring of industrial espionage, primarily thanks to Stoll's persistence and intellectual tenacity.

The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World

Bjorn Lomborg

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Total reviews: 333 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bjørn Lomborg, a former member of Greenpeace, challenges widely held beliefs that the world environmental situation is getting worse and worse in his new book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. Using statistical information from internationally recognized research institutes, Lomborg systematically examines a range of major environmental issues that feature prominently in headline news around the world, including pollution, biodiversity, fear of chemicals, and the greenhouse effect, and documents that the world has actually improved. He supports his arguments with over 2500 footnotes, allowing readers to check his sources. Lomborg criticizes the way many environmental organizations make selective and misleading use of scientific evidence and argues that we are making decisions about the use of our limited resources based on inaccurate or incomplete information. Concluding that there are more reasons for optimism than pessimism, he stresses the need for clear-headed prioritization of resources to tackle real, not imagined, problems. The Skeptical Environmentalist offers readers a non-partisan evaluation that serves as a useful corrective to the more alarmist accounts favored by campaign groups and the media. Bjørn Lomborg is an associate professor of statistics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Aarhus. When he started to investigate the statistics behind the current gloomy view of the environment, he was genuinely surprised. He published four lengthy articles in the leading Danish newspaper, including statistics documenting an ever-improving world, and unleashed the biggest post-war debate with more than 400 articles in all the major papers. Since then, Lomborg has been a frequent participant in the European debate on environmentalism on television, radio, and in newspapers.

The Plan: How to Rescue Society the Day the Oil Stops--or the Day Before

Edwin Black

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Oil & Energy

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

Energy Talking Points for McCain and Obama 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Edwin Black, already an award-winning journalist and investigator for his previous books such as "IBM and the Holocaust" and "War Against the Weak", deserves an award for national service for producing his latest work "The Plan: How to Save America the Day After the Oil Stops--or Perhaps the Day Before." This book should shake up all Americans, and their political establishment, to wake up and take notice of the United States' peril. America has become dependent on foreign countries to feed its oil addiction.

Do Senators McCain and Obama have a Plan of their own to address the ramifications of a shortfall in supplies of petroleum to the US? Have they considered the potential chaos that would ensue in the US if the purveyors of oil come up short?

Edwin Black has certainly done his homework in accessing government documents, anonymous sources, and government websites. Just one of the possibilities Black points out is that should there be a military strike in the Strait of Hormuz near Iran, the US would have to tap its Strategic Petroleum Reserve immediately. Within days, America would have to beg its allies to supply its oil habit. Given that President George W. Bush was unable to secure additional oil production from supposed-ally Saudi Arabia this year, it should be clear to most that the situation begs a solution.

Black is able to suggest a Plan to break the habit of oil consumption through a program that includes retrofitting vehicles and tapping into alternative sources of energy that will free Americans from dependence on countries such as Venezuela and Iran, which have made clear their geopolitical enmity towards the U.S. His latest book, The Plan, is alarming but should move Americans - and the current presidential election - towards discussing how technologies currently available and in development can be harnessed to free their country and start what could promise to be another Industrial Revolution.

Editorial Review:

A controversial and bitter-pill crisis plan to rescue America once the oilstops. The must-have go-to book once the oil stops or perhaps justbefore it does. Companion to the best selling, award-winning InternalCombustion (St. Martins 2006). See www.Planforoilcrisis.com pluswww.internalcombustionbook.com. By the author of IBM and the Holocaust and Internal Combustion.

An Introduction To The Policy Process: Theories, Concepts, And Models Of Public Policy Making

Thomas A. Birkland

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A clear public policy book...it is possible! 5 out of 5 stars.
24 of 25 people found this review helpful.

This book explains how public policy is made, the types of models which could be used to make/evaluate a public policy, and an overview of how public policymaking fits into the American government process.

Since most people have only learned about the three branches of government, they may not be certain how passed laws are enacted. Lacking the time and expertise needed to implement these laws, legislators at the federal, state, and local levels delegate authority to agencies to make the policy which will implement these laws.

The chief benefit of this text is the qualitative approach which Birkland personally prefers (although he does warn that other approaches use an economics-based approach) and clear explanations. It also contains an annotated bibliography of influential works and a dictionary of key terms used in the public policymaking process.

Birkland's text is written so that it can be used either by students or public policy practitioners. Instead of bogging down the reader in minutiae and personal liberty, he wanted to emphasize how important public policy is.

Editorial Review:

Now redesigned for increased user friendliness, this readable and practical introduction to the public policy process is intended for students in either traditional academic or professional programs at the undergraduate or graduate level. The author's direct writing style and extensive use of examples will also appeal to practitioners. The book offers an extensive overview of the best current thinking on the policy process, with an emphasis on accessibility and synthesis rather than novelty and abstraction. It has many features that make it equally useful as a ready reference, including myriad definitions throughout each chapter; an annotated bibliography; an introduction to web-based research, with a guide to the most important and reliable public policy research sites; and additional reading suggestions. New for this edition are chapter-at-a-glance introductions; new case studies for major chapters; new Questions-for-Discussion; and sidebars for definitions.

Business and Its Environment (5th Edition)

David P. Baron

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

Pretty Easy Reading 3 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I've read a good chunk of this book during a B-school elective on non-market strategies, and found it imparted some valuable information. It's not very prescriptive if that's what you're looking for. But it made me feel like I got something out of the class despite an unstellar professor.

New Edition is Better 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

There is a new edition (the fifth) for this book, and it is better than the edition shown here. While avoiding a polemical view, Baron illustrates business ethical priciples with very poignant examples and stories. The case studies are very up to date and fun to read. More than that, though, the case studies can form a basis for classroom debate and discussion which not only brings the material to life but also promotes critical thinking and articulation among students.

I liked it very much, and recommend it highly.

Editorial Review:

For undergraduate and graduate courses in Environment of Business, Business and Public Policy, Business and Society, and Business and Public Responsibility. Business and Its Environment, the best-selling text, brings together in an integrated manner the disciplines of economics, political science, law, and ethics to provide a deeper understanding of the managerial issues that arise in the environment of business. Built around a set of conceptual frameworks for analyzing these issues, the text formulates nonmarket strategies to deal with them, integrates these with market strategies, and provides cases for the application of the conceptual material.

Understanding Public Policy (12th Edition)

Thomas R. Dye

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For undergraduate-level courses in Public Policy.

Understanding Public Policy is not only an introduction to the study of public policy, but also an introduction to the models that political scientists use to describe and explain political life.

This leading introduction to public policy is designed to provide undergraduate and graduate students with concrete tools for not only understanding public policy in general, but for analyzing specific public policies. It focuses on what policies governments pursue, why governments pursue the policies they do, and what the consequences of these policies are. Very contemporary in perspective, it introduces eight analytical models currently used by political scientists to describe and explain political life and then, using these various analytical models—singly and in combination—explores specific public policies in a variety of key domestic policy areas.