China Inc or Report from Engine Co 82

China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World

Author: Ted C Fishman

China today is visible everywhere -- in the news, in the economic pressures battering america, in the workplace, and in every trip to the store. provocative, timely, and essential, this dramatic account of china's growing dominance as an industrial super-power by journalist Ted C. Fishman explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred -- and why it already affects us all.

How has an enormous country once hobbled by poverty and Communist ideology come to be the supercharged center of global capitalism? What does it mean that China now grows three times faster than the United States? That China uses 40 percent of the world's concrete and 25 percent of its steel? What is the global impact of 300 million rural Chinese walking off their farms and heading to the cities in the greatest migration in human history? Why do nearly all of the world's biggest companies now have large-scale operations in China? What does the corporate march into China mean for workers left behind in America, Europe, and the rest of the world?

Meanwhile, what makes China's emerging corporations so dangerously competitive? What could happen when China will be able to manufacture nearly everything -- computers, cars, jumbo jets, and pharmaceuticals -- that the United States and Europe can, at perhaps half the cost? How do these developments reach around the world and straight into the lives of all Americans?

These are ground-shaking questions, and China, Inc. provides answers.Veteran journalist and former commodities trader Ted C. Fishman paints a vivid picture of the megatrends radiating out of China. Fishman's account begins with the burgeoning output of China's vastlow-cost factories and the swelling appetite of its 1.3 billion consumers, both of which are being driven by historically unprecedented infusions of foreign capital and technological know-how. Traveling through China's frenetic landscape of growth, Fishman visits the factories, markets, streets, stores, towns, and cities where the story of Chinese capitalism is being lived by one-fifth of all humanity. Fishman also draws on interviews with Chinese, American, and European workers, managers, and executives to show how China will force all of us to make big changes in how we think about ourselves as consumers, workers, citizens, and even as parents. The result is a richly engaging work of penetrating, up-to-the-minute reportage and brilliant analysis that will forever change how readers think about America's future.

The New York Times - William Grimes

Mr. Fishman describes China's miracle economy with a mixture of fear and admiration. He is a lively writer, and some of his most vivid pages are devoted to the wrenching transformations brought about by the government's controlled experiment in free enterprise. He paints a neon-lit portrait of Shanghai, the showcase city of the new China. He also walks through the market stalls and factory floors of new super-cities like Shenzhen, a fishing town of 70,000 20 years ago that now has 7 million people, making it larger than Los Angeles or Paris, swelled by migrants from the countryside looking for a better life in the city. They are part of the largest human migration in history, a tide estimated to be as high as 300 million Chinese who account for the dynamism of the Chinese economy.

Publishers Weekly

A lively, fact-packed account of China's spectacular, 30-year transformation from economic shambles following Mao's Cultural Revolution to burgeoning market superpower, this book offers a torrent of statistics, case studies and anecdotes to tell a by now familiar but still worrisome story succinctly. Paid an average of 25 cents an hour, China's workers are not the world's cheapest, but no nation can match this "docile and capable industrial workforce, groomed by generations of government-enforced discipline," as veteran business reporter (and Chicago Mercantile trading firm founder) Fishman characterizes it. Since Mexican wages were (at the time) four times those of China, NAFTA's impact has been dwarfed by China's explosive growth (about 9.5% a year), and corporations and entrepreneurs operating in China have few worries about minimum wages, pensions, benefits, unions, antipollution laws or worker safety regulations. For the U.S., Fishman predicts more of what we're already seeing: deficits, declining wages and the squeezing of the middle class. His solutions (revitalize education, close the trade gap) are not original, but some of his statistics carry a jolt: since 1998, prices in the U.S. have risen 16%, but they've fallen in nearly every category where China is the top exporter; a pair of Levis bought at Wal-Mart costs less today, adjusted for inflation, than it did 20 years ago-though the company no longer makes clothes in China. First serial to the New York Times Magazine; author tour. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

As China starts making more stuff more cheaply, how will the rest of the world stay afloat financially? Journalist Fishman is facing a six-city author tour. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Will China soon own the world? Perhaps. "The opportunities now in China are too big to miss," writes business journalist Fishman in his timely look at the Pacific Rim's most powerful economic tiger. The national economy is expanding at annual rates (officially, 9.5 percent) that seem scarcely imaginable and scarcely sustainable. The impetus behind that growth is simple, the author notes: With a population of somewhere between 1.3 and 1.5 billion, the number of new businesses launched in the last generation exceeds 120 million, while the number of workers who have left the countryside to work in the cities exceeds the entire US workforce. China's growth is without equal in modern history, Fishman argues, and it has disturbing implications for workers in the US and Europe. China is not only capturing more and more of the world's market share in consumer goods, it's making increasing inroads into the more significant trade in "the infinite number and variety of components that make up everything else that is made," from gaskets to bolts to computer chips. Yet another great economic engine is small business; hundreds of millions of small concerns are on hand in China to provide whatever the market is calling for-never mind that those goods are so often cheap and of low quality. (Where, after all, would WalMart be without China?) Fishman is a little alarmed by China's growth, but also ready to comfort readers with the prospect of ever-falling prices thanks to its abundant low-wage labor pool. He is more alarmed, however, at a seeming codependency that is emerging, in which Americans buy Chinese goods with money that is in essence on loan from China. "The United States," he warns, "cannot takeon ever-bigger debt and amass huge trade deficits indefinitely."A thought-provoking and accessible forecast of strange times to come. First serial to the New York Times Magazine; author tour. Agent: Sloan Harris/ICM

Table of Contents:

	Introduction : the world shrinks as China grows	1
Ch. 1	Taking a slow boat in a fast China	19
Ch. 2	The revolution against the communist revolution	37
Ch. 3	To make 16 billion socks, first break the law	53
Ch. 4	Meet George Jetson, in Beijing	77
Ch. 5	Chairman Mao sells soup	123
Ch. 6	Through the looking glass	137
Ch. 7	The China price	177
Ch. 8	How the race to the bottom is a race to the top	203
Ch. 9	Pirate nation	231
Ch. 10	The Chinese-American economy	253
Ch. 11	The Chinese century	271
Ch. 12	One last story	297

See also: Macroeconomics or Nonprofit Strategic Positioning

Report from Engine Co. 82

Author: Dennis Smith

Report from Engine Co. 82 is the story of one company of New York firefighters battling unimaginable death and destruction every day.

Dennis Smith worked as a firefighter in the South Bronx of New York City, and the graphic detail and gripping prose of this firefighting classic drives the most important, accomplished, terrifying book ever published on firefighting. With over two million copies in print, this book struck a nerve within the nation when it was first published thirty years ago. In our troubled times, it gains even greater resonance for those trying to make sense of the deaths of so many New York firefighters on September 11 and for those inspired by the tireless work of firefighters and other rescue personnel in the aftermath of the destruction. Dennis Smith describes the bravery, heroism, camaraderie, and unflinching courage of New York's bravest, demonstrating how firefighters everywhere have become the most respected of American heroes.

Library Journal

In 1972, Emergency, a show about the Los Angeles Fire Department, debuted on network TV. That same year, Smith, a New York City fireman, published this book about life in what was the busiest fire station in the country. It is the diary of a fireman in a station with over 700 calls per month. From the life and death heroics of firefighting to the frustration of false alarms and garbage fires, Smith ably shares his life at Engine Co. 82. Written during a period of civil unrest, the work captures the spirit of that time and shows how the social problems of the era affected the lives of the firemen whose duty was to protect all the citizens in their district. The author paints a portrait of the fire house: the drills, the off-color jokes, the male-bonding that occurs when men know their lives will often be in the hands of their buddies. Adam Henderson does a great job with the various New York City accents. Highly recommended for all public libraries.-Theresa Connors, Arkansas Tech Univ., Russellville Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

A Message to Garcia or Undermining Science

A Message to Garcia: Being a Preachment

Author: Elbert Hubbard

Elbert Hubbard wrote this literary trifle in one hour after supper. Its management advice is both timeless and provocative. In the 102 years since it was written, more than 40 million copies have been distributed.

Go to: Using Your Exercise Ball for Weight Loss or South Beach Heart Health Revolution

Undermining Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration

Author: Seth Shulman

This vitally important exposé shows how the Bush administration has systematically misled Americans on a wide range of scientific issues affecting public health, foreign policy, and the environment by ignoring, suppressing, manipulating, or even distorting scientific research. It is the first book to focus exclusively on how this explosive issue has played out during the Presidency of George W. Bush and the first to comprehensively document his administration's abuses of science.
In 2001, a group of eminent American scientists affiliated with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) contacted Seth Shulman, an experienced investigative journalist, to look into charges of serious mishandling of scientific information in the current administration. Shulman's investigation resulted in the groundbreaking report "Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policy Making," which served as the basis for a highly publicized UCS scientists' statement accusing the Bush administration of a misuse of science that was signed by dozens of Nobel laureates, National Medal of Science recipients, and members of the National Academy of Sciences. To date, more than 8,000 scientists across the country have signed the statement based upon Shulman's reporting. This book, drawing upon scores of interviews and including never-released information, goes beyond the UCS report to document the Bush administration's suppression and distortion of science, bringing this issue to a wider audience.
Undermining Science covers:
* The Bush administration's abuse and misuse of science in areas including stem cell research, AIDS prevention, environmental protection, the Iraq war, the teaching of evolution,and global warming;
* The administration's use of political litmus tests in selecting administrators for science-based agencies and in selecting scientists on federal advisory committees;
* The dangerous consequences of the Bush administration's war on science for the caliber and integrity of the nation's scientific research.
Shulman explains that, by knowingly misrepresenting and suppressing the truth, the Bush administration broke its covenant with its constituents in the most fundamental way possible, with consequences that reach far beyond the scientific community.

Publishers Weekly

Reviewing the evidence of how the Bush administration has systematically denied and doctored scientific findings that fail to support its political positions, journalist Shulman adds some new details in this accessible book. Combining thorough research with lucid prose and a sense of mounting outrage, he charges that the president's appointees and advisers are not only threatening the scientific enterprise but also American democracy itself. In human health, for example, he points to censored studies of race-based medical disparities, shows how guidelines on lead regulation have been decided by political appointees with ties to the lead-paint industry and reviews the now-infamous controversies over Plan B birth control and abstinence-only education. He also tells of scientists being questioned about their political beliefs, voting records and support for presidential policies during interviews for committee appointments. Though he cites recent congressional bills supporting scientific integrity, these are only small flickers of hope in a dark partisan landscape. While much of this information has been reported previously, especially in Chris Mooney's 2005 bestseller, The Republican War on Science, Shulman's consolidation of these tales of manipulation, intimidation and deception makes for disquieting reading. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Writing at the request of the Union of Concerned Scientists, science journalist Shulman (The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Military) here describes an extensive effort maintained throughout the George W. Bush administration to block and/or seriously distort the research findings of many government-supported scientists. This suppression campaign evidently extends across a broad range of subjects, including global warming, mercury pollution, sundry medical issues (e.g., stem-cell research), an alleged Iraqi nuclear weapons effort, and environmental lead poisoning. In numerous instances, political appointees with no scientific background have rewritten reports submitted by professional scientists. In other cases, highly credentialed scientists nominated for advisory boards have been rejected on political grounds. Shulman might have strengthened his argument further had he shown how the current administration has differed in this area from previous administrations of both major political parties. Even so, he has produced a convincing and frightening demonstration of the Bush administration's perversion of scientific facts and advice. Recommended. [Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science also investigates this issue.-Ed.]-Jack W. Weigel, Ann Arbor, MI Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

Preface to the 2008 Edition     xi
Preface to the First Edition     xvii
Facts Matter     1
"Icing" the Data on Climate Change     16
Doctoring Evidence about Your Health     31
Abstaining from the Truth on Abstinence and AIDS     46
Clear Skies? Healthy Forests?: Understanding Bush's Real Environmental Policy     64
When Good Science Is the Endangered Species     81
Burying More Than Intelligence     94
Stacking the Deck     111
Stem Cells and Monkey Trials     127
Restoring Scientific Integrity     145
Notes     159
Index     191

The Outlaw Sea or Dereliction of Duty

The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos and Crime

Author: William Langewiesch

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

Table of Contents:

1	An Ocean World	3
2	The Wave Makers	35
3	To the Ramparts	85
4	On a Captive Sea	101
5	The Ocean's Way	127
6	On the Beach	197

Go to: A Brilliant Solution or Memoirs

Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam

Author: H R McMaster

"The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of the New York Times or the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C."

- H. R. McMaster (from the Conclusion)

Dereliction Of Duty is a stunning new analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on recently released transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why. It also pinpoints the policies and decisions that got the United States into the morass and reveals who made these decisions and the motives behind them, disproving the published theories of other historians and excuses of the participants.

Dereliction Of Duty covers the story in strong narrative fashion, focusing on a fascinating cast of characters: President Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, McGeorge Bundy and other top aides who deliberately deceived the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Congress and the American public.

Sure to generate controversy, Dereliction Of Duty is an explosive and authoritative new look at the controversy concerning the United States involvement in Vietnam.

Ronald Spector

What gives 'Dereliction of Duty' its special value . . . is McMaster's comprehensive, balanced and relentless exploration of the specific role of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. . . . As a result, he is able to explode some longstanding myths about the role of the Chiefs. According to the most popular of these, the Joint Chiefs always knew what was needed to win in Vietnam but were consistently ignored or circumvented by Johnson, Robert S. McNamara and their associates. McMaster shows that the President and his civilian advisers did indeed ignore the Joint Chiefs whenever it suited them, but he also demonstrates that the Chiefs were willing, or at least silent, accomplices in this process. -Ronald Spector - The New York Times Book Review:

Paul F. Braim

This book is an excellent addition to the growing record of inadequacies in senior leadership during that time of America's travail. McMaster's directcharge: Dereliction of duty by LBJ and his intimate advisors, and culpabilityby senior military leaders, in their commitment of our nation's most scarce and precious resource--our young soldiers--into a war under restrictions that produced high casualties and ultimate defeat for the United States. This provocative book brings the accused, alive and dead, before the bar of public justice. This reviewer's verdict: Guilty as charged! - Paul F. Braim - Parameters (Carlisle Barracks, Pa.)

The Philadelphia Inquirer - Robert Anderson

An impressive study thorough in its research and summary in its judgments. [McMaster] doesn't shy from bold interpretation, or the damning insight, and his analysis, a model of clarity and economy, puts civil-military relations during the Vietnam war in an eerie, indeed Byzantine light.

Donald Kagan

An outstanding example of historical research, interpretation, scholarship, and fair-minded analysis.

Eliot Cohen

Four star generals do not normally consult the writings of junior field grade officers for advice about career decisions. But it was widely reported that when Air Force Chief of Staff General Ronald Fogelman decided to resign in 1997, he did so at least in part on the basis of a careful reading of H. R. McMaster's Dereliction of Duty. . . . "McMaster has written a scathing indictment of America's civilian and military leadership during the early phases of the Vietnam war, and he speaks. . . with unique moral authority. . . . McMaster earned his moral authority under fire. . . . By virtue of his actions [in the Gulf War], McMaster became a hero. . . . "[McMaster] speaks with unusual authority as a symbol of the confident young veterans of the Gulf. His call to his leaders to hold themselves to high standards of professional integrity is, therefore, an important one. No wonder, then, that General Fogelman, himself an acute student of history, would pay close attention to work that on nearly every page excoriates his predecessors for their unwillingness to speak and act as their positions required. . . . "Recently, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Henry Shelton, invited Major McMaster to lecture to the most senior generals in the American military about his book.

New York Times Book Review - Ronald Spector

What gives Dereliction of Duty its special value is. . . McMaster's comprehensive, balanced and relentless exploration of the specific role of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. . . a devastating indictment of Johnson and his principal civilian and military advisers.

Paul Fussell

A stunning book:eloquent and highly effective. The word noble would not be going too far.

Stanley Karnow

Carefully researched and vividly narrated, H. R. McMaster's book adds a new and disturbing dimension to an understanding of the decisions that propelled us into the Vietnam war. It should be read by anyone interested in the origins of one of the great tragedies in American history.

Los Angeles Times Book Review - Brian VanDeMark

Thoroughly researched, clearly written and forcefully argued.

The Washington Monthly - Peter Arnett

A book to boggle your mind with new revelations of ineptness, duplicity, and arrogance amongst the senior-most officials of the United States. . . . McMaster pastes all the puzzle pieces together to reveal a plot Shakespearean in its proportions . . . McMaster's scholarship and presentation is exemplary in Dereliction of Duty. . . The author's arguments are coherent and convincing and important to the historical record.

Tom Clancy

A fabulous piece of scholarship. This book will open a whole new chapter in our study of Vietnam.

Newsweek

Lately [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General] Shelton has been closely reading a book called Dereliction of Duty. Its thesis:that the Joint Chiefs of Staff lost the Vietnam War by failing to stand up to civilian leadership.

San Francisco Chronicle

Brilliant. . . a penetrating analysis.

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Ed Offley

McMaster's book has drawn high praise from experts. . His dogged research unearthed thousands of pages of material denied other historians and writers.

Washington Post Book World - Arnold R. Isaacs

Well-written and full of enlightening new details, Dereliction of Duty adds significantly to the historical record of a great national failure.

Harold G. Moore

Superbly researched, play-by-play, riveting inside story of the genesis of the American War in Vietnam. Assorted firepower explodes on every page.

Joseph L. Galloway

Here's everything you didn't read in Robert S. McNamara's book. Vietnam did not simply happen; it was not an accidental Cold War collision that killed 58, 000 Americans and a million Vietnamese. Men of power and responsibility caused that disastrous war and left their fingerprints all over it'and here are their names and what they did and said and decided in secret. McMaster has mined newly declassified records and, in these pages, sheds fresh light and understanding on how the best and the brightest, shielded by a bodyguard of lies and the words top secret, maneuvered and manipulated our country down the road to war and bitter defeat.

Frederick Franks

A tough, straightforward and hard hitting account of early decisions that set the course for the U. S. war in Vietnam. H. R. McMaster's book is vital in understanding those times and those critical decisions.

Washington Times - Mackubin Thomas Owens

Most explosive. [a] devastating reassessment of the historical records. . Major McMaster deserves praise for his original research and riveting account. After Dereliction of Duty, the Vietnam War will never look quite the same. It is indeed a seminal work.

Edward M. Coffman

H. R. McMaster's new Dereliction of Duty stands out as a particularly well-documented, searing indictment of the civilian and military leadership. This is the clearest and most cogent argument as to the basic causes of the disaster.

Harry G. Summers

Invaluable. . . a most readable, yet meticulously documented history.

Washington Monthly - Peter Arnett

A book to boggle your mind with new revelations of ineptness, duplicity, and arrogance amongst the senior—most officials of the United States….McMaster pastes all the puzzle pieces together to reveal a plot Shakespearean in its proportion….McMaster's scholarship and presentation is exemplary in Dereliction of Duty….The author's arguments are coherent and convincing and important to the historical record.

Washington Post Book World - Arnold R. Isaacs

Well—written and full of enlightening new details, Dereliction of Duty adds significantly to the historical record of a great national failure.

Kirkus Reviews

An intriguing analysis that challenges the view that Cold War anticommunism was primarily responsible for American military intervention in Vietnam.

In his first book, McMaster, a US Army major and Persian Gulf war veteran, and a historian who has taught at West Point, zeroes in on the actions of Lyndon Johnson and his top advisers from the time LBJ became president in November 1963 to the July 1965 decision to escalate the war drastically. The author makes a convincing case that domestic political considerations were behind the development of the failed strategy of graduated military pressure. The actions of Johnson, his top civilian advisers, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) were, moreover, characterized by "arrogance, weakness [and] lying in the pursuit of self interest." President Johnson heads McMaster's culpability list, which also includes Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, JCS head and US ambassador to South Vietnam Gen. Maxwell Taylor, Taylor's JCS successor, Gen. Earle Wheeler, and top advisers William and McGeorge Bundy. McMaster's touchstone is the unchallenged fact that Johnson wanted to fight the war on poverty, not the war in Vietnam. McMaster interprets virtually all of LBJ's actions as chief executive in that light. From November 1963 to November 1964 Johnson's overarching goal was to win the presidential election. After that, his main concern was enacting his Great Society programs. The fact that Johnson made Vietnam policy based on domestic-policy implications, McMaster believes, was a recipe for disaster in Vietnam. David Halberstam promulgated similar arguments in The Best and the Brightest (1972). McMaster, using newly released transcripts and other primary source material, pays more attention to the JCS's role. Unsparing in his analysis of the chiefs, McMaster takes them severely to task for their "failure" to provide LBJ with "their best advice."

A relentless, stinging indictment of the usual Johnson administration Vietnam War suspects.

What People Are Saying

Ronald Spector
What gives Dereliction of Duty its special value is...McMaster's comprehensive, balanced and relentless exploration of the specific role of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...a devastating indictment of Johnson and his principal civilian and military advisers.

Stanley Karnow
Carefully researched and vividly narrated, H.R. McMaster's book adds a new and disturbing dimension to an understanding of the decisions that propelled us into the Vietnam war. It should be read by anyone interested in the origins of one of the great tragedies in American history.

Peter Arnett
A book to boggle your mind with new revelations of ineptness, duplicity, and arrogance amongst the senior-most officials of the United States....McMaster pastes all the puzzle pieces together to reveal a plot Shakespearean in its proportions ...McMaster's scholarship and presentation is exemplary in Dereliction of Duty...The author's arguments are coherent and convincing and important to the historical record.

Harold G. Moore
Superbly researched, play—by—play, riveting inside story of the genesis of the American War in Vietnam. Assorted firepower explodes on every page.
—(Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, U.S. Army (Retired), coauthor of the New York Times best seller We Were Soldiers Once…And Young)

Stanley Karnow
Carefully researched and vividly narrated, H.R. McMaster's book adds a new and disturbing dimension to an understanding of the decisions that propelled us into the Vietnam War. It should be read by anyone interested in the origins of one of the great tragedies in American history.
—(Stanley Karnow, Pulitzer Prize—winning author of Vietnam: A History)

Donald Kagan
An outstanding example of historical research, interpretation, scholarship, and fair—minded analysis.
—(Donald Kagan, Bass Professor of History, Classics and Western Civilization, Yale University, and author of On the Origins of War)

Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell, author of The Great War and Modern Memory
A stunning book: eloquent and highly effective. The word noble would not be going too far.

Rick and Bubba for President or Economic Gangsters

Rick and Bubba for President: The Two Sexiest Fat Men Alive Take on Washington

Author: Rick Burgess

Two-time New York Times best-selling authors and zany radio hosts Rick and Bubba return just in time for the 2008 presidential election to present their thoughts on everything political.

In Rick and Bubba for President, America's self-proclaimed "Sexiest Fat Men Alive" tackle timely campaign issues with hilarity, flair, and panache that won't be seen on the campaign trail. Readers will love Rick & Bubba's trademark humor as it is openly and honestly applied to the hot political topics politicians are so careful to avoid. Including everything from top ten campaign slogans to Rick and Bubba White House etiquette and a state dinner menu, Rick and Bubba for President is sure to delight readers of all political persuasions.

BONUS! Includes a "Best of Rick & Bubba" CD!

Look this: Tribes or Professional iPhone and iPod Touch Programming

Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence, and the Poverty of Nations

Author: Raymond Fisman

Meet the economic gangster. He's the United Nations diplomat who double-parks his Mercedes on New York City streets at rush hour because the cops can't touch him--he has diplomatic immunity. He's the Chinese smuggler who dodges tariffs by magically transforming frozen chickens into frozen turkeys. The dictator, the warlord, the unscrupulous bureaucrat who bilks the developing world of billions in aid. The calculating crook who views stealing and murder as just another part of his business strategy. And, in the wrong set of circumstances, he might just be you.

In Economic Gangsters, Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel take readers into the secretive, chaotic, and brutal worlds inhabited by these lawless and violent thugs. Join these two sleuthing economists as they follow the foreign aid money trail into the grasping hands of corrupt governments and shady underworld characters. Spend time with ingenious black marketeers as they game the international system. Follow the steep rise and fall of stock prices of companies with unseemly connections to Indonesia's former dictator. See for yourself what rainfall has to do with witch killings in Tanzania--and more.

Fisman and Miguel use economics to get inside the heads of these "gangsters," and propose solutions that can make a difference to the world's poor--including cash infusions to defuse violence in times of drought, and steering the World Bank away from aid programs most susceptible to corruption.

Take an entertaining walk on the dark side of global economic development with Economic Gangsters.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

In this surprisingly spry read, authors and economics professors Fisman and Miguel tackle economic development issues in Africa, Asia and Latin America, beginning with the question: after decades of independence and billions in foreign aid, why are so many developing countries still mired in poverty? A big reason, they contend, is corruption. Looking at specific examples, Fisman and Miguel examine various methods and motives of corruption, how agencies counteract it, and what it means with regard to human nature and the fate of nations. Fascinating insights abound: the high correlation between UN diplomats' parking violations and corruption in the home country; the successful public shaming techniques used by Bogata's Mayor Antanas Mockus to reduce criminality; the drastic reduction in road building corruption resulting from Indonesia's simple statement that projects would be audited. Ultimately, Fisman and Miguel conclude that there's not enough verifiable, reproducible results to say whether poverty is intractable and corruption inevitable, or whether poor countries remain poor because they haven't received enough quality aid. Instead, they argue forcefully for more blind trials in economics research to evaluate various development approaches. This thorough, thoughtful guide to global corruption is an engaging, disarmingly upbeat read for fans of Freakonomics and Malcolm Gladwell.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Lawrence Maxted - Library Journal

Economists Fisman and Miguel address the role of corruption and violence in impoverishing nations such as Kenya and Chad. They avoid academic jargon and write for a general audience in explaining how economists study the problem of pervasive endemic poverty. They relate specifically (indicative of their light approach) how, by studying the pattern of UN diplomatic parking violations in New York City, economists have estimated corruption in various countries. For example, diplomats from countries like Sweden and Canada had no violations while those from Chad and Sudan were egregious offenders. Fisman and Miguel look at violence as both a cause and an effect of poverty. They show that conflict risk in Africa increases from roughly 20 to 30 percent in drought years. To alleviate poverty best, they recommend experimentation with different policies such as crop insurance to find those methods that are effective in assisting the poor without enhancing conditions conducive to corruption and violence. Reminiscent of other lighter looks at economics, e.g., Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's Freakonomics and Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist, this book makes developmental economics both entertaining and accessible to a broad audience and is recommended to both public and academic libraries.

Table of Contents:

Ch. 1 Fighting For Economic Development 1

Ch. 2 Suharto, Inc 22

Ch. 3 The Smuggling Gap 53

Ch. 4 Nature or Nurture? Understanding the Culture of Corruption 76

Ch. 5 No Water, No Peace 111

Ch. 6 Death by a Thousand Small Cuts 136

Ch. 7 The Road Back From War 159

Ch. 8 Learning to Fight Economic Gangsters 186

Epilogue: Doing Better This Time 207

Notes 215

Index 235

An Enormous Crime or The Savage Wars of Peace

An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia

Author: Bill Hendon

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
An Enormous Crime is nothing less than shocking. Based on thousands of pages of public and previously classified documents, it makes an utterly convincing case that when the American government withdrew its forces from Vietnam, it knowingly abandoned hundreds of POWs to their fate. The product of twenty-five years of research by former Congressman Bill Hendon and attorney Elizabeth A. Stewart, this book brilliantly reveals the reasons why these American soldiers and airmen were held back by the North Vietnamese at Operation Homecoming in 1973, what these brave men have endured, and how administration after administration of their own government has turned its back on them.
            This authoritative exposé is based on open-source documents and reports, and thousands of declassified intelligence reports and satellite imagery, as well as author interviews and personal experience. An Enormous Crime is a singular work, telling a story unlike any other in our history: ugly, harrowing, and true.

Kirkus Reviews

A sprawling indictment of eight U.S. administrations. The charge: sacrificing American war prisoners in the interest of focusing, as Bush aides have said, "not on Vietnam's past but on its future."Beginning in 1966, write former Rep. Hendon (R-NC) and attorney Stewart, GIs captured in South Vietnam were moved north along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other routes. Cataloguing sightings with the diligence of Vincent Bugliosi-whose Reclaiming History (2007), on the JFK assassination, is something of a companion piece-Hendon and Stewart reckon that hundreds of POWs had crossed the Demilitarized Zone by the time of the Tet Offensive, their numbers swelled by pilots downed over North Vietnam. Many of these soldiers, Hendon and Stewart charge, were used as human shields against American bombing attacks on power plants, military headquarters and other strategically important venues. North Vietnam and its allies in Laos and Cambodia weren't particularly forthcoming on all these things, but the U.S. played a dirty hand, too; by the authors' account, the prisoners' ultimate release was bound up in negotiations conducted by Henry Kissinger, "the surrogate president," who reneged on promises of U.S. aid owing to supposed violations of previous accords, thus closing off a diplomatic channel for repatriation. Fast forward to 1987, when Ross Perot traveled to Vietnam and told the foreign minister, who insisted that there were no POWs there, "Don't embarrass yourselves, I know too much." Fruitful negotiations ensued, the authors report, only to be brushed aside by the Reagan administration-even though, they claim, at least 100 U.S. prisoners were still alive in Vietnam. Hendon and Stewart, who appearnonpartisan in their disdain for governmental inaction and double-dealing, close by offering advice to President Bush to send an army of former presidents and their staffs to negotiate the release of the remaining captives. Much of the authors' evidence is circumstantial, but there's an awful lot of it. A convincing, urgent argument.

Look this: American Medical Association Concise Medical Encyclopedia or More Proficient Motorcycling

The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power

Author: Max Boot

America's "small wars," "imperial wars," or, as the Pentagon now terms them, "low-intensity conflicts," have played an essential but little-appreciated role in its growth as a world power. Beginning with Jefferson's expedition against the Barbary Pirates, Max Boot tells the exciting stories of our sometimes minor but often bloody landings in Samoa, the Philippines, China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Russia, and elsewhere. Along the way he sketches colorful portraits of little-known military heroes such as Stephen Decatur, "Fighting Fred" Funston, and Smedley Butler. From 1800 to the present day, such undeclared wars have made up the vast majority of our military engagements. Yet the military has often resisted preparing itself for small wars, preferring instead to train for big conflicts that seldom come. Boot re-examines the tragedy of Vietnam through a "small war" prism. He concludes with a devastating critique of the Powell Doctrine and a convincing argument that the armed forces must reorient themselves to better handle small-war missions, because such clashes are an inevitable result of America's far-flung imperial responsibilities.

Economist

He tells the story with clarity and verve, rediscovering on the way some lesser-known American heroes .... Enjoyable... Informative.

U.S. News & World Report - Michael Barone

Excellent.... There are some cracking good stories here...but also some important lessons.

The Weekly Standard - Victor Davis Hanson

Fascinating reading.... The events after September 11...sadly confirm almost all of Boot's dispassionate warnings.

Los Angeles Times

Anyone who wants to understand why America has permanently entered a new era in international relations must read [this book].

National Review

Remarkable... Persuasive... Boot is an exceptional writer and his engaging style is tailor-made for this type of narrative.

The Washington Post Book World - H.W. Brands

An analytical treatment of low-intensity conflict [and]... a fascinating set of case studies worth reading for the stories alone.

Commentary

Few books published this decade will be timelier than Max Boot's The Savage Wars of Peace . . . . [A] fine book.

Weekly Standard

Fascinating reading...and never more timely than now.

Christian Science Monitor

Lively and nuanced... Fascinating history... Admirably evenhanded.

The New York Post - Bob McManus

Timely manual on the post-Cold War challenges...Max Boot understands. Read his book; you will too.

New York Sun

Rousing.... Notable... Important.

Slate - James Gibney

[Boot has] done a real public and strategic service.

Economist

He tells the story with clarity and verve,rediscovering on the way some lesser-known American heroes .... Enjoyable... Informative.

U.S. News & World Report - Michael Barone

Excellent.... There are some cracking good stories here...but also some important lessons.

National Review

Remarkable... Persuasive... Boot is an exceptional writer and his engaging style is tailor-made for this type of narrative.

The Washington Post Book World - H.W. Brands

An analytical treatment of low-intensity conflict [and]... a fascinating set of case studies worth reading for the stories alone.

Commentary

Few books published this decade will be timelier than Max Boot's The Savage Wars of Peace . . . . [A] fine book.

Washington Times

It is a great read with some very solid conclusions...an outstanding addition to this body of literature.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Boot combines meticulous scholarship with great storytelling and provocative opinions. He draws from his research direct lessons for a nation confronting the threat of global terrorism.

Christian Science Monitor

Lively and nuanced... Fascinating history... Admirably evenhanded.

Foreign Affairs

A great story and a compelling read. Boot combines a wide-angle perspective with an eye for detail.

The Weekly Standard - Victor Davis Hanson

Fascinating reading.... The events after September 11...sadly confirm almost all of Boot's dispassionate warnings.

Washington Post Book World

Readers who know him from...the Wall Street Journal will come to this book expecting an analytical treatment of low-intensity conflict; they get the analysis but also a fascinating set of case studies worth reading for the stories alone.

Journal of Military History

An entertaining jaunt through many of the expeditions, counterinsurgencies, and (insert your preferred term of art here, that the United States armed forces have undertaken since the beginning of the Republic. Along the way the author offers political analysis that hits its mark time and again.

The New York Post - Bob McManus

Timely manual on the post-Cold War challenges...Max Boot understands. Read his book; you will too.

New York Sun

Rousing.... Notable... Important.

Slate - James Gibney

[Boot has] done a real public and strategic service.

Weekly Standard

Boot's well-written narrative is not only fascinating reading...The events of September 11 give The Savage Wars of Peace an uncanny timeliness and sadly confirm almost all of Boot's dispassionate warnings.

Policy Review

Entertaining, provocative, and often insightful history...Boot has crafted a thumping good, rock'em-sock'em sort of narrative.

Publishers Weekly

As editorial features editor of the Wall Street Journal, Boot (Out of Order: Arrogance, Corruption, and Incompetence on the Bench) has a reputation as a fire-breathing polemicist and unabashed imperialist. This book addresses America's "small wars" in chronological order, dividing the action from 1801 to the present into three sections ("Commercial Power," "Great Power" and "Superpower") to argue that "small war missions are militarily doable" and are now in fact a necessity. Beginning with a description of going to work on September 11 as the World Trade Center tragedy displaced the WSJ newsroom, Boot quickly gets down to some historical detail: from the U.S. expedition against the Barbary pirates to violent squabbles in Panama, Samoa, the Philippines, China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Beirut, Grenada, Somalia and Bosnia. Examples of wars "that were fought less than `wholeheartedly,' " of wars "without exit strategies" and wars "in which U.S. soldiers act as `social workers' " are decried. Each of the 15 short chapters might have been the focus of a separate in-depth book, so Boot's take is once over very lightly indeed. While America's and the world's small wars certainly seem more and more related, Boot's historical descriptions are too thin to provide a solid foundation for relating one war to another. (May 1) Forecast: Out of Order (1998) was a hit with the chattering classes and remains in print; look for Boot's regular pundit appearances to escalate with the release of this timely title, particularly as the Bush administration continues to contemplate the so-called "axis of evil" in the manner Boot advocates. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The United States has the opportunity to establish a Pax Americana in today's world by jettisoning the Powell doctrine, named after Colin Powell when he was chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and emphasizing military deployment under limited conditions, and instead instituting an aggressive "small wars" strategy. So argues Boot, Wall Street Journal editorial features editor and author of Out of Order. Boot says that small wars, or "low-intensity conflicts," are about "the tactics employed, not the scale of combat" and that they have long been a part of the American story he in fact details several of the more than 100 small wars that America has waged since 1800. Boot claims the marines once had a small-wars manual and were such masters of small-wars tactics that, had such tactics been applied widely in Vietnam, America might have won that war. Although the political-moral ramifications of his argument as related to domestic affairs need more exploration, Boot has written a readable and thought-provoking book one that might well influence the behind-the-scenes debates over the future of military policy, as he hopes. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Charles L. Lumpkins, Pennsylvania State Univ., State College Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Boot (editorial features editor, ) celebrates American interventionism and imperialism, arguing that the military strategies involved in small wars of imperialism have been constant in American history and have demonstrated substantial success in dominating less-developed countries. His narrative history documents wars with the Barbary nations shortly after the American Revolution, numerous invasions of Central American nations, and the expansion of empire into the Pacific and notes that many of these efforts consisted of "low-intensity" conflicts that dragged on for years. He argues that if the U.S. had maintained the same strategy for Vietnam, the nationalist insurgency might have been successfully suppressed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

A thoughtful history cum policy paper on the role of guerrilla warfare in the building of the American empire. No stranger to polemic as editorial features editor for the Wall Street Journal, Boot (Out of Order, 1998) has little use for the so-called Powell Doctrine limiting American soldiers' exposure to the possibility of dying in combat. When applied in Iraq with the decision not to topple Saddam Hussein's government after the liberation of Kuwait, that doctrine may have helped avoid a "Persian Gulf Vietnam," as Colin Powell said it would, but instead, Boot writes, "it turned into a Persian Gulf Hungary, a replay of 1956, when the U.S. encouraged a rebellion against the Soviets and then stood by as the rebels were crushed." An unapologetic imperialist, the author urges that America take its superpower and world-policeman roles seriously, stepping into "small wars" (Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan) to fearlessly pursue "punitive and protective missions." Along the way, Boot examines the little conflicts of the past that citizen-soldiers have not much enjoyed but professionals have gladly undertaken: here the suppression of the Filipino revolt from 1898 to1902, there a modest 1871 invasion of Korea and the occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1954. He shrugs aside the specter of collateral damage, asserting that, "although wars against guerrillas tend to be particularly savage, atrocities are endemic to all wars, not just colonial ones." More compelling is his Monday morning quarterback analysis of Vietnam, which he argues could have yielded American victory had it been fought not as a conventional conflict but as a guerrilla war, an approach for which commanding general William C.Westmoreland was neither equipped nor trained. Boot's generally evenhanded approach makes some of his more immodest proposals palatable, and serious students of foreign policy, no matter what their leanings, will want to entertain his arguments. Author tour; radio satellite tour

Table of Contents:

	List of Maps
	Preface: Another American Way of War
Pt. I	Commercial Power
1	"To Conquer Upon the Sea": Barbary Wars, 1801-1805, 1815	3
2	"Butcher and Bolt": From the Marquesas, 1813, to China, 1859	30
3	Empire Emerging: From Korea, 1871, to Samoa, 1899	56
Pt. II	Great Power
4	Red Summer: Boxer Uprising, 1900	69
5	"Attraction" and "Chastisement": The Philippine War, 1899-1902	99
6	Caribbean Constabulary: Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, 1898-1914	129
7	Lords of Hispaniola: Haiti, 1915-1934; Dominican Republic, 1916-1924	156
8	The Dusty Trail: The Pancho Villa Punitive Expedition, 1916-1917	182
9	Blood on the Snow: Russia, 1918-1920	205
10	Chasing Sandino: Nicaragua, 1926-1933	231
11	"By Bluff Alone": China, 1901-1941	253
12	Lessons Learned: The Small Wars Manual	281
13	Lessons Unlearned: Vietnam, 1959-1975	286
14	In the Shadow of Vietnam: The Powell Doctrine and Small Wars in the 1990s	318
15	In Defense of the Pax Americana: Small Wars in the Twenty-First Century	336
	Notes	353
	Bibliography	387
	Acknowledgments	409
	Index	411

Sarah or World on Fire

Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down

Author: Kaylene Johnson

In Sarah, the first biography released of Governor Palin, author Kaylene Johnson draws upon personal interviews with Palin, her family, and other highly placed sources to explore Palin's family life, her upbringing in a devout Christian home, her political rise, and how she went from being a long-shot candidate to--potentially--one of the world's most powerful women and political figures. The book features dozens of family and political photos and contains source notes. An Epicenter Press book, distributed by Tyndale House. Tyndale will also provide a free online discussion guide designed to engage readers on the subject of faith and politics: FaithandPoliticsDiscussionGuide.com.

Chicago Tribune

There's an undeniable national buzz surrounding the first-term governor, seen by many Republicans as a fresh, new face to represent the party's future.

Alaska Magazine

Wildly popular, she's more than just a pretty face.

Sarah Palin is a politician of eye-popping integrity.

New interesting textbook: The Tacit Mode or Organizational Stress

World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability

Author: Amy Chua

For over a decade now, the reigning consensus has held that the combination of free markets and democracy would transform the third world and sweep away the ethnic hatred and religious zealotry associated with underdevelopment. In this astute, original, and surprising investigation of the true impact of globalization, Yale Law School professor Amy Chua explains why many developing countries are in fact consumed by ethnic violence after adopting free market democracy.

Chua shows how in non-Western countries around the globe, free markets have concentrated starkly disproportionate wealth in the hands of a resented ethnic minority. These “market-dominant minorities” – Chinese in Southeast Asia, Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, whites in Latin America and South Africa, Indians in East Africa, Lebanese in West Africa, Jews in post-communist Russia – become objects of violent hatred. At the same time, democracy empowers the impoverished majority, unleashing ethnic demagoguery, confiscation, and sometimes genocidal revenge. She also argues that the United States has become the world’s most visible market-dominant minority, a fact that helps explain the rising tide of anti-Americanism around the world. Chua is a friend of globalization, but she urges us to find ways to spread its benefits and curb its most destructive aspects.

Publishers Weekly

A professor at Yale Law School, Chua eloquently fuses expert analysis with personal recollections to assert that globalization has created a volatile concoction of free markets and democracy that has incited economic devastation, ethnic hatred and genocidal violence throughout the developing world. Chua illustrates the disastrous consequences arising when an accumulation of wealth by "market dominant minorities" combines with an increase of political power by a disenfranchised majority. Chua refutes the "powerful assumption that markets and democracy go hand in hand" by citing specific examples of the turbulent conditions within countries such as Indonesia, Russia, Sierra Leone, Bolivia and in the Middle East. In Indonesia, Chua contends, market liberalization policies favoring wealthy Chinese elites instigated a vicious wave of anti-Chinese violence from the suppressed indigenous majority. Chua describes how "terrified Chinese shop owners huddled behind locked doors while screaming Muslim mobs smashed windows, looted shops and gang-raped over 150 women, almost all of them ethnic Chinese." Chua blames the West for promoting a version of capitalism and democracy that Westerners have never adopted themselves. Western capitalism wisely implemented redistributive mechanisms to offset potential ethnic hostilities, a practice that has not accompanied the political and economic transitions in the developing world. As a result, Chua explains, we will continue to witness violence and bloodshed within the developing nations struggling to adopt the free markets and democratic policies exported by the West. (On sale Dec. 24) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Globalization is not good for developing countries, insists Yale law professor Chua. It aggravates ethnic tensions by creating a small but abundantly wealthy new class and it's stimulating a new wave of anti-Americanism. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A nuanced contribution to the debate over whether free markets spread democracy or merely advance the McDonaldsization of the globe. The answer, writes Chua (Law/Yale Univ.), is that they do both—and then some, depending on local conditions. But more often than not, Chua holds, the imposition of so-called "free markets" in the so-called "developing world" means that a ruling elite, often ethnically distinct from the mass of the ruled, prospers far out of proportion to its number. By way of illustration, Chua offers, imagine that Chinese-Americans, representing about two percent of the US population, controlled the country's largest banks and most of its productive real estate, while the 75 percent of the population considered "white" owned no land and, worse, "had experienced no upward mobility as far back as anyone can remember": transfer the scenario abroad, "and you will have approximated the core social dynamic that characterizes much of the non-Western world." Market forces that bring still more wealth into the hands of the minority—Chinese, in the case of Indonesia, or Lebanese in the case of Sierra Leone—necessarily breed dissent and ethnic hatred. Political liberalization may do nothing to ease the tensions, Chua adds. Democratization in the Middle East, for instance, would likely mean only the rise of nationalist and fundamentalist regimes; corrupt and autocratic though they may be, the region's kings are still more liberal than those who would replace them should the majority rule. All this is very provocative, to be sure, but Chua defends her case well (and adds a damning footnote to the history of Enron along the way). Globalism is a fact of modern life, sheconcludes, but one destined to yield much bloodshed in the years to come—unless, she adds, the privileged minorities do the smart thing: spread the wealth while they still can. An antidote to the typical one-market tidings, and bad news for those contemplating investments abroad.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction: Globalization and Ethnic Hatred	1
Pt. 1	The Economic Impact of Globalization
1	Rubies and Rice Paddies: Chinese Minority Dominance in Southeast Asia	23
2	Llama Fetuses, Latifundia, and La Blue Chip Numero Uno: "White" Wealth in Latin America	49
3	The Seventh Oligarch: The Jewish Billionaires of Post-Communist Russia	77
4	The "Ibo of Cameroon": Market-Dominant Minorities in Africa	95
Pt. 2	The Political Consequences of Globalization
5	Backlash against Markets: Ethnically Targeted Seizures and Nationalizations	127
6	Backlash against Democracy: Crony Capitalism and Minority Rule	147
7	Backlash against Market-Dominant Minorities: Expulsions and Genocide	163
8	Mixing Blood: Assimilation, Globalization, and the Case of Thailand	177
Pt. 3	Ethnonationalism and the West
9	The Underside of Western Free Market Democracy: From Jim Crow to the Holocaust	189
10	The Middle Eastern Cauldron: Israeli Jews as a Regional Market-Dominant Minority	211
11	Why They Hate Us: America as a Global Market-Dominant Minority	229
12	The Future of Free Market Democracy	259
	Afterword	289
	Notes	295
	Index	335

Material World or All the Presidents Men

Material World

Author: Peter Menzel

We are witnessing the emergence of a unified world economy, as exemplified by NAFTA and GATT, that will, in theory, make goods available at cheaper prices, create new jobs throughout the world, raise standards of living, and benefit the average family. However, population growth and resource exploitation will also affect these potential benefits as patterns of consumption change. In stunning photographs and text, Material World demonstrates the present context for the emerging global economy, what it means to be "statistically average," by displaying families in more than thirty nations outside their homes - with all their possessions in view.
Among the 350 stunning images are those of a family in lush Samoa juxtaposed with a Kuwaiti family and the two Mercedes-Benzes parked outside their desert home; a family in Iceland posing with their treasured string instruments while a family in Sarajevo huddles outside their bullet-ridden apartment. The text describes what it means to be "average" in each of thirty very dissimilar cultures and the impact of each way of life on the local environment. Statistical information about each country accompanies the photo-essays so that readers can easily compare one culture with another.
Material World is a fascinating portrait of multicultural diversity and a preview of emerging issues raised by the impact of the global economy on the cultural heritage of the human community.

New interesting textbook: Microsoft Office Word 2007 Plain and Simple or MacBook Portable Genius

All the President's Men

Author: Carl Bernstein

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Zachary Taylor or The Long Loneliness

Zachary Taylor: The 12th President, 1849-1850

Author: John S D Eisenhower

The rough-hewn general who rose to the nation’s highest office, and whose presidency witnessed the first political skirmishes that would lead to the Civil War

Zachary Taylor was a soldier’s soldier, a man who lived up to his nickname, “Old Rough and Ready.” Having risen through the ranks of the U.S. Army, he achieved his greatest success in the Mexican War, propelling him to the nation’s highest office in the election of 1848. He was the first man to have been elected president without having held a lower political office.

John S. D. Eisenhower, the son of another soldier-president, shows how Taylor rose to the presidency, where he confronted the most contentious political issue of his age: slavery. The political storm reached a crescendo in 1849, when California, newly populated after the Gold Rush, applied for statehood with an anti- slavery constitution, an event that upset the delicate balance of slave and free states and pushed both sides to the brink. As the acrimonious debate intensified, Taylor stood his ground in favor of California’s admission—despite being a slaveholder himself—but in July 1850 he unexpectedly took ill, and within a week he was dead. His truncated presidency had exposed the fateful rift that would soon tear the country apart.

Publishers Weekly

Eisenhower (So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico), a military historian and retired army general, has a secure mastery of his subject and his era in this addition to the American Presidents series of nutshell biographies. Taylor's career, in Eisenhower's retelling, had two principal foci. First, he was a general in the American incursion into Mexico in 1846, and his campaign, crisply recounted here, was perceived as a success by the American populace, catapulting Taylor (1784-1850) to national prominence. Second, Eisenhower spotlights Taylor's equivocal relationship to slavery. A lifelong slave owner himself, he opposed abolishing slavery where it existed to preserve the Union. Yet Taylor claimed to oppose slavery on principle as well as its spread to California, New Mexico and other new states. Taylor lived only 16 uneventful months after his inauguration in March 1849, so Eisenhower's treatment of his presidency necessarily deals more with congressional debates on slavery than with Taylor himself. Eisenhower takes a nuanced view of the 12th president, finding Taylor gentle in civilian life, something of a disappointment as a soldier, but most fundamentally a man who aimed to preserve the Union. 1 map. (June)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Lisa A. Ennis - Library Journal

The latest installment in this "American Presidents" series is a pithy and readable history, providing a good introduction to the life of a forgotten president. Retired brigadier general Eisenhower (So Far from God) provides a balanced yet lively view of "Old Rough & Ready," from Taylor's early life to his untimely death in office. While Eisenhower's book does not break any new ground-it draws heavily on Holman Hamilton's seminal two-volume biography-it does put Taylor in a more favorable and sympathetic light than K. Jack Bauer's Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest. Generally considered a man of limited intellectual abilities and a stubborn, petulant, and naive politician, Taylor is here shown to be a thoughtful and more complex figure. For instance, although he was a slaveholder, he opposed the expansion of slavery. While Taylor will likely remain a mysterious and misunderstood figure, as limited scholarly work has been devoted to him and very few of his personal papers survived the Civil War, Eisenhower's account is a very good starting place for students and general readers. Recommended for public and academic libraries.

Kirkus Reviews

Old Rough and Ready gets proficient, if somewhat lackluster treatment in this latest volume of the American Presidents series. Though he was a slave-owning Kentucky planter, Taylor (1784-1850) was "first and foremost a soldier," writes Eisenhower (They Fought at Anzio, 2007, etc.). He worked his way through the ranks without a formal education, earning a reputation for being responsible and reliable in skirmishes during the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War and the Second Seminole War. The war with Mexico in 1846 brought him into the national spotlight as commander of the American forces aggressively driving back the enemy, most memorably at Palo Alto, Monterrey and Buena Vista. Returning a hero, Taylor was chosen over fellow general Winfield Scott as Whig candidate for president in 1848, running with Millard Fillmore. He became the 12th president at age 64. Outgoing President Polk's assessment was that Taylor was "a well-meaning old man [but] uneducated, exceedingly ignorant of public affairs, and I should judge of very ordinary capacity." He wasn't polished, but the new president wasn't a fool either. As debate raged about whether the new territories of California and New Mexico should be slave or free states, Taylor, opposed to the institution in principle, stood by the sovereignty of the states' citizens to decide. In foreign affairs, he will be remembered for signing the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, which disallowed exclusive British or American dominion over Central America. He was also the first to call the president's wife "First Lady," in a eulogy for Dolly Madison, who died shortly after he was inaugurated in 1849. Taylor served only 16 months before dying of an untimely illness. Had helived, Eisenhower notes, the Compromise of 1850 would probably not have become law, and Taylor would certainly have vetoed the Fugitive Slave Act: "What would have happened then must remain as one of those imponderable might-have-beens of history."Adequate sketch of Taylor's accomplishments without a great deal of flesh or heart.

Table of Contents:

Editor's Note     xv
Author's Note     xix
Early Career     1
Unsung Hero     7
Old Rough and Ready     17
Fort Jesup to the Rio Grande     29
War with Mexico!     41
Monterrey     52
Buena Vista     62
The Election of 1848     73
Inauguration and Early Days in the White House     88
California and New Mexico     101
Foreign Affairs     112
The Great Debate     121
The Death of the President     130
Epilogue     137
Notes     141
Milestones     151
Selected Bibliography     155
Acknowledgments     159
Index     161

Look this: Rosso on Fund Raising or The New Health Partners

The Long Loneliness

Author: Dorothy Day

A compelling autobiographical testament to the spiritual pilgrimage of a woman who, in her own words, dedicated herself "to bring[ing] about the kind of society where it is easier to be good."

Lifes a Campaign or No Ordinary Time

Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success

Author: Chris Matthews

Chris Matthews is like no other TV interviewer. Life’s a Campaign is like no other book on success.

Famous for demanding the truth from his Hardball guests, Chris Matthews now reveals what the people running this country rarely confess: the secrets of how they got to the top. Here is the first book on power with insight snatched from those who wield it. Life’s a Campaign exposes the tactics, tricks, and truths that help people get ahead–and can help you, too, whatever your field of ambition.

Written in the assertive, good-natured style that is Matthews’s trademark, Life’s a Campaign is the most useful kind of investigative reporting. You’ll benefit from his insider’s scrutiny of the Congress, the White House, and the national news media. Here are the methods, showcased in fascinating anecdotes and case histories, that presidents, senators, and other powerful people use to persuade others and win–and the life lessons they provide for the rest of us.

You’ll learn about Bill Clinton’s laser-focused ability to listen to those he wants to seduce–and how he’s been teaching that craft to his wife, Hillary; how Ronald Reagan employed his basic optimism to win history to his side; the simple steps in human diplomacy that the first President Bush exploited to assemble a worldwide posse to attack Saddam Hussein and gain global approval in a way his son has failed to do; how Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House by practicing the most fundamental of human qualities: hardnosed loyalty. You’ll also find out, for the first time, aboutMatthews’s own wild ride through the turbulent, converging rapids of politics and journalism.

The big payoff in Life’s a Campaign is what you’ll learn about human nature:

• People would rather be listened to than listen.
• People don’t mind being used; what they mind is being discarded.
• People are more loyal to the people they’ve helped than the people they’ve helped are loyal to them.
• Not everyone’s going to like you.
• No matter what anybody says, nobody wants a level playing field.

Knowing such truths is the successful person’s number one advantage in life. As you’ll learn in Life’s a Campaign, mastering–and employing–these truths separates the leaders from the followers.

Table of Contents:

Introduction     xiii
Friendship
Whatever Gets You in the Game     3
Not Everyone Is Going to Like You     16
Not Everyone Is Going to Like Me     26
The Person Who Hires You Is Your Number One Stockholder     31
The Best Gift You Can Give a Stranger Is an Audience     40
Up Beats Down     49
Ask!     59
Don't Call Just When You Need Something     67
People Don't Mind Being Used; They Mind Being Discarded     73
Rivalry
Grin When You Fight     79
It's Not Crowded at the Top     88
No One's Ever Late for an Execution     96
Nobody Wants a Level Playing Field     103
Fire When Ready     112
Attack from a Defensive Position     119
Reputation
Don't Pick on Someone Your Own Size     129
Rites of Passage     137
Keep Good Company     145
Lowball It!     149
When in Doubt, Put It Out     154
You Only Get One Reputation     159
Success
Aim High     171
Speak Up!     176
The Bug     181
Wherever You Go, That's Where You're Going to Be     187
Acknowledgments     191
Index     195

Go to: The Emotional Survival Guide for Caregivers or Big Beautiful and Pregnant

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II

Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin

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The Federalist Papers or The One Percent Doctrine

The Federalist Papers

Author: Alexander Hamilton

The Federalist Papers--85 essays published in the winter of 1787-8 in the New York press--are some of the most crucial and defining documents in American political history, laying out the principles that still guide our democracy today. The three authors--Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay--were respectively the first Secretary of the Treasury, the fourth President, and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in American history. Each had played a crucial role in the events of the American Revolution, and their essays make a compelling case for a new and united nation, governed under a written Constitution that endures to this day. The Federalist Papers are an indispensable guide to the intentions of the founding fathers and a canonical text in the development of western political thought. This is the first edition to explain the many classical, mythological, and historical references in the text, and to pay full attention to the erudition of the three authors, which enabled them to place the infant American republic in a long tradition of self-governing states.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Synopsis of The Federalist Papers

Select Bibliography

A Chronology of Events 1763-1791

Map of the United States c. 1789

The Federalist Papers 1

Appendix The Constitution of the United States (1787 and 1791) 433

Explanatory Notes 447

Thematic Index 467

Books about: Capitalist Diversity and Change or Seven Years That Changed the World

The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11

Author: Ron Suskind

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The Brothers Bulger or Roberts Ridge

The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century

Author: Howie Carr

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Roberts Ridge: A Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan

Author: Malcolm MacPherson

Afghanistan, March 2002. In the early morning darkness on a frigid mountaintop, a U.S. soldier is stranded, alone, surrounded by fanatical al Qaeda fighters. For the man’s fellow Navy SEALs, and for waiting teams of Army Rangers, there was only one rule now: leave no one behind. In this gripping you-are-there account–based on stunning eyewitness testimony and painstaking research–journalist Malcolm MacPherson thrusts us into a drama of rescue, tragedy, and valor in a place that would be known as...

ROBERTS RIDGE

For an elite team of SEALs, the mission seemed straightforward enough: take control of a towering 10,240-foot mountain peak called Takur Ghar. Launched as part of Operation Anaconda–a hammer-and-anvil plan to smash Taliban al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan –the taking of Takur Ghar would offer U.S. forces a key strategic observation post. But the enemy was waiting, hidden in a series of camouflaged trenches and bunkers–and when the Special Forces chopper flared on the peak to land, it was shredded by a hail of machine-gun, small arms, and RPG rounds. A red-haired SEAL named Neil Roberts was thrown from the aircraft. And by the time the shattered helicopter crash-landed on the valley floor seven miles away, Roberts’s fellow SEALs were determined to return to the mountain peak and bring him out–no matter what the cost.

Drawing on the words of the men who were there–SEALs, Rangers, medics, combat air controllers, and pilots–this harrowing true account, the first book of its kind to chronicle the battle for Takur Ghar, captures in dramatic detail a seventeen-hour pitched battle fought at thehighest elevation Americans have ever waged war. At once an hour-by-hour, bullet-by-bullet chronicle of a landmark battle and a sobering look at the capabilities and limitations of America’s high-tech army, Roberts Ridge is the unforgettable story of a few dozen warriors who faced a single fate: to live or die for their comrades in the face of near-impossible odds.

Know Your Power or The Dumbest Generation

Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters

Author: Nancy Pelosi

“Never losing faith, we waited through the many years of struggle to achieve our rights. But women weren't just waiting; women were working. Never losing faith, we worked to redeem the promise of America, that all men and women are created equal. For our daughters and our granddaughters today we have broken the marble ceiling. For our daughters and our granddaughters now the sky is the limit.” —Nancy Pelosi, after being sworn in as Speaker of the House

When Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House, she made history. She gavelled the House to order that day on behalf of all of America’s children and said, “We have made history, now let us make progress.” Now she continues to inspire women everywhere in this thought-provoking collection of wise words—her own and those of the important people who played pivotal roles in her journey.

In these pages, she encourages mothers and grandmothers, daughters and granddaughters to never lose faith, to speak out and make their voices heard, to focus on what matters most and follow their dreams wherever they may lead. Perhaps the Speaker says it best herself in the Preface: “I find it humbling and deeply moving when women and girls approach me, looking for insight and advice. If women can learn from me, in the same way I learned from the women who came before me, it will make the honor of being Speaker of the House even more meaningful.”

This is a truly special book to share with all the women you know. It is a keepsake to turn to again and again, whenever you need to be reminded that anything is possible when you know your power.

Publishers Weekly

Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House, offers her words of wisdom mixed with those from women who helped make her journey possible. Geared toward women both young and old, Pelosi's message is one of possibility and promise and her encouraging advice comes across clearly in her own inspired reading. With plenty of experience in public speaking, Pelosi displays a slightly different side of her personality and performance ability here, offering an extremely personal and relatable reading that draws listeners in with its honesty and earnestness. The final result is sure to inspire scores of young listeners, and reaffirm what many older listeners have known for a very long time: possibility is not limited to members of a particular sex, age or social class. A Doubleday hardcover (Reviews, June 2).(Aug.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents:

Pt. 1 Roots and Wings

1 Never Lose Faith 5

2 Declarations of Independence 9

3 An Open House 21

4 Love Happens 31

5 Be Open to the New 45

Pt. 2 Kitchen to Congress

6 Recognize Opportunity 61

7 Organize, Don't Agonize 69

8 A Voice That Will Be Heard 87

9 "Age Quod Agis": Do What You Are Doing 99

10 Think Outside the Beltway 109

Pt. 3 Know Your Power

11 A Seat at the Table 123

12 There Is No Secret Sauce 131

13 Remember When You Used to Cook? 141

14 The Qualities You Need 147

15 The Speaker and the President 155

16 What Matters Most 165

Index 175

New interesting textbook:

The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future

Author: Mark Bauerlein

This shocking, lively exposure of the intellectual vacuity of today's under thirty set reveals the disturbing and, ultimately, incontrovertible truth: cyberculture is turning us into a nation of know-nothings.

Can a nation continue to enjoy political and economic predominance if its citizens refuse to grow up?

For decades, concern has been brewing about the dumbed-down popular culture available to young people and the impact it has on their futures. At the dawn of the digital age, many believed they saw a hopeful answer: The Internet, e-mail, blogs, and interactive and hyper-realistic video games promised to yield a generation of sharper, more aware, and intellectually sophisticated children. The terms "information superhighway" and "knowledge economy" entered the lexicon, and we assumed that teens would use their knowledge and understanding of technology to set themselves apart as the vanguards of this new digital era.

That was the promise. But the enlightenment didn't happen. The technology that was supposed to make young adults more astute, diversify their tastes, and improve their verbal skills has had the opposite effect. According to recent reports, most young people in the United States do not read literature, visit museums, or vote. They cannot explain basic scientific methods, recount basic American history, name their local political representatives, or locate Iraq or Israel on a map. The Dumbest Generation is a startling examination of the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its consequences for American culture and democracy.

Drawing upon exhaustive research, personal anecdotes, and historical and socialanalysis, Mark Bauerline presents an uncompromisingly realistic portrait of the young American mind at this critical juncture, and lays out a compelling vision of how we might address its deficiencies.

Publishers Weekly

From the title forward, Emory University English professor Bauerlein's curmudgeonly screed lets the generalizations run wild. Dismissing the under-30 crowd as "drowning in their own ignorance and aliteracy," Bauerlein repeatedly laments how "teens and 20-year olds love their blogs and games, and they carry the iPod around like a security blanket." Rather than descend into a "maelstrom of youth amusements" (i.e., "rapping comments into a blog"), Bauerlein would have youngsters delve into the great books. (Nip ignorance in the bud, he reasons, because once adulthood sets in, "It's too late to read Dante and Milton.") Bauerlein's considerable research is obvious, but has he ever read a well-edited blog or interviewed an intellectually curious and tech-savvy student? Instead, he writes in a black-and-white myopia that comes close to self-parody; indeed, if it's true that "Twixters 22-to-30-year-olds don't read, tour museums, travel, follow politics, or listen to any music but pop and rap, much less...lay out a personal reading list," one can't help but wonder why Bauerlein, as an educator, doesn't take some responsibility.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ellen Gilbert - Library Journal

These two thoughtful, well-written books both decry the sorry state of literacy in this country and its myriad implications. Bauerlein (English, Emory Univ.), former director of research and analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, is no stranger to the evidence of the decline of reading in America and its cultural consequences in our society. He focuses on the "new attitude, this brazen disregard of...books and reading" among young people. Journalist Jackson is more inclusive in her devastating account of how all of us-not just students-have lost the capacity to pay sustained attention to anything longer than a PowerPoint presentation, claiming that she sees "stunning similarities between past dark ages and our own era." Much of Bauerlein's book is reminiscent of Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, and readers will probably take similar issue with some of Bauerlein's elitist pretensions (e.g., that kids read Harry Potter because other kids read it, not because they like it). These are well-informed and well-argued books, however, and both are highly recommended for all libraries.

The Motorcycle Diaries or Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder

The Motorcycle Diaries: A Latin American Journey

Author: Ernesto Che Guevara

These travel diaries capture the essence and exuberance of the young legend, Che Guevara. In January 1952, Che set out from Buenos Aires to explore South America on an ancient Norton motorcycle. He encounters an extraordinary range of people-from native Indians to copper miners, lepers and tourists-experiencing hardships and adventures that informed much of his later life.

This expanded, new edition from Ocean Press, published with exclusive access to the Che Guevara Archives held in Havana, includes a preface by Che's daughter, Aleida Guevara. It also features previously unpublished photos (taken by Che on his travels), as well as new, unpublished parts of the diaries, poems and letters.

"A Latin James Dean or Jack Kerouac."-Washington Post

"For every comic escapade of the carefree roustabout there is an equally eye-opening moment in the development of the future revolutionary leader. By the end of the journey, a politicized Che Guevara has emerged to predict his own revolutionary future."-Time

The publication of this new, expanded edition of The Motorcycle Diaries coincides with the release of Robert Redford's new film based on the Diaries. This film and another forthcoming from Steven Soderbergh in Fall 2003 will provoke even greater "Che-mania" and increase sales of all Ocean's titles on Che Guevara.

Book review:

Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions

Author: Michael Savag

Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder-

Michael Savage has the cure.

With grit, guts, and gusto, talk radio sensation Michael Savage leaves no political turn unstoned as he savages today's most rabid liberalism. In this paperback edition of his third New York Times bestseller, Savage strikes at the root of today's most pressing issues, including:

Homeland security: "We need more Patton and less patent leather . . . Real homeland security begins when we arrest, interrogate, jail, or deport known operatives within our own borders . . . One dirty bomb can ruin your whole day."

Illegal immigration: "I envision an Oil for Illegals program . . . The president should demand one barrel of oil from Mexico for every illegal that sneaks into our country."

Lawsuit abuse: "Lawyers are like red wine. Everything in moderation. Today we have far too many lawyers, and we're suffering from cirrhosis of the economy."

"Pure Savage. Very effective, very timely, very hot."

-American Compass Book Club

Table of Contents:

Contents

Preface....................xi
Introduction....................xix
1. More Patton, Less Patent Leather....................1
2. Unmasking Islamofascism....................29
3. Alien Invasion....................57
4. Traders vs. Traitors....................87
5. Arafat, Clinton, Kinsey: Sympathy for the Devil....................117
6. Head of the Snake: The ACLU....................147
7. The Red and the Blue....................167
Afterword....................203
Appendix: SavageSpeak Glossary of Savagisms....................207
Endnotes....................211

Mole People or The Challenge

Mole People: Life in the Tunnels beneath New York City

Author: Jennifer Toth

Thousands of people live in the subway, railroad, and sewage tunnels that form the bowels of New York City. This book is about them, the so-called "mole people" living alone and in communities, in the frescoed waiting rooms of long-forgotten subway tunnels and in pick-axed compartments below busway platforms. It is about how and why people move undergraound, who they are, and what they have to say about their lives and the treacherous "topside" world they've left behind. There are even the voices of young children taken down to the tunnels by parents who are determined to keep their families together, although as one tunnel dweller explains, "once you go down there, you can't be a child anymore." Though they maintain an existence hidden from the world aboveground, tunnel dwellers form a large and growing sector of the homeless population. They are a diverse group, and they choose to live underground for many reasonssome rejecting society and its values, others reaffirming those values in what they view as purer terms, and still others seeking shelter from the harsh conditions on the streets. Their enemies include government agencies and homeless organizations as well as wandering crack addicts and marauding gangs. In communities underground, however, many homeless people find not only a place but also an identity. On these pages Jennifer Toth visits underground New York with various straight-talking guides, from outreach workers and transit police to vetern tunnel dwellers, graffiti artists, and even the "mayor" of a large, highly structured community several levels down. In addition to chilling and poignant firsthand accounts of tunnel life, she describes the fascinating and labryrinthine physical world beneath the city and discusses the literary allusions and historical points of view that prejudice our culture against those who "go underground". Toth has gained unprecedented access to a strange and frightening world, but The Mole People is not a daredevil jo

Publishers Weekly

Toth's firsthand account of the sad, bizarre subculture of people who live in New York's abandoned subway tunnels and sewage lines. (Sept.)

Library Journal

``Mole people'' are the thousands of homeless people who live in the subway, railroad, and sewage tunnels of New York City. Drawing on her interviews with these tunnel dwellers, who speak candidly and demonstrate their humanness, journalist Toth pulls the reader into this nether world, revealing lives of addiction and abuse. She also portrays people who try to help, including a woman who teaches the children and a kind man known as the mayor who does all he can to help others survive. In providing a historical backround, Toth informs the reader that living underground was not always considered ``inhuman.'' Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-- Kevin Whalen, Montville Township P.L., N.J.

Look this:

The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power

Author: Jonathan Mahler

An inspiring legal thriller set against the backdrop of the war on terror, The Challenge tells the inside story of a historic Supreme Court showdown. At its center are a Navy JAG and a young constitutional law professor who, in the aftermath of 9/11, find themselves defending their nation in the unlikeliest of ways: by suing the president of the United States on behalf of an accused terrorist in order to prevent the American government from breaking the law and violating the Constitution.  

Jonathan Mahler traces the journey of their client, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, from the Yemeni mosque where he was first recruited for jihad in 1998, through his years working as a driver for Osama bin Laden, to his capture in Afghanistan in November 2001 and his subsequent transfer to Guantanamo Bay. It was there that Hamdan was designated by President Bush to be tried before a special military tribunal and assigned a military lawyer to represent him, a thirty-five-year-old graduate student of the Naval Academy, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift.                      

No one expected Swift to mount much of a defense. Not only were the rules of the tribunals, America’s first in more than fifty years, stacked against him, his superiors at the Pentagon were pressuring him to persuade Hamdan to plead guilty. But Swift didn’t believe that the tribunals were either legal or fair, so he enlisted a young Georgetown law professor named Neal Katyal to help him sue the Bush administration over their legality. In the spring of 2006, Katyal, who had almost no trial experience,took the case to the Supreme Court and won. The landmark ruling has been called the Court’s most important decision ever on presidential power and the rule of law. 

Written with the cooperation of Swift and Katyal, The Challenge follows the braided stories of Swift’s intense, precarious relationship with Hamdan and the unprecedented legal case itself. Combining rich character portraits and courtroom drama reminiscent of Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action with sophisticated yet accessible legal analysis, The Challenge is a riveting narrative that illuminates some of the most pressing constitutional questions of the post-9/11 era.

The New York Times - Jonathan Turley

With an engaging writing style and eye to detail, Mr. Mahler…takes the reader through Mr. Hamdan's evolution from a street urchin to one of a handful of "high value" enemy combatants…The Challenge is not just a very readable account of an important case. It is also an intimate account of the lawyers who overcame personal conflicts, animus and flaws to produce a decision for the ages. It is an intriguing tale of how a unique convergence of personalities propelled an unlikely dabab driver from Yemen to international prominence.

Publishers Weekly

In this account of the momentous Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Mahler (Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning) profiles key figures of the defense: JAG lawyer Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, constitutional law professor Neal Katyal and the defendant, Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver. The book chronicles this legal odd couple-Swift, the gregarious blowhard, and Katyal, the diligent straight man-as they struggle to keep their client alive in Guantánamo Bay and craft a case challenging the legality of President George W. Bush's military tribunals. The author narrates their burgeoning relationship with each other and their client-in one endearing passage, Swift seeks counseling for his relationship with Hamden at the same time that he seeks therapy to save his marriage. While Mahler skillfully humanizes the characters and institutions at the heart of the case, the book sags under detailed forays into arcane aspects of the American justice system and irrelevant personal vignettes that feel forced and slow the pace. For whatever dramatic tension the book lacks, Mahler amply conveys the heroism of his protagonists. (Aug. 13)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bob Nardini - Library Journal

In the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld(2006), the Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals established by the U.S. government to try its Guantánamo Bay detainees were unconstitutional. Mahler (New York Times magazine; Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning) bases this book largely on interviews with the two principal defense attorneys, Neal Katyal, a Georgetown University constitutional law professor, and Charles Swift, of the U.S. Navy's Judge Advocate General's Corps. Mahler does an excellent job of presenting the complex legal issues surrounding the case in a highly readable manner, but at the book's heart are his characterizations of Katyal and Swift and their relationship with each another, with their families, with the military, and with their client, Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni man captured in 2001, as they worked passionately, and against high odds, to win the case. While the book is a great read, its impact may be diluted because the further fate of the military tribunals, and of Hamdan himself, remains unclear, matters of decision in subsequent litigation. Highly recommended for all law, public, and academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ4/15/08.]

Kirkus Reviews

Near-exhaustive account of what some Supreme Court watchers consider "the most important decision on presidential power ever."Three days after 9/11, George Bush set in motion a program to try suspected terrorists as war criminals, not civilians, through military tribunals. The tribunals would be convened abroad, not just for security reasons but also to keep strict control over what information could leave the courtroom. An air base in Germany was considered and rejected, lest the Germans "try to exert a degree of authority over the facility," as New York Times Magazine contributor Mahler (Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning, 2005) notes. The Marshall Islands and other Pacific outposts lacked sufficient infrastructure. But Guantanamo Bay served well-it was remote from the press, yet accessible to the mainland. Up early for trial was a Yemeni jihadist named Salim Hamdan, initially recruited to go to Tajikistan and join an Islamic insurgency against the Russian-backed government. Instead, he fell in with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and worked as his bodyguard and driver. Captured in the American invasion, Hamdan was transferred to Cuba in December 2003. He made an ideal, low-hanging-fruit kind of defendant, since, among other things, he hadn't been rendered to a third country for interrogation, "which would open the door for his defense attorney to raise questions about his treatment." His defense attorney was a troubled naval officer who both belonged to the ACLU and recognized that he was committing career suicide, and who drew on a wide network of legal allies to press a constitutional case that argued, at its basis, that the president was overstepping the bounds of hisauthority. The argument made for strange allies (Ken Starr, anyone?) and an impressive array of foes, but it worked, convincing even a conservative Supreme Court. Naturally, the military and administration are working to get around the Court's decision, but for a brief moment, Mahler concludes, "the system worked."Though sometimes bogged down in legal minutia, quite understandably, Mahler's fluent account of events is essential reading for students of constitutional law-and anyone concerned with civil rights.