A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah's Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel

By Thanassis Cambanis
"American journalist Cambanis has spent much of the last decade observing the Middle East from within its most intractable struggles, most notably while on the front lines of Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah. The extremist Shi'ite organization is notorious for not granting high-level access to Western journalists and for tightly controlling whatever lower-level representatives might say, but Cambanis spent three years getting past the script "to write with humanity about reviled characters." Interviewing fighters in the field, nurses tending to the wounded, refugees on the road, and think-tank pundits enabled him to probe the real motivations, histories, and ambitions of Hezbollah's followers and better understand their devotion to "war without end" and an "ideology designed to rebound and flourish under assault." As such, Cambanis provides crucial insights to those who might hope to counter Hezbollah's increasing power and influence in the region, as well as an important reminder that in any war, one's enemies are human." (PW Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

Health Care Turning Point; Why Single Payer Won't Work

By Roger Battistella
"In this concise book Battistella (health policy & management, emeritus, Cornell Univ.) manages to take shots at most arguments made by both the left and the right in the health-care reform debate. He stresses the need for universal coverage but promotes a consumer-driven model, based on the premise that if each of us has to face the real costs of insurance and care, we will make better choices, driving costs down. Part of his ideal redesign would end employer-based coverage, but insurance companies selling to individuals mandated to buy policies would not be permitted to discriminate based on age or health status, and sliding-scale government subsidies would still be needed. Politicians, doctors and hospitals, insurance companies, and consumers all share the blame for where we are, he argues. VERDICT Battistella's book is well sourced, and he does a reasonable job of presenting arguments he disagrees with along with his own views. The controversial ideas are presented in a nonconfrontational way and clearly enough to appeal to readers trying to understand the spectrum of ideas on this topic." (LJ Reviews) Check Our Catalog

Give Us Liberty; A Tea Party Manifesto

By Dick Armey
"Unlike mainstream media accounts that observe the Tea Party movement from the outside looking in, Give Us Liberty chronicles the roots and rise of a new breed of taxpayer activism in the voices of those who were there. Discover the personalities that drove the first meetings, the unknown candidates whose principled stand earned them unlikely victories, the march that gathered more than a million activists, and the bedrock beliefs that brought them together.
In this national call to action, Armey and Kibbe provide an intimate history of the movement, explain how citizens can join the cause, and chart the future of the Tea Party—and America. Give Us Liberty also contains a battle-tested, step-by-step guide to organizing and effecting change in any community." (Publisher Description)  Check our Catalog

How to House The Homeless

By Ingrid Gould Ellen
"How to House the Homeless sharpens our thinking about how housing policy can end homelessness as we know it. Its top-flight interdisciplinary group of authors offers a fresh review of key programs and policies including Housing First, subsidized housing, and land-use regulations. It is a must read for anyone who wants to understand fundamental debates in the field, challenging us to consider why assisted housing is the answer---and why it can never be the answer." (Publisher Description)   Check Our Catalog

Five Miles Away; A World Apart; One City, Two Schools & The Story Of Educational Opportunity In America

By James E. Ryan
"Ryan (law, Univ. of Virginia Sch. of Law) tells the compelling and scrupulously researched story of two schools, one urban (Thomas Jefferson High School) and one suburban (Freeman High School), located five miles apart in Richmond. The author delves into the politics of public education and school finance reform and provides fascinating glimpses into the societal forces that keep public schools racially and economically segregated. Ryan makes the points that racial and socioeconomic isolation (in the cities, suburbs, and exurbs) prevents equal educational opportunities and that housing policy should be linked to school policy. He gives many examples from around the nation related to school choice, vouchers, charter schools, standardized testing, and funding disparities. The author makes sense of key court cases and the many acronyms that punctuate any discussion of education reform. Verdict Highly recommended for readers interested in education, public policy, political science, law, and especially the intersections among these areas.-(LJ Reviews)
  Check Our Catalog

Were You Born On The Wrong Continent?

by Thomas Geoghegan
"Labor lawyer and Europhile, Geohegan (Which Side Are You On?) makes a passionate case for the high-tax, regulation-heavy model of life on the Continent. Using Germany as a model, he argues the middle class is the real beneficiary of European social democracy--its members reap free education, free child care, free nursing home care, guaranteed vacation time, and generous unemployment payments--while their white-collar American counterparts struggle to pay for the same. "Europe is set up for the bourgeois," writes Geohegan. "America's a great place to buy kitty litter at Wal-Mart and relatively cheap gas. But it's not set up for me, a professional without a lot of money." While he's quick to acknowledge that critics seize on labor's costs and prominence as a potential path to the collapse of the system, he's convinced of the framework in place. The narrative unspools in a chatty, anecdotal style; it's jumpy, appealingly digressive, and winning, all the more so for being such an unabashed polemic that refuses to be resigned to the rising rate of inequality in the U.S"  (PW Reviews)
Check Our Catalog

More Davids Than Goliaths; A Political Education

By Harold Ford Jr.
"Harold Ford Jr. has long distinguished himself as a charismatic, results-oriented politician with fresh ideas. His career began at age 26 after he won his father’s Congressional seat, serving his Tennessee district for ten years. He stepped into the national spotlight with his electric keynote at the 2000 Democratic National Convention, and in 2006 his reputation was further shaped during the closest Senate race in Tennessee’s history, which he lost. Ford feels passionately that our country’s best days are ahead, and in More Davids Than Goliaths, he presents his mission statement for America. "  (Publisher Comment)

Check Our Catalog

Playing Our Game; Why China's Rise Doesn't Threaten The West

By Edward Steinfeld
"Contrary to the perception that China's rise as a superpower is a threat to America, Steinfeld (political science, Massachusetts Inst. of Technology; Forging Reform in China) argues that the opposite is true: China's growth not only solidifies America's trade dominance but democratizes China, forcing the authoritarian regime to "play by the rules" of American trade diplomacy. Even though the majority of Chinese products are assembled for export to the West, elements of those products are bought from the West: American global production has increased since China's liberalization of its economy. Although both Chinese and Americans benefit from China's global integration, the implications for China's social and economic development are enormous, as the majority of its citizens earn so much less than Americans, with few luxuries or a social safety net, and the country's most talented researchers are gravitating to the West. VERDICT A superb analysis of the political economies of China and the United States, dispelling some of the myths of China's rise as a superpower. Recommended for all interested in globalization and Chinese-American global relations.-"  (LJ Reviews)
Check Our Catalog

A Short History Of Celebrity

By Fred Inglis
"With breathtaking range and panache, A Short History of Celebrity provides a keenly observed interpretation of the emergence of modern transatlantic popular culture. At once learned and accessible, Inglis's vivacious prose reveals the contradictions of icons as diverse as Joshua Reynolds and Lord Byron, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. His insights into the popular heroes of art, literature, the stage and screen (including television), as well as politics and public life, enable us to appreciate continuities that stretch across two-hundred-and-fifty years."--Richard D. Brown, professor emeritus,
Check Our Catalog