Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven?: The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate

By Frances Fox Piven
"Piven, the noted political scientist who along with her late husband, Richard Cloward, has long studied and advocated for political empowerment strategies for the American poor, offers a sampling of her academic articles prompted by the conservative radio host Glenn Becks virulent attacks on her. Reaching as far back as the early 1960s and concluding with a recent biographically detailed interview between the author and activist-philosopher Cornel West, Piven (Challenging Authority) eloquently dissects the structures of political influence. She concludes that disruptive actions by the poor (i.e., actions short of violence, such as rent strikes, that break the rules of the game) remain virtually the sole political means of addressing inequalities in a system from which they are largely excluded. Piven asks essential questions about and proposes solutions for the increasingly unequal distribution of political power (tied of course to the increasingly narrow concentration of economic power). After debt-ceiling deals and austerity cuts in the U.S., and riots in poor communities across England, these insightful, well-argued essays prove historically informative and remarkably timely, a true find for the general reader looking to make sense of political power in an imperfect democracy."  (Publisher's Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Darkmarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You

By Misha Glenny
"Investigative reporter Glenny (McMafia) takes readers into the seedy underworld of cybercrime, where nothing is as it seems and whose inhabitants are best known to peers and law enforcement agencies by their aliases: Matrix001, Iceman, Dron, Cha0, JiLsi, and Lord Cyric. With global roots that can be traced to Turkey, Sri Lanka, England, and the Ukraine, among other countries, digital lawlessnessperpetrated by an ever-evolving, often-invisible new breed of criminalcosts governments and businesses billions every year. But don't go looking for advice on how to protect yourself here. Rather, taking its name from the online forum for cyber criminals that was shut down in 2008 after an FBI agent infiltrated it using an alias, the book explores the rise of three fundamental threats facing computer users in the digital era: cybercrime, cyber industrial espionage, and cyber warfare. Glenny accomplishes the herculean task of converting cryptic and tangled information into short, gripping chapters that often read like a high-tech thriller (complete with a surprise ending). But the alternate universe he uncovers via 200 hours of interviews with the world's military and intelligence communities, police, politicians, lawyers, and the hackers themselves reveals a frightening, all-too-real network of geeky thieves possessing both superiority complexes and inferior consciences." (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Almost President: The Men Who Lost the Race But Changed the Nation

By Scott Farris
z"When former UPI bureau chief and political columnist Farris lost a 1998 race for Wyomings at-large congressional district, he was prompted to examine the role losers play in democracy. Farris notes that some unsuccessful White House aspirants have had a far greater impact on American history than many who became president: They created, transformed, and realigned our political parties. They broke barriers and taboos around religion and gender, ushered in new political movements]. Moving chronologically through 184 years, he finds past/present linkages as he profiles Henry Clay, Stephen Douglas, William Jennings Bryan, Al Smith, Thomas E. Dewey, Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, Ross Perot, Al Gore, John Kerry, and John McCain. In an in-depth essay on egghead Adlai Stevenson, the candidates soaring rhetoric is contrasted with presidents who believed in cultivating an everyman image. An appendix provides brief coverage of 22 more, including Hubert H. Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Bob Dole. Documenting changes in the face of America and the impact of such issues as race, religion, and workplace reform on elections, Farris writes with a lively flair, skillfully illustrating his solid historical research with revelatory anecdotes and facts."  (Publishers Weekly)  Check our Catalog

Black Market Billions: How Organized Retail Crime Funds Global Terrorists

By Hitha Prabhakar
"A labyrinthine study of how retail theft ripples down to fund international terrorism. An idea born from instant messages exchanged with a friend pushing knock-off handbags, Bloomberg Television reporter Prabhakar decided to "follow the money trail" through the complicated billion-dollar business of counterfeit and stolen retail merchandise. Her consistently distressing research illuminates how organized retail crime (ORC) thrives amid a recessive economy as penny-pinching consumers turn to cheaper ways of purchasing everything from luxury items to prescription and over-the-counter drugs. These seemingly minor shopping decisions, she writes, fuel intricately systematic rings of thieves who funnel millions of American-earned dollars into international terrorist cells, many functioning on American soil. Prabhakar's indignation is well supported by chapters on the many interlocking facets of black-market thievery, including the calculated machinations of insider and outsider thefts, the creation of money-laundering shell corporations, online "e-fencing," gift-card fraud and cigarette smuggling. The author chronicles her hours of interviews with authors, industry insiders, loss-prevention experts and key businessmen, many of whom remain anonymous. Law-enforcement case studies demonstrate gradual, hopeful inroads toward thwarting ORC movements with collaborative efforts between government agencies. Countering this is a series of thief profiles revealing a cunning, professional workforce. On a smaller scale, Prabhakar offers everyday advice on how to recognize (and avoid) the work of an ORC operative both online and on the streets, yet ultimately she believes that without the cooperation of state and federal law enforcement and retailers to aggressively regulate this black market, "the cycle will continue." Sharp-pencil analysis on the seemingly futile battle against retail fraud."  (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?

By Patrick J. Buchanan
"Is the U.S. headed for the same fate as the Soviet Union? Conservative commentator Buchanan draws parallels between the two nations' engagement in endless wars and apparent difficulty in making a cohesive culture out of a polyglot of races, tribes, cultures, creeds and languages, amounting to imperial overstretch. He points to the George W. Bush years as the beginning of massive government debt and financial crisis but targets Barack Obama for compounding financial and geopolitical problems. The nation has abandoned economic nationalism and fiscal prudence and fostered the decline in morals and strict religious values, all at a time of declining birthrates among white Americans and an influx of racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse populations. As the nation becomes less white and less Christian, we are headed for disaster, he warns. Buchanan sees in the popularity of Sarah Palin and the rise of the Tea Party hope for a return to conservative fiscal and moral values. Whether or not readers agree with his politics, they will appreciate his passion and concern."  (Booklist)  Check Our Catalog

Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis

By James Rickards
"Rickards, experienced financial adviser, investment banker, and risk manager, tells us we are in a new currency war that could destroy faith in the U.S. dollar; he examines that war through the lens of economic policy, national security, and historical precedent. As a national security issue, he tells a fascinating story of his involvement with the Pentagon and other agencies in designing and participating in a war game using currencies and capital markets, instead of ships and planes, to gain early warning of attacks on the U.S. dollar. The author concludes that mainstream economists and central bankers alike are well aware of dollar weakness and the risks to international monetary stability from the new currency wars. He sees four prospects for the dollarmultiple reserve currencies, special drawing rights, gold, and chaos. Rickards' ideas are controversial and will attract support and criticism across many disciplines. Nevertheless, he presents a compelling case for his views and offers thought-provoking information for library patrons."  (Booklist)  Check Our Catalog

Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--And a Plan to Stop It

By Lawrence Lessig
"Harvard Law School cyber-law expert Lessig (Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, 2008, etc.) turns his attention to what he believes to be rampant institutional corruption destroying American democracy.
While the U.S. Congress has lost credibility because of widespread conviction that senators and representatives are bought and paid for by special interests, the author argues that this is the fault of a system that has gone out of control rather than the personal venality of politicians. Lessig, a one-time conservative who supported President Obama, attributes this to systematic economic deregulation over the past 20 years, which has allowed for the concentration of wealth into the hands of a small number of individuals who now wield disproportionate power."  (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

The Big Handout: How Government Subsidies and Corporate Welfare Corrupt the World We Live in and Wreak Havoc on Our Food Bills

By Thomas Kostigen
"A lively polemic in favor of the elimination of government subsidies, especially on food and energy products.
Whether success would be the panacea that MarketWatch environmental ethics columnist Kostigen (The Green Blue Book: The Simple Water-Savings Guide to Everything in Your Life, 2010, etc.) envisions for us is another matter, but while we await the answer, he provides much high-density fare concerning how our food is produced and what it is doing to us, and how the subsidy system is uniting food and energy production. The author calculates that we all spend about $10,000 per year for subsidies out of an average tax bill of $17,000, and that everything would be cheaper without them. His main concerns are the "Big Five" staple crops—corn, wheat, soy, rice and cotton—and oil production. Kostigen discusses how production methods have changed since the 1970s with the corporate takeover of family-based farm enterprise, and how the financial system has been perverted to support vertically integrated factory farming and food distribution. The subsidy system in the United States has made local production of food staples difficult elsewhere—e.g., it has destroyed Haiti's rice production and severely damaged Mexico's corn production. Kostigen does not take into account that in countries where subsidies were abolished or reduced (e.g., "shock therapy" in the former Soviet Eastern Bloc), rapidly rising prices combined with shortages for disastrous results. Also, the increasing concentration of wealth in the U.S. reduces the usefulness of measures like the "average tax bill" in estimating actual benefits of policies.
While such matters continue to be discussed, Kostigen provides a forceful statement of the need to reorganize food and other primary goods production in the U.S., for reasons of both economy and health."  (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog
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Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure America's Border

By Jan Brewer
"Governor Brewer details the scope of the immigration problem and its impact on Arizona, and she makes a case for allowing states to override federal authority when necessary. Concise and hard-hitting, "Scorpions for Breakfast" is sure to be a clarion call to help citizens understand this vital issue and its implications not only for Arizona, but the entire nation."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Iran

By Dilip Hiro
"In this comprehensive new treatment, a renowned political writer and historian places the politics, peoples, and cultural background of this critical region firmly into the context of current international focus."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington

By Rick Perry
"In his latest book, Governor Perry (On My Honor) offers a compelling defense of federalism and the dangers of a vast bureaucratic central government, though he's selective with supporting facts. Perry argues that the enumerated powers of the Constitution given to us by Madison and Jefferson, guaranteed under the Tenth Amendment, must be restored. States should govern closer to the people, with each state functioning as a "laboratory." Perry defends Massachusetts's state-run health care and supports the ability of states to attract "like minded" people and compete with each other. Liberty is under threat by progressives from each party, an overzealous Supreme Court, and fiscally unsustainable government programs. Perry charges Washington with failing to meet its "statutory obligations" when it comes to illegal immigration. With candor, Perry compares Social Security to a Ponzi scheme that "hoodwinked the American public" into thinking that it is "financially sound, when clearly it is not." True to his orthodoxies, he ditches federal programs and regulations. But beyond revealing his own beliefs, Perry highlights an overlooked history of growing federal power and the purpose of the states as a matter of Constitutional law and prudent governance."  (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters?: The Mormon Church Versus the Office of the Presidency of the United States of America

By Tricia Erickson
" The information in this book goes much deeper than the unveiling of Mitt Romney's political record. For the first time in history, we could see a Mormon President at the helm.
Do you have any idea what this possible next President believes? Why should his religious beliefs matter to you?
When you get through Part I of this book, these questions will be answered. This is NOT a Kennedy Catholic moment. Mitt Romney's beliefs and convictions are so uncanny that you will most assuredly question his judgment to be in charge of the highest office in the land.
If Part I does not shake you, Part II will, by exposing the reality of what Romney has "done" in his political career, versus the conservative fa ade that we are led to believe. Will his rhetoric match his deeds as President? One look at his record herewith will cause great concern."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

This Is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the White House

"Growing up poor in the segregated South, Cain describes how he pulled himself out of the depths of poverty and became successful the old-fashioned way. His strong beliefs and values have helped him in his career and personal life, and he reveals his self-made secrets in this memoir."   (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy

By Bill Clinton
"President Bill Clinton gives us his views on the challenges facing the United States today and why government matters--presenting his ideas on restoring energyeconomic growth, job creation, financial responsibility, resolving the mortgage crisis, and pursuing a strategy, job creation, and financial responsibility and offering a plan to get us "back in the future business." He explains how we got into the current economic crisis, and lays down a plan for long-term prosperity. He offers specific recommendations on how we can put people back to work, increase bank lending and corporate investment, double our exports, restore our manufacturing base, and create new businesses. He supports President Obama's emphasis on green technology, saying that change changing in the way we produce and consume energy is the strategy most likely to spark a fast-growing economy while enhancing our national security.
Clinton also stresses that we need a strong private sector and a smart government working together to restore prosperity and progress, demonstrating that whenever we've given in to the temptation to blame government for all our problems, we've lost our ability to produce sustained economic growth and shared prosperity.commitment to shared prosperity, balanced growth, financial responsibility, and investment for the future."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World

By Michael Lewis
"The cheap credit available from 2002 to 2008 radically transformed societies worldwide, with Icelanders tossing aside their fishing gear to become bankers, for instance. Then the crunch came, and many of these societies are stumbling about as part of the "new Third World." As a greedy debtor nation, we're not so far behind."  (Library Journal)  Check Our Catalog

Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation Is Remaking America

By Morley Winograd
"In this timely analysis of demographic data, Winograd and Hais (Millennial Makeover) examine the habits, values, and desires of the generation born between 1982 and 2003. Turning away from the apathetic and introverted attitudes of Generation X, the disillusioned idealism of the boomer generation, and the pragmatism of the silent generation, Millennials most resemble the G.I. generation, which supported the New Deal and oversaw a radical reshaping of government's role in improving quality of life in America. Like the G.I.s, Millennials are a "civic generation," one that responds to fear, uncertainty, and doubt by attempting to better the world through public service, personal engagement, and demand for a transparent and responsive government. The most racially diverse and ideologically tolerant population the U.S. has ever known, Millennials are also the best networked group of humans in history. Believing that every consumer choice, every vote, every blog post and tweet matters, young people come of age expecting to be heard and to make change. Although still gaining momentum, Millennial thinking has already proved itself powerfulthe networked grassroots organization that elected Barack Obama is the book's most persuasive example. Though general readers might be put off by the academic quality of Winograd and Hais's prose, the book offers important insights into the dynamic, interdependent forces that will shape America's future."  (Publishers Weekly)   Check Our Catalog

Red Alert: How China's Growing Prosperity Threatens the American Way of Life

By Stephen Leeb
"The U.S. was galvanized by the terrorist attacks of September 11, but according to economist Leeb, what we should have been worrying about was the contemporaneous emergence of China's enormous impact on commodity conservation and use. By 2012, the Chinese will hold a leading position in every aspect of renewable energy. Leeb argues that we as a nation are not paying enough attention to the threat of China's growing influence; he paints a picture of our government as fundamentally scattered and shortsighted, though his ire isn't aimed at any particular administration. Our political and economic systems don't lend themselves to tackling major problems until they reach crisis proportions, whereas the Chinese are relentlessly long-term thinkers (furthermore, their leaders don't have to answer to a fickle electorate). While we have no plan as to how to secure or develop our resources, China does, and its drive for growth means that its leaders will leave carbon reduction (and other initiatives) to the free market. Though he does touch upon the potential problems China will face, his main purpose is to provoke Americans to wake up to a situation that threatens to destroy our economy and our environment. Terse, well-reasoned, and comprehensive, this is a much-needed shot in the arm for American complacency."  (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars

By Sylvia Longmire

"Overview of the war on drugs being fought without relief in Mexico and the United States.
In her debut, Longmire is a longtime analyst of drug trafficking, advising government agencies on the realities and solutions that might mean a few victories along the porous, violence-ridden U.S.-Mexican border. The author covers a lot of material in a relatively brief book, sometimes giving the text the feel of linked encyclopedia entries. Still, the prevalence of breadth over depth is no major shortcoming, since Longmire offers fresh insights into almost every facet of the war on drugs. She makes a convincing case that within the United States, the violence stemming from illegal substances has caused more injuries and deaths than generally acknowledged by law-enforcement agencies. Those casualties are in addition to the dangers of ingesting contaminated narcotics sold and purchased illegally. Mexican drug organizations have established sizable marijuana growing fields within national parks and forests throughout the United States. When law-enforcement officers or unsuspecting civilians enter the fields, their lives might be endangered by trigger-happy Mexican criminals determined to protect their lucrative cash crops from detection. The most frequent danger from infiltrated marijuana fields seems to be concentrated in California. Longmire demonstrates, however, that potential free-fire zones have cropped up in North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee and other states far from the Mexican border. Switching aspects of the drug war chapter by chapter, Longmire explains why law-enforcement agents have been mostly unable to halt the flow of weapons from the United States into Mexico. Legalization of currently illegal substances will never serve as a panacea, writes the author, but strategic legalization might alleviate some of the violence.
One-stop shopping for basic knowledge about U.S.-Mexican narcotics diplomacy."   (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

Plastic Ocean: How a Sea Captain's Chance Discovery Launched a Determined Quest to Save the Oceans

By Capt Charles Moore
"In 1997, Moore, captain of the oceanographic research vessel Alguita, discovered what became known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive plastic soup... lightly seasoned with plastic flakes, bulked out here and there with dumplings: buoys, net clumps, floats, crates and other macro debris  floating between Hawaii and California. This now-famous discovery led Moore, already a long-time environmentalist, to become a scientist-activist focusing on what others concerned with oceanic plastic proliferation had ignored: the plastic confetti created by ultraviolet light and ocean chemicals granulating the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste that have washed, blown, or been dumped into the ocean. In this sobering, impassioned book, Moore chronicles his attempts to mitigate the insidious effects of these bits, which are ingested by ocean creatures and can work their way up the food chain to poison humans. Moore, the grandson of a president of Hancock Oil, is also able to guide the reader through a history of plastic, the chemical process of plastics production, and its indestructibility and threat to our world. He covers some of the same ground as Susan Freinkels Plastic, but his scientific background takes his investigation deeper."  (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America

By Shawn Lawrence Otto
"In this incredible book, Otto, the great-grandson of Charles Darwin, explores the devaluation of science in America. His exhaustively researched text explains the three-pronged attack on science: how right-wing Christian fervor discredits evolution; how post-modernism and cultural sensitivity makes people believe that objective truth doesn't exist; and how corporations discredit scientists in order to further economic agendas. Otto also shows how Christian beliefs aren't traditionally anti-science, and how America went from a nation that valued scientific achievement to one suspicious of it. By attacking science, America diminishes its capacity to compete in the global marketplace, and endangers the world for future generations. The accessible book will inform scientists about what has happened to their field, provide an overview for laypeople, and allow educators to equip themselves to address these issues for the next generation and reverse this troubling trend."  (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Disordered World: Setting a New Course for the Twenty-First Century

By Amin Maalouf

"From a distinguished journalist and award-winning novelist, an extended essay with an urgent warning: The world is on the brink of disaster, and humanity must act now to avert it.
Maalouf (Origins: A Memoir, 2008, etc.), a Lebanese Christian living in Paris, looks at the tensions between the Western world and the Arab world from a unique perspective, and what he sees is more than a clash of civilizations. Both, he writes, have reached their limits and are morally bankrupt. Now is the time for human beings to build a common civilization that respects and benefits from cultural diversity; not to do so, he warns, means that we will "descend together into a common barbarity." In chapters aptly titled "Hollow Victories" and "Lost Legitimacy," he writes knowledgeably of the history of relations between the Arab world and the West. In his third chapter, "Imaginary Certainties," Maalouf explores the relationship between politics and religion and between countries and their immigrant populations, and he gives his arguments for taking collective action now to deal with the grave threat of global warming. He presents two visions of the world's future: one in which humanity is divided into tribes that detest one another but share a bland global culture, and another in which humanity is united around common values but continues to develop rich, diverse expressions of culture. Doing nothing leads to the first; to achieve the second requires making what he calls a step-change. Maalouf describes himself as in a state of worried anticipation, but with a measure of hope. He gives four reasons for his hopefulness about humanity's ability to ward off the decline: the increasing pace of scientific progress, the continuing emergence of populous nations from poverty, the example of cooperation shown by the European Union, and the election of Barack Obama, which he sees as an indication of the reawakening of a great nation.
Eloquent and full of passion."  (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India

By Siddhartha Deb
"Deb grew up in northeastern India, won a fellowship to Columbia, published two novels plus lots of reviews and other pieces (e.g., "Boston Globe, n + 1"), then returned to India to work underground for the "Guardian" at a call center in New Delhi. He turned his experiences into this account of the massive contradictions of India, where BMWs idle before gentle cows. India's future matters, and as a novelist Deb should give his writing a narrative arc." (Library Journal)  Check Our Catalog

Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle Over Health Care Reform

By Paul Starr

"In Pulitzer Prizewinning author and presidential advisor Starr's latest effort, he achieves two daunting tasks. First, he objectively draws together the threads of myriad voices and special interests in the century-long American health-care debate and weaves them into a wholly comprehensible pattern. Sadly, it is a pattern of self-destructive behavior of epic proportions wherein the U.S. has repeatedly shot its health-care hopes in the foot and then wondered why it wasn't healing. Indeed, due to a series of radical social and political national mood swings, the entire history reads more like the script for a Punch and Judy puppet show than a focused effort toward a single goal. However, unlike in other industrialized democracies, it appears that such chaos may have to be the fate of a country still trying to invent itself. Second, Starr cogently explains the highlights of the recently passed and highly controversial Affordable Care Act, including important background information that accounts for the law's necessary complexity. In sum, this self-admitted universal-health-care advocate and seasoned realist leaves readers questioning, as he does, whether Americans can summon the elementary decency toward the sick that characterizes other democracies."  (Booklist)  Check Our Catalog

Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide

By Joshua Goldstein
"American University professor and international relations expert Goldstein argues that military conflicts are on the retreat globally. Using analysis and statistics, he rebuts the claim that the 20th century was among the bloodiest in human history, that civilian casualties in warfare have been increasing as a proportion of total casualties, along with violence against women, and that the number of wars being fought has been increasing since World War II. Goldstein contends that peace is a worthwhile objective for its own sake, even without other causes, such as social justice or economic reform. Goldstein reviews the history and development of U.N. peace keeping operations from their inception under Ralph Bunche and Count Bernadotte in Palestine, and while surveying the world's ongoing armed struggles, he presents leading peace research institutes (such as the one in Uppsala, Sweden) and researchers (such as the late Randy Forsberg on nuclear weapons). In addition, he reveals the flawed nature of casualty estimates based on epidemiological models that were employed for the Congo and Iraq. The result is an optimistic, if controversial, assessment by a respected anti-war advocate."  (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President

By Ron Suskind
"How did the Obama administration handle the financial crisis? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Suskind, whose books routinely appear near the top of the "New York Times" best sellers list, put in hundreds of hours interviewing administration figures (and the President himself) to discover how the battle between Washington and Wall Street played out."  (Library Journal)  Check Our Catalog

Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State

By Dana Priest
""The government has built a national security and intelligence system so big, so complex and so hard to manage, no one really knows if it's fulfilling its most important purpose: keeping its citizens safe." As stated on the website of the "Washington Post", that's the thrust of this book, derived from a series that the "Post" published. Two years in the making, the series was written by multiple Pulitzer Prize winner Priest and Arkin, who has reported on national security for more than three decades. Appearing in July 2010, the series has so far received 11 million hits."  (Library Journal)  Check Our Catalog

Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America

By Adam Winkler
"Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA, mines 400 years of debate over gun control in America to analyze the Supreme Court's landmark 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller in this timely and persuasive history. Dismissing the extremist "gun nuts" and "gun grabbers" who have dominated the gun debate for decades, the author clearly shows that the right to bear arms and gun control have always coexisted in the U.S.even on the frontier where guns and gun regulation were widespread. The brainchild of a pair of libertarian lawyers, the Heller case revolved around the District of Columbia's total ban on handguns and the contention of Heller's lawyers that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual's right to own guns. Clearly mirroring the impasse over the issue, it offered the courts a rare opportunity to point toward a historically valid compromise position. In 2008, after five years of dramatic litigation, the Supreme Court struck down D.C.'s handgun ban and recognized the plaintiffs' individual rights theory while still noting that many forms of gun control are constitutional. In the tradition of 1976's Simple Justice and 1964's Gideon's Trumpet, Winkler skillfully weaves together history and contemporary jurisprudence to explore a contentious issue of constitutional interpretation."  (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World

By Daniel Yergin
"Possibly nobody in the world knows more about the staggering geopolitical complexities of global energy than Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and CNBC's global energy expert. His celebrated prior work on the subject, "The Prize", won a Pulitzer and was adapted into a PBS/BBC documentary series. The world today is vastly different, though, and there is currently a need for just such a book as his new one, which has equal sweep, depth, and narrative power as its predecessor. In five parts, he examines the rise and fall of "petro states," the future of electrical power, global climate change, renewable and sustainable energy sources, and alternative fuels. The exhaustive primary sources include original research and technical reports, government reports and hearings, and numerous personal interviews."  (Library Journal)  Check Our Catalog

The Unraveling: Pakistan in the Age of Jihad

By John Schmidt
"Schmidt, a career foreign officer and political analyst, ominously chronicles how a country conceived with great hopes as a homeland for South Asian Muslims has become "the most dangerous place on Earth." In a clear and systematic analysis of Pakistan's history, he examines the country's beginnings in the partition of India in 1947, exploring the rise of the feudal civilian politicians and the Pakistani army that now dominate Pakistan's politics, and who, united in their enmity toward India, nurtured jihadist groups as "low-cost weapons of war" to defend their contested territory in Kashmirand fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Indeed, as Schmidt explains, the ruling classes' slavishness to the patronage system leaves them unable to address Pakistan's systemic problems, which include rampant illiteracy and the mushrooming of madrassas that serve as feeder institutions for many of Pakistan's radical Islamic groups. As radical Islamists continue to attack civilian targets, Pakistan's leaders waver between pursuing them and seeing if they can still be used to advance Pakistani interests; Pakistan still fears India more than the Taliban. Covering Pakistan's hostile relationship with India and uneasy alliance with the U.S., this thought-provoking, evenhanded, and sobering history is a "cautionary tale" about the choices Pakistan s ruling classes have made that threaten to bring it to the brink of destruction." (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Where China Meets India; Burma and the New Crossroads Of Asia

By Thant Myint-U     "An illumining look at a country torn between two emerging superpowers.Former UN diplomat Myint-U (The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma, 2006, etc.) takes readers through his home country in this mixture of travelogue and history. The author begins by discussing the rising powers of China and India, and then turns to the small country caught in the middle, which has served as a buffer between these two countries for centuries. With crisp, clear, authoritative prose, Myint-U chronicles his journeys from Rangoon to Mandalay, explaining the complex culture and history of the Burmese. Aware that most Western readers will not be overly familiar with the history of his country, the author takes great pains to explain the most basic details of Burmese history and geography without being patronizing. From the unfinished Burmese civil war to their wars against the British, Myint-U successfully conveys how Burma's past has affected what it has become. The author then turns to China and India, journeying to the areas closest to Burma. He provides comprehensive insight into Burma's precarious situation, as well as an understanding of its possibilities for the future. He leaves readers pondering the implications of a democratic Burma and how that might affect the Sino-Indian rise to power in the region.

In a whirlwind tour through Burma's history, politics, culture and geography, Myint-U makes a successful case for its importance in South Asia's future."  (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools

By Steven Brill                

"In this politically charged, insightful take on U.S. educational reform, journalist Brill (The Teamsters) weaves stories of successes and failures into his snapshots of the education system. With a focus on disadvantaged New York City schools, portraits of individuals such as Wendy Kopp (founder of Teach for America) and Dave Levin (founder of the Knowledge is Power Program, a network of charter schools), provide context and commentary. Levin seems hopeful about President Obama's reforms, though he concedes: "we finally seem motivated, but it's going to take a long time." Brill suggests policy should be less about resources, and more about "school systems where the adults never sit down." However, investigations into such initiatives reveal pitfalls from burnout to incompetent teachers abusing unions, all of which compromise the future of America's youth. Brill paraphrases in a thrilling fashion, hinting at scandals, examining phenomena such as "Rubber Rooms" and the Widget Effect, and relaying impromptu speeches in Manhattan apartments from Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama. An advocate for "spending smarter, not spending more," his reform ideas may seem vague. However, with each piece of the puzzle, this philosophy gains clarity. Though his fly-on-the-wall approach can feel disjointed, his concluding remarks will spark debate. "  (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

The Anatomy of Israel's Survival

By Hirsh Goodman
"Chronicle of the existential insecurity that has tipped Israel's fall from grace, and a strong plea to quit its role as occupying power to the Palestinians.
As a senior associate at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, former journalist Goodman (Let Me Create a Paradise, God Said to Himself: A Journey of Conscience from Johannesburg To Jerusalem, 2005, etc.) is both a devoted citizen of Israel and well-meaning critic deeply concerned about the future of his country. In these pointed essays, he examines the Arab-Israeli cycle of conflict that has plagued Israel from its founding, when a country of largely Holocaust survivors defeated a hostile consortium of Arab states against all odds in 1948 so that the survival motto of "never again" became the national mantra: "paranoia was seen as a national value, great freedoms were afforded the security organizations, generals were Israel's soccer stars, and the secret service, the silent heroes of the day." Hubris dogged the new nation, swollen with the world's Jewish refugees, while the remnants of ragged, resentful Palestinians were used by Arab states as pawns in striking at Israel. "Myopic" leaders like Golda Meir could not envision equal treatment for the Palestinians, and the assassination of Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin helped derail the peace process, soon followed by revenge attacks, suicide bombs and four years of the Second Intifada. Goodman sees Ariel Sharon's decision to shed Gaza and its Palestinians in 2005 as a necessary excision of a "cancer" eating away at Israel's moral center, not to mention the economic drain. The author considers the threat to Israel's north, the toll of bad press on Israel's image, its relationship with the United States (and very powerful AIPAC lobby), the prickly issue of Jerusalem and, finally, the essential democratic structure of the young, vital country. In short, Israel cannot sanction another collapse of peace.
Tapping into his access to the defense structure, Goodman does a solid job depicting Israel's "ball of thorns.""  (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog

The Digital Divide: Arguments for and Against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking

By Mark Bauerlein
"This definitive work on the perils and promise of the social- media revolution collects writings by today's best thinkers and cultural commentators, with an all-new introduction by Bauerlein.
Twitter, Facebook, e-publishing, blogs, distance-learning and other social media raise some of the most divisive cultural questions of our time. Some see the technological breakthroughs we live with as hopeful and democratic new steps in education, information gathering, and human progress. But others are deeply concerned by the eroding of civility online, declining reading habits, withering attention spans, and the treacherous effects of 24/7 peer pressure on our young.
With "The Dumbest Generation," Mark Bauerlein emerged as the foremost voice against the development of an overwhelming digital social culture. But The Digital Divide doesn't take sides. Framing the discussion so that leading voices from across the spectrum, supporters and detractors alike, have the opportunity to weigh in on the profound issues raised by the new media-from questions of reading skills and attention span, to cyber-bullying and the digital playground- Bauerlein's new book takes the debate to a higher ground."  (Publisher Marketing)  Check Our Catalog

A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism

By Daniel Byman
"In the sixty-plus years of the Jewish state's existence, Israeli governments have exhausted almost every option in defending their country against terror attacks. Israel has survived and even thrived--but both its citizens and its Arab neighbors have paid dearly.
In A High Price, Daniel Byman breaks down the dual myths of Israeli omnipotence and--conversely--ineptitude in fighting terror, offering instead a nuanced, definitive historical account of the state's bold but often failed efforts to fight terrorist groups. The product of painstaking research and countless interviews, the book chronicles different periods of Israeli counterterrorism. Beginning with the violent border disputes that emerged after Israel's founding in 1948, Byman charts the rise of Yasir Arafat's Fatah and leftist groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine--organizations that ushered in the era of international terrorism epitomized by the 1972 hostage-taking at the Munich Olympics. Byman follows how Israel fought these groups and new ones, such as Hamas, in the decades that follow, with particular attention to the grinding and painful struggle during the second intifada. Israel's debacles in Lebanon against groups like the Lebanese Hizballah are also examined in-depth, as is the country's problematic response to Jewish terrorist groups that have struck at Arabs and Israelis seeking peace.
In surveying Israel's response to terror, the author points to the coups of shadowy Israeli intelligence services, the much-emulated use of defensive measures such as sky marshals on airplanes, and the role of controversial techniques such as targeted killings and the security barrier that separates Israel from Palestinian areas. Equally instructive are the shortcomings that have undermined Israel's counterterrorism goals, including a disregard for long-term planning and a failure to recognize the long-term political repercussions of counterterrorism tactics.
Israel is often a laboratory: new terrorist techniques are often used against it first, and Israel in turn develops innovative countermeasures that other states copy. A High Price expertly explains how Israel's successes and failures can serve to inform all countries fighting terrorism today."  (Publisher Marketing)  Check Our Catalog

Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

By Ralph Richard Banks
"Banks, a Stanford law professor, examines why black Americans maintain the lowest marriage and highest divorce rates in the nation, focusing most sharply on the high likelihood a black woman will remain single, a product of the scarcity of black men in the marriage market, their number depleted by high incarceration rates. This "man shortage" leaves those who are available in high demand and with less impetus to commit to one woman. In the U.S., wives earn a larger percentage of the household income than ever and are more likely to have completed college than their husbands. This trend is most acute among African-Americans, which coupled with how African-American women outperform their male counterparts contributes to the high African-American divorce rate. Banks suggests that black women should stop being so willing to "marry down" and consider "marrying out"marrying nonblack men. Such a choice restores equality to black male and female relationships by depriving black men of the power they enjoy as the result of being scarce commodities. Furthermore, Banks argues provocatively, "for black women, interracial marriage doesn't abandon the race, it serves the race." Peppered with interviews and candid opinions about marriage and relationships, this is a surprisingly intimate scholarly work; the sobering topic is tempered by the author's easy-to-read, captivating style."  (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Pinched: How the Great Recession Has Narrowed Our Futures & What We Can Do About It

By Don Peck
"When the "Atlantic" hit the newsstands in March 2010, the cover story "How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America"—written by deputy editor Peck—kicked up quite a storm. It generated over 700,000 page views in three weeks, was printed out by some 100,000 people, and attracted the attention of President Obama, who had it distributed throughout the White House. In this expansion, Peck argues that the aftermath of the current recession will be long and hard and will affect everyone regardless of age or class. While he assesses government efforts to ease the pain, he seems to aim mainly at providing a sobering portrait of where we are now and where we'll be in the foreseeable future."  (Library Journal)  Check Our Catalog

U.S. Infrastructure (The Reference Shelf)

Edited By Paul McCaffrey
"This anthology explores the state of American infrastructure, from roads, bridges, and mass transit systems to water, electricity, and communication grids. Among the issues examined are the roles of private industry and federal, state, and local governments in building and maintaining these systems. Consideration is also given to how these systems impact the environment, the economy, and society at large.... Breached Levees, Fallen Bridges: Is American Infrastructure in Crisis? ;. Highways, Byways, and Railways: Transportation Infrastructure ; The Train Debate: Can Rail Revolutionize American Transport? ;  The Grid: Power and Communications Networks.;  From Taps to Toilets: Waterworks."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, from Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith

By Sonia Arrison
"Sonia Arrison brings over a decade of experience researching and writing about cutting-edge advances in science and technology to "100 Plus," painting a vivid picture of a future that only recently seemed like science fiction, but now is very real. "100 Plus" is the first book to give readers a comprehensive understanding of how life-extending discoveries will change our social and economic worlds. This illuminating and indispensable text will help us navigate the thrilling journey of life beyond 100 years."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children

By Joel Bakan
" As a nation, we've moved from a progressive era of protecting childhood to a time of cultural domination by heartless corporations freed of regulation and obligations to protect or at least do no harm to children. Consequently, a relentless marketing machine targets children, researching their wants and needs and deliberately undermining parental authority, says Bakan, author of the highly acclaimed The Corporation (2004). He carefully details how marketers callously study children and adolescents and then, using sex and violence, manipulate their vulnerable emotions to cultivate consumerism and compulsive behaviors through television programming based on products to social media networks that captivate them and dominate their personal identities. He goes on to detail how pharmaceutical companies influence medical science to justify targeting psychotropic drugs to children, how corporations dump chemicals without regard to their potential to harm children, and how school systems are increasingly dominated by corporations more interested in making profits than educating children. All of this is happening while the government, concerned about protecting commerce, declines to put the interest of children first. Bakan offers passionate argument and copious research in this compelling call for parents to stand up for their children."  (Booklist)  Check Our Catalog

The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency

By Randall Kennedy

"Renowned for his cool reason vis-a-vis the pitfalls and cliches of racial discourse, Kennedy--former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Harvard professor of law, and author--gives us shrewd and keen essays on the complex relationship between the first black president and his African-American constituency."  (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

Can Intervention Work? ( Amnesty International Global Ethics )

By Rory Stewart

"A sober assessment of what "intervention" can and cannot accomplish.
British Parliament member Stewart (The Places In Between, 2006, etc.) and Knaus, the founding chairman of the European Stability Initiative, are not opposed to intervention per se, but they argue that many of its premises, and certainly the implementation, are faulty. Stewart takes up failures in execution of intervention especially in Afghanistan, and Knaus shows that the Bosnian precedent, often considered a model for success, was anything but. In Afghanistan, there is a mismatch between means and ends—the spending of $14 billion per year just on training the military and police cannot be sustained by a government with a budget of just $1 billion per year. Knaus deconstructs a succession of untruths or exaggerations about the Balkans War, where the so-called Brcko model was based on giving plenipotentiary or almost vice-regal powers to an administrator. After becoming generalized there, the program was transferred to Iraq, along with personnel, under the Coalition Provisional Authority. Knaus shows that the successes attributed to the model are largely mythical and that what was accomplished by the CPA was based largely on models other than those implemented in Bosnia. Stewart and Knaus stress that lip service to rhetorical or administrative formulas and standards and exaggeration of threat and achievement are no substitutes for truthfulness.
Two experienced authors effectively identify what those who decide to make such interventions require for success, that what is required often does not exist and that brute force is not a viable alternative."  (Kirkus Reviews)   Check Our Catalog

State vs. Defense: The Battle to Define America's Empire

By Stephen Glain

"The image of the U.S. around the world is projected not by diplomats or doctors but by soldiers, a presence more consistent with an empire than a republic, asserts foreign correspondent Glain, who spent 14 years in Asia and the Middle East. Because of its budget and political clout, the Defense Department has come to have a greater presence abroad than the State Department. U.S. military forces abroad grew significantly during the Cold War and the heightened sense of a Communist threat and hasn't receded with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Indeed, it threatens to fan aggression with China. The U.S. has neglected the budgets of diplomats and allowed language skills and morale to erode even as it has failed to adapt to changing geopolitics that include rising regional powers, Glain says. He analyzes U.S. defense policy since 1947, showing how we have arrived at our current situation of having a volunteer military and a civilian population with little connection to war other than through paying the enormous financial price of supporting it."  (Booklist)  Check Our Catalog

Three Famines: Starvation and Politics

By Thomas Keneally
"Famines are often classified as natural disasters, brought on by causes as various as drought, crop infestation, and flooding. This masterful study of three modern famines confirms that causation is often more complicated. Keneally examines the Irish potato famine that began in 1845, the 1943 Bengal famine, and recurring famine in 1970s and '80s Ethiopia. In each case, nature played a role in triggering a disruption in the supplying of food. But actions, inactions, indifference, and incompetence on the part of governments intensified the problems, leading to the avoidable demise of millions."  (Booklist)  Check Our Catalog

The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World

By Jay Bahadur
"Bahadur delivers a riveting narrative expos--the first ever--that examines Somalian pirates, how they live, the forces that have created piracy in Somalia, how they spend the ransom money, and how they deal with their hostages."   (Publisher Description)  Check Our Catalog

The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists

By Charles Kurzman
"Kurzman, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, poses a provocative question: given anti-Western sentiment in many parts of the Muslim world and the ease of committing violent acts, why do so very few of the world's billion-plus Muslims turn to terrorism? The author's answers to this intriguing question take the reader through a history of "liberal Islam"defined as distinctly Islamic discourse about key ideals from Western liberalism such as human rightsa close examination of the role of radical Islam in the Muslim world and the backlash against it; and an exploration of what he calls "radical sheik," or the "cool" factor of Islamist leaders like Osama bin Laden. Impeccably researched, tightly organized, and enriched by his personal experiences in the Middle East, Kurzman's work is a useful primer on the state of the modern Muslim world as well as a solid argument for re-evaluating the threat of terrorism today and our reactions to it. Though some may disagree with his conclusions, in this lucid call for perspective Kurzman has written an important and timely work that should be appreciated by the expert and layperson alike."  (Publishers Weekly)  Check Our Catalog

Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World

By Robin Wright
"In one of the first of a flood of books that will inevitably follow Osama bin Laden's death and the Middle East uprisings, Wright (Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East, 2008, etc.) delivers the stirring news that jihadism is fading, and Arab nations are finally entering the modern world...More journalism than deep analysis, the book paints a vivid portrait of dramatic changes in the Islamic world that may or may not end well.  (Kirkus Reviews)  Check Our Catalog.