Cut It Out: The C-Section Epidemic in America

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"Trinity College sociologist Morris combines a broad understanding of systemic, organizational problems and how they impact behavior with statistics and 130 interviews with maternity patients and birth professionals to examine the country's rising C-section rate and low rate of vaginal births after cesarian (VBAC) attempts. As Morris notes, C-sections increase the risk of maternal complications while not appearing to impact birth outcomes significantly. Challenging conventional wisdom, Morris's interviews reveal that some doctors feel their hands are tied by the legal system, for which a prompt C-section indicates that the hospital has fulfilled its responsibilities to the patient in the event of a lawsuit; hospital policies like constant fetal monitoring, which limits the movement a laboring mother needs to facilitate a vaginal birth, and the requirement that mothers who have already had cesarians cannot have vaginal births for subsequent children; and medical training that no longer teaches methods of delivering breech or multiple births vaginally. The author's suggestions include changing insurance rules to compensate women and children with poor birth outcomes independent of fault; encouraging the use of doulas, midwives, and out-of-hospital care; counting C-section rate as a hospital quality measure; and loosening policies that reduce physician choice. Morris's powerful book deserves the attention of policymakers"  (Publishers Weekly)

The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters

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"Fans of the lively, character-driven nonfiction of writers like Kurt Eichenwald and Ben Mezrich should welcome this book with open arms. It's a potentially dry story: a bunch of guys try to make a lot of money by hammering subterranean rock formations (shale, mostly) with liquid, breaking them up, allowing the trapped-in natural gas to come to the surface. This is hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking, and, in Zuckerman's hands, the topic generates a surprisingly entertaining story about Big Men with Big Ideas, the highly competitive (and, in some cases, increasingly desperate) search for a new and potentially highly profitable source of energy. Zuckerman also explores the often passionate and outspoken opposition to the drilling procedure (for some, fracking doesn't just sound like a dirty word; it is one), although he doesn't come down on one side or the other. He shows us the beneficial side of fracking and the potentially environmentally disastrous side, and lets us find our own ground to stand on. A lively, exciting, and definitely thought-provoking book." (Booklist)

The Weight of the Nation ( 2012 ) ( HBO Documentaries )

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" Developed in partnership with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) at the National Academies of Science, in association with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and with support from Kaiser Permanente and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, The Weight of the Nation is one of the largest public health campaigns on obesity the nation has seen to date."   (Publisher Description)

The Bankers' New Clothes: Whats Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It

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"Recent worldwide banking crises have forced governments to bail out and subsidize large banks because of what Admati (economics, Stanford Graduate Sch. of Business) characterizes as an ill-informed public perception that the institutions were too big to fail. Other misconceptions about the banking industry are addressed here as well, especially the false assumption that there is a tradeoff between banks' capital requirements and growth and profit. This book takes readers inside the global banking industry, examines the intricacies of banking operations, and addresses the major problems, including the banking system's overall "fragility." Macro solutions are offered that, the author maintains, will make the infrastructure more stable. Especially interesting is the discussion of how the current system rewards rather than penalizes risky decision making by individual bankers. VERDICT This title is a must read for management and human resource professionals within the banking industry as well as government policymakers. With its clear explanations, many examples, and analogies, the book is accessible to readers who do not have business backgrounds and who want to better understand banking."  (Library Journal)

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way

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"Though the U.S. spends more to educate its students than almost any other country, its teenagers rank 26th in math, below Finland (third), Korea (second), and Poland (19th). Yet in "a handful of eclectic nations... virtually all kids learning critical thinking skills in math, science, and reading." Setting out to discover how this happened, veteran journalist Ripley (The Unthinkable) recounts the experiences of three American teens studying abroad for a year in the education superpowers. Fifteen-year-old Kim raises $10,000 so she can go to high school in Finland; Eric, 18, trades a leafy suburb in Minnesota for a "city stacked on top of a city" in South Korea; and Tom, 17, leaves Gettysburg, Pa., for Poland. In addition to these three teenagers, Ripley interviews educators, students, reform-minded education ministers, and others. In riveting prose, Ripley's cross-cultural research shows how the education superpowers value rigor above all else; the "unholy alliance" between sports and academics in the U.S.; why math eludes the average American teenager; what parents in the educationally successful countries do; and how the child poverty rate doesn't necessarily affect educational outcomes. This timely and inspiring book offers many insights into how to improve America's mediocre school system."  (Publishers Weekly))

Should We Tax the Rich More?: The Munk Debate on Economic Inequality

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"As middle-class incomes stagnate in advanced economies while the rich experience record income gains, the 11th semi-annual Munk Debate pits wealth redistribution supporters Paul Krugman and George Papandreou, against Newt Gingrich and Arthur Laffer to debate taxation -- should the rich pay more? For some the answer is obvious: redistribute the wealth of the top income earners who have enjoyed, for almost a generation, the lion's share of all income gains. Imposing higher taxes on the wealthy is the best way for countries such as Canada to reinvest in their social safety nets, education, and infrastructure while protecting the middle class. Others argue that anemic economic growth, not income inequality, is the real problem facing advanced countries. In a globalized economy, raising taxes on society's wealth creators leads to capital flight, falling government revenues, and less money for the poor. These same voices contend that lowering taxes on everyone stimulates innovation and investment, fueling future prosperity. With advanced countries facing overextended social services, crumbling infrastructure, and sluggish economic growth, this premiere debate series on economic inequality tackles the essential public policy issue: Should we tax the rich more?"  (Publisher Description)

The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics - And Can Again

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"Opening with the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and ending with the disillusionment that characterized the final months of George W. Bush's presidency, Scarborough ultimately takes today's Republican party to task for squandering opportunities to attain and hold power. By revisiting Eisenhower's understated diplomacy, Barry Goldwater's fierce rhetoric, and Reagan's gift for channeling and connecting with voters, [this book] ... demonstrates how today's GOP has undermined its own cause and in doing so, fails the nation"--"  (Publisher's Description)

Killing Machine: The American Presidency in the Age of Drone Warfare

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"Straightforward, rigorous account of how President Barack Obama's embrace of high-tech militarism is changing the parameters of the presidency. Gardner (Emeritus, History/Rutgers Univ.; The Road to Tahrir Square: Egypt and the United States from the Rise of Nasser to the Fall of Mubarak, 2011, etc.) presents a deeper narrative than the title implies, essentially utilizing the George W. Bush administration's decision to pursue war in Iraq at the expense of the Afghanistan campaign necessitated by 9/11 as a flash point that altered our ability to respond to terrorist threats. Thus, though the author concurs that Obama the constitutional scholar "fell into the embrace of Reaper and Predator drones by circumstances beyond his control," he still holds responsible the president and his various high-end deputies for blithely advocating their increased use in controversial environments like Pakistan and Yemen. Gardner excels at presenting a lucid narrative that focuses on both dramatic military events--such as the pursuit of the U.S.-born firebrand preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, put on the drone "kill list" after the 2009 "underwear bomb" attempt against an American airliner--and the complex ballet of political calculations that underlie America's aggressive foreign policy stance. Attentive to the issue's legal and moral complexities, the author depicts the insidious qualities of drones' attractiveness to both Obama and his many advisers, beyond the threat of imminent terrorism embodied by al-Awlaki: "Fighting insurgencies was supposedly a different matter altogether, and there was the rub." Ultimately, the high-tech lethality and legal obfuscation of drone warfare both suggest a handy metaphor for American power and a terrifying portent of the global future: By 2011, following American dissatisfaction with the ground war in Afghanistan, it seemed "the drone had replaced counterinsurgency." And even though the increased reliance on drones appeared cost-free, "Obama found himself in danger of losing control of the momentum of drone warfare" as he looked past his own second term. An evenhanded yet grim assessment of the growing consensus regarding "the lethal presidency." (Kirkus Reviews)

The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More Is Getting Us Less

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"Bradley, faculty director of Yale University's Global Health Leadership Institute, and Taylor, the institute's former program manager, contrast American healthcare models with the much more successful models in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Scandinavian model, a dramatically more holistic approach envisioning citizen health as inextricably linked to national welfare, views greater spending on housing, education, employment, and nutrition as necessary components of healthcare outcomes, resulting in less overall spending with far greater results. The authors assemble an expansive study of representatives from the health-care and social sectors, including hospital administrators, social workers, physicians, police, emergency service personnel, nurses, educators, and pharmacists to demonstrate the need for integration between medicine and social welfare in the U.S. The disconnect between social services and health care, and the deeper historical schism between public and private interests, emerges as the reason why the U.S., which ranks first in healthcare spending, is mired in disappointing health outcomes. Admirably presented as an apolitical examination of an urgent situation, Bradley and Taylor's carefully researched and lucidly reported findings, including innovative approaches in Connecticut, Oregon, and California, offer what appears to be an easily rendered fix, but their equally striking depiction of uniquely American hostility to government involvement in private matters, exposes a daunting uphill battle."  (Publishers Weekly)

The New Soft War on Women: How the Myth of Female Ascendance Is Hurting Women, Men-And Our Economy

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"Rivers (journalism, Boston Univ.) and Barnett (senior scientist, Women's Studies Research Ctr., Brandeis Univ.) take on today's recurring argument that discrimination against women has largely disappeared (see, e.g., Hanna Rosin's "The End of Men: And the Rise of Women"). It's our damaged men and boys, we often hear, who warrant our attention. Any close observer of the economic, political, and social roles of women today knows that discrimination against women endures, with biases that still harm women and families reliant on women for support. Rivers and Barnett point out that in some areas, such as reproductive health, women's rights are not gaining but eroding. In page after page, these authors catalog the barriers that women still confront: lower wages, hostility toward "aggressive" women, favoritism toward men who enter traditionally female occupations, and penalties for both men and women who take time off for family care, among others. They support their argument with solid data and illuminating anecdotes. Their prescription for progress is, however, disappointing: "We must move from rhetoric to action." Feminist organizations, national and local, do push for action, but to little avail in the current political environment. VERDICT Readers interested in women's circumstances today will appreciate this book."  (Library Journal)

The Myth of America's Decline: Politics, Economics, and a Half Century of False Prophecies

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"A provocative and contrarian work--filled with great lessons from history--that challenges the pervasive notion that America is on the decline."  (Publisher Description)

Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation

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"An earnest, informative companion to the PBS series on the largest and fastest-growing minority in the United States: Latinos, now numbering more than 50 million. Journalist and PBS commentator Suarez (The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, 2006) notes that, among nations, only Mexico contains more Hispanics than the U.S. "At some point in the 2040s," writes the author, "a slim majority of Americans will trace their ancestry to people who arrived in this country from someplace other than Europe." Beginning in the 17th century, Suarez reminds readers that when Englishmen arrived at Massachusetts and Virginia to settle or look for riches while despoiling and killing Indians, Spaniards and colonists from Mexico had been doing the same for 50 years in Florida and the Southwest. After a review of Spanish New World exploration and capsule histories of Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico that emphasize their usually painful relations to the U.S., Suarez concentrates on America's Latino legacy from the 19th century to the present. Two themes predominate: racism and immigration. Although not as murderous as that against blacks, discrimination against Latinos has an equally long and troubled history that turns out to be no less true for white America's fear of being overwhelmed with Hispanics pouring across our border. True to TV documentary format, Suarez includes the story of an individual with every section. Few will be familiar, yet many should be--e.g., Jose Marti, the hero of Cuban independence, or Juan de Onate, founder of the first white settlement in the Southwest. Matters improve greatly as the author approaches the present day and points with pride to famous Latinos from Desi Arnez to Albert Pujols. More journalistic guide than history, the book provides a satisfying antidote to average readers' disturbing ignorance of America's Hispanic heritage."  (Kirkus Reviews)

Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel

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"A rich, roiling examination of "the State of Israel during a period of deepening political and societal crisis." From the gory details of Operation Cast Lead, when Israel pummeled the Gaza Strip with laser-guided missiles in late 2008, through the right-wing election sweep soon afterward of Bibi Netanyahu and the unleashing of racist, nationalist elements and rushes for new settlements, Blumenthal (Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, 2009) tracks the escalating rhetoric and violence in episodic fashion. Having established himself in various parts of Israel over the ensuing years to observe and flush out the action--he recognized he could sail through airport security since, as an Ashkenazi Jew, he "would be automatically afforded special rights according to the designs of Zionism"--Blumenthal is an enterprising reporter, finding lessons in vanished Palestinian neighborhoods, such as once-thriving Jaffa, before the Israelis drove out the residents, razing homes and appropriating land; and hanging out at the Knesset, which he sarcastically calls the "Fortress of Democracy," where he chased down various cronies of right-wing Avigdor Lieberman's party to explain a series of alarming proposals enacted to suppress Palestinian expression. With acquiescent support of the left as well as the general Israeli public, the legitimization of (to Western readers) frightening cultural concepts like homogeneity and Judaization has instigated what Blumenthal and some of his left-leaning interviewees call fascist measures in a once-lively democracy, where a dissenting version of the official narrative is not permitted. Government officials, young educated Arabs, border police, journalists, Army refuseniks and rabid nationalists: Blumenthal taps them all in this vivid and relentlessly negative portrait of Israel. Dense, in-the-trenches reportage revealing details that go from grim to grimmer"  (Kirkus Reviews)

The XX Factor: How the Rise of Working Women Has Created a Far Less Equal World

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"In this provocative and vital new book, British economist Wolf (Does Education Matter?) addresses the "widening gap" between highly educated professional women and less-educated working women. The consequences of this gap run deep. Education affects whether women have children, how many they have, and at what age they have them; how early they have sex; how likely they are to divorce; and, critically, how much money they earn. The book's first section addresses women in the workforce and covers higher education and money (including the return of the servant classes, without which "elite women's employment would splutter and stall"); the second addresses the domestic sphere, including sexual behavior ("With the Pill everything changed"). While the book focuses on British and American women's lives, Wolf's cross-cultural view traverses the globe (she discusses China, India, France, Sweden, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, to name a few, but not sub-Saharan Africa); nor are men absent from her analyses. Accessibly written and enlivened with anecdotes and interviews, Wolf's research is thoroughly documented and features uncommonly informative footnotes and helpful graphs. Her assessment of how things have changed since the time when "marriage was women's main objective and main career" and the ways in which "the modern workplace detaches our female elites from both history and the rest of female-kind" will yield productive controversy. "  (Publishers Weekly)

Exodus: How Migration Is Changing Our World

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"An economist and expert on the world's poorest populations analyzes who migrates, why and the effects on host societies. Collier (Economics/Univ. of Oxford; The Plundered Planet: Why We Must--and How We Can--Manage Nature for Global Prosperity, 2010, etc.) considers migration from poor to rich nations and what immigration policies are most appropriate. Eschewing the emotional responses often associated with his topic, he insists that "Is migration good or bad?" is the wrong question. Rather, he focuses on how much is best, hoping that his evidence-based study will help governments manage the flow. "[H]igh emotion and little knowledge" have created huge differences in migration policies (Japan is closed to immigrants), with most officials making value- rather than evidence-based judgments. Collier writes at length about the critical roles of diasporas, which make the cost of migration fall and provide much-needed help to the newly arrived. As diasporas grow (chiefly in big cities, in the United States and elsewhere), more migrants are likely to come, and fewer are absorbed into mainstream society. He notes that migrants are winners in the process. Mostly young, able to afford the high costs of migration and willing to take the risks, they tend to succeed. They do not compete closely with indigenous workers, writes Collier, but their earnings are driven down by the arrival of additional immigrants. The biggest losers are the people left behind in poor, mainly African nations, which lose their brightest and most talented, gaining somewhat from remittances. In all, migration does not have significantly adverse effects on host societies, writes the author, but nations must set ceilings on the sizes of diasporas. That way, migration will achieve a sustainable rate and not accelerate to a point where it becomes damaging. Valuable reading for policymakers. (Kirkus Reviews)

'White Girl Bleed a Lot': The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It

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"'White Girl Bleed a Lot' was written for the deniers - reporters and public officials who, despite overwhelming evidence, deny that black mob violence has reached epidemic levels in America.
But massive video proof means denial is no longer an option as many of these cases are now on YouTube. And for the first time, readers will be able to scan QR codes to actually witness the racial violence on video as they read about it in the book.
Thus, readers will finally be able to experience the huge difference between what big city newspapers say is happening and what the videos prove is really happening.
To be released by WND Books October 15, the new edition of 'White Girl Bleed a Lot': The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It documents over 500 cases of black mob violence in more than 100 cities around the country.
Writing in National Review, Thomas Sowell said: "Reading Colin Flaherty's book made painfully clear to me that the magnitude of this problem is greater than I had discovered from my own research. He documents both the race riots and the media and political evasions in dozens of cities."
The new edition of 'White Girl Bleed a Lot' documents - with 500 footnotes - black mob violence in the bigger cities, where some might expect it: Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, St. Louis. But also in other cities where many are surprised at the intense and frequent racial violence - places like Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Charlotte, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Las Vegas, Kansas City.
And even smaller cities like Peoria, Springfield, Greensboro, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Champaign, Utica, Rochester, Syracuse, Long Island, Wilmington, Dover, New Haven, Meriden, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Virginia Beach, Columbia, Birmingham, Knoxville, Memphis, Miami Beach, Norfolk, Columbus, Madison and many more.
Readers will learn about "Beat Whitey Night" at a Midwest state fair. And how a Chicago police chief blamed the violence on Sarah Palin and the Pilgrims. And how Oprah Winfrey gave $1 million to a Philadelphia charter school, only to see its students on video assaulting a white person shortly thereafter.
And how gays and Asians and women are particular targets. And how, despite the growing violence, one congressman and former mayor said his city should not crack down on it because it would "just make a lot of black kids angry."
Readers will also learn how some people are fighting back. Unlike most books about race, 'White Girl Bleed a Lot' is not about causes. Or solutions. Or apologies. Or guilt. Or political correctness.
There are no stereotypes or generalizations. No racism or rancor. Just facts.
It has been featured in major national news sites including CNN, Salon, WND, Orange County Register, and more than 100 talk radio stations around the country. Anthony Cumia, of the popular "Opie and Anthony Show," calls 'White Girl Bleed a Lot' a "great book,"...(Publisher Description)

The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives

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"Destitution, squalor, loneliness, and despair are the distinctive features of lower-class America in this searing expose. Recalling Michael Harrington's The Other America, journalist Abramsky (Inside Obama's Brain) meets and profiles an extraordinary range of people and predicaments: indigent retirees at food pantries; Mexican migrant laborers in desert shantytowns; a middle-class professional woman reduced to prostitution after a spell of unemployment; low-wage workers unable to make ends meet and forced into a daily "eat or heat'" dilemma. He shows us the persistence of brute hunger, homelessness, and deprivation, but also sensitively probes the psychic wounds of being too poor to sustain friendships and social life, of feeling like a worthless cast-off in a society that worships wealth. The author sharply critiques the skimpy benefits and humiliating regulations of current welfare programs and lambastes conservatives who want to further shred the safety net. His prescription for a "Robin Hood" program a laundry list of new entitlements, minimum-wage hikes, public works, and the like lacks focus, but has the inestimable virtue of throwing money at people who sorely need it. Abramsky's is a challenging indictment of an economy in which poverty and inequality at the bottom seem like the foundation for prosperity at the top"  (Publishers Weekly)

In the Balance: Law and Politics on the Roberts Court

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"A distinguished constitutional law scholar examines the complex, occasionally surprising interplay of law and politics that explains decisions from our closely divided, highest court. Constitutional jurisprudence involves reasoning from rules and precedent, the sort of legal analysis any lawyer or judge well understands, but it's also shaded by a uniquely political dimension. By "politics," Harvard Law School professor Tushnet (Why the Constitution Matters, 2011, etc.) means nothing so bald as the latest partisan dispatch from Democratic or Republican headquarters, but rather the "political structures and political visions" that produce nominees for the court, account for the principles and philosophies of the justices, shape arguments brought to the Supreme Court for adjudication, and frequently tip the balance in decisions. If the intellectual leadership of the Roberts Court passes from the chief justice to, say, Justice Elena Kagan--as it may if Obama is afforded future nominations--the shift will be attributable to this operation of politics on the court's judgments. Tushnet teases out his argument with chapters devoted to the Roberts Court's decisions on Obamacare, especially, and on other major cases dealing with affirmative action, gun rights, business interests, campaign finance and the First Amendment. The author is particularly good on the vetting process for justices, explaining how each party and president (with fingers crossed) approachs the selection of nominees. But the court, as Tushnet points out, plays a long game, and the mere passage of time can upset today's careful political calculation. Things change, including the composition of political parties, the makeup of the court and the relations among the justices. Moreover, when politics and law mingle, as a number of the First Amendment decisions demonstrate, the "conservative versus liberal" narrative is not always so straightforward. Tushnet is an informed, experienced observer--he clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall and owes his Harvard appointment to then-dean Kagan--and he proves a sure-footed guide in difficult terrain. A treat for obsessive court watchers that's accessible to general readers."  (Kirkus Reviews)

The Syria Dilemma ( Boston Review Books )

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"The United States is on the brink of intervention in Syria, but the effect of any eventual American action is impossible to predict. The Syrian conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions, yet most observers warn that the worst is still to come. And the international community cannot agree how respond to this humanitarian catastrophe. World leaders have repeatedly resolved not to let atrocities happen in plain view, but the legacy of the bloody and costly intervention in Iraq has left policymakers with little appetite for more military operations. So we find ourselves in the grip of a double burden: the urge to stop the bleeding in Syria, and the fear that attempting to do so would be Iraq redux.
What should be done about the apparently intractable Syrian conflict? This book focuses on the ethical and political dilemmas at the heart of the debate about Syria and the possibility of humanitarian intervention in today's world. The contributors--Syria experts, international relations theorists, human rights activists, and scholars of humanitarian intervention--don't always agree, but together they represent the best political thinking on the issue. "The Syria Dilemma" includes original pieces from Michael Ignatieff, Mary Kaldor, Radwan Ziadeh, Thomas Pierret, Afra Jalabi, and others. Contributors: Asli B?li, Richard Falk, Tom Farer, Charles Glass, Shadi Hamid, Nader Hashemi, Christopher Hill, Michael Ignatieff, Afra Jalabi, Rafif Jouejati, Mary Kaldor, Marc Lynch, Vali Nasr, Thomas Pierret, Danny Postel, Aziz Rana, Christoph Reuter, Kenneth Roth, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Fareed Zakaria, Radwan Ziadeh, Stephen Zunes."  (Publisher Description)

The New Middle East: The World After the Arab Spring

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"For decades, America's foreign policy in the Arab world ostensibly dedicated to preserving regional stability and ensuring a constant flow of oil "dealt on very personal terms with the ruling family elite." Yet "some of those key relationships have gone, " leaving the U.S. at a loss as to how to approach the region at the very moment when engagement is most critical. In his first book, the BBC's new U.S. bureau chief (previously, bureau chief of the Middle East) explores how revolutionary fervor and growing Islamism are forcing the U.S., Israel, Iraq, and Iran to reassess their priorities and restructure their alliances. Like reactions to the Arab Spring, the book begins optimistically but grows progressively darker. Speaking of post Arab Spring difficulties, Danahar cogently notes that building a representative democracy is "not a learning curve, a sheer cliff" made all the more precipitous by mixed messages from the international community. (To illustrate this, Danahar juxtaposes Hillary Clinton's condemnation of "the use of violence by Egyptian police... against protestors" with the fact that the tear gas canisters used by those police sported labels declaring "Made in the U.S.A.") Danahar's analysis and projections are incisive and will appeal to policy wonks, while his conversational tone and ability to engage with a wide range of subjects will benefit a general readership."  (Publishers Weekly)

Reign of Error : the hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America's public schools /

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"A former assistant secretary of education, Ravitch has been at the forefront of educational debate for more than 40 years. Her 2010 book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System", sums up her loud-spoken opposition to test-based measurements of teacher success and the entire charter movement. Here she counters doomsday claims regarding test scores and dropout rates and highlights class as the cause of inequality today"  (Library Journal)

The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty

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"Vanity Fair contributing editor Munk (Fools Rush In: Jerry Levin, Steve Case, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner) spent six years chronicling the Millennium Villages Project, the pet project that lauded economist Sachs (The End of Poverty) launched in 2006. The project's goal was an audacious attempt to prove Sachs's well-intentioned, but ultimately naive theories about ending extreme poverty in Africa by focusing on a handful of carefully selected villages with the expectation that their halo effect would spread throughout the country. Munk artfully observes how Sachs's infectious enthusiasm and optimism bring attention (and funding, including million from George Soros) to the fledgling organization at home and abroad. Sachs ably illustrates how tactics like lacing mosquito nets with insecticides to fight malaria can make significant headway in achieving a larger goal of helping communities improve their circumstances and chances for development." It's a noble effort, but Sachs and his compatriots soon find that they wildly underestimated the difficulty of distributing those crucial nets, the impact of drought, as well as the learned helplessness of the recipients. All of these factors contribute to a less-than-ideal outcome. Students of economic policy and altruistic do-gooders alike will find Munk's work to be a measured, immersive study of a remarkable but all-too-human man who let his vision get the best of him."  (Publishers Weekly)

A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America

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"In "A Country of Cities," author Vishaan Chakrabarti argues that well-designed cities are the key to solving America's great national challenges: environmental degradation, unsustainable consumption, economic stagnation, rising public health costs and decreased social mobility. If we develop them wisely in the future, our cities can be the force leading us into a new era of progressive and prosperous stewardship of our nation. In compelling chapters, Chakrabarti brings us a wealth of information about cities, suburbs and exurbs, looking at how they developed across the 50 states and their roles in prosperity and globalization, sustainability and resilience, and heath and joy. Counter to what you might think, American cities today are growing faster than their suburban counterparts for the first time since the 1920s. If we can intelligently increase the density of our cities as they grow and build the transit systems, schools, parks and other infrastructure to support them, Chakrabarti shows us how both job opportunities and an improved, sustainable environment are truly within our means. In this call for an urban America, he illustrates his argument with numerous infographics illustrating provocative statistics on issues as disparate as rising childhood obesity rates, ever-lengthening automobile commutes and government subsidies that favor highways over mass transit. The book closes with an eloquent manifesto that rallies us to build "a Country of Cities," to turn a country of highways, houses and hedges into a country of trains, towers and trees.  (Publisher Description)

Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country ( American Empire Project )

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"Despite our ostensible admiration of our men and women in arms, Americans have "offloaded" the full burden of war onto their shoulders with dismal results, argues Boston University history professor and Army vet Bacevich (Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War) in this impassioned and painfully convincing polemic. Our Founding Fathers proclaimed that all free people must make sacrifices when the nation goes to war. As late as WWII, the draft affected nearly everyone, with most people having a family member, friend, or colleague in the service. F.D.R.'s government raised taxes and instituted price controls and rationing, yet few complained. Bacevich emphasizes that eliminating the draft in 1973 sowed the seeds of disaster. When Bush announced the war on terror in 2001, the president mobilized volunteer troops, but not the nation; he urged Americans to "enjoy life, " and he cut taxes. Since borrowing paid the bill, and there was no draft, few complained. When the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan turned sour, protests were mild compared to the upheavals over Vietnam. Bacevich asserts bluntly that a disengaged and compliant citizenry has reduced military service from a universal duty to a matter of individual choice, allowing our leaders to wage war whenever (and for however long) they choose with little to fear from an electorate who are neither paying nor perishing."  (Publishers Weekly)

Circle of Friends: The Massive Federal Crackdown on Insider Trading - And Why the Markets Always Work Against the Little Guy

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"The bestselling author of "The Sellout" tells the explosive story of the government's crackdown on massive insider trading networks, exposing the myth promulgated by Wall Street that the stock markets are democratized and every investor has the same chance to make money."  (Publisher Description)

Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi

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" On the night of September 11, 2012, the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, came under ferocious attack by a heavily armed group of Islamic terrorists. The prolonged firefight, and the attack hours later on a nearby CIA outpost, resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the American ambassador to Libya. Based on the cooperation of eyewitnesses and confidential sources, the authors explore the terrifying twelve-hour ordeal confronted by the Ambassador, his security contingent, and the CIA specialists who raced to rescue them."(Publisher Description)

Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and Bin Laden's Final Plot Against America

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"Enemies Within is a revelatory look at America's counterterrorism measures. The authors' real-life domestic spy story indicates that many of our strategies aren't even close to being successful. Six months after 9/11, the New York police commissioner initiated an audacious antiterrorist plan: the NYPD dispatched a vast network of undercover officers and informants into Muslim neighborhoods to eavesdrop on conversations in mosques and community centers. These shady tactics proved fruitless. Through the harrowing tick-tock narrative of forty-eight hours in 2009, the NYPD and the FBI track suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi as he makes his way to New York to launch an attack."  (Publisher's Description)

The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving

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"While the baby boomers helped fortify the notion of the suburban single-family house as the American dream, the millennials are headed in another direction, according to Fortune writer Gallagher. The recession, rising fuel prices, and demographic shifts that mean smaller families and fewer and later marriages are contributing to a decline in the appeal of the suburbs. Gallagher talked to homebuilders, developers, planners, transportation engineers, architects, psychologists, and home buyers and sellers in cities and suburbs to offer a fascinating portrait of housing and lifestyle trends. She examines how the American dream came to be tied to the suburbs even as they are lambasted in popular culture and by social scientists and, lately, planners and engineers. New Urbanists argue that the suburb is an unsustainable model because the low-density population doesn't generate enough tax base to support it, unless it sprawls. Gallagher points to research and analysis showing rising populations in urban areas and suburbs who adapt the ideals of green living and walkable communities. Fascinating reading on changing trends in how and where we live" (Booklist (07/01/2013))

Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America

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"Washington Post chief correspondent Balz's The Battle for America 2008 (coauthored with Haynes Johnson) explored that truly groundbreaking campaign, which left him struggling to find a similarly enthralling story in the race between a Republican nobody wanted, and an incumbent Democrat with whom voters were disillusioned. The book provides an astute postmortem of the election and a remarkably unbiased depiction of a flawed process feeding on a polarized electorate, which, if little else, demonstrates the preposterous expense of the 2012 campaign. Balz shares revealing accounts of his firsthand experiences with the candidates, with the bulk of the book focused on the Republic primaries, in which the G.O.P. sought an "anyone but Romney" solution. As Michelle Bachman, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain incongruously blaze to front-runner status before self-immolating, Newt Gingrich bides his time and gives Balz the story each step of the way. Given Obama's opaque public persona, it's not surprising that less is revealed of the incumbent, which leaves Balz reporting on strategy over substance. In framing the book, Balz asks, "Can or will the election resolve any of the fundamental issues before the country?" After scrutinizing this season of destructive political gamesmanship, he answers gloomily, "There was little competition or innovation in the battle for ideas... each pursued a strategy designed for one thing: winning." (Publishers Weekly)

This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral-Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!-In America's Gilded Capital

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"Washington, DC: it's a hell of a town. Just ask Leibovich, a "New York Times"political feature correspondent based there. In this muckraking tell-all, which would be as darkly funny as it's billed to be if it weren't all true, Leibovich depicts a shameless place where funerals are for networking, disgraced aides come out ahead, and getting one's name in print is what matters. Embargoed until publication date, after which Leibovich will have to get out of town. ."   (Library Journal)

Act of Congress: How America's Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn't

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"A financial reform bill reveals the troubled machinery of American democracy in this intricate, incisive study of law-making. Washington Post correspondent Kaiser (So Damn Much Money) chronicles the journey of the Dodd-Frank act, a complex package of banking and market regulations passed in 2011 that few voters paid attention to. The story's charismatic protagonist is Democratic House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank but his low-key, diplomatic cosponsor, Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, pulls off the greater political coup by avoiding a threatened filibuster. While the bill was moving through Congress, Kaiser had access to lawmakers of both parties and their staffs, executive-branch officials, and lobbyists; he finds the drama in arcane parliamentary procedure and paints extraordinary fly-on-the-wall scenes of legislative sausage making. ("Okay, Cam, it's just you and me, what's it going to take?" Frank horse-trades, seeking support from bankers in a down-and-dirty meeting with their lobbyist.) Kaiser salutes a landmark bill while laying bare the process dysfunctions that menaced it: partisan intransigence; monkey-wrenching by pols seeking turf and publicity; cynical budgetary shenanigans; general ignorance of finance on the part of legislators; the influence of money and clout especially auto dealers' clout. His absorbing true-life political saga exposes the good, the bad, and the ugly in Congress."  (Publishers Weekly)

The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels

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"Given the recent widespread alarms about global warming, any added anxiety on the part of coastline residents about rising sea levels is entirely understandable, especially when most pessimistic scenarios put the extra elevation at three feet by this century's end. In this fascinating, if occasionally unnerving, overview of the long and tempestuous relationship between shore-hugging cities and their neighboring oceans, best-selling author and anthropology professor Fagan (Beyond the Blue Horizon, 2012) charts coastline measurements as far back as 15,000 years ago, when watery disasters at sparsely settled seaside villages were rare. Today, with major population centers clustering near harbors and beaches, superstorms like last year's East Coastravaging Hurricane Sandy, which Fagan points to as a prime example of modern society's vulnerability, are far more devastating. In three absorbing, well-crafted sections, the author recounts some notable past storm surges and tsunamis, and predicts likely damages from future ocean-borne disasters. More than just another nervous admonition about climate change, Fagan's account relies on hard data to warn cities and governments worldwide to act now and forestall otherwise inevitable catastrophic flooding"  (Booklist)

The World Through Arab Eyes: Arab Public Opinion and the Reshaping of the Middle East

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"Arab public opinion, newly codified and relevant. In the wake of President Barack Obama's recent exhortation to young Israelis to look at the world through Palestinians' eyes, this work holds a prescient message at how recent changes in the Middle East have certainly opened the eyes of many Arabs, as well as favorably altered American attitudes toward them. The methodology of the polling undertaken by political scientist Telhami (Peace and Development/Univ. of Maryland; The Stakes: America in the Middle East, 2002) is key. After establishing his own credentials, he explains in detail how the polling was gathered over the last 20 years, then combined with significant changes over the last two years when the authoritarian screens in many of the countries were lifted. As the author writes, "it was obvious that the Arab governments' near monopoly of the media was crucial to limiting public discontent." He focuses mainly on six Arab countries as representative and in which to track public opinion--Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan and United Arab Emirates--and divides the narrative into thematic areas of inquiry--e.g., Arab identity, the use of the Internet, the sense of empathy with others, the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, the Arab uprisings, opinion of the United States, Israel and Iran, and shifting attitudes about religion, women and democracy. Arab identity has been deeply shaped in relation to long humiliation by Israel and the West, and the "prism of pain" among all the Arab respondents was the enduring Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Hence, Arabs are still deeply suspicious of Western motives, choose France or Turkey in terms of model countries, and don't necessarily believe that the clergy should have a political role. An intriguing, revealing study of Arabs' changing views of themselves and the world as their countries open up--deserves a wide audience"  (Kirkus Reviews)

How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region

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" Americans often imagine that an "economic miracle" is taking place across all of Asia, a region of vast internal differences and contradictions. The truth is more complex and tentative. In his latest book, journalist Studwell (The China Dream), founder of the China Economic Quarterly, surveys nine nations: China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. At a time when ideas of "geographic pre-destination" and "nothing-can-be-done'" developmental thinking abound, Studwell reports on the striking differences between these nations. Taiwan, for one, "gives us a powerful reminder that geography is not destiny in development." The book first reviews land policies, then considers basic manufacturing, including autos, cement, fertilizer, steel, and textiles. Studwell writes gripping country-by-country profiles of companies that together provide ample evidence of the brutality with which economic development is conducted. Dwelling on Hyundai, Studwell admires the "extraordinary success of Korea's manufacturing development policy" and the prospects for trade there. He concludes with a lucid review of China's confusing economic policies, arguing that the country remains mired in government inefficiencies and slow institutional development. Readers will find Studwell's informative and balanced report eye-opening.
"  (Publishers Weekly)

The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption

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" Journalist and Religion Dispatches associate editor Joyce (Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, 2009) broadens the understanding of adoption's conundrums, not only within the United States, but also internationally, with deep investigations of children from Liberia, Ethiopia, Korea, Rwanda, Haiti and China. Perhaps the least publicized development within the adoption realm during the past few decades is the aggressive involvement of evangelical churches. Parishioners, even those with multiple biological children, are adopting orphans from overseas, as well as many children who have been wrenched from biological mothers (and sometimes fathers) as part of for-profit schemes. Some of the church members see adoption as a faith-based mission--as an alternative to abortion but also part of a biblical mandate to care for the oppressed and impoverished while simultaneously saving souls. Joyce explains that although such adoptions might seem like a win-win solution, in fact, birth mothers and families, especially in third-world countries, are torn apart by the international transactions. Joyce studied academic treatises and traveled widely across the U.S. and to locales in other nations rarely visited by tourists. The number of compelling anecdotes and case studies is impressive. Whenever ethically defensible, Joyce uses real names and normally indicates fictitious names when she saw no moral alternative. Although the overall picture is grim despite tsunamis of good intentions, the grimness is occasionally relieved by righteous individuals and institutions trying to do better. One of the relatively upbeat case studies focuses on the megachurch of celebrity pastor Rick Warren. He admits his evangelical members involved in international adoptions have not always proceeded perfectly, but Joyce suggests that he is sincere about learning from mistakes in a drastically shifting landscape. Groundbreaking investigative and explanatory reporting."  (KIrkus Reviews)

Down the Up Escalator: How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession

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"Americans cope with the fallout from 40 years of dwindling prospects in this quietly harrowing mosaic of economic decline. Journalist Garson (All the Livelong Day) focuses on the basics jobs, homes, money and the people who have lost them since the 2008 financial crisis: a group of middle-aged New Yorkers who comfort each other as their layoffs turn into long-term unemployment; California homeowners, some facing immediate eviction, while others cynically game the foreclosure system; elderly pensioners who suddenly find their nest eggs crushed. Through their stories, she weaves lucid explanations of the mortgage bubble and financial speculations that wrecked the system, situating them within a larger analysis of the generations-long post-Vietnam economic transformation that replaced middle-class jobs with low-paid contingent labor, widened the gulf between the rich and the rest, and forced workers to take on ever more debt to keep their heads above water. Garson's vivid, shrewd, warmly sympathetic profiles show the resilience with which ordinary Americans respond to misfortune, but also the enduring costs as they abandon hopes for a fulfilling career, an extra child, or a secure retirement. The result is a compelling portrait of an economy that has turned against the people"  (Publishers Weekly)

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

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"How have we come to feel that neither the government nor the private sector works as it should and that the shrinking middle class has few prospects of recovering its former glory? Through profiles of several Americans, from a factory worker to an Internet billionaire, Packer, staff writer for the New Yorker, offers a broad and compelling perspective on a nation in crisis. Packer focuses on the lives of a North Carolina evangelist, son of a tobacco farmer, pondering the new economy of the rural South; a Youngstown, Ohio, factory worker struggling to survive the decline of the manufacturing sector; a Washington lobbyist confronting the distance between his ideals and the realities of the nation's capital; and a Silicon Valley entrepreneur pondering the role of e-commerce in a radically changing economy. Interspersed throughout are profiles of leading economic, political, and cultural figures, including Newt Gingrich, Colin Powell, Raymond Carver, Sam Walton, and Jay-Z. Also sprinkled throughout are alarming headlines, news bites, song lyrics, and slogans that capture the unsettling feeling that the nation and its people are adrift. Packer offers an illuminating, in-depth, sometimes frightening view of the complexities of decline and the enduring hope for recovery ( Booklist,)

The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die

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"Representative government, the free market, the rule of law, and civil society--these are the four pillars of West European and North American societies. It was these institutions, rather than any geographical or climatic advantages, that set the West on the path to global dominance beginning around 1500. In our time, however, these institutions have deteriorated in disturbing ways. Our democracies have broken the contract between the generations by heaping IOUs on our children and grandchildren. Our markets are hindered by overcomplex regulations that debilitate the political and economic processes they were created to support; the rule of law has become the rule of lawyers. And civil society has degenerated into uncivil society, where we lazily expect all of our problems to be solved by the state.
It is institutional degeneration, in other words, that lies behind economic stagnation and the geopolitical decline that comes with it. With characteristic verve and historical insight, Ferguson analyzes not only the causes of this stagnation but also its profound consequences.
"The Great Degeneration "is an incisive indictment of an era of negligence and complacency. While the Arab world struggles to adopt democracy and China struggles to move from economic liberalization to the rule of law, our society is squandering the institutional inheritance of centuries. To arrest the breakdown of our civilization, Ferguson warns, will take heroic leadership and radical reform."  (Publisher Description)

Obamacare Survival Guide: The Affordable Care ACT and What It Means to You and Your Healthcare

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"With almost 500 provisions, the extremely complex Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148)--popularly referred to as "Obamacare"--goes beyond the controversial individual mandate, small business incentive, Medicaid expansion, and insurance exchanges that are commonly discussed. However, in this title journalist Tate ignores or barely acknowledges other provisions such as the prohibition against discrimination on assisted suicide and provider payment options. Though he claims to go ."..beyond the sound bites and headlines to provide a detailed analysis of what it will mean for...American healthcare consumers," a number of Tate's repetitive statements sound biased against the Act or appear to emphasize the negative effect it may have on specific programs such as Medicare. Many statements remain undocumented by footnotes, endnotes, text notes, or bibliography, and others are one-sided. For example, stating that "healthcare costs in the United States have risen since ObamaCare's passage...," Tate fails to acknowledge that health care costs also rose significantly prior to the passage of this legislation. On the positive side, the implementation time line is particularly helpful and tables scattered throughout the book provide a nicely organized before-and-after display. Unfortunately, several tables appear to be incorrectly named and few are discussed within the text. For example Tables 7-4 and 7-5 bear identical titles, offer conflicting data, and are not discussed within text or captions. However, the material, including the tables, is well indexed. VERDICT While this work is timely, there are a number of similar books available, some of which are better designed for reference use. This one is best suited for a public library circulating collection that has additional titles that pick up other aspects of the new health care legislation.-"  (Library Journal)

The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies

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"A veteran author, journalist and commentator chronicles the campaign that assured President Barack Obama a second term and cemented a consensus among Americans stretching back to the New Deal. The 2012 election was neither the referendum on the president and the ailing economy as the GOP had hoped, nor simply a choice between the president and his opponent as Obama had wished. Rather, Bloomberg View columnist Alter (The Promise: President Obama, Year One, 2011, etc.) insists, it was a judgment on the Republicans and their mean-spirited billionaire backers, right-wing media cheerleaders, proponents of voter suppression and "clown car" of primary candidates. As he explores the many infirmities and outrages of the president's opponents and details Obama's many virtues, it's clear that, for the author, the "center" of our politics lies decidedly to the left. This obvious bias impairs his analysis throughout, prompting him too often to offer opinion and speculation as fact. For example, he insists the vitriol directed toward the president exceeds anything in our recent history and claims that the president's contempt for his opponent accounted for his lackluster first debate performance. He goes so far as to wonder if maybe the president threw the debate "because he wanted the game to be a little more challenging?" When he sticks to straight reporting, however, Alter shines. In always fluid, sometimes arresting prose, he tells the inside story of the bartender who surreptitiously taped Romney's infamous 47 percent remark, offers sharp miniportraits of numerous campaign operatives, and brilliantly deconstructs the "Big Data" component of Obama's Chicago headquarters, describing their technological innovations and smooth manipulation of social media that set a new standard for future campaigns. The president's supporters and, really, all political junkies will love this. Republicans, not so much."  (Kirkus Reviews)

Motherhood, Rescheduled: The New Frontier of Egg Freezing and the Women Who Tried It

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"Freelance journalist Richards chronicles how five single women attempted to take charge of their own fertility. The author challenges the "cultural stereotype of...Clock Tickers"--women who have reached their mid-30s without becoming mothers. Some of these women are now buying time by freezing their eggs. They have failed to find the right partner, frequently postponing marriage to pursue a higher education and a career. While menopause is not yet an issue, the viability of their eggs, with respect to quality and quantity, is increasingly problematic. Egg-freezing technology was initially developed in the 1980s for cancer patients facing radiation treatment, and it is now coming into use for storing donor eggs as a means of obviating moral consideration about freezing embryos. Although over the years the technology has improved and the potential success rate is now higher (although it is still only 30 percent), the results are best for eggs harvested from women under age 35. In alternating chapters, Richards takes up the thread of her own story and that of four other women in similar situations: their decision to freeze their eggs as a precaution; the search for a potential husband who shares their desire for children; dealing with the physical and financial cost of the procedure; and successes and failures of pregnancy after implantation. She writes movingly about the vicissitudes of online dating and the pain of the breakup of a loving relationship with an ambivalent partner, as well as the anguish many women feel when contemplating a childless future. For a childless woman, Richards writes, egg freezing is "an act of love for her future family," even though older motherhood is not the most desirable option. A page-turner in which each of the stories is different but compelling"  (Kirkus Reviews)