Current Affairs

Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America

2012-01-25T11:11:00.000-08:00

By Mark Levin
"Hailed by Rush Limbaugh as "the most compelling defense of freedom for our time," and "the necessary book of the Obama era" by "The American Spectator, "Mark R. Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny "made the most persuasive case for conservatism and against statism in a generation. In this most crucial time, this leading conservative thinker explores the psychology, motivations, and history of the utopian movement, its architects, and its modern-day disciples--and how the individual and American society are being devoured by it.
Levin asks, what is this utopian force that both allures a free people and destroys them? Levin digs deep into the past and draws astoundingly relevant parallels to contemporary America from
Plato's "Republic"""
Thomas More's "Utopia"""
Thomas Hobbes's "Leviathan"""
Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto"""
. . . as well as from the critical works of John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, Alexis de Tocqueville, and other philosophical pioneers who brilliantly diagnosed the nature of man and government. As Levin meticulously pursues his subject, the reader joins him in an enlightening and compelling journey. And in the end, Levin's message is clear: the American republic is in great peril. The people must now choose between utopianism or liberty." (Publisher Marketing) Check Our Catalog

The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics

2012-01-25T10:59:00.000-08:00

By Thomas Edsall
"How long do we continue unemployment benefits? How do we cope with local cuts in garbage collection, police protection, and, yes, library budgets? Political editor at the "Huffington Post", Edsall doesn't necessarily have answers. But he shows us how to frame the questions, stressing that we are currently facing a world without enough to go around. Drawn on a high-profile "New Republic" story; serious stuff." (Library Journal) Check Our Catalog

Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics

2012-01-19T12:08:00.000-08:00

By Ronald B. Scott
"The 2012 race for the White House is racing along at full tilt. Mitt Romney is widely assumed to be the front-runner for the Republican nominee. Question is, can he hold the lead? Ron Scott provides the first independent (unauthorized) biographical profile of the possible Republican nominee. "Mitt Romney" takes a frank and revealing look at what makes Mitt the man tic, more human than he often appears to be on the stump: his character, convictions, his words and actions, yes his flips and his flops too, and, his triumphs and setbacks. It will also attempt to answer the question everyone is asking: Can a faithful Mormon really win his party's nomination and then upset the popular if now struggling, incumbent President, Barack Obama? Drawing on extensive research amassed over more than two decades, including interviews with people who know him best--allies and adversaries alike--this book will paint a savvy, textured, and revealing portrait of the candidate, his history, family, religion, political beliefs, and strategy. It"will" put Mitt in context like no other book to date." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism

2012-01-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

By Theda Skocpol
"Two Harvard scholars investigate the latest iteration of third-party radicalism in the United States. Skocpol (Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life, 2003, etc.) and Williamson research the Tea Party from the ground up, rooting their study in focused fieldwork surrounding three local Tea Party groups in Massachusetts, Virginia and Arizona. The authors pepper firsthand anecdotes with extensive--and at times weighty--statistical and polling data. The perspectives and opinions of the subjects are skillfully interwoven with analysis of their civic habits, economic status, religious inclinations and ideologies. After a thorough background in the demographics of Tea Partiers, as well as their shared passions and sources of discord among this fledgling movement, the authors investigate the fascinating, and often unlikely, pairing of grassroots organizers and wealthy investors, politicos and influence peddlers who are seeking to capitalize on the media spotlight currently shining on the Tea Party. Credited with dramatically influencing the 2010 midterm elections, expectations are high as to how Tea Partiers and their core group of middle-class, volunteer-oriented proponents will affect the 2012 presidential election. According to the authors, one thing is certain: The anger many Tea Partiers express is aimed squarely at President Obama, raising the stakes for both grassroots organizers and those flush, politically minded groups seeking to ally themselves with the Tea Party. A timely study of a contemporary movement and its far-reaching effects on politics and policy." (Kirkus Reviews) Check Our Catalog

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

2011-12-28T11:40:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

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?

2011-12-07T15:57:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-01T08:18:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-27T11:57:00.000-08:00

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 MarketWatchÂ 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

2011-11-23T13:57:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-13T10:40:00.000-08:00

"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

2011-11-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

By Sylvia Longmire

"Overview of the war on drugs being foughtÂ withoutÂ reliefÂ 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-riddenÂ U.S.-Mexican border. The author covers a lot of material in a relatively brief book, sometimes giving the text the feel ofÂ 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, theÂ 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 theÂ fields, their lives might be endangered by trigger-happy Mexican criminals determined to protect their lucrative cash crops from detection. The mostÂ frequent dangerÂ from infiltrated marijuana fieldsÂ 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 substancesÂ will never serveÂ 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

2011-10-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-28T12:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

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)

2011-08-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

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 )

2011-08-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

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 interventionÂ 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

2011-08-17T16:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

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.

The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers

2011-07-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

By Peter Tomsen
"Ambassador and special envoy to Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992, Tomsen combines scholarship, analysis, and personal experience in an encyclopedic if disturbing history of post-WWII Afghanistan. Tomsen addresses not only America's ignorance of Afghanistan's complex tribal networks but every previous foreign invader who made that error. America's unique blunder, according to Tomsen, has been outsourcing Afghan policy to Pakistan. At Pakistan's insistence, beginning with the 1979 Soviet invasion, the U.S. funneled aid to the mujahideen through Pakistan's military, which was dominated by radical Islamists. Afghanistan lapsed into lawless warlordism after the Soviet 1989 withdrawal. Then the brutal, Pakistan-supported Taliban took control in 1996. Pakistan, happy at receiving an avalanche of aid after 9/11, says Tomsen, stood by as American-supported rebels routed the Taliban, but resumed support of the Taliban when America turned its attention to Iraq. Tomsen explains how to fix things by "genuine Afghanization and de-Americanization." Most important, we must take back control of Afghan policy, stop praising Pakistan for its cooperation, stop pouring in unconditional military aid, and insist that Pakistan must help stabilize Afghanistan." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

Gas Odyssey (DVD)

2011-07-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

A Film by Aaron Price
"The development of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in the Southern Tier of New York and Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania....A Documentary film that gives voice to New Yorkers seeking to improve their communities through natural gas production. " (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Gasland ( 2010 ) ( Docurama (Video) )

2011-07-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

Directed By Josh Fox
"Filmmaker Josh Fox grew up in the verdant woods of the Delaware River valley. In 2009, he learned his land was on top of the Marcellus Shalea giant reservoir of natural gas that stretches across the Appalachiansand that he would be paid to lease his land for natural gas extraction. Part mystery, part travelogue, and part banjo showdown, GASLAND documents Joshs cross-country odyssey to find out if the controversial process of hydraulic fracturingor frackingis actually safe. As he interviews people who live on or around current fracking sites, Josh learns of things gone horribly wrong, from illness to hair loss to flammable water, and his inquiries lead him ever deeper into a web of secrets, lies, conspiracy, and contamination. Unearthing a shocking story about a practice that is understudied and inadequately regulated, GASLAND races to find answers about fracking before its far too late." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party

2011-07-20T17:12:00.000-07:00

By Margaret Hoover
" American Individualism" is Hoover's call to action for Republicans to embrace a conservatism that emphasizes individual freedom both in economic policy and in the realm of social issues in order to appeal to the new generation of voters. The Republican Party, Hoover asserts, can win the support of the millennials while at the same time remaining faithful to conservative principles. In a journey that is both political and personal, Hoover rediscovers these bedrock conservative values in the writings of her great-grandfather, President Herbert Hoover, who emphasized the vital importance of individual freedom to the American way of life and who sought to strike a delicate balance in identifying the limited yet essential role the federal government should play in the lives of Americans. " (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink ( Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America

2011-07-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

By Louis Hyman
"Debtor Nation is an exceptional piece of scholarship. Beautifully written, painstakingly documented, and altogether persuasive, the book provides a comprehensive look at the history of consumer debt in the US. While all chapters are engrossing, chapters 1, 6, and 7 merit special attention. The first chapter provides an extended discussion of the origins of the modern credit system. Later, in chapters 6 and 7, Hyman, a historian, creates a detailed picture of how Americans have "created our contemporary indebted society." For example, chapter 6 explores issues of race, class, and gender and how these characteristics have affected access to credit. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the modern credit system in the US. It manages to weave together a long history of developments within America's credit markets in a narrative that is both fascinating and frightening. Summing Up: Essential. All readers." (Choice) Check Our Catalog

What's Gotten Into Us?: Staying Healthy in a Toxic World

2011-07-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

By McKay Jenkins
An alarming view of the storm of synthetic chemicals sweeping into our homes, workplaces, retail shelves and, inevitably, our bodies.
Nonfiction adventure writer Jenkins (English/Univ. of Delaware;Â Bloody Falls of the Coppermine: Madness, Murder and the Collision of Cultures in the Arctic, 1913, 2005, etc.) developed a benign tumor the size of an orange and pondered how it could happen to him, someone who strives for healthful living. Among other places, his search led to an unnamed big-box store permeated with the smell of synthetic lavender, where he opened a jar of fabricated fragrance and gagged. The book goes on to detail in nontechnical terms the often oil-derived and frequently unlabeled concoctions that have soaked into much of what consumers buy, wear, eat and drink since the end of World War II. Even bathtub rubber ducks for children, rendered temptingly chewable by synthetics, are not immune. A rule of thumb is to avoid ingredients with unpronounceable names, like the ubiquitous phthalates. Jenkins provides suggestions for staying clear of the worst of it, but, like others before him, he recognizes that the cumulative impacts of synthetics are not yet scientifically understood and, in fact, painfully understudied. In the tradition of Rachel Carson, Jenkins has little doubt that those impacts are dire.Â There is still hope that humanity and nature are resistant to this toxic flood, but as the author makes clear, it's a thin hope at best." (Kirkus Reviews) Check Our Catalog

The End of Country

2011-07-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

By Seamus McGraw
" In 2006, in a hardscrabble part of Pennsylvania that had long lost its allure as a farming and industrial area, geologists began investigating the Marcellus Shale. It turned out to be the richest deposit of natural gas ever discovered anywhere. When his widowed mother was approached about permitting natural-gas exploration on their farm, journalist McGraw had to weigh their need for money against the future prospects of the farmland. Chronicling the impact of the find on his mother and her neighbors, McGraws research led to this impressively detailed, highly engaging look at issues of energy policy, economics, and sociology that arose when a bucolic town was suddenly faced with the traveling circus of energy exploration. McGraw presents a rich history of the economics and geopolitics of energy as well as a fascinating cast of characters, including Victoria, the newcomer environmentalist and former teacher who signed on early and later had regrets; Ken, a cranky hermit skeptical of all parties who later joined ranks with his neighbors to stand up to the oil companies; and Pennsylvania native son Marshall, the sincere young man who signed the locals to leases but worried about the ultimate impact on the community as poor people suddenly found themselves rich. A completely engaging look at how energy policy affected a quiet, rural town." (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

A Nation Like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters

2011-07-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

By Newt Gingrich
"Republican stalwart Newt Gingrich outlines the theory that America's greatness is the result of American exceptionalism, i.e., that America is the most powerful, most prosperous, and most generous nation on earth because of its founding principles, especially the belief that no king, government, or ruling class has the power to infringe upon the rights of the individual." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War

2011-06-20T06:46:00.000-07:00

By John Gibler
"Gibler (Mexico Unconquered) documents Mexico's drug war, its enormous profits and grievous human costs, in taut prose and harrowing detail. As the demand for recreational drugs spikes in the U.S., money from the drug trade has become Mexico's largest source of income. Gibler's front-line reportage coupled with first-rate analysis gives an uncommonly vivid and nuanced picture of a society riddled and enervated by corruption, shootouts, and raids, where murder is the "most popular method of conflict resolution." Since 2006, 34,000 Mexicans have been killed; "death is a part of the overhead, a business expense," observes Gibler. Even the hired killers, often impoverished teenagers who are paid about a week, are executed by the very people who hire them, after their "job" is done. At great personal risk, the author unearths stories the mainstream media doesn'tor is too afraidto cover, and gives voice to those who have been silenced or whose stories have been forgottenmurdered journalists in Reynosa, students slain in the streets, and even a man who was killed because, tired of finding dead bodies outside his house, he had hung a sign reading "Prohibited: Littering and Dumping Corpses." (Publisher's Weekly) Check Our Catalog

Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men

2011-06-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

By Mara Hvistendahl

"A hard-hitting, eye-opening study that not only paints a dire future of a world without girls but traces the West's role in propagating sex selection.
In her debut, Beijing-based Science correspondent Hvistendahl delves deeply into the causes of the vanishing of girls in Asia and Eastern Europe and looks beyond the traditional explanation of infanticide and abandonment. In fact, girls are simply not being born—demographers calculate that 163 million potential girls have been eliminated in Asia alone through ultrasound and abortion, the technological advancements of the West. A natural sex ratio at birth is 100 girls to 105 boys--nature compensates for the fact that more boys tend to die young due to dangerous behavior, wars, exhaustion, etc. Even a slight deviation from this natural balance toward boys can have enormous repercussions in a society, leaving a surplus of males unable to find mates, introducing instability, violence and the possibility of extinction. Astoundingly, the sex ratio in China is 121 boys to girls, in India 112. The skewed gender imbalance has also swept Vietnam, the Caucasus and the Balkans—all developing countries where the status of women is supposed to have improved as the countries got richer. Yet traditional beliefs—boys take care of their parents and the ancestral graves, girls need a large dowry for marriage and are a burden—are deeply ingrained in these societies, even still among Asian immigrants in America, whose sex ratio is also skewed toward boys. By the mid-1980s, the high-quality second trimester ultrasound arrived; despite laws passed proscribing its use in sex selection in China, India and elsewhere, doctors capitulated to patients' needs—and money. Western doomsayers and scientists set up the alarm by the late 1960s about world overpopulation, and naively (or sinisterly, as the author hints) endorsed sex selection even then as an effective form of birth control, setting the groundwork for future crisis.
Hvistendahl's important, even-handed exposÃ© considers all sides of the argument and deserves careful attention and study." (Kirkus Reviews) Check Our Catalog

The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century

2011-06-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

By Alex Prud'homme
"Prud'homme, a journalist and the coauthor with Julia Child of My Life in France, examines crucial issues concerning the world's finite supply of fresh waterpollution, water quantity (drought and flood), waste, and governance. Focusing on the U.S., he explores how water scarcity, population growth, and environmental degradation are forcing the country to a moment of reckoning on a scale not seen since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. And he notes how woefully obsolete laws designed to protect drinking supplies in the 1970s are becoming, when hundreds of untested new chemicals enter U.S. waterways every year, and the majority of water pollution now comes from unregulated storm-water runoff, where insecticides, fertilizers, paint, and motor oil are washed into the water supply. Prud'homme offers ample and eloquent warnings of a looming water crisis: intersex fish in Chesapeake Bay, the poisoning of water wells in Wisconsin from agricultural runoff, Lake Mead's record-low waterline in Nevada, decaying dams and levees. Prud'homme's eloquence and local focus will help this book rise to the top of the recent flood of water-themed books including Elixir by Brian Fagan and The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam

2011-06-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

By JM Berger
"Investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Berger (Triple Cross) lifts the veil on the phenomenon of American jihadists in this timely and chilling examination. While most Americans were shocked when John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban" and a U.S. citizen, was captured in Afghanistan in 2001, American citizens had been joining the international jihad for decadesBerger argues that at least 1,400 Americans have taken part in military jihad over the past 30 years. While most activity has taken place abroad, American jihadists also have struck at homethe 2009 Fort Hood, Tex., massacre, for example. Berger fears "it is likely that the American jihadist movement will succeed in a spectacular attack on home soil," and believes that knowing "why Americans take up the banner of jihad is the first step" will help to counter this problem. Drawing on detailed case studies of individual American jihadists, the author concludes that they are a diverse group and their "path to radicalization begins with a rock-solid belief that Muslims are a victim class." Berger's exposé painstakingly lays out the scope and character of the American jihadist movement and points the way to a national debate." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (Revised)

2011-06-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

By Juan Gonzalez
"A sweeping history of the Latino experience in the United States- thoroughly revised and updated.
The first new edition in ten years of this important study of Latinos in U.S. history, "Harvest of Empire" spans five centuries-from the first New World colonies to the first decade of the new millennium. Latinos are now the largest minority group in the United States, and their impact on American popular culture-from food to entertainment to literature-is greater than ever. Featuring family portraits of real- life immigrant Latino pioneers, as well as accounts of the events and conditions that compelled them to leave their homelands, Harvest of Empire is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the history and legacy of this increasingly influential group." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

The End of Anger : A New Generation's Take on Race and Rage

2011-06-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

By Ellis Cose
"Cose (The Rage of the Privileged Class), columnist and contributing editor at Newsweek, explores the newfound sense of optimism among African-Americans who in the last few years have astounded pollsters with their sanguinity despite being disproportionately targeted for predatory loans and hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. Cose attributes the increase of black optimism to three factors: Barack Obamas election; "generational evolution," which sees each successive generation harboring fewer racial prejudices, suggesting that African-Americans could be facing less racism than their parents did; and the related rise of racial equality. Interviewing M.B.A.s from Harvard, dropouts with a criminal record, as well as representatives from three successive generations spanning 70 years and their white counterparts, Cose provides a paradoxical portrait of race in America, where educated, privileged blacks are optimistic about their future, but for blacks at the lower end of the economic spectrum, equality remains as elusive as ever. One in 12 African-American men are behind bars and the unemployment rate keeps rising even though it is improving for other racesa dilemma not lost on an up-and-coming generation who are trying to tackle these problems at a grassroots level. Although the data and interviews want a stronger authorial voice linking them together, Coses treatment, which matches statistics to analysis, is a refreshing, readable, and comprehensive look at race in 21st-century America." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

The Post-American World: Release 2.0 (Updated, Expanded)

2011-06-06T07:38:00.000-07:00

By Fareed Zakaria
"Zakaria updates his best-selling earlier vision of world economics and politics, which foresaw the decline of American dominance but reassured us that with that decline came the rise of the rest of the world. Many of the earlier books predictions having been borne out sooner than expected, Zakaria examines new threats to Americas image and influence abroad that are posed by a global financial crisis that has hurt mostly the U.S. and Europe. He examines trends in politics, economics, and technology that have contributed to the rising of underdeveloped nations and continue to push their advancement as many move from anti-American to post-American views of the world and their places in it. Zakaria particularly attends to the promise of India and China, rising economies with huge populations and struggling cultural cocktails, which maintain some traditions while adapting to modernism. He contrasts government-ordered expansion in China with the messiness of Indian entrepreneurship. He parallels the current American moment and the history of Britains rise, world dominance, and decline while America ascended, despite which Britain has remained a major power because it chose to adapt to geopolitical change rather than fight it. Zakaria sees a similar future for the U.S. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Fareed Zakarias initial title about Americas shifting influence in world politics became a blockbusting international best-seller; here he revises and expands upon that work " (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers

2011-05-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

By Scott Carney
"In this impressively reported expos', Wired magazine contributing editor Carney raises disturbing questions about egg and organ donation, medical-school skeletons (some come from robbed graves), and adoption (some babies are stolen from their birth parents). Technically, organs may be donated, but big money is involved in transplanting them. Hospitals get $67,500 to harvest a kidney, and placing it into a recipient costs $259,000. Livers go for $523,000, and intestines for $1.2 million. Not surprisingly, many patients head overseas for bargain-basement deals. Carney also wants us to reconsider how pharmaceutical companies test drugs. Just out of grad school and poor, Carney was paid $3,200 to be a guinea pig for the first-phase dosage safety trial for the erectile dysfunction drug Levitra, and wound up with a splitting headache. Carney draws some controversial conclusions, advocating transparency: Every bag of blood should include the name of the original donor, every adopted child should have full access to his personal history, and every transplant recipient should know who gave him an organ. Like a top trial attorney, Carney makes his case convincingly." (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

Manana Forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans

2011-05-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

By Jorge G. Castaneda
"Mexico, poised somewhere between developing nation and developed liberal democracy, and the obstacles to its advancement into modernity occupy the nations former foreign minister in this analytic work. Venturing on the slightly perilous topic of national character, Castaeda considers half a dozen traits of Mexican society within the context of Mexican history, how they have evolved as revealed by opinion surveys, and what dynamism in these traits portends for Mexicos future. Seasoning the presentation with his own experiences and ruminations by Mexican writers, Castaeda identifies corruption and disregard for law as critical impediments to national economic development. Those problems he sees as emanating from such widespread attitudes as the propensities of Mexicans to view themselves and their country as victims and become obsessed with their history as such, an exaggerated individualism that stifles formation of civic organizations, and a psychic aversion to conflict in interpersonal relations and politics. Also touching hot-button issues like immigration and drug trafficking, this is a debate-stoking current events necessity for most collections." (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground

2011-05-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

By Jonathan Kay
"This hugely entertaining book takes a hard, critical look at Truthers, Birthers, Holocaust deniers, anti-vaccine activists, Tea Partiers, and other conspiracy-minded groups. The key to understanding these various organizations, the author stresses, is to realize that they are not all nutballs, even if they believe nonsense............. The problem, the author points out, is that many people, hearing what sounds like a plausible argument, accept it without realizing that it is without factual foundation. Kay doesnt adopt the derisive tone of some who write about people whose ideas are outside the mainstream; this isnt a book about weird people and their weird ideas. Its a thought-provoking exploration of the conspiracist subculture that exists just under the surface of American society and its serious, but reparable, cognitive consequences.( Booklist) Check Our Catalog

A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America

2011-05-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

By Leila Ahmed
"In Cairo in the 1940s, Leila Ahmed was raised by a generation of women who never dressed in the veils and headscarves their mothers and grandmothers had worn. To them, these coverings seemed irrelevant to both modern life and Islamic piety. Today, however, the majority of Muslim women throughout the Islamic world again wear the veil. Why, Ahmed asks, did this change take root so swiftly, and what does this shift mean for women, Islam, and the West?
When she began her study, Ahmed assumed that the veil's return indicated a backward step for Muslim women worldwide. What she discovered, however, in the stories of British colonial officials, young Muslim feminists, Arab nationalists, pious Islamic daughters, American Muslim immigrants, violent jihadists, and peaceful Islamic activists, confounded her expectations. Ahmed observed that Islamism, with its commitments to activism in the service of the poor and in pursuit of social justice, is the strain of Islam most easily and naturally merging with western democracies' own tradition of activism in the cause of justice and social change. It is often Islamists, even more than secular Muslims, who are at the forefront of such contemporary activist struggles as civil rights and women's rights. Ahmed's surprising conclusions represent a near reversal of her thinking on this topic.
Richly insightful, intricately drawn, and passionately argued, this absorbing story of the veil's resurgence, from Egypt through Saudi Arabia and into the West, suggests a dramatically new portrait of contemporary Islam." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff

2011-05-12T10:19:00.000-07:00

By James B. Stewart
" A bestselling author presents an investigation of our era's most high-profile perjurers, revealing the alarming extent of this national epidemic. With many prosecutors, investigators, and participants speaking for the first time, "Tangled Webs" goes behind the scene of the trials of media and homemaking entrepreneur Martha Stewart; top White House political adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby; home-run king Barry Bonds; and Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know

2011-05-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

By Charles D. Ferguson
"Originally perceived as a cheap and plentiful source of power, the commercial use of nuclear energy has been controversial for decades. Worries about the dangers that nuclear plants and their radioactive waste posed to nearby communities grew over time, and plant construction in the United States virtually died after the early 1980s. The 1986 disaster at Chernobyl only reinforced nuclear power's negative image. Yet in the decade prior to the Japanese nuclear crisis of 2011, sentiment about nuclear power underwent a marked change. The alarming acceleration of global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels and concern about dependence on foreign fuel has led policymakers, climate scientists, and energy experts to look once again at nuclear power as a source of energy.
In this accessible overview, Charles D. Ferguson provides an authoritative account of the key facts about nuclear energy. What is the origin of nuclear energy? What countries use commercial nuclear power, and how much electricity do they obtain from it? How can future nuclear power plants be made safer? What can countries do to protect their nuclear facilities from military attacks? How hazardous is radioactive waste? Is nuclear energy a renewable energy source? Featuring a discussion of the recent nuclear crisis in Japan and its ramifications, Ferguson addresses these questions and more in a book that is essential for anyone looking to learn more about this important issue." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times

2011-05-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

By Mohamed Elbaradei

"ElBaradei shepherded the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UNs nuclear watchdog, through 12 years of unprecedented challenge, becoming a lightning rod for criticism and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. On his watch, the U.S. invaded after alleging Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, North Korea emerged as a nuclear threat, a long stalemate over Irans nuclear capacity intensified, and Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khans black marketing of nuclear arms came to light. Each crisis exposed the IAEAs limited authority to investigate and prosecute violations of nuclear nonproliferation agreements and made it the focus of intense political pressure by the worlds most powerful nations. This selection of writings is to some extent a chronicle of frustration with the abortive dialogues, mixed messages, bruised egos, political infighting, saber-rattling, and other counterproductive aspects of the tedious, wrenching business of nuclear diplomacy. But ElBaradeis accounting also stands as an unwavering affirmation of the crucial importance of fairness and multilateral cooperation to maintaining peace and stability despite the inherent asymmetry of nuclear haves and have-nots. HIgh-Demand Backstory: This is a timely look at the perspective of a man who continues to shape the future of the Middle East: since leaving the IAEA, ElBaradei has been active in domestic politics in his native Egypt and is considered a leading contender for that countrys presidency." (booklist) Check Our Catalog

The Convert

2011-05-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

By Deborah Baker
"A Pulitzer Prize finalist delves into the fascinating life and letters of a young Jewish woman who converted to radical Islam and moved from suburban New York to Pakistan.
In 1962, 28-year-old Margaret Marcus left her parents' secular Jewish home to live in Lahore in the Muslim household of idealogue and Islamic political leader Maulana Mawdudi. In Pakistan, Marcus changed her name to Maryam Jameelah and penned expressive letters to her parents describing, during the next three decades, her newfound identity, community and the motivations behind her conversion and all-consuming embrace of Islam. Jameelah went on to write not only letters—the archives of which Baker (A Blue Hand: The Beats in India, 2008, etc.) came across in the New York Public Library—but an enormously popular set of books criticizing Western materialism and exalting life lived according to the laws of the Koran. Baker's account unfolds chronologically through Jameelah's letters, included in the book, as well as various articles she published in American magazines. Despite Jameelah's unwavering, outspoken disdain for Western secularism, she faced mounting obstacles in her new life, all of which the author examines as a platform to explore the broader subject of how radical idealism manifests itself. Jameelah eschewed what she viewed as the miserably misguided popular values of her native country, but this opposition did not tamp out her love for and connection to her parents. On this note, Baker, who corresponded and finally met with Jameelah in her home, opens the door to the vital questions of how radical Islam has impacted the world, and what part converts such as Jameelah have played." (Kirkus Reviews) Check Our Catalog

A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother

2011-05-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

By Janny Scott
"... an unprecedented look into the life of the woman who most singularly shaped Barack Obama-his mother.
Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him, the person he credits for, as he says, "what is best in me." Here is the missing piece of the story.
Award-winning reporter Janny Scott interviewed nearly two hundred of Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this woman's inspiring and untraditional life, and to show the remarkable extent to which she shaped the man Obama is today.
Dunham's story moves from Kansas and Washington state to Hawaii and Indonesia. It begins in a time when interracial marriage was still a felony in much of the United States, and culminates in the present, with her son as our president- something she never got to see. It is a poignant look at how character is passed from parent to child, and offers insight into how Obama's destiny was created early, by his mother's extraordinary faith in his gifts, and by her unconventional mothering. Finally, it is a heartbreaking story of a woman who died at age fifty-two, before her son would go on to his greatest accomplishments and reflections of what she taught him."
(Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India

2011-05-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

By Miranda Kennedy
"Abandoning New York, 20-something freelance writer Kennedy embarks on a trip to India, and ends up staying for five years. She leads readers on a sensual and smart voyage, sharing her insights on food, culture, Bollywood (what she sees as medieval morality plays), and the multiple rigors of daily life. Kennedy constructs her story around the lives of the women in her life, while simultaneously reflecting upon her own fractured personal and professional circumstances. She discusses the devoted yet at times strained relationship with her servants (Radha, a poor Brahmin, and Manheesh, a member of the sweeper caste) as well as the hurdles faced by her two single middle-class girlfriends, dealing with India's conservative, family-centric culture. Kennedy dives into such topics such as the lingering caste system, extreme poverty, the byzantine relationships between the sexes, and the pressure on women to marry and have children. She zigzags agilely between these women's stories and her own, shedding an intimate light on life in a rapidly developing but at times unchanging India" (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

The Other Side of the Mirror: An American Travels Through Syria

2011-04-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

By Brooke Allen
"Brooke Allen first traveled to Syria in 2009, expecting it to be much as American news media routinely depicted it--an ultra-conservative Muslim society, a rogue nation committed to an anti-American stance. She found, instead, a welcoming and captivating country where she and her family were treated with courtesy and gentleness.
She soon returned for a more leisurely trip through Syria's rich historical and archaeological treasures: the ancient cities of Aleppo and Damascus, the great Crusader castles, the Bronze Age ruins of Ebla and Mari, the Greco-Roman cities of Palmyra and Apamea. With her keen and appreciative eye (and ear) Allen introduces us to Syria's people, culture, and history. "The Other Side of the Mirror" illustrates one traveler's enlightenment, while reflecting on our American ways. For, as she writes, "To visit Syria is to confront the unhappy truth about our media, which is that much of the international news we read or see... serves not as a window looking out at the world but as a mirror: a mirror that reflects our own fears and obsessions and shines them right back at us."" (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Cairo: Histories of a City

2011-04-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

By Nezar Alsayyad

"Cairo, or Al-Qahira, can be translated as both "the victorious" and "the oppressor," explains AlSayyad in his exceptionally absorbing and astute, cultural and architectural history of one of the world's most captivating cities. Professor of architecture, planning, and urban history at UC-Berkeley, AlSayyad structures his book smartly by place rather than strictly by period: each of the 12 chapters brings the reader to a new section of Cairo in an inviting, informed journey through its development. He introduces readers to the history and architecture of, among others, Coptic Cairo; the noted mosques of al-Azhar and a-Anwar; the Gezira Palace; and medieval Cairo. The final chapters, on the eras of Nasser and Mubarak, are especially gripping; AlSayyad warns that the city has been given to a "new elite" and the preservation of old Cairo for tourists is turning it into a Disney-like theme park. An important second thread of the book sees Cairo as inspiration for artists such as Jean-Léon Gérôme and writers Naguib Mahfouz and Alaa Al Aswany. The author's writing is elegantly clear and evocative, drawing the reader into the "messy and difficult" but "vibrant and innovative" city, leaving one wanting to know what he has to say about the politically transformed city's future." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom

2011-04-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

By Ron Paul
"In "Liberty Defined," congressman and #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author Paul returns with his most provocative and compelling arguments for personal freedom to date. This is a comprehensive guide to Dr. Paul's position on 50 of the most important issues of our times, from abortion to zionism." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Plastic: A Toxic Love Story

2011-04-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

By Susan Freinkel
""What is plastic, really? Where does it come from? How did my life become so permeated by synthetics without my even trying?" Surrounded by plastic and depressed by the political, environmental, and medical consequences of our dependence on it, Freinkel (The American Chestnut) chronicles our history with plastic, "from enraptured embrace to deep disenchantment," through eight household items including the comb, credit card, and soda bottle (celluloid, one of the first synthetics, transformed the comb from a luxury item to an affordable commodity and was once heralded for relieving the pressure on elephants and tortoises for their ivory and shells). She takes readers to factories in China, where women toil 60-hour weeks for a month to make Frisbees; to preemie wards, where the lifesaving vinyl tubes that deliver food and oxygen to premature babies may cause altered thyroid function, allergies, and liver problems later in life. Freinkel's smart, well-written analysis of this love-hate relationship is likely to make plastic lovers take pause, plastic haters reluctantly realize its value, and all of us understand the importance of individual action, political will, and technological innovation in weaning us off our addiction to synthetics." (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry)

2011-04-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

By Siva Vaidhyanathan
"Library Journal (04/15/2011):
"Vaidhyanathan ("Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity" delivers another act from his well-worn (and effective) town crier squawk box, this time focusing on Google and its monopoly role in our lives today. While a plethora of voices—Jaron Lanier, Jonathan Zittrain, Evgeny Morozov, to name a few—are screaming to be heard about all that is wrong with our web-technology-immersed world today, Vaidhyanathan is less pessimistic about the future. He has numerous concerns: infrastructural imperialism, corporations like Google filling the voids that were once the domain of public services, soft technical regulation and censorship of the web, privacy trade-offs to enable functionality, and the compromises we knowingly and unknowingly make in using Google's search services exclusively. VERDICTThis book is in no way an attack on Google but more like a parent asking a child, "What do you want to do with your life?" then going through all the concerns one by one." (Library Journal) Check Our Catalog

63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read

2011-04-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

By Jesse Ventura
"In this incredible collection of actual government documents, Ventura, the ultimate nonpartisan truth-seeker, proves beyond any doubt that the official spin of numerous government programs is bull. He and Russell walk readers through 63 of the most incriminating programs to reveal what really happens behind the closed doors." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Pakistan; A Hard Country

2011-04-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

By Anatol Lieven
"Lieven (Chechnya), who has reported on Pakistan off and on for 20 years, offers a compelling argument for reorienting Western interests (and investments) in its wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Given its enormous population (six times that of Afghanistan), the key role Pakistani intelligence plays in Western efforts against terrorism, the strong ties between Pakistan and Western countries (especially Britain), and the fact that Pakistan's army is one of Asia's strongest (complete with nuclear weapons), Lieven writes, "Pakistan is quite simply far more important to the region, the West and the world than is Afghanistan: a statement which is a matter not of sentiment but of mathematics." His extensive history and cartography of the country comes equipped with solid policy prescriptionsfor drone attacks to be ceased and for the U.S. to acknowledge how powerfully the bungled invasion of Afghanistan contributed to instability in the regionand particularly the growth of the Taliban. Though his language can occasionally be patronizing, Lieven's writing is generally excellent. He wrestles huge amounts of material into a coherent whole, cogently explaining the intricate and interconnected roles played by kinship, regional allegiances, religion, and the military, shedding light on the country "in all its complex patchwork of light and shadow." " (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog

The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don't Tell You What You Think They Do

2011-04-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

By Philip Harris

"In the era of No Child Left Behind, the number of books decrying the reliance on standardized testing has ballooned. Recent examples include Diane Ravitch's "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education" Todd Farley's "Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry" and Daniel M. Koretz's "Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us" Here, Harris (executive director, Assn. for Educational Communications & Technology), Bruce Smith (former editor in chief, "Phi Delta Kappan", and award-winning elementary school teacher Joan Harris intersperse their own personal experiences with testing among the book's chapters, which detail their evidence on the failures of standardized tests. The final two chapters contain recommended alternative accountability schemes for evaluating the success of students and schools. The book also includes a glossary of terms and a resource guide that lists research centers and organizations that focus on the topic of improving schools and education policy. VERDICT: Thought-provoking reading for educators and parents." (Libary Journal) Check Our Catalog

Cambodia's Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land

2011-04-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

By Joel Brinkley

"In 2008, Brinkley, awarded the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for a series on Cambodia for the Louisville Courier Journal, returned to that country for the first time in three decades to pick up where hed left off. His conclusion: Cambodians remain the most abused people in the world. From the Pol Pot regime (197579) that oversaw the deaths of as many as three million Cambodians by execution, disease, or starvation to the clutch of rulers, particularly Hun Sen, who helped squander an estimated $3 billion of UN aid while leaving their people destitute, Brinkley details the breadth and depth of the self-inflicted calamities that have beset the country for more than 35 years, offering only faint hope for the near future. A heartbreaking but vital status report on a people who deserve far better." (Booklist Reviews) Check Our Catalog

Open Secrets: Wikileaks, War, and American Diplomacy

2011-04-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

By Alexander Star

"The controversial anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks made headlines around the world when it released hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents in 2010. Allowed advance access, "The New York Times" sorted, searched, and analyzed these secret archives, placed them in context, and played a crucial role in breaking the WikiLeaks story.
"Open Secrets" is the essential collection of the "Times"'s expert reporting and analysis, as well as the definitive chronicle of the documents' release and the controversy that ensued. An introduction by "Times" executive editor, Bill Keller, details the paper's cloak-and-dagger relationship with a difficult source. Extended profiles of Assange and Bradley Manning, the Army private suspected of being his source, offer keen insight into the main players. Collected news stories offer a broad and deep view into Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the messy challenges facing American power in Europe, Russia, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Also included are editorials by the "Times," opinion columns by Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, and others, and original essays on what the fracas has revealed about American diplomacy and government security. "Open Secrets" also contains a fascinating selection of original cables and war logs, offering an unvarnished look at diplomacy in action." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking Contributor(s): Hadnagy, Christopher (Author), Wilson, Paul (Foreword by)

2011-03-30T16:32:00.000-07:00

By Christopher Hadnagy
"This book covers, in detail, the world's first framework for social engineering. It defines, explains, and dissects each principle, then illustrates it with true stories and case studies from masters such as Kevin Mitnick, renowned author of The Art of Deception. You will discover just what it takes to excel as a social engineer. Then you will know your enemy.
Tour the Dark World of Social Engineering.
Learn the psychological principles employed by social engineers and how they're used.
Discover persuasion secrets that social engineers know well.
See how the crafty crook takes advantage of cameras, GPS devices, and caller ID.
Find out what information is, unbelievably, available online.
Study real-world social engineering exploits step by step" (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer (Easyread Large Edition) -

2011-03-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

By Helen Caldicott
"The world-renowned antinuclear activist's expertly argued(The Guardian) case against nuclear energy. In a world torn apart by wars over oil, politicians have increasingly begun to look for alternative energy sourcesand their leading choice is nuclear energy. Among the myths that have been spread over the years about nuclear-powered electricity are that it does not cause global warming or pollution, that it is inexpensive, and that it is safe. Helen Caldicott's look at the actual costs and environmental consequences of nuclear energy belies the incessant barrage of nuclear industry propaganda. Caldicott reveals truths, Martin Sheen has said, that confirm we must take positive action now if we are to make a difference.In fact, nuclear power contributes to global warming; the true cost of nuclear power is prohibitive, with taxpayers picking up most of the tab; there's simply not enough uranium in the world to sustain nuclear power over the long term; and the potential for a catastrophic accident or a terrorist attack far outweighs any benefits. Concluding chapters detail alternative sustainable energy sources that are the key to a clean, green future." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

50 Jobs in 50 States: One Man's Journey of Discovery Across America

2011-03-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

By Daniel Seddiqui

"Like lots of college grads, Daniel Seddiqui was having a hard time finding a job. But despite more than forty rejections, he knew opportunities had to exist. So he set out on an extraordinary quest: fifty jobs in fifty states in fifty weeks. And not just any jobs--he chose professions that reflected the culture and economy of each state.
Working as everything from a cheesemaker in Wisconsin, a border patrol agent in Arizona, and a meatpacker in Kansas to a lobsterman in Maine, a surfing instructor in Hawaii, and a football coach in Alabama, Daniel chronicles how he adapted to the wildly differing people, cultures, and environments. From one week to the next he had no idea exactly what his duties would be, where he'd be sleeping, what he'd be eating, or how he'd be received. He became a roving news item, appearing on CNN, Fox News, World News Tonight, MSNBC, and the Today show--which was good preparation for his stint as a television weatherman.
Tackling challenge after challenge--overcoming anxiety about working four miles underground in a West Virginia coal mine, learning to walk on six-foot stilts (in a full Egyptian king costume) at a Florida amusement park, racing the clock as a pit-crew member at an Indiana racetrack--Daniel completed his journey a changed man. In this book he shares stories about the people he met, reveals the lessons he learned, and explains the five principles that kept him going." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster

2011-03-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

By John Konrad
"Several extant and forthcoming titles about the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico dwell on environmental or regulatory aspects of the incident. Konrad and Shroders differs from them by narrating the catastrophe as an industrial accident. Before describing the fateful moment when explosion and fire destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, the authors cover the Horizons construction and the backgrounds of several personnel who were on board when it blewsome, graduates of East Coast maritime colleges; others, working-class southerners making big money on oil rigs. Allusions to this distinction of statuses are woven throughout an account of the intricate technologies and processes of deep-sea oil drilling, in which controlling well pressure is critical. Recounting an ominous sequence of questionable operational decisions that immediately preceded the conflagration, the book crests with a frantic evacuation and the tally of the killed and injured. Former rig captain Konrad and journalist Shroders effort should gratify readers interested in the oil-rig world and in the Horizons crew." (Bookslist) Check Our Catalog

Afghanistan: A Companion and Guide (2ND ed.)

2011-03-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

By Bijan Omrani
"Thanks to 20 years of civil war and its association with terrorism, Afghanistan is often unjustly thought of in the West as a barbarous backwater. This guide dispels that image in a comprehensive introduction to 3,500 years of Afghan culture. Each chapter looks at the major cities and regions, describing their distinctive cultural and ethnic traditions, and their associations with poets, artists, musicians, travelers, and holy men, as well as warriors and conquerors. Wonderfully illustrated, this book also features engravings, paintings, and images of priceless museum artifacts. A number of specialist essays by leading experts present topics such as archeology, architecture, carpets, flora and fauna, miniature painting, and music." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

The Bee Eater: Michelle Rhee Takes on the Nation's Worst School District

2011-03-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

By Richard Whitmire

"The Bee Eater chronicles the extraordinary life and work of the dynamic and controversial school reformer Michelle Rhee. The author delves into Rhee's childhood (as the only Korean American in her graduating class in her Toledo, Ohio school), her first teaching job in a West Baltimore classroom (where she once ate a bee to the amazement of her students), her appointment as chancellor of Washington, D.C. public schools and her launch of Children First, her national advocacy group that draws on the tough lessons of Washington. While the book reveals Rhee's remarkable accomplishments, it also explores many of the fundamental problems in our current education system, the unpredictable politics ofleadership -- and her shortcomings.
When Michelle Rhee first arrived in Washington, she found a school district that had been so dysfunctional for so long that many had given up, choosing to blame race and poverty rather than poor instruction. There was no one being held accountable. The district central office had become an adult employment center, a place to deposit job seekers. Rhee was convinced that Washington's inner city students could achieve, but considerable obstacles stood in the way -- obstacles that needed removing.
Guided by the principles of outstanding leadership, strict accountability, and the power of effective teaching, Rhee was determined to turn around the Washington, D.C. schools. Her encounters with community politics and long-simmering racial tensions, and her battles with central office bureaucrats and teachers' unions, were so extraordinary that her efforts were featured in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and a lengthy PBS series.
The Bee Eater holds the promise of educational excellence for today's students and for tomorrow's school reformers." (Publisher Description) Check Our Catalog

The Ghosts of Europe: Central Europe's Past and Uncertain Future

2011-03-09T17:19:00.000-08:00

By Anna Porter
"An enlightening if unsettling account of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia 20 years after the collapse of communism.
A Canadian writer whose parents fled Hungary in 1956, Porter (Kasztner's Train: The True Story of an Unknown Hero of the Holocaust, 2007) tours these nations, describing the sights and history in between interviews with heroes of the struggle for freedom, as well as a few villains (as in Russia, many former communist bureaucrats have prospered spectacularly). She then moves on to other establishment figures: elected officials, opposition leaders, artists, academics and gadflies. A universal vision during the heady first years of independence was an economic "third way," a compromise between inefficient socialism and heartless capitalism. Nearly everyone now admits that was a fantasy, and that capitalism has won. Porter describes chain stores, malls, skyscrapers, trendy night life and glitzy Western media transforming formerly sleepy medieval Warsaw, Bratislava, Prague and Budapest. An unfettered free market combined with Russian crony-capitalism has produced new wealth and a large middle-class, leaving behind a growing, resentful underclass as pensions and social programs dwindle along with uncompetitive, state-supported factories. The author notes a persistent nostalgia for former communist security in addition to a few disquieting movements with a long history in central Europe but stimulated by the current world economic crisis: anti-Semitism; persecution of ethnic minorities (Hungarians in Slovakia, gypsies everywhere); and nasty right-wing nationalism." (Kirkus Reviews) Check Our Catalog

The "S" Word: A Short History of an American Tradition...Socialism

2011-03-03T10:50:00.000-08:00

By John Nichols
"An important reminder of the invaluable strains of socialist thought throughout American political history, from fighting despotism to creating universal health care.
Socialism has become a bad word, feared equally by the left and right, for different political reasons, but mostly because people haven't read the work of Thomas Paine, Walt Whitman or Abraham Lincoln, or learned about the socialist experiments that really worked in America, such as in Milwaukee, Wisc., the author's hometown....A brief and selective but well-written and spirited study." (Kirkus Reviews) Check Our Catalog

Armed Humanitarians; The Rise Of The Nation Builders

2011-02-27T11:47:00.000-08:00

By Nathan Hodge
"Journalist Hodge, who has spent more than a decade writing about the defense industry, addresses the twenty-first-century foreign policy shift that calls for the U.S. military to engage in armed humanitarianism. A necessary progression from the much-maligned nation building of the 1990s, this change stems from the Pentagons realization that soft power is required to address the economic struggles of disenfranchised peoples that are at the root of most international conflicts. Drawing on an enormous amount of location research in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, the Republic of Georgia, and elsewhere, Hodge exhibits a startling grasp of the primary challenges to our national security as he addresses corruption on the ground overseas, our bloated defense budget, and ongoing difficulties with the State Departments overdependence on military contractors. Readers of Greg Mortensons Three Cups of Tea (2009) will appreciate repeated references to that title and how its philosophy of active civilian engagement is admired and emulated by military in the field. Equal parts inspiring and frustrating, this is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand U.S. foreign policy." (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak

2011-02-27T10:52:00.000-08:00

By Tarek Osman
"Famous until the 1950s for its religious pluralism and extraordinary cultural heritage, Egypt is now seen as an increasingly repressive and divided land, home of the Muslim Brotherhood and an opaque regime headed by the aging President Mubarak.
In this immensely readable and thoroughly researched book, Tarek Osman explores what has happened to the biggest Arab nation since President Nasser took control of the country in 1954. He examines Egypt's central role in the development of the two crucial movements of the period, Arab nationalism and radical Islam; the increasingly contentious relationship between Muslims and Christians; and perhaps most important of all, the rift between the cosmopolitan elite and the mass of the undereducated and underemployed population, more than half of whom are aged under thirty. This is an essential guide to one of the Middle East's most important but least understood states." (Publisher Description)
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Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World

2011-02-23T13:19:00.000-08:00

By James Carroll
" Carroll examines the enigma that is Jerusalemthe holiest and most blood-soaked spot on earthwith insight and candor. He begins at the very beginning: Homo erectus become Homo sapiens become Homo sapiens sapiens. He who knows he knows soon becomes aware of death. Death leads to ritual, and ritual leads to religion. And while various religions flourished all over the ancient world, it was in Jerusalem that God emerged. Not just a god, but God, one who recognizes how both the need for violence and the hatred of violence reside within the human spirit. These conflicting impulses are the subthemes that propel Carrolls story across the ages, through Jerusalems wreckages and rebirths, as the three Abrahamic religions claim the city as its own. Carrolls writing is so compelling, so beautifully constructed, that, ironically, the book can be a very slow read. There is something on almost every page that makes the reader want to stop and contemplate. For those meeting Jerusalem for the first time, this volume makes a stunning introduction. For others, who have struggled with the citys conundrums, either its symbolic meaning in the history of civilization or its place in the modern world, Carrolls reflections will add clarity if not closure." (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture

2011-02-23T13:15:00.000-08:00

By Peggy Orenstein
"Orenstein, who has written about girls for nearly two decades (Schoolgirls), finds today's pink and princess-obsessed girl culture grating when it threatens to lure her own young daughter, Daisy. In her quest to determine whether princess mania is merely a passing phase or a more sinister marketing plot with long-term negative impact, Orenstein travels to Disneyland, American Girl Place, the American International Toy Fair; visits a children's beauty pageant; attends a Miley Cyrus concert; tools around the Internet; and interviews parents, historians, psychologists, marketers, and others. While she uncovers some disturbing news (such as the American Psychological Association's assertion that the "girlie-girl" culture's emphasis on beauty and play-sexiness can increase girls' susceptibility to depression, eating disorders, distorted body image, and risky sexual behavior), she also finds that locking one's daughter away in a tower like a modern-day Rapunzel may not be necessary. Orenstein concludes that parents who think through their values early on and set reasonable limits, encourage dialogue and skepticism, and are canny about the consumer culture can combat the 24/7 "media machine" aimed at girls and hold off the focus on beauty, materialism, and the color pink somewhat. With insight and biting humor, the author explores her own conflicting feelings as a mother as she protects her offspring and probes the roots and tendrils of the girlie-girl movement." (Publisher's Weekly) Check Our Catalog

Rollback; Repealing Big Government Before The Coming Fiscal Collapse

2011-02-16T17:22:00.000-08:00

By Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
"If Congress and the Administration really wanted to learn how to eliminate the deficit, limit government, and protect liberty they would stop wasting taxpayers' money on 'debt commissions' and instead read "Rollback.""
--The Honorable Ron Paul, Member of Congress
"In "Rollback, ," Tom Woods provides a provocative assessment of President Obama's first two years of economic policy-making, challenging virtually every aspect of the administration's narrative. While some readers may not be persuaded, all will find Woods' analysis both interesting and worthy of serious debate."
--Dr. Jeffrey Miron, Economist, Harvard University, and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute
"Tom Woods takes an honest (and methodically cited) look at the record of big government: skyrocketing health-care costs, an out-of-control military, moral hazard in the markets, and a collapsing dollar. Even better, he offers clever, turn-key solutions that could restore the United States to being the breeding ground of wealth and ingenuity that our immigrant ancestors sought and cherished. "Rollback" debunks the popular rhetoric of politicians, the media, and academia. Without a hint of partisanship--taking on Republicans and Democrats alike--Woods has shown how misguided policies have set us up to be the first generation in memory to pass along lower standards of health, wealth, and opportunity to our children. If you are confused about how our once-mighty country has fallen so far, so fast, then "Rollback" is a good place to find your answer."
--Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital and host of The Peter Schiff Show
"In "Rollback," economic historian Tom Woods proves that the true culprit for our financial woes is a government that thinks it can right any wrong, regulate any activity, and tax any event; and a public that continues to accept the assault on its natural liberties in the name of safety. Woods demonstrates with brutal clarity the critical and immediate need to reject the myth that the government can protect us and to repeal the institutions it has created to do so."
--Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, Senior Judicial Analyst, FOX News
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The WhistleBlower

2011-02-14T10:49:00.000-08:00

By Kathryn Bolkovac

"Bolkovac, who worked as part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia in the late 1990s, provides yet another perspective on why private military contracting has encroached on U.S. foreign policy, threatening our image, national security, and the lives of those we are supposed to be protecting. A police officer turned human rights investigator, she worked at uncovering international sex trafficking and cover-ups by her bosses at DynCorp International, which led to her firing, a mad rush across the border, and a subsequent wrongful termination lawsuit in which she was victorious and became the self-described poster girl for everything wrong about security-for-hire. Most galling is the sad truth that DynCorp answered to no law, nor to the military, the U.S., or the Bosnians. The criminality, including rape and murder, committed by corporate military contractors has proliferated in the past decade, and Bolkovacs cautionary tale ends on the sourest of notes. DynCorp won another federal contract on the heels of her lawsuit, and no one was prosecuted for crimes against the women whose lives she struggled to save. Infuriating and heartbreaking." (Booklist) Check Our Catalog

Osama Bin Laden

2011-02-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

By Michael Scheuer
"This propulsive biography is not bin Laden for beginners, but its central point is clear. Scheuer (Imperial Hubris), chief of the CIAs Osama bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999, argues that the West chronically underestimates bin Ladens piety, generosity, personal bravery, strategic ability, charisma and patience. In creating a cartoonish enemy, the U.S. has mindlessly played into bin Ladens plans to provoke a war on Muslim soil to catalyze a jihad to obliterate America from within, by making it economically weak, until its markets collapse. The depiction of bin Ladens evolution from devout student to militant leader is deeply detailed and dense, and readers unable to keep up with a dissection of Islams diverse creeds and doctrines will feel overwhelmed at times, but Scheuers project is lucid and important. Bin Laden anticipated a war of attrition that might last decades and has planned ahead. He has cultivated a multigenerational cadre of between 5,000 and 7,000 loyal warriors, many from the educated upper classes. The conflict with al-Qaeda will, by bin Ladens design, likely be multigenerational, and Scheuer takes a crucial step in revealing how the West keeps itself vulnerable by persisting in demonizing rather than understanding its formidable opponent. " (Publishers Weekly) Check Our Catalog