A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism

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

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

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

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

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

U.S. Infrastructure (The Reference Shelf)

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

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

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

Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children

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

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

By Randall Kennedy

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