Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution

Richard Whittle (Get this book)
They may soon be delivering this book to you, but for now, drones are anything but your friends. Put a laser, a cannon and some Hellfire missiles into an unmanned aircraft, and you have a potent killing machine. The impulse to create the unmanned drone came from an Israeli lab in response to a quite specific problem: namely, Soviet rockets with multistage radars aimed at Israeli jets by Syrian and Egyptian fighters. There's plenty of geekery befitting a Tom Clancy novel to keep readers entertained, with Whittle occasionally sliding into jargon-y prose. Such longueurs aside, Whittle's account comes to a pointed conclusion: Drone technology has already changed how we die, but what remains to be seen is how it "may change the way people live." For students of technological history and political wrangling alike, the book is endlessly interesting and full of implication.--Kirkus

The Shifts and the Shocks: What We've Learned--And Have Still to Learn--From the Financial Crisis

Martin Wolf (Get this book)
An editor for the Financial Times weighs in with a scholarly analysis of what caused the financial collapse of 2008 and provides suggestions to prevent a recurrence. Wolf offers a highly organized, detailed and, at times, somewhat dense text-at least for general readers. It's also a text with attitude. Although his view is global, he focuses often on the United States and on the United Kingdom and discusses sharply how (in the U.S.) partisan politics often trumped common sense before, during and after the crisis. He argues throughout that austerity plans were exactly the wrong things to implement and that government stimulus plans were too small to be as effective as they could have been. Closely reasoned, highly organized and logical-and stiffly challenging.--Kirkus

The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth

James K. Galbraith (Get this book)
A renowned economist argues that the days of easy growth and full employment are over. Following the crisis of 2008, economists scrambled to "explain" the financial meltdown, variously blaming the government, banks or income inequality for the most severe setback since the Great Depression. Almost all have offered prescriptions for restoring economic health; almost all presume as normal a growth rate that, but for a blip in the 1970s, has persisted since the end of World War II. Galbraith dissents. We face a far different future, he insists, with the world economy no longer under the financial or military control of the United States and its allies, with energy markets costly and uncertain, new technologies destroying more jobs than they create and the private financial sector no longer supercharging growth. Under these new conditions, preserving post-WWII growth rates is impossible. A cleareyed, if dismaying analysis of the new normal, "a qualitatively different form of capitalism" for the 21st century.--Kirkus

Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield

Toni Zinni (Get this book)
Distinguished U.S. Marine Corps General (ret.) Zinni argues that the key to the U.S. military's success in battle lies in a combination of strategic decisions and actions that occur off the battlefield and often before the battle begins. Zinni illustrates his primer on the basics of formulating national strategy with examples taken from more than 50 years of military and national security experience. His full-bore critique of presidential administrations is organized chronologically from Kennedy to Obama. In the course of his analysis, Zinni names names and makes some bold and controversial assertions. He offers several solutions to the issues he raises, including the creation of a professional, civilian-led national security corps, and a complete legislative reorganization of the military's administrative departments to force "whole of government" strategic approaches to solving problems of national security. Zinni insightfully criticizes the decision-making process behind our national strategy and makes recommendations worthy of consideration.--Publisher's Weekly

The Opportunity Equation: How Citizen Teachers Are Combating the Achievement Gap in America's Schools

Eric Schwarz (Get this book)
Both a practical policy primer and a memoir, Schwarz persuasively demonstrates that the so-called educational achievement gap is rooted in opportunity and resources not willingness or ability and proposes accessible solutions to close the gap. With a keen and forthright eye, he employs his own experience as a child born into privilege to establish that if the advantages lavished on him were available to children from all points on the economic spectrum, achievement and prospects for future accomplishments would also be weighted equally. Schwarz offers an inspiring chronicle of scholarly triumphs and generous citizen activism, as well as a constructive blueprint for boosting achievement without abandoning public education.--Publisher's Weekly

Sustainability: A History

Jeremy L. Caradonna (Get this book)
Caradonna contends that our civilization is at a crossroads: Either we will maintain a business-as-usual approach and face inevitable collapse or adopt the path of sustainability.For the author, sustainability is a broader concept than just conservation. With social justice and human rights as its "social dimension," it covers "a broad range of domains: urbanism, agriculture and ecological design, forestry, fisheries, economics, trade, population, housing and architecture, transportation, business, education, social justice, and soon." Caradonna claims that environmental issues should not be treated separately from political or economic issues. A provocative treatment of an important subject.--Kirkus

Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America

Jonathan Simon (Get this book)
UC Berkeley criminologist Simon offers an eloquent critique of the American prison system and uses several Supreme Court cases to examine the development of new jurisprudence that might end mass incarceration. His sketch of the history of mass incarceration attends to interlocking issues, such as racial politics, the upheavals of the 1960s, and media influence on public opinion. In his case studies, he focuses on the way decisions have addressed human rights violations arising from the prison system, from overcrowding, to the failure to reduce crime, to the torture of being incarcerated with a terminal illness. Simon's accessible and powerful book deserves widespread attention.--Publisher's Weekly