Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection

Jacob Silverman (Get this book)
Freelancer Silverman, a celebrated Jeopardy! champion and contributor to Slate, the Atlantic and other publications, debuts with a deep and disquieting plunge into digital culture.The author focuses on the online world of "I share, therefore I am"—Facebook, Twitter and other social media—where technology companies, under the guise of improving our lives, engage in relentless "exploitation, manipulation, and erosion of privacy" in the pursuit of user data and advertising revenue. Intelligent, provocative and illuminating in the author's argument that social media companies must examine their ethics and find business models that don't depend on perpetual surveillance of customers. --Kirkus

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

Hari, Johann (Get this book)
This is a frank, often brutal examination of the origins of the American war-on-drugs policy. Dividing his book neatly into five parts, each with its own subsections, Hari concisely lays out the history and long-term effects of the war on drugs with both depth and precision. He portrays everyone with empathy, from drug dealers to drug addicts, law enforcement personnel, and civilians caught in the middle of this war, which, along with the first-person narration, helps to keep the narrative engaging, albeit often depressing. Hari ends the book by examining alternate ways drug use and drug addiction are being dealt with, the new and growing science that shows that everything we thought we knew about drugs may be wrong, and how there is hope for a new understanding of drug use in the future. --Booklist

They Know Everything About You

Scheer, Robert/ Beladi, Sara (Get this book)
Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Scheer examines how online convenience has supplanted bedrock American values of personal freedom and the right to privacy. Have Americans really surrendered liberties for the "freedom" of bypassing the mall and doing their shopping online? Certainly, but as the author discusses at length, the Internet has also given rise to the most perfect surveillance apparatus ever created. A vital piece of work that demands attention.--Kirkus

Social Security Works!: Why Social Security Isn't Going Broke and How Expanding It Will Help Us All

Altman, Nancy J./ Kingson, Eric R./ Johnston, David Cay (Get this book)
For a balanced yet passionate defense of our Social Security system, author-lawyer Altman and professor Kingson team up, this time in print, to convince audiences from California to Maine that Social Security is, indeed, a valued and valuable program. Altman and Kingson present the facts in ways that nonactuaries can thoroughly understand. Appended is additional information about how Social Security works and about the Social Security Works All Generations Plan; descriptions of various Social Security expansion legislative bills; and a list of leading organizations working to expand Social Security.--Booklist

Lords of Secrecy: The National Security Elite and America's Stealth Warfare

Scott Horton (Get this book)
An examination of the erosion of personal liberty accompanying the rise of the national security state. Thanks at least in part to Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, Americans are more aware than ever before of the massive amount of data that the government keeps not just on suspected terrorists and enemies of the state, but also on ordinary citizens. Even so, in specific terms, writes Harper's contributing editor Horton, "Americans know less about what their national security forces are doing than ever before." This contradiction perfectly describes the way things are today: We know that there are spies among us, but we don't know what they're really after—save that they keep their activities from us by arguing that to know too much would endanger our safety. This useful book catches him in the act and even offers some thoughts on how to poke his eyes out.--Kirkus

More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing

Alfie Kohn, Diane Ravitch (Get this book)
The eagerly engaged voices assembled here present an action plan to combat the increase in high-stakes standardized testing currently plaguing K 12 education. Readily highlighting the drive to turn public education over to private companies, Hagopian and crew scathingly indict test preparation giant Pearson, the Chicago Public School System, the arrogance of the Texas State Legislature, and programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top; Education Secretary Arne Duncan also comes under fire for his support of repetitive standardized testing over more free-form education. The contributors build on Hagopian's optimism for the blooming of an "educational spring" and make this book exceptional.--Publisher's Weekly

America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder

Bret Stephens (Get this book)
Stephens eloquently warns of mounting U.S. isolationism and the chaos that may result. This compact volume responds to current concerns, particularly among progressives and libertarians, that the U.S. military is overly committed abroad. Readers of Stephens's "WSJ"columns will recognize persistent themes: the return of al-Qaeda and the future of Iran; escalating Russian aggression; and Chinese militarism. Given the U.S.'s recently renewed commitments in the Middle East, Stephens's clear, convincing apologia for American power will make especially timely reading for American foreign policy's skeptics and opponents.--Publisher's Weekly