Book Description
“Politics is stuck,” writes Bill Bradley, in this insightful, informative, and provocative book about America at a crossroads, but “idealism isn’t dead. It can be reawakened.”
What will it take to make America a better, stronger, truer country? asks the bestselling author, former Knicks star, and onetime presidential candidate. Bill Bradley believes that America is at a teachable moment when we are compelled to reevaluate our political system, our leadership, our agenda as a nation, and ourselves as citizens. With clarity and urgency, Bradley shows why the story we are being told now about who we are as a people is not true. He then offers a new story about our nation, based on America’s rich heritage and his belief in the character of the American people. Bradley explores what changes need to be made in our parties, in our politics, and in citizen activism to ensure America’s future. He asserts that the American people are ready for the truth and suggests that the party that chooses to embrace this new story will be in power for a generation.
Writing from his own experience in politics and drawing on his knowledge of history, Bradley shows how the Republican Party has built a solid pyramid structure since the 1970s, at the base of which are money, ideas, and media, whereas the Democratic Party’s structure is an inverted pyramid, with too much emphasis put on the need for a charismatic leader to hold the pyramid up. Each party, for different reasons, fails to deal with the real issues that now confront America.
This informed and inspiring call to action is addressed not only to the parties and elected leaders, but to citizens as well. Bradley proposes things every American can do to shape our nation’s future. He points out that if eighty percent of the electorate voted, instead of fifty percent, it would be the most important change in American politics since women got the vote. Now more than ever, he says, we need to embrace an “ethic of connectedness,” a combination of
collective action and individual responsibility, to solve our nation’s most pressing
problems, and he argues that the fate of all countries is bound together as never before. Writing today with the freedom of a private citizen, Bradley provides this transformative and eye-opening book about the danger and the promise of America’s choice at this crucial moment in the nation’s history.
Customer Reviews:
A "HOW-TO" for citizenship and political leadership.......2007-09-29
Why should you read this?
- If you care about our democracy and want to help make it strong again
- If you want to understand the big domestic challenges we face today
- If you want thoughtful proposals to addresses those challenges
- If you want to better the understand the Democratic and Republican parties; what makes them function, what makes them DYSFUNCTIONAL
- If you want to hear an insider's take on what makes our democracy tick, what makes it great, and what threatens its survival
This is a terrific book. If I had the money, I'd buy one for every member of Congress.
I listened to this book unabridged on audio, narrated by Michael Prichard. He does a good job capturing Bill Bradley's dignity, but to my ear doesn't quite capture his enthusiasm and passion for good government.
excellent.......2007-08-28
bradley is a truly brilliant man. the book is filled with hundreds of good ideas. hopefully he will stay involved in politics. the problem is that the people who need to read this book will not. our government is controlled by big business and greedy men with their own agendas. how soon is that going to change? i highly reccomend this book.
Call to Greatness.......2007-08-20
You'd swear Bill Bradley was running for office or dashing down court for a breakaway three-pointer. This one-time presidential contender and New York Knicks superstar writes with the energy and urgency of a man on a mission.
Read his book, The New American Story, and you'll be tempted to join him. Bradley has issued a powerful call to action--one that promises to rescue our nation from political infighting and restore America's leadership role in the world.
His is not a story of military might and moral superiority; it is the story of our nation's founding principles, written by the men and women whose active engagement at pivotal points in history assured the country lived up to its highest ideals.
We have a choice before us that could transcend our current state of affairs, says Bradley. A choice that puts country over political party, the common good over the distracting issues that divide us.
One of our nation's most admired leaders--Abraham Lincoln--knew a thing or two about bringing a divided nation together. When he was president, Lincoln would often sneak out of the White House on Wednesday nights to hear sermons of a well-known preacher at the New York Presbyterian Church. One night, an aide asked Lincoln what he had thought of the sermon. "The content was excellent. The minister had a strong voice and a good delivery," said Lincoln, pausing. "But he forgot the most important part. He didn't ask us to do something great."
Bill Bradley is asking us to do something great.
"The answers to our problems rest in our hearts as well as in our heads," Bradley says in the introduction to his book, "and until we understand that, we'll make marginal improvements, but we won't make the quantum leaps that our Founders made and hoped we would continue."
I am drawn to stories of ordinary Americans who overcame obstacles to achieve great things. Freedom fighters on the Underground Railroad. Journalists who exposed unethical business practices at the turn of the 20th century. The immigrants who built our transcontinental railroad. A country lawyer who became a United States Supreme Court Justice, America's chief prosecutor of Nazi War criminals, and the founder of international law. These are the stories I want people around the world to know about when they think of America and its unique contributions to the world. That's why my husband and I make historical documentaries for a living.
Bill Bradley's book had me from hello, or at least from the moment I read the book jacket blurbs written by David McCullough, David Halberstam, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Robert A. Caro, all Pulitzer Prize winners. Because I love history, and because I believe in the strength of our nation's collective character, I kept on reading.
There is no question the bold policies outlined in Bill Bradley's book will be hotly debated in the coming weeks. He takes both political parties to task, taking aim at the current administration's policies with the finesse of a seasoned athlete and senator. And while I don't agree with every single one of Bradley's strategies on health care, education, environment, tax reform, and national defense, if this American story is to have a happy ending, I, like all other Americans, will have to look for common ground, and make sacrifices for the greater good.
Bill Bradley has faith that, given the right information--the true American story--we will do the right thing.
Current state of affairs for the middle class .......2007-08-07
I confess I have read many other books on the current status quo and state of politics in our country before reading this book. If you have too, this may be a bit repetitive as most issues have been discussed before. What I do like about Bill Bradley's book is it is not simply a laundry list of complaints. He offers at the end of each chapter (designated to each issue) some thought out solutions. This is a good book for eye-opening for our major issues - health care, education, energy... and would recommend it to readers who want to learn more about the who, what and why our social issues are being ignored by government. I also recommend "War on the Middle Class" by Lou Dobbs or "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class -- And What We Can Do About It" by Thom Hartmann. I enjoyed reading those a little more.
Long-winded and Confusing Story.......2007-07-29
I'll confess right up front that I haven't finished the book yet, and I'll update this review when I do. I'm still slogging through lengthy, wandering passages that fail to make any points. I keep waiting for any kind of "here's a solution" or "here's what we should do" sentence, but I have yet to find one. He spends a lot of pages in the first 25% of the book telling the reader about the "story" that he says we're being told -- by whom? On every issue he seems to pick the most extreme right-wing position as representative of this "story" rather than the positions that the majority of Republicans and conservatives hold. And thus far all he's offered for his "new story" is idealistic pie-in-the-sky notions with no plan to get there. I trust that he gets there in the second half of the book.
Just one example of the poor writing and editing: In the section titled "Inequality" in chapter on The Economy, he goes on for quite a while about financial inequality, then about globalization and technological change, finally claiming that you can no longer get ahead by working hard. He then admits that that there is no way around benefiting the wealthy if you want to encourage investment. And then this sentence:
"But there is no excuse for failing to conduct rigorous oversight of and increase resources to education ... which in the long run will result in ... greater equality."
Okay, he tied it back into equality, but how did he suddenly switch from tax cuts and investing and unions to education in the middle of the same paragraph? Where did this out-of-the-blue accusation come from that someone isn't overseeing and funding education? I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with that accusation, just pointing out that it's completely out of place in any kind of logical or narrative flow.
And so goes this story so far. I'll keep at it and hope the writing and presentation of ideas tightens up. Maybe his publisher paid him by the word...
Amazon.com
The crowning achievement of Jimmy Carter's presidency was the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, and he has continued his public and private diplomacy ever since, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of work for peace, human rights, and international development. He has been a tireless author since then as well, writing bestselling books on his childhood, his faith, and American history and politics, but in Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, he has returned to the Middle East and to the question of Israel's peace with its neighbors--in particular, how Israeli sovereignty and security can coexist permanently and peacefully with Palestinian nationhood.
It's a rare honor to ask questions of a former president, and we are grateful that President Carter was able to take the time in between his work with his wife, Rosalynn, for the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity and his many writing projects to speak with us about his hopes for the region and his thoughts on the book.
A big thank you to President Carter for granting our request for an interview.
An Interview with President Jimmy Carter
Q: What has been the importance of your own faith in your continued interest in peace in the Middle East?
A: As a Christian, I worship the Prince of Peace. One of my preeminent commitments has been to bring peace to the people who live in the Holy Land. I made my best efforts as president and still have this as a high priority.
Q: A common theme in your years of Middle East diplomacy has been that leaders on both sides have often been more open to discussion and change in private than in public. Do you think that's still the case?
A: Yes. This is why private and intense negotiations can be successful. More accurately, however, my premise has been that the general public (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) are more eager for peace than their political leaders. For instance, a recent poll done by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem showed that 58% of Israelis and 81% of the Palestinians favor a comprehensive settlement similar to the Roadmap for Peace or the Saudi proposal adopted by all 23 Arab nations and recently promoted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Tragically, there have been no substantive peace talks during the past six years.
Q: How have the war in Iraq and the increased strength of Iran (and the declarations of their leaders against Israel) changed the conditions of the Israel-Palestine question?
A: Other existing or threatened conflicts in the region greatly increase the importance of Israel's having peace agreements with its neighbors, to minimize overall Arab animosity toward both Israel and the United States and reduce the threat of a broader conflict.
Q: Your use of the term "apartheid" has been a lightning rod in the response to your book. Could you explain your choice? Were you surprised by the reaction?
A: The book is about Palestine, the occupied territories, and not about Israel. Forced segregation in the West Bank and terrible oppression of the Palestinians create a situation accurately described by the word. I made it plain in the text that this abuse is not based on racism, but on the desire of a minority of Israelis to confiscate and colonize Palestinian land. This violates the basic humanitarian premises on which the nation of Israel was founded. My surprise is that most critics of the book have ignored the facts about Palestinian persecution and its proposals for future peace and resorted to personal attacks on the author. No one could visit the occupied territories and deny that the book is accurate.
Q: You write in the book that "the peace process does not have a life of its own; it is not self-sustaining." What would you recommend that the next American president do to revive it?
A: I would not want to wait two more years. It is encouraging that President George W. Bush has announced that peace in the Holy Land will be a high priority for his administration during the next two years. On her January trip to the region, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for early U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. She has recommended the 2002 offer of the Arab nations as a foundation for peace: full recognition of Israel based on a return to its internationally recognized borders. This offer is compatible with official U.S. Government policy, previous agreements approved by Israeli governments in 1978 and 1993, and with the International Quartet's "roadmap for peace." My book proposes that, through negotiated land swaps, this "green line" border be modified to permit a substantial number of Israelis settlers to remain in Palestine. With strong U.S. pressure, backed by the U.N., Russia, and the European Community, Israelis and Palestinians would have to come to the negotiating table.
1/18/2007
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From Publishers Weekly
The term "good-faith" is almost inappropriate when applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a bloody struggle interrupted every so often by negotiations that turn out to be anything but honest. Nonetheless, thirty years after his first trip to the Mideast, former President Jimmy Carter still has hope for a peaceful, comprehensive solution to the region's troubles, delivering this informed and readable chronicle as an offering to the cause. An engineer of the 1978 Camp David Accords and 2002 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Carter would seem to be a perfect emissary in the Middle East, an impartial and uniting diplomatic force in a fractured land. Not entirely so. Throughout his work, Carter assigns ultimate blame to Israel, arguing that the country's leadership has routinely undermined the peace process through its obstinate, aggressive and illegal occupation of territories seized in 1967. He's decidedly less critical of Arab leaders, accepting their concern for the Palestinian cause at face value, and including their anti-Israel rhetoric as a matter of course, without much in the way of counter-argument. Carter's book provides a fine overview for those unfamiliar with the history of the conflict and lays out an internationally accepted blueprint for peace.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
Following his #1 New York Times bestseller, Our Endangered Values, the former president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, offers an assessment of what must be done to bring permanent peace to Israel with dignity and justice to Palestine.
President Carter, who was able to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, has remained deeply involved in Middle East affairs since leaving the White House. He has stayed in touch with the major players from all sides in the conflict and has made numerous trips to the Holy Land, most recently as an observer in the Palestinian elections of 2005 and 2006.
In this book President Carter shares his intimate knowledge of the history of the Middle East and his personal experiences with the principal actors, and he addresses sensitive political issues many American officials avoid. Pulling no punches, Carter prescribes steps that must be taken for the two states to share the Holy Land without a system of apartheid or the constant fear of terrorism.
The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known, the president writes. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key U.N. resolutions, official American policy, and the international "road map" for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications, Israel's official pre-1967 borders must be honored. As were all previous administrations since the founding of Israel, U.S. government leaders must be in the forefront of achieving this long-delayed goal of a just agreement that both sides can honor.
Palestine Peace Not Apartheid is a challenging, provocative, and courageous book.
Customer Reviews:
Shows a lot of thought, reflexion, and prayer.......2007-09-24
You can tell President Carter has a true passion for world peace and a desire to truly understand what drives people, both individually, and as a people to become who they are and do the things they do. What drives the human psyche and soul is affected by things, events, people, time, and place in history, and things beyond what we can imagine. No one can truly judge someone else without prejudice without at least attempting to walk a mile in his subjects shoes; and yet he is humble enough to know that even in doing so he has still only walked a mile in someone else's shoes. He has still not lived someone else's life or struggled that person's plight whatever it may be consist of. He takes responsibility for his opinions and explains his points of view and what got him to those conclusions. We are all entitled to form our own. I like that his reflect deep thinking and prayer.
Great book!!!.......2007-09-19
This book needs to be read by everybody out there for whether you believe it or not, we areall affected by what's happening in the Middle East. Every right mind would agree that it there wasn't this rage in the East, the world would have been a much different place. Safer, I don't know about that. Any way, Mr. Carter take a very unusual look at the situation. The look is impartial and that's what makes it unusual. One of the point Mr. Carter argues about, which I am very greatful for, is that Israel has confiscated lands that are not theirs making the world believe that's it's for military security, whereas in reality it's for geographical expension.
I do belive that Israel shouldn't be going anywhere for, like all people, they've gotta have a place to live for they are, like all people, citizens of the planet Earth. But at the same time, Israel needs to respect the Palestine rights to exist and be a nation. And until we have a group of people to think like Mr. Carter and make Israel understand all of that, we'll still be sitting on an eastern hot pot ready to explode.
Reason and Restraint.......2007-09-18
President Carter draws from history, personal experience and extensive observations to present largely unknown or ignored facts and conclusions about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. His writing is clear and even-handed, never boring. Continuing his quest for peace in this region, Carter offers specific steps that both sides can follow to resolve their differences. "... we must not abandon efforts to achieve permanent peace for Israelis and freedom and justice for Palestinians."
Carter's realistic approach and unfailing optimism are highly commendable. Everyone should read this excellent book.
V. Good.......2007-09-14
very good book that sheds some light on the conflict and how to get out of it
informative.......2007-09-12
even for someone who have alot of knowledge about the conflict, this book is fully informative. i learned alot of details about the camp david accords that i ignored before. its language is simple and interesting to read.
Book Description
In the early 1960s, American conservatives seemed to have fallen on hard times. McCarthyism was on the run, and movements on the political left were grabbing headlines. The media lampooned John Birchers's accusations that Dwight Eisenhower was a communist puppet. Mainstream America snickered at warnings by California Congressman James B. Utt that "barefooted Africans" were training in Georgia to help the United Nations take over the country. Yet, in Utt's home district of Orange County, thousands of middle-class suburbanites proceeded to organize a powerful conservative movement that would land Ronald Reagan in the White House and redefine the spectrum of acceptable politics into the next century.
Suburban Warriors introduces us to these people: women hosting coffee klatches for Barry Goldwater in their tract houses; members of anticommunist reading groups organizing against sex education; pro-life Democrats gradually drawn into conservative circles; and new arrivals finding work in defense companies and a sense of community in Orange County's mushrooming evangelical churches. We learn what motivated them and how they interpreted their political activity. Lisa McGirr shows that their movement was not one of marginal people suffering from status anxiety, but rather one formed by successful entrepreneurial types with modern lifestyles and bright futures. She describes how these suburban pioneers created new political and social philosophies anchored in a fusion of Christian fundamentalism, xenophobic nationalism, and western libertarianism.
While introducing these rank-and-file activists, McGirr chronicles Orange County's rise from "nut country" to political vanguard. Through this history, she traces the evolution of the New Right from a virulent anticommunist, anti-establishment fringe to a broad national movement nourished by evangelical Protestantism. Her original contribution to the social history of politics broadens--and often upsets--our understanding of the deep and tenacious roots of popular conservatism in America.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Subject..........2006-03-09
I was assigned this book for class and therefore didn't have a huge interest in the subject before I read the book. I haven't finished it, but I also don't plan to finish it. The subject was interesting, but the book wasn't captivating.
I found that the author sometimes became overly concerned with statistical information and details which left me (as well as my classmates) confused and frustrated. When too many facts are thrown at you at once, you just want to skip it and move along.
If you actually know about the John Birch Society and are highly interested in the Conservative Right, I'm sure you will like the book, even in spite of those "factual" sections. Historically, it's very accurate and I know that those who were interested really enjoyed the author's style.
Analyzes the 'warrior' battle plan of the 1950's and 1960's.......2005-05-30
This book is neat precisely because it takes a scholarly approach to examining the new right. Instead of writing a frenzied treatise why the right is bad, Lisa McGirr lets readers draw conclusions from her fact-based historical analysis.
The suburban new right emerged in the 1950's and early 1960's out of a desire for self-preservation. People in these newly emergent suburbs were alternating between the 'self-reliant' model of conservative libertarianism and 'big-government' social conservatism which placed its premiums on social and political conformity as a tool for ensuring order in the community. The then cold war united the two periodically disparate strains of conservatism into a unified school of thought; conformity was good for national security.
Because it upheld the values which they supported (and felt were in the best benefit for America) the people who would become part of the New Right honestly did not mind when they and/or their companies received economic subsidies from the government. They had to defend the country against the reds after all. This was not mooching off the system, but ensuring the country would be able to produce the best resources and the brightest people to outmatch 'the reds'.
The 'red-baiting' and 'race-baiting' which I and other people have publicly and psychologically associated with the right only came into existence when the status quo was being threatened.
The same people who had not protested (and in fact welcomed) government benefits for themselves became genuinely anxious upon realizing that the civil rights movement was attempting to reconfigure the American state to offer more benefits to more groups of people. This exposed contradictions in the American state as it currently existed and hinted that a reconfigured American state would not provide exactly the same order of things as they had known it to exist.
Fearful of these 'other' people, some southern states undertook the-then shocking action of voting for Barry Goldwater in 1964, disrupting the solidly Democratic south. Prior to this time, a southerner voting Republican was unthinkable. The party of Lincoln after all was responsible for both emancipation and reconstruction.
Although Goldwater would loose to Johnson, his candidacy and campaign positions (including against the civil rights act) further laid the foundations for the present day situation. Voting shifts in the 1964 presidential election ultimately encouraged the Reagan revolution of the 1980's and George W. Bush's promotion of faith based initiatives today.
Good, but not great.......2004-05-05
McGirr's book traces the rise of what I would call the (white, middle-class) suburban right and the Christian right, beginning in the early 60s. The new right coalesced around anti-Communism, laissez faire capitalism, states' rights and local government, the "traditional" family, Christian values, individual economic responsibility, and low taxes.
It was the suburban Christian right that first brought these views together. Barry Goldwater, who ran for President in 1964 against Johnson, was an early exemplar of new right views. However, his strong opposition to the Civil Rights acts won him the lower South and, along with his virulent anti-Communism, helped him lose the rest of the country.
The suburban Christian right shed the virulent and conspiratorial anti-Communism that they initially directed at domestic enemies; south-eastern politics moved away from the New Deal order and shed legal segregation and overt biological racism; they all joined their Christian and conservative forces and formed a conservative coalition behind Ronald Reagan.
McGirr's is a "bottom up" analysis that begins with the grass roots social base of the suburban Christian right, using Orange County as a prototypical case study. She also examines the interplay of grass roots leaders, rank and file members, regional business elites, and national intellectual and political leaders.
The book doesn't delve into how the suburban right teamed up with south-eastern conservatives, but their shared Christianity, shared social conservatism, and shared opposition to civil rights, busing, and affirmative action makes it fairly easy to guess what that part of the story in general looks like. However, McGirr's would be a better book if she examined some of these connections, at least briefly. This is what makes the book good but not great.
Post-script: Today, the Cold War is over, terrorism has replaced communism as America's global enemy, and George W. Bush has combined the Christian right with the post-Cold War, neo-conservative, neo-imperialist right. Bush has tried to combine anti-terrorism, neo-imperialism, and Christian conservativism without provoking Christian-Islamic antagonisms--antagonisms already strained by Christian conseravtive and neo-conservative support for Israel. These topics would make an interesting post-script to McGirr's book.
Rhetorical, but ok.......2004-05-01
I had to read this book for a history class. It provides enough incite on the origin of conservatism in Orange County, but to me, she overemphasizes her status as a historian. Instead of telling one point just once, she repeats it again in another segment, which, as a reader, I already knew because she said it before. She is non-biased in her approach of the conservative uprooting, yet she does seem to make them out to look like the enemy rather than a large group of people that were encouraging enrollment for causes they believed in. I recommend it to anyone who likes to read the word "Knott" over and over again.
Absorbing,Thorough Analysis Of Neoconservative Ascent !.......2002-04-27
This book represents both a fascinating study of the evolution of `60s politics as well as a historical attempt to document and explain the perplexing fact that a country flirting with the danger of a social and political revolution from the left suddenly veered so much farther to the right toward a broad-based popular conservatism. Herein Lisa McGirr, a gifted author and Harvard professor comes closer to making her prose swing than one would expect of a book of this type. Meanwhile, she also spins a convincing argument regarding the origins of the American neo-conservative revival in the late `60s and early `70s. At the time, domestic conservatism had been badly eclipsed by the burgeoning youth culture and their radical leftist notions. To her credit, the account rendered here is not only academically spirited, but is written in a way that makes this serious work of scholarship accessible to the general public.
She focuses meaningfully on the activities within a specific congressional district, in Orange County California, where, she argues quite persuasively, the seeds of the neo-conservative revival were most fruitfully planted and sown. Within this district, literally thousands of affluent and educated suburban "warriors" combined to launch a powerful movement destined less than a decade later to propel Ronald Reagan into the White House. In the process they also helped to chisel a new agenda into the granite pillars of the American pantheon, one that helped to define the very nature of domestic political battles for decades to come.
This book gives us a graphic and detail introduction to these hearty, healthy and enthusiastic warriors; housewives arguing political strategy over coffee and Danish, young and well-educated defense engineers arriving to live out the American dream, impressionable young religious workers convinced that the only way to save the country and themselves from Hellfire and brimstone was to work fervently against the designs of the "godless democrats". From this well-detailed work we begin to see how the movement came into being, how it organized itself, what motivated the individuals as well as what their evolving political agenda became and why.
McGirr demonstrates that this was far from being a movement of marginalized or isolated extremists; on the contrary, from the beginning it was more accurately characterized as an intensely enthusiastic enterprise, one formed and energized by the social, economic, and political elite, people with both means and motive for becoming involved to better control their own futures as well as those of the country at large. In what is perhaps her best set of insights, she demonstrates how these young and innovative neo-conservatives established a new set of political philosophies and precepts, forged in a alloy of Christian fundamentalism, misguided nationalism, and more traditional true conservatism (i.e. an old-style libertine attitude).
This is a seminal work, an effort at true scholarship which dares to look at Rosemary's baby in the face by searching through the afterbirth of the not so immaculate birthing of modern neo-conservatism. What she discovers and demonstrates along the way may often upset our traditional notions of what happened and why, but it never fails to inform or edify us as to what transpired or why. This is an interesting and worthwhile book, and one that I can heartily recommend. Enjoy!
Average customer rating:
- Thought-provoking but unsatisfying
- Imagine that...!
- One of the seminal works on the evolution of national consciousness
- New Edition disappointing
- Update Needed, New Wars To Contemplate!!!
|
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, New Edition
Benedict Anderson
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ASIN: 1844670864 |
Book Description
A new edition of the definitive book on nationalism—over a quarter of a million copies sold worldwide.
Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson's brilliant book on nationalism, forged a new field of study when it first appeared in 1983. Since then it has sold over a quarter of a million copies and is widely considered the most important book on the subject. In this greatly anticipated revised edition, Anderson updates and elaborates on the core question: what makes people live, die and kill in the name of nations? He shows how an originary nationalism born in the Americas was adopted by popular movements in Europe, by imperialist powers, and by the anti-imperialist resistances in Asia and Africa, and explores the way communities were created by the growth of the nation-state, the interaction between capitalism and printing, and the birth of vernacular languages-of-state. Anderson revisits these fundamental ideas, showing how their relevance has been tested by the events of the past two decades.
Customer Reviews:
Thought-provoking but unsatisfying.......2007-07-17
This short book/long essay offers some interesting insights on nationalism, but is limited by its Marxist-materialist perspective. Anderson obviously knows his history and his typology of three essential nationalisms (the new republics of the Americas in the late 18th-early 19th centuries, popular national revival movements in 19th-century Europe, and suffocating official nationalisms such as the British and Russian empires) is based on the history of capitalism, the development of printing, mass communication, class conflicts, and world trade. Anderson argues that these models were adapted in one form or another in the newly independent nations of Africa and Asia after World War II.
Psychology is the unmentioned elephant in the drawing room. There is no consideration of group/crowd psychology or built-in human aggressiveness and territoriality, the human need to define oneself in a group in opposition to others, or the way that nations are felt by many people to be a kind of family, with rulers as parent figures. The absence of psychology causes Anderson's argument to run out of steam toward the end, when he offers only a few pages about patriotism and racism, and here becomes shallow and unconvincing.
Some nation-states are no doubt very artificial (as Anderson's "imagined" title suggests), and borders between countries are often artificial. But cultural and linguistic differences between groups are very real. Anderson recognizes the importance of language differences. At one point he quotes a distinguished Indonesian author, leaving the quote untranslated. (Are we supposed to be impressed because Anderson reads Indonesian and we, presumably, don't?) However, Anderson does not give much consideration to cultural (including religious) differences, other than some mention of this issue in his discussion of Japan and Indonesia.
There are other curious omissions. Anderson does not note that people often have multiple and conflicting loyalties (allegiance to a nation, but also to a region, or to a religion). He never mentions the Roman Empire, says little or nothing about the Arab world, diaspora populations or stateless peoples.
Anderson is an academic writing for other academics. He wants to be quoted and to be considered clever, hence the catchy title. Readers outside academia may become irritated with his gassy, excessively precious and self-indulgent style (phrases like "discontinuity-in-connectedness"). Anderson's references to trendy authors (Foucault, Bakhtin) do not really contribute to his argument and the authors in question are no longer as trendy now as they were in the early 1980s.
This book can certainly stimulate your thinking on this important topic, but will leave many questions unanswered.
Imagine that...!.......2007-07-12
Great book! I am using it for academic research and have found it great from a theoretical perspective. That said, it is a bloody brillant read for anyone who is just simply interested in understanding what the big deal is about nations or wanting to just have a more general understanding behind the more everyday realities of what nation and national identity, like pretty much any other kind of social grouping mean.
One of the seminal works on the evolution of national consciousness.......2007-06-08
Anderson's masterful work about the development of national consciousness should be read and treasured by anyone interested in modern politics, political theory, or societal development. Bringing together an impressive array of international and polyglot sources, it is one of the few books that gives a global account of the phenomenon of nationalism and modern nation-building while disabusing readers of most of the truisms concerning nations that people today seem to take for granted. Read it, and then pass it on to your friends and family. It's worth it.
New Edition disappointing.......2007-02-20
I was disappointed in this 'new edition', because it is a missed opportunity.
When it was first published in 1983, 'Imagined Communities' deservedly became a classic in the analysis of nationalism - and an excellent antidote to those who beat nationalist drums. As the new chapter (on the 'geobiography of the book') at the end of this edition outlines, the book has now been published in 30 countries and 27 languages.
Partly inspired by Anderson, the debates on nationalism have moved on considerably in the subsequent 23 years. I was hoping that a new/revised edition would at least note these debates, and preferably comment and analyse them. Unfortunately, this edition does not. Indeed, even though the 'Preface to the second edition' (written in 1991) refers to the excellent 1990 book by Eric Hobsbawm 'Nations and Nationalism', that Hobsbawm text does not get a listing in the bibliography. There is little in the bibliography post 1983, and nothing since around 1990.
While the initial book is still well worth reading (hence the three stars), there is unfortunately little to recommend in this 'new edition'
Update Needed, New Wars To Contemplate!!!.......2007-02-05
I certainly recommend this book, for a quick and easy read. If communism or fascism is a topic of interest then this book would be a great addition.
As usual though Anderson constantly revives Islamic ideology, as a prime source of Nationalism, but luckily he tackles many other topics such as the Vietnam war, the Cold War, Imperialism, China, Europe, but most importantly "modernity."
He directly questions pluralism in humanity, in times of Antiquity in paradox with modernity. His questioning crosses all continents, where at last we realize the transcontinental routes of Nationalism.
Average customer rating:
- An Exhaustive Collection of Public Personnel Issues
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The New Public Personnel Administration
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Cases in Public Human Resource Management
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Public Budgeting Systems, Seventh Edition
ASIN: 0534602398 |
Book Description
Prepare for your career in public personnel management with THE NEW PUBLIC PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION! With coverage of public policies, law rulings, and court rulings, this text gives you a solid foundation for advanced studies in specialized areas of public personnel management. Major policy trends and debates are discussed including affirmative action, compensation and benefits, sexual harassment, workplace violence, substance and alcohol abuse, performance appraisal, and collective bargaining. Discussion questions, suggested readings, chapter appendices, informative illustrations, and examples are just a few of the tools that will help you succeed in this course.
Customer Reviews:
An Exhaustive Collection of Public Personnel Issues.......1998-01-15
I recently read this book for a Ph.D. course, I found it to be quite exhaustive in coverage. From the beginnings of the public sector and the issues of spoils and patronage to the current issues of pay for performance, sexual harrassment and current public work trends, this book covers a great deal of subjects. Perhaps the most notable is the writers' ability to combine historical personnel issues with relative theories to argue current problems and situations. The second full reading really helped to clarify the book's thoughtful issues.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
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- History as Science Fiction
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History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
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History: Fiction or Science? Astronomical methods as applied to chronology. Ptolemy's Almagest. Chronology III
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Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored
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They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies
ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
While everything appears to be collapsing around us -- ecodamage, genetic engineering, virulent diseases, the end of cheap oil, water shortages, global famine, wars -- we can still do something about it and create a world that will work for us and for our children’s children. The inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio’s web movie Global Warning,
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight details what is happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture’s blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem. Thom Hartmann’s comprehensive book, originally published in 1998, has become one of the fundamental handbooks of the environmental activist movement. Now, with fresh, updated material and a focus on political activism and its effect on corporate behavior,
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight helps us understand--and heal--our relationship to the world, to each other, and to our natural resources.
Customer Reviews:
If this is the answer, we are doomed. .......2007-09-23
As a biology teacher, I bought this book because I thought it would be a scholarly analysis of the current environmental crisis. Instead, it is largely a diatribe against all the "evils" of Western civilization, followed by plenty of New Age mumbo.
Here are a few gems of the author's "analysis":
--All human civilizations throughout history can be divided into just two groups: Old Cultures and Young Cultures. Old Cultures universally loved each other, lived in peace, respected the earth, helped old ladies cross the street and lived sustainably. Young Cultures (Europe, USA) rape and pillage, are resource-extracting, and practice despicable acts like ownership of property and buying and selling things in an economy, rather than communally sharing all the resources.
--To get back to Old Culture, you should leave your job, home and 401k and join with small bands of like-minded individuals to buy enough rural land to build basic shelters, grow crops, and grab your own solar energy. This will re-create the small, sustainable, "tribes" of the past.
--The author proposes walking outside with the book and attempting to talk to plants and animals, waiting until they talk back. At one point, he caresses a tree and apologizes to it.
--Just by thinking good thoughts you can effect planetary change. Since the entire planet is interconnected by a "morphic energy field" any good thoughts dumped into it will improve the whole "cosmic soup."
--If you get to the end of the book, the afterword tells you that you are an exceptional person (literally, a "Chosen One") and that you should run out and buy 10 more copies of the author's other books to distribute to friends.
If this is the "strategy" of the new environmental movement, we are doomed. The author is clearly passionate about the issue and is attempting to drive deep cultural change to solve the problem, but his prescriptions are hopelessly utopian. I don't see how aboriginal mysticism is going to scrub the carbon dioxide out of our air or invent a better fuel cell.
Instead of buying 10 copies of this book, try Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" or "Collapse."
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
If there is a more important and powerful book out there, I haven't found it........2007-09-02
Better than anyone I've ever read or heard, Hartmann explains the cultural and environmental crises we have wrought, how we got there, and what we can do to overcome them. It is full of factual evidence and well-thought-out insights.
Hartmann is a brilliant and prolific writer as well as an Air America radio host. If everyone would read it, there would be a lot more hope for our future.
Everyone should READ THIS.......2007-08-01
A brilliant book, very well researched and taking us thru the times in a very easy to read style. It is not fiction but feels like a good thriller at times with a cannot put down flavour to it. It is educational and informative and moves thru the subjects systematically with a deep spiritual element towards the end and finalising with an action plan and on a positive note that all is not lost. I initially borrowed this from my library but decided I want to add this to my collection of books - it is so good ! Happy reading and please share what you have read with others so that there is a world movement to improve our environment for this earth belongs not only to humans but to all other living creatures and plants as well.
A wake up call.......2007-07-23
This is a great book that addresses a number of critical issues, and it provides a good springboard to look at our future and how we must change to survive. Disappointing to some is that he doesn't reach any conclusions, however the purpose of the book is not to be "A idiots guide to survival" rather to force the reader to draw his own conclusions.
I feel that he either missed some research or simply left it out. Two cases in point are tribalism and democracy. What he said about ancient tribes is mostly correct, however there are strong indications that some ancient tribes that pre-dated modern civilization were exceedingly warlike and did kill their neighbors, just because they were not of the same tribe. I admit that they were the exception, but they did exist and perhaps they are the root of the modern civilization of dominance.
The other issue that could have been explored is the difference in democracies between republics and confederations. Republics always consolidate power and historically have failed as he points out. However he doesn't take a look at confederations which by his definitions are more tribal in outlook. I lived in Switzerland for many years and they are the oldest surviving democracy in the world at more than 700 years. The government was influenced by the Allemanes (sic) a German tribe that had a very grass roots form of democracy. I have lived all over the world in many different countries and the only place I have lived that had a genuine democracy that represented the individual was Switzerland. Interesting to note is that they are also the "greenest" country that I have ever lived in, recycling and environmental consciousness is a part of the culture with few exceptions.
Good read........2007-07-14
I found Thom's book a very interesting read. His science was a bit basic but he is trying to get through to the average couch potato who is more interested in American Idol than what is really happening to the world around them. Thom's out look on the world is a bit melancholy but he has good reason to be. For the average person who feeds their mind with junk T.V and their body with junk food then they might learn something by having a read of Thom's books. Although I don't agree with everything Thom is saying I think his heart is in the right place and he really wants to see a better world for all of us. This is a good read and a good wake up call!!
Book Description
This introduction to international relations employs an exceptionally readable style that avoids jargon and abstract theory by blending basic concepts and vocabulary with a substantial amount of historical background and examples from current events. This readable style combined with new pedagogy allows readers to better understand how International Relations can and does affect their lives.
Examines the many possible causes of war, ranging from human nature to aggressive states to international anarchy; Discusses the challenge of terrorism (especially the impact of 9/11 and its aftermath); Extensively covers the 2003 war and its aftermath in relation to oil and the Persian Gulf, the Soviet Union to Russian transition, Latin American and Africa, and Key figure profiles.
For careers in International Relations, World Politics, and Globalization.
Customer Reviews:
Starts off well but quickly deteriorates........2007-01-26
The opening chapters do give a reasonable introduction to the subject of International relations and there is a fairly objective account of the Vietnam War in Chapter 3, however as the book moves on to present day issues such as global terrorism and the emergence of economic blocs in the pacific and Europe you cannot help but notice an overwhelming pro-American bias. I agree with a previous reviewers comment that the subject of international relations depends on an impartial and evenhanded approach and I feel that this book fails in this respect.
Perhaps the 7th edition addresses some of the more overt opinions stated in the book, I personally would not recommend it to any teacher or student thinking of using it to teach political science or International relations.
Textbook but doesn't read like one........2006-08-15
Got this for a required college course. Found it superbly readable. The authors don't write like textbook authors. They write like reporters who like to dig deep.
If you're a news junky, get this book. If you're assigned it for college, be happy.
A good Introduction, If not a little slanted........2006-06-13
I bought this book for my JHU:CTY International Politics class. The teacher warned that it had a bit of a conservative, pro-American bias, and he most defiantly was right. However, while slightly glossed over for the sake of brevity, the book's facts are good. In terms of the political slant, it is less a mater of manipulating facts and more a case of the authors injecting their own viewpoints into the text. As long as you read the authors' conclusions with a slight grain of salt, the book remains quite useful. And towards the other reviewer: The--at least implied--assertion that if you do not agree with this book you "hate America"(which I somewhat resent), along with the concept that you will like this book if you are a conservative-leaning centrist, is quite unfounded. It really is a matter of personal preference. In my class people from all sides of the political spectrum all had varying feelings about the book, more or less independent of political affiliation.
A Good Start.......2006-03-27
The New World of International Relations is a good introductory book to the field of Political Science and International Relations. It presents information in a general and an understandably American way. It's not overbiased, but is written by Americans for American political views, general knowledge and understanding of current events, etc. It provides a good start for those who are looking for a good start into the ever-expanding knowledge base of Political Science
A good place to start........2006-01-09
What I like about this book is that it is short, it is readable, and it introduces the unitiated reader quickly and broadly to various thinkers and models of IR and does so in historical context.
I agree with the others that it definitely has some phrases which are unusual for a textbook. Random opinion, or generally unacademic phrases here and there. This is defintely a detractor, but also makes the book a bit fun.
About the perspective of the author. I personally am conservative and so I was looking for a book which would help me grasp the subject from a more conservative viewpoint than the average fare. However, I would not call it conservative, I would call the book fairly centrist. This book does viewing the world from an overtly American perspective and it also does not ignore conservative ideas such Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" model of geopolitics, but it is centrist because a true conservative for example, would give pre-eminence to Reagan's place in the cold war, this one does not.
I am not suggesting at all that if you do not like this book you "hate america" as the review below claims. There are other reasons not to like the book. However, if you do happen to be against American foreign policy, pro-UN, etc, this book will definitely upset you, as it did others below.
Customer Reviews:
Who wrote this textbook? Marvel Comics?.......2007-07-24
This text presents wildly-unsupportable views of revisionist history as objective fact. The author promotes a "one culture" view of indigenous American nations, which is more racist and ignorant than most spaghetti westerns. Likewise, Day is unable to distinguish between indigenous African cultures and ethnicities (hey, everybody, let's proclaim that ancient Egyptians were really dark-skinned Nubians, and that the countless volumes of visual records and representations left by the Egyptians themselves were just manufactured to confound far-future archaeologists). The downfall of the Mesoamerican empires is glibly explained away as a result of there being no large mammals in North America (?!), completely discounting the reality of the severe social problems of the region and time. It goes on and on. Every page presents me with some new atrocity, history bent (sometimes broken) to push a personal agenda that has little place in a textbook.
The use of this text in a classroom setting is questionable. Sifting accurate historical detail from the author's haze of speculation, misinformation, and political agenda makes the text vastly more trouble than it is worth.
All in all, I find the ubiquity of this text almost tragic. An understanding of social welfare is more important now than ever before. The rewriting of the history of social welfare to promote a feminist agenda does nothing to forward either of those important causes. Personally, I believe in both feminism and the need for meaningful social welfare programs.
I find myself at odds with the author of this text only in that I also believe in the truth.
A Paradigm Shifting Text.......2004-03-17
The reviewer's comments from San Diego are not surprising. I had Dr. Day for two semesters of Social Policy in an MSW program. Her approach was provocative, challenging, and controversial. I witnessed some students storm out of the classroom in response to her lectures.
This text will challenge the fundamental beliefs that students hold most treasured; especially the first chapter. This text is designed to get people thinking about the way we approach poverty as a whole. She's not telling people what to think but encouraging them to think. As a result some individuals will miss the point and experience tremendous difficulty with her text.
With that in mind I would highly recommend this book. It provides the most comprehensive approaches to social welfare that I have seen yet.
I thought this book was junk........2002-01-23
This book nearly cost me my MSW. Sure, the book adequately potrays social welfare policy from a historical perspective, but the writing is jumbled, confusing, repetitive, and Day writes with SUCH a liberal slant you begin to wonder wether she is writing a book or running a political party. Skip this book.
review of Phyllis Day's revised social work history.......1999-12-24
Day has produced one of the best social welfare histories. It is up to date with current laws and practices. It also focuses on non-western and Third World origins of social welfare. That is a nice change from the usual focus on history. A good source for students, both graduate and undergraduate.
Average customer rating:
- This book in not about LEADERSHIP !!!
- america's mayor
- This Guy Will Sure Make an Interesting President
- What a guy-
- Great Book!
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Leadership
Rudolph W. Giuliani
Manufacturer: Hyperion
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0786868414
Release Date: 2002-10-01 |
Book Description
Rudolph W. Giuliani is the denitive American leader. His management and decision-making skills have proven to be outstanding through his two terms as mayor of New York City and his years as U.S. Attorney at the Justice Department. And on September 11, 2001, Giuliani emerged as Americas steadiest hand, leading the city and the nation through the worst domestic disaster in our history.In Leadership, Giuliani gives readers a minute-by-minute account of his actions and decisions in the aftermath of the disaster and shares the principles of leadership that proved so reliable and effective during the most testing of times.Whether dealing with a catastrophe, or with the many problems large and small that afict a great city on a daily basis; whether addressing New Yorks $40 billion budget or issues of infrastructure; whether handling complicated human issues or assembling a brilliant team, Giuliani has relied on a systematic and methodical approach that can work for any manager, in any sized business.Refreshingly honest, full of powerful stories and compelling examples, Leadership is Giulianis own guide to the essential principles that have sustained him throughout his extraordinary career.
Customer Reviews:
This book in not about LEADERSHIP !!!.......2007-08-31
This book is not about te leadership; it's about on how to keep your head, when all around you are loosing theirs.
As a Polish native I knew Mr. Giuliani only from TV. I did not like the guy so much. I believed his 'persona' is nothing more than that of skillful politician trying to attract voters attention.
The book gave me a new perspective on Mr. Giuliani. I finally found a man that was independent in his decison-making and took the full resposibility for all actions. Hope others cities (not only in US) will be belssed too.
This is the best part of the book that describes Giuliani's leadership:
'... rest of us moved to the next order of business -a strip club that planned to open in Midlanad Beach... Sunny Mindel read from the morning's Staten Island Advance, nothing that the community was lining up against it. A dissenting voice gave the idea of a new club two thumbs up. Deputy Mayr Bob Harding responded with a wisecrack : "Are you sure that was his thumb?" I asked whether the Buildings Department had confirmed whether the club conformed to all applicable buildings codes and permits. The Buildings Department spokesman quoted in the Advance claimed that the city could not do anything until it opened, which I considered ridiculous. I asked JOe Rose, chairman of the City Planning Commission, to discover not only who was listed as the owner but who really owned the place. My years as a prosecutor hat thought me that the name on the paperwork did not always tally with the full story'
america's mayor.......2007-08-17
I found this book in the business section, and I wonder, is that where it really belongs? I'm not so sure. It's more of a memoir of Giuliani's time as mayor of New York City, sprinkled liberally with his work as a lawyer, arranged around certain principles that Giuliani governs by. With his upcoming bid for the presidency it is a valuable book to read so that you can see his views (liberal Republican) and how he changed NYC from the cesspool it was back into the center of American life that it now is. Great book and it proves, there are Republicans out there worth voting for.
This Guy Will Sure Make an Interesting President.......2007-08-10
Bottom Line: Here's the great story of New York City's Turnaround from the guy who rightly gets the bulk of the credit.
What You Will Learn: Rudy Guiliani is a nonstop dynamo who seemingly tamed what was once known as the ungovernable city by the force of his giant personality, ceaseless will, and bottomless energy. After reading the book you will have no doubt that "America's Mayor" will work 20 hours a day in the country's interest if elected President. He is someone with a strong backbone and a fighting spirit. A tough man for tough times.
Parting Shot: A good tale, well written, from a man who may one day have soon have a great influence over all of us.
What a guy-.......2007-08-05
Before 9-11 even happened, I knew there was something special about the Mayor of NY. He had this fearless attitude towards the city which people had once though impossible to 'clean', and he did it.
This book details the traits and methods used by someone who is a proven, successful leader- and it lends great examples for anyone looking to take charge of anything, from a business, to their own life.
Great Book!.......2007-07-15
Rudy is a great leader and he guides us the events of 9/11 and how he truely developed his leadership.
Highly recommend this book!
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