Events Books

Mark Moore postulates creating public value as a mode of practical reasoning and an alternative way of conceiving of the public policy challenge in relation with the public administrative enterprise. Moore offers a notion of strategic management in government as a way of linking the traditional study of ends in public policy with the traditional study of means in public administration. Moore postulates a strategic triangle, arguing that a useful conception of public value can be envisioned by managers if they integrate (1) substantive judgments of what would be valuable and effective (2) a diagnosis of political expectations (and legal parameters) and (3) hard-headed calculations of what is operationally feasible. The text articulates ways of thinking about and enacting public value in government, considers approaches and techniques for managing upwards toward politics and downwards toward organizational operations in relation to a wide variety of case studies, and concludes with a consideration of what consciousness or temperament is required of public managers if they are to be successful in managing, effectively and democratically.

The text is exceptionally well-written and is equally accessible to undergraduate students, graduate students, and practitioners. It remains a fundamental resource and an invaluable key to new ways of thinking for policy makers and administrators today.

This book is an excellent source for practising public managers and academics and students who interest in public administration. As time passed, people, their representatives and public managers change or need to change their paragigms. Moore indicates the reason why public organizations must change. Organizational posture and position always must be in accordance with external environment. From the perspective of Moore, public managers must move away from the technicians that work to realize the goals imposed by elected officials with the maximum efficiency to the strategists that analyze the environment and find new ways for creating more value for people. This does not mean bureaucrats are completely free and can think and do whatever they desire. We know this situation points to the demolishing of the democracy. But Moore stresses that public officials must be made accountable for the results and all the time they must be oversighted by citizens, representatives, press, interest groups and public at large. This book is not a How-to-do guide. But we can adapt the principles proposed to the unique circumstances of our organizations.

This book is an excellent source for practising public managers and academics and students who interest in public administration. As time passed, people, their representatives and public managers change or need to change their paradigms. Moore indicates the reason why public organizations must change. Organizational posture and position always must be in accordance with external environment. From the perspective of Moore, public managers must move away from the technicians that work to realize the goals imposed by elected officials with the maximum efficiency to the strategists that analyze the environment and find new ways for creating more value for people. This does not mean bureaucrats are completely free and can think and do whatever they desire. We know this situation points to the demolishing of the democracy. But Moore stresses that public officials must be made accountable for the results and all the time they must be oversighted by citizens, representatives, press, interest groups and public at large. This book is not a How-to-do guide. But we can adapt the principles proposed to the unique circumstances of our organizations.

An excellent overview of the public manager as a creator of value. Moore does an excellent job drawing parellels to the private sector to illustrate how public managers need to address the needs of their consumers by creating value. The only downside of the text is the high level style of the writing, which sometimes makes it difficult to follow.

This book ties in nicely with Bo Gritz,
Stan Montieth, Rodney Stich, Fletch
Prouty and Tom Valentine works on the
same type subject matter. Also check
out Terry Redd's Compromised which
gores both Clinton and the Bush, the
Presidencila Elder. Highly recommended.

If the press was doing ots jobs, then Ronald Reagan would not have been able to appear in public during his Iran-Contra period without also being bombarded with cries of "What about Nugan Hand!"
The Nugan Hand scandal appears to be the biggest, dirtiest scandal to reach the upper levels of American government since Watergate. The suicide of Nugan and the flight of Hand occurred in Australia, but the scandal had all-American origins. If Australian authorities and reporter Jonathan Kwitny are right, then the coverup, which continues, involves at least the Defense and State departments, the CIA, the FBI, the Commerce Department and the National Security Council.
Such a coverup must reach at least into the president's Cabinet.
First a word about Kwitny, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. No investigative reporter in America is more highly regarded by other reporters, dating back to his exposes of the corrupt Teamsters Union Central States pension fund in the early '70s.
Frank Nugan was an Australian shyster. Mike Hand is an American, an ex-Green Beret decorated for heroism in Vietnam, later a CIA spook. Starting in 1973, the men set up a bank and a number of other financial companies, eventually opening offices around the world, though East Asia was their happy hunting ground.
Nugan Hand Bank may have been set up to launder and over up CIA money transfers; the Caribbean banks that performed that service folded about the time Nugan Hand Bank was set up.
It is not proper to be too definite about Nugan Hand. Because of incompetence by Australian investigators, many of its records were spirited away after Frank Nugan's death in 1980. (Kwitny says, "For an American, used to FBI efficiency, it is hard to imagine cops so spineless that they let criminal suspects carry evidence away right under their noses, while waiting for permission to examine it." That was written before Oliver North's testimony in the Iran-Contra scandal. Americans would have less trouble imagining such a thing now. 2007 update: This review was published in 1988. Kwitny's naivety seems quaint in the 21st century.)
"This isn't a book for people who must have their mysteries solved," Kwitny warns. No, it is only a book for those who need to have their eyes opened.
It is possible to say definitely that Nugan Hand laundered money and moved cash between countries where it is illegal to export cash. Many of their clients were trying to hide money from tax collectors -- for Australians, Nugan Hand usually charged 22 percent for this service.
Nugan Hand also was definitely, though ineffectually, trying to work illegal arms deals, and it probably was involved in a large-scale opium/heroin scheme in Burma.
Certainly, most of its prominent employees were con men, brothel keepers, dope and money smugglers, disbarred lawyers and other sleazy types. Its other top employees and consultants were retired generals of the U.S. Army and admirals of the U.S. Navy and former officials of the CIA, including former director William Colby. What, Kwitny asks, were men like that doing in association with the most notorious whoremasters and heroin pushers in Sydney, Australia?
For one thing, they were encouraging Americans who had served under them in the armed forces to place all their cash with Nugan Hand. Some of these men worked in places like Saudi Arabia, where there are no banks.
The generals and admirals later claimed that they, too, were victims of Nugan and Hand, but documents prove that these high officers were still taking in cash after Nugan Hand was in bankruptcy. Where the cash went is a mystery. The depositors didn't get it back.
Working with fragmentary records, receivers guessed that Nugan Hand owed more than $50 million when it crashed in 1980. It was probably much more -- many of the people who placed their money with Nugan and Hand were in no position to make claims against the estate in bankruptcy.
Nugan and Hand and their employees lived high, but they couldn't have spent $50 million on themselves in four years (though they started in 1973, the cash didn't start to flow in torrents until 1977.) the receivers found assets of only about $2 million.
Someone looted Nugan Hand after Nugan's death. Who?
There is a Hawaii connection to all this. There was a Nugan Hand Hawaii Inc. At the very least, Nugan Hand illegally engaged in banking in the USA without being regulated as a bank. When pushed by Kwitny, various agents of the American government have said that Nugan Hand's crimes, if any, occurred on foreign soil. But this explanation will not explain why Nugan Hand has escaped inquiry for its banking irregularities here.
It gets worse, right up to cold-blooded murder.
But the greatest value of "The Crimes of Patriots" is not just its partial exposure of a nest of very nasty crooks. Kwitny links it to a continuing pattern of lawlessness in the name of American national security that centers in the CIA -- and taints Congress and the highest levels of the executive branch. "As the theory of perpetual covert action is exercised, our national security is perpetually in the hands of criminals," he writes.
This is not news to anyone who has studied the activities of America's spymasters. But that is a tiny fraction of the voters. (See also my review of George Crile's "Charlie Wilson's War.") The torpor of most citizens in the face of repeated revelations suggests that they think that eggs have to be broken to make a spy's omelets. It is the virtue of "The Crimes of Patriots" to demonstrate that this is not so. Others have said as much, but seldom has the message come from anyone with credentials as respectable as Kwitny's.

On the advice of a friend who knows one of the "Cast Of Characters" (a "Yank In The Bank"), I ordered a used copy of this long out of print book. What an eye opener. It's amazing what a group of "former" senior military officers and spooks can get up to when allowed to run amok overseas. You name it and they got away with it. Even though some of the principals are dead, nobody has been held accountable for the myriad of crimes that have occurred abroad. With the lack of support rendered by the U.S. government (especially the F.B.I.), it makes one wonder how "former" some of these players really were. It's also amazing how many of these same people reared their ugly heads years later during "Iran-Contra". Read the book and then decide for yourself.

As an Australian I was both surprised and gratified that an American journalist should want to trace the extraordinary history of the Nugan Hand Bank's Australian operations. This great document decribes the most cut-throat, heroin dealing, crime syndicate ever to have sullied our shores, and all under the covert auspices of the C.I.A. Kwitny's research is exhaustive and his even handed way of presenting his findings is exemplary of fine journalism. The implications hatched in this veritable can of worms will have net-sleuths busy for years tracing the myriad references to the numerous associates of Nugan Hand who vanished into the night only to surface again in the Irangate scandal. Essential reading for anyone trying to come to terms with the scourge of heroin, the world arms trade and those members of the U.S.'s covert agencies that spread misery in their own and other countries...Read it if you dare!

This book provides a very thorough, yet practical explanation of social security in an easy to read format. This is a great guide for almost anyone wanting a better understanding of not only how the program works, but how it will work for them as an individual participant.
However--as the author mentions--it should not be viewed as a technical reference for financial professionals.

OK, I'm the author and I'm biased. But the other Social Security books out there still seem to be either very poor-quality consumer guides (out of date, inaccurate, or jargon), or the "Social Security is a rip-off and it will crash in a few years" type. My guiding principles in creating this book: --accuracy (gained from many years working at SSA), --plain English, and --lots of concrete examples. There are a few areas where the book has become obsolete: --All the payment figures have increased with inflation. --The 1.45% payroll tax on Medicare no longer has an an earnings cap--it applies to all earnings, no matter how high. --The amount of Social Security benefits included in your taxable income has increased from 50% to 85% for high- income retirees. Otherwise the book is still current. (OK, it's time for a new edition, which I'll complete one of these days!) I invite readers to contact me with individual questions or comments. Happy reading!

I'm a retired Soc. Sec. claims rep and I rate this book as the best explanation of Social Security benefits I've ever seen. The writer's style is great and he has a nice, friendly approach. It's not an easy subject, but he explains things in a simple, understandable fashion.

Mr. Landis has succeeded in making a very complicated subject comprehensible to the average reader. All my questions about how the system works were answered. I appreciated the fact that Mr. Landis was employed by the Social Security Administration for many years and was able to give an insider's account of procedures and benefits. Many thanks for this very helpful book!

Many thanks to Dr. Levy and Dr. Orlans for producing an outstanding user-friendly book. This is an essential tool for anyone who is a foster or adoptive parent and for professionals working with children and families involved in the Child Welfare system. The book begins by describing the core concepts of child development and attachment, the three pillars of assessment, attachment patterns, and traits and symptoms of a compromised attachment. The book then goes on to describe how parents can become "healing parents" by getting to know themselves in order to create a healing environment where wounded children can learn to trust. The book provides the basic practices of Corrective Attachment Parenting and how the practical skills and strategies caregivers use can lead to positive change in your child and family. I highly recommend this book to the families I am working with.

This book is pack full of information. I enjoyed it very much. It explains alot of the behaviors and helps to not take anything personally. Overall it is very long but worth the read and to keep for reference. I highly recommend it.

As an adoptive parent, adoption professional, trainer and author, I found Healing Parents to be one of the most practical and insightful books curently available to deal with traumatized children. The book's readability and practical use will benefit both professionals and parents dealing with the hearts and minds of traumatized children. I now recommend it in all my workshops.

Jayne Schooler
International adoption educator

Written by therapists, teachers, consultants and researchers Michael Orlans and Terry M. Levy, Healing Parents: Helping Wounded Children Learn to Trust & Love is a guide written to give parents and caregivers the information, tools, support, and positive outlook they need to help emotionally wounded children heal and improve themselves behaviorally, socially, and morally. Chapters discuss the core phenomena of attachment - the deep connection that children and parents or caregivers establish early in life - the importance of knowing both one's child and oneself, basic principles of corrective attachment parenting, attachment issues in an adoptive or foster care family, and much more. "You cannot change others - not your spouse, children, parents, other family members, friends, coworkers or employer. You can influence others and create opportunities for others to change, via your attitudes, actions, and reactions. By creating a healing environment you can have a positive impact on your child, resulting in learning, growth, and motivation to succeed." Highly recommended especially for parents or caretakers of any type raising a child who has suffered trauma or deprivation.

From the first sentence, introducing Cardinal Justin Kennedy, to the very last sentence, tying the entire plot together with seven little words, one is kept awake, stimulated, and living through the magic of this author's skills. Author's like Dr. Shaffer should be sent to Oslo, and given the highest honors.

And to think by chance I received a free copy of his book.

Henry Anthony Ebarb, Doctoral Student, Prescott, Arizona

The Cross by Gene Shaffer is a well crafted novel of the escalating contempt held for an American Cardinal as his interpretation of a two-thousand-year-old inscription as the missing final verses from the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Mark. As the Cardinal's election and coronation as Pope approaches, his discovery results in a political turmoil. Against the backdrop of the Catholic church, The Cross leads its readers through a story of murder, divisions of loyalty, terrorism, suicide and scandal. An "instant classic" and sure to be timeless tale, The Cross is very highly recommended reading.

The Cross by Gene Shaffer is a well crafted novel of the escalating contempt held for an American Cardinal as his interpretation of a two-thousand-year-old inscription as the missing final verses from the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Mark. As the Cardinal's election and coronation as Pope approaches, his discovery results in a political turmoil. Against the backdrop of the Catholic church, The Cross leads its readers through a story of murder, divisions of loyalty, terrorism, suicide and scandal. An "instant classic" and sure to be timeless tale, The Cross is very highly recommended reading.

The Cross by Gene Shaffer is a well crafted novel of the escalating contempt held for an American Cardinal as his interpretation of a two-thousand-year-old inscription as the missing final verses from the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Mark. As the Cardinal's election and coronation as Pope approaches, his discovery results in a political turmoil. Against the backdrop of the Catholic church, The Cross leads its readers through a story of murder, divisions of loyalty, terrorism, suicide and scandal. An "instant classic" and sure to be timeless tale, The Cross is very highly recommended reading.

Cuba And The Coming American Revolution by author and political activist Jack Barnes, is a provocative and forcefully worded examination of the history and the future of American and Cuban politics. Ranging from the utter disaster that was the Bay of Pigs to predicting a socialist revolution in American policy and a counterrevolution in Cuba, this is an informed and informative account of class struggle. Barnes especially underscores the ways in which the American working class has been steamrolled and the consequent incentives that call for change. Cuba And The Coming American Revolution is a thought-provoking look at where two nations mights well be headed and a very welcome contribution to Cuban History and Socialist Studies academic reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Jack Barnes, the author of this boook, points out: "The greatest obstacle to the line of march of the toilers is the tendency, perpetuated by the exploiting classes, for working people to underestimate ourselves, to underestimate what we can accomplish, to doubt our own worth." This book proves that like the Cubans the working class in the United States has the capacity to win political power. Barnes explains how after a visit to Cuba in 1960 he and other student activists defended Cuba during the Bay of Pigs invasion. They stood up to both campus administrators and right-wing thugs and won the the right not only to speak out but to become the makers of history, like the Cubans. Barnes explains how the Cubans as a people demonstrated remarkable courage and determination in standing up to an imperialist terror campaign, arms in hand, while continueing their revolutionary work, which included a literacy campaign the likes of which has not been seen before or since. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A BOLD SOCIAL VISION, I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO YOU! While amazon may list this book as not available from time to time, it is always available from the Pathfinder z store listed under "new and used" at the top of the page.

If you think, or rather I should say believe, that the "market" is the best of all possible systems, this the best of all possible countries, in the best of all possible worlds, then this is not the book for you.But if you are serious about doing something effective about meaningful social change in the "new millenium", then you owe it to yourself to buy this book.The author begins with the efforts of a small band of young people at a small Midwestern college to oppose the Yankee empire's efforts to overthrow the Cuban Revolution at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and during the "Missile Crisis" in 1962. He shows you how and why the Cuban people then, and still today, were willing to fight and die to defend their nation and revolution, and how those everyday ordinary working people changed themselves into better humans in the process.He then explains that the only way to rid the earth of war, racism, discrimination against women, enviromental catastrophe,etc., is to do what the Cubans did, here in the "belly of the beast" --make a revolution. The alternative, he affirms, is fascism and a new world war. Finally he points to a concrete program to unify working people here and now,at home and abroad, necessary to fight back against the economic catastrophe looming before us to anyone with eyes to see.

If you are serious about making a human world, buy this book ! And pass it on to others.

While these books may not be directly available from Amazon at times, they are available from the booksfrompathfinder on Amazon that you can find by clicking on the new and used books on this page.

The Cuban revolution and especially the resistance and defeat of the US mercenary invasion at the Bay of Pigs is the starting point of this book. The author and tbe book's editor Mary Alice Waters were students at Carlton College in Minnesota in the early 1960s. This discuss how the Cuban revolution, and building a student movement to fight for the truth about that revolution radicalize them and other students, and the lessons they learned building a movement to defend Cuba during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Barnes extends this at the end to a discussion of a program for working people in the 21 Century accurately evaluating Bush and Gore as the same poison. He provides real a real program against both liberal and conservative probusiness politics. What I love about this book is the stream of history: the fighters of Cuba, the students and Black activists who defended the revolution, and going forward to fight for socialist in this world in the 21st Century.

While these books may not be directly available from Amazon at times, they are available from the booksfrompathfinder on Amazon that you can find by clicking on the new and used books on this page.

This book deserves its reputation as a classic. Redman's story-telling skills are wonderful, he writes well, and clearly explains everything going on in the sometimes arcane world of legislative procedure. He makes the dullest-seeming motions and committee hearings come alive.

Scholars of the Congress should read this, if for no other reason than to get a basic handle on how the Congress actually works, rather than how they think it works in fancy regression analyses. But more than that, it's the starting point for a whole genre of work such as Showdown at Gucci Culch, Conflict and Compromise, and The Bill (all of which are must-reads as well). Even a casual observer of politics can get excited and interested.

This book is the most informative and best written book I have ever read on politics. It's filled with humor and candid comments about the United States Congress.

This book makes me nostalgic for the days when Members of Congress cooperated & got things accomplished. Great vignettes of Maggie! Very accurate rendition.

The year was 1970, President Nixon was still in office, however, an intern by the name of Eric Redman was on hand in the halls of Congress to witness the fascinating dance of legislation as The National Health Service Corps was attempting to be born. This book provides a personal account of the birth and struggles of the attempt to pass a piece of legislation from within the private confines of who was then the second most powerful United States Senator, Warren Magnuson from the State of Washington. While the names have changed, the struggle for a balance between power, influence, and social consciousness and survival remains the same. This book is as fantastic look behind the scenes of the most influential body of power on earth contains the essential ingredients today as a quarter of a century ago. It is a must read for anyone with an interest in political legislation and stands alone in its own right as a factual story that is as fascinating and compelling as any! fictional novel you will ever read.

Mr. O'Clery puts a lot of background information into something most Americans know little about. There is always a lot going on in the background in any diplomatic activity. This is something that Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore missed out on where they should have publicized it more. Mr. Bush, Cheney and McCain - the "you don't talk to your adversaries who are always evil - clique need to read this especially in light of the success of ending the violence in Ireland.

In Ireland, Ulster and Britain, the book was titled "The Greening of the White House" - a much more apt title. That said, it shows how the Clinton administration is committed to shafting Ulster. No fence-sitting here. The US government under Clinton has underwritten pan-Irish national-chauvinist ambitions.

Conor O'Clery knows how to tell a story. Often politics and foreign policy get bogged down in minutae or are blunted by excessive academic language; this is definitely not the case here. The feel when reading Daring Diplomacy is one of being spirited along in back rooms and pubs to see how deals get done and meet those involved. The telling is personal, insightful, and deftly aware of the entangled connections in Irish policy.
If you are reading this as a student, I heartily recommend it. You will find the backstory gives a well-rounded look into some of the reasons why peace in N. Ireland has been so elusive (namely the British government). If you are just reading it for personal reasons, I think you will be quite happy with your choice. A good companion book after this one is George Mitchell's "Making Peace."

Daring Diplomacy was the perfect title for this wonderfully written book. Throughout the course of this book, Conor O'Clery traces the involvement of the Clinton administration in attaining a peaceful settlement to the conflict in Northern Ireland. What is most refreshing about this book is its wholehearted attempt to be honest and balanced--an honor not bestowed on many books written on the conflict in Northern Ireland. From Clinton's commitment during the 1992 presidential election campaign until immediately following the end of the IRA's ceasefire, this book chronicles the efforts of the Clinton Administration to involve all parties in discussions regarding the future status of Northern Ireland. The U.S., at times seeming to threaten the "special relationship" between itself and Britain contributed much to the current political situation in Northern Ireland--one in which we now have Loyalist and Republican ceasefires and a forum for talks on political representation. Daring Diplomacy gives f

Much of the debate about climate change (global warming) has focused on short-term details about the structure of any international treaty and the near-term rate of change in emissions. Athanasiou and Baer perform a great service by bringing the larger questions of the long-term severity of the climate problem and the potential massively unequal consequences of climate change for people of different wealth levels.

Grounding their argument in the well-accepted science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the authors describe in clear language the imperative to dramatically reduce global greenhouse gas emissions over the next 50 years. Importantly, they endorse the current ideas about international emissions trading as a low-cost way to achieve these cuts, but they then lay out an ethically grounded argument for ensuring that this trading is structured in a fair and equitable way--both for people in poorer countries and for people in future generations. Moreover, they are careful to defend the political viability of their proposed solutions.

Written in direct and comprehensible language, Dead Heat is a forceful call for more serious action to address the social and environmental consequences of climate change and climate change policy.

For individuals wanting to learn more about the extremely important and dire problem of global warming but intimidated by books with lots of difficult scientific language, this short, comprehensible book is the perfect introduction for the lay person. Not only does it detail the frightening consequences of climate chaos like hurricanes, drought, and outbreaks of diseases like malaria, it more importantly outlines individual and institutional strategies for stabilizing the planet's temperature. And it does so in a global justice context. If you care about polar bears, coral reefs, poor folks in Bangledesh, Central America, and the Gulf Coast, then read this book. If you care about your future, the future of your children, and the future of this planet, then read this book (and then ride your bike, plant a tree, join a collective household, go solar, and eat organic, locally grown slow cuisine).

...but for those who already know some of the details on global warming and the Kyoto Protocol. I picked up this book for a term paper, hoping this would have all the information I needed. I was thoroughly confused with all the specific terms that were used but not explained. After I read through other resources which started from the beginning, I was able to enjoy this book more.

It's really a great book to read, and I enjoyed it.

This book explains both the science of global warming and the political reasons why governments have not acted to reverse it.

This book reads like a John Grisham novel, except that all of it really happened. Coll is able to take the largest anti-trust litigation in history, against the largest corporation in the world, and make the subject not only interesting but edge-of-your-seat thrilling.

I first read this 13 years ago when I started in telecom, and am re-reading it now in light of recent events. The book is not only as good as I remembered it, it's better. And the repercussions of the Ma Bell breakup are still very much with us today.

This is the book AT&T never wanted to go to press and when it did AT&T seceretly bought up all the copies they could.Good luck finding someone who will lend you a copy because you can't buy it anywhere, at any price.Not even AMAZON. AT&T will cut their phone lines if they actually made this book available.THE TRUTH- AT&T doesn't want you to know about. FACTUAL ACCOUNT, GREAT READ!

As an MBA student interested in telecom, I found this book to be among the best sources of information about telecom regulation. It provides rich detail but is also very readable and only gets technical when necessary.

Prior to interviewing with a Baby Bell Company, I read The Dealof theCentury. It was not only informative but fascinating. I was able to get a flavor of the personalities involved and internal squabbles that shaped the "deal" involving AT&T. This book is required reading for anybody who wants to understand how we got where we are today in telecommunications. By the way, I got the job.