Events Reviews

First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea

Published in Paperback by Oxford University Press, USA (2006-03-16)

Author: Paul Woodruff

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In depth loook into ancient (1st) Democracy

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-10

Woodruff's work is excellent, pulling together the culture and society of Ancient Greece to examine the motivations, methods and incidents affecting early democracy. His seven attributes of Democracy, Freedom from Tyranny, Harmony, Rule of Law, Natural Equality, Citizen Wisdom, Reasoning without Knowledge and Education are well thought out and presented using the historical content as vivid examples to help the reader. While I beleive his arguement for Natural Equality is not strong in the context of the ancient greeks, the compilation of these ideas and how they can relate to modern democracies are important issues that should be delt with in both academia and the legislature.

A provocative presentation of the democratic "sine qua non"

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-07

First Democracy: The Challenge Of An Ancient Idea by Paul Woodruff (Darrel K. Royal Professor in Ethics and American Society and Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Philosophy, The University of Texas at Austin) is an engaging and descriptive analysis of democratic national empowerment, providing a conclusive grasp of what democracy really is (or was), in an extensive study of the Greek city of Athens from which the democratic idea of a governmental system originated. First Democracy provides readers with an understanding of the barriers preventing contemporary America in the opening decade of the 21st century from being a true democracy, as well as offering readers a provocative presentation of the democratic "sine qua non": freedom from tyranny, social harmony, the rule of law, natural equality, citizen wisdom, reasoning without knowledge, and general education. A highly portable paperback that can be taken (and read) anywhere, First Democracy is very strongly recommended to all students of philosophy, political science, and the ancient Greece city state of Athens.

First Democracy

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-17

An overview of what democracy really is, where and how it started, why the US is NOT a democracy and what we can do about it. Easy and excellent read. Our legislators need this book!

A "must have" for everybody

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-22

Rarely have I read a more clearly expressed definition of democracy and how the USA is not one. I am going to give this book to a lot of people to make them think. It would be a book for all high schools and colleges everywhere because it raises healthy questions about government and power. Even though the topic is a complex one the author has produced a wonderful and readable essay. Philosophy is not yet dead. Hurrah!!!

First Seasons : A New Journey

Published in Paperback by First Seasons Press (2000-07-14)

Authors: Marjory McKinley and Marjory McKinley Spraycar

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Comforting and healing

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-01-05

This book is a gem. A friend gave me the book. I loved reading each excerpt. Whether you've lost a family member or are trying to cope with the tragedy of September 11 and its aftermath, First Seasons is comforing and healing.

First Seasons: A New Journey

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2001-06-14

I was given a copy of this book on the death of my mother and found it very comforting. After reading it, I realized this would have been the perfect book to have given to my mother when she lost her husband. It seems to speak perfectly to that situation. I remember one message in the book which particularly caught my attention and made me realize how inexperienced I was at understanding and responding to someone else's grief. It was about trying to eat even when you don't want to -- and it said something comforting about it being OK if you just had a cup of hot soup as you stood at the window looking out. Many of the other empathetic expressions of sympathy on the loss of a loved one reminded me of my mother's experience on her loss of her soul mate - and I finally understand. I now recognize these unexpectedly overwhelming emotions of grief in me - and I hope I will be more aware of the pain of others and my response as I grow older.

Care package

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-14

This is a lovely book. Its words are heartening, calming, and peace-giving; the design soothing; and the introduction, a benediction. Even if you have not suffered an immediate loss, it has the power to put you in mind of those things which are truly valuable--the love of friends and family, and the beauty and comfort that reside in simple things. First Seasons is a compact care package for the soul.

Things to Remember

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-08

After the sudden death of my father about a month ago, I knew I was headed on a new journey. First Seasons by Marjory McKinley Spraycar is a simple book that helped me rediscover the little things that can comfort me. I read this book in one day and just reading some of the simple things one can do when they are grieving really helped me. Some of the suggestions are repeated in different ways, but it just reiterates the importance of them. As I continue my new journey, I know I can turn to any page of this book and find some reminder or some suggestion that will make my life better.

Fixing Intelligence: For a More Secure America

Published in Kindle Edition by Yale University Press (2003-02-08)

Author: William E. Odom

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Clearly There's an Intelligence Problem

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-09-22

It usually takes a disaster to create change in large organizations. And no one could possibly consider the terrorist attacks on 9/11 to be anything but a disaster. But what to change and how to change it. ==In this book, William Odom a former director of the National Security Agency looks at how the American intelligence agencies are organized and makes recommendations on how to fix the problems. The roots of the problem go back a long ways.

The CIA was organized in 1947 as primarily an organization to collect information about the Soviet Union. With the advent of spy satellites the main thrust of the agency centered on using imagery to track the military forces of the Soviet Union. And as budgets were cut from time to time (under Clinton especially) the agency depended more and more on imagery.

The FBI has responsibilities for both law enforcement and counter intelligence. These are very different responsibilities, one leading to arrest and trial after a crime has been committed. In counter intelligence you don't really care if the bad guy goes to jail, you mainly want to stop his actions from hurting you.

Regardless of how it happened, it is time for a major overhaul of the Intelligence agencies of the U.S. General Odom has made a number of proposals clearly stating how he would do it. It will be interesting to watch what happens as Congress works on the problem.

Useful Informed Opinion

Helpful Votes: 37 out of 44 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-09

There are two very important themes running through this book, and they earn the author a solid four stars and a "must read" recommendation. First, the author is correct and compellinging clear when he points out that even the most senior intelligence professionals, including DCIs, simply do not understand the full range of intelligence organizations, capabilities, and problems that exist--just about everyone has spent their entire career in a small niche with its own culture. Second, the author is unique for focusing on an area that is both vital and ignored today: that of creating joint and combined intelligence concepts and doctrine to ensure that minimal common understandings as well as training competency levels are reached across varied jurisdictions; and to enable competent community resource management, also non-existent today.

The author is positively instructive in this book, providing both trenchant indictments (for instance, of the National Reconnaisance Office for being oriented toward big budgets and inputs rather than missions and outputs), and many common sense observations that all need to be factored into whatever the Senate finally decides to do about intelligence reform.

Among the many important points that he makes, I especially agree with his pointing out the need to fully integrate the management of inputs and outputs within each of the major collection disciplines--as he notes, disconnecting the building of satellites, or aerial imagery vehicles, or unmanned aerial drones, from the actual needs of the end-user and the actual responsibility to produce imagery intelligence, leads to precisely what the National Imagery and Mapping Agency Commission Report of December 1999 noted as the major shortfall in national intelligence--close to a trillion spent on secret satellite collection, and nothing spent on tasking, processing, exploitation, and dissemination (TPED). The author specifically identifies $6 billion in savings being achievable from the NRO budget over five years--savings that could be applied to enhancing analysis, creating competent clandestine collection capabilities, establishing global open source collection activities in each of the theaters, and creating a new national counterintelligence and homeland security intelligence program.

In passing, on page 146 the author "blows the whistle" on the deception imposed on the public by the CIA's clandestine service, which was actually largely incapable in Afghanistan in 2001, and was saved secretly by Russian sources & methods. My own sources tell me that there are some very ugly stories yet to be made public, and the author--whose access and credibility cannot be questioned--is helpful in sharing what he knows on this--America needs a competent clandestine service, not one that pretends that clerks mixed with cowboys, all working from official installations, are anything other than a joke.

The author demonstrates a very deep understanding of the shortfalls of the intelligence bureaucracy, the intelligence culture, intelligence leadership, and the policymakers that fail to direct or exploit intelligence on behalf of the Nation.

There are a few weaknesses in this book, costing the author one star, and they are mentioned to correct the record, as it were--in no way do these weaknesses reduce the value of the book or the importance of the author's views when we finally get around to fixing U.S. intelligence.

First, he is limited in his understanding of the importance of Global Coverage of lower tier issues that can be addessed by open source intelligence (OSINT), including commercial imagery and Russian military combat charts; and he is equally limited in his understanding of both OSINT, and the urgency of finding new means of supporting multilateral peacekeeping operations that mix both government militaries and government law enforcement missions with non-governmental and other private sector actors.

Second, he continues to have a modest obsession with technical solutions, and neglects to properly address the shortfalls in inter-agency information sharing and processing that could be partially resolved by enhancing the National Security Agency's considerable computational power to that it can become an all-source processing manager--at the same time, the author seriously over-states the availability of both bandwidth and tactical processing, while under-stating the enormous flood of unclassified information, including geospatial information, that must be processed if commanders are to be able to understand their combat environments in near real time.

Lastly, the author comes close to spasms of fury when referring to the Central Intelligence Agency, and to a lesser extent, to the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of State. His anger and disdain with regard to these organizations are recurring He is clear in his view that the "all source analyst" cannot and should not be centralized, that analysts must work for the end-users, and that both CIA and DIA should be abolished. While I disagree with this viewpoint, it is a mature informed viewpoint that CIA and DIA managers must address--they ignore General Odom's concerns at their peril.

The book is based on the 1997 study by the National Institute for Public Policy that was chaired by the author and included such other thoughtful executives as LtGen James Clapper, today the head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. The author has made his own statement in this book, and it is perhaps the most practical and the most focused on the public statements on the need for intelligence reform. This book has been added to the OSS.NET listing of the top books on intelligence reform.

A Must Read for anyone interested in Intelligence

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-20

General Odom has written an outstanding book, combining a careful explanation of the nature and mission of intelligence with a well-thought out set of suggested reforms. Although the reading can be somewhat dry, General Odom's description of the relationships between different agencies and bureaucracies is succinct and delivered with clarity. Working methodically through the terminology and methods of the intelligence field, he provides necessary background and understanding to enable people to comprehend the need for reform and to assess the suggestions he offers.

General Odom writes from the perspective of an insider, a very smart insider, but manages to keep a degree of detachment and objectivity in the process. His thoughtful suggestions regarding how we might go about reforming and improving our intelligence capabilities to cope with 21st century threats should be read carefully by anyone with an interest in these issues.

Even if one disagrees with some of the reforms he proposes, this book provides a solid starting point for understanding the complexities of intelligence collection and analysis in the modern world, as well as the problems we face by relying on an intelligence community created fifty years ago to deal with a threat (the Soviet Union) that is now long-gone from the scene.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

READ THIS BOOK

Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-31

If you want to understand the intelligence world, and the dangerous world of terrorists and sneak attacks we now confront, READ THIS BOOK! Based on what appears to be a lifetime of experience in the secret enclaves of American intelligence gathering, General Odom's penetrating insights challenge accepted wisdom, and force us to question our nation's strategic vision. For anyone who wants a safe world and a free society, this book is a road map to where we must go as a nation.

Flames across the Border

Published in Paperback by Penguin (Non-Classics) (1988-12-06)

Author: Pierre Berton

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This book is not out of print!

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-12-14

Although the description above states that this issue of Flames Across the Border is out of print, it fails to add that it was re-issued in August of 2001 by Anchor Canada. Its ISBN is 0385658389. Amaazon.ca stocks it. So if you want to read this very good book, you still can, without searching for used copies.

Interesting and well-written

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 1998-05-29

History written like fiction. Can';t say enough about how readable and entertaining this book is. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the War of 1812

Fantastic! More Americans need to read this!

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1998-06-09

It is a pity that Americans do not understand nor have any knowledge of the War of 1812. Our relationship with Canada would better understood and accepted if it did. Pierre Berton, a Canadian, has told the story of the war from a Canadian perspective but in such a manner that we can all relate and sympathize. He has taken reality/history and written it like historical fiction while maintaining a scholarly credability.

I Cannot Believe this Book Is Out of Print

Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2001-03-22

In almost a half century of reading, I can recall about a dozen books that were absolutely captivating, as much for the author's narrative skills as through the subject matter. This is one, and Pierre Berton is almost the only author whose works made that list more than once. The War of 1812 is a generally neglected subject in America, except perhaps for the New Orleans campaign of 1815. Berton writes from a distinctly Canadian viewpoint, although he writes so wonderfully that even the most chauvinistic American will hardly notice and won't care. Any time I begin to write something that I hope readers will enjoy beyond simple information, I try to look back over a little of Berton's work in vain hopes of picking up something of his incomparable style.

Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC

Published in Hardcover by Stanford University Press (1999-09-01)

Author: Amy Zegart

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Good Sale

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-10

The book arrived in the estimated time and in the condition advertised by this seller.

Interesting, important, and original

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-30

A fine political sciene academic book. A number of strengths:
- A well organized book. One looking to just understand the argument or theory of the book can read the first two chapters and the conclusion.
- A strong case is made on behalf of new institutionalism, as opposed to realism, in explaining the creation and development of the National Security Council, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Central Intelligence Agency. Bottom line is that foreign policy agencies are created amidst the politics of the day and are never created so as to achieve true national security objectives. Among the interesting findings is that Congress and the interest group community was not seriously involved in the creation or development of the three national security structures. New institutional theory regarding domestic areas does involve Congress and IGs. Worse for anyone hoping to fix initial design flaws is the fact that, as hard as it is to make agencies function from the get-go, it's even harder to fix them later on.
- The case studies are well written and interesting narratives.
Some weaknesses:
- Congress's involvement does not necessarily mean formal votes and hearings. Hence, influential folks can play a role in behind the scenes manners.
- Congress pushed through the Goldwater-Nichols Act in the 1980s with a SecDef who was opposed, a president who was not engaged. That's a heck of a piece of contrary evidence that Zegart does not dedicate enough time to.
- A tad bit too much repetition.
- Politics in the late 1940s is not the same as politics in the early 21st century. Globalization and the interlocking nature of domestic and foreign policies may weaken Zegart's findings.

More can be said. Overall, a fine book and well worth the time.

Powerful intellectual analysis by a dazzling newcomer

Helpful Votes: 12 out of 19 total.
Review Date: 1999-11-15

With Flawed by Design, Zegart makes a spectacular splash into the world of professional political academic analysis. Trained at Stanford University, Zegart employs an approach that is both refreshingly "old school" in its historical approach and new school in its analytical rigor. In short, Zegart has offered up a piece of academic literature that is certain to become a classic. Look out for this rising star over the next 10 years. Let's only hope that the "rational choice" dogma of the field doesn't precluding Zegart from continuing her Tiger Woods-like path through the political science circuit.

Too Hard to Fix on the Margins--Fix Big or Don't Fix At All

Helpful Votes: 27 out of 31 total.
Review Date: 2000-04-08

This is a very worthy and thoughtful book. It breaks new ground in understanding the bureaucratic and political realities that surrounded the emergence of the National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA was weak by design, strongly opposed by the military services from the beginning. Its covert activities emerged as a Presidential prerogative, unopposed by others in part because it kept CIA from being effective at coordinated analysis, for which it had neither the power nor the talent. Most usefully, the book presents a new institutionalist theory of bureaucracy that gives full weight to the original design, the political players including the bureaucrats themselves, and external events. Unlike domestic agencies that have strong interest groups, open information, legislative domain, and unconnected bureaucracies, the author finds that national security agencies, being characterized by weak interest groups, secrecy, executive domain, and connected bureaucracies, evolve differently from other bureaucracies, and are much harder to reform. On balance, the author finds that intelligence per se, in contrast to defense or domestic issues, is simply not worth the time and Presidential political capital needed to fix but that if reform is in the air, the President should either pound on the table and put the full weight of their office behind a substantive reform proposal, or walk away from any reform at all-the middle road will not successful.

For the Sake of Peace: A Buddhist Perspective for the 21st Century

Published in Hardcover by Middleway Press (2002-04-02)

Author: Daisaku Ikeda

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Humanism Altruism and Righteous Compassion is the Way to Go

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2003-12-30

SGI President Ikeda's clean-cut and relatively important perspective on Peace is greatly emphasized in this book. His humanistic ideals which he incorporates from Nichiren Buddhism greatly reflect both his hope AND action toward a peaceful world. I particularly admired his propositions to make and enhance a more positive environment among our racially, socially and spiritually diversed society---given all for the sake of eveyrone's happiness and the achievement of peace. President Ikeda truly understands the formula needed to lead everyone to their own content and happiness and how can human beings create a more beneficial environment for themselves. His ideas on humanism, altruism and peace are realistic and something that is truly relevant in our disturbed society. A very good scholarly work worth every penny. You'll not regret reading this one.

A refreshing change from the usual esoteric Buddhist fare

Helpful Votes: 19 out of 20 total.
Review Date: 2001-08-10

This excellent and well informed book will be of great interest to anyone interested in the historic and philosophic dynamics of our changing world. Ikeda is a wonderful writer whose understanding of Buddhism, Christianity and other world religions helps us to see current world conditions more clearly. His ability to incorporate the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha and Nichiren into a discussion of world history and contemporary discourse will be welcomed by those who have felt confused by the esoteric approach of other Buddhist writings. As an avid reader and writer, Ikeda has cultivated great skill in presenting complex intellectual ideas in a way that makes them relevant to the everyday lives of individuals. Addressing such approaches to history and culture as relativism, universalism, orientalism, concepts of time and war cultures he makes a convincing presentation of peace and global harmony as attainable goals. The structure of this book is clear and easy to reference, making it an excellent text for teachers and activists. For a reader who has found so much of contemporary Buddhist writings alienating and unrealistic this book is a refreshing and exciting addition to social dialogue on how to create a better world. Highly recommended.

Enthusiastically recommended reading for peace activists

Helpful Votes: 19 out of 19 total.
Review Date: 2001-05-18

For The Sake Of Peace: Seven Paths To Global Harmony, A Buddhist Perspective is the result of more than 25 years of UN Peace prize recipient, spiritual leader, educator, and philosopher Daisaku Ikeda's proposals to the United Nations and lectures at universities around the world. With his vision for achieving peace in the new century based upon the life- affirming teachings of Nichiren (13th century Japanese Buddhist teacher and reformer) as well as great world thinkers and philosophers ranging from Confucius, Plato, and Aristotle, to Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Toynbee, Ikeda reveals the issue of peace from the Buddhist perspective of compassion, the interconnectedness of all life, and an absolute respect for human life. For The Sake Of Peace offers "seven paths" ranging from self-mastery and dialogue to global awareness and disarmament that if taken will show humanity the way to live happily together on our finite planet. For The Sake Of Peace is enthusiastically recommended reading for peace activists, students of Buddhist philosophy, and those who have followed and appreciated Daisaku Ikeda's work and thought for the past three decades.

What we need today

Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2002-04-26

Daisaku Ikeda outlines steps towards a peaceful planet.

Quoting philosophers, historians, heroes, he sets out a guide to making peace possible. "If you want peace, prepare for peace."

In this time of war, war and more war, to know there are people actively working towards a peaceful planet and future is very encouraging. Ikeda explains how we each have to start with ourselves, our family, our community. Through dialogue, and a commitment to truly desire peace.

For those who believe we do not have to go to war to make a peaceful world.

The Foundation of Leadership: Enduring Principles to Govern Our Lives

Published in Hardcover by Excalibur Press (1997-01)

Author: Bo Short

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Teaches the five characteristics of leadership

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1998-12-01

This book is a must read for anyone who wishes to know about the founding principles of America and why we must instill those principles in our children. Bo Short's writing style is easy to read, and using five great forefathers of our Country relates one trait from each of them that was instrumental in giving birth to our country. Vision, Courage, Perserverance, Responsibility and Character. These are the values that this great country of ours was founded on. Wherever you are in life, if you learn those five principles and apply them, nothing will stop you and it can be done. If you instill those five principles in your children then you have successfully laid the groundwork for America and the world, for an even better life in the 21st Century.

An essay on the true leaders in our nation's history.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1998-10-29

The author breaks down the characteristics of leadership to the reader with a unique and forceful style that excites, interests and motivates. Well written and easily readable, you will feel at home with this classic the moment you pick it up. One of the few books I have read that leaves you wishing it was longer and yet at the same time you know that any author would be hard pressed to reach the same level of excellence that has been set with this work. First rate in every respect.

Concise well-written must read for every American

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1998-10-24

Bo Short does an excellent job of boiling down the topic of leadership into five true foundational characteristics. Excellent historical references mixed with quotes from today's Senators make this book a grippingly fast read. I recommend it very highly for readers of all ages who desire a concise picture of what makes American leadership great.

This should be required reading for every American.

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1998-07-17

This book was enjoyable to read, hard to put down, and provided inspiration in myself to motivate my thoughts into action. The easy reading format of our very own history gave a huge insight of our Founding Fathers and the feelings of the age, more than any text book. This should be required reading for every American so they may be inspired into action, dream big, and do something. I know I am.

The Frank Conspiracy

Published in Paperback by Lulu.com (2003-10-22)

Author: Olivia Frank

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Honest And Compelling About Espionage And More

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2004-02-23

A thought-provoking read about a truly remarkable life. I found The Frank Conspiracy absorbing, touching and shocking. Not all glamour and excitement, a spy's existence is dangerous and lonely. A tremendous book.

An Outstanding Book

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-12-20

I couldn't put this book down. Powerful, poignant, vivid, evocative, ultimately inspiring. Every woman and man will gain a deeper understanding to the meaning of life when they read this captivating book. There's nothing else like it on the market, it really is unique. I recommend you read it before they make the movie. Not just spies, its about one woman's fight against injustice, its about love and death, its about thrills and spills, its about religion and politics, its about everything important. This book is my bible, its so sparky and compelling I've read it again and again.

A SENSATIONAL SPY BOOK!!!

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-12-12

Spy Olivia Frank battles against injustice to expose a shocking British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) plot to assassinate the life of a well-known multi-millionaire who was forced into exile from the United Kingdom. A real eyeopener it lifts the lid on a despicable scandal to dupe the public. A true story it was filmed by UK television investigator Roger Cook's The Cook Report, too hot to transmit so buy it before they ban it!

Excellent spy book!

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-21

A real eye-opener, exciting, moving, ultimately inspiring. A book for everyone, it uncovers the cloak and dagger world of spies and reveals the hardships encountered by a genuine spy. I found myself unable to put this down and told all my friends they must read it too. An extraordinary story about real people. find out what's going on.

Friendly Fire?: The Good, the Bad and the Corrupt

Published in Paperback by Authorhouse (2003-08)

Author: Stephen K. Peach

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Buy This Book

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-07-15

Buy This Book! I'm serious, you need to read about the corruption that the author went through. As far as I know, no other officer has ever been shot TWICE by other cops and lived to tell the tale. I'm amazed it isn't a movie yet, and what he went through after exposing more crime, the people running this California City (close to Los Angeles) need to be in Jail. If your into true crime, this book sounds like fiction, but it is true. All I can say is BUY IT, even just to learn how your government works against our interests, just to save themselves money and to protect their own rear-ends. I'm staying away from that area, and once you read this book, you will want to as well.

To serve and Protect....Themselves

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-03-02

SAN BERNARDINO, California - Corruption, intimidation and rape are not words most would normally associate with members of the nation's police forces. However, power sometimes intoxicates and can make one feel like they are above the law, even if they are sworn to protect it. Stephen K. Peach tells a story of internal corruption and cover-up in the San Bernardino Police Department in his shocking and revealing new book, Friendly Fire? The Good, The Bad and The Corrupt.
Stephen Peach emigrated from England to the United States in 1986 to follow his dream of becoming a police officer. After becoming a U.S. Citizen, he began his career in 1991 with the San Bernardino Police Department and became a highly regarded gang investigator and S.W.A.T. officer. His personable style encouraged trust and confidence in the people he met, and his eye for detail helped solve numerous crimes. In 1998, things fell apart. He was shot twice in two weeks on two separate S.W.A.T. calls. The second time occurred as he was serving a warrant on a former San Bernardino detective. Peach says that his supervisor shot him in the leg to initiate a gun battle between the former detective and Peach's fellow officers. The wound nearly killed him. He fought hard to return to his post and later discovered an officer in the department was raping women.
When one of the victims named the offending officer, the department ignored it and looked to cover up his crimes. Peach was singled out as a liability and had to go. Now, he tells his story. With Friendly Fire?, he hopes to expose the corruption that he discovered in his own department and redeem some of the honor of his badge. "The pattern of corruption in San Bernardino is a disgrace to all the officers that are honest and put their lives in jeopardy every day to serve the citizens. The purpose of his book is to hold those that are corrupt accountable," Peach says. Friendly Fire? is his first book.

Exposing Police Corruption

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2003-10-07

This book exposes the dirty underside of Law Enforcement politics. I was a highly regarded gang and SWAT officer that was the victim of 2 accidental? shootings within 2 weeks of each other by other officers. The second time I was shot by my supervisor while serving a warrant on an ex-detective. I was shot to initiate a gunfight between a SWAT team and the detective, it worked, the team believing that the ex-detective had shot me tried to shoot the ex-detective. I returned to work 5 months later, disabled and slightly disillusioned however I continued to work the streets and I used my vast network of informants to find a Police officer rapist. I tried in vain to bring about an internal investigation for a year to expose the rapist however the department turned their corruption upon me to discredit me, trying to frame me with a crime they knew I didn't commit. If it became common knowledge that I had tried to expose the police officer rapist, the dozens of victims could sue and bankrupt the City. The San Bernardino Police Department protected the rapist as he had witnessed drug money thefts in search warrants that the administration took part in. "What happened to me is common in Police Agencies, if they could do this to me, someone who understand the law, what else is going on?" My book exposes the corruption that City Governments allow to occur to protect their civil liability. Many other corrupt activities that I have exposed in my book have never been exposed before. This is a true story of many different crimes that administrators and their corrupt subordinates have committed that they would rather not have exposed.

Wow, this is an amazing and shocking story....

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2003-09-26

This book chronicles the working and corruption of San Bernardino Police dept. Scary because it's non-fiction. Very interesting as to how the police can deal with all elements that they are exposed to on a daily basis. How certain departments condone a superior attitude to the people they are suppposed to serve. This was a real wake up call to what goes on behind the Blue line. I can only hope Stephen Peach gets the justice he rightly deserves.

From Bomba to Hip-Hop

Published in Hardcover by Columbia University Press (2000-05-15)

Author: Juan Flores

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Average review score:

Had him as a teacher

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-12

If you're at all interested in Latin American culture you'll love this book and he's an amazing person. He'll tal kto you forever about the subject and he's highly intelligent.

A five rating, but with a footnote.

Helpful Votes: 10 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2000-12-13

While Juan Flores is perceptive in his discussion of the Puerto Rican component of Latino culture, and discusses other major critics like Perez Firmat and Stavans, I was frankly surprised not to see any discussion of William Luis's Dance Between Two Cultures: Latino Caribbean Literature Written in the United States, which in my estimation is as important as those written by the critics Flores discusses. The value of Luis's study is that he addresses the same Puerto Rican community mentioned in Flores' book, but Luis also contextualizes this community by considering its relation to the Cuban and Dominican components of Latino culture. Anyone interested in understanding Latino literature and culture should also read Dance Between Two Cultures, which contains perceptive readings of Latino Caribbean literature unavailable in any other study.

Not just for Puerto Ricans.....

Helpful Votes: 11 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-28

The title of Mr. Flores' book might be a little deceiving for those who are not familiar with the subject matter. Mr. Flores uses music as a jumping off point for some very thought provoking themes that pertain (in my opinion) to all Latino's. Juan Flores goes from scholarly themes like colonialism to thoughts on the funeral of Cortijo and the history of the Boogaloo phenomena in New York City.

Mr. Flores makes you stop and think, then think again about issues you may have had preconceived notions about. I really enjoyed being challenged intellectually as I read this book.

I recently attended a lecture/performance (at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City) of "From Bomba to Hip-Hop" conducted by Mr. Flores, music historian Rene Lopez and Mike Wallace (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book, "Gotham.") True to form, it was a very unique, educational and entertaining experience.

A book that needs to be a major part of contemporary America

Helpful Votes: 17 out of 20 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-24

As a beginning graduate student in Latina/o Studies, I have been asking myself a simple question over and over: "Where have I been?" I have gone through public education in the United States for 17 years of my life, and have only recently found that there have been people writing since the start of the 1900s about the issues, experiences, struggles, and passions that I have thought were uniquely mine. Piri Thomas published _Down These Mean Streets_ in 1967. I just read it this past summer, my mother--right after I gave it to her. And the thought that has wondered in is, "why wasn't I told about his book earlier?" Is Piri Thomas' experience, a bond with African American culture that Juan Flores addresses in his book, such a marginal experience in American life, that it took a suggestion by Amazon.com for a man with 4 years of university education to be aware of the book? As the population of Latino/as in the United States grows to the levels of being the largest minority group in the country, there will have to be a shifting of Latina/o literature, theory, and any cultural products from the margins of American life to the center contemporary discussion. It is these products that Juan Flores probes and analyses with keen insight that places the Puerto Rican aspect of the Latino experience into mainstream intellectual thought. From "the Madonna incident" in Puerto Rico, to the ties that Puerto Ricans have with Hip-Hop, and the current status of Puerto Rico that he sadly calls a "Lite Colony," Flores' book is one that should be read by anyone interested in the affairs of American culture.

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