Policy Books

Lewis Lapham's notes reveal the perspective of a deeply informed man on the current republican mess, written with elegance and brillance.
"How does one reconcile the demand for small government with the desire for an imperial army,[...] match the warmhearted currencies of "conservatism compassion" with the cold cruelty of "the unfettered free market", know that human life must be saved from abortionists in Boston but not from cruise missiles in Baghdad?"
The essays cover the whole affair, from the rise of conservative propaganda to the last proofs of incompetence(or crimes) of the Bush administration.
An instructive, captivating, refreshing critic worth to be read.

Lapham's monthly essays for Harper's were always some of the best writing of the magazine. This collection from the last four years touches on "Empire" only as a basic theme for the unending expansion of American militarism and loss of demestic freedoms. Lapham is an acute observer, bringing his usual brilliant insights into the American political, social and international scenes. The book will make you think, will remind you of missed opportunities caused by the Bush Administration's actions and give you a perspective on what the American nation may be like in just a few years. Highly recommend.

Award-winning essay writer and editor emeritus of "Harper's Magazine" Lewis Lapham presents Pretensions to Empire: Notes on the Criminal Folly of the Bush Administration, a stinging indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration from its first days in Washington up to the present. Chronicling the presidency's abuses of power, and drawing upon the lessons of history to provide an ominous background to current events, Pretensions to Empire dissects the government's shameful incompetence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; the copious, unwarranted domestic spying authorized by the president; and above all, the jingoism and pretensions to empire that prompted the administration's war in Iraq on shoddy intelligence. The resounding, passionate message is that the nation can no longer afford to tolerate George W. Bush or his cronies. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the author, his reasoning is compelling, measured, and completely accessible to readers of all backgrounds.

At the time of the US "mid-term" elections in the Autumn of 2006, the credibility of the Bush regime in that nation had reached nadir. The favouritism of its domestic policies and the false premise of its foreign wars prompted a belief in the need for "regime change". The exposure of the deceptions and illegal activities of the regime was largely due to such journalists as Lewis Lapham. Lapham lays bare the inconsistencies, evasions and falsehoods that Bush and his team have put forth during their time of governance. This collection of those columns makes dismal reading, but the information they present is invaluable. They are a requiem chorus of a once-admirable nation.

Lapham, who wrote the "Notebook" column for Harper's Magazine for many years, was an early detector of the direction the Bush coalition was taking. That direction not only disturbed him for its potential results, Lapham was also alarmed at the lack of attention US media gave the trend. The fundamental issue, Lapham argues, is the attempt to transform a democratic republic into a global empire. Underlying this change is a document published in 1993 by Pentagon "officials" - officials who later played major roles in the Bush administration. The paper defined the US as the sole superpower - a power with the means and will to strike anywhere on the planet. Inhibiting or challenging that will was tantamount to treason if domestic, or tending to "terrorism" if external.

The US would undergo a fundamental change resulting from the provisions of the document. "Terrorism" was already long in the US lexicon by the time the World Trade Center towers were struck. Yet, Lapham recognises that declaring a "war on terrorism" necessitates defining non-existent ideology, then countering its adherents. Because the WTC attacks were carried out from within the US, one tactic must be the close surveillance of the domestic population. Lapham asserts that the implementation of that policy is turning the US into a "quiescent police state". This new condition is exacerbated by the economic policies of the government which enlarges the chasm between corporate wealth and real income for the less well-off. He is clear that, irrespective of which individual is in the White House or which party that individual represents, it is the shift from the traditional ideals of his country that alarms him. He wants others to share his concern, since once those ideals are demolished, their reconstruction will be a long, monumental task shared by all citizens.

Lapham's keening is a lament for lost principles. His conclusion, that Bush must be brought to account for ignoring or violating his Oath of Office, may be an act of political redemption, but it will not shift attitudes in the US very much. Lapham seems convinced that by placing Bush on a sacrificial political alter will restore the past. He ignores the fact that the legislation enacted by the regime will remain on the books unless repealed or sharply revised. The thousands now employed by "Homeland Security" and other "anti-terrorist" agencies will need jobs somewhere. Nor is it likely that the elimination of one individual will reset the collective viewpoints of a nation committed to maintaining world hegemony. This reality may seem to give Lapham's essays a tinge of "Bushwhacking", but the blatant disregard of the regime for law and truth show how badly this collection was needed. The results of those mid-term elections may have been an encouraging glimmer, but they don't promise the level of restoration Lapham is looking for. [stephen a. haines = Ottawa, Canada]

Upon finishing this work by Mr. Giannangelo I had to ask myself, "Did he describe his theory of violence with a sense of humor, or was it just me?" When I say humor, I don't mean ha ha funny, but in his descriptions of Dahmer and Kemper's past it's almost like he tries to make it sound amusing rather than dark. Which was great. He wasn't trying to scare people with his theories, but rather tell the basic facts. And he told without a great deal of technical psycho lingo that nobody understands. It is easily readable by anybody, and it teaches a great deal too. It is a brilliant first novel, and I highly anticipate many more from Mr. Giannangelo.

At first I was upset when I read this book since I was heading in the direction Giannangelo went. However, I got over it and am grateful to him for providing a direction for me to go. His use of DSM categories and the diathesis- stress model are the only theory so far that "feels right" in desribing serial killers. He provides clear, concise and believable arguments in favor of this theory's applicability to serial killers. He shows that serial killing is primarily a psychological pathology (hence the title of the book) but the diatheis- stress model highlights the importance of both biology and environmental factos in their emergence. It allows for individual differences in experience to lead to the same act. I would like to see a follow up work, especially trying to apply his proposed DSM category to these killers. This is an important book for anyone studying serial killers seriously. It packs a lot into a little book.

As a person who has continued to be more and more engrossed in this topic, I found this book to be an exceptional piece of research material. The glossaries and case studies are great, but the detailed and exhaustive analysis makes the book an absolute must-have for any serious serial murder and abnormal psychology buff. And, the original application of an actual developmental theory is not only gutsy, it makes tremendous sense. A standout in the genre.

In regards to the theory itself, it just makes sense. I know that sounds a bit simplistic, especially in light of the many years of studying others have done without too much success, but it does make sense. The author has come up with a classification that is more than supposable. I like so many of you have longed for a reasonable explanation for how and why one becomes a serial killer--something solid and definitive. Giannangelo has attained this. The Psychopathology of Serial Murder is not a comparison of what is known and it is not to dispel what has been thus far suggested. It is a theory of violence and it is a proficient one. It is believable and comprehendible. I was surprised by this book and believe you will be too. I urge you to get it and place it amongst your most often used resource books--I already have.

This is the best book I have read on the subject of rape & how to survive it. Unlike so many of the books out on rape, this is not written from a statistical aspect & how to prevent rape in the first place. This book is written totally to the survivor with exercises to help you recover from rape. If you are a victim of rape & trying to figure out how to recover from it, this is the book for you! It really made me realize that my reactions are typical of the normal victim & that there is nothing wrong with me for taking so long to recover. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been the victim of rape & is trying to become a survivor!

I found this book very easy to read and helpful in the recovery process. It basically describes the process of going from victim to survivor. The shortness of the book did make it easier to read as I was in grad school at the time. I didn't have time to read anything besides my assignments. It addresses shame, guilt and anger and ends with solutions or ways to change thoughts and behavior (cognitive restructuring). It was a good introduction to survivor issues in a very manageable size.
If you are in crisis now you can call the national sexual assault hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE. They will forward you to a local rape crisis counselor. The crisis center can give you a referral to a rape crisis counselor, a therapist, victim advocacy (for reporting to police or going to court), provide free counseling or offer a support group. This hotline is run by RAINN.org which is the leading resource on sexual assault.

I have read several books for survivors of rape and this one has the best ideas written most succinctly. Also, this book can be completed in one day if a person has the time.

As a therapist and survivor of rape, this book has been an essential resource for myself and so many others. This is the first book I recommend to all clients who have been raped. It can be read immediately following the rape and for years after, each time offering meaning and hope. This book may also be a guide for family and friends affected by this event, helping them better understand what the victim may be experiencing. This is a great place to begin and continue a healing journey.

Many Americans can't understand how Germany developed a racial state in the midst of modernism. This book gives vivid insight into the mechanisms & development of fascism. The National Socialist Party didn't just happen. The machinery of the state developed under the right conditions with the help of many non-military individuals, including both professors & doctors.

Not only is this book interesting for its historical information, reading it enlightens the reader to more recent fascist development. After reading this book, you will never say it can't happen here.

This insightful text takes several perspectives in analysing the radical social engineering project known as National Socialism. Although not all of the Nazis' victims were racial 'undesirables,' all came under the boot in one way or another as a way of advancing that racial project. Wippermann and Burleigh have done an impressive job in exploring this theme, approaching it from Nazi policy to broad implementation, as well as looking at the refashioning of society by segments along Nazi lines.

The concept of the untranslatable _Volksgemeinschaft_ can be somewhat difficult to convey to students in our atomised and pluralised culture. Not only does this text provide "thick description" of this social construct, but it also supplies a useful framework for comparative analysis without resorting to useless relativising and hierarchising of suffering. Highly recommended as a classroom text for undergraduate level and above.

Techinically I was forced to read this book for a history cause I'm taking. However, instead of reading all the other source too, I read the whole thing instead of just the assignments for this book. If you have any interest in the Holocaust, this book is a must. The integration of documents and survivor's account gives the information alot of different perspective that really helps to better understand a situation that is so unimanigable.

This is an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone interested in the institutionalization of National Socialist racialism. However, I must disagree that Germany was unique in this. One has only to look around to see that the United States is pursuing similar social policies under the guise of "fairness" or "tolerance" as are all the Western democracies--which should tell you something about democracy.

This is a fantastic book. Disability is a such a big category it may be impossible to ever fully understand all the issues involved. But The Ragged Edge is a great first step.

This book is a series of essays, poems, and short stories written by people with disabilities. Some are angry, others funny, none are boring. Some are better written than others. But all are powerful for their raw honesty.

I was moved by these very personal stories. I had never before appreciated all the trials, fears, and anger people with disabilites live with everyday. Before reading this book I had some vague notion of the problems of access and acceptance, but I never thought about how humiliating it would be to be paraded before medical experts as some kind of freak show (read Lisa Blumberg's essay "Public Stripping"), or how heart rending it must be to hear arguments in favor of abortion rights rooted in the fact that people like you exist, or to live in a world where even one of the United States' most esteemed legal minds could pronounce "Three generations of imbeciles is enough" in support of the forced sterilization of the disabled.

You're apt to find yourself chastized by some of these stories. Good. But you'll have learned alot, gained new perspectives, and perhaps become more empathetic and understanding of a group of people who embody the truth that we're all broken people in the final analysis.

I liked this book. It has a lot of different perspectives, lots of articles from various parts of the disability movement. It really captures the flavour of the movement in its early days.

I'm, Girard Sagmiller the author of the book Dyslexia My Life (ISBN: 096430871-1) . The book The Ragged Edge
, is one of the top book for find out about living with a Disability
, great for anybody feeling as if they are the only one dealing with this or for someone working with a disability group.. Thanks..

This book is a compilation of real-life experiences through the eyes of writers who happen to have a disability. Having read this book, I am that much more aware of both the existence of societal discrimination, whether blantant or a result of ignorance, toward persons with disabilities and the unique perceptive persons with disabilities have on life.

This is an amazing book that all educators and parents should read who are concerned about the travesty being forced on schools in the name of science and leaving no children behind. Coles carefully, objectively, yet with a passion for children underlying all, reviews the research findings that supposedly underlie the push for rigid, sequential, skills without meaning instruction being demanded of schools that serve low income children. Coles makes it clear that, while the present regime uses the public relations language of 'scientifically-based research', the fact is that such claims are more fiction, more the product of advertizing than truth. He further makes it clear that the real truth, real science has been both ignored and suppressed to further the ideological aims of those in present power. Michael Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Wayne State University, Detroit.

A central theme of this book is the insight that the claims of superiority of intensive phonics instruction and phonemic awareness instruction rest on studies in which one group does heavy phonics or phonemic awareness instruction and the comparison group does either nothing at all, or an activity that has nothing to do with reading. Coles points out that it should be no surprise that the phonics or phonemic awareness group will read better after such a comparison. But Coles concludes that even this is not true: When the trained group is better, they are typically only clearly better on low level tests, eg tests of phonemic awareness and phonics. There is hardly any evidence that they actually read better. Coles has taught us that we always need to ask this question when somebody says a reading method is better: Better than what?

Coles provides extensive documentation of this point. This book, along with Garan's Resisting Reading Mandates, pulls the rug out from under the National Reading Panel's claim that heavy skills training is called for in teaching children to read.

This is a very important book for anyone interested in literacy and learning. Bureaucrats (and others) who follow dictates blindly need to know the weaknesses of the NRP and the realities of the research involved.

When the National Reading Panel was being convened and the names of the people to be on it were announced, I couldn't believe there were no primary classroom teachers. I thought, what's up with that? How can they have a national panel on how children learn to read and not represent the teachers who are in the trenches every day? They are the real experts! But the report made us out to be victims. Their selections seemed to point to the fact that teachers are no more than ignorant pawns who really "don't know what they don't know."

Gerry Coles in his book, Reading, the Naked Truth; Literacy, Legislation and Lies asks the same question. Where are the teachers? He once again shows his support for the knowledge of the classroom teacher as he questions the theoretical underpinnings of the findings in the National Reading Panel Report. All teachers base their teaching on theory. Our theory is based on what we see working and not working with the students in our classrooms. Apparently the members of the panel, even though many openly admit they are failures at teaching children to read, don't trust teachers' knowledge and abilities. Gerry does. Carefully analyzing the findings of the report and spelling out its serious flaws, in a book that is easy to fit into a teacher's busy life, he shows us that what we always believed to be true about teaching children to read, is still true.

Everyone will have to or has had to take a prescription drug at one time or another in their lives. This books take readers behind the scenes for an in-depth look at what drives pharmaceutical companies, doctors and drug legislation as well as pointing out flaws in what many people regard as trusted medical research. This book is a real eye opener and a must read for everyone as it provides important information in protecting one's own health as well as the health of their loved ones. It is also the only textbook I have read in the last four years cover to cover and I think that says a lot.

This is an important book for all people who care about drug policy as it relates to criminal justice, the pharmaceutical industry and the practice of medicine - which should be all of us.

Well-written, inportant book which affects all Americans is the way that I would describe Fred Leavitt's THE REAL DRUG ABUSERS. Dr. Leavitt offers excellent examples of the way that drug companies manipulate both doctors and patients.

This is an excellent book that exposes drug companies for what they are: profit driven corporations with little or no regard for people's health. The book goes on to discuss the so-called war on drugs (the never-ending war justifying the imprisonment of nonviolent individuals in the name of public safety and health). Again, this is an excellent book and it should be read by anyone who has concerns about national health care in its current state.

Not since Jonathan Kozol's "Death At An Early Age" (1967) have I read such a gripping account of the daily struggle present in an urban school mired in poverty. Written by a teacher, this first person account illustrates the sense of futility felt by faculty, staff, parents, and most importantly, students. Add to this mix the impact of decisions made by a high-priced business turnaround team, none of whom had any experience in the field of education, which resulted in decreased test scores, huge loss of accreditation points, and lack of basic services. Anyone who cares about the entrenched culture of generational poverty must read this book.

This book addresses the educational situation in the St. Louis Public School system during the 2003-04 school year. The picture painted represents the reality of real issues face in an inner city school and does not attempt to gloss over the numerous problems encountered by today's teachers throughout the country.

The author recounts her experience working in the St. Louis Public Schools during a watershed year in which the school board hired a business turnaround team to improve the school system. The outcome was catastrophic and a bad situation became far worse as test scores dropped, schools were closed, and many employees lost their jobs. Interestingly enough, the turnaround team has been hired by both the New Orleans and New York Public Schools to consult within the past 2 years. Couple this with the problems found in urban schools throughout the country, which are articulated here as well, and you truly have a recipe for failure.

For those of us asking the question, "What is happening to our city schools?" this book has the answers. Marilyn takes her reader along as she embarks on a journey she never expected or imagined. The combination of her careful research and teaching experience at a city middle school makes this a "jaw-dropper" of a book. Read it if you truly want answers; it will challenge, enrage, and inspire you!

The author's inside perspective should cause the educated reader to consider the immense harm that a school board can cause children in the district when the board succumbs to organizational thinking and outsources the discharge of its fiduciary duty. Definitely a well written eye-opener. Reliving the author's experiences as an educator in the St. Louis schools was somewhat like watching a train wreck, only in written form.

How refreshing that an educator has the courage to speak out about the appalling state of our education system in the United States! We hold every other highly skilled professional accountable for the results they produce: doctors, dentists, attorneys,etc. Why don't we demand any kind of accountability for our "educators?" It's time parents took back control and began to demand results! This book would be a very important guide to do just that! A highly recommended read!

This is the book I've been waiting for. It gave me, a parent, the tools I needed to work with my school to get the education my kids needed.

Dr. King's handbook, 'Reclaiming Our Schools,' is a must-read for EVERY parent - and, in fact, for every taxpayer. It's a basic human philosophy to do something "the way we've always done it." But parents, it's time we assume our responsibility for our children's education and self-esteem. Education must change for today's children to be properly prepared to lead our country and our world.

Who can't recall the person at the low-end of a school's achievement system? Maybe it was you, or maybe it's your child. What makes someone an "average" student? "Just being average is not success in anyone's view," Dr. King reminds his readers.

Even the nation's top students are not learning all they need to know. Dr. King points out that "as long as students are ranked against each other, the achievement of the group can drift lower and ... it gives parents a false sense of pride."

Dr. King's book offers an honest inspection of why any student would be classified according to others' achievements and suggests practical answers to helping your children achieve their personal best. Whether your child is taught in a public or private school system or at home, it will take each parent's contribution to be certain that your child is receiving the teaching they deserve and the instruction they need to lay a firm foundation for life.

Written in an easy-to-read manner, Reclaiming Our Schools examines the myths that lock our children into an unsatisfactory education and offers solutions to these myths. This book is a positive step toward ensuring a successful, appropriate education for each of America's children.

This book is the book the NEA and the educational establishment doesn't want you to read!

The problem is clear--parents have lost touch with their schools, and children are not learning.

As current as today's headlines, Reclaiming Our Schools offers the cure. Written by an educator in everyday language, Reclaiming Our Schools is a guide to parents both dismayed by a public school system producing students scoring among the lowest of all industrialized nations and unsure of what to do about it.

For the concerned parent intimidated by the task of challenging an entrenched educatonal establishment, this book will serve as guide. Included are non-frontational questions for school administrators, both research and common sense challenging current educational practices, and a detailed examination of the myths driving them.

Schools following the steps described in this book soon have 90% of their students scoring as high as the top ten percent in schools who do not--results neither parents, nor schools can affod to ignore.

With this book as guide, parents can work closely with their school toward the common goal of helping children learn. It can be done! This book shows the way.

Reclaiming the Commons is an excellent read for anyone interested in the natural history of New England, community farming, open space issues, and the value of farms in the landscape. This is a well written, thoughtful book that offers an inspiring vision for a future of locally produced food, protected farmland, and community involvement that farms help to create.

OUTSTANDING!Very impressive! Pointed, engaging, and inspiring from the get-go. And extraordinarily well-written -- my innate and involuntary tendency to mentally edit anything I'm reading was off in another county someplace.

This book,written by a newcomer in the environmental landscape, will become a landmark. It points the way to transform the suburban way of life into one that is sustainable.This it would do by converting suburban open spaces into community sanctuaries for agriculture,husbandry and forestry, administered by suburbanites themselves,especially by their youngsters.The great strength of the proposals is that they have been demonstrated to work by the author and his associates in the upscale Boston suburb of Weston. Another plus is the grace and humor with which the book is blessed.

In Reclaiming the Commons, Brian Donahue has given us a remarkable portrait of a thriving community farm in Weston, Massachusetts called Land's Sake. In 1980 the nonprofit organization Land's Sake was formed in Weston, a suburb of Boston, to work closely with the town's Conservation Commission on managing and using the town's growing public land. Its three founding principles were to care ecologically for Weston's land, to involve the community and especially young people with the land, and to be as self-supporting as possible through the sale of products and services. By thinking of the land as a rural space that could "benefit from our presence, rather than need to be protected from us," they opened the possibility that they could engage suburban youth with the land and produce high-quality natural products for local sale, offering ample educational and recreational activities while striking "a balance between protecting natural ecosystems and making sustainable, productive use of the land."

Land's Sake sends about one-fifth of their fresh organic produce to Boston's homeless shelters and food pantries, as well as sponsoring a Harvest for Hunger every September, thus ensuring that their surplus finds an assured wholesale market (the town pays the price to send the food to the inner city) which benefits the disadvantaged and disenfranchised in the nearby urban areas. Donahue shows that suburbia "is the condition of residing outside the city proper with little functional connection to one's neighbors, aside from the schools, and almost no functional connection to the land," and he shows that community farms on common land offer a vibrant opportunity to keep farmland from being lost to development, and to transform the suburban condition from alienation to connection. This is a surprisingly powerful and exciting book that will show suburban and city readers how to become more connected to their land and to their source of food.