Public Policy Books

".....Skin Deep addresses such issues as the relationship between skin tone and self-esteem, marital patterns, interracial relationships, socioeconomic attainment, and family racial identity and composition.

The essays in THIS ACCESSIBLE BOOK ALSO GRAPPLE WITH EMERGING ISSUES SUCH AS BIRACIALISM, color-blind racism, and 21st century notions of race in the U.S. and in other countries."
[from the book of the back cover]

I am not afraid to look the reality of colorism in the eye and acknowledge that it does exist within the black community. It is my greatest hope and dream that someday the dark skinned black and the light skinned black will be seen as the one family in the future. I want so much to love the lightskinned sister and brother as my own reflection and not be divided from them or made to feel that one is treated better than the other, but sadly, that day is not here and this book bravely and powerfully illustrates that point to the fullest.

I am a medium brown colored woman, my mother was very dark skinned and I have witnessed the evils of skin color prejudice all my life. In most situations, it was Black Men who were prejudiced against myself and the women around me beccause of our coloring. These men felt no shame or limit in their racist intra-family prejudice and measured their entire lives by how many light skinned or white women they could attain and how light brite their children could come out. It's everywhere and anyone who denies it is both a fool and a liar.

That is why I highly recommend THE BLACKER THE BERRY by Wallace Thurman. There is no truer portrait of the self-hatred among our people than the one extolled in this book, and what makes it even sadder is that this book was written in the 1920's. So that only shows how deep this kind of evil runs.

Lately, I have become very interested in this subject and I have searched for other books that explore this subject with intelligence, honest, beauty and wisdom and I have found several that I consider to be classics on the subject of Colorism.

(1) MARITA GOLDEN'S book "Don't Play In the Sun" is definitely the most modern up to date book of the bunch. It expertly weaves the story of her life experiences in the 1960's Black Power movement with the current struggles of women like Serena Williams and India Arie to find their way in the world, even in the midst of being shunned and ignored by the black community itself. The book's analysis of the Hollywood casting system and the "Mulatto Follies" of BET and MTV is priceless.

(2) "The Bluest Eye" by TONI MORRISON is by far the most riveting and painful book that I have read on this subject of colorism. I believe that her book, more than any mother, gets to the psychological and historical root cause of the problem and exposes the mode in which we pass the problem on generation to generation. The destruction of an innocent black girl named Pecola Breedlove will leave you heartbroken and shocked as you see the bold naked truth unfold right before your eyes. You can't ignore this book, because the story being told is the one that you are all too familiar with no matter what color you are.

(3) "Flesh and the Devil" by African novelist KOLA BOOF is another deeply powerful book that examines colorism, but not out in the open. This book is unique in that it focuses on a very enchanting love story between a Black Prince and Princess and follows their reincarnations through history as they struggle to find their way back to each other. Through detailed moments in black history, both in Africa and the United States, the provocative author highlights the way that black people originally viewed their beauty and humanity and then juxtuposes it against the way they see themselves now in the modern world. The result is nothing less than devastating. I love this book so much, because the storytelling is so rich and the depth is so sweeping and grand. Anyone who loves good writing and is proud to be descended from the Black race will find themselves literally changed forever by the powerful images depicted in this very poetically moving story.

(4) "The Color Complex"--VARIOUS AUTHORS, is a very simple, straight forward analysis from a sociological point of view. Much research and statistical facts are used to illustrate that our communities are infested with these issues.

(5) "The Darkest Child" by Dolores Philips is another great novel that shows us the poor blacks who live under the poverty line ingesting these complex social hierarchies based on color and how they not only expose their children to them, but force the entire community to live by the "color code". Everybody is used to it from slavery and the system goes on and on unchallenged. In this book, Tangy Mae, the darkest of 10 children by the white-looking mother Rozelle, struggles to find her dignity and confidence in the midst of her evil light skinned mother inflicting one horrid abuse on top of the other. One thing I will say for the evil white-looking mother, Rozelle, is that she treated all of her children hiddeously and with contempt, from the whitest to the blackest. But she killed the child who was born looking like Tangy Mae and that spoke volumnes. This book is a very real metaphor for what goes on. Very real.

Collaboratively compiled and edited by Cedric Herring (Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, University of Illinois - Chicago), Verna M. Keith (Chair of the Department of Sociology, Arizona State University), and Hayward Derrick Horton (Associate Professor of Sociology, Albany University-SUNY), Skin/Deep: How Race And Complexion Matter In The "Color-Blind" Era is a collection of informative and informative essays concerning the very real and entangled issues of race, judgement, and the question of why skin color remains a determining factor of economic success and quality of life in America today. Exploring the stratification process, cause and effect chains, emerging issues such as biracialism and color-blind racism and a great deal more, Skin/Deep is a highly recommended contribution to Contemporary Social Issues reading lists and offers a wealth of persuasively argued and deftly presented viewpoints.

American foreign policy makers struggle with many issues, and face a range of foreign policy problems: to understand them properly, SMART POWER: TOWARD A PRUDENT FOREIGN POLICY FOR AMERICA provides a Cato Institute VP for defense and foreign studies' insights. Chapters consider policy-making, disagreements over foreign issues and consequences, strategies involving economic sanctions and military force, and more, and are a perfect starting place for discussion and debate both at the college level and for general-interest readers.

Those in favor of our interventionist foreign policy have succeeded in virtually eliminating the idea that there might be another way for America to act in the world. Thanks to Ted Galen Carpenter, we now know that there is better way. Mr. Carpenter shows in this series of essays that there WERE people prescient enough to recognize the problems that invading Iraq would cause, yet these views were largely marginalized in the rush to war. He also points out other mistakes we are making that could provide similar disastrous results vis-a-vis Afghanistan, China, Russia, et. al.
Adoption of Mr. Carpenter's foreign policy views would lead us to a better national security status, at a substantially reduced cost to taxpayers. Those looking for an alternative to the current bipartisan groupthink that has yielded America-as-World-Policeman, would be wise to read this book.

Ted Galen Carpenter has what most of the foreign policy establishment/elite woefully lacks: common sense. At the heart of Smart Power is a simple but powerful proposition: in the post-Cold War era and particularly in the wake of 9/11, U.S. security commitments and military interventions overseas are worse than unnecessary -- they are actually detrimental to U.S. security. Carpenter cogently makes the case that U.S. policy decisions and actions have consequences and all too often those consequences are counterproductive. This is a truth that policymakers and pundits refuse to recognize. So like Einstein's definition of insanity, they keep doing the same thing (Republicans and Democrats alike) and expect different results. Sadly -- even if they bother to read Smart Power -- this is likely to be the case in the next administration regardless of who wins the November presidential election.

There is also an irony (whether it was intended I don't know) on the cover of Smart Power, which portrays Uncle Sam playing chess. Yet chess is the old paradigm for U.S. foreign policy, exemplified by the likes of Henry Kissinger and Zbignew Brezinski. The prudent foreign policy that Carpenter prescribes requires discarding chess as a way to think about foreign policy. Indeed, part of the problem with the current state of U.S. foreign policy is that we are still playing chess.

This wonderful and insightful work by Pierre Englebert is one of the best works out there on the political economy of Africa. His thesis is that Africa's wide range of economic experiences (despite the general malaise) has its roots in the varying levels of historical legitimacy exhibited by African states. He backs this argument up with impressive quantitative data and a qualitative look into how illegitimacy retards growth and development. His most controversial claims come as he questions that sanctity of the state boundaries bestoyed on Africa by colonialism. Brilliant, insightful and accessible!

I learned a lot from reading this book. It provides both a very thorough and detailed account of Africa's mixed development fortunes and an original theory of development and underdevelopment. It is very well written.

This book provides a sophisticated and nuanced theory of African underdevelopment, which also explains African success stories! It represents one of the most important theoretical advances in African studies in a long time, and it is not dogmatic at all. This book incorporates historical, sociological, political and economic insights to derive a general theory of the determinants of poverty and weak state capacity in Africa. It is very well written and will be accessible to undergraduates as well as advanced readers. Rich in statistical evidence, the text always remains clear, even to the quantitative novice, and is full of real life examples. A compelling argument and a real "tour de force."

During the 1980s and 1990s, in an initiative led by World Neighbors in Guatemala, there were encouraging signs as farmers adopted low-cost improvements such as hedges to control erosion, crop rotation with legumes to add nitrogen to the soil, and covering the ground with vegetation year round to reduce soil and water loss, with the result that harvests jumped without the use of chemical fertilizer or pesticides as the capacity of farmers to innovate, experiment, and become the protagonists of their own development increased and they explored better ways to farm. Incomes improved, emigration to the cities declined, nutrition, health, literacy, soil quality, resistance to drought, water quality, and resistance to extreme weather conditions all improved; tree planting increased and more families were involved in local decision making. But this was in stark contrast to the type of farming that prevails in much of the world which delivers a great deal of food but wears down ecosystems while people go hungry and rural communities wither. Changing from destructive systems to regenerative or multifunctional or agroecological systems was part of the vision and goals of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit but implementation fell far short. Modern farming has increased production and lowered commodity prices but at the price of environmental and social dysfunction. When food production is the sole yardstick, it is difficult to comprehend the price paid by ignoring other criteria such chemicals in drinking water, soil erosion, food poisoning, subsidies, and mad cow disease. People pay three times for their food - at the checkout counter, for subsidies, and to clean up polluting farm practices. Often producing more food did not reduce hunger. Much of the growth in food production has been built on irrigation but at the price of pressure on water resources as described by Sandra Postel in "Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last?" The strongest evidence that our food system is dysfunctional is the fact that farmers, as a group, are the poorest people on the planet, hunger is concentrated in rural areas, worsened by poor access to safe water and sanitation. As most of the money in the food business flows to the cities and factories, a mass exodus from rural areas has resulted. In 1950 American farmers captured 50 cents on the food dollar but in 1997 it was 7 cents with most of the money going to processing, marketing, and agricultural input suppliers - a pattern mirrored around the world. How can so many remain hungry when food production soared and was ahead of population growth?

This edition of State of the World, issued prior to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002was prepared to help define the agenda by focusing on seven key areas which should be the priorities for delegates - agriculture, energy, climate change, chemicals, international tourism, population growth, resource based conflicts and global governance. In addition, this volume evaluates what has been achieved since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio when world leaders agreed to a plan to create a sustainable global economy - one that met human needs while protecting and restoring the natural environment. Unanimous recommendations of the report "Our Common Future" established sustainable development as the central organizing principle for societies around the world. Although these recommendations were confirmed at Rio and despite two landmark global treaties on climate change and biological diversity, the world continued with business as usual. Agenda 21, a 40-chapter plan for achieving sustainable development, lacked clear implementation plans and binding legal requirements. Two questions need to be addressed - why has so little progress been made? And what must be done to ensure that the next decade is one of sustainable development and environmental progress? "The answer to the first question is both simple and complex: governments and individuals around the world are still treating issues such as population growth, the loss of biological diversity, and the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as if they were the equivalent to local air or water pollution - problems that could be solved simply by ordering the addition of control devices. Humanity has not yet shown the ability to deal with fundamental global and long-term changes in the biosphere, particularly when they require a systemic response - the creation of fundamentally different technologies, the development of new business models, and the embracing of new life styles and values."

The eight chapters in this book are:
- The Challenge for Johannesburg: Creating a More Secure World;
- Moving the Climate Change Agenda Forward;
- Farming in the Public Interest;
- Reducing our Toxic Burden;
- Redirecting International Tourism;
- Rethinking Population, Improving Lives;
- Breaking the Link Between Resources and Repression; and
- Reshaping Global Governance.

The 1980s was a decade of unprecedented economic growth during which over $10 trillion a year was added to the global economy but it left the number living in poverty nearly unchanged at more than 1 billion. The problem is not money but political will in dealing with problems that will come to haunt us in the years ahead. This book is invaluable in defining the problems, proposing solutions and helping each of us identify where we should try to make a difference.

This is the latest annual edition of the indispensable "State of the World," and it should be at the top of your reading list. No coincidence, it is timed to correspond with the "State of the Union" address. The world we live in today can no longer afford limited nationalistic thinking -- we must learn to think and act globally, and this book is a key part of racing up that learning curve.

The 2002 edition contains 8 chapters, on topics including global warming, population, agriculture, toxic wastes, resource conflicts (such as wars over diamonds in Africa), and global governance. Beginning in August, the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development will be held in Johannesburg, and the lead essay frames an agenda for that meeting.

"The Skeptical Environmentalist," the book that is the current favorite of libertarian anti-environmentalists everywhere, is subtitled "Measuring the Real State of the World," a none too subtle dig at the Worldwatch Institute. Lester Brown and the others at the Institute have been addressing the most important issues facing the world for many years now, and they deserve our respect and our thanks! This is no time to surrender the fight for the future -- what do we want to leave for the generations to come?

_State of the World_ is the flagship publication of the Worldwatch Institute. When people want information on massive global trends, they turn to two places -- this book and the United Nations Development Report. In fact, the book was written as a guide for the upcoming UN World Summit in Johannesburg, and is even forwarded by UN Secretary-General, Kofi A. Annan.

Clearly, Kofi and the rest of the UN will have a lot to consider in Johannesburg, as many of the problems that were mentioned in _State of the World 2001_ have only gotten worse in the commercially intense and ecologically devistating -- albeit relatively short -- 365 day interim. If you are looking for the most up-to-date information on glObal food, water, health care, education and environmental trends, this is your book. Perhaps the most finely crafted information tool in our kit.

General Topics Included:

Science breakthroughs, climate change, politics, dysfunctional farming, world hunger (amidst plenty), rural areas, cities, ethical eating, the new chemical economy, metal poisoning, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), environmental democracy and markets, technology changes, glObal industry, development theory, environmental impacts of tourism/sustainable tourism, population, reproduction, healthy families, gender myopia, the relationship between resources and conflict, resource pillage, economic sanctions, international governance, and democratizing glObal governance.

Specific Items of detailed Statistical Consideration:

Infectious diseases, glObal pharmaceutical sales, legislative responses to recycling in the 1990s, greenhouse gas emissions and targets, land distribution and agribusiness lots, glObal chemical output, glObal atmospheric emissions, hotel "greening" success stories, gender disparity, Sierra Leone's Civil War, a progress report of the Rio Convention, small dams commissioned and removed in the U.S (1910-1999), regional deaths from AIDS (1990-2000), glObal average temperatures (1867-2000), glObal carbon emissions (1751-2000), carbon emission in U.S., China and Russia (1990-2000), per capita food production and commodity prices (1961-2000), world fertilizer use (1950-2000), glObal pesticide sales (1950-1999), certified organic and in-conversion land in the EU (1985-2000), toxic intensities of selected U.S. manufacturing sectors for the early 1990s, projected growth in world economy, population, and chemical production (1995-2020), international tourist arrivals (1950-2000) and projections for 2020, world population since A.D. 1 (yes, since year one!), cross-country analysis of contraceptive use and childbearing, official development assistance (1970-2000), foreign debt of developing and former Eastern Bloc nations (1970-2000), and private capital flows to developing countries (1991-2000).

You might also seriously think about subscribing to World Watch magazine. As with this book, it presents glObal environmental issues in the form of highly researched articles, useful for both policymakers and an informed glObal citizenry. Common topics include natural resource use, water and air quality, climate change, and human health issues. At six issues a year for something like twenty dollars, the magazine is a steal.

The book was received in flawless condition, and service was prompt. I wish everything I'd invest in is this good.

This year's "State of the World" by Worldwatch Institute focuses on the global urban environment: water and sanitation, transportation, agriculture and farming, energy, natural hazard risks, pulic health, economics, and environmental justice. Each chapter lays out trends and statistics demonstrating some of the hazards the world might be facing with the current trends towards urbanization.

However, the book has a largely positive and constructive tone, with extensive use of examples and case studies of locales using innovative methods for protecting the environment and even attempting to reducing pollutants that might be global in their impacts. Case studies span the world - from Los Angeles to Timbuktu. The "city" provides a structure for problem-solving.

The book overall is comprehensive, with excellent writing and editing - some chapters are replete with data while others are written in a sweeping "big picture" context with long-term recommendations for future directions. This is a great resource for researchers, policy-makers, students, and anyone interested in understanding the risks and opportunities for the urban landscape.

Especially when the issues are surveyed in Worldwatch's annual review.

This is a must read for scholars, police, and community leaders who are attempting to address youth street gang problems.

this book presents a relatively up to date analysis of street gangs, develops some of the reporting issues along with the limited scope of police data gathering. The analysis and arguments are helpful to understand the difference between "conventional wisdom" and the data available. I appreciate the presentation in so far as it provides a more realistic foundation on which to measure observations about local gangs.

"This is an important book. Malcolm Klein and Cheryl Maxson here draw upon their own rich and pioneering research experience and that of others to provide the most comprehensive review of what is known and what needs to be known about gangs and their control in community contexts. I stand in awe of their accomplishment." -- James F. Short, Jr., Past President of the American Sociological Association

"The need to intervene successfully with street gangs is self-evident; unfortunately the way to do so is not. Klein and Maxson, based on a masterful review of the empirical literature on gangs and on gang intervention efforts, lay out a balanced and comprehensive strategy for confronting this problem head-on. Neither falsely optimistic nor unnecessarily gloomy, they provide a road map that, if followed, will yield substantial progress in our fight against gangs." -- Terence P. Thornberry, Director, Research Program on Problem Behavior, University of Colorado

"This book, by two of the world's leading experts on street gangs, can be confidently recommended to anyone who desires state-of-the-art reviews of knowledge on this topic. The reviews and recommendations about how to prevent and control street gangs are especially important and should be required reading for criminologists and criminal justice policy-makers and practitioners." -- David P. Farrington, Past President of the British Society of Criminology

"Klein and Maxson present a bold analysis and interpretation of the available data on street gangs. They have crafted the most coherent and refreshing analysis of the gang problem to date. Their analysis dispels a number of prominent myths about gangs and challenges much of the conventional wisdom about gang structure and dynamics. This book will have a major influence on street gang research for years to come." -- Delbert S. Elliott, Past President of the American Society of Criminology

The book came fairly quickly,the price was fair, and the book was in good shape

Informative book. I used for my class

I am a substance abuse therapist (part-time) and a Senior Juvenile Court Officer (full-time) for 17 years working with adolescents here in Lansing, Michigan. I am also strength-based (asset-building) in my personal practice approach with teens. I believe that we've heard the call before to work from the successful side, the resilient side of people, but we were never given the techniques as we are now with this book. That is what I see as the most promising aspect of this current strengths movement...the one-two punch of mindset and techniques. Any helping professional owes it to themselves to read this book. It is a real career changer. Most asset-building is aimed at the community level or agency/policy level. I am greatly concerned with asset-building on a one-to-one level of interpersonal work and how this can be used to approach people for more effective work. It looks to what the client can do vs. can't do, what they've been successful at rather than what they've failed at, what they have, vs. what they don't have. It runs counter to the "medical model" of deficit-based work that centers in on "flaw-fixing." I have published several articles and do trainings for raising motivation and cooperation with adolescents in the juvenile justice system through strength-based strategies. Most of my work, and this tremendous change in my practice, came from this book and the first volume published in 1992. Among many methods in my training I use a joke about a drunk man to change mindset. It's an old joke but very applicable: In the middle of the city, a beat cop encounters a drunk, crawling around on his hands and knees seemingly looking for something at night,directly under a street lamp. When the cop stops and inquires what he's doing, the drunk responds, "I'm looking for my car keys that I lost in the bushes!" The cop laughs and says, "Hey buddy, if you lost your keys over there in the bushes,why are you looking here under the street light?" To which the drunk replies indignantly, "Boy are you stupid, it's too dark to look for them over in the bushes!!" Old joke. But, we in the helping professions are so much like the drunk man. We look for the "keys" to clients problems in the area of greatest illumination which is always the PROBLEM, the failures, what's missing, wrong, etc. We have specialized tests to look there, interviewing strategies that look there, that is where all the attention is placed. Yet the "keys" are in the dark, in the "bushes" which certainly represents anyone's strengths, talents, past successes and perseverance (etc.) .............so why no methods to look in these areas? That's where strength-based practice comes in to give methods to elicit and amplify these areas. Check this book out, I believe you'll be thinking and working differently after you finish.

This is an excellent book. It makes you analyze the different social problems that some of our communities face.

This book has the seven perspectives outlined in order and shows the pros and cons of the subject material.

The book came right on time. The seller deserves a good review.

This is a really great and readable text on what is often a challenging topic. The authors really have provided some insightful analysis on what is always a timely topic. I learned a tremendous amount and easily made my way through the flowing prose. I suggest this book for anyone interested in taxation and also for those of us who are simply "tax curious". This is a particularly relevant book given the upcoming elections!

Tax reform isn't usually one of those topics that gets people excited -- most people view it the same way George Bush looks at broccoli. But Slemrod and Bakija do a great job of making it interesting and explaining complex ideas in simple language. If you want to know how Steve Forbes' flat tax will hit your wallet or how much the current income tax system stymies growth, this is the book for you. Simply, it is a great, great place to start to learn about tax reform. It's as good as it gets on the topic

This slender volume is a readable and entertaining survey of the woes of the current income tax system and of a variety of tax reform proposals intended to replace the current system. The section of the book that discusses the tax system's effect on labor supply, saving & investment, incentive to work, international competiveness, and other economic 'macro' effects, is especially insightful. The authors conclude (probably correctly) that the tax system's effect on these things is probably marginal, and, in any event, difficult to measure empirically. Therefore, any tax reform that promises 'economic nirvana' should be taken with a grain of salt. The authors suggest, without endorsement, that the hallmarks of any new (or improved) tax system should be simplicity, enforcability, and revenue- raising efficiency; the last denotes the absence of 'social tinkering' through the tax system. Unfortunately, the authors note that all of the various tax reform proposals being floated by politicians suffer severe political defects. A national sales tax would be difficult to enforce (that's probably correct); a broad-based value added tax (VAT) would be highly regressive; the 'flat tax' (wage tax) would be less progressive than the current income tax; and the consumed income tax (consumption tax) would be more complicated than the current income tax (that's probably not correct, and the authors do not explain this assertion well). These are principally political impediments to reform- the authors suggest that it will take an act of political courage by Congress or the president to make any progress on the tax reform front. That's clearly correct, but don't hold your breath.

Thanks for sending this book so quickly. It's in excellent condition, just like new!

Thank you for the textbook, it was in very good condition and i like how soon it was shipped and how soon it got to me, Thanks again!

Overall I'm pleased with the product I received. It was in excellent condition! Unfortunately, the rate of speed in receiving this item was poor. However, I will remain a faithful customer in future purchases, thank you.