Public Policy Books

The Antitrust Casebook: Milestones in Economic Regulation is a wonderful attempt to use actual case law to illustrate the history, past precedents, and current standards of American antitrust law. The cases are excerpted so they only include the particularly relevent portions of a court opinion. Combined with a decent instructor, this book can easily be used to construct a college level class that would be comparable to most law school's antitrust courses. Very beautifully done.

Surprisingly, antitrust has largely escaped careful scrutiny even by Chicago-oriented economists who are known for rejecting romantic fantasies about the role of regulatory agencies. Only the past 15 or so years have witnessed a sprinkling of serious Public-Choice-type research into the actual history and operation of antitrust regulation. Bill Shughart is one of leaders of this work. And this book is one of the very first (perhaps THE first) book-length investigation of antitrust from a Public Choice perspective.

What Shughart reports is both compelling and distressing. It's compelling because he has empirical evidence as well as sound theory on his side. It's distressing because this evidence and theory together point to the fact that antitrust in America is not a means of keeping market competitive but, rather, a means of taking wealth from those who are less politically influential (generally, consumers) and giving it to those who are politically effective. In short, antitrust is used principally to monopolize markets.

If you believe that antitrust is a noble, pro-consumer, pro-competition policy, Shughart will persuade you to think otherwise. Especially when read in along with the collection of essays that he edited, with Fred McChesney, in 1995 (The Causes and Consequences of Antitrust), this book reveals the true purpose of antitrust. It ain't a happy revelation -- but it is a vital one.

this book doesn't beat around any topiary material culture, if you know what i mean. its necessary for every undergrad/ grad anthro student who still hasn't quite decided what to do with themselves post-collegiately... its packed with examples and studies. there's so much information that it comes across as boring. however, sometimes reality is boring. deal with it and get a job far away from school with your anthropology degree!

This book presents microeconomic concepts in such a clear, unpretentious manner that you'll find yourself wondering why economics seemed so difficult during your undergraduate studies!

A very easy-to-read, enjoyable textbook. Highly recommended!

One of the good things about this book is that it contains many useful charts and diagrams. For example, the procedure of making guttman scales is explained in an easily understandable manner with example charts. Suggestions for further readings also contain many useful and recent materials. As a practical guide for social research, I recommend this book, because it is reader-friendly and does not require a lot of reading; everything needed is found at a glance.

This book is now available in high quality reproduction from the Books on Demand program of University Microfilms International, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is available in paperback, and for an additional six dollars in hardcover. Please order from (wwwlib.umi.com/bod) and search by author's name.
My other book titled: Sidi Bou Sa'id, Tunisia: A Study in Structure and Form, is also available from the same location.

This isn't a technical book, but it's not lazy Sunday reading either. It is a well laid out book though. There are 6 proposed "architectures" (post-Kyoto frameworks) presented-- along with 1 or 2 competing reviews are each proposal. Due to this organization, you get a total 360 view of the policy issues and trade-offs involved. Perhaps, due to the academic tone, it might be a little off-balanced away from business realities. However, this is not, in any way, a biased environmental ranting book.

In this book Paolo Soleri exposed the ideas he have in the design of Arcosanti. I find the book really interesting although I don't agree 100% with his ideas, Soleri exposed his ideas in an orderly matter. This makes the book really easy to read. With each idea there is also a short paragraph outlining how this could be implemented or applied in Arcosanti. I enjoyed very much the book and also got a chance to understand better Arcosanti. Moreover the books seem more interesting to read because Soleri is not only writing his ideas but he is also building Arcosanti in Arizona. I recommend this book to architects and urban planners that are interested in new ideas and solutions to solve the urban mess that we are currently living.

John Kelsay has provided the best introduction I've found to the self-understanding and the social constructions of Islam and the way its consequent mindset has been used by both historical and contemporary extremists to justify jihad against its perceived enemies. He lays out with crystalline clarity the historical events and and resultant thought processes that have brought Islam to its place in today's world.

Professor Kelsay does not write entirely without bias but he keeps it well under control. One senses from time to time that he is trying quite hard to "stick to the facts" when there is much more that he could say were he willing to indulge his personal opinions.

The well-informed reader may not agree with all of Kelsay's conclusions about just war mentality in the contemporary Muslim world but one has to be impressed with the depth of his scholarship and the lucidity of his writing. Very highly recommended.

The relationship of art to politics has always been an uneasy one, and never more so than in the twentieth century. Governments seek to bend art to their own purposes; artists resist and subvert such efforts. But what happens when artists work on behalf of a political program or idea? Is their art corrupted? Exactly when is art propaganda?

As Toby Clark argues, propaganda appears in many guises, not all of them suspect. Nor is the desire to persuade always at odds with the desire to create works of beauty. What is the relatonship of propaganda to the avant-garde? How do artists use scale and style to create political effects? How do art styles become identified with political systems? Is art tainted or elevated by its political content?

In this wide ranging book, Clark examines work from all points of the globe, from the state propaganda of communism to the public art of democracies, from protest art of the 1960s to the efforts of artists in the nations of modern Africa. Beginning with the classic propaganda art of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Stalin's Soviet Union - each with its own style, motives, and purposes - he then examines how democratic governments have also sponsored propaganda art, especially in wartime, exploring such problamatic issues as the representation of enemies and the commemoration of the dead.

Art created in opposition to ruling ideas and values may also fall under the rubric of propaganda. Since the beginning of the century radical artists have embraced revolutionary, pacifist, feminist, and anticolonial causes. Clark describes the spectrum of competing theories and goals of protest art from Africa to Latin America, from Europe to the United States to China, and uncovers the complex rhetoric, the high beauty, and the ambiguous role of art that dwells in the political realm.
--- from book's back cover