Politics Books

I bought this book during Parents Weekend at Bowdoin College. Slovenski is my freshman son's track coach. I was delighted to see traditional, time-tested values presented in an entertaining way. My son and a college friend read through the book over dinner, and it prompted some interesting comments and discussion, such as "Why is Frank Sinatra 'faux' old school?" I'm glad my son will have a college mentor who espouses these values with wit and humor!

Old School America is truely a great book. Being only sixteen years old, I don't know what it was like to live "the old school." But Mr. Slovenski's amazing depiction of "the old school" makes even the most liberal person want to live during that time. He reminds us that traditional values are what will give America strength through the coming years.

Old School America

Peter Slovenski is an outstanding coach and a true gentleman.
His co-authors are typical of the top-notch student/athletes
that Peter works with at Bowdoin College.
Reading "Old School America" brought back so many wonderful memories. It also reminded me of how much I have had to adjust and change as a parent, teacher and coach these past 35
years. The picture and caption on page 78 really hit home. I taught World Geography for 33 years and then it was taken out of our curriculum.
There are so many terrific quotes from our former leaders. It certainly makes those of us from the "Old School " think about what the future might bring.
This book is a refreshing look at where we came from.
Peter, Patrick and Rich have provided a very interesting look
into the past for our future generations to enjoy and reflect upon.

Old School America is great!!! For those of us who are old school (even if we didn't necessarily grow up in that generation), I think that every word rang true. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the Old School examples - some of which I never really thought about but realize I do everyday! It's great to see all these examples compiled in one book that I will go back to time & time again.

In a time where much of our traditional values are being eroded by moral relativism and political correctness, OLD SCHOOL AMERICA is a breath of fresh air. Reading this book made me nostalgic for times past, and fostered an appreciation for the old school. I think all students in this nation, whether in secondary school or higher education should read this book.

Jonathon Dobrer has an irreverent method of cutting to the heart of common and frequent misconceptions and misleading information. His way of playing devil's advocate while imparting knowledge to the reader is unique. He asks questions (most of us would like to ask but are too shy) and provides "dumb" answers--exactly what the average person gets when dealing with companies and their policies. This book is funny and thought provoking at the same time. I couldn't wait to read the next chapter and am looking forward to his next sojourn into the literary forest.

serious; funny; --> seriously funny.
so funny, i couldn't put it down.
seriously.

Jon Dobrer is an eminently sane and insightful writer. His wide-ranging, free-wheeling style reminds me of the funny, yet serious
non-fiction of Anne La Mott. He's an original thinker (so rare
these days) who doesnt shy away from the tough call, and whose
irreverance more than once made me wince in painful delight.

Like M*A*S*H* this book finds humor and laughter even in the tragic. And every laugh serves a serious purpose.

Jonathan Dobrer's newest collection of essays showcases his gift for extremely engaging, often humerous and always thought-provoking writing. Who can resist delving into an essay that seems to be a confession of a crime "I just got back from making a drug run to Mexico."? It's not a confession nor a crime--but I leave it to the next lucky reader to discover the truth! His essays explore and address seemingly insurmountable social concern; separation of church and state, Sept. 11, the situation in the middle east, corporate fraud, immigration, racism, and national security. And whether or not you may agree with his observations, these essays will make you think and rethink your own observations. These are essays born to spark lively group discussion. The essays here also show Jonathan Dobrer's strong ability to write deeply moving essays such as the one on the death of Daniel Pearl, delightful whimsical pieces such as "Murder Most Vowel" and local interest pieces such as "Irony-Free in Anaheim" that address the issue of immigration in an intelligent, straight-forward manner done so well it could apply to any community in the U.S. This book is a delight to read, talk about, and read again. I look forward to Jonathan Dobrer's next collection!

This book summarizes Mr. Polak's work with his company, IDE (International Development Enterprises), which focuses on creating affordable, useful products that can assist small-plot farmers in developing countries to increase their income. Throughout, he presents salient and frankly obvious points about the very poor and their needs that most aid organizations either ignore or just never thought to address. For instance, from his introduction: "The biggest reason most poor people are poor is because they don't have enough money." See? Obvious.

The point is, however, most aid organizations don't address this root problem, choosing instead to go for big, showy projects that cost a lot and sound really ambitious, but just don't do anything to benefit the average very poor family. Polak suggests a twelve point plan to create programs that can really benefit the very poor. These include things like talking to people with the problem you are interested in, and really listening to what they have to say about it; learning everything possible about the problem's specific context; thinking in terms of scalability; developing measurable outcomes; and designing to specific cost and price targets.

The book tells the story of how one family in Bangladesh was able to move from barely surviving on less than $1 a day and not having enough food to make it through the year to relative prosperity and a much more comfortable lifestyle. This was made possible in part by their access to affordable, small-scale irrigation equipment, allowing them to make more effective use of their other resources - their land and their physical labor. Polak points out that when families can earn more money, they almost automatically do things like improve their diets, further their education, seek better healthcare, and generally become more empowered to improve their lives in the ways they see fit, according to their own priorities.

It took some mental acrobatics for me to begin to accept the concept of dollar a day farmers as "consumers" rather than "aid recipients." But as a market this group has a huge, untapped potential. There are something like 800 million small farmers; the combined purchasing power (given the right products and a little access to credit) would be enormous. Overall, I found this book engaging and its message hopeful and practical. It certainly provides food for thought.

Polak presents a very concrete approach to development especially on issue of bringing up poor people who are entrepreneurs in their daily struggle for life. With the irrigation of one acre-farm techniques and the slum people creativities, to the designers who can do simple tools well designed for the 90 percent instead of only the main 10 percent whom they are used to design for, Polak brings a new look and fresh understanding to how development experts and agencies need to start listening to local people.

Paul Polak allows readers the privileged of a front row seat to his methods of successful innovation while addressing issues of poverty. Here is proof that real genius is in searching for the most direct solutions and insisting on effectiveness. Well worth studying in depth. My copy is now well marked for future application. Bravo Mr. Polak! Thank you for sharing your process.

Polak comes from a very practical, farmer-focused perspective that acknowledges the broader poverty debate but puts a premium on what the farmer wants and needs, and focuses on market-based products and solutions that help farmers get out of poverty. The drip irrigation systems, treadle pumps, water storage and other products described in the book are the definition of demand-driven and are offered at prices farmers can afford and in ways that make money for those providing the products. All of the solutions in the book are offered through markets, and always take into account scalability and sustainability (acknowledging the need for some subsidy or other financing mechanism up front to prove the case).

The power of Polak's arguments are in the examples that he weaves throughout the book. (His skepticism of "the experts" comes through in some of the examples in helpful ways as well). After having read a number of the current development thinkers, I would recommend this book above the others for its ability to start with the needs of the poor farmer, highlight solutions, explain why they are sustainable through markets, and issue a challenge to development professionals and product designers around the world for how to make money while also serving the needs of the poor who represent a large and untapped market.

The book made me want to go out and start a business that serves such large unmet needs. I highly recommend the book - a good read and a great, practical, down-to-earth reminder of what matters to people who live on less than $1/day -- affordability and practical use.

An inspiring book that makes one think about the greater good that can come out of poverty eradication & how we can all be a part of it.

Criticism:

1. Author does not cover how he made the transition from being a psychiatrist to creating IDE. This makes it harder to understand how one can participate in this cause, even if one wanted to.

2. While the book is a great food for thought, it seems to be more focused on the destination rather than the journey. At times, it reads more like a journal which may be intentional, but this inconsistency gives the reader, a rather half baked impression.

3. Author's disagreement with major organizations such as the UN feel like a rant at times, as he only criticizes them without putting forth any concrete suggestions for bigger issues such as infrastructure (development of roads, bridges, dam development, power generation, healthcare & educational programs).

[...]

There are many books that have been written on the subject: from Bill Sammon's book "At Any Cost" on the right to Alan Dershowitz' "Supreme Injustice" on the left. Sabato's is a rare thing, a book that tries to be impartial, and succeeds.

It has chapters by legal advisors to both Gore's and Bush's sides in the legal wrangles that followed the election, as well as journalists and academics. If you want to know what happened, as seen by all sides, this is about the only book that will tell you that.

The only negative point I can make is a printing job that is somewhat careless; missing apostrophes abound, and my copy has two of one page and is missing another. But that does not bear on the book's merit itself.

Will only political junkies or long-ago residents of Florida (I plead partly guilty of the first and fully guilty of the second), appreciate this book? I think not, but it does help to have given up excessive idealism ("Politics is so corrupt!") and excessive cynicism ("People are so corrupt!") in favor of an occasional visit to realism.

With the media giving us mainly--and often only--sensation, and seeing law as a struggle by imperfect human beings to create some justice in the world, I liked best the stories told by the attorneys for both sides.

Not long before the chads stopped swinging in the last presidential election, pundits and pollsters were sharpening their wits and dusting off their finger pointing apparatus. Their goal was to isolate the who, what, where, why, and how of the controverial election results in Florida. That election brought everybody who was anybody, including the Supreme Court, to the edge of their seats for days. The indefatigable Sultan of Soundbites, UVA Professor Larry J. Sabato, had seen enough and done enough in politics to realize this was history, and deserved to be given a thorough investigation. So he collected a group of insiders and commentators to take their best shot at turning over stones and writing about what crawled out. The result was Overtime! The Election 2000 Thriller. No casual or serious student of US history should be without a copy. Congratulations to Dr. Sabato and Joshua Scott, his coauthor and editorial assistant from the UVA Center for Governmental Studies on a job exceptionally well done. Buy this book for yourself, and at the reasonable price, grab a couple copies for friends as well. It's guaranteed to reveal facts that even the media savvy US public has not to this point realized. Alyson L. Taylor-White, Editor, Virginia Review

Overtime is a great look back it this election. For me, it was interesting to go back and put the whole campaign/election in perspective from start to finish. It's also nice to read a book like this that seems to be written from a non-partisan viewpoint. Sabato presents both sides of all the issues and is equally critical of both campaigns. In about 12 years when my son is taking his high school civics class and needs a topic for a book report or paper - I will dust off this book and hand it to him. On a side note, I recently saw Mr. Sabato speak at a conference I attended. If you ever get the chance, go see him! He is very informative and quite humorous.

Ever since Theodore White died, I've been searching for a political author who can communicate the excitement of a campaign while grounding his or her work in facts. I've found him: Larry Sabato. I've read several of his books such as Feeding Frenzy, and I've been impressed. But OVERTIME is his best yet. He's put together an all-star team to tell the truth about the incredible election of 2000. Unlike a lot of the other books on 2000, he leaves out the spin and bias, and he focuses on reality. Who needs spin when you have the most dramatic election in modern American history? OVERTIME helped me to really understand the most historic election of my lifetime. It's the best book out there on 2000---BY FAR.

As a self-professed muckraker, Anderson provides some new and even amusing insights into a clumsy government which, to the public's good fortune, is often its own worst enemy. He is particularly effective in providing the contrasting sides of J. Edgar Hoover, a tyrant on the one hand but a protector of the system (for varying reasons of his own) as well. Frankly, I learned as much about Drew Pearson as I did Jack Anderson, which I enjoyed as well. Overall, excellent reading.

An absolutely phenomenal read. Jack Anderson was a HUGE asset to the American public, and yet the vast majority of us never even knew it. We also had no clue of what was going on behind the closed doors of the White House, CIA, FBI, Senate, House, IRS, Pentagon...and on and on and on. Jack Anderson shaped national policy with his "Washington Merri-Go-Round" column. He rubbed shoulders with the likes of JFK, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, LBJ, President Bush, etc. An unbelievable book which leaves you staring at your ceiling at night wondering what else is going on in Washington, D.C. and other places in the US & World that our government and leaders are involved in....most of which we are completely clueless to. If you have ever voted, you must read this book. THE best book I have read in years. Hands down!! This book has juicy secrets, how he got them, how he uncovered them, and all the messy details about how the truth would usually prevail. Jack Anderson is a National Hero. Without question.

Page 350 refers to ""the kidnapping of CIA Beirut Station Chief William Buckley by the pro-Iranian extremist group Islamic Jihad"" later tortured to death (P351) and then executed (P352) ""in retaliation for an Israeli air raid on the headquarters of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in Tunis.....

During that period, which followed the aftermath of the occupation of Beirut - the only Arab Capital ever to be entered by the Israeli Army - nothing could really dull the grief and anguish that swept the `ruined' city and the predominant feeling in Beirut had been one that while the niceties of diplomacy could no longer be observed, many people would now have to face their moment of destiny, come as it may.
For those who have lost scores of their love ones during the raging battles three years back, the capture of `CIA Station Chief' was a signal for wild rejoicing, because during Israel incursion into Beirut (in specific) the city was actually gripped by `spy mania.'
The lack of enthusiasm of Beiruti masked in effect a vague feeling that, though pro-Iranian groups were now riding on the crest of a wave, retribution would follow if Buckley was harmed.
Unlike the Israelis, whose war machine so far consisted entirely of more action and less vainglorious boast, the American Administration remained lethargic and apathetic to this event.

Columnist Jack Anderson never suffered self-esteem or objectivity problems. Yet in his autobiographical Peace, War and Politics, Anderson displays humility and a degree of introspection that is shocking to anyone familiar with his often self-aggrandizing muck.

Anderson often pumped out scandalous drivel in which he conspicuously cast himself as the central figure. It could be speculated that if Anderson had not been such a successful publicity hound, he would have become a serial killer obsessed with newspaper clippings and broadcast reports of his crimes. Yet a decent and moral man emerges in this account of a colorful life.

Although several of Anderson's more convoluted conspiracy theories are rehashed (the JFK assassination chapter is incomprehensible), the book is mostly solid and an enjoyable read. Early chapters devoted to Anderson's boyhood in Depression-era Utah and his World War II adventures in China are excellent.

Anderson's running battle with the Nixon Administration, and his seething rage at what he saw as Jimmy Carter's hypocrisy and total incompetence, reveal a righteous indignation that is simultaneously tedious and fascinating. While he rightly condemns the excesses of J. Edgar Hoover, and even digs through garbage bins for dirt on the late FBI director, Anderson also is objective enough to admit the G-man never politicized his agency.

Anderson makes some very insightful observations. For example, he shares his fear that former Soviet scientists might one day assist rogue Islamic states. Written well before 2001, this and much more speculation about the aftermath of the Cold War proves well-founded.

The most surprising aspect of Peace, War and Politics is Anderson's self-deprecating humor. When potential sources offer juicy details for cash, Anderson humorously remembers he didn't have the funds to pay for them, and ethics were a secondary consideration. In addition to himself, Anderson reports on the foibles and strengths of his poorly paid interns and associates. Many like Brit Hume went on to become prominent reporters and broadcasters. The degree to which Anderson acknowledges these young, underpaid muckrakers is as admirable as it is surprising. Anderson also turns the spotlight onto a hypocritical national media that shunned him yet often followed his lead.

The highlight of the book is a very brief chapter about the return of General Anthony McAuliffe, whom Anderson describes as the most decent person he ever met, to a hero's welcome in Bastogne. Gen. McAuliffe is remembered for his reply "nuts" to a Nazi demand that he surrender his 101st Airborne troops and the Belgian town they defended during the Battle of the Bulge. McAuliffe tells Anderson that he "never cared " for General George Patton after Patton surveyed the frozen enemy bodies at Bastogne and commented "these are the types of Germans I like to see." McAuliffe, who commanded the troops who killed the soldiers, said the dead were mostly boys like the Americans who fought against them.

Given such humanistic insight into people, it is apparent Anderson never wet the bed into his late 20's, engaged in pyromania, tortured small animals in his youth, or fantasized about serial murder. No, if he hadn't become a muckraker, Jack Anderson very well could have been a Mormon church official albeit a very opinionated and self-absorbed one.

A very informative and influential book. I now know things about the goverment that I never knew before. My views on the goverment and on politics have now changed after reading this masterpiece of a novel. Everyone should read this superb book. I have read alot of books and this is one of my personal favorite books.

I ordered and read this book without total confidence, since it was written in 1999, and--as we will probably never stop hearing--things have changed considerably since 2001 (not for the better in the prison-industrial complex or in the sphere of social services).

But even 7 years after its publication, it holds up VERY well. And--sadly--the argument is not LESS cogent or the concerns less pressing.

Journalist Joel Dyer creates an informative, critical, and iconoclastic survey of the United States' criminal justice system in The Perpetual Prisoner Machine: How America Profits From Crime. Dyer persuasively argues that contemporary criminal "justice" is disastrously impacted by violent media content, a push for privatization; an increasing dependence of politicians upon public opinion polling and campaign finance. This has all resulted in an explosion in the American prison population. The rapidly increasing numbers of prisoners, parolees and probationers is not the result of increasing crime rates, but because sectors of the American economy and political power structure find mass incarcerations to be profitable. The Perpetual Prisoner Machine is very strongly recommended reading for students of the American criminal justice system, prisoner reform movement supporters, sociologists, cultural anthropologists, and political science students.

Dyer's well-researched expose reveals the inner workings of the nation's prison-industrial complex, the funding of which depends on the maintenance of a respectable, beneficent public image. He explains that real-world crime statistics do not support the war on crime's claimed need for massive increases in prison construction so, to justify the diversion of public funds into prison and jail expansion, politicians are relying on public opinion polls which reflect the pervasive societal effects of media-generated crime anxiety. Law makers, primarily right-wing, have responded to the public's media-hyped fears with reassurances in the form of hard-on-crime adjustments to the sentencing structure and consequent increases in law enforcement and prison spending, all financed by the angst-ridden taxpayers. Voters have been refusing to approve traditional general-obligation bond issues for increasing prison construction, so politicians are shrewdly using Wall Street intermediaries to divert tax revenues from public education and crime-preventive social programs into prison and jail construction by means of lease-revenue or lease-payment bonds, which are tax-exempt, high-interest debt-investment instruments issued without voter approval. These lucrative prison bonds reward the investor class with sizable profits from imprisonment, provide public-debt financing for construction of corporate-owned prisons, and they require taxpayers to repay more money than general-obligation bonds, which require voter approval. As major political campaign contributors, well-funded, right-wing special-interest groups such as police and prison-guard unions, and the NRA, back politicians who agree to promote hard-on-crime sentencing policies such as "three strikes," "mandatory sentencing" and "truth in sentencing," which substantially increase the prison population and sustain the widely held perception of increasing need for prison and police funding. As a result, the number of prisons and police have grown rapidly, and police and prison guard pay has increased substantially. In California, for example, a prison guard is paid more than a tenured college professor in the state's university system which, like those in other states, has been decimated by the diversion of public funds into the prison-industrial complex. By 1994, prison spending had begun to exceed education spending for the first time in America's history. I think Dyer presents a well-articulated argument, backed with well-researched facts and figures, supporting the assertion that the prison-industrial complex is a self-serving, socially and economically destructive part of an officially sanctioned assault on the poor and people of color.

Joel Dyer has done an excellent job of nailing how Congress has abused the issue of crime in America and why we allow it. He's also provided an excellent argument for abandoning the private prison industrial complex and ceasing the attack on urban America and the mentally ill. As someone who works in business and in finance, it bugged my eyeballs when I realized what government is doing, allowing prisoners for profit. I've worked 32 years in a profit driven capacity and doing this with human beings, given what I know about shareholder driven environments, is unconscionable in my mind. To intentionally profit from another's pain and misfortune is heinous. America has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the worlds prisoners. We have over 1,000 prisons and 7 million people under penal control (2004). Over half of them non-violent offenders whose crime involves consenting adults (ie: life in prison for introducing a buyer to a seller of home grown pot in Indiana) or petty thievery (ie: stealing vitamins in California).

This is one of the most important books in many years that tells the truth about our prison system. We have over 2,000,000 citizens in prison in the land of the free. Most of these citizens are non-violent and about 15% are mentally ill in need medical care. With the tax dollars that we pay we treat some non-violent prisoners in ways that are just horrible. It is done by politicians who want to get reelected and understand a terrible fact that the uninformed citizens vote for politicians who advocate building more prisons and filling them to overcrowded capacity with more prisoners. Only a small percentage of the citizenship understand the terrible cost to our society with this practice. It is a cost in billions of dollars and much more. It is also a cost in respect, common sense, decency and the goodness of the American people.

On top of this, studies indicate that about 10 -15% of prisoners are completely innocent and had absolutely nothing to do with the crime that they were put in prison for. This is because juries do not understand and respect the bedrock of the system which is "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." The large amount of reasonable doubt that is ignored by juries is shocking to the conscious of any good person.

If there is any cause in this whole wide world where the obvious, glaring injustice of it all has been summarily ignored and dismissed by most of the world's leading intellectuals, it is the cause of the Palestinian freedom movement.

Said's (pronounced Sayid)--a Palestinian Arab of Christian descent--was that rare voice which informed the world of the Zionist duplicity, in a way that laid bare the untold sufferings of over 4 million of its inhabitants in the most lucid manner possible. For over three decades, Said's was a lone cry in the New Yorkian wilderness, which drew attention to the State of Israel's Ocean liner of lies ever since (and even before) it came into existence.

Said's pain and melancholy comes through, etched in every page of this book and makes for frightful reading. Given the supposed openness of the media in democratic nation-states, it's shocking how through over 5 decades, the combined might of Zionism's religious fanaticism, the traditional incompetence of ruling monarchies in the Arab world, the West's moral ambivalence to call the Israeli spade a bloody shovel and the Zionist lobby in Washington have been able to keep an entire nation of millions in a sort of permanent exile.

This book neatly divided in 3 parts critiques everything that is wrong and tragic about the Palestinian movement with merciless felicity and attention to detail that a proper understanding of this cause deserves. Of course, he is severe (and justifiably so) on Israel, but it is his attacks on the rest of the Arab world and the dishonest intellectuals of the western world that makes for fascinating reading. Truly, an intellectual like Said, rarely ever loses his relevance or goes out of fashion. This book is a priceless gem, to be read and re-read by anyone who wants to move beyond standard middle-east explanations, terrorism clichés and the rhetoric of "with us or against us".

If all could read this book, it might help meople to understand what is happening to the people of Palestine.

Thank God for Said. He explains so eloquently the Palestinian cause in a way we never hear from the maintream media. This collection of essays, though 400 pages, hangs together very well.

It is remarkable how relevant these essays seem still, even as they lead up to the era of the Oslo process, in the frozen present since 1967, or 1948. Sorting out the myths of the Arab-Israeli conflict can be a full-time job, and that's the problem. Said's witnessing of the issues since 1967 has always been one component of the unfolding tragedy. The Arab-Israeli conflict sometimes seems in a time warp, and the relevance of these essays endures, whatever one's perspective. Said's acerbic commentary seems to hover over the decades, and his personal account, to start the book, is a permanent record of those who endured the juggernaut.

Despite 40years of Israeli occupation, hundreds of illegal Israeli settlements, endless unproductive "peace process"-es, the Palestinians are no closer to genuine self-determination and nationhood. The Israel Lobby continues to wag the American dog. America's blind support of Israel and the billions of US taxpayer dollars continue to prop up the Israeli apartheid regime and make peace impossible.

It was hard for me to read these essays without getting angry: at the self-serving lies of Israeli apologists, at the cynicism of every US administration, at the sheer stupidity and venality of Palestinian leadership (so-called!).

Israel will never make peace with the Palestinians through negotiations as long as the US continues to subsidize Israel. Where is the incentive?

I fault Said for timidity in not elaborating on HOW Palestinians should prosecute their struggle. It is long past time that Palestinians accept that depending on their "Arab brothers" is going to get them nothing and nowhere. None of the essays helped me to understand how Said proposes to get Israel to allow Palestinian self-determination and statehood.

I also fault Said for his failure to mobilize any organized opposition the Israel Lobby in the US. Said may be much-celebrated in a certain small left-leaning ghetto of the intelligentsia, but he is a marginal figure in national politics and the debate (very little allowed) on Israel. The Lobby is powerful, yes. But the Israel Lobby does nothing illegal: it peddles influence and money and thereby influences politics in its favor, and nothing prevents a Palestinian Lobby from adopting similar tactics and emulating the Israel Lobby. The surest, perhaps the only, way to Palestinian self-determination is to change US policy towards Israel.

Dr. Leary maintains a high ground in his defense of the value of the psychedelic. This is the early work and a must have.

Wow! What a book! Leary is a real psychedelic guru, not in the orthodox sense, but really a man ahead of his time, a Galileo in the charter exploration of the mind and consciousness. He started off as a conservative Harvard professor, yet not so conservative, as he had his own ideas. But after his religious experience, and that's what psychedelics do - the expanding of your consciousness to a religious experience - he became aware of the societal and cultural chessboards - the games - and here became outspoken apart from the Harvard rationalistic mindset which rests on only one static frame of a multi-dimensional, dynamic existence.

I read this book smiling, over and over again. I walked down the street with a smile, mostly for Leary's optimism, then his frank and bold statements, which in most part I agree with. His style sometimes just makes you laugh and smile and say to yourself "I wish I had the guts enough say this." And although his predictions did not come true, you can't help but subjectively comprehend the 60's atmosphere, enveloped with the baby boomers in their youth taking up the majority of the population and their experiential drug use in psychedelics, which in turn, brought forth all the femininity of creativeness, patience, tolerance, peacefulness and artistic development that was permeating the entire American culture and spreading around the world and thus brought on the male dominated aggression of control and police power. So Leary's optimism and predictions were really a good assessment of the time despite their failure to come true. And nothing makes me sadder than to see his predictions fail from the creative mind expanding youth to our current male power, controlling and agressive society.

You can write Leary off as a kook from the conservative's point of view, the rationalist who never "experienced," and that's the KEY here - never experienced a trip under favorable circumstances and environment. Leary is the same as other heretics and kooks of history, a Galileo of mind exploration and conscious expansion, a Guttenberg of exoteric enlightenment, as in this book as well as one who clearly recognizes the need for new symbols that relate the esoteric experience of LSD, of cellular memories, of DNA language outside the mind, of experiential journeys that can only be told under a new language, as the microscope discovered new world had brought forth, as quantum physics brought forth and every other new fields of exploration that can only be described outside the current symbols we currently use.

Leary on page 141: The lesson I have learned from over 300 sessions, and which I have been passing on to others, can be stated in 6 syllables: Turn on, tune in, drop out. "Turn on" means to contact the ancient energies and wisdoms that are built into your nervous system. They provide unspeakable pleasure and revelation. "Tune in" means to harness and communicate these new perspectives in a harmonious dance with the external world. "Drop out' means to detach yourself from the tribal game. Current models of social adjustment - mechanized, computerized, socialized, intellectualized, televised, Sanforized - make no sense to the new LSD generation, who see clearly that American society is becoming an air-conditioned anthill. In every generation of human history, thoughtful men have turned on and dropped out of the tribal game and thus stimulated the larger society to lurch ahead. Every historical advance has resulted from the stern pressure of visionary men who have declared their independence from the game.

On page 196: My philosophy of life has been tremendously influenced by my study of oriental philosophy and religion. Of course, what the American, regardless of his religious belief, doesn't understand is that the aim of oriental religious is to get high, to have an ecstasy, to tune in, to turn on, to contact incredible diversity, beauty, living, pulsating meaning of the sense organs, and the much more complicated and pleasurable and revelatory messages of cellular energy. To a Hindu, the spiritual quest is internal.

Different sects of oriental religion use different methods and different body organs to find God. The Shivites use the senses; the followers of Vishnu are concerned with cellular wisdom, contacting the endless flow of reincarnation wisdom which biochemists would call protein wisdom of the DNA code; Buddhist manuals on consciousness expansion are concerned with the flash, the white light of the void, the ecstatic union that comes when you're completely turned on, beyond the senses, beyond the body.

On page 202-203: What we're doing for the mind is what the microbiologists did for the external science 300 years ago when they discovered the microscope. And they made this incredible discovery that life, health, growth, every form of organic life, is based on the cell, which is invisible.

You've never seen a cell; what do you think of that? Yet it's the key to everything that happens to a living creature. I'm simply saying that same thing from the mental, psychological standpoint, that there are wisdoms, lawful units inside the nervous system, invisible to the symbolic mind, which determine almost everything.

And I don't consider myself that mystical - unless you'd call someone who looks through a microscope a mystic, because he's telling you about something for which you don't have the symbols. Or the astronomer who detects a quasar and speculates about it.

On page 208: Every time you take LSD you completely suspend - you step outside of - the symbolic chessboard which you have built up over the long years of social conditioning. And you whirl through different levels of neurological and cellular energy, continually flowing and changing.

Your symbolic mind is flashing in and out. You never love your mind during and LSD session. It's always there, but it's one of a thousand cameras that are flashing away. Of course, the LSD freak-out, or paranoia, is where the symbolic mind freezes any aspect of the LSD session and defines a new reality, which can be positive or negative.

Read this book.

This is the single most influential book I have ever read. Completely legitmizes and encourages religious experiences through psychedelic means. Anyone currently using psychedelic drugs or interested in them should read this to gain greater understanding of their power. Learn why LSD and other are really illegal, the government knows they free minds!

...if you wish to stay the same because believe me, once you read it, you never will be. I got this book when I was about 26-27 years old when I felt as though I was just passing through life and not really living it. I felt like everything was "ho-hum". All of my senses were set to dull. Inside of me there was just this gnawing ache that there has got to be something more...not just "out there"...but "in here"...in my heart, in my soul, in my mind...

And then along comes Timothy.

Irreverent, Rebellious,Smart-Ass Timothy Leary espousing the Truth that all advancement in life is already in our very DNA. It dwells deep within the very marrow of our bones because we, as a species, were not meant to stand still...we were not meant to live lives of quiet desperation...we were meant to behold a world that burns and sparkles with Light.

People tend to think one is hallucinating when one sees vibrant colors, when everyday things seem to shine with a new brilliance, when even the song from a songbird feels like a musical triumph, but this is how life really is, boys and girls! We are hallucinating when we think that the world is dull and thick and leaden...we are hallucinating when we think that we are just these heavy clods of biodegradble clay that stalk the earth. We are here to discover...or should I say, uncover the paradise that is already within the invisible realms of the ancient mind that dwells within us and we in it.

Does this mean you have to take LSD in order to experience the jewelike radiance that all of life is made in and out of? Not neccessarily and I am not advocating that you do. What I am advocating is that you allow yourself to get enthused about life. Enthusiasm literally means to be filled with God. God wants to know Itself as you...as me...in each and every moment of creation.

Read Timothy Leary. Marvel at his excitement for life, join him in the mind & soul rebellion against flaccid governments and soul controlling religions and their warped politics and dissapointing creeds both of which are more than happy to think and decide for you, laugh in joyful relief that you are not a body with a soul, but you are a soul with a body,and be willing to stray from the pack of lemmings that's headed for the edge of the cliff only to drown in the shallow seas of mediocrity.

Open your eyes.
Open your mind.
Open your soul.
Open your heart.
Open this book and let the tingling in each of your 40 trillion cells remind you are here to do more than exist, you are here to LIVE and to LIVE WELL.

Peace & Blessings to this this place we call the world.

This work is a hallmark for questioning authority, pursuing individual freedom and happiness, and working to build a more enjoyable and enriched world. Lovers of liberty would be well-advised to study this work thoroughly, and then pass it along to the nearest religious extremist. It will surely get a reaction.

This book presents a great selection of Popper's writings, a real a crash course on the thinking of one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century. The book also presents his work regarding social and political philosophy. As almost any text dealing with philosophy, a calm and slow reading is absolutely required to fully grasp Popper's ideas, especially if you are a layman like me. I mean, this is not the kind of page-turner you can read entirely during a flight. This collection allows you to learn about Popper's legacy without the burden of reading his whole work, which I guess is almost reserved for scholars and students of philosophy.

I particularly enjoyed his ideas regarding the philosophy of science and scientific progress, specifically his critical rationalism and the concept of falsifiability (meaning that a hypothesis must be falsifiable and that a proposition or theory cannot be called scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown false). I highly recommend this book for those with a serious interest in the evolution of science and the scientific method. A worthy follow up to Sir Karl's views on science would be Thomas S. Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" (1962). Tough many ideas between these two philosophers of science are similar, Kuhn, in his book "The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change" (1977), presents an interesting discussion in Chapter 11 (Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research) about the disagreements between his views and Popper's regarding scientific development.

By the way, Popper's ideas come very handy and this book is a must-read for those with a genuine interest in the trustworthiness of science behind the current "Consensus Theory" explaining the causes of Global Warming. You can bet that in a few years the way most climate scientists are handling simulation modeling, making predictions with an immature science, with selective interpretation of weather data will become a textbook case of politicized science, together with complete disregard for the most basic principles of the scientific method, including the fact that no criticism is allowed. As Popper said:

"If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted". The Poverty of Historicism (1957).

This book came to me quickly and efficiently. Its contents were in terrific condition and I feel that Amazon.com did a great job at satisfying my expectations.

Brilliant, clearly written, and wonderfully brief essays that span the life works of Karl Popper, organized into four parts: Theory of Knowledge, Philosophy of Science, Metaphysics, and Social Philosophy.

Perhaps best known for his 'Open Society and Its Enemies' (written during WWII while in New Zealand), Popper is clearly an advocate of open and free debate in all academic disciplines. Against solving irrelevant 'puzzles of language' - a habit of philosophers and Ludwig Wittgenstein in particular (Read book on this: 'Wittgenstein's Poker') - Popper is most concerned with solving real world 'problems' that impact human life. 'Our ignorance is sobering and boundless' he suggests but, together, through open-ness we can move toward finding ever-adjusting solutions for a better world.

Like other survivors of WWII (e.g. Isaiah Berlin), Popper is especially concerned with those who advocate 100% solutions to society's woes. One of our clearest advocates of the lessons of the Ancient Greeks, Popper tells us: The 'tradition of critical discussion' was the secret of the ancients. This tradition leads us to the realization that our attempts to find 'truth' are never final; and that criticism and critical discussion are our only means of getting nearer to the truth.

For those interested in: 1) Clear-headed discussions on science and philosophy, and 2) Hearing from a strong advocate of freedom and the 'western tradition' read this book. And bring a pencil.

Popper's favorite philosophers are the pre-Socratics. He celebrates them for their willingness to entertain/invite/encourage alternative points of view. The pre-Socratics sought to explain the universe ( a goal modern philososphy/science has lost sight of) but no one theory was viewed as absolute, rather each theory was viewed as a proposition that could then be honed/improved/altered by further argument/inquiry. This spirit of inquiry begins to vanish around the time of Plato and Aristotle for their teachings begin to be passed down not as theories that can be improved upon (modified or dismissed) but as knowledge. For Popper reverence for "great men" and "great ideas" only stands in the way of pluralism and progress.

Poppers method is to identify the mistakes made by the "great men" and therefore clear the way for further inquiry. Of all the western philosphers Plato receives the most attention. Popper finds much to admire in Plato but also much that needs amending. In an essay on "subjective" and "objective" knowledge Popper evolves his idea of a third "world" of knowledge. This autonomous third world of knowledge is reminiscent of Plato's theory of ideal forms with one essential difference. For Popper all knowledge is man made and so his third world of knowledge contains not ideals(in Popper's world ideals do not exist) but "problem situations" -- the state of a discussion or the state of a critical argument at the present time and these "states" make up the "objective contents of thought".

In the world according to Popper thought ( in the philosophic and scientific realms) evolves because a variety of thinkers make a variety of creative propositions that are then examined and found to be true or false. Popper calls this method "critical rationalism".

In each of these essays Popper addresses a key philosophic issue and discusses it with his signature grace, eloquence and humor. His contribution to social theory seems especially significant and on this topic he is especially eloquent. Being no great believer in the great man theory of history and knowing full well that all of mans ideas as well as social theories are riddled with mistakes Popper thinks the best way to advance socially is in a piecemeal fashion. This limits the harm any one man or theory or institution can do. For Popper society like philosophy and knowledge is the result of an ever renewed inquiry.

This is clearsighted and jargon free writing and these are model essays!

Warning: I am highly biased, as Karl Popper is one of my most influential "mentors." As time passes, his wisdom increases, and his value as an original thinker becomes more, not less, vivid -- even if many of his "controversial" ideas in the Thirties are now considered normative.

Popper's collected essays, derived from class lectures, offers a broad introduction to the work of this seminal philosophy. These essays cover scientism, the scientific method, the scientific attitude, nominalism, historicism, democracy, falsification principle, evolutionary thought and applications, rationality, epistemology, and more.

While heralded as the scientists' philosopher of science, Popper's thought is not so provincial. His brevity and clarity of analysis are brought to bear on many subjects, practical and theoretical. His perspicacity and directness leave no room for ambiguity. The one philosophical topic not addressed in this representative volume is ethics.

Popper's central theme, of course, is science and how the scientific attitude and method fundamentally change our modern perceptions. While no longer controversial, indeed his thought has become commonsense, he, alone of the Vienna Circle, survived intact decades later. Because of the clarity, incisiveness, and rectitude of his claims, I purposefully return to him every five or so years to get "grounded" again.

One doesn't experience "eurkea" with Popper, one simply becomes reacquainted with basic knowledge and a few first principles. Perhaps a few "tweaks" occur, but Popper is more of an anchor than a revolutionary. Even his "defense" of science comes with numerous caveats. Given the topsy-turvy intellegensia stirring up the pot with new "-isms," it's useful to have a "home" to come back to. Because his commonsense prevails, his controversial stances several decades ago, while not quite platitudes now, are "defaults" that have withstood the strongest assaults. I cannot think of another major thinker who has withstood time and challenges better.

A couple of examples of Popper's gems: Democracy is not the best form of government; rather, it is the best form for excising bad government (this novel insight, a Popper first, is repeated by many subsequent political theorists, e.g., Ian Shapiro, Michael Walzer, John Rawls, etc.). An "open society" is more important, but this preeminent value requires the "background" of democracy. Central planning by governments should be confined to the margins, tinkering with changes that can be reversed before bad policy and unintended consequences become ensconced. If useful, then begin the reach. His skepticism does not permit purchase of any ideology. All historicisms are fortune-telling religious dogma, erroneously believing the past predicts the future, or that "inevitability" resides with the forces of History. Humans exist in an "open" environment, while science's predictability requires a "closed" environment; ergo, all "human sciences" are at best informed or educated guesses. Their ability to predict is next to nil.

Again, these Popperean gems may no longer be earth-shaking insights, but they once were, and the repitition of these claims is welcome against the ever-advancing onslaught of new "-isms." Popper's innately skeptical stances are a constant reminder that our fantasies can become our nightmares. This is most evident with science, where Popper insists that all knowledge, even scientific knowledge, is "tentative" at best. It's not just its verification, but ultimately its falsification, that requires this tentative stance. And, just because "science can," does not mean "science should:" Technology must "be harnassed."

An encounter with Popper leaves one speechless. Contentious by nature, I try to find loopholes in his claims; Popper does not leave many, if any. I'm still puzzled by his appeal to nominalism, but I cannot fault his logic. His thought experiment with tripartite worlds (not "universes") of the empirical, the conscious, and their overlap, is one of the best examples of Occam's Razor. But above all, Popper is as accessible as he is grounded. His clarity, brevity, and incisiveness are not common to philosophers, and thus, all the more welcome. He may not change your life, but he will provide a needed grounding for further venture!