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Walter Boyne has given us a superb initial look at Operation Iraqi Freedom. Using his deep understanding of war in general and airpower in particular, he has taken what has so far appeared in the open press and has packaged it into a clear and concise narrative of this short but intense conflict.
Perhaps more importantly, he has detailed for us how the improvements that we made in our military forces post Desert Storm have given us the ability to dominate any military force. Precision guidance, information dominance, C4ISR, the close integration of SOF and conventional forces, the linking of ground forces to "on call" fighters, bombers, and massive AC-130 gunships are all highlighted by Boyne as he weaves their development and use into a larger narrative of the daily events of the conflict. It is a powerful story. And he looks at failure too, delving into incidents of fratricide and losses due to the terrible sand storms.
Many details are, of course, missing. Only time can correct that. But Walter Boyne has produced a useful work which helps to understand how we fought the second Gulf War. It is a bench mark for subsequent books.

"Operation Iraqi Freedom: What Went Right, What Went Wrong, and Why" is really two books in one. First, as the title implies, it is a treatise on a specific conflict - an in-depth presentation of how it all worked and an insightful analysis of how well it worked. Second, by way of extensive appendices that take up more than a third of the entire volume, it is a very comprehensive compendium of what it took to conduct that war in terms of materiel, weapons, logistics, people, methodologies, etc.

If it were not so readable, this would make a great textbook. As it is, it should be required reading for anyone interested in studying wars and what makes them tick, especially one that was waged so recently and so much in the public eye. As one could imagine, the great majority of what we read in the print media and saw on the TV screen was, because of the nature of the beast, the parts of the conflict that included the action, the damage and the more sensational aspects of what was going on.
A concern often raised about a book produced shortly after an event is how credible it can be as an analysis considering the recency of what occurred. There usually is a suspicion that it is a quick-reaction book dashed off in hopes of a fast buck by an author "writing off the top of his head." That concern was put to rest in this case by a thorough reading of what many readers overlook in their rush to get to the main text - the front matter of the book. Here I found the a wealth of information that established the book's bona fide's for me - the acknowledgements, foreword and preface.
The acknowledgements pointed out the author's people sources, a host of knowledgeable top military and civilian thinkers who provide the book with authenticity and authority.
The foreword helps a book in two ways: first by what it says about the book and, second, by the credibility of who wrote it - in this case former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, retired Gen. Ronald R. Fogelman who stated that the book reflects the contributions of all the elements of the coalition and the new, higher level of cooperation and interdependence of the forces involved. Fogelman also stated, "The United States and its coalition partners can be proud of their work In Operation Iraqi Freedom, and this book offers the first best look at how well they did their job."
The preface then gives the author the opportunity to establish his objectives, in this case to examine the efficacy of U.S. and coalition strategy, tactics, operational methods, weapon systems, and personnel during the period of armed conflict from March 19 through May 1, 2003. This author, Walter J. Boyne, has the extensive background as a career Air Force pilot and former director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, and has generated the many contacts needed to successfully produce a comprehensive study like this.
The book then goes on to do just that in full, but readable, detail. The background of the how, who and what leading up to this war are followed by the actions taken to pursue it to a quick victory and by an explanation of the new type of warfare that made it possible. Interspersed are short, side articles such as the fascinating "How Nations Go To War" that put this one war into perspective with all other conflicts fought until then. The author inserts at appropriate places, as the book's title implies, discussions about what went right and why and what went wrong and why - and lessons learned.
Operation Iraqi Freedom is not light reading and you can't get anything from skimming it. Plan to spend some time - from beginning to end - and you will end up with a better understanding of the story behind what you read and watched in the popular press. Highly recommended.

Arthur H. Sanfelici
Editor
Aviation History Magazine

This book is a fine work. Obviously, publisher weekly's reviewer must be one of those individuals (without much of a life experience) that cannot stand the recent successes of our military in Iraq and elsewhere. Shameful.
More and possibly better work will follow, but for those who need a preliminary record of the iraqi battle, this book will do just that.

Walter Boyne's work in Operation Iraqi Freedom: What Went Right, What Went Wrong, and Why is on target. As some other reviewers here have detailed Boyne's qualifications (and they are extensive and appropriate), we'll simply agree that he is the right author to synthesize the information thus far available on the conflict.

Concerns expressed about writing such a history so soon after the dust has settled are valid but in this case, should be put into proper perspective. Boyne's book is a history of operations. It examines what went right and wrong between March 19 and May 1, a period commonly acknowledged as the conventional phase of the conflict. Boyne details the US military's new "unconventional" approach to conventional warfare during this phase. It does not attempt to deal with the subsequent insurgency campaign which continues.

The book is best viewed as a "first-look" overview of the operations leading to the dissolution of uniformed Iraqi armed forces. It is also a primer on the doctrinal and technological changes developed since the first Iraqi conflict which allowed the campaign to be prosecuted in a new way.

Boyne is to be commended for presenting a complex subject in an interesting, readable way. One of the book's advantages is that it reflects the contemporary wisdom of the many credible sources Boyne taps to tell the story. These include those who helped design the military that went into the conflict. In this respect, it is invaluable to future historians.

It is certain that military planners worldwide are energetically analyzing what the US miltary accomplished in the major combat operations Boyne's book covers. It is also likely that many will turn to Operation Iraqi Freedom: What Went Right, What Went Wrong, as an informed introduction to the subject.

The Publishers Weekly reviewer obviously did not read the book he or she reviewed; instead it launched into a series of anti-military statements that completely invalidate it. I cannot imagine how Amazon would willingly publish so obviously and willfully destructive review--it was non-objective and totally inaccurate--a Pub Weekly reviews on miltary subjects usually are.

Are the father-centered family, private property, and the state necessary and inevitable part of all human societies?
Frederick Engels, coworker of Karl Marx, says no. Engels demonstrates that these three institutions arose in the fairly recent history of the human race, as a way to establish the rule of the many over the few. And, conversley, when these institutions are an obstacle to human progress, they can be dismantled.
Although this book was written about 125 years ago, the subject matter and his point of view sound surprisingly modern. Evelyn Reed, a Marxist anthropologist, writes a 1972 introduction that updates the original work from the point of view of 20th century anthropology debates abd the rise of modern women's movement. An additional short article by Engels, "The part played by labor in the transition from ape to man" is a lively piece that could be part of today's debates on human origin with almost no hint of its vintage (except maybe for his use of the term "man", instead of gender-neutral "humanity").

Marx and Engels made a fundamentally wrong guess about the nature of human beings. But it is very important to understand their line of reasoning, because they developed quite a few critical insights along the way. Due to political charge associated with their teachings it is practically impossible to find suitable third party narrative of their works. So, the only way to enlighten yourself is to dig right down into originals.

This is a serious, scientific and materialist analysis of development and change in human society and its institutions. Frederick Engels, who along with Karl Marx was one of the central founders of the modern communist movement, wrote this book in the late 1800s based on the latest developments in the then-new science of anthropology. Studying it can help us understand society and be better prepared to organize and work to change it.

Engels takes up the rise of the state and of the family and the oppression of women as early societies became more productive, making possible the division of groups of human beings into those who produce and those who live off them, and the need of the exploiters to perpetuate this state of affairs.

The Pathfinder Press edition also has a valuable introduction by Evelyn Reed, long-time socialist activist and author of works including "Woman's Evolution," "Sexism and Science," "Cosmetics, Fashion and the Exploitation of Women," and "Problems of Women's Liberation."

Why is society so cruel? It seems to be self-defeating. Why doesn't the war of the sexes ever end? In no other species do the two sexes battle against each other.

In this book we learn that things weren't always this way. In fact, oppression and exploitation are recent inventions, if we count that human history dates back EIGHTY thousand years since the rise of homo sapiens sapiens. At one point most cultures suddenly became sedentary and agriculturalist - and private property in the land emerged. Private property of land resulted in an overthrow of the matriarchal family by its male members and in the establishment of a separate group of men who violently protect unequal relationships (the state as we know it today). All happened together in a revolution that occurred in the course of just a few generations some SIX thousand years ago.

Nonetheless, the moral of this story is one of hope. If we were capable of remaking ourselves once, and based on that have advanced dramatically in a limited sense of creating material culture, then humankind can remake itself again and found a culture that enriches all aspects of everyone's lives. But this time the redesign will have to be conscious and conscientious, the beginning of a humane human history in which all participate on an equal basis. Such is the future that socialism and communism promise for us.

As a companion to this volume, be sure to read Women's Evolution, by Reed. Written a century later, it shows that anthropology's evidence overwhelmingly coincides with the theory Engels put forward in this book.

Was human society always overseen by a military and police force?
Was wealth and the means of producing more wealth always the private possession of individuals or a small section of society?
Were women always at the bottom of society, treated primarily as sex objects and machines for child-bearing and child-raising?

And is this humanity's destiny?
In this book published in 1884, Fredrich Engels answers the above questions in the negative. His book is based on anthropological data available in his day from societies around the globe. New discoveries since have confirmed his conclusions and the book is remarkably relevant today.

Luis Poirot is one of my favorites photographers. This book about Pablo Neruda is great, not only for the quality of the beatiful images, but also for the investigation with the people who knew Neruda well.
Absolutamente recomendable!!!!

I saw it first in my college library, subsequently I bought it. Neruda's zest for life is enviable. The book makes me want to know more and more about him and his writings. It has been a year now, and I go back time to time, to read something or the other from the book, again and again. The photographs of Neruda's homes set the context for the poetry contained side by side. Translation is comforting for me.

I understand very little about literature but poetry is now my one of the serious love interest thanks to his poem titled 'Poetry': "It was the age when it arrived in search of me.......I was there without a face and it touched me".

Bravo! Why ? This is what I found his book, and a new word "wakefulness" :))

" It is very appropriate, at certain times of the day or night, to look deeply into objects at rest: wheels which have traversed vast dusty spaces, bearing great cargoes of vegetables or minerals, sacks from the coal yards, barrels, baskets, the handles and grips of the carpenter tools. They exude the touch of man and the earth as a lesson to the tormented poet. Worn surfaces, the mark hands have left on things, the aura, sometimes tragic and always wistful, of these objects, lend to reality a fascination not to be taken lightly.

The flawed confusion of human beings shows in them, the proliferation, materials used and discarded, the prints of feet and fingers, the permanent mark of humanity on the inside and outside of all objects.

That is the kind of poetry we should be after, poetry worn away as if by acid by the labor of hands, impregnated with sweat and smoke, smelling of lilies and of urine, splashed by the variety of what we do, legally or illegally.

A poetry as impure as old clothes, as a body, with its food stains and its shame; with wrinkles, observations, dreams, wakefulness, prophecies, declarations of love and hate, stupidities, shocks, idylls, political beliefs, negations, doubts affirmations, taxes."

This collection sets a wonderful selection of Neruda's poetry and anecdotes into a the photographic setting of his life. It is a beautiful book.

I love looking at the pictures and reading his poetry. I also love knowing the little tidbits of information. I have been to his three houses in Chile that are pictured in this book. When I look through it I have this rush of emotions and a pleasant rememberance of being there.

Neruda is a poetry god. And interest in the Chilean writer's work is growing again thanks to Il Postino (The Postman), the Oscar-nominated film in which he's a character.

This coffee table compendium presents some of his most exquisite verse coupled with warm, full-page photographs of, among others, his ocean front home, Ilsa Negra, with its nautical knick-knacks. The man's presence pervades the volume and includes personal accounts from those who knew him. Translator Alastair Reid has chosen works that suit the pictures and work well as whole. It's a delightful introduction to one of the centuries greatest wordsmiths.

A fantastic book, and so reminiscent of my stint as Administrator of the mayor's home, Gracie Mansion, in New York City during the Koch administration. As someone responsible for executing hundreds of dinners, cocktail parties, and huge events at the mayor's home and at the city hall of the most-visited city on earth, I can say that this book captured the frenzy, fun, food, and frazzle of trying to organize a political event. Temple Sachet's do-or-die determination to please everyone, seat everyone in the right place, and make sure every single person gets a handshake and photo with the biggest honcho in the room, is spot on! Nicole Sexton and Susan Johnston even nailed the crushing panic of last-minute disasters... Reading this book reminded me of one of my own...The day I arrived to oversee the set-up of a huge dinner for the Governor of Tokyo only to realize that the gardeners had just fertilized the lawn. The whole mansion literally reeked of s#%t! A few staff members and I raced all over the Upper East Side of Manhattan buying up incense. We lit it all over the mansion and it worked! The house even had the faint but welcome scent of a Japanese temple... These are the kinds of authentic stories you will find in this page-turner.

I just went on an overseas trip and little did I know that the most important item I had packed could fit right in my carry-on: PARTY FAVORS! I quickly discovered that when I pulled it out on the flight, and it was really the perfect tons-of-fun plane trip read that made the time pass lightning fast! I could not put it down. It was so interesting (I LOVED the fundraising stories and political insider info, I had no idea that even went on in DC like that)--and it was wildly funny, I laughed out loud several times and people around me kept looking over to try and see what I was reading!! I really liked Temple as a protagonist, she was a really strong, inspiring woman and I was able to relate to her at the same time. It's refreshing to see the contrast between her invincibility-on-the-job and her moments of insecurity and her personal losses. And it definitely made me want to buy a red YSL power suit someday, haha.

I will be shocked if it doesn't become a TV show soon...it has a great world to explore and would be a refreshing way to make a female lead be part of a show that has both drama and fun but also has a real, serious political side. I think that several of my female college friends would enjoy that, who currently like all the soap-opera-ish comedy type shows on TV but also read "The Economist" and the NY Times regularly and would like a way to combine entertainment with real issues of integrity/politics. So bravo, I am a big fan!

Pick up a copy of PARTY FAVORS and I promise your next trip--whether it be on the subway, on a jumbo jet or just to a park bench in the sun--will be much more enjoyable!

Fun, fast read about a fascinating world (Republican fundraising?! who'da thought!), an incredibly relatable woman (even tho she hobs & nobs), and a whole slew of "blind items." Not sure whether it was more exciting to find out whether she'd ever get any, how she'd ever get out of that job, or who all the congressmen really are.

Party Favors is a terrific read. It makes you feel like a Washington insider. Temple Sachet is a powerful yet feminine main character---I loved the honesty in emotion, top intellect, humor and know-how of this protagonist.

I just finished. Rats! My favorite bedtime story is over. How coincidentally timely that I should be smack dab in the middle of my first political fundraising! I need more of Temple Sachet (main character) to advise me, console me, and take me into her gallows humor every night!

What a ride. Both writers should be applauded for surviving the living and the telling.

This book is yet another book that I have read that tells the truth. After reading books like "Behold a Pale Horse", "Hope of the Wicked", "Bitter Legacy:Untold Story of the Clinton-Gore Years", there is no doubt that these books are cohererent in what they have to say. Why does our country continually fail to see the very obvious truth? This book is important and is a big part of the the whole true story of what is "really going on" in this world right now. Get this book and others like it, then inform everyone what you know and can see is the TRUTH! Especially Congress!

Here is a look inside the real Soviet Union, even now, 2007. Anatoliy's insights and warnings MUST be heeded by our Congress and Executive branch! From my own observations prior to reading his book, I was coming to the same conclusions. We must not be fooled by the communist party's hidden agenda and tactics! Read this book and then watch the abc, cbs, cnn or nbc evening news and see for yourself if the news is American news, or communist propaganda disguised as news!

If you have the courage to stare the devil in the face, then read this book and see where we're headed. It's a tough read though. It jumps around. It's written on a master's degree level, or higher. And it challenges everything you've been told by your government over the past ten years. Russia is not our friend. China is not our friend. And the why's are all here for you to read. Not for the faint hearted.

Anatoliy Golitsyn worked inside the system, inside the KGB.
He predicted what later has become reality - Russia clearly staged the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the KGB financed all so called dissidents that run the Eastern European governments, Golitsyn has analized the strategic communist plan in detail and yet our government is not listening and our so called media is not paying attention to this threat from Russia and China.
Communist World Domination will become horrible reality if we will not reasses Russia's military strength and the real intentions KGB lieutenant colonel Vladimir Putin and his communist Politburo have for America - destruction of her and instalation of the communist World Order around the Globe.
Golitsyn clearly states in this briliant analysis that the deceptive means of false friendship Russia is playing today
will only result in catastrofic consequences for America if America doesn't protect herself.
The means of communist infiltration and systematic subversion
of the West are clearly shown in detail by Mr. Golitsyn
and that's why he's still under direct death threat from Moscow
and he has to hide in the U.K.
Russia's connection to Islamic terrorism has been also proven
and Golitsyn mentioned Saddam's regime constant co-operation with Moscow.
Will America wake up ?
Only God knows that.

After reading a few reviews, all who voted in favor of Golitsyn, I thought I would add a little information to clarify.

There is much ado about Golitsyn's "predictions" everywhere, on the web, in print and in media. This leads one to believe that there is chance involved in a sort of political prognostication; however, this is not the case, and he clearly states this, time and time again, in both "New Lies for Old" and "The Perestroika Deception."

Golitsyn's analysis of Russian activity is based upon a new analytical paradigm. This paradigm grew as a result to changes in policy which were designed to give false results to Western analysts stuck in the now outdated dogma.

Glasnost and perestroika were designed, according to Golitsyn, as politic tools to perform a sort of prestidigitation to lull and bedazzle Soviet opponents, while the true intentions and actions happened in the background.

History has proven Golitsyn's analysis to be extremely accurate. However, there seems to be a concerted effort to completely ignore his strategic analytical model, much like it happened in the 1980's and 1990's. This, to me, indicates that his model for interpreting data is reliable and bears consideration. It is through this model that he made "predictions," all which have either come to pass or will in the future (if his prediction rate is anything by which to judge the rest). For those that would like to understand seemingly esoteric or difficult to understand political moves, Golitsyn's work might help to shed light on the subject.

Any textbook that can incorporate sayings like "There's more sex on the Web than flies on a cowpie" (p. 287). Is a book written by authors who love what they do. This was by far the most "fun" textbook I've read, and easy to teach from.

I would recommend this seller. My purchase was delivered fast and as guaranteed.

Item was in great condition and very fast shipment. No problems. Would definately buy from again.

As an undergrad, this was a great book to read. It's written in a conversational style, yet it is still detailed and comprehensive in research, meta-analyses, and examples. The authors also have a sense of humor...which is nice and used sparingly, yet makes it even more enjoyable to read.

It also has an chapter on ethics which some textbooks seem to disregard. There are also real-life situation info-boxes where people can learn and apply what they learn to purchasing new cars, making more tips, and how to ward off telemarketers.

I'm writing this just at the end of the 2006 elections. I can't imagine how many millions were spent trying to persuade me that this candidate or that question on the ballot should be my choice. I'm astounded at how many phone calls I've received from Laura Bush, or that candidate who just wants to set the record straight about the lies her opponnent has been telling about her. And then there are the outright lies. The people for Question 4 tell us that this will eliminate smoking in public places and we should vote for 4 but not for 5. Question 4 relaxes some of the current laws, Question 5 strongly limits smoking nearly everywhere but casinos and brothels. Oh, and did I tell you about this fellow in Nigeria with the huge amount of money that's tied up in his country and if I will just pay some transfer fees....

This book looks at all aspects of persuasion from a scientific point of view. It's useful from two directions, how to be more persuasive, and how to resist persuasion. Most important, it's how to understand what's happening in out world.

I was pleased with the purchase. The item came fast and in the promised condition.

Weimer's "Policy Analysis -3rd edition" provides a well-organized, widely-covered, and easily-understandable introduction to policy analysis. Although we have to seek for other materials for an in-depth analysis of some topics, the book helps us start with Public Policy, Policy Analysis, and even economic policies. This is especially good for undergraduate level, since this provides how to study, investigate, and write policy paper.

This is 'the' book when it comes to public policy analysis. I have read the 3rd and 4th editions and both are great foundational books for anyone looking to do public policy analysis as a practitioner or academic researcher.

This is one of the very best textbooks in the study of policy analysis.

The first part of the book sets the context. It provides a neat case study of the Canadian salmon fishery to give an example of basic policy analysis. Following this are chapters on the nature of policy analysis and the professional ethics related to the endeavor.

One of the most important elements of this book is the next section--the economics of policy analysis. The text discusses the logic of economics, why government intervention through making policy can make economic sense under certain conditions, and the danger of "government failure" (when governmernt actions may work against good economic sense).

The following section focuses on the variety of policy options available to government to address problems. Some "solutions" are market-based; others include regulations and taxes. The volume goes on to explore techniques such as cost-benefit analysis. Two case studies of policy analysis round out the substantive chapters. The last chapter focuses on the responsibility of policy analysts to both "do well" and to "do good."

Not an easy read, but a book that provides the basic underpinnings for understanding policy analysis--and how to do policy analysis.

I read this book for a class and it gives a fantastic overview of the basics of policy analysis. It discusses the reasons for government intervention in markets, the analysis of policies and ways of going about doing a thorough policy analysis. Easy to read and very informative!

Before MLK, Gandhi, Tolstoy, or Thoreau, there was the brilliant Etienne de La Boetie, who explored civil disobedience, resistance to tyranny, and the brutal exploitative nature of the state.

Murray N. Rothbard's insightful introduction places this pioneering work in historical context and in the pantheon of Libertarian classics.

Etienne de la Boetie's THE POLITICS OF OBEDIENCE has also been named THE WILL TO BONDAGE edited by James J. Martin. The focus of the Boetie's book is the fact that the "Terrible Tyrant" is often a wimp and a coward and only survives because of the sychophants who readily obey him and betray each other to prove their loyalty.

Boetie cites historical examples of tyrants who ruled large populations due to the fact that their immediate supporters and the masses of people were immune to thinking that they could do better if their changes or regime changes. Yet, history provided very few examples up to the time of Boetie(the 16th. century). Boetie witnessed some of the excesses of the Reformation and Counter Reformation and the fact that tyrants were only too willing to take advantage of religious hatred to exploit their subjects.

Boetie's work is relevant in the 21st. century. The game of politics has not changed much except for the fact that The State has expanded exponentially since the 16th century. Boetie's argument that thinking only have to withdraw their support to bring the State to its knees which Ghandi did in India. Yet, there are so few surviving examples of this political ploy to expect too much except to write for the record.

What has made the situation worse is that the State has layers of burcaucracy with brainless bureaucrats who staff these powerful offices. These bureaucrats are basically useless and stupid and easily fit James J. Martin's description as "The New Stupid." They are useless which is why the State has made them indespensible.

This book has been reissued only a few times since it was first published in 1577. Yet, the reappearence of this book is a good sign that some people still consider it an important study in understanding the State

Boetie wrote his "Discourse" around 1553 when he was about 22 years of age and a student at the University of Orleans. This libertarian essay, two centuries ahead of its time, was never published by the Catholic and soon-to-be conservative Boetie. Huguenots published it anonymously in 1574 and fully credited it in 1576 (Boetie died in 1563 at 32 years of age).

The "Discourse" is an abstract, universal, naturally reasoned argument passionately calling for widespread civil disobedience to tyranny. Harold Laski later made the observation that "A sense of popular right such as the Friend of Montaigne [Boetie] depicts is, indeed, as remote from the spirit of the time as the anarchy of Herbert Spencer in an age committed to government interference" (see his "A Defence of Liberty Against Tyrants, p 11). Boetie appealed to man's universal nature rather than presumed or real historical precedents resulting in a timeless document that speaks to all ages.

Boetie begins "I should like merely to understand how it happens that so many men, so many villages, so many cities, so many nations, sometimes suffer under a single tyrant who has no other power than the power they give him; who is able to harm them only to the extent to which they have the willingness to bear with him . . .". He asks "Shall we call subjection to such a leader cowardice? . . . If a hundred, if a thousand endure the caprice of a single man, should we not rather say that they lack not the courage but the desire to rise against him, and that such an attitude indicates indifference rather than cowardice? . . . What monstrous vice, then, is this which does not even deserve to be called cowardice, a vice for which no term can be found vile enough?"

Boetie made a profound insight into the nature of the State - all states, including tyrannous ones, are based upon general popular acceptance.

Boetie continues "If we led our lives according to the ways intended by nature and the lessons taught by her, we should be intuitively obedient to our parents; later we should adopt reason as our guide and become slaves to nobody". He says ". . . there can be no further doubt that we are all naturally free", and asks "what evil chance has so denatured man that he, the only creature really born to be free, lacks the memory of his original condition and the desire to return to it?"

"He who thus domineers over you . . . How does he have any power over you except through you? How would he dare assail you if he had no cooperation from you?", he asks, ". . . you can deliver yourself if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed".

Boetie is saying that tyranny dissolves when the majority of the ruled withdraws its consent and thereby deprives the ruling minority of its support and grudging acceptance. Yet, the ruled seldom accomplish this. Boetie tells us the reason is "habituation":

"It is true that in the beginning men submit under constraint and by force; but those who come after them obey without regret and perform willingly what their predecessors had done because they had to. This is why men born under the yoke and then nourished and reared in slavery are content, without further effort, to live in their native circumstance, unaware of any other state or right, and considering as quite natural the condition into which they are born . . . it is clear enough that the powerful influence of custom is in no respect more compelling than in this, namely, habituation to subjection. It is said that . . . nature . . . has less power over us than custom."

Boetie made a second profound insight into the nature of the State - all states are in essence a hierarchy of privilege that benefits a limited minority. In his illustration of this point, Boetie employes the language of natural law and natural rights.

Boetie also noted the State's use of propaganda and techniques of information warfare (IW) employed upon its subjects to maintain servility. He says "it has always happened that tyrants, in order to strengthen their power, have made every effort to train their people not only in obedience and servility toward themselves, but also in adoration."

In conclusion, Boetie should be considered the first "Gandhi" or advocate of civil disobedience and it should be noted that he grounded his notions in man's natural right to liberty as dictated by natural law. His insights into the State ring true today. Modern Americans allow themselves to be regulated, taxed, and shipped off to invade and bomb their global neighbors to the same extent as their "cousins" across the pond in the United Kingdom - a phenomenon that no doubt has their liberty-loving forefathers rolling in their graves. Boetie hoped education would induce the withdrawal of consent, but as his turn to conservatism lays tribute, it is the weight of the yoke that prompts any reaction.

"...And you are at once free. I do not ask that you place hands on the tyrant, but merely cease to obey him, and you will see him, like a colossus, fall of his own weight and break into pieces." So begins this short classic. It reads as if written with words of fire. Astonishing clarity and moral certitude bathe the ideas expressed. There is no room for temporarizing in La Boiete; the breathtaking clarity of his ideas blew cobwebs from my mind. It was like learning to walk on two legs instead of four. Some toung in cheek references to how his rhetoric does not apply to the France of the Capetian dynasty merely add flavor and wit to his insights. Non-violent resistance and civil disobedience both trace their modern pedigrees to this work. This is a book for the ages, and it is a shame that it is not widely available in English. (Knowledge Products excerpts it on tape in their, "Giants of Political Thought" cassette series.) I wish every student could be given a copy of this book; then, our liberty would face a brighter future than now appears to be the case. -Lloyd A. Conway

"The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude" has influencedsome of the world's greatest social thinkers; from Leo Tolstoy toMohandus Gandhi to Ayn Rand. Written in the 1550s, as something of an underground tract or pamphlet by a young French student and friend of essayist Michelle de Montaigne, this short work remains a timeless expose of the psychology and inherent corruption involved in social or political power. The work has been in and out of print in English (Some of its various titles over the years were "Slaves By Choice," "Anti-Dictator," "The Will To Bondage," and "The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude"). In North America it has been out of print for some time now, unfortunately. Since its original circulation in the early 1550s as "de la servitude volontaire ou contr'un," this short but powerful work seems to find its way back into print whenever the winds of social change began blowing toward tyranny.

This work of Craig's is the definitive one volume history for the Prussian Army. You can read lots of books about the different Prussian wars or Prussian history - but they will ALL list this book in the bibliography. So do yourself a favor and read this first.

Gordon Craig is the doyen of America's historians of Germany. Now retired from academic life, he is highly respected at home and in Germany, and is sought after for sound and temperate reviews and commentary in the media. No other survey has superceded The Politics of the Prussian Army, although it is now over 40 years old. (However, Gerhard Ritter's important, multi-volume "Staatskunst und Kriegshandwerk" covers a lot of the same ground, with a more conservative viewpoint. There's an English translation) There are two basic reasons for this, I think. One is of course the book's very high quality. Craig became throughly familiar with all the most important source material available, and his fundamental conclusions are unquestioned: that the army was the keystone and guardian of the Prussian monarchy and its conservative social order, and always at work to hinder the progress of democracy and the achievement of popular over monarchical sovereignty. The authoritarian (N. B.: as distinct from totalitarian!) sympathies and traditions of the Prussian officer corps survived after the end of the Prussian monarchy in 1918 and carried on in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, and then in the Wehrmacht. Eventually the officer corps sold its soul to the "Austrian corporal" (Hindenburg's disdainful reference), Hitler, believing they could control him for their own ends, and that he was in any case the best available political option. But Hitler was nobody's fool, and his ultimate aim always remained to undermine the social authority and prestige of the regular army and in its place install himself, his party, and an absolutely fanaticized and obedient military force (the Waffen-SS). A sense of duty not to Hitler but to the German people and their civilization flamed up and extinguished in the assasination attempt of Oct 1944, led by Wehrmacht officers of the old Prussian nobility. Recent research (in English, cf. for example Omer Bartov) has tended to see more ideological sympathy for Nazism in the officer corps of the Wehrmacht more than Craig does here, though his focus is less on ideology than on the army's involvement in political machinations at the highest level. German historians and journalists are debating this issue at the moment, as new publications argue that the Wehrmacht committed war crimes on a greater scale, esp. on the Eastern front, than previously admitted, and that it fought unrestrained by professional ethos or conscience. A second reason for the book's longevity is that most of the Prussian military archive was destroyed in a 1945 bombing raid, which makes significant new discoveries impossible for the period before World War II. One has to rely on published sources, and as I noted, Craig read the most important of them. New histories of the Prussian army would be new interpretations of the same sources. One could, for example, to take a more sympathetic view of the army's 19th-century ideology and ethos - that it was defensive - in view of Prussia's vulnerable geographical position, the hostility of its neighbors, and the rise of the socialist movement. But in the early 20th century Germany was far and away the dominant power in Europe, and the question arises of what "went wrong" and led to Germany's (in my view) unprovoked attack and reckless strategy in World War I. Note: Despite the title, the book is really a history of the army after 1806, with an introductory chapter on the period before.

I had to read this book for a History of Germany Course at Mary Washington College. I remember my Professor, Blakemore, hyping the book. He was right. Based on this book, it is easy to see why Gordon Craig is considered one of the best Historians when it comes to Germany. This book is not only a history of the German army, but it is really a history of Germany it self. It was especially interesting to read about the importance of the Blood Oath of Loyalty taken by the German Army to Hitler before WWII. If you are interested in Germany, I highly recommend this book.

Gordon Craig's history of the Prussian officer corps and its relationship with the state it served is a true classic of military history. The primary focus of the book is on the civil-military relations of the Prussian state beginning with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and tracings its evolution and influence to the Second World War when Hitler and the Nazis crushed the political influence of the officer corps. In addition, the book also addresses a number other issues in exquisite detail, including the formation of the German General Staff, the strategy developed before the First and Second World Wars, and the social conflict of the unified German states.

Craig's conclusions on the Prussian officer corps, their reforms and their performance are rather "standard" as far as historical interpretations go - but that is due in no small part to the fact that the author in many ways set the standard. The most salient theme of the book is that for all the German military got right in planning, strategy and innovation, it was never able to effectively solve the civil-military relationship issue, and it was that failure that led to the disasters of the First and Second World Wars.

In Craig's opinion, the opportunity for success was formulated but squandered early in 19th century. After the devastating defeat at Jena in 1807 at the hands of Napoleon, the once vaunted Prussian military had to assess how and why the disaster had occurred. The solution presented by the great military reformer Scharnhorst was the institutionalization of military genius in a centralized, elite general staff and the accountability of the armed services to the German people through an oath of allegiance to a republican constitution, rather than personal fealty to the monarch. The former was adopted and proved a stunning success, especially in the wars against the Danes, Austrians and French in 1866-1872. However, the conservative officer corps' unwillingness to embrace the more liberal reform set forth by Scharnhorst kept the military at odds with the nation it served and ultimately led to the military's political dominance in World War I and political subjugation in World War II.

If you have a keen interest in civil-military relations, German history, or the development of the General Staff system this book is simply indispensable.

This excellent volume was one of my textbooks in college, and I completely underestimated its importance for years. Being deeply involved and interested in Napoleonic military history and the campaigns of the Grande Armee, I have again started to use this book as there is now a 'revisionist' (read 'excuse')school of Prussian history beginning to emerge, revolving around the disastrous, for the Prussians, Jena campaign of 1806. For this period, and indeed for the periods up to the end of World War II, this book is invaluable.

The author uses myriad German source material for his references, and the story he tells is accurate, lively, and riveting. He knows his material, and his subject, and is unflinching in calling a spade a spade when necessary. While I am only interested in those portions relating to the Napoleonic period and its immediate aftermath, students of the Prussian/German Army will find this book invaluable.

Craig's bona fides are impeccable and he writes with authority, verve, and accuracy. His analysis of the Prussian Army's beginnings in the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War set the definition and trends for what the Prussian Army would become, something apart from the people of Prussia and an army supported by a dynastic state. His demonstration of the effectiveness of the instrument under the Great Frederick, and of his policies, and those of his successors after the Seven Years' War, tell the tale of why is became nothing more than a 'parade ground facade', made up of half-foreign mercenary strength, which were two of the many reasons for its defeat and destruction by Napoleon and the Grande Armee in 1806.

The coverage of the Prussian reformers is also excellent, and dispels many myths, some of which unforunately are resurfacing under the guise of 'recent scholarship.' The War of Liberation from Napoleon was in actuality a war of liberating whatever German territory Prussia could grab in the chaos of the aftermath of French hegemony in western Germany (they took the Rhineland, most of Westphalia, and about half of Saxony, keeping the Saxon king, Napoleon's ally, as a prisoner of war). Additionally, force had to be used in Prussia to get the manpower required to fight the Grande Armee. The end of the tale is also excellently told-that of how the reformers, so necessary to Prussian resurgence, were treated and eventually disposed of politically, the Prussian monarchy almost completely retrenching to pre-1806 'values.'

All in all this is an excellent volume for students and historians of the period or of the Prussian/German army in particular. It is highly recommended.

I was moved, impressed, and inspired by this book. There are a couple of other reviews that do excellent jobs of summarizing, so I will try to limit my ten pages of notes to a few highlights, and some other books that I believe can help the 3 out of 5 Americans that want "none of those now running." The Republican and Democratic parties have sold out (this is best documented in Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It) and it is time we restored the Constitution and demanded Electoral Reform to restore We the People as sovereign.

Written in 1978, this book could not have come to me, and others in the transpartisan movement, at a better time.

The author opens with very helpful overviews of how a mass culture, a mass indoctrination, if you will, is a much cheaper and easier way to keep the mass docile, than a forced or fascist solution. He reminds me of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.

He then moves to the manner in which industrialization eroded democracy, making it a poor facade. I am reminded of Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution, and the Industrial System

He then stresses how in a damaged or constrained democracy, public resignation and private escapism are the dominant features of the mass public.

He then moves into an overview of the agrarian-based populist movement that was crushed by the railroads, Pinkerton's as an illegal army, and the banks, with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 being the consummation of the banking victory over the people.

He notes that mass protest requires a higher order of culture, education, and achievement, especially in harmonization of disparate nodes. He identifies four steps within which the third is clearly of vital importance:

1. Autonomous institution emerges as a hub
2. Recruiting of masses takes place
3. Educating of masses takes place (40,000 "lecturers")
4. Politicization of the masses actualizes their power to good effect.

The author does a superb job of stressing the importance of internal communication, and says that IF this can be achieved, THEN a new plateau of social responsibility is possible. He calls this plateau of cooperative and democratic conduct "the movement culture."

The populists achieved a "sense of somebodyness." I am reminded of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Bk Currents) as well as Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People.

He examines the Civil War and concludes that it changed everything--it fragmented the nation into sectarian, religious, and racial prejudices. Latter in the book he examines the pernicious effects of white supremacy, which ultimately undid the potential collaboration among poor whites, poor blacks, and poor Catholics factory workers in the Northeast.

The populists tried to break free of the railroads and banks that conspired to keep them in debt forever. Among their brilliant leaders, one stood out, conceptualizing both a large scale credit cooperative (i.e. public ownership of the essentials of society including food, water, energy, and communications), and a sub-treasury that would ensure that natural resources were applied to the needs of the people and not to squatter or absentee landlords.

The seven "demands" of the populists, ultimately crushed by the banks:

1) Abolishment of banks, issuance of government tender
2) Government ownership of the means of communication & transportation
3) Prohibition of alien ownership of USA land
4) Free and unlimited coinage in silver
5) Equitable taxation among classes
6) Fractional paper currency
7) Government economy

The populists opposed "organized capital", emphasized living issues over dead or archaic contracts, and tried to establish their own newspapers because they understood that the mainstream media had been co-opted by the railroads and the banks.

The following quote on page 168, from the year 1892, is eerily relevant to today:

"The people are demoralized. ...The newspapers are subsidized or muzzled; public opinion silenced; business prostrate; our homes covered with mortgages; labor impoverished; and the land concentrated in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported pauperized labor beats down our own wages; a hireling standing army (Pinkerton's), unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down; and they are rapidly disintegrating to European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes, unprecedented, while their possessors despise the republic and endanger liberty."

Wow. I am reminded of virtually every book I have read in the past four years on unilateral militarism, virtual colonialism, and predatory immoral capitalism. Just a couple can be mentioned here:

The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win It Back
The Working Poor: Invisible in America

The author draws the book to a close by observing four trends that spelled the demise of the populist movement:

1. Banishment of "financial issue" from public debate
2. Corporate mergers (and one could add, corporate "personality")
3. Decline of public participation in democracy
4. Corporate domination of mass communications

He identifies three persistent flaws in the existing American economy:

1. Land ownership permitting alien, absentee, and predatory landlords
2. Basic financial structure that imposes debt rather than credit
3. Corporate centralization

He stresses that populism is not socialism, but rather a democratic promise emergent. He is optemistic that lessons from the populist failure could be used by farmers, laborers, and others to do a mass insurgency, to "work together to be free individually."

If we are to defeat the current corrupt Republican and Democratic parties, we must do so in a transpartisan fashion: a third party must be based on the disaffected from both of the corrupt "main parties" while attracting back to the debate and the electoral process the lapsed voters and the new voters. I think we can do that for 2008.

Most college kids in the 70's were force-fed RICHARD HOFSTADTER's book, The Age of Reform, which ridiculed populism.
But having grown up the son of a immigrant farm boy and county agent, my view of the midwestern populism and farm culture was much much different.

So Goodwyn's book was a welcome documentation of what I had known all along--that populism was a uniquely American movement, and the spirit of the frontier was never rugged individualism, but community.

The Farmer-Laborer Alliances of the late 19th Century, and the People's Party that resulted, always referred to their reform movement as 'cooperation', and quoted Thomas Jefferson, and the founding fathers. In this context, populism was uniquely American. It was a struggle between democratic capitalism vs. speculative and monopoly capitalism.

Real populism was about creating cooperative systems to consolidate farmer's economic power in competition with the railroads and the banks. It was the alternative to the disasterous crop-lien system of the rural south that turned so many of Jefferson's yoeman farmers into destitute sharecroppers, that forced them out of their homes to settle the western plains.

Goodwyn's book debunks the idea the William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech was the defining highpoint of populism, when in fact it was it's destruction. Goodwyn points out that free silver was never more then a shadow movement of an immensely popular political movement.

Goodwyn also debunks the later-day revisionists like Michael Kazin's book, author of The Populist Persuasion, that populism was a style of rhetoric than a coherent set of political ideas or reforms.

While the People's Party was co-opted and destroyed by the Democrat Party, most of the reforms advocated by the populists came to pass in the 1930's with the agricultural reforms of the 1930's. Things like the rural electrification, the regulation of the railroads, the Farm Credit Administration, and the federal reserve all grew out the original populist ideas. Because of the populist complaints, eventually government intervention in the grain and other food commodies marketplace was recognized as the means of democraticizing and strengthing the market system, stablizing the food supply, and strengthening the market system.

But most importantly, the dignity of the common man against the rich and powerful urban elite entered American political discourse.

This is an important book, and a welcome understanding of perhaps the most successful movement by common folks to control their own destiny.

Obviously influenced by the New Social history and the Sixties' social movements, Lawrence Goodwyn attempts a major reinterpretation of the Populist movement in The Populist Moment, an abridged version of his epic Democratic Promise: The Populist Movement in America. Although Goodwyn's main project is a redefinition of Populism and stress on the movement's culture, he also provides a theory for social action that serves as the narrative structure for his history and a useful philosophy in itself. Placing the origins of Populism in Texas and conceptualizing the Farmers' Alliance as the movement's ideological core, Goodwyn's analysis marginalizes the Fusionists and Free Silverites, providing a powerful reinterpretation and the main strength of the book. However, by stressing these aspects of the movement, Goodwyn fails to take in the whole of Populism in all its disparate manifestations.

Before proceeding to the history of Populism, Goodwyn begins his book by introducing his "sequential process of democratic movement-building:" forming, recruiting, educating, and politicizing. (xviii) It is this theory of building and maintaining a movement culture, which provides the outline for Goodwyn's history. For Goodwyn, the movement successfully formed, recruited, and educated a large body of supporters. However, in politicizing, the movement failed to maintain its educational program and cooperative institutions, thereby opening the way for Silverites and Fusionists while losing its movement culture that attracted and held the base supporters.

Throughout the book Goodwyn centers Populism in the Farmers' Alliance of Texas and sees Charles Macune and William Lamb as the movement's unofficial leaders. In response to increasing poverty, drastically reduced farm prices, and, most importantly, the centralization of power and resources, the Farmers' Alliance sprung forth from communities in central Texas as a way for tenants, sharecroppers, and small farmers to educate themselves about politics, economics, and agriculture. Building membership and loyalty through cooperatives stores and the joint marketing of crops, the Alliance expanded across the South and Midwest through a phalanx of itinerant lecturers spreading the group's message. As their cooperatives fell victim to the ongoing economic recession, Charles Macune developed a federal sub-treasury plan that would create a fiat currency for farmers, essentially issuing greenbacks as loans backed by the harvest. While the sub-treasury never came to fruition, Goodwyn defines true Populists as unaligned supporters of the plan and members of the Farmers' Alliance. Consequently for Goodwyn, everyone else falls under the 'shadow' movement of Silverites and Fusionists. With this conception of Populism, Goodwyn locates the movement's demise not in the failure of Bryan's campaign, but in the People's Party support of the free silver Democratic ticket.

Goodwyn attempts a major reinterpretation of the Populist movement and largely succeeds by marginalizing the 'shadow' movement. Furthermore, his detailed analysis of Populism's development posits a truly democratic movement of common folk united by a shared set of concerns. By tying the rise and fall of Populism to his movement theory, Goodwyn provides a tremendously useful framework for understanding the broad implications, successes, and failures of the movement. While his reinterpretation can not be overemphasized, his book falls short by not paying more attention to the 'shadow' movement in the West and Midwest. The 'shadow' movement of free silver and fusion was an important and influential component of Populism; by not giving it attention, Goodwyn tells only half the story. Finally, Goodwyn's analysis of Populism could have benefited from talking more about race. Despite the connection with the Colored Farmers' Alliance, at its heart, Populism was based on white supremacy, deeply problematizing Goodwyn's eulogy of Populism as the last truly democratic American social movement.

Seldom in our nation's history have there been widespread, grass-roots challenges to the economic and political system. According to the author, the agrarian movement of the late 1880s, otherwise known as Populism, was in fact the last such great challenge. Beyond the history of the movement, the author is much concerned with the implications for future democratic movements.

The small farmers in western Texas in the 1880s recognized that the economic cards were stacked against them. The crop lien system and the "furnishing" merchant, the exorbitant prices paid for goods combined with low prices paid for cash crops, and the price gouging of railroads - all of these inspired some farmers to begin forming local alliances that would try to use cooperative methods to bypass those powerful interests that placed farmers in economic thralldom. Lecturers that spread across the South, and even westward and northward, drew upon close-knit farming community ties to eventually establish some 40,000 "sub-alliances" involving two million people, all finally part of a National Farmers Alliance. Through local trade stores, warehouses, and state exchanges, these sub-alliances attempted to buy and sell in bulk. But these efforts met with varying and limited success. Banking interests, grain elevator operators, and stockyards, among others, refused to deal with these farming groups, to accept their notes based on their cash crops and land.

It is hardly surprising, given their radical critique of economic interests, that agrarian organizers would turn to political action to seek redress for farmer grievances. Yet the turn to politics was a highly complicating development for agrarian reform. The agrarian platform was highly radical for the times involving such issues as land reform, labor rights, government ownership and control of transportation and communication, and banking and currency reform with the elimination of the gold standard. But the hold of generational allegiances to the Democratic and Republican parties prevented many farmers from shifting to independent politics despite the fact that their traditional parties were resolutely opposed to many of the farmers' measures. Attempts at reform through the traditional parties were met by cooptation and demagoguery.

The People's Party was formed at Omaha in July, 1892. The party's platform was the agrarian platform containing not only the National Alliance's sub-treasury plan, which was a plan for the issuance of greenbacks, but also calling for the free coinage of silver, both planks having the effect of increasing the money supply. Electoral success was limited. The Democratic Party through coopting of the silver issue and flagrant electoral fraud was able to defeat the Populists throughout the South, where they had their greatest support. In 1896 the People's Party through pre-convention intrigue actually nominated a staunch silver Democrat, William Jennings Bryan, for president, thus essentially ending the Populist movement. According to the author, Populism had become a "shadow" movement, a mere shell of its former orientation.

For the author, democratic mass movements that take issue with core aspects of society face almost insurmountable odds. In the first place, there are the assumptions that the "system" works, that the system contains mechanisms for continual progress and for overcoming problems. In fact, there exists an entire school of thought among historians that contends that the Populists were cranks unwilling to accept social progress and sought only to maintain an antiquated way of life. That school of thought is most closely associated with historian Richard Hofstadter. However, the author finds that the Populists' grievances were real enough while admitting the difficulties of overcoming the received culture. In addition, the author contends that the hierarchical nature of social structures and the accompanying deferential behavior make independent thought and action exceedingly difficult.

Genuine mass movements cannot be top-down driven. The formation of a mass movement that can achieve political viability must proceed from the ground up. Key to any such movement is the establishment of an independent institution that through the participation of its members develops an ideology and strategy that counters prevailing authority. The counter organization must educate and recruit new adherents. The agrarian movement was based on the sub-alliances and their cooperative ventures and achieved extensive recruitment and education through a lecturing system. The politicization step is often difficult to take and sustain because member activism takes on an indirect element in that it is geared to electoral success allowing party elites to then fully engage in the governmental process. Populism was ultimately unable to successfully take the political step.

The author suggests that the failures of Populism essentially defined the boundaries of the possible in fundamentally changing basic structures of American culture. First Progressivism and then liberalism all operated on a basis of incremental reform. In other words, the system works. The policies forming the Federal Reserve, allowing the constant rise of farm tenantry, and permitting the continued centralization and rise in influence of corporations all rejected or minimized the scope of the Populist program.

This book is a short form of the author's complete work, "The Democratic Promise." At times the book takes on the feel of an overview. For example, it would have been interesting to see far more details concerning the actually workings of the various cooperative efforts at the sub-alliance level. And following the twin threads of the Alliance and the People's Party across many states and conventions over a ten year period can be a little sketchy.

The author's insights into forming mass democratic movements and mounting cultural challenges are outstanding. Those insights add to the understanding of Populism. It should give anyone pause when considering the ability of modern movements to impact the status quo.

In a very thorough manner, Mr. Goodwyn covers the history of the populist movement thru its years as the farmers' alliance and the Peoples' Party! The leading people, the main party newspapers,the conventions, experiments and actions of this great movement are covered in this excellent book! Put this powerfully written book next to the classics by Hicks and McMath! A must have!