Politics Books

I just finished this book in the last couple of days. Excellent all the way through. Carefully crafted examples of what was right and WRONG with the media coverage of the Tet 68 Offensive during the Vietnam war, and the war overall, show the problems with the reporting: in some glaring cases, the bias. I specifically could relate to recent conflicts the comments made about the speed of a story from the start of an event to publication and how that sometimes led to the wrong analysis and conclusion.
The perceptions set forth by the media, either deliberately or by editing mistakes, to the population were in cases wrong and led people in a path to make decisions based on faulty information. For a long time I wondered if my opinions and own analysis of the Vietnam conflict were ill conceived. This book put those concerns in their proper place: even though it was a terrible event, maybe the US could have been done with it sooner and with a better result for all had the true facts, as the media could gather, come to light for the general population instead of an inherently flawed approach with a lot of bias added.
Given that the book was written by a Journalist in the middle of it all gives great validity to the book: yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

How could LBJ forget the blunders of a limited war established by the mistakes of Harry Truman in Korea in less than 12 years? The author outlines all of the questions that cannot be easily answered. How do you end a war once it started? How do you justify the costs in blood and money? And How do you define victory? The writer seems to say, Limited War is like Marriage, easy to get into and hard to exit. The book will enlighten every reader and all American politician responsible for foreign policy should read it. A Superb book for students, professors and men and women in power so it won't happen again.

Peter Braestup's book on the reporting of the Tet Offensive is a critically important book to read for those trying to understand the effect of reporters' all-too-human bias on what information the average citizen has available to him or her, as well as for those looking to find out not only what went wrong in Vietnam, but what the United States and its allies (including South Vietnam) did right - an aspect still all too overlooked.
Though it is critical of some particular newspeople, as well as some politicians and military spokemen of the Vietnam era, the book is highly constructive in tone. Many of the lessons pointed out by Braestrup two decades ago have clearly been taken by the media, judging by the general improvement in war reporting during the current (as of fall, 2001) events in Afghanistan.
It is also a must read for those who question the abilities of democratic states to defend what they believe in.Braestrup lays bare the notions of the time that the allied forces - from ARVN to the U.S. Marines, were not effective, or that they were a corrupt force for undesirable ends.
An added bonus is that Braestrup is a gifted writer; his prose is readable and engaging, and his research is thorough and well documented. This book deserves to be brought out in a new edition (though I did buy mine through the Amazon's used book marketplace, and received excellent service there).

A thorough critique of the press coverage of the Tet Offensive. Amazingly, the press almost universally got it wrong. The U.S. and the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) actually won the battle; the Viet Cong were decimated and never recovered as a fighting force (The regular North Vietnamese Army shouldered the major fighting from then on). It took the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) four years to build up enough strength for another major offensive (1972), which led to the Christmas bombings of Hanoi and the "peace accords."

Written by a journalist, this book is critical but not ideological; the press is not "the bad guy" here. There is plenty of blame to go around. The military misrepresented the strength of the Viet Cong, for its own reasons, and the press went on to misrepresent the battle for its own reasons. The real heresy of this book is revealing how the ARVN and U.S. forces aquitted themselves exceedingly well on the battlefield. Was the war "winnable" on the ground? It certainly wasn't "winnable" politically, but credit should be given to the servicepeople on the ground (and in the air) who did in fact win the battle tactically and strategically.

The original edition was published by Westview Press in 1977; Yale University Press issued an abidged version in 1983 and 1986; another edition was published by Presidio Press in 1994.

This book was a real eye-opener for me. As a Vietnam veteran who served in Vietnam in 1967-68-69-70 and 71, I had always held fast to the premise that media coverage of Tet 68 sabotaged the possible successful conclusion of the Vietnam war in our favour. I had always believed that the american press had deliberately skewed their war coverage towards the negative side.

Braestrup's well documented study of press coverage of the Tet 68 offensive made me re-think all my knee jerk attitudes towards the press.

He presents meticulous summaries of coverage by the major american newspapers and television networks. While some individual papers and networks might have had an anti-war bias most tried to give balanced coverage.

When Braestrup gets into the logistical details of the in media coverage of the war, he really enlightens us. It's easy in hindsight to assume that todays wall to wall coverage of world news was the norm in Vietnam. Braestrup shows us in great detail the limitations in personnel and technology that constrained media coverage of the Vietnam war

If you read his analysis, compiled from his own in-country experience with an in depth analysis of most major news outlets reporting from Vietnam during the war, you as a reader are enlightened and forced to rethink your own pre-conceived notions about the subject.

I found this work one of the most illuminating works of modern history that I have even read.

It's interesting just from Braestrups first hand retelling of his own part in history as a practicing journaslist. His analysis of journalistic coverage of the Vietnam War is incredibly stimulating and educational.

I highly recommend this work to war correspondents, editors and journalism students interested in getting war coverage just right.

John Reid

Shawki, who is also an editor of the International Socialist Review--the theoretical journal of the International Socialist organization--presents a study of the relationship between the socialist movement in the United States and the Black population. He also does a good deal more here. Given the special history and relationship of African-Americans to the power structure and white-skinned US citizens in general, this is more than a study of that relationship. It is also a history of the African-American struggle for freedom. This history is not the first book to examine this historical relationship. However, it is certainly one of the few that predicates the fundamental elements of that relationship on the economic realities of slavery and the necessity to construct a rationale for the racial nature of African-American bondage and the racist structure that followed emancipation.
This book is a comprehensive look at the history of the struggle for Black liberation in the United States. Shawki's effort is well worth the read, especially for those who are looking for a good introduction to this underexplored part of US history. The fundamental importance of the nature of US capitalist economics to the oppression of African-Americans is never forgotten in this book, but neither is this nature pressed to the point of pedanticism. If racism is the chicken and economics the egg, Shawki makes a compelling argument in these pages that the egg definitely came first. Quite readable, Black Liberation and Socialism adds an important analysis to the bookshelf of Black history. It doesn't merely belong in the study group or the library. It should be part of the slowly growing canon on that topic.

Ahmed Shawki's account of the history and politics of the struggle for Black liberation in America is a must read for any anti-racist. We must learn this history as a guide for how to struggle in the present--one thing I enjoy so much about this book is that it gives the reader a sense of the possibilities that existed during periods of social upheaval. Shawki tells us about the abolitionist movement, reconstruction, the civil rights movement, and the black power movement but in so doing he shows us not only what those struggles accomplished--but what they might have accomplished. Read this book!

This book is ablolutely essential reading for anyone who seeks to destroy racism in today's society. This book highlights the main events of US history regarding race and class, beginning with slavery and the origins of racism, and continuing through the Civil War, reconstruction, the birth and politics of the Civil Rights movement, and Black politics today.

The timing of this book could not be better suited as we have witnessed the deliberate neglect of the Black and poor people of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the racist criminal justice system and death penalty, and the re-segregation of schools to 1950's levels.

Therefore not only does this book teach us about Black history, but as the title suggests, makes the connection between racism, oppression, and class society. It examines various struggles against racism and points to the multiple places these meet other liberation movements. As we see Condoleeza rice buying $7,000 shoes while ignoring the plight of Katrina survivors, Shawki makes the case that racism is a severe problem, but it is not the only problem. As he points out, Malcom X came to the conclusion later in his life that the majority of society, whatever race or gender, was subject to injustice - injustice that is inherrently tied to class society. Shawki's conclusion is therefore that we need a new Civil Rights movement to fight for Black liberation, as well as a better world free of class antagonisms. And that world is socialism.

I just finished this book and it is amazing. In the wake of the ruling class's racist response to the survivors of hurricane Katrina, this book is an essential tool for not only understanding how capitalism and racism are intimately linked, but provides clear ways to end both.

Ahmed Shawki's "Black liberation and Socialism" is one of the most powerful and easy to read books that I have read on the subject. His arguments are clear and his examples are powerful. He argues that to end racism ultimately it will take a multiracial working class movement fighting for a society free of poverty, racism, and exploitation i.e. socialism. His historical examples clearly illustrate how this is possible and necessary. It would be difficult to read this book and not feel angered and motivated to action the second you finish.

Jean Howell
Duluth MN

THIS BOOK IS ANOTHER MANDATORY READING FOR ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN THE EXCHANGE OF CULTURES OF THE INDIGENOUS OF TURTLE ISLAND AND THE AFRICAN, WHICH HAS BEEN GOING ON BEFORE THAT THUG COLUMBUS CAME OVER HERE.

Until now I have only read excerpts from bell hooks' works. Then I recently saw a C-Span program in which bell hooks led a discussion with a college audience. Reminded of the intriguing excerpts I had read, I chose Black Looks as my first full encounter with this intriguing woman's thoughts.

I did not examine the readers' comments on Black Looks until completing the book, but I too would like to take the opportunity to give the book my whole-hearted endorsement for everyone's perusal.

Unlike the reader who began a review highlighting his leftist political affiliation and interracial marriage/family, I DO believe that this book was intended for that individual reader, as it was intended for me, a white female -- and for all men and women of all colors, backgrounds, and sexual orientations. One's skin color, (marriage) partner, children, class status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, and gender, among many other characteristics, do not determine one's dedication to overcoming the racist, heterosexist, capitalist patriarchy. Indeed, I think that this idea is a theme running throughout Black Looks, as evidenced in bell hooks' essays on Clarence Thomas and Madonna.

I do not find incivility in bell hooks' thoughtful expressions and critiques. Rather, I find a much-needed naming of the incivilities that happen to people in this world, due to various "-ism"s and those who espouse them.

Complaints of "bias" or "slant" in bell hooks' essays and other works seem nonsensical to me, when I recall that no human being's thoughts, feelings, and perspective are "objective." Moreover, "objectivity" is not a quality that one desires in cultural criticism, which functions to set forth an alternative point of view that is so often silenced. An individual who feels the need for "objectivity" in Black Looks might seriously question whether any book, television program, song, or other form of media is "objective," including those forms of communication that comprise mass media.

I think that an individual who can accept that this book is for him/her can also begin to look at mass media with a more critical gaze, an activity that is sorely needed after the hours of unquestioning consumption of TV/movies that fills the evenings and weekends of many Americans.

I'm biracial . . . my father is white and my mother is black, Latina, and Asian. hooks makes us look deeply and critically at the linkages of race, class, gender, and sexuality in ways that are painfully honest and moving. Oppression is never an easy topic. As she has stated, reading hooks' work should make us feel angry, sad, & uncomfortable. Finally, an intellectual who goes beyond the "taken-for-granted" simplistic non-analysis and makes us THINK DEEPLY! This book is a classic!

The book speaks for itself. There aren't enough adjectives in the english language to describe the dynamics of this book. I don't have anything more to say,except 'READ IT.'

The cover of this book caught my attention at the library, so I just had to check it out. I must say, Bell Hooks's ideas and opinions are right on the money. She mentions issues such as black male masculinity, feminism, and racism and breaks them down very well. She's not the average traditional black feminist. She's not afraid to talk bad about white folks (like Madonna) and she's brave enough to use the word "white supremacy"; not in a militant way, but more reserved. It's easy to tell she's a liberal, but she's not restricted to traditional left-wing philosophy because of her strong Afro-centric view-points. This is a must read for all Black people, especially Black women who hardly have any intellectual role-model to look up to.

This book is incredibly well-researched, strongly argued, and exceptionally well-written. DuBois is someone whom I have always greatly respected, and it was a pleasure to read another of his incredible texts.

Given the way race relations have unfolded since the book was written, WEB DuBois' tome is THE essential work on the most pivotal and one of the most grossly underrated periods of American history.

Since it is told from the vantage point of a Black American, it stands as one of the essential missing voices in an otherwise neatly politicized and racially sanitized periods of American history and areas of American historical scholarship.

DuBois, writing with an impressive flair, is not bashful about giving credit where it is due, whether to noble and humane slave owners or to the vastly underrated and seldom reported contributions of Negroes during this period. This emphasis alone is a display of courage unlikely to be found except in very rare instances in other books on this subject.

Despite its flair, the book is still dense with details that only a first rate historian could uncover and organize so well. And although the book has been criticized for being too much of a Marxist economic analysis, it is nevertheless accurate, has the full ring of truth and remains relatively non-polemical. And for one partial to non-Marxist economic analyses, I find rather strangely that DuBois' Marxist analysis seems the appropriate tool uniquely suited for analyzing the circumstances of this particular era of American history.

In short, the book is not just another oblique harangue against the American system of racism as it was practiced during the reconstruction era--or as it has been practiced during any era for that matter.

Along side Eric Froner's book, "Reconstruction," this is another tour de force. For essential reading on one of the most important periods in American history, one is unlikely to find in print a better book on this subject. Amen.

DuBois goes state by ruthless state describing the atrocities committed upon black folks by white folks. In one story he tells of a black man riding a mule and a white man wants the mule so he walks up to the black man and shoots him off.
In another story he describes a husband and wife who have traveled miles on foot after the wife (who is pregnant)was beaten unmercifully by her ex-master. Her skin has been ripped to the bone by the cat-o-nine tails

This book is written like a text book on history. It is not for the faint of hear. I guess that would make sense. This is a serious read and makes you think. I learn a lot about reconstruction from the black prospective.

Du Bois took a revolutionary new look at Reconstruction in the 1930's, providing a fresh view that went largely ignored until recent books by Foner and Litwack resuscitated this overlooked period in American history. Du Bois summons up his great intellectual bearing to illustrate that from being the unmitigated failure that Reconstruction has long been portrayed as, it was the crucible of civil rights legislation, a time when there was very definitely hope that America would redefine itself along more egalitarian lines. While the book deals predominately with the black man's point of view, Du Bois offers a principled Marxist view of labor relations at the time, and how the leading Radical Republicans tried to come to terms with the new industrial society that was emerging in America.

Du Bois was a very compelling writer, he cuts through the layers of history to reveal the soul of the persons most greatly affected by Reconstruction. He charts the troubled waters of the Civil War, and the Presidential attempts at Reconstruction which followed the Union victories in the South. He provides a candid view of Lincoln, who struggled with his own prejudices, but eventually came to accept the black man because of the pivotal role he played in the war. Ironically, Du Bois noted a black did not become a man until he showed he could hold a gun in battle.

Du Bois felt Lincoln really did alter his views during the course of the war, no longer favoring the colonist view held by many that blacks should be repatriated to Africa. However, Du Bois felt that Lincoln lacked the convictions to really push forward Reconstruction, that his principal concern remained in reclaiming the Southern states in the Union.

The mighty task of Reconstruction was left up to the Radical Republicans in Congress and the "Black" legislatures that emerges in the South during this time. Du Bois refutes the Dunning-Bowers view that blacks were incapable of forming governments, by providing a chapter on "The Black Proletariat in South Carolina." Here, he shows that blacks fully recognized the enormity of this most propitious moment, but that they ran up against a set of state and federal courts, which refused to hold up their decisions. While blacks were now members of state legislatures and of the US Congress, they did not take over the South, as is often described. Even in South Carolina, where blacks outnumbered whites, blacks were only temporarily able to seize control of the legislature, and force a new state constitution.

This is the book that forms the basis for Foner's excellent book, Reconstruction. Du Bois was the first to realize that Reconstruction was more than just an epilog to the Civil War, but the beginning of the long road to freedom, which took nearly 100 years in the making for blacks in America.

I am so confounded by the author and her views and studies. It is simply the greatest, I repeat greatest book on the Black American psyche. Although a little tough to digest and understand at times, she will re-emphasize her point so that we the reader don't miss out on the facts. I understand our workings more and how I view sexuality and other races. GET THIS BOOK since you are reading this review and you know this is the type of topics that interest you!

This is another breakout of brilliance from Patricia Hill Collins. Collins has broken to a new level of analysis of the intersections of race, class, sexuality and gender, and offers transformative interpretations of black popular culture. BRAVO, Ms. Collins! This book is a must-read for any black individual that cares about the lives of the black diaspora, especially in the new millenium.

with regard to sexuality and its relation to society today. From the fake, hypocritical outrage by Americans at the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake incident at the 2004 Superbowl that led to wasteful congressional investigation to the ongoing probe of R. Kelly's involvement with underage women that were taped at various times and places in the late nineties that were surfaced on the video shelves aroung the nation back in 2002 The saga and the media hype involved in the 2003-04 Kobe Bryant's rape case, the incessant media attention at Michael Jackson's child molestation case, another hypocrical outrage by media pundits over Serena Williams catsuit that showcase her behind at one of her tennis matches in October of 2002.

The ever growing love triangle/babymama drama of Britney Spears, Shar Jackson, and Kevin Federline and their kids by tabloid media. The ubiquituous, scantlily clad "video dancers" on MTV, BET, and VH1.

Bill O'Reilly's sanctimonius commentary on out of wedlock births by Blacks while ignoring the problem in other ethnicities on his nightly TV show. He continues to denounce hip hop as the source of all pathology in America and often urge his viewers to boycott Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Ludicris in his many crusades against the corruption of "mainstream youth."

In December 2003, Essie Mae Washington-Williams revealed to the nation that she is the late U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond's daughter. Less than two years later, she released her autobiography of her life. The 2004 MNF skit which involves the basketball star and the lady from a popular Sunday night show. Also, sexually suggestive movies and videos from Nelly, 50 Cent, Snoop,etc., the revelation of Prince Albert that he had fathered a son by a black flight attendant as well as the lack of coverage regarding missing black women such as Latoyia Figueroa in recent months. Also, not to mention Fantasia Barrino's revelation of rape, illiteracy, and having a kid out of wedlock by a man who battered her prior to her break on Amer. Idol. And more recently, P. Diddy's perfume ad campaign raised a lot of stink in the heartland and the Bible Belt because of its sensual suggestedness. More recently, the Duke University rape crime involving a struggling black college student and white members of the lacrosse team at what it supposed to be a bachelor party in March 2006.

This book trace the origins of racial/sexual stereotypes from slavery onward and how they are affecting society today as well as black and interracial relationships. It also talks about homophobia and the ongoing hostility toward interracial relationships as well as the strained relationships between black men and women due to racism, classism, heterosexism, and the stereotypes perpetuated by the mainstream media today.

I thank Ms. Collins for having the guts to say about the current state of affairs with regards to black sexual politics and its implications in American society.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Professor Hill Collins asserts that Black Americans will not be able to advance at the rate they could unless they develop a progressive gender politics. Many activist black women have critiqued the overall community for not taking gender issues seriously. Still, this book gives it a fresh perspective that takes multiple identities into account, especiall in the post-civil rights era.

Hill Collins does a fantastic job in stressing that Black Americans are not a monolithic group. In her discussion about the media, she looks at black portrayals dividing depictions by gender and class-based groups. In discussing marriage, she analyzes "same race, opposite gender" mandates as they affect straight sistas, straight brothas, and Black gay men and lesbians separately. She understands that identities do not work in isolation by sit side by side continually interacting with each other.

Hill Collins does an excellent job in showing how all Black people are affected by any oppression. She shows that straight Blacks are harmed by heterosexism too since that same system that deems gays deviants deem Blacks globally as hypersexual. In a chapter on gender violence, she claims that Black men who dismiss the rape of Black women may feel differently given that so many Black men are being raped in jails.

Many talking heads say that older Americans are not as eager to employ new technologies. However, Hill Collins, a graying woman, does well in mentioning how the internet and other new technologies are affecting Black folk. Her analysis of J.Lo, the film "Booty Call", and the rap "Get Yo' Freak On" shows that she is very knowledgeable about youth culture.

I was disappointed how little sexual orientation matters got brought up in her "Fighting Words." However, in this book, she demonstrates thoroughly that she stands against homophobia. Not only is there a whole chapter dedicated to condemning heterosexism, gay issues are laced into every chapter. Like Guy-Sheftall's recent work, she is really trying to push Black thinkers that only want to talk about race, class, and gender (purposely in that order) to the exclusion of sexual orientation. She even praises media depictions of Black lesbian and gay characters.

It's funny that bell hooks is the most famous Black feminist when Hill Collins outshines her here by leaps and bounds. Hill Collins isn't as repetitive and demeaning. Her work isn't dependent upon personal anecdotes. She takes sexual orientation seriously and not just as a side issue. She dedicated to helping Black gays and lesbians and not just yelling that straight Blacks aren't homophobic. I can't wait for the day when Hill Collins gets all the credit she deserves.

Many might not like this book. She offers many critiques and close to no concrete solutions. The introductory chapter is full of caveats and can be easily skipped. Hill Collins cites Cathy Cohen, Dorothy Roberts, Professor Guy-Sheftall, and other progressive womanists so frequently, one may wonder what original ideas she is even proposing. Her discussion of blacks in the media is overly pessimistic.

Still, I loved this book. I think both academic and common readers will be able to digest it and find it useful. I predict great things ahead for this right-on sista.

Blood in the Streets presents an articulate and comprehensive study into the countless variables that are required to assess market trends. If you have ever encountered instances where an analysis, possibly even a very convincing one, appears to only encompass localized fundamentals, and you questioned the strength of such a forecast, this book will unmistakably assist you in defining the failing of such an outlook.

Blood in the Streets presents a very convincing case for considering worldwide fundaments in addition to localized trends. The book further incorporates the steps encouraged to undertake such a comprehensive analysis, backed fully by an abundance of examples.

By now, this book is somewhat outdated in terms of its relevance related to current events; however, its means of study and course of action to seek out opportunities among the trends is absolute. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking insight into any market.

Davidson, founder of the National Taxpayer's Union, and Rees-Mogg, former editor of the Times of London, co-authored a triad of books that illustrated the same theme: that changes in technology create mega-political trends that determine how and in what ways governments and companies can project power. Following Nathan Rothchild's famous maxim, "The time to buy is when blood is running in the streets," their first joint effort explains how these mega-political trends affect everything from when it's best to buy real estate or metals to why and in what places terrorism will trouble the world.

I first learned about this book in 1993 - when it was out of print. I had become acquainted with James Dale Davidson and his sequel to this book, The Great Reckoning. It took nearly a decade before I found a copy...and I am very glad I did.

This isn't light reading...so be forewarned.

The wisdom was true back then...only those in the know were aware of these tactics for amassing wealth by paying attention to whether there truly is VALUE in an industry, in spite of the prices, in spite of the headlines...and preferably buy low, VERY low.

One of the most fundamental teachings...when an industry is fundamentally sound, if everyone is throwing away their share because of some sort of governmental calamity, new article or reporting, does the value of that industry or commodity go away?

No!

So when does it make sense to pick up share?

When there's blood in the streets. Yes...when everyone else is getting rid of their shares/ownership, then you can pick up REAL ASSETS for pennies to dimes on the dollar.

And then wait til they rebound - when the situation that made them "risky" turns around.

Has this strategy worked? Yes, many and many a time. Just look back a decade or so ago when Argentina was having its problems. The inflation was rampant. However other currencies were HARD MONEY to theirs - and you could pick up good investments cheap - then hold them for the ride back to stabilization.

Again...these strategies usually have some holding period for the undervalued asset to rebound. But rebound many of them do.

Examples: junior gold stocks bought for pennies and sold for dollars. Yacht clubs bought, upgraded and resold to upscale international patrons for very big profits.

Pick this book up...and gain insight into how real wealth is made and accumulated. This one key insight works.

With all the economic turmoil going around, I think I need to read this book again!

The 1987 U.S. stock market crash gave rise to all sorts of "now is the time to panic" and "the world is ending soon" books about financial crises, and economic depressions.

None of it came to pass, because the Reagan revolution demolished communism without a shooting war, and global capitalism surged in the aftermath.

But in 2004, the next world war has already begun. It is an economic war, where blocs of countries are being organized and urged to join in alliances rooted in ethnicity, religion, or nationality. It is also a culture war, rooted in religion and ethnicity (Islam against 'the west') with a long history that makes it far less amenable to a rational or peaceful resolution thatn was 'The Cold War'.

The US failue to define terms of engagement, and thereby control the outcome of the Iraq war of 2003-2004 is the end of the dream for a Pax Americana, with the US acting as the arsenal of a unified, largely democratic world. Instead, we have the non-polarized and chaotic world that authors Davidson and Rees-Moog feared.

It is a world where capital flows along paths of least resistance, and once welthy populations are devastated by capital outflows. Governments will likely become more tyrannical and shift from benevolent welfare statism to active police statism -- to preserve order.

The book takes its title from the infamous Baron von Rothschild quote about investing where blood runs in the streets. In such places, people crave peace, and safety. They care not who makes the laws, nor who coins the money.

WHile this book seemed absured and hyperbolic in 1987 (like most of the gloom and doom texts of that year), it sees eerily prophetic looking ahead past 2004 and 2005. State-less terrorism is a defining power in today's world. Economies with aging populations are becoming consumption societies, which produce less as the populations age. As exports drop, net inflows of wealth dry up, and the results are soaring government debt, declining employment opportunities for younger people, and increased class divisions and stratifications.

The "great depression of 1990", predicted by dozens of authors, was postposned by the fall of communism, and the expansion of capitalism into eastern Europe & Russia. The collapse of Communism also resulted in a 'peace dividend' that reduced defense costs in the U.S., and provided financial capital to fund new business ventures and fuel economic growth.

The U.S. federal reserve (and other central banks) keept inflation low by funding productive rather than defensive projects. The commercializing of formerly military & defense technologies (the internet, for example) generated economic expansion. That was a cyclical expansion, dependent on the creation of major new growth industries. In the 1990's it was information technologies (communications, networking of data systems, and the opportunities created by rapidly dropping costs for Information Technology equipment. Biotech and life-sciences, the next (current) new industry, has not proved to be stable or predictable in terms of products and markets. Financing models are far less certain.

The economic growth and expansion cycle made possible by the 'peace dividend' and the rapid global advances for Information & Communications tecchnologies postponed the "great depression of 1990". But with a new global war clearly underway, defense and the economic austerity needed to fund a long term global military effort will be the focus of governments. Civil peace is out, and general prosperity is no longer a priority. Thus, it appears that the expansion cycle is coming to an end. The Great depression of 1990 may become the (even greater) depression of 2010.

It is almost scary to read this book from 1987 and realize that the authors may be correct, but their time-line was about 16-17 years ahead of events.

Davidson and Rees-Moog team up to tell us that when things seem the worse may be the time to take advantage of opportunity. The Chinese symbol for crisis also means opportunity.

This book shows that throughout history, some of the greatest became that way because they had the forethought, and sadly, sometimes the foreknowledge, of events that they took advantage of them and won in a big way.

The title of the book comes from Lord Rothshild's statement about when blood is running in the streets, invest in a future. Of course, what to invest in is really the question. This book will give you a look to see and evaluate the opportunities that are out there.

Although the book was written in 1987, it is a now book, filled with facts of how to take advantage of a market. Hey, did Warren Buffett read this? Or did he understand the concept of "Blood in the Streets."

From National Review Online, November 2005:
Leon F. Scully, Jr. was probably the only legal scholar ever to examine the original documents and actual events behind Weeks v. United States and Mapp v. Ohio â€" the Supreme Court cases that gave us the exclusionary rule of evidence and similar court-imposed constraints on law enforcement. The story he tells â€" of collusion, rigged test cases, ACLU conniving, and illegitimate precedents â€" will be of great interest to attorneys, prosecutors, and especially police officers. A short Introduction sets forth the case, with the command of both language and the law that characterizes the entire book.

From The American Spectator, November-December 2002:
This family favorite is essential reading for judges, prosecutors, and police officers who wonder what went wrong with our laws of search and seizure. In a frontal challenge to conventional history, my father shows that the two major cases establishing the exclusionary rule-Weeks (1914) and Mapp (1962)-were contrived test cases brought before the Supreme Court by dishonest means. Chief Justice Rehnquist once asked how it happened that modern Fourth Amendment law "brought to bear in favor of accused murderers and armed robbers, a rule which had previously been largely an application to bootleggers and purveyors of stolen lottery tickets." He will find the answer here.

And now for something completely different: Bombers, Bolsheviks, and Bootleggers: A Study in Constitutional
Subversion, by Leon Scully .Mr. Scully, a lawyer, was puzzled by the development of the exclusionary rule, which seemed to him plainly contrary to the sense of the Fourth Amendment. He set out on an exploration of its history, and the result is a splendid detective story, with some eye-opening material about the Progressive movement around the turn of the last century."

In Bombers, Bolsheviks, and Bootleggers: A Study in Constitutional Subversion, lawyer and retired oilman Leon Scully reveals the largely unknown and rather stunning story of how in 1914, a group of lawyers (three of whom would one day sit on the United States Supreme Court), conspired to subvert the Fourth Amendment of the American Constitution for the purpose of reversing the conviction of union leaders involved in the 1910 dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times newspaper.
The case was Weeks v. United States and is the basis used down to this present day by lawyers and judicial activists seeking to overturn the convictions of violent criminals whose guilt has been adjudicated in a court of law to be beyond doubt. The subversive legal tool that was created out of this original conspiracy is called "the exclusionary rule" and came about through a series of colluded cases in which prosecutors set up a case in a lower court, and then took a dive when it got appealed to theSupreme Court, thereby securing a legal precedent in a non-controversial case that the defense lawyers could use in future cases. This incredible state of affairs is here told in documented detail and is fundamentally essential reading for members of
the legal profession, as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in justice for the victims of thieves, rapists, child molesters, murders, and career criminals of all stripes.

From National Review magazine, 2002

Bombers, Bolsheviks, and Bootleggers: A Study in Constitutional Subversion, by Leon F. Scully, Jr. (Publius, 464 pp., $29.95)

Since 1914, American courts have held that the fruits of an illegal search are inadmissible, regardless of their bearing on the case. Neither the Fourth Amendment nor any other constitutional provision requires this conclusion. Yet in the name of deterring police misconduct, the "exclusionary rule" routinely derails prosecutions, arguably to the frustration of justice (and certainly to that of the public). While others have made the case that the exclusionary rule was invented by judges, Leon Scully goes further, contending that the "test cases" establishing the rule were in fact "a series of frauds perpetrated on the Supreme Court and the American people."

Scully presents a broad view of these cases, including the political pressures on the actors involved, beginning with Weeks v. United States, the 1914 Supreme Court decision that created the exclusionary rule. Fremont Weeks was convicted of using the mails illegally to transport lottery tickets; to secure the evidence against him, police had entered his house without a warrant. The Court did not dispute the evidence, but, reasoning that the police had stepped over constitutional bounds in obtaining it, overturned the conviction. Scully argues that the Court ignored the probable cause that a crime had been committed, which justified the search.

To Scully, the result in Weeks was all too convenient for the Progressive movement in light of Ryan v. United States, also called the "Dynamiters case," a politically charged prosecution of union leaders who were accused of dynamiting the Los Angeles Times building in 1910. The Dynamiters case, which was ongoing at the time Weeks was decided, also involved allegations of illegal interstate transportation, and its outcome hinged on documents found with dynamite and alarm clocks in a basement vault halfway across the country. Without these documents the testimony of two other bombers who had turned state's evidence could not be corroborated. Scully notes that the wrongful police action alleged in Weeks was nearly identical to that alleged in the Dynamiters case; he concludes that Weeks was manipulated in order to obtain a precedent to dispose of the Dynamiters case, and to aid in the Progressives' relations with unions.

Scully's painstaking reconstruction of these and other cases makes a convincing argument that the precedential underpinnings of the exclusionary rule are judicially created precepts that lack grounding in the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment. His legal history is thus the story of an activist judiciary guided by the doctrine of an "evolving" Constitution, imposing political will instead of implementing constitutional principle. Scully's call for a return to the search for truth in courts of law deserves a wide hearing.

1. Dispersion: Even original equipment manufacturers with captive technology are not immune from dispersion. NEC may develop a state-of-the art memory chip for its own mainframes, but it can sell five times the volume to other computer makers.
2. Partnerships: Nothing stays propriety for long and no player can master everything. Partnerships are key to spreading of technology.
3. Reducing fixed costs: To compete in global markets, companies have to incur and show find a way to defray - immense fixed costs. Automation has drive the cost of labor out of production and manufacturing has become a fixed cost activity. R&D has become a fixed cost. With globalization all major players in an industry are or may become direct competitors. You need your own people and your own labels too. That's fixed cost.
4. Brand: Brand name is a fixed cost. For many product, a brand name has no value if brand recognition falls below certain levels. You must spend enough money on brand promotion to realize "pull" benefits. With some products you can better use the same money to enhance commissions so that the sales force will push them.
5. Is IBM Japan an American or Japanese company? Its workforce is 20,000 Japanese, but its equity holders are American. IBM Japan has provided 3 times more tax revenue to the Japanese government than Fujitsu.
6. The Government's role. "People have become more informed and clever, as a real consequence of living in a truly global information era. And now governments have become the major obstacle for people to have the best and the cheapest from anywhere in the world." "What the energy crisis has taught us is that for a short term the `have' nations can create a supply shortage if they gang up. However, over a longer period of time, alternative supplies develop and the economic principles of supply and demand prevail." "Having an abundance of resources has truly slowed down a country's development, because bureaucrats there still think that money could solve all problems". "The key to success is shifting the focus from resources to marketplace." "The government's role, then, is to ensure that its people have a good life by ensuring stable access to the best and cheapest goods and services from anywhere in the world, not to protect certain industries and certain clusters of people." "Every time governments try to protect resources, markets, industries, and jobs, they cost the taxpayers dearly." "Government officials exercise power by regulating and deregulating the market, but their new role is to assume a backseat, not the driver's position, and to make sure that their country is benefiting fully from the best-performing corporation corporations and producers in the world, at the lowest possible cost to their people on a long-term basis"
7. Service Sector. In the US the service sector represents 70 percent of the work force; the cost of manufacturing is about 25 percent of the end user cost; the leading edge producers have all but eliminated simple labor from production and use robots; value chain produces high quality and cheap products in a globally interlinked economies; the most value added is in the marketplace; governmental preoccupation with production forces them to hang onto old and incompatible industries, disserving the customer and the taxpayer.
8. Equidistance: Japanese engineers working for different companies in Kyushu, a small island only 100 km away from South Korea would cat a late flight on Friday evenings to South Korea, work privately for S Korean semiconductor companies; this was illegal and violated employment agreements; the exchange of knowledge made semiconductor design methods and software similar through out the world. The Japanese learned to tailor products to local market interest, needs, and preferences rather than create a global product. Companies that are globally successful in white goods focus on close interactions with individual users; where as those that prosper with equipment installation focus on interactions with designers, engineers, and trade unions.
9. Customer oriented Strategies: Japanese auto companies are caught between a low cost producer, Hyundai and a high-end producer, Mercedes or BMW. Korea's Hyundai, Samsung, and Lucky Goldstar produces high volume products, half of what it costs the Japanese. The Japanese are caught in the middle. If you're a Japanese leader, what do you do? First, dramatically reduce the content of labor in production and push towards full automation. Examples are Nikon Seiko, Mazak Machinery, and Fujitsu Fanuc. The second way out of the squeeze is to move upmarketet toward higher margin products. Corporate culture and price cutting instincts will work against the move, as low-cost marketing games feel comfortable and predictable. Sometimes getting back to strategy means getting back to a deep understanding of what a product is about. Basics of sound management means looking closely at the customer needs, thinking deeply about a product.
10. Demand: Do more better. Create a second demand boosting market is the key. "If your goal is to beat the competition, you win by narrowing your field of vision and doing more better". "But why do companies stick with such devotion to a course that is obviously self-destructive?": Subborness, intensive rivalry, companyism, inescapable defeat or retreat phobias, nationalism, correction action did not occur because the situation did not become painful enough, and consensus from the group they were doing the right thing. "Companyism get much of its strength from this consensus-building mechanism". All must suffer visible before corrective action will occur. "Maintaining the customer relationship through good service is now the key to success". Measurement counts. Measure the powerful and often invisible influences on what you think and do.

Kenichi Ohmae, argues that borders and nation states are becoming irrelevant and explains that a "fundamental paradigm shift has occurred that is changing the way business is being done...[and that the majority of us] are still operating under the old rules. Ohmae predicts that nation states will become obsolete as their sole job will be to facilitate a comfortable environment for global companies serving the ever more educated consumer in the Inter Linked Economy.

At the business level, most of Ohmae's reasoning seem sound, and is based on basic economic principles such as economies of scale and the bargaining power a global corporation might realize etc. What may be most controversial in his book are Ohmae's views on globalization. In most ways Ohmae's view is utopian.

Ultimately Ohmae left me unconvinced in regard to his view on the speed, the benefits, and even the best methods of dealing with the ILE/globalization.

Two other good books dealing with these topics in interesting ways are Lindblom's "The Market System", and also to some degree Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations".

Tom Anderson
Anderson Analytics, LLC

Great Book!, one of Ohmae's best book. Read it, and you will understand why this world would getting smaller and smaller everyday. In this globalized economy, every single nation could take an advantage from it, no matter how poor it is, because we believe everyone in this world has a spesific competencies and capabilities to increasing their own wealth quality. See how the business organizations around the world develop their competencies and capabilities and take profit from "interlinked economy", and create something called "win-win solution", something that almost impossible if we talk that in the past paradigm.

This tilte can give us the great idea how to successfully live in the coming 21th century. After finishing this title, you can say he is one of the best auther about business.

Dr. Ohmae reveals the fundamental driving forces of the world in the new era. With his astute logic based upon numerous cases, he delineates how wealth can be created both on corporation bases and also on nation bases. No wonder Prime Minister of Malaysia invited Dr. Ohmae as an economic advisor for the nation. So far his logics have been proven to be the realities of the today's world. Some may call him a visonary, but I think what he says in this book is not the outcome of his dubious imaginations. It has been some time since this book came out, and not only we have witnessed some of the phnomena he discussed and foretold, but also now we can catch ourselves using the terminology, "borderless world", or "borderless economy" while thinking about the world. This "BORDERLESS" is one of words he made commonly used in our lives, if not he is the one who coined the word.

I was a political science major in college in the United States. I! tried hard to understand the logic of the world while studying hegemonies of various nations. However, I can tell that this book was the most powerful book for me to understand the world, not all the thick textbooks or ugly notes from the boring lectures.

So, why don't you give it a try and order this phenomenal book with Amazon!

Thank you very much, Dr. Ohmae & Amazon.

Minoru Nadai, alias NORM

ANSEL ADAMS WAS THE BEST. I DRIVE PAST MANZANAR EVERY FEW WEEKS AND, WONDER HOW THEY SURVIVED OUT THERE. A FEELING OF INJUSTICE, OVERWHELMS ME. HOW SAD THAT THE NATION CAME TO THE POINT OF INCARCERATION FOR, BEING OF JAPANESE HERITAGE. I AGREE WITH ABE LINCOLN IN THE LETTER THAT HE WROTE TO JOSHUA SPEED THAT SAYS,"WHEN IT COMES TO THIS, (FREEDOM)I SHALL PREFFER EMIGRATING TO SOME COUNTRY WHERE THEY MAKE NO PRETENSE OF LOVING LIBERTY... WHERE DESPOTISM CAN BE TAKEN PURE, AND WITHOUT THE BASE OF ALLOY OF HIPOCRACY. READ PAGE 9 IN THE BOOK!!!
IT IS A VALUABLE PIECE OF OUR HISTORY. THANK YOU ANSEL ADAMS. HE IS GONE NOW BUT, THIS WILL LIVE ON AS HIS RECORD OF, UNITED STATES HISTORY.

SHIRLEY GREER

I have read quite a few books and articles about the unfortuante/sad/?criminal Japanese-American experience during WW II. This book, although it does not add to the historical record per se, includes rich, wonderful pictures from Ansel Adams that bring more visual support to ones' images of how terrible the situation was, but also how strong and resourceful the Japanese-American people were and hopefully still are (just look up the Japanese word "gaman")

Born Free And Equal: The Story Of Loyal Japanese Americans is an impressive combination of historic photographs and writings about the Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned in Manzanar, one of ten such relocation camps, as a result of wartime fears regarding possible sabotage by members of the Japanese and Nisei (American-born men and women of Japanese ancestry) living along the American west coast. During the era of World War II, virtually all the American people of Japanese descent in the states of California, Oregon and Washington (most of them citizens), were interned in relocation camps scattered through the Midwest. Born Free And Equal captures memories of this prison community and how the families in it lived in broad, sweeping, black-and-white photographs. Born Free And Equal is a powerful, highly recommended, historically factual book, accurately capturing with poetic realism a dark and controversial aspect of America's WW II effort, which, along with such horrors as the European Holocaust and the Japanese atrocities in the Far East, must never be forgotten.

Finally, I was able to pick up a copy of this long-awaited book. The original is extremely expensive to pick up, and with the additional introductory information, this is an improvement. A fascinating read, fantastic print quality... A must have!

In the autumn of 1943, the eminently talented photographer Ansel Adams traveled to the Relocation Center at Manzanar, California. This was one of the camps where the United States government relocated (some would say "imprisoned") the many people of Japanese descent who lived in the western, Military Zone 1, so that they could not assist Imperial Japan in its war against the United States. Among the many people sent to this camp were men, women, children and the elderly; immigrants from Japan, the children (born in the U.S.) of Japanese immigrants, and the those even farther removed from Japan; not to mention a decorated veteran of the Spanish-American War (Seaman 1st Class Harry Sumida of the U.S.S. Indiana).

It was here that Ansel Adams set up his camera, and put a human face on this tragedy. This is his book; the pictures he took, and the text he wrote. Originally published in 1944, this newer edition (published in 2001) contains all of the original photos, several additional photos that Mr. Adams took but didn't include in the original, and several fascinating introductions written by Japanese-Americans.

Considering the topic of this book is something of a cause celebre, one might imagine that this book was something of an anti-American screed. Well, if you thought that, you would be wrong. This book is a very balanced look at what happened, and the people who were caught up in it. Mr. Adams wanted the book to be factual, so both the good aspects and bad aspects are covered. That said, though, the book was something of an expose of what happened, and is not a whitewash. Therefore, if you are looking for a book that will tell you about this historical tragedy, then I highly recommend this book.

As long as men and women strive to civilize their society the problem of tolerance will remain, because the urge toward intolerance will not go away. The achievement of Dr. Cohen-Almagor's work is that it adds to our knowledge and awareness of this central problem of politics. His arguments are made in the context of classical liberal thought, of practical politics, and of jurisprudence.

A rare blend of philosophical skill & political sensitivity, of detached analytical and critical attitude and deep ethical concern and commitment to liberal democracy.

Raphael Cohen-Almagor maps the course of the struggle against Meir Kahane in the Israeli courts and legislature. But he places it firmly in the context of the traditional controversy over the limits of toleration, providing us with a rigorous examination of the damage principle as it applies to speech and expression. He forces us to face the question why, if we refuse to tolerate the damage done by thefts, assault, fraud or murder, we should tolerate the potential damage that can be brought about by aggressive or violent speech. His work blends together political philosophy, contemporary history, and constitutional theory. It deserves the close attention of students of all three disciplines. But it should fascinate and provoke also all those who wish to confront what is probably the principal dilemma of the modern democratic practice.

This book, although not particularly well written or well researched, does prove how the government of Israel targeted Rabbi Kahane. Both right-wing and left-wing governments violated Israel's own laws in order to try and stop Rabbi Kahane's rising popularity among Israel's young people. While members of the Labor party illegally negotiated with the PLO and have still not been prosecuted, Rabbi Kahane, an Orthodox rabbi, was accused of being a racist .. even though racism was not defined. The real tragedy that the book uncovers is that Rabbi Kahane, was immorally and illegally silenced because no one had answers to the uncomfortable questions that he raised. This book is anti-Kahane. For a more fair look a Rabbi Kahane's impact on Israel readers should look for Jay Shapiro's Meir Kahane: A Litmus Test for Israel's Democracy.

Living in a country like Israel, which is beset by fateful ongoing conflicts from within and without, one is torn between impulses of appeasement and revenge, diplomacy and force, empathy and despair. A particularly difficult dilemma arises when dealing with hate-and-violence rhetoric against the Other - rhetoric which, ipso facto, challenges the selfsame democratic system that allows it to exist in the first place. It is this "catch of democracy" that Raphael Cohen-Almagor examines in The Boundaries of Liberty and Tolerance: the Struggle Against Kahanism in Israel. As a layperson in the disciplines upon which he draws - philosophy, jurisprudence, political science - I approached the book with some trepidation. Much to my relief, though, I found that it to be reader-friendly yet extremely thorough in attempting to delineate the boundaries of liberty and tolerance in a democracy.

From the outset, the decision to allow a racist demagogue like Kahane to run for a seat in the Israeli legislature raised ethical issues of the most troubling kind. The decision to revoke that privilege was no less troubling: as they fought to have Kahanism outlawed, advocates of tolerance and democracy came under bitter attack for defying the very principle which they claimed to support. The book provides a reasoned, thoughtful and comprehensive explanation of the ethical questions underlying this problematic position. And as we know only too well, no country is immune from such questions; i.e. from the emergence of would-be political parties brandishing blatantly racist or xenophobic slogans, or advocating blatantly racist or xenophobic measures. The analysis set forth in the book examines the most sensitive implications of such a development, particularly the need to reconcile the sacrosanct principles of freedom of speech, on the one hand, with the obligation to stem any tangible threat to democracy, on the other. In trying to gain a better understanding of this complex paradox, I found Cohen-Almagor's lucid description of the distinction between freedom of expression, per se, and infringements of the Harm and Offense Principles particularly enlightening.

I too believe, like the author (and indeed, who doesn't?), in the solution outlined in Epilogue - education - as the ultimate means of delegitimizing and eventually eradicating racist politics. And yet, while pursuing the educational route, it also behooves us to continue grappling with the excruciating moral and legal dilemmas which these politics force upon us. I would heartily recommend Cohen-Almagor's book as a quintessential case study, capable of shedding light on one of the most problematic challenges to the democratic system.