Events Books

This is a great book. It describes the slow descent of humanity into an abyss.

Pin Yathay's biography is a unique dramatic and shocking report on the Red Khmer regime in the 1970s in Cambodia.
It contains an excellent first-hand account of the disorderly evacuation of Phnom Penh after the Red Khmer victory in the civil war. After the evacuation, the whole country was turned into an experiment of totalitarian economy (no money, no private property, spying on everybody). The main ideological aim was equality at any cost, not freedom, except naturally for the members of Angkar (the Organization) themselves.
The whole system resulted in murderous labour camps with hundreds of thousands of deaths from hunger, exhaustion, torture and summary executions of 'enemies' of the system. A terrible shame for humanity and for the ideologically pure left.

The escape to Thailand reads like a nail-biting but bitter thriller. It was a real and, for some family members, deadly escape, not fiction.

Apart from its uncontested historical value, this book should be read as a warning against the madness of pure ideologists, who, once in power, accept without the slightest remorse millions of human casualties in order to implement their maniacal policies.

For a more political (national and international), economical and social analysis of the Cambodian history and the Red Khmer regime, I recommend the works of David P. Chandler and Ben Kiernan, as well as William Shawcross's 'Sideshow'.

this book should really help all of us appreciate our lives. It is amazing what he and his family went through! I could not put this book down! BY the way, does anyone have any recent info on the author? It would be interesting to see what he is up to now, and how his life is going, and if he ever contacted his son Naweth, or obtained any information.

This tragic biography traces the story of an educated man and his family in Phnom Penh. Subjected to the indescribable barbaric cruelty that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on its own countrymen, the writer provides the reader with their sense of hopelessness that gripped their nation less than 30 years ago. His hardship and ultimate triumph is the very definition of human survival and the will to survive. Anyone wanting to gain a better understanding of the plight of the Cambodian people under the Khmer Roughe MUST read this book. I can guarantee that when you finish reading this book you will undoubtedly take a moment to think about humanity itself.

Pin Yathay's amazing account of his ordeal under the Khmer Rouge is truly unforgettable and deeply moving. He was a successful engineer who had gone to college in Montreal and had a big happy family in April of 1975 when everything about his world changed forever. At first he and other members of the family didn't believe that anything was going to happen with the new rulers in power (after all, he had supported the Khmer Rouge against the opposition leader Lon Nol and believed they would give Cambodians a better life). Even when they were forced to evacuate Phnom Penh soon after the takeover of power, he didn't believe that anything horrible would happen to them. Most of the people forced onto the road believed that this would merely be a temporary evacuation and that before long, once the political situation became stable, they would be allowed to return home and be put to good use working for the new regime.

It wasn't long before the true intentions of the Khmer Rouge became known. In their ruthless fanatical quest to purgue the nation of anything smacking of the old regime, they took away anything deemed to be "imperialist," even something like the registration for a car, a pair of glasses, or certain types of clothing. Their hatred of all things "imperialist" was so irrational and fanatical that they would even throw away or destroy things like cars or foreign money, things that could have been very useful to them in their position of power or quest to supposedly reform the country. Although Thay hid his true background from them, fearing execution or imprisonment if they knew how high-ranking he'd really been, he and his family were still deemed "New People" (as opposed to the "Ancients," or peasants, who were left alone because they hadn't lived or worked like "imperialists"), and therefore sent from work camp to work camp in the forests and jungles, made to work the land and do other backbreaking hard labor. Hunger, disease, and fatigue soon began to take their toll on the people in these work camps, and before long only he, his wife Any, and one of his sons were left. He and his wife made the incredibly difficult decision to leave their surviving child Nawath behind in a hospital, in the care of an older woman who promised to look after him, so that they might escape and live, and then one day be able to return to Cambodia to look for him.

The account of Thay's arduous trek through the jungle and into Thailand is incredibly powerful and compelling, a true testament to the will to survive. After he was left alone, he knew he had an obligation to all of his lost loved ones to live, to testify to the world about what was happening in Cambodia, so that their deaths would not have been in vain. It gave him the courage and strength to live even after he ran out of lighter fluid and food supplies and had to resort to eating the raw meat of animals such as tortoises and bats, and to escape again after being recaptured by some Khmer Rouge near the border. And all along the way, the dying words of his father, ordering him to stay alive, urged him on even when succumbing to the elements or his hunger and fatigue might have been a welcome relief. This book is both excellent history and a moving story of survival against the odds, and, when it comes to books about this era in Cambodian history and this particular genocide of the 20th century, is as good a place to start as any.

If you are familiar with the Giraffe Heroes Project (http://www.giraffe.org/), you will know of John Graham.
Stick Your Neck Out, his latest book,is one I recommend for
citizen activists (that's you, and me...Graham gives tools to help any of us stop complaining and take action).
This guide reads easily and is packed with helpful information and inspiring case studies. His suggestions are holistic and soulful, while still grounded in the realities and challenges of changemaking in today's world of polarized views. He advocates win/win solutions as optimal, but offers advice on how and when legal means might be necessary.
If you aren't already motivated to take action to improve situations in your neighborhood, community, country, or planet, Graham's sharing of his heart, experience, and optimism will move you to action. His message: take risks, be smart (by learning from his and others' mistakes), and yes, YOU absolutely can make a positive difference!

This book is easy to browse, and its advice is made more accessible though many anecdotal examples. A worthwhile investment no matter what your level of experience is in creating change. Above all, I found it a source of great encouragement every time I picked it up. I'm getting copies as Christmas gifts for friends, and keeping my own copy for reference.

It certainly has been the case for as long as I can remember. Stop and think about the community where you reside or about the organizations you might belong to. Isn't it usually just a tiny fraction of the citizens or membership who wind up doing most of the work? And the problem has become even more acute in recent years as fewer and fewer people are willing to even join civic, religious or service organizations let alone do any meaningful work. Having said that there are still millions of folks around our nation who unselfishly lend their time and talent to the causes they believe in. If you are one of these good people then "Stick Your Neck Out" is definitely a book you should read. Author John Graham, President of an organization known as the Giraffe Heroes Project has created a volume that is just chock full of practical advice and useful suggestions for those who see the value in getting involved. Among other things you will learn how to recruit like-minded volunteers, formulate a plan of action, negotiate with opponents, raise money and deal with the media. In addition "Stick Your Neck Out" offers a number of inspiring profiles of ordinary people who are out there accomplishing extraordinary things while working on a wide variety of issues. This book is especially valuable as a source of encouragment for those folks contemplating getting involved in such matters for the very first time. "Stick Your Neck Out" would be a great book to give to a graduating high school or college student. The message of this book is clear. Each and every one of us has something to offer. Whatever your interests or political persuasion the possibilities for making a difference are virtually limitless. In "Stick Your Neck Out" John Graham illustrates this point over and again. It is a book I can highly recommend!

You will find this book not only a source of very practical ideas, but also a rich and thought provoking read. Whether you want to organize a block party or spark opposition to urban sprawl, this book tells you how to be effective in organizing a social enterprise. But it is far more than a cookbook for project management. Interleaved with the no-nonsense `how-to' information, John Graham reveals the personal philosophy he forged and tested in his personal journey from his Viet Nam years to now. The subtitle `Service as the path of a meaningful life' hints at what you will find in the book's pages. It is great as a textbook for project planning, group dynamics, negotiation, and success. But it is also an inspiring guide for achieving genuine personal fulfillment.

The impulse to seek change in neighborhood or community comes from the heart, but even the most dedicated heart can falter when the head says "What was I thinking?". As one who has been in exactly that position, I can say that this book is for the head. It offers practical advice that will be useful to anyone who has taken on a cause, however small, to make the neighborhood or community a better place. The practical how-to's are presented by someone who really has been there and done those things, and illustrated by examples from other ordinary people and their work. And by showing the reader that he/she is not alone, the book works to encourage and inspire those who have taken on the risk of citizen activism (as differentiated from paid activism). The book is helpful to the activist because it can be read in parts and provides quick summaries. There is help here for that panicked "Oh my god, I just got my first call from a reporter" moment. Indeed, any weakness in the book is that length constraints caused some situations that would have been helpful to be left out. And read as a whole narrative, it makes an interesting and thought provoking tale of what is right (and wrong) with our country today-- a view from the trenches, not the think tanks. The book is a work of great optimism based on the premise that we as ordinary citizens can change the world one neighborhood at a time. We are doing it every day. The only question is, will there be enough of us?

For those of you who missed out on all the now-absurd controversies of the late 90's, read this book cover to cover---even if you don't buy into Katha Pollitt's worldview (or even The Nation's worldview, for that matter). Pollitt is a fine thinker who, in this collection more so than in her previous collection, shows that she is indeed capable of casting criticism any which way she sees fit, to the left or to the right.

Of her other book, readers have written that Pollitt isn't "brave" enough to take on the challenges facing ALL women (i.e. minority women, uneducated women, women who don't live in NYC). True enough, at times we know where she's headed from the first few sentences alone; and there's a lot of typical Paglia-bashing and catering to the liberal, educated masses. But Pollitt's scope is ranged in this collection.

In one piece, Pollitt scathingly, yet reasonably, condemns Mary Daly's refusal to allow a male student into her all-female course on feminist ethics; in another piece cleverly titled "The Million Man Mirage," she criticizes Louis Farrakhan's brand of homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist political thinking which somehow passes for "liberal." And of course, Pollitt brings into light many issues of importance for woman and men alike: the need for reproductive rights, a modest proposal for deadbeat dads, the limitations of single-sex education and school prayer, the double standards facing professional women, marriage and its discontents, etc etc etc.

Basically, this collection is for anyone wanting to "put things into perspective" and make sense of the senseless.

This collection of Pollitt's columns for The Nation shows all her virtues: her considerable wit, her intelligence, her ability to present feminist views in a clear and coherent manner. She has a keen eye for the media's fatuities; its tendency to split the difference and to move to the stronger side, its fear that it will be viewed as too liberal, the fact that most journalists and columnists are male which does not prevent them from whining about how powerful feminists are.

Consider these thoughts on the perniciousness of sports: "Fans say athletics promote values and so they do--the wrong values, like the childish confusion of physical prowess with `character' that is such a salient feature of the O.J. Simpson trial. Sports pervert education, draining dollars from academic programs and fostering anti-intellectualism. They skew the priorities of the young, especially the poor, black young, by offering them the will-o'-the-wisp incentive of a scholarship, physically gifted kids might not be so ready to blow off their schoolwork. Why not give scholarships for art or music instead?"

Or consider this line about funding for the Arts and funding for NASA: "Representative Sonny Bono says he's never met anyone who benefited from public arts funding; well, I've never met anyone who cares what kind of rocks Mars has." How can one not admire a critic who has no patience with the Clintons, but recognizes that Nader's Green Party is a non-starter? How can one not admire a critic who prefers The Man who Loved Children, Song of Solomon, The Assistant, and Tongo-Bungay to the peculiar list drawn up by the Modern Library? Everyone should read a woman who castigates the ponderousness of communitarianism, the bile of a Farrakhan, and the shallowness of a Mary Daly. Everyone should read her, period.

This is the best book I've read in a long time. I've read it 85 times because it's so good. I have wanted to say everything Katha Pollitt has written in this book. And the book is also a fun read with lots of very dry sarcasm that keeps the reader on her toes. This is a book that looks at the larger (and smaller) political issues of our time with a very even-handed approach. Pollitt makes fun of both republicans and democrats and talks about politics in a way that just makes sense. Her arguments are clear and concise - each essay is only a few pages long, so you don't get bored reading and reading about any particular topic. There is no sacred cow here. Pollitt speaks her mind and doesn't hesitate to let a woman or two have it if their political views or policies are out of line. I highly recommend this book. It makes sense and it will make you laugh.

Katha has insightful, thought-provoking views on everything from welfare mothers . . . to abortion . . . to gun-control . . . to marriage and divorce . . . to school vouchers. Reading her wonderful, witty essays helped me gain new perspective on several issues. That is not to say that I agreed with everything she said, but I always enjoyed reading her well-written, funny, honest essays. I devoured this book in a couple of days of reading it when I could steal a moment or two. It is hard to put down. I feel renewed pride in calling myself a liberal.

Katha Pollitt has a way of getting to the heart of the matter. So, for example, in an essay about the school-uniforms discussion in New York City, she starts out by noting that the "public school systen has libraries without books," that a girl was killed in one school by falling debris - and then, later - she is onto the school uniforms debate - in perspective. If you read the Nation, these essays are a terrific reprise. If you don't, you will find that they are smart, brief (a few pages at most; think of a long, utterly incisive newspaper editorial), and for students, a series of very good examples of political writing. Humor, wit, and a high level of caring about the things that matter. Some are grounded in the politics and goings-on of New York City, where Pollitt lives, but many are of national (and international) interest. Great collection.

Las huelgas de 1934 que forjaron el movimiento
sindical industrial en el mediooeste
norteamericano y ayudaron a allanar el camino
para el ascenso del Congreso de Organizaciones
Industriales (CIO), relatadas por un dirigente
central de esas batallas. El primero en una serie de
cuatro tomos sobre el liderazgo de lucha de clases
de las huelgas y campa?as de sindicalizaci?n que
transformaron el sindicato de los Teamsters en gran
parte de esa regi?n en un movimiento social
combativo y se?alaron el camino hacia la acci?n
politica independiente de la clase obrera. Incluye
una nueva introducci?n a la edici?n en espa?ol
por Jack Barnes.

THIS REVIEW IS ALSO BEING USED FOR TEAMSTER POWER WHICH IS A CONTINUATION OF THE STORY PRESENTED HERE. THE POLITICAL POINTS ARE VALID FOR BOTH BOOKS.

ORGANIZE WALMART! ORGANIZE THE SOUTH! These are the slogans which outline the tasks that the American labor movement, particularly the organized trade union movement under the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Coalition, need to address. With those tasks in mind it was refreshing for this old militant to re-read Farrell Dobbs' analysis of the fight to organize the truckers in the 1930's. This volume, and an earlier one detailing the struggles to organize truckers in Minneapolis, are little handbooks for model labor organizing. Dobbs himself was instrumental in organizing the truckers of Minneapolis in the great strikes in that city in 1934 and as documented here the later, successful organizing of the over the road drivers in the Midwest which created the modern, powerful Teamsters International Union. He was, more importantly, a supporter of what later in the decade became the Socialist Workers Party- American section of the Trotsky-led Forth International.

Whatever else may be true about Dobbs this man could organize workers. Why? The last sentence in the previous paragraph gives the answer. In the modern labor movement it is not enough to be a militant on the picket line but one must also have a political approach to labor actions. With the merging of corporate and governmental interests on the labor question in the modern state militants better think politically. As the December, 2005 unsuccessful struggle of the transport workers in New York City demonstrated militants better know the enemy and his tactics well. Moreover, these days, unlike in the 1930's when it went without question by advanced workers, it is as important to know there is an enemy. On the other hand think what it would be like to have a political militant like Dobbs organizing the drivers of those 7000 trucks that Wal-Mart owns to distribute its merchandise. You get my drift. Read what he has to say carefully.

To even introduce this militant labor leader of the 1930's is to state the fundamental problem of today's labor leaders. They do not exist in the modern labor movement. Yes, there are militants out there in the rank and file but militant leaders are no longer produced and that is the rub. Unlike the strategy of independent political action which underlined Dobbs' work the strategy of today's labor leaders can be summed up in two words- class collaboration. That is a strategy of dependence by the labor movement on the good will of the `friends of labor', essentially the Democratic Party- not to fight for victory in the streets but by what at times amounts to parliamentary cretinism. Just start to organize Wal-Mart seriously or organize the South and militants will quickly see who their `friends' are.

The natural audience for this book are today's labor activists so the reviewer would draw attention to the following issues that Dobbs and his associates had to confront and which militants today will confront in any serious organizing efforts. (1)The role of the labor bureaucracy in limiting the scope of struggle. (2) The role of governmental mediators, courts, legislation and the above-mentioned `friends of labor' in curtailing the struggle. (3) The role of scabs and others, including government troops, who will try to break the up the struggle. On the positive side- the following should be noted; have your own publicity organ to get out your message; organize other labor and pro-labor sources to assist in strike action; anticipate that governmental and corporate sources will try to `freeze' workers out so have your own transport, commissary and medical operations. Finally, in the words of the old Wobblie song by Joe Hill- "Don't Mourn, Organize!!

In rereading this book I was struck by what a wonderful thing it was that these rank and file workers were able to change history by creating, out of their struggle, an example of revolutionary unionism. It was wonderful for them and is wonderful for us, because it shows what we can do today. This book also tells the story of how Farrell Dobbs learned that he could trust in both the fighting capacity of the working class and the leadership capabilities of its vanguard. Through powerful examples Dobbs describes the dog-eat-dog viciousness of capitalism and contrasts it with the desire on the part of young fighters to break through the backstabbing and open up a road to workers' solidarity. This book could change your life. Amazon may list this book as unavailable from time to time, but it's always available from the Pathfinder z store. Click on "new and used" at the top of the page.

Dobbs, a leader of the 1934 Minneapolis Teamster strike, which became a citywide general strike, tells its story. The battles with the companies, cops, strike breakers, and their hangers-on are told with masterful effect. It also shows the rising industrial unions as organizations of working-class struggle, taking on the employers and its government. But the real gem at the heart of this tale is how the unfolding struggle transformed ordinary workers, including Dobbs himself, into extraordinary fighters, thinkers, and revolutionary leaders.

Farrell Dobbs was a coal-yard worker and one of the central leaders of the 1934 strikes when in his twenties. Some forty years later Dobbs was the national secretory of the Socialist Workers Party and wrote down an account of his experiences working in the coal yards and becoming involved in unionist movement organizing the drive to establish Teamsters Local 574 and the rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) as an effective nation-wide instrument to better working conditions for men and women like himself. Teamster Rebellion is Dobbs account of the hard-fought strike actions which were often all out battles with law enforcement and hired thugs operating as strike breakers in the employ of the exploitative company owners and such big-business fronts as Citizen Alliance. Teamster Rebellion is a welcome and recommended addition to academic and community library American Labor History collections.

This book is a masterful combination of historical research and party analysis that will reshape the way we think of political parties. Frymer argues convincingly that party institutions have generally sought to marginalize the issue of racial injustice in American politics. A major contribution to the literature from a young scholar and excellent teacher.

It is great that now everyone can see what a brilliant mind Paul Frymer is. I took three classes with him at UCLA and he really turned me onto American politics. He showed us what was wrong and how we could go about making it better. The focus was not here is what I think and you must like it, the structure allowed for free thought and contemplation. This is something that is obvious in his writing.

I took 4 classes that Prof. Frymer taught at UCLA and was quite impressed with his teaching methods. Prof. Frymer's book, I believe, eloquently summarizes what he tried to convey in those lectures. Written on the level as that of Lani Guinier's work, I hope that Prof. Frymer's book will be able to open the eyes of the typical politician who seems to be disconcerned with such issues and only to win big. Thank you Professor Frymer.

Prof. Frymer has written a book that many different audiences will find useful. Political scientists will appreciate his skill in demonstrating a counter-intuitive, and yet ultimately convincing, account of race and party politics. Those from other academic fields will be grateful for Frymer's decision to eschew political science jargon, and will find that the book makes contributions to our understanding of history and law. Finally, non-academics will find the book both accessible and informative. I highly recommend "Uneasy Alliances."

This is one of the best books I've read on race in America. It shows why racism persists, and how our political leaders collude in its persistence. It takes on conventional wisdom among intellectuals and political leaders, and it does so in a way that is accessible to an average reader. I can't praise it too highly.

The War for America has short, easily digestible chapters, and although much of the data is disturbing, I was compelled to read more. I had given up trying to understand politics and what drives the political parties, but thanks to this book I GET IT. Plus, I got the added bonus of understanding the impact and responsibility of my choices on the world and the environment. This is not just a matter of Republican vs. Democrat. It is a fight for our rights to grow and change as a society while the conservative-right holds tightly to keeping things "the way they have always been". Progress has never been made, nor freedom won, with this philosophy. Mr. Morris provides the past, present and future of the critical issues of our time. He provides solid information that is very well documented (unusual for a political book). Information that is designed to educate and join people together rather than elicit further polarization. He manages to do this without the rhetoric, name calling and fear-mongering I've come to expect from politics and political books. I now understand that this is not just an American problem and I'll never look at the choices I make the same way again. Thanks for showing us the world-view and motivating me to become involved in politics for the first time.

Morris's call for a new kind of leadership, that is able to handle the complexities of the increasingly complex world, is not only apt but is long been wanted. Morris does not imply a cosmetic change, but a fundamental change based on a systemic perspective that acknowledges the interconnected of with each other and with the environment. The problem, however, I feel is that humans are fundamentally limited in their cognitive process to be divisive and fragmented. Our psychological evolution has not really caught up with its technological and biological counterparts. Hope it does, lest it spells disaster!

Langdon Morris brings the dream of the Founding Fathers into critical and poignant focus, by envisioning history as a compilation of multiple generations of human ambitions, accomplishments and follies. His basic premise is that we have simply been overwhelmed by the complex technological social environment we have created, and that the forces of biological evolution have not yet had time to respond to the new techno-environment in which we live and work on a day-to-day basis. He points out that if we are to avoid a global economic and environmental disaster, we must martial a boldness of vision to move beyond our conservative attitudes of denial, and our dependence on fundamentalist doctrines of present mainstream thought and political leadership. He highlights the fact that the decline of every great civilization that preceeded us, has its roots in economic collapse, and complexity, which overwhelmed the social consciousness of the times. For us to advance to the next stage of human evolution, Morris urges us to detach our thinking from our conservative roots, which are wedded to mountains of past written dogma, overly simplistic ideas. and overwhelming fear of change. To renew the dream of America's Founding Fathers, Morris suggests that a new set of Leaders will emerge, who will have the ability to "create their own context," and will build a set of inspiring and positive futures which will include America and the larger Global Economy, involving intelligent management of new emerging technologies. This new Spirit of Leadership would thus function to creats a brighter and more positively spirited America for both the present and future generations, and also help create a better life for people everywhere on Earth. Elliott Maynard, Ph.D. Arcos Cielos Research Center, Sedona, Arizona.

The War for America is written with purpose, intelligence, passion and a clear sense of history. It wants to revive the spirit of why the United States of America was founded in the first place; to embody freedom and democracy. It spells out with unabashed candor and bias how the current holders of the reins of government are betraying the promise upon which this nation was founded i.e., to be an heroic leader in the world not the archetype for shallowness, consumerism, jingoism and arrogance. A few weeks ago when I went to take the oath of U.S. citizenship I carried a copy of the War for America with me. Partly because I happened to be reading it then, but partly because the book represents for me what is great about America: freedom of thought and expression, courage, creativity, inclusion, service and heroism. As I said the oath I thought of how fragile this republic is and how another few years of the Patriot Act, pre-emptive war and "national security" as a pretext for tighter controls could ruin everything forever. If the War for America contributes to our accepting the challenge of heroic leadership again it should be a best seller for years!

Morris captures the underlying motivations behind the Republican Party's ideologies in this carefully researched and well-written book. Clearly identified, explained and substantiated, Morris exposes the blind spots in the right wing's manipulative strategies and how they affect the critical human challenges we're facing today and will be facing in the future. Discussions on morality, global positioning, resources, the economy, the environment, education and many other 21st century issues are thorough, and in aggregate, downright disturbing.

The author weaves the imperative for stronger liberal leadership throughout the book, and draws a clear road map for the Democratic Party to follow in order to meet and defeat those currently in power.

Further still, he gives us hope (when we we're all wondering if there was any way out of this mess that we ourselves have created!) Addressing methodologies to deal with these enormous and yet interrelated problems, Morris invites us to draw on informed intelligence, systems thinking, and a new model of leadership to design a new tomorrow that works for everyone.

This book is a must-read for anyone that holds strong political beliefs no matter where he or she may fall on the political spectrum, but is most palatable to those who are socially, globally and environmentally conscious.

This book is a perfect summary of the dark side of humanitarian work. Unequipped, unprepared contract workers who are unprotected and essentially thrown to the wolves.

The author answers an fax looking for boat drivers and the only preparation he's given is a night at a bar and told to watch out for displaced wildlife. From the moment he steps off the plane it goes downhill. Even a good deed ends in tragedy because he doesn't understand the population he's trying to help.

Mostly though this is an indictment of the conditions the relief workers have to deal with because different UN agencies and Non governmental organizations all want to show how much they are "helping". The individuals may do good things but the organizations use it to play politics.

Burnett provides a vivid picture of the logistics and politics surrounding relief work as well as the dangers and difficulties of doing this work in a war zone. What I liked best about this book is he didn't enter into this job with any particular altruistic or political agenda. As a result Burnett is able to paint a rather honest and impartial picture of NGOs, the UN, the people of Somalia and his fellow aid workers. The book is written in a way that lets you experience what he experienced. It is a personal account that keeps you turning the pages.

This is a well-written, fast-paced book that sheds an important light on relief work, its benefits and its risks. I knew very little about the floods in Somalia, and this was a great lesson as to what I missed.
Great read. You won't be disappointed.

This book reads like a bullet train from New York to Mogadishu, from heaven to hell, a pageturner if ever there was one. You get a privileged insight into the life of a reliefworker, a first hand account of the absurd madness of a godforsaken place where anarchy rules and where lives have no value.

Speedboats donated by western governments to distribute relief supplies quickly turn into perfect terror tools for local warlords, who find them to be ideal to impose their will on the population, specially when mounted with a machine gun...

John Burnett completely repaints the picture that I had in my mind of a relief worker. Only guts, ingenuity and a whole lotta luck will help you to get out alive of a place like this.

From the comfort of your home to the nightmare of Somalia is just a book away...

Superbly written and very hard to put down, this book throws quite a few surprises. Burnett provides first-hand insight into the adventurous and dangerous world of those on the field who distribute humanitarian aid.

Relief workers, like those they are trying to help, survive crocodiles, snakes and hippos, feuding warlords, and child soldiers. At the same time they are dealing with competing aid organisations and governments' political and military agendas. Through tears, anger and frustration, he reveals what it is like trying to save lives in a war zone.

this book smashes the Warren report into a million peices in an unbiased way based upon facts logic and evidence.Mrs.Meagher proves that Oswald was innocent and that the warren report was a sham!she examines and dismantles every so called evidence the report had on oswald!!Oswald was innocent we the people are his defense counsel!this book has to be reprinted get it out there!!highly recommended!

Ms. Meagher's book is well documented, insightful and detailed. She skillfully takes the reader through discrepancies in the Warren Commission report and lays it all out for the reader. Her conclusions are based on facts that are very clearly presented, and on common sense. At no time did I get the impression that this book was attempting to influence my views on the work of the Warren Commission. Ms. Meagher spells it out for the reader step by step.

Reading this book makes you wonder how many police departments and courts actually did what they were supposed to back in the 1960s, and how they're doing today. Ms Meagher does an excellent job breaking down the Warren Commission's report and demonstrating that their synopsis of events is based on multiple errors, misstatements, and wishful thinking. Having come out before most of the "conspiracy theory" genere that surrounds JFK assassinations tories today, Ms. Meaghers book stands above all of them. She refuses to let her book wander into sensationalism, does not implicate UFO's or any such things, nor does she mix in photos which claim to show the truth but are often blurry, grainy or totally unrevealing to the lay reader. Instead, she stays on target, picking apart the Warren Commission's flawed analysis with nimble wit and skill.

Of all the books about the JFK assassination, why is ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT out of print? If you want to read books on how the Norweigian mob hired hitmen from the Planet Glixorg and had the assassination covered up by their media insider, Soupy Sales, there are dozens of books. But the one book to take a serious look at the Warren Commission's Report, to pick apart its inaccuracies, and to analyze its contradictions, is becoming harder and harder to find. Even Gerald Posner, in his tantrum, CASE CLOSED, could not lay a finger on the late Sylvia Meagher's masterwork. Why? Because it is a precise, unimpassioned, and brilliant piece of exploratory surgery on a very sick Warren Report. This book proves the Commission had a single purpose, and finding the truth was not that purpose. The lack of access to Sylvia Meagher's ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT is, to me, a tragic mistake and possible proof of a continuing cover-up.

Back in the early 70s I worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide on a Senate Commitee trying to reopen the Kennedy assassination or generate support for a House investigation. This was in the post-Garrison era and the credibility of anyone challenging the Warren Commission was suspect. (We now know that many of Garrison's failings were due to sabotage, but back then he was still radioactive to Senators, Representatives, and their staffs.)

Anyway, after all the backlash following the Clay Shaw acquittal it was still a tough sell, and the typical Congressman would give you no more than 5-10 minutes time to make your case, so we needed a one or two page list of powerful bullet points demonstrating that Oswald could not have acted alone, if he acted at all, and showing that the Warren investigation was compromised by the FBI and the CIA. These were serious allegations, so each
point had to be backed up by solid proof.

At the time, there were 5-6 serious books damning the Warren Commision Report: Inquest, by Edward J Epstein; Rush to Judgment by Mark Lane; Six Seconds in Dallas by Josiah Thompson; Whitewash by Harold Weisberg; and They've Killed the President by Robert Sam Anson.

In creating that fact sheet, no book was more carefully documented than Accessories after the Fact, and no book was more comprehensive and meticulous.

When we had to source each bullet point Meagher's book did the best job in directing us to the proof.

I left the Hill in 76--before the HSCA was created, and it has always bitter disappointment to me how its own work appears to ha ve been sabotaged, not unlike what happend to Garrison.

In the years since I have retained a keen interest in this topic, and at last count have read over 40 books. Meagher's book still remains one of the two or three best books written about JFK's death. In fact I consider it one of the best forensic investigation reports I have ever read in 25 years of practicing civil rights litigation.

This book was used as the underlying basis to understanding the policy process in my graduate level class that I took recently.

Overall I would give this book 5 stars because it is relatively thorough and it encompasses a great deal in a concise model that is easy to understand.

Kingdon discusses that his model is set within three streams, problem, policy and political. Each of these streams have their own unique characteristics that work to help merge with the others. When these streams, ideally all three, a policy window opens where action on policy can occur by a decision-making body such as Congress. With the help of policy entrepreneuers, national mood, policy communities, and much more as agents amongst these streams, each work to produce change on the agenda.

As this class was titled the policy process that I took, it explained how it began but this book does not cover how the process moves once something has been acted upon on the agenda.

If you are looking for understanding more about activity leading up to action, this is a great book. If you are looking to understand the process afterwards, this may not be the right book, but it will help you understand the forces leading up to a process of change.

Definitely, I would recommend this for any political science class at the undergraduate level. I am glad that I was fortunate enough to have it assigned in my grad level policy process class.

Kingdon has produced an innovative and useful theory of the policy process. This book is clearly not intended for the lay reader, but for political scientists and policy specialists interested in theorizing about policy formation.

Kingdon's writing style is somewhat formal, and at times stiff, but the book is easy to get through. Kingdon provides many concrete examples of the ideas he discusses, making the abstract principles easier to understand.

Recommended for classes on the policy process, especially in conjunction with Baumgarter and Jones' Agendas and Instability in American Politics.

I am in the graduate program at American University's School of Public Affairs. This book was required for one of the core classes. The theory--the dynamic, fluid model that Kingdon builds in this book has been practically adopted as THE mantra within policy formation/agenda setting research.
The book is well organized and easy to follow. It is not a challenging read but I found sections of the book to be a bit dry. Also, be ready to contend with literally hundreds of fluid metaphors that Kingdon employs throughout the book.

John Kingdon attempts to answer very difficult questions in his work "Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies." What makes an idea's time come? What makes people in and around government attend to some subjects and not to others? In short, Kingdon explores how ideas become policy in his 1994 award-winning book.

The book makes many interesting conclusions, as Kingdon uses scientific research methods to discuss how ideas become policy. It is amazing that Kingdon is able to quantify how influential certain groups are to policy formulation and implementation. In doing this, he looks at the influence of groups in and outside of government. Kingdon then goes onto his major two concepts of the policy primeval soup and the political stream. Both of these are wonderful illustrations of how policymaking happens.

In the end, this is a great book for public policy students. My only complaint is that Kingdon is oftentimes too wordy. It seems that he could have written a much more effective piece by summing it up in a 40-page journal article. In any event, the book is worth the read, even if some chapters are only skimmed.

Agenda setting, in the world of politics, is when a problem becomes identified as an issue that calls for government attention, discussion, and--possibly--decision making. This book is one of the most important works on agenda-setting.

John Kingdon has stated that:

Political events flow along according to their own dynamics and their own rules. Participants perceive swings in national mood, elections bring new administrations to power and new partisan or ideological distributions to Congress, and interest groups of various descriptions press (or fail to press) their demands on government.

The author sees three streams that must come together for an issue to be placed on the agenda--a political stream (just noted above), a policy stream (in which some policy proposal emerges as "best"), and a problem stream (a problem develops that people label as important). If they come together and if the window of opportunity for success is there, then the issue can become an agenda item. If the streams do not come together, agenda placement is unsuccessful--as with President Clinton's health care plan. That plan had two of three requirements in place. One, the political stream was supportive. A new President had been elected with his party having a majority in both houses of Congress; furthermore, Clinton outlined as a campaign issue support for a more ambitious health care program for Americans. The confluence of these two factors produced something like a "mandate" for change. Two, the problem stream saw health care bubbling up toward the top. That is, increasingly, people seemed to define health care as a serious problem about which something had to be done.

Nonetheless, no major initiative emerged to be fully considered. Clinton's plan was very nearly DOA (dead on arrival) once serious discussion began. Why? No single policy proposal garnered enough support. Democrats supported several different plans--such as a single payer system (in which government becomes the insurer), "pay or play" (in which businesses would largely fund health care insurance), and the Clinton plan itself (which focused on managed care). Thus, the policy stream never did "come together" around any single proposal. As a result, the initiative died and no substantial changes were forthcoming in the health care system.

What emerges in each stream is, to a large extent, "contingent," depending upon many factors--including chance. The result is unpredictability.

It may be that this work overemphasizes chance and contingency and underplays the role of human agency (for instance, the role of policy entrepreneurs who labot to get issues placed on the agenda and acted upon). Nonetheless, this is an exemplary work and well worth attending to if one is interested in setting the political agenda.

Many times I listened and have many of
the taped conversations of the late, great
Sherman H. Skolnick, a dedicated toiler
for America's cause, on the Tom Valentine
Radio Free America show (not the show of the
same name now by Carto crony, Masonic nitwit
Rick Adams, a scam artist from Rhode Island!).

Anyone wanting to contact me at richsalzerat
yahooodotcom, I will provide my cassettes
tape list of all the Sherman Skolnick / Tom
Valentine tapes. Mr. Valentine met the para-
plegic Mr Skolnick in Chicago back in the '60's
when Tom was Sports Editor of the Chicago Sun
Times and later Tribune. The writings of Mr.
Skolnick belong in the library of all Ameri-
cans right next to those of the late Col. L.
Fletcher Prouty! And Tom's own great literary
writings!

Why have you, Amazon.com, not printed an explanation as to the doubled pricing of this book? Your silence pertaining to this previously asked question, makes many, with good reason, wonder exactly what type of "business" you run. You owe us all, your paying customers, a response for this blatant price gauge!

Great book, unfortunately, Amazon for some bizarre reason has doubled the list price. You can order the book directly from the publisher for around $20. Who are you beholdened to Amazon?

Why is this book priced so above the cost? Amazon?

Unarguable facts. Amazon sell this at twice the price, and they sell Harry Potter at half the price. You see my friends, keeping people in ignorance is big business.