Events Books

Just finished reading the book by Bill Mandelaris ("Greg") entitled 'A CLASH OF VALUES' and have to admire his sense of values and his wide knowledge of the media and its negative affect on the average person. The chapters on the electronic media, trash talk, and a broken moral compass were much to the point. I thought that the chapter captioned 'empowered to fight back' was especially inshghtful. Also, I was very pleased to see the dedication page showing the picture of Jerry, who was like an older brother to me in my youth. As a former teacher of junior high school kids in the inner City (1992-1997), I can related to what Bill says about the media and other outside influences undermining our family principles.

I have a two-and-a-half year old son, and this book really hit home on the importance of taking control of teaching our families the values we want and not defaulting the responsibility to the media. It should be used as a text book for families on things we need to do in order to take control back from the media in raising our families and teaching them correct principles. It is written by someone who has worked within the media circle who clearly understands the negative influence that must be proactively overcome and the author gives a clear way of doing so. I think every parent needs to be aware of the constant battle that is being waged every day for our families moral values. "A Clash OF Values" has not only made me aware that there is a war being waged but has given me the knowledge and insight to win the every day battles and long-term fight for my families moral well being. I also appreciated the authors candid and honest belief in God. He is a true Christian and is not afraid to admit that this is the true way to our families happiness.

Completed Bill Mandelaris' book "A Clash of Values" and have to admire his sense of values and wide knowledge of the media and it's negative effect on the average person. The Chapters on "The Elctronic Media", "Trash Talk", and "A Broken Moral Compass" were much to the point. I also thought that the Chapter captioned "Empowered to Fight Back" was especially insightful. As a former teacher of junior high school kids in the inner City of Detroit for five years, I can relate to what Bill says about the media and other outside influences undermining our family principles.

We are living in a day where absolute moral values have been reduced to "relative guidelines" cleverly manipulated by the media. In A Clash Of Values, William Mandelaris succinctly outlines what every parent needs to know to minimize the risk of children being exposed to an unbridled culture of smut, gratuitous violence and ungodly conduct operating under the guise of entertainment. This book is right on target. It is honest, evocative and passionate. Chapter 5 regarding the incremental breakdown of the family and Chapter 11 revealing how we are empowered to fight back were particularly profound. Read this book and you will become convinced as I was, that only a purposeful approach to parenting will do. William Mandelaris cares deeply about what kind of world our children will inherit. I highly recommend this book to everyone with the same heart for our kids and their moral destiny.

Bill Mandelaris is a man you can count on to speak from the heart, with long experience in the college of hard knocks, 25 years of puplic speaking, working as a radio commentator of over 25 years in the media dominated world, he knows the heart and gutts of what makes the media do some of the unfamily things they do. My perception as a reader of his book is it's simple to understand why the media has become the Cyclops it has become...Greed, and NOT family values. He also gives us a guide as to how to fight to bring some sanity for ones family and ones country when viewing the daily media hype which many families have given up and given into when viewing TV, movies, ect. Most American have given their children to the media without firing one shot against those who care not one wit for Americas past values. It's a book from Bills sizable loving heart, which you can sense on each and every page. I have read the book over several times because I have a grandaughter I love and cherish. You should have one on your coffee table before turning on your TV set.

I have had the pleasure of actually working with Bob Gilbreath at a very difficult client, and let me be direct: He is the real deal. Bob can dissect, diffuse, and elevate in the most difficult situations. This book conveys perfectly Bob's proven strategies for moving people from where they are to where they need to be. The only way his next book will be better is if it shows us how to figure out what he has discovered before he actually discovers it.

I am typically disappointed by business books that present a theory and some related anecdotes about the theory in 'action'. But, Bob Gilbreath's book provides real world application advice about how to 'compel' others to follow your lead. This book is geared toward people who are faced with the daily challenge of getting people to move in a desired direction, and if you are at all tasked to lead people (large groups or small) - this book is for you.

--Tim Galpin

I think there's something wrong with the Cover Jacket Design, and probably with the Title! This book deserve more that the few review and (probably) sales! The writer is a very successful speaker, but most probably the not a good marketers? i m not sure, but i think this is a GREAT BOOK with GOOD CONTENT.

I came across when opening several books and i was still unsure about this one, but there are no other books i can pick, so i bough this one, and it turn out to be a great book that i like very much.

There are only 201 pages with large fonts and not cramfull of printed letters but the insight and ideas are great. The book is about how to get others to act differently to affect a much better outcomes.

I like the MESSAGE, about how we should use the message in a communication to make other do the way we want them to.

Some biased in how people like to be persuaded, like: Simple over complex, powerful over weak, direct over subtle, predictable over possible, necessary over optimal, scare over abundant, want over need etc will make you a better communicator.

There are 4 chapters: MESSAGE, REACTION, GROUPTHINK and WITNESSING. I found golds scatter around that i can use, even that the whole book is not really that well narrated into one flow. But all in all this is a great book that will help you compel others.

With a title like 'Compel' and a man leading a donkey on the cover I guess I thought I was in for a manual on how to bludgeon my staff into submission or possibly how to hoodwink others into doing my will.

What I got was a rather eccletic but readable and insightful set of how to steps on leading, inspiring, and guiding others to change themselves. How many business books these days can cite the Talmud, Kahil Gibran, Thoreau, Picasso, Camus, Quintus Aurelium Symmanchus, and Dante -- all without seeming pretentious, strained, or misplaced?

Bob's recommendations on how to move others in your direction is both folksy and far-sighted; he interweaves many vignettes from professional experience and historical happenstance to elucidate his points.

I particularly like the analogy of the long distance runner and the effect of personal timepieces - that is one of those interesting factoids that, once learned, seems almost common sense but helps those of us searching for effective means of continuous feedback to search for better metrics.

If you are looking for a primer on how to motivate and lead others in a new direction, this is a must read prior to launching the effort.

One note of quibbling - I am not sure I agree with Bob's discussion of the 'Dark side of simplification' as I think he reduces the argument ad absurdum.

Compel attempts to teach you how to overcome opposition, in the author's own words, through "clarity over complexity, the direct over the subtle." This is an admirable goal and, I must say, this book is among the best that I've read that attempts to teach influence, persuasion or the answer to opposition in a simple way.

The book focuses in on four mechanisms of change:

-Message
-Reaction
-GroupThink
-Witnessing

Each chapter begins by defining the term on which the chapter is focused.

For example the first mechanism chapter, Chapter 1: Message, begins with this definition, "A usually short communication transmitted by words, signals or other means from one person, station or group to another." Certainly a simple definition, but the author's point is to teach you to shape your message so that it becomes a machanism for change. He provides a five step plan for doing this that is easy to remember and implement.


In order to influence reactions, the author suggests shaping the environment and setting or expressing expectations. This appears to be based on the well-known psychological principle that people tend to do what you expect them to do if the enviroment allows for it. This is sound management advice and is well-suited to the author's intentions.

I felt the GroupThink chapter was the least structured and beneficial in the book. I left the chapter feeling like I still wouldn't know how to implement the concepts, if it weren't for other books I had read such as Wikinomics and the The Starfish and the Spider. But then again, my reference to these two books may indicate that I did not fully understand the author's intent. He can certainly correct me, if I'm wrong.

Finally, the chapter on Witnessing - though short - was a nice wrap-up to the book. You leave the chapter feeling that you can indeed start to make a difference in the situations you're involved in and you also come away with some ideas of how to both create your own "witnesses" and apply other ideas in the book.

Overall, it is a good book on shaping people's thoughts and actions and will likely benefit any manager or leader.

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention.

This book serves well as both the intimate story of a family whose lives have been profoundly altered by AIDS, and an expose of the events that allowed this deadly disease to invade them.

While the average American probably believes, as I did until recently, that the infection of thousands of hemophiliacs with the AIDS virus was an unavoidable tragedy, DePrince uncovers the awful truth that for many, if not most, hemophiliacs, infection with AIDS and the deadly hepatitis C virus was not only avoidable, but that the government and hemophilia profiteers (like Bayer "The Aspirin People") chose not to act to produce a safer product in favor of bigger profits.

DePrince also reminds us that the tragedy experienced by the hemophilia community isn't an isolated incident. Many millions of Americans are exposed to blood products each year, sometimes unknowingly, which means anyone at anytime could find themselves facing infection with HIV, HCV, or perhaps some unknown virus making its way into the blood supply today. Blood safety is an important issue to everyone - not just those who rely on blood products regularly. DePrince also advocates for the passage of the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act which provides compassionate payments to victims of this disaster along with important improvements to blood safety.

Read this book as if your life depended on it.

This book provides a great overview of simple DT moves and how to employ them. I found it to be easy to read and follow along with the instructions. The pictures in the text were clear and understandable and matched the descriptions given in the text. I enjoyed the text very much and thought it was a good book.

Highly recommended manual not just for law enforcement officers but also for martial artist too!

Kane really provides an outstanding review here, so I am in a sense writing to "pile on" the accolades hoping to increase sales for this book. It is, without a doubt, the epitome in the Defensive Tactics milieu. Loren Christensen's body of work really speaks for itself, but to those who are unfamiliar, he is one of the foremost experts in the world, providing street experience with analytical study to provide a text that is comprehensive as a text can possibly be while still providing the basic information without losing the targeted audience.

I remember when I started out as a DT instructor in the early 90s. Essentially, my unit knew I was a black belt and said "you can teach this stuff, why hire someone or send officers to an expensive seminar." Cocky as I was, I said, "Sure." Soon, I found myself going to seminar after seminar to prepare myself to teach because I discovered after my first DT class I was inadequacy prepared to teach DT. This led me to become an expert in the field myself (although it has been awhile since I taught a course). I wish this book had been around back then, it would have saved me some seminar fees. I must also say that my sensei is also one of the foremost experts in the field and I also was able to "pick his brain."

This book will help first time instructors as well as police officers preparing to enter a course or refresher course. Further, to any police (or possible) recruit - get the book and prepare yourself before entering the academy. Further, those entering security force career fields with the military should also get this fine text.

The book covers everything from controlling breathing, fear, adrenaline, to employing restraint and beyond. If you are a DT instructor or a police officer, get the book now - don't delay.

In the hustle and bustle of day to day life how often do we get to train? For most of us time is a scarce commodity, with little to spare. With such little time left over for training and the lack of frequency to keep our razor edge sharp, the majority of us walk around dulled, maybe even rusty. Don't be fooled by confidence or pride, it is that razor sharp edge that can make all the difference.

So with such little time to spare, Defensive Tactics fits the bill. The book itself was an easy read, enjoyable and well laid out, and explained things very clearly. Two things about this book really stood out at me. First, the surprising number of photos; I can't remember another book at this value having so many pictures. It was like having a step by step guide to each technique. The second was Loren's voice, as I read the book it was as if I could here Loren speaking to me. Each chapter was laid out clearly, and was simple and to the point. Long-winded explanations were saved for another day or book quite possibly.

This is a book that I have recommended to my own friends and colleagues, and would suggest for anyone who wants to improve their skills. There is something new for every level of skill and can be used as great aid in training. I see this book as another great effort by Loren to keep all his readers sharp and ready for action.

Dave

I don't throw that claim around lightly. I've been an police academy DT instructor, have a second degree black belt in karate and have been doing BJJ for several years now. Loren dosen't present anything new in this book, instead he takes all the things were taught in the academy and teaches it the right way. I like most cops have little faith in joint locks and come alongs and the like because they never seemed to work. Loren shows all the fine details that we were never taught, Easy details that were missed because most academy DT instructors are nothing but 40 hour wonders.

The way Loren shows the techniques are very easy to translate into your own practice but make no mistake about it you still have to practice these moves and Loren constantly reinforces that. That actually is the best part of this book is that Loren's delivery is very common sense oriented and often humorous. Psrt of my own teaching style I have developed by emulating Loren's techniques in his other books.

My only contribution is that the ground fighting section is a great section but as someone who does it weekly I can say with the utmost confidence that you really need professional instruction in that to do it right. The author of that section for instance demonstrates the "hip away" or shrimping as it is known. That is a great technique but I can't stress enough the need to put your duty rig on including your radio and then try the hip away on concrete or the grass. The common hip slide on the mat will not work as your gun and radio act as anchors. You have to learn to modify the technique.

In closing this book offers simple, effective and task specific techniques that one can use to supplement their own martial arts training. The book is briskly paced and laid out in a simple logicial manner that makes it fit great in my training bag so that I can have it on hand to reference it.

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Cry Havoc: The Great American Bring-Down and How It Happened

I have always considered "Dialectical Imagination" an indispensable research tool, but until the publication of Ralph de Toledano's "Cry Havoc: The Great American Bring-down and How It Happened," Martin Jay had a monopoly on the history of the Frankfurt School. More than a decade after Jay's publication, Cry Havoc is an excellent companion piece, by a strong critic of the Frankfurt School who personally knew many of the operatives of the ISR network at Columbia University, and many of the operatives of the Comintern of the 1940s and 1950s. A great combination.

I remember having read this book when it first came out, some 25 years ago. It was a good book then and it is a good book now. I read the book originally while at college when the smoke had just cleared from the sixties and there was still glamor associated with the New Left and its antecedents in Germany's prewar years. Reading the book now, although it is every bit as good as scholarship, places that particular generation of mainly Jewish, upper-middle class Marxists in a new light. The odor of revolution is long gone, the USSR has fallen, left-leaning professors dominate academe but the audience for chic revolutionaries has withered away along with the proletariat they were counting on. There is something faintly hilarious about these pompous Herr Professors and their trust-fund institute grinding out "studies" on the future of Marxism. Did not one of them ever wonder how they would maintain their elitist lifestyle were the revolution to ever actually occur? These guys were smoking-jacket intellectuals who were about as interested in seeing the world change as blue-blooded WASPs who prefer to play bridge while listening to Vivaldi. No wonder they ran back to Germany after the war to take up chaired professorships, never mind their appointments came from men who had just taken off their Nazi uniforms. The Frankfurt school is certainly very interesting and this book serves as a wonderful introduction , but for God sake don't think they can offer any guidance to how to lead the revolution.

This was one of the best books I read in graduate school. After 20 years this is still a great reference for anyone interested in the development of American universities. This work is an essential part of the intellectual landscape to anyone navigating the currents of the reactionary neocon thought, which developed in large degree in opposition to the legacy of the Frankfurt School. While the Frankfurt School's students seemed to dominate academe for a generation or more, the new invisible college is dominated by the reaction to this major stream of thought.

28 years after its initial publication, Martin Jay's "The Dialectical Imagination" is still the best introduction and most indispensable guide to the Frankfurt School's history and thinkers. Jay can easily be forgiven his occasional historiographer's dryness and insistent reminders of the boundaries of his project (I would be a rich man if I had a nickel for every time he writes that "such considerations fall outside of the area of the current inquiry" or something to that effect). Moreover, even if subsequent publications of the translated correspondence and unpublished papers of figures like Benjamin and Adorno have robbed Jay's book of some of its potential for novelty and scoop, Jay still provides the best and most pithy assessments of the major points, and he does so without sacrificing the scholarly rigor that organizes "The Dialectical Imagination."

The book could certainly better fulfill its role as research tool if the publishers would sponsor an updating of the notes and citations; now that everything has been published and republished by presses like Fischer and Suhrkamp in Germany and by the likes of Continuum, Columbia, Harvard, etc., in the English-speaking world, Jay's opus might be more helpful were it not to insist on citing the original issues of the institute's journals, to which most of us simply don't have easy access.

That's a small bone to pick, though, with such a thorough book. Jay's chapter on the philosophical roots of critical theory moves quickly but surely (despite the occasional dependence on disciplinary argot that may slow down readers not steeped in the vocabulary of "isms"), providing a crucial backdrop to his reading of the Frankfurt School's entire intellectual contribution. This chapter grounds Jay's book safely, and the subsequent chapters make good on this very promising start.

"The Dialectical Imagination" is sure to remain the best available introduction to the thought of the Frankfurt School on the whole. I cannot recommend it highly enough for those interested in the history of philosophy in the 20th century, in radical politics, or in developments in literary theory.

Frankfurt school is now a part of history. Not much of its arguments are reproduced now a day. For example, their critical cultural theory opened up the vast terrain of cultural study in capitalism. But their characterizing cultural consumer as dumb passive receiver is too much extreme to be real. Now nobody hold up such a position. Its perspective seems locked in the interwar period. Indeed, the power of the school comes from the distinctive problematic derived from such a peculiar era. But the strength is the source of weakness. But even we don¡¯t follow their lines, we should know what they said at least in cursory manner, for their theories are now classic in each field.
This book must be still the most authoritative history of Frankfurt school from its inception to 1950. but it deals with not only chronological events but also what the first generation of the school, such as Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, and Fromm, worked. This book is the intellectual history of the school. The author illustrates the school against the time of school. As Hegel said, thought is the child of its time. So the thought should be located in the right context to understand. The society of Western intellectuals faced a crisis in the interwar period. The impact was severe especially to German intellectuals. The thought of Frankfurt school is one of the reactions to the crisis. Marin Jay succeeds in reconstruct their time in front of us. This book is the ¡®must¡¯, if you want to be oriented to Frankfurt school.

Seriously, unless you have retreated into a dark cave to live the rest of your life, you've heard the news about the financial meltdown. Who's to blame? It's a tangled web, but assuming our government had something to do with it, you should buy this book. While seemingly a satirical poke at the goobers running our country, there are some good ideas which should be considered.

In all seriousness, maybe it's time we all did our part.

Check it out. You'll laugh. You'll cry. And you can actually read the Constitution (not in that crazy script handwriting they used back then) with all its Amendments, in case you never have. Very enlightening.

Thomas Jefferson recommended that every nineteen or twenty years, the constitution should be repaired so as to adjust to the new generation. The sacrosanct nature of the constitutional amendments thus has no basis in the wishes of the founding fathers. Nathaniel Whitten runs with this. In a half deadly serious, half humorous, tone, he suggests various amendments to the United States constitution, some of them brilliant, and a few facetious, yet also brilliant. If you've never considered the constitution - and how many of us have - now is you chance to familiarize yourself with the most important document in the history of the United States.

Nat Whitten does it again. A book like this is needed now more than ever. Highly recommended to anyone who likes to think.

This book provokes the kind of thinking we need -- with a sense of humor. We should need one now. Bravo to Nat Whitten, a man who knows how to think and write!

Written by the ingenious, iconoclastic and, at times, brilliantly inspired Nat Whitten, this is a great chapbook - with a bunch of solid laughs (and some interesting ideas) provided along the way. Here Whitten encourages every American to exercise their God-given (or, at least, Founding-Father-granted) right to petition the government for change - via the Constitutionally provided mechanism for proposing new amendments for that document.

And, just in case you might feel daunted by this awesome and legalistic-sounding task, the author provides the reader with a number (actually 26) of his own suggestions for amending this sacred, but too-little-changed, text. Some of these are pure tomfoolery (for instance, "Proposed Amendment XXXVI: Ensuring Strom Thurmond Doesn't Run Again - Even Though He's Dead"), but others caused me to take a serious pause and think about the advisability of the suggestion at hand. For instance, there was "Proposed Amendment XXXVIII: No Voter? No Motor." - which ensure greater participation in our democratic process by denying the renewal of your motor vehicle license unless you are certified as having voted in the last election. And a true favorite for was "Proposed Amendment XXXII: Right to Bear Arms, So Long as They're Muskets." Talk about reframing the discussion based on `the Founder's original intentions"!

Finally, to put the cap of seriousness on this whole enterprise, the book includes a copy of the original Constitution as passed by Congress in 1787 (isn't it interesting to read the painful circumlocutions used so that the word - but the facts of - slavery never appear in the document or the use of the word `militia' here - which can be so critical to certain readings of the 2nd Amendment) which is followed by each of the 27 amendments that have so far been passed and accepted for that document. I found this part of the reading sobering and impressive - leading me to wonder if Proposed Amendment LII (Requirement of All Citizens to Read the Constitution) might not have more merit than just trying to elicit a laugh out of me.

How could anyone with any kind of political sensitivity (and funny bone) NOT enjoy and be moved by this charming and witty book?

Tragic book, very well written. I suspect all of it is true. If 10% is true, people who care about America need to tell our leaders that things must change now. We must respect the rights of people we have in custody, whether they are Americans, Iraqis, or people without a country. Our leaders have embarrassed our country by doing the things outlined here. Respect for human rights should be our starting point.

In vivid, engaging prose uncommon among attorney authors, Clive Stafford Smith offers a startling first-hand account of America's most well-known gulag: the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay. Smith's volume places the U.S. Government's hypocrisy in the Bush II era on full display, with the prisoners there -- very few of whom, it appears, guilty of any crime at all (let alone legitimate involvement in Islamist terrorism) -- tragic protagonists in a prolonged tour through hell. Despite assiduous compliance with strict military classification and censorship requirements, Smith gives a stark account of torture, rendition, legal tricks, and a relentless war on due process -- by the same folks supposedly spreading "democracy" to the Middle East. With new precision details and personal prisoner histories, Smith's book is shocking even to those who never believed the news coverage. Read it with anger; the outrage is still going on.

If you haven't read Robert Conquest's seminal work The Great Terror about the purges, the show trials, law, and justice under Stalin, you might want to consider reading that first. Perhaps visit the Amazon site which has a quote from Harrison Salisbury saying the book is "an odyssey of madness, tragedy, and sadism". Then read Smith's eloquent book. Much is different, of course, but there is a lot that seems eerily similar. In Russia it was a crime to be suspected of anti-Soviet activities. This did not mean that you were actually guilty of such activities--it just meant that someone thought you might possibly be guilty, and being thought possibly guilty was a crime in itself, worthy of torture, a one-way trip to the cellars, or death in the labor camps. Evidence of guilt seemed to take a back seat to suspicion of guilt. Then read Smith's book.

The Russian show trials were carefully scripted, and designed to give the mostly leftist press in attendance and the rest of the world through media coverage the impression that the rules of law were being followed and that justice was indeed being carried out. Much of the world wanted to believe that the deviationist wreckers were truly guilty and deserved the ultimate punishment for trying to sabotage the workers' paradise. Reading Smith's book will show that the Stalinists were not the only ones who loved carefully scripted show trials before handpicked judges.

There is, as I've said, much that is different. In Russia, a popular sentence was "exile, without right of communication", a hypocritical euphemism for being shot in the cellars. In Guantanamo, as you'll see in the book, "detention, without right of communication", is not a sentence from a judge at a two-minute hearing, as in Russia. The criminal isn't taken to the cellars and shot, at least not at Guantanamo. Prior to some Supreme Court decisions, a prisoner could be held without right of communication for the duration of the war on terror, and since terrorism has been going on for thousands of years, there is no reason to think that many of the prisoners would have ever had a hearing or seen a lawyer for the rest of their life.

In Russia, family members could wait in long lines outside the Butyrka and other prisons with packages of food and clothing for their loved ones: if the package was accepted, it meant the spouse, brother, etc, was still alive there. If refused, they had been taken to the cellars or sent to a labor camp. No such bleeding-heart tenderness at Guantanamo.

Smith's book shows that there are some truly dangerous prisoners at Guantanamo--but there are too many who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. 11-year-old boys, 93-year-old men, goatherders (how do you prove that while herding goats you didn't meet with Bin Laden?),etc. Pakistan was happy to show it was doing its part in the war on terror by turning in Arabs and collecting nice bounties no questions asked. Kafka's novel The Trial is appropriate reading here. In Russia, the populace, as a whole, heartily endorsed Stalin's war on the wrecker saboteurs: someone, after all, must be to blame for all the problems, and an alternative obvious source to blame was not conducive to good health and long life. The people were not concerned about the rights of the accused, or legal niceties. In America, there is not widespread concern about legal niceties for a bunch of Moslems in Guantanamo and other places of detention. So if you read Smith's book, you'll find it quite depressing, especially if you've read The Great Terror. There's too much in Smith's book that most of us would prefer not to hear about or think about: we'd rather turn on the TV and see Happy News or a nice patriotic CSI TV show or something. It's a fine book, but not a fun one.

Imagine that you have been swept away to a prison, kept in solitary confinement and when taken out for questioning you are continually asked about the tomatoes you were carrying ( the translators don't always have a full command of dialects )and you have no idea what your interrogators want or if they are totally insane. Because this book is written from a lawyer's point of view and lays out only the facts ( only what he has been able to ascertain and what he is allowed to make known ) it takes some reflection and imagination to put yourself in the place of the detainees and savour the experience that they have had and continue to have.
In other words this isn't "Midnight Express", but a look at guantanamo, its rules, the U.S. military, the stories of a few of the detainees and the constitutional and humanitarian issues involved.

From various newspaper articles, I had heard that many of the people in Guantanamo Bay were innocent and that torture happens there. But all of that seemed very abstract until I read this book. I was frequently upset by the things I read in this book. It is difficult to read about torture, as well as your own goverment's ability to waste time, tax-payer money and other people's lives for information that bears no fruit, or worse, fruit that meets their pre-conceived notions. I think that is the saddest aspect of reading this book. Why is the government still detaining people for which there is hard evidence of their innocence? How can we be spending bllions of $$ on the war on terror, yet not get the detainees' ages and names correct?

Highlights of the book:

- How politically-charged the words 'terror' and 'torture' are.
- The account of Binyam Mohamed's 18-month torture abroad and his military trial.
- The discussion of the 'ticking time bomb' scenario, which is often used to justify torture, and why the detention and torture of people held longer than a day, let alone 3+ years, will likely give obsolete or false information.
- The discussion of how the US has given far more dangerous enemies of the past the benefit of a public trial, and our part in ensuring fair trials for Nazi war crime criminals.
- Portraits of people in Guantanamo, both detainess and Americans stationed there.
- Arguments for fair trials and open society versus the current policy of secrecy, torture and secret prisons, even for the baddest of the bad.

The last chapter, where Mr. Smith talks about the effect of the US's decisions on terrorism recruitment, reads more like political rant. I am sympathetic to the argument, but it is speculation. And frankly, not needed. The preceding chapters are powerful on their own. I would encourage people to read this book.

This book, especially the last 3 chapters, may just possibly be one of the most important non-fiction works every written. When claptrap like Marx's "Das Kapital" and Keyne's "The General Theory" eventually find their way into the dustbin of history, Benson's brilliant, understated work will give freedom-loving individuals much to dwell upon concerning the uselessness of the forced monopoly of force we euphemistically call "govern"ment. Goes way beyond even Murray Rothbard's outstanding "Power and Market."

Every one with an interest in toppling this socialist status quo, from laissez-faire economists and philosophers to activists in the liberatian political and militia movement should study this outstanding work. Mr. Benson lays down the framework for a true capitalist system as Adam Smith, Ayn Rand and Milon Friedman envisioned. I support radical reform but when it happens, what do we replace it with? This book is a good start.

Despite the impression one might draw from the other reviews here, this is not an overtly political tract. But some background on the author would be in order.

Benson is an economics professor at Florida State. Generally, his research interests involve law enforcement, the drug war, private security alternatives, arbitration, and the history of arbitration and privately-produced commercial law (the law merchant). I have never seen a writing by him in which he explains all of his personal views and opinions, but he's obviously a pretty serious libertarian and he's had some involvement with the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. Amazon discourages linking websites in reviews, but those interested could easily find his academic webpage by doing a google search for "Dr. Bruce L. Benson."

Benson is probably every bit the political extremist that I am, but this book doesn't really argue politics (mostly). It has a very fascinating history of the evolution of law in England, which forms the basis of modern American law, also. The presentation is mostly dry and academic, but the subject matter is completely fascinating, and Benson does a better job than any other writer in tying it all together to show the reader a picture of the historical origins of law, and the relationship between law and the state.

We have all been taught that the administration of law and justice is one of the purposes of government. Benson shows that this bit of conventional wisdom just doesn't fit the history. Courts and laws originated from communities and their customs, not from any governmental body. Benson shows that, historically, legal institutions precede the state, but monarchs eventually usurped most of the functions of privately-created law in order to raise revenue and concentrate power in the crown. Eventually, law becomes a government monopoly, and all throughout the process, the government has a strong tendency to corrupt the law into something other than a tool of justice.

There are a couple of different forms of private legal institutions that are important in this book. The earliest Benson explains are the customary English legal practices and the community institutions that made them work. These early legal institutions originated concepts and practices that are still echoed in today's modern courts, about 1000 years later. But this early approach to justice didn't really survive the constant encroachment by kings. Another source of private law has been the law merchant (lex mercatoria), a set of medieval laws that developed among purely private, profit-oriented traders. Like community-based law, the law merchant was a phenomenon that lacked a central authority or lawmaking body, and developed to protect people, in contrast to the king's courts which were created to concentrate power. The law merchant system developed as a private alternative to state law, and was successful because in comparison to state courts, it was fairer, faster, and better able to cope with the transnational nature of some of the disputes. Ultimately English common law courts ended up having to adopt most of the key features of the law merchant, because they risked being superseded and deprived of revenue and influence. An echo of the medieval law merchant lives on in the modern arbitration industry, which is actually extremely popular in America today, especially in the commercial world.

Not all of Benson's history focuses on England - the most entertaining part of the book concerns incidents in America in which citizens had to overthrow crooked lawmen and take justice into their own hands. (Most of these stories come from the old West.) This includes a very fascinating episode in San Francisco in which the entire law enforcement body was supplanted by vigilante justice. The result was a dramatic sustained drop in the murder rate, and an end to the corruption and abuse of the authorities. The reader will be surprised to find that, contrary to Hollywood, the "vigilante" groups were often moderate, judicious, and almost eager to relinquish power, in order to restore peace.

The book is not just about history. Benson makes a careful and convincing defense of the benefits of privately produced law and justice. He engages the arguments of some of the most important legal thinkers of our time, and picks their arguments apart. The decentralized, private justice of the past is not just a curiosity of history; it's a human achievement that lives on in some form today, and is considerably more fair and effective than the government monopoly we're subjected to.

If think today's legal system system is slow, inaccessible, expensive to work with, and unfair, read this book to find out why, and what the alternatives are.

I don't give 5 stars lightly. Yes, this book really is that good, and that important.

Do we need the State to produce law?

There are libertarians aplenty who believe we do. Some of them have actually thought carefully about the issue, and some of them are merely Objectivists who have accepted Ayn Rand's oracular dismissal of anarchocapitalism in her (thoroughly statist) essay on "The Nature of Government." Both of these groups will benefit from a reading of Bruce Benson's fine volume.

Benson picks up the argument where Murray Rothbard and David Friedman left it, and carries it forward by several miles. Here he provides a short history of market-based law, from its rise to its near-demise at the hands of "authoritarian" law; a public-choice analysis of the political market for law; an overview of recent trends toward reliance on private sources of law and justice; rebuttals of common arguments for the necessity of State law; and a short summary of what a private, non-State system of law might look like.

There are treats throughout. Some of my favorites are Benson's replies to Landes and Posner -- e.g. their argument that "private" law is parasitic on legal standards developed in the public sector, and their claim that such "private" law would be less efficient than public law. (In general I am of the opinion that Richard Posner is one of the most overrated legal thinkers of the past century or two.)

Benson is also exceptional among libertarian writers in his familiarity with the relevant legal literature. One of the other exceptions -- the altogether brilliant Randy Barnett (whose book _The Structure of Liberty_ belongs on your shelf next to this one) -- is credited by Benson for drawing the latter's attention to such literature and making some specific recommendations. The result, however achieved, is something all but unheard of in the libertarian world: a volume on liberty that actually acknowledges the existence of such legal theorists as Lon Fuller.

That's a nice feature in a book on law. I would like to see Benson's book (and its excellent sequel, _To Serve and Protect_) read by both libertarians and lawyers, and I'm happy he's written a book that the latter group won't toss away in disgust at the childish ignorance of the author. We have enough of those books already (and I think Rand wrote or influenced most of them).

In general, the more people that read this book, the better. If nothing else, this book will shake an assumption that badly needs shaking: that there must be a State in order for there to be law.

(By the way, you'll find Benson referring occasionally to George H. Smith's fine essay, "Justice Entrepreneurship in a Free Market." Originally published in the _Journal of Libertarian Studies_, that essay is reprinted in _Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies_.)

At one stage in my education as a libertarian I had come to believe that most human needs (including for instance streets, education, and even fire protection) could be satisfied best by private companies. But I still thought that probably law must be provided by the government. It was hard for me to imagine how justice could be provided without the state.

Then I read this book. With compelling historical evidence it shatters the myth that government must have a monopoly in administering law.

Well written. Clear. Thorough.

The author of `The First Liberal says, put "Love thy Neighbor" on the money.
The First Liberal starts with the intriguing sentence, "Jesus invented Liberalism on the day he said, `Love thy neighbor.'" The book traces how Jesus' teachings have come down to us not only in Biblical texts, but also as the ideals and standards of Liberal politics.
The book is not about religion; it's about politics. It discusses what Jesus said about forgiveness and turning the other cheek, and all that, without any reference to prayer or other religious observances.
It's a fascinating idea! This book is Jesus without religion, although it's certainly not anti-religious. It just leaves the question of religion to each individual. The author says that a "secular" approach to Christianity gives us a clearer view of its ideals.
"Detachment from reverence gives us the sharpest focus on Jesus' ideals, just as an astronomer's telescope does when it's positioned away from the glow of atmosphere. Without the religious aspect, these ideas can be most easily appreciated, and can have the greatest appeal to a world-wide, often non-Christian, audience", he says.
In God we Trust, or Love Thy Neighbor?
In a chapter called, "What Liberals want for America", Altman suggest that we put "Love Thy Neighbor" on U.S. currency. He notes that for years, some people have felt that the present slogan, "In God We Trust", is a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. This is the amendment that guarantees our freedoms of speech, the press, and religion. Altman says that Thomas Jefferson and the other founding fathers were careful not endorse any religion, in order to insure that everyone could have free choice and none would feel left out.
Because of that, some Liberals have always felt that we should seriously consider taking "In God We Trust" off the money. Others have argued that IGWT is neutral, because it speaks of God in a generic sense. The rebuke those people get is that the constitution should not even endorse the idea of religion to begin with. And so it goes, and has been going on for years.
No Liberal wishes to offend the religious sensibility of anyone, but since no group has ever expressed disapproval of Love Thy Neighbor, Dennis Martin Altman suggests that it would pass the First Amendment test, because it doesn't endorse a religion.
It wouldn't offend Shintos, Lutherans, Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, Jews, Zoroastrians, Muslims, or atheists. In the history of humanity, Altman maintains, no one ever uttered a more benevolent and profound thought in fewer syllables.
"If we all lived by LTN, this world would be a far kinder and healthier place, and people all over the world would have more positive thoughts about the United States of America."

I feel compelled to express my admiration and thanks for your having written this book. It was an incredible undertaking and serves as a solid platform from which to define the liberal mindset.

As an aside, I have a friend who is the prototypical Conservative with whom I have agreed to no longer "debate" our differences. Today, I have sent him the book so he may understand WHY we liberals are not swayed by the rationalizations of the conservatives.

Altman writes about liberalism and the history of both our country and the world in a lively and engaging manner. "The First Liberal" is a timely accompaniment to the heated election battles currently under way. A fascinating book.

The First Liberal gave me a new concept of and appreciation for the term Liberal. So many of the things I now take for granted and value were once new and exciting ideas ridiculed by the fearful of their day. This book gives an inkling of how the world could look if people actually practiced what they claim Jesus preached... If acceptance, compassion and forgiveness were taken seriously. After reading this, I refer to myself as a Liberal and do so with pride.

Personally, I don't think anyone should vote this year until they read this book. The information -- enlightening to both liberals and conservatives -- is too important to overlook. And, surprisingly, this fact-packed narrative is fun to read!

Altman has written this in a way that gives the reader the feeling that he/she is discovering something at the same time the author did. Quite a coup, really, and probably unintentional. In fact, as a writer, I think that if anyone who starts out trying to achieve such a result will fail.

Another coup -- and this one I believe was part of the reason he conceived the book -- was to give the word, "liberal," its rightful interpretation, connotations and nuances. For the past 40 or so years, "liberal" has been a dirty word in politics. And ironically, as Altman makes abundantly clear, the right-wingers and arch-conservatives most set against liberal policies are those who suffer the most by voting against them!

I happen to be one who rarely reads non-fiction. My favorite genre is the espionage novel or courtroom thriller. However, this is one book I could not put down. And it's certainly one that everyone should pick up.
The history is fascinating, the point of view convincing, and the insights eye-opening.

Wendell Abern

The perfect antidote to a mindset of vengeance. In this incredibly sexy take on the human condition, writer Scott A. Hunt takes readers down the noble and seemingly enigmatic road to peace. Insightful anecdotes paired with brilliant insights make for a fascinating read. Equally as spiritual as it is documentary; a must read for every contemporary thinking man's library.

Scott successfully took on a monumental task of understanding the view points of peace makers and people who are caught in today's wars. The book is a journey into the most challenging edges of 21st century human psyche. In this journey, there are seemingly real people who are actors compelled to living out scripts that they don't even know they are living them. But there are some people who are aware. These people come across clear and sound as Scott vividly presents his interactions in most captivating manners - simple but graceful. Scott's intentions come across pure. The information he gathered are eye-opening. The stories he tells are startling.

Scott outstandingly weaves the history of humanists' thoughts. His account of nations' events makes social and science fictions pale in novelty. Facts indeed beget fiction. Can super powers not be aware of their own action? Are peace makers and Nobel Peace laureates simply instruments of time - when the human spirit can no longer endure the incredible injustice?

If you have often asked yourself why people, businesses, and government today have drag the world into the lowest of any moral standards and darkest moments of the human race, this book will be useful to you. It doesn't offers academic answers. It shows you the conditions around the world in a continuity of thought I have not seen. The conversation with the Dalai Lama on non-violence is both amazingly clear and inspiring. It is an account of risk management and decision analysis with enormous grace and solemnity. Expect a team consisting of a journalist, a philosopher, a historian, and a humanist to accomplish anything close to this book. As I put the book down in the stillness of the nights, I am moved beyond the power of my imaginations. - Tom Tuduc

Scott Hunt has written a very moving and almost lyrical book in the way in which he blends some of the the worst horrors committed by humans against fellow beings with the compassion and kindliness of the peacemakers. It gives you a deep sense of hope and conviction that the spirit of humanity will tirumph eventually and inspires you to try hard as it may be to embrace the vices of those who still believe in commiting these violent acts.
Marvelouslly,it is also a political eye-opener into the true motivation of the actions taken in the name of peace by the political leaders...

This book is excellent in so many ways. Scott Hunt has given us an inspiring book. I learned so much in historical background and in the work of heroic people of our time.
I would urge anyone who wants an understanding of the problems in the world today to buy this book. Once you open it, you will be compelled to read it from cover to cover.
If you believe that the answer to all the issues of the world are simple, and that all the world except the US is bad, than I ask you to open your mind and take a look at the world described in these pages. If you believe that killing only creates more killing and there must be a better way, than allow these stories to provoke your mind.
The most compelling part of this book to me was the discussion of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. I ask you to please try and understand how it can be that such a monstrous people can be created, and how such horrible things can be done to human beings. This chapter will leave you wondering how you can ever again accept on the surface the "information" we are given. You will realize the consequences of violence. You will search your mind for answers that are not on the news.

This book is not perfect. I was left wondering more about the history of Costa Rica than I was given, for example. And there are times when Scott explains things more than I would like. I think he could leave his conclusions to the people he interviews. Others may find that that part of the book helps tie things together.
Still, overall the book was outstanding and deserves every bit of 5 stars.

The "Future of Peace" is perhaps the most compelling book I have ever read. I was very deeply moved by it. Scott A. Hunt is an outstanding writer and interviewer. He asks insightful questions of prominent peacemakers and receives soul searching, thought provoking answers, with overall themes of hope, forgiveness and perseverance. The interviews are more like informal discussions and I almost felt I was right there. He also gives excellent background information on the various areas of conflict where the peacemakers reside, with facts one doesn't learn in school or read/see often in mainstream news. I kept trying to put it down, so as to absorb each chapter, but had to continue to the end, almost nonstop. It is definately a book to read again and again. If all students, political leaders and citizens of the world read it and took the messages to heart, perhaps we could obtain a more peaceful world. In these troubled and treacherous times, Mr. Hunt and the peacemakers give a message that should be spread throughout the world, both heartbreaking and soul inspiring at the same time. If you are wondering whether to buy "The Future of Peace", just do it! You will be so glad you did!