Public Interest Books

Normally, 'Oxfam Country Profiles are enticing, enlightening and well worth the price of the purchase - not this one. This Oxfam Profile doesn't live up to the engaging style, nor the insight, of other Oxfam Country Profiles that I have read; such as John Crabtree's - Peru (see my review).

Like the CIA webpage (recommended that you visit) this book is full of statistics, but statistics alone do not give one the insight needed to understand the social fabric and ethos of Bolivia. After reading the text I came away knowing that Bolivia is the poorest, most oppressed, socially unequal country in South America, but hungered to understand the reason that is so.

Marcela Lopez Levy writes in a somber, yet informative, encyclopedia style. Her text, although filled with facts, fails to engage the reader. For example, in her chapter 'People and Power', her opening sentence reads: "For many observers of Bolivia in the Latin American context, it is the strength and vigor of its popular organizations, campaigning for the justice in the political, economic, and social areas, that is the salient characteristic of Bolivian society". Yawn.

That said there are some insights to glean from this book. One interesting insight was Marcela Lopez Levy's reflections on the Aymara language (spoken by 25% of the Bolivia population). The Aymara language has logic that is very different from the dualistic (true/false, good/evil etc.) logic of most European languages. Marcela Lopez Levy states that in the Aymara language: "A statement may be true, it may be false or may contain its own proportions of truth and falsity. These partly true, partly false statements can be specifically named and communicated in a way that Spanish and English cannot convey (actually politicians have perfected this aspect of language). Also, in the Aymara language the future is behind the speaker and past in front. Given the importance of language for structuring thoughts, it is not surprising that the past seems so 'present' in everyday conversations." Interesting insight.

Throughout the book, the photographer, Marj Clayton, B&W photos add life to what is otherwise an uninspiring book. Kudos. 2.5 stars Conditionally recommended.

This book covers the basics. It also gives you some insight on new ways of looking at common issues. It is a handy book to have around.

Dr. Warnick's book is not quite up to the standard I expected from other examples of her scholarship. It overreaches in many places, and the perspective is extremely dated. She is a fine rhetorician; however, this book is definitely not up to her standards.

Flights Into Oblivion looks at the aviation accidents of the century with an eye to their causes and consequences. Chapters focus on accident categories, such as landing crashes, weather accidents or collisions. Minor, unknown crashes are covered as well as major, infamous ones. Edwards explanations and descriptions are very good. This is particularly helpful in his chapters on structural/mechanical failure, where the reader needn't have any prior knowledge of aircraft design to follow along. I also liked the frequent descriptions of accidents from the point of view of doomed passengers, something we all think about but rarely read about in most publications. Unfortunately, though, the book suffers from lack of focus. The reader is shifted from idea to idea and incident to incident too quickly, in a way I found quite annoying. The shifting strips the book of all depth, leaving some chapters rather incomplete. There are also several errors in the book, most notably in the chapter on the KAL and Iran airbus shootdowns. Finally, I would say that Flights Into Oblivion is better for the casual reader than for the aviation enthusiast. The Latter would be better served by reading The Final Call by Barley.

Chapters in this book are organized by the cause of disaster. There is a chapter on mid air collision, one on fire and one on pilot error, just to name a few. The author focuses on a few accidents, and on how and why they happened. The Challenger shuttle disaster and the Iran airbus shootdown are each given a chapter to themselves.

Some of the stories are actually funny; one military plane crashed because the pilots left the controls to 'moon' the occupants of another aircraft. But for the most part this is a rather dull read, with little to grab the reader's attention. This book is part of a series, so not having read the others I feel I may have missed something, but I think it unlikely the others are much better.

Carnes Lord, a professor at the Navy War College, takes on the question of how to win the "hearts and minds" in, just as Foreign Affairs wrote in their review of the book, a controversial manner. A look at the table of contents, one finds he is taking a rather in-depth look, with chapter titles ranging from Strategic Influence and Soft Power, Public Diplomacy and Psychological-Political Warfare, Problems of Organization, and, Defense Department: Into the Act?. Lord sets out to look at bureaucratic obstacles, friction from domestic politics, and the impact of media.

From the start, I found myself in agreement with "controversial" label from Walter Russell Mead's review in Foreign Affairs, but I don't know if our independent assessment was for the same reason(s). I had trouble with Lord's definition, arguments and positions.

To start, I disagree with his confinement of public diplomacy to essentially be positive propaganda. Public diplomacy to Lord is not about tangible programs but radio, TV, and print. In effect, as he apparently sees it public diplomacy is primarily about media diplomacy.

The essential thrust of Lord's vision of public diplomacy that comes out is an emphasis on talking with virtually no listening. There is some tangential mention of bilateral communication (not in so many words), but overall all the "three broad missions" of public diplomacy, as he sees them -- information, political action, and education and culture -- emphasize talk (not withstanding his comment on the need to "educate the world about the nature of American conservatism"). At times, this rather narrow definition is at odds with Lord's own recommendations and comments throughout the book.

Lord does do well by bringing in the Defense Department into the discussion and informs the reader of contemporary applications of "strategic influence". But his emphasis on the future role of the Department of Defense in public diplomacy is not because of institutional barriers in the Department of State (the oft-cited reason elsewhere), but because "public diplomacy", in his narrow construction is best kept with traditional diplomacy, although he does suggest there might be a place for "defense public diplomacy".

Lord's discussion of three possible models of how to institutionalize the reconstituted USIA and other public diplomacy / strategic influence capabilities is interesting. From the "Czar" model to the "Counselor" and ultimately to his "US Trade Representative" model, his strength in understanding how bureaucracy works comes through.

The book was interesting and included some history to add context (although that too was sometimes incomplete), but there was a political undercurrent that undermined any objective goals of the book. I also found the book self-limiting in defining a narrow audience of public diplomacy and in over generalizing the enemy, both to the detriment of his argument.

There is a disconnect between this book and fundamental concepts of counterinsurgency, for example, what it takes or even what it means to win hearts and minds, and even the fundamental concepts of public diplomacy or strategic influence, throughout the examples and discussions in the book. If read in conjunction with literature on the subject or knowledge on public diplomacy, this book may serve as a useful counterpoint. But absent that, this book becomes a text on propaganda (in the non-pejorative sense) tools and simplified tactics of countering misinformation. One last note, I did enjoy Lord's comment that most public diplomats are liberals, like most American journalists. A sentiment that is reflected in his concerns over current public diplomacy.

This book is really more applicable to finding people in the United Kingdom, so be aware of that before purchasing.

This is the foremost guide book to Philadelphia's buildings; unfortunately, anyone who knows the city well will find it woefully incomplete.

The guide covers Center City, University City and its surrounding neighborhoods, Fairmount Park, Germantown, and Chestnut Hill in good detail (over 200 of the 253 entries are in these areas.) Each entry includes considerable text, and most (though not all) have a corresponding photograph; the most significant buildings have longer entries. The touring maps included in the back are clear and easy to read. One of the book's nicest features is a repeated map of the city's current boundaries, with shaded areas showing the spread of development as the city aged, allowing one to quickly understand the patterns of settlement that produced the present-day city.

Oddly, the building entries are ordered not by location, but by date of construction, from oldest to newest. This, combined with an on-going time line and essays on the city's development and architectural styles of the various periods, make the book more of an introduction to American architectural styles, using Philadelphia as an example, rather than a neighborhood-by-neighborhood survey of the city's buildings. The format makes the book more difficult to use as a field guide than would arrangement of entries by location.

The book's two major flaws are interrelated: it is too thin, and it omits far too many areas of the city. Bridesburg, North Broadway, Kensington, Erie Avenue, and many other neighborhoods which contain many historically and architecturally significant buildings are given few, if any, entries. There are a paltry two entries for all of South Philadelphia. Including more thorough surveys of these and other areas of the city would give the book much-needed volume (it is far too short for a city's of Philadelphia's size and stature.)

Interestingly, many of the omitted areas correspond to the city's worst slums, particularly those in north Philadelphia. Perhaps not coincidentally, there is also a lack of any critical tone in the building entries. These two factors combine to give a subtle tone of civic boosterism, something that an architectural guidebook should not have. The authors would do well to look to New York's guidebook, which is not afraid to call bad architecture on the floor, and does not fear to guide travelers into the more unsavory parts of town.

Also lacking are represenative samples of vernacular rowhouse architecture. Philadelphia is defined by the rowhouse -- thousands upon thousands of them, stretching for mile after mile, so many of them that the detached buildings showcased in the guide seem like anomalies. They range from the utterly plain to among the city's finest houses; yet hardly any examples are given. A sampling of rowhouse styles and a few typical histories would definately make the guide more informative.

In short, this guidebook is a strong introduction to Philadelphia's major buildings and most significant neighborhoods. But take it with a grain of salt: it omits vast areas of the city as well.

The dominant model of political behavior - pluralism - assumes that people are self-interested and uses economic behavior as an analogy for political behavior. People organize themselves into groups to get their needs met, and these groups compete with one another to obtain rewards that are allocated through political processes. The role of government is to make sure that political competition is fair and open - possibly helping weaker groups organize themselves and helping them acquire the skills to compete effectively. The government will also provide public goods that cannot be provided through private market activity. In sum, the government, will try to make sure that people (at least those who are organized) get what they want, as efficiently as possible.

After introducing this dominant model, Robert Reich, the editor of The Power of Public Ideas, delineates the situations where it might best be applied:

"The prevailing philosophy comprises a useful set of precepts for guiding much of policy making, particularly where there is wide and enduring consensus about the nature of the problems to be solved, the range of possible solutions, and appropriate allocations of responsibility for solving them; and where solving the problems as understood is more useful than understanding them differently. The prevailing philosophy is less helpful - indeed, may forestall social learning - where these conditions are not met."

Reich champions a different model; one that assumes that people are motivated, in their political lives, by what they think is good for society. He cites some compelling evidence for this view: the civil rights movement, for example, can't be explained if politics is nothing more than self-interested competition among atomistic groups. Moreover, citizens must feel some concern and consideration for one another, or massive coercion would be required to keep order.

Because Reich thinks people are basically public-spirited, rather than selfish, he sees involvement in politics as a good thing, almost as a good thing in itself. For Reich, public deliberation strengthens public spirit in a type of virtuous spiral that makes society more durable. In his view, then, a primary function of government is to stimulate public debate and deliberation. New England-style town meetings would represent an ideal type of democratic government for him.

The objection to Reich's view, of course, is that people don't want to devote more time to politics. Most people are political bystanders because they are broadly satisfied. They can be aroused to action - to protest the Vietnam War, to demand civil rights for African Americans, to crack down on drunk drivers, and so on - when the government is unwilling or too slow to act on their concerns, or when their basic values or rights are infringed by the government.* But would this be a good thing? Those who are deeply dissatisfied with our society and seek transformational change would say yes. Those who are broadly satisfied with the status quo would likely say no.

I read four of the ten essays in this volume. Reich's introduction to the volume is covered above. Gary Orren's "Beyond Self Interest" provides quite a bit of evidence to show that people often behave in public spirited ways. It also critiques neoclassical economics and pluralism as models of behavior that allow government and leaders only a marginal role. In fact, of course, at policy "turning points" they may play central roles.

Reich's "Policy Making in a Democracy" examines two approaches to governmental policy making: interest group intermediation and net benefit maximization. In interest group intermediation, policymakers consider themselves successful if competing groups are placated. In net benefit maximization, policy makers identify a market failure and decide that there is an opportunity to increase efficiency. They typically use very sophisticated analytical techniques to propose a specific solution. Reich believes that the latter approach has contaminated the former, so that groups who cannot offer sophisticated argumentation are excluded from much governmental decision-making. As an alternative, he offers public deliberation. He examines three cases where public deliberation was used and concludes that they were at least qualified successes. Those who lack Reich's commitment to participatory politics will probably disagree.

"The Media and Public Deliberation," by Martin Linsky, finds that the news media, with its emphasis on reporting on events rather than ideas, is an obstacle to public deliberation. He makes some proposals for reform, some of which sound a bit silly. However, many of his proposed approaches have already been used to some degree by the political monthlies and by news shows like The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. For example, Linksy favors news coverage that presents contrasting opinions about an issue as this is likely to stimulate thought about alternative definitions of issues and approaches to solving them. He also wants news organizations to "make news" by sponsoring debates and similar events.

Based on my admittedly limited exploration of The Power of Public Ideas, I concluded that it is a competently researched and written volume of essays from a moderate leftist orientation.

* Carl Van Horn, Donald Baumer, and William Gormley, Jr., Politics and Public Policy, (Washington DC: CQ Press), 2001, 237, 238.

David Ferguson lives in Orkney and studies shipwrecks as a hobby. This is his third book on the subject and is of immense interest to anyone contemplating a dive off the coast of North East Scotland.

Commencing with an introduction in which he explains the size of vessel included within the book, we are then treated to a series of 5 maps which clearly delineate the various divisions of the overall, area scrutinised by the Author and the approximate location many shipwrecks. In short, the scene is well right at the beginning and we are well prepared for a brief insight into the historical events that served to shape this book. Commencing with what little is known of a very vague shipwreck in 1444, the author gets down to specifics with the loss of the Edward Bonaventure in 1556. Combining quotes from the day very successfully with his own narrative, Ferguson makes this a most readable account of shipwrecks in general and it is pleasing to see this continued throughout.

"Shipwrecks of North East Scotland 1444-1990" is a paperback book measuring 8½ in x 5½ in contain 19 illustrations of historic shipwrecks and over 130 pages. The Author talks us through the years - pausing to concentrate on such events as the great storms of 1800, 1875, 1876 and 1942 and, in so doing, gives the reader a very good insight into the background and history of the region covered - from a shipwreck perspective.

Concluding with Appendixes which list vessels lost in those various storms and another listing all vessels known to have been wrecked (including those that were later re-floated), this book is an excellent starting point for any serious project involving shipwreck research.

NM