Liberty Books

And we thought Joe McCarthy invented "McCarthyism!" Fascinating and well written. We not only learn that Attorney General Mitchell Palmer wrote the book on creating mass hysteria to assault anything one happens to dislike, but we gain a broader understanding of how easily attitudes can be swayed for egregious purposes in this country. Given that Young J. Edgar earned his stripes by implementing Palmer's plans, it's not hard to understand how he could so easily pick and choose the information he wanted to assail Martin Luther King, Jr. and scores of others he disliked. Ackerman did his homework and presented it very nicely.

I knew the content would be interesting and was pleasantly surprised to see the well crafted text. The paragraphs flowed from page to page and chapter to chapter. It was hard to put down. Well selected photos accompany the text and add even more understanding.

This is more than a bio of one man, it is a bio of the times. I did not know that Hoover cut his bureaucratic teeth on the Red Scare, so this book rounds out his portrait for me.

Ackerman's engaging prose brings to life the colorful people of the times. He presents Palmer in all his complexity. President Wilson is totally detached not only from the Red Scare but also the upcoming election where he has a son-in-law in contention. The totally obscure Louis Post is a true hero. Many great legal minds, Frankfurter, Darrow, Cardozo, Holmes and others play a role. I had not known of the eccentric millionaire socialist Lloyd before nor the colorful immigration official from California, Caminetti.

The most intriguing story of all, of course, is Hoover's. The reader learns how his character and style were formed. As a young man he got away with a tremendous breach of the US Constitution and he lied to his mentors. He knew how and when to be on and off the stage and who to play up to. He was probably given a pass for his presumed honesty, long hours of work and his youth.

I was struck by narrow the decision making. Only a few people held the reins than made life impossible for many. While the book doesn't spell it out, I would imagine people lost their homes (be they foreclosures or evictions) and children went hungry. None of the perpetrators suffered much. Hoover went on to great "success", Caminetti went on to comfortable obscurity and Wilson is heralded for his international vision. Palmer suffers somewhat but not in proportion to his deeds. The main hero is virtually unknown to history.

One line brought home to me how different the times were shortly after the First World War: ". . . a doctor told Edgar he needed to start smoking cigarettes to relax his nerves." But more important to this story of the Red Scare were the attitudes toward freedom of speech and individual legal rights that allowed wholesale abuses as the U.S. Government and the young, energetic J. Edgar attempted to remove every last threat of Communism through massive raids and deportations. As inconceivable as a medical doctor recommending cigarettes is the thought that running roughshod over legal rights on such a scale could happen without raising an immediate uproar in the press; what a difference 24 hour television news makes!

Understanding Hoover is critical to viewing the evolution of law and individual rights in America during the 20th century. For good or bad, he certainly had an impact during his half-century tenure and as Ackerman summarizes "Of all the experiences shaping him . . . none loomed larger that the Red Raids." The author gives us an excellent account of these events, the times, and important players including Felix Frankfurter, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Clarence Darrow.

Post-WW ( period is not well understood in America and our history books hardly mention how fear and loathing of terrorists (anarchists and Bolsheviks) and their (real and potential) activities led to violent over-reaction by government. Suspension of rights and rule of law, warrantless break-ins and arrests, thousands of completely innocent citizens held without charge or access to counsel in sub-standard "holding" facilities, authoritarian override of law enforcement principles and practices without regard to rights (beating of those arrested, denial of access to medical services, denial of access by the press nad watchdog organizations, etc.
A very good book and very well-written!

An excellent biography of Hoover's early years--a time that is often eclipsed by the later years when Hoover was a well established bureaucrat. Young J. Edgar looks at the circumstances--surroundings and people--who led to the formation of the man. Ackerman's descriptions of the Palmer Raids of nearly 90 years ago can't help but make the reader think of post 9/11 America and the way "we" treat our own citizens and their "inalienable" civil rights. It really makes you think. America has to find a way to protect ourselves without losing sight of what makes this country great--freedom of speech, thought, religion etc. The freedom to ask questions and be different are two of the qualities that make America great. Pick up a copy of Young J. Edgar, learn about Hoover the man and the post WWI era, and let's try not to keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

I thought this book was so good that I purchased a second copy to give to my mother. She wants to share it with the ladies in her Sunday School class and Bible study group.An American Legacy of Patriotic Prayers: Blessings of Liberty, Volume I

The author states that this book is the result of a challenge she took to "view American history through the lens of prayer". The result is unique and significant! Patriotic Prayers is an amazing resource including prayers from the earliest days of this nation thru recent years; the extensive research involved is obvious. But it is far more than a volume of dry research. It is very personal. As an example, I was delighted, upon opening the book for the first time, to see in front of me one of the most moving prayers I have ever heard, the prayer of Max Lucado after the events of 9-11. Accompanying each prayer is a historical background note, which makes for very interesting reading and gives more meaning to the prayer itself. Patriotic Prayers occupies an important place in our contemporary culture. With all the arguing about the place of prayer in public and political life, and what should be allowed and banned, these prayers from history speak volumes, and we are a richer nation because of their existence.

"We hold these truths to be self evident..." As Americans, "What DO we collectively believe"? When we say "one nation under God", do we believe it? Linda Case has written a very readable, well-documented book sharing how prayer has played, and continues to be a part of the foundations of the United States of America. In 1796, President George Washington said, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." Alexander Hamilton stated that "Moral security...is the very essence of civil liberty." Then in 1776 Samuel Adams made the statement "The public liberty will not long survive the extinction of morals." So, as a nation, what do we believe? Sit back and enjoy...this is not your ordinary book on prayer!

I have not seen a book like this one that covers the historical and religious bases of our country in such an inspiring way. The author thoroughly researched her subject to find such nuggets of prayers for every occasion. This book has something for everyone. I can't wait to get the next one!

Alexalee

This book is perfect for people who want to understand more about information technology and don't want to read something long or technical to learn it. The authors do a superb job taking the reader through how major technologies function (computers, the internet, cell phones, etc.), how they are shaping our lives, and what impacts they have on our laws and society. Amazing stories are woven throughout it, making it readable and fun for techies and non-techies alike. At the end of the book, you'll have a new understanding of the things we take for granted - and what possibilities and threats they pose. You'll also be light years ahead of most other people - who themselves will need to come up to speed in the coming years. A great read!

This is one of those books that will change the way you look at the world, or at least, your computer (which, as you'll learn, might be a lot more of the world than you think!) In a very readable prose, the authors explain how the world is fundamentally different now that so much information -- so many bits -- is being generated, monitored, and stored about nearly everything we do. The book covers not just how the internet actually works but also weaves together many applicable examples from the worlds of commerce, entertainment, government, and law.

It is one of those books that will cause you to share what you just read with whomever happens to be in the room, as it is filled with many gee-whiz moments. A great read.

I could not put this book down. It presents in approachable and lucid terms the complexities and subtleties of the information age. It goes beyond the mere didactic, using well thought out and entertaining vignettes to make it a joy to read. Read this book.

One does not often stop to think of how the rush to technology has dug itself into our lives. Blown to Bits gives you an engaging perspective and makes you think every time you do something "on-line" like this simple review, right here, right now!

This is a great book for the whole family. Good to read anytime but especially before Thanksgiving.

We read this book as a part of our homeschool History curriculum this year. It was very informative and entertaining. My children (ages 6 and 8) absolutely loved it. We have the older version, and my kids didn't even mind the lack of color and the sparse illustrations. They begged me ,"One more chapter...please, Mom?!"

I would say the only thing I did not care for in this book was the way they portray the Indians. Other than Squanto, Samoset and Massasoit, all of the other Indians are viewed as 'savages' (and not very intelligent ones, at that.) In the last few chapters, they are even used as 'comic relief.' She also has them speaking the word 'Ugh' a lot...such as "Ugh! White squaw bring me cider!"
I thought that was a little unrealistic, and insulting as well.

The information on the Pilgrims is wonderful, and she really brought their journey alive.

If you can overlook the Indian parts, I would highly recommend this book.

I borrowed this book to read it to my daughter when she was in second grade. She loved it. She's now in 6th grade and still remembers many details of the book because they had that much of an impression on her. You can imagine yourself being with these Pilgrims, waiting in the dark on the beach for the boat to arrive. Now that my son is 4, I wanted to make sure I had a copy of my own to read to him. This is definitely one to add to your personal library.

My children and I loved reading about the Pilgrims. I was not educated about their lives like my children are. Thisbook is very informative and right on their levels. We read this when they were 5 and 9.

This work has long been known to scholars in the field and is one of the best interpretive works on the relationship between classical culture and Christianity. If many of the judgments may seem a little assured to a new reader, (the first edition came out in 1940) Cochrane handles the extremely complex material with poise and skill, and the work is extremely well-written.
For a more recent take on this subject see Jaroslav Pelikan, Christianity and classical culture: the metamorphosis of natural theology in the Christian encounter with Hellenism. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993).

This is a comprehensive narrative of the decline of the classical pagan world and the rise of the Christian middle ages. It is aptly subtitled, "A Study of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine," for those two men stand out as the bookends of the transition. The story begins with Eternal Rome at the end of the Republic, and generally with the claims of pagan Rome to finality and mastery -- perfected science in the classical sense -- over the political order of the world. It ends with the destruction of the Empire and the seminal thinker of the next thousand years, Aurelius Augustine. On the way, Cochrane weaves together military history, theology, poetry, philosophy, law and politics in a prose that is certainly not to be confused with Gibbon, but is nonetheless quite readable. Cochrane's avowed mission is to let the classical authors, pagan and Christian alike, speak for themselves and for their positions, and this he does with remarkable fairness. A principal question of the book is, who won the war of philosophers and theologians? Did Athens conquer Jerusalem, imposing classical pagan or Platonic ideas on a Christianity now lost, or did Jerusalem conquer Athens, replacing the classical ways of thought in a radical way? The answer, as one might expect, is complicated, but intelligible. The book is 500 pages long, but will repay multiple readings.

If you want to know how, and why, romanitas became christianitas, this is the book for you. But make no mistake, this isn't any gloss of the process, this is an in-depth as a how-to discussion of surgery.

I've been through this book twice, and I'm always amazed by Cochrane's ability. It helps me (always) to have a primer on Roman history out as I go through it - to check on some of his references and "name-dropping." A Latin dictionary doesn't hurt, either (my Latin's a little rusty since college).

If you want an extensive examination of the christianization of the Roman empire, get this book!

Originally published in 1940, Christianity And Classical Culture: A Study Of Thought And Action From Augustus To Augustine by Charles Norris Chochrane (1889-1945) is a thoughtful, insightful, informative examination of the contrast and sometimes clash between the classical era's culture and struggle to understand the world in purely rational terms, and the completely new understanding of the world developed and spread by Christianity. From divisions of church and state; to the impact that Constantine and the spread of Christianity had; to a technical dissection of propositions concerning sometimes starkly different worldviews, Christianity and Classic Culture has survived the test of time to remain a pillar of philosophical, religious, and cultural analysis.

Concise and insightful collection of article on Economics; an exceptional primer with something for everyone from beginnner to "enthusiast".

Also, if you ever get a chance to hear the author speak at a lecture or presentation, don't miss it!

I used the first edition extensively after it came out in 1993. This second edition is updated appropriately and retains all of the classic material that made the first edition so good.

This book is such a valuable resource! The articles are concise and simple to understand for the non-economist. I recommend this book to anyone interested in economics. Not only are the articles top-notch, but the further reading lists are all you need to start becoming an expert on each individual topic. This book is worth every penny.

Compiled, organized and edited by David R. Henderson (Research Fellow with Stanford University's Hoover Institution and an Associate Professor of Economics at the naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California), "The Concise Encyclopedia Of Economics" is a superbly presented introduction to economics comprised of more than 160 entries which draw upon the experience and expertise of some 152 contributors. Now it a completely revised, expanded and updated fourth edition, "The Concise Encyclopedia Of Economics" covers a diversity of subjects ranging from basic economic concepts, to discrimination and labor issues, to corporations and financial markets, to economic history, to economic legal issues, governmental regulation, taxes, environmental regulations, economic policies, macroeconomics, money and banking, international economics, economic systems within and outside of the United States, schools of economic thought, and so much more. "The Concise Encyclopedia Of Economics" is substantively enhanced with the inclusion of succinct biographies of leading and influential economists and a comprehensive Index. Also available in a hardcover edition (9780865976658, $45.00), "The Concise Encyclopedia Of Economics" ideal and indispensable addition to personal, professional, academic, and community library Economic Studies reference collections.

"Inside an Empire of Mediocrity, the spirit of rebellion is reborn" - "Corpse of Freedom" is initially a story of friendship, following a teenager named Ryan and his befriending of Jeffery Neil. The only problem is that Jeffery Neil is dead and Ryan only knows about him through the online blog that Jeffery left behind. "Corpse of Freedom" follows Ryan and his adventures spiraling out of that, partially believing that the corpse has cursed him while he tries to escape the black hole of his hometown, as he's hunted by a strange tough guy and the area is swarmed with cops. "Corpse of Freedom" is an offbeat, entertaining, will make the reader think, making it highly recommended to fiction shelves everywhere and anyone looking for a different sort of story.

Great book. A fun, fast, and entertaining story about teen angst without any apology. It expresses a growing undercurrent in our society. Nothing contrived. The symbolism and metaphor don't bog you down with too much purpose and meaning. Just an entertaining coming of age book. And Funny, too. I haven't laughed so hard at characters and dialogue in a long time. I really recommend it as a change for any reader looking to read something with a fresh voice, instead of the same old stale prose.

This book without a doubt takes readers along an unconventional narrative-joy-ride at breakneck speed. By overlapping multiple narratives, clues and peripheral characters' stories, Corpse's pace moves a lot like a screenplay, dropping readers in and out of simultaneous scenes and unexpected dream sequences, bouncing back and forth through what feels like a ping-pong game of fun house mirrors complete with car chases, house parties and sex scenes. Maybe it was intended to be a teen-read, but the underlying message ups the ante from intelligent young-adult level to adult-level.

On one hand we have a story about teenaged existential conflict. On the other hand, (if the first isn't full enough for you) we have the exhumation of a corpse. But, instead of reburying him, Ryan chooses (against his friends' pleas) to keep his new "friend" Jeffrey, taking him home, to the park, or along for nights out on the town. Ryan finds Jeffrey's online journal entries written just before his mysterious death and finds himself drawn to their wisdom in a way that has heretofore escaped him in empathizing with the living. Ryan has grown up in this suburban American town whose atmosphere is literally browned by the mundane and confined lifestyles of its dwellers, where colorless corporations are fast taking over. Escape from "Everdale, USA" has been Ryan's only hope in amounting to someone distinctive but before "meeting" Jeffrey, all these hopes and ideas had been buried and unarticulated.

But how long can Ryan hang onto this corpse when a tattooed mystery-man in a devilish souped-up Buick Riviera is after him to claim it? Ryan's life and everyone else's around him is quickly spiraling out of control. Is this corpse cursed?

This book reads like a verbal rock 'n roll video, fast paced and hilariously strange but has a much deeper statement to make that shines through. While wholly unreasonable in reality, in the world Dax and Lloyd Garner create, this story totally works. Of course, we need to forgo our qualms with carrying decayed bodies around, talking to them, partying with them, for the length of two hundred seven pages. Normality doesn't apply here. Irony does. Which is exactly the stuff that keeps you thinking after the book's been set down. It is bold and intense, rooted in what one can only describe as a seriously original way of tackling the subject of existentialism and teenage-angst. It will leave you pondering its pieces for days.

Every once in a while, a great novel for young adults comes along. These are the true standouts among the genre; "A Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger, "The Outsiders" by Hinton, and most currently "Corpse of Freedom" by brothers Dax and Lloyd Garner.

This fast-moving read is the story of Ryan, a typical suburban teenager living in Everdale, a typical American suburb. One night Ryan and his friends try to shake off the ennui of their suburban existance by digging up the corpse of a teenager named Jeffery Neil.

After partying with the corpse, Ryans so-called friends ditch him, leaving him to keep the corpse in his filthy bedroom. Not knowing what to do about his dilemma, Ryan just keeps the corpse in his room while he tries to live out his life as normal as possible.

Ryan soon decides to Google Jeffery's name to find out more about him, and comes accross an online journal the teen kept right before he died. Through this journal, Ryan develops a quite unnatural friendship with the corpse, learning as much about himself as he does about Jeffery.

Jeffery's philosophy about freedom, individuality, and personal pursuit of excelence makes Ryan come to terms with the fact that his life is going nowhere fast. When he ditches his old friends and meets an independent young man named Manuelo, the two embark on an adventure of freedom outside the fishbowl of suburban conformity.

Add to this plot Ryan's infatuation with the snotty, spoiled little high-school princess, numerous confrontations with her boyfriend (the wealthy school stud), and a ghoulish stalker who hunts him down like wounded prey, and you have a great novel that even seasoned fiction afficianados will enjoy!

Like "I Am the Cheese", "Anthem", and "The Giver", "Corpse of Freedom"'s Libertarian message of personal liberty and individuality make it a must-read for every American adolescent. Who knows? It just may even counteract the socialist, conformist mentality being fostered in todays American youth (if we're lucky!)

As already well known, this book is one of the great books beyond economic scholar area. In particular, this book give us an appropriate answer "what is rational choice in collective choice?(even Arrow's word, social choice)". Arrow firstly proposes "paradox of voting", which is incompatibility of individual choice in one subset as pre-definition. This is to say, paradox of between "individual choice and collective one". And then he dissects "alterantive" in one subset as choice definition. The arternative is based on several axims and conditions about preference and ordering in propositions of well-fare social choice. This book however cannot be considered as very readable one because you need strong conceivable ability and tolerable endurance to understand his all propostions, but must read it for further studies regarding collective choice. That is to say, if you want to understand collective choice theory, this book give you so important and basic several definitions and propositions including mathematic knowledge. Despite hard to way, but absolutely need to way!

Kenneth Arrow's work in game theory was developed to undermine Robert's Rules of Order. Robert's Rules have been a model for voting for some time now, and the search for a flaw in that model was the original impetus for game theory in general. Game theory is part mathematical and economic in its method. Its mathematics is largely first order logic with algebraic properties. In this short book, Arrow uses the algebraic property of transitivity to show a flaw in the voting system. Although it seems a majority prefer x to y, when the ballets are handed in, the collective result is that people prefer y to x. Arrow's theorem follows Kurt Godel's incompleteness theorem to show the incompleteness of a voting model. As a corollary, it does show how one can undermine the legislative process if one pays attention to the details. It can also be insightful for how to manipulate the voting process. In several recent elections, where both Democrats and Republicans gained seats in Congress and as Governors, the order of implementing a recount and the method of counting operated to beat an opponent. Unfortunately, lawyers in the respective cases who were counsel to the losing party were not familiar with Arrow's theorem.

This book espouses intransigent individuality while refuting blind conformity to societal norms.. . .A great work!

I usually only write reviews here about inexpensive math textbooks, but when I saw the other review, I had to add my two cents. This book is a great work of scholarship about the theory of voting and social choice, fields which this book(in its original form as Arrow's PhD thesis created). It is a totally theoretical work, which does not espouse anything about how one should live, contrary to what the other reviewer says. Very certainly, it says nothing about conformity. In a certain very tenuous sense, one could say that the conclusions favor the individual over society, but the work makes no value judgements that kind.

The theory of social choice is concerned with the logical problem of defining what it would mean to say that 'society prefers x to y'. More concretely, given a set of abstract individuals, each with their own set of values, how can we put these individual values together to determine what "society" wants. In particular, this theory clearly has relevance to voting, but it is abstract and has wider relevance as well. Arrow shows in this work that a few very reasonable assumptions about how these social values should behave in relation to the individual values are in fact contradictory(provided one has more than three people in the population-with two good old democracy works perfectly), forcing one to conclude that perhaps the concept of social choice is meaningless.

So he proves that an informal concept of social choice is contradictory, but that doesn't mean that if one takes weaker axioms, you can't get a consistent concept, and he studies this question, a topic of much further research, in the later chapters.

One thing to note is that Arrow's original proof was in fact fallacious, but in this book he provides a fix.

So, it can be tempting to read this work as being opposed to the idea that a society itself can have values, and thus individualism is all, but this was not at all the spirit in which the book was written, which is the spirit of mathematics(though no mathematics is used) and of welfare economics(which is not about welfare in the sense of a government giving money to the poor).

I liked this book a lot. Its not the kind of vampire that you want to like but I liked the characters. In his life, the vampire has stayed many places, he was made a vampire while in the intention of commiting adultry but his lady in the night turned out to be a differnt kind of lady of the night than he expected.
Fearing for his life, the vampire flees from Brazil where the inhabitants there have caught on to him. He comes to Florida and inadvertantly encounters a few people who set off his desire for revenge against a man that tried to destroy him while he was in India. The vampire is originally from Germany.
In Florida, the vampire causes much pain. However, he should have gone someplace else instead.

Dark Revenge is a horror vampire novel filled with tension. The same as in real life, the characters don't suspect a vampire is in the works as, the same as in real life, who would suspect such a thing. If someone told them, they would probably laugh, but before this novel is over, no one is laughing.

The vampire has it in for one of the main characters and the vampire does everything he can to destroy this man mentally before attacking him physically.

Worth a read.

I was looking at the vast collection of vampire fiction and was suprised to find a book that has captured the feel of the original works. I've always liked vampire fiction but have found new books trying to change the nature of the beast and am pleased to say that this story still has the beast in original form. Two fangs, controlled with more of the raw lust of blood.

I bought and read this book and really enjoyed it. It was smooth read that kept my interest from beginning to end. I found myself actually afraid of this vampire. Worth a read, no doubt about it!

This book was done by Diane Garey, whose creative roots are in film not as an author. I think she has compiled an excellent book as a companion to the PBS film and agree with another reviewer that this book is also excellent on its own.

As a card carrying member of the ACLU I sometimes cannot praise the ACLU enough, while other times, I cannot wrap my mind around why they take some positions that seen in diametrical opposition to what I want them to. This book gives a great explanation of how and why the ACLU has been viewed as a savior and a villian, and why we are all better off for their existence.

While written as a companion book to the PBS broadcast of the same name it stands alone as an adequate, spritely written review of the ACLU's history. Like a skipping stone, it moves over their troubled waters, briefly touching upon both the high and low points of their past eforts. Not meaning to represent itself as a complete analysis of the ACLU, Garey, none the less, has written an entertaining and thoughtful book. It will serve as an excellent introduction to the complex entity the ACLU has become.

Garey's history shows the ACLU's most magnificnent victories as well as the organization's most inglorious warts. This book makes history of civil liberties in America come alive. The stories are gripping. The writing sparkles.

You can only admire a group of people who defend the bill of rights. It isfashionable to defend the ten commandments, but if you defend the billof rights, you are called every namein the book. I salute the ACLU andanybody else who defends the rights ofAmerica.