Events Books

As a person with a conservative background, let me start off by telling you what this book is not. It is not liberal, despite what reviewer Kennedy of CA may believe. Yes, James Blanchard is a Democrat, but aside from mentioning select election results, there is no liberal or conservative ideology contained within this book. Further, James Blanchard does much to bolster his credibility through listing his own shortcomings and relaying some less than flattering views of the Clinton administration where warranted. I was surprised and impressed by his candor.

Lastly, reviewer Kennedy is just plain silly when implying that former congressman, governor, ambassador Blanchard (with a masters in business and a law degree) "...discovers Canada actually exists..." With the majority of Canadian/American trade flowing between Ontario and Michigan, and the fact that every handful of Michigan pocket change contains at least one Canadian coin, it is preposterous to assume any Michigan resident would be ignorant of the planet's second largest country.

The heart and soul of this book is a very human and relatable James Blanchard giving readers an inside look at what is like to be an American ambassador to Canada and how he may have played a humble, yet key role in the shaping of the two nation`s policies. The former ambassador's most lasting contributions may well lie within the Canadian/American Open Skies agreement and the results of the Quebec referendum.

No doubt, Canadians and Americans of all slants will enjoy learning more about the partner with whom they share the world's longest open border.

As the previous reviewers have said, Blanchard has written a key book for understanding US-Canadian relations. But this is also the most insightful book I have found about Clinton and the Clinton Administration in the areas in which Clinton was most successful, personal relations and trade policy.

If only James Blanchard were still the US Ambassador to Canada! Relations between the two countries would not be in the sorry state they are now. But then the current Republican administration would never send someone like Blanchard to Ottawa. Blanchard made every attempt to get to understand Canada and Canadian issue before he even moved to the capital. He travelled to all ten provinces in the months prior to setting up shop across from the parliament buildings.
This book provides a powerful and insightful backdrop against which to view the current administration's constant harping about the war on drugs. Canada is trying to take a more European approach, treating the problem as a medical issue as opposed to a criminal matter - but that only enrages George Bush's gang. One would think that the US war on drugs was a series of resounding triumphs!
Blanchard also noted that Canada does not 'do inbvasions' but rather does peacekeeping, so advised Clinton not to even ask Canada to take part in an invasion of Haiti. He also noted that we like to do things as part of the United Nations, so that was the best way to approach us. Imagine!
This book should be read by all US ambassadors, in fact all US state department officials for that matter.

...read this book. It is a decent primer for US residents who want to learn more about our oft-neglected neighbor. Warning: Mr. Blanchard is quite liberal, and liberal policies (US & Canadian) are treated matter-of-factly. His conservative successor as governor of Michigan (John Engler) has, in most people's opinions, done a better job. Interested conservatives will still enjoy the book--just keep a few grains of salt handy.

Canadians might get a kick out of a quintessential "American discovers Canada actually exists and is also pretty neato" story.

If you're Canadian, you really need to read this book. If you're American, you really need to read this book. James J. Blanchard has seen our Canadianisms and helped us to do the unthinkable, define ourselves. From coast to coast and beyond, the essence of what we are leaks out on these pages. It is fitting that an American should expose our mysteries and histories. Not that we are hidding them, we just seem to have a hard time accepting them. We remain the True North, Strong and Free. Thankyou James Blanchard.

There are people who will swear by this book, there are people who will hate the book. There is no middle ground, i have checked and tried it out. Either you love it or you hate it. Poetic Nonsense in finesse and the finest form.

This will cure your longing of the cluetrain manifisto stuffs. Beautifully written and meaningless at some point, but you goona love it i guess, you gonna crave for more, and then subscribe the newsletter.

GO buy the book, and immerse yourself. I have read some part of the book more than 3 times. Amen.

I just finished Bombastic Transcripts, so if you have bothered to read this at all you're probably wondering so what did this monkeyboy think? Good question, honestly I am still pondering it mulling it over in my head and probably will for a bit. It is a quick read, it's an interesting read, but fundamentally it's not a light read. It takes a little time for digestion and pondering... I suspect I will read it again in the next month or two and reconsider, hell maybe throw this whole review out.

So here's my advice go buy the book, RageBoy needs the cash. If you like Tom Robbins, Hunter S Thompson, and the Gonzo style read away, you'll enjoy it. Perhaps you will find some stuff to digest, even without ingesting any substances on the Schedule I drug list.

If you didn't like Cluetrain Manifesto, Gonzo Marketing, or any Gonzo writing buy the book anyways, for the reasons stated above. Then hide the book in your bookshelf and wait until a really dark night, one in which your soul is screaming for mercy while the night rages in a Category 5 Hurricane and your only fresh reading material is a copy of Reader's Digest you have flipped through already 15 times. Your mind goes hungry, for something unanswered and unknown, and you will recall this book hiding in some dark corner of the bookshelf covered in dust and a three month old edition of Fast Company magazine. You will pull it off the shelf and find yourself drawn to the words expressed inside and the walls of illusion come crashing down inside your mind. Either that or you'll take a gun and pull a Hemmingway. Doesn't much matter to me, if you survive reading it you might even find yourself signing up for Entropy Gradient Reversals, but let me warn you the shotgun is alot quicker and painless, but it's not nearly as much fun.

I only have one thing to say about this: "The Solution is Poetry". Excellent reading. Warning, you may not get it if you consider yourself too smart and significant.

This is the crash course in understanding the fundamentals of the necessity of change as seen through the eyes of the author, Christopher Locke. Everything you previously thought was lore is turned on its head in riotous fashion in The Bombast Transcripts. Each chapter takes apart some standard you thought was a given, an immutable and constant attribute of practically every aspect of life in the western world.

The best part is that Chris does it in so many different ways in one book. There's flat out ranting and there's cutting ridicule including interviews with himself, Rupert Murdoch and the famous one with Mr Ed. (Yes, the horse.)

Using those cliched critic's terms of rollercoaster ride or rollicking good yarn don't do this volume any justice whatsoever. In fact, this book defies any label you might care to ascribe.

In fact, I defy anyone to come up with a label for this book.

That was my introduction just over a year ago to Entropy Gradient Reversals and the evil genius mind(s) behind it, Christopher Locke/RageBoy. From that first mind-blowing, breathless reading of his newsletter, I was alternately charmed, alarmed and disarmed by the decidedly unpretentious Chris Locke. His new book, the Bombast Transcripts, a collection of essays previously published to the Entropy Gradient Reversals mailing list, contains that first newsletter that caught my imagination, and so many more.

As I've read through this book, I have found myself again reacting to it in the visceral way that I had to become accustomed to as one of his faithful Valued Readers at EGR. While some may call him pompous and crass, I find him to be merely open and honest. Then again, I've always had a soft spot for intelligent, over-indulgent, semi-vulgar Don Quixotes. His chosen windmills are big business that don't have a clue (IBM et all, no small potatoes here) and, while a book about business practices would normally make my eyes glaze over while putting me in a semi-catatonic state, I find this book to be human and engaging at every turn. Each essay stands on it's own as either a rant or a screed, yet each could also be expanded into its own little book. Irreverent, engaging, transforming, contemplative, hilarious....and each page is more of the same.

While I read Locke's words, I get the feeling that I am a part of something much bigger and more important than anyone can guess, especially those that think the internet is nothing more than a collection of chatrooms and porn sites. No, I get the feeling I'm getting a glimpse of a creation, a rapturous inferno of truth and emotion, two key elements that, when exposed to each other under the heat of RageBoy's passion, cause a brilliant flash of evolution that could change the world as we know it. What a wonderful world that would be.

Idealistic? Maybe. Bombastic? Hardly. Evil Genius?? Indeed.

I have only recently purchased this book and must say that Lisa Jones is hilarious! Her analysis about everything in black pop culture from big bottoms to blaxploitation puts a humorous spin on race in the United States. I really enjoyed how much of herself (Jewish, Black, woman) she put into the novel. I wish that she would continue to make essays such as these and keep them aligned with current events.

Though some of the events she talks about are dated news events (Mike Tyson rape and Dr. Dre assaulting Dee Barnes), her appropriately hilarious outlook makes reading her essays relevant even today.

I highly recommend this book.

My mum gave me this book a couple years ago and it opened my eyes to different ideas about race. I'm 15 and a few references to the old days are above me but this book speaks to me. It's the perfect cure for an identity crisis and Ms Jones thought processes are deep and humorous.

I especially love the essay "Tragedy Becomes Her" and "Is Biracial Enough". The essays in part 2 - Bring the Heroines made me think about the maltreatment of black women and gave me more reason to be proud of my mum and grandma's and aunties.

It's a good book to give to young black women especially to help them see that they are worth more than people will lead them to believe.

Pure genius.

She needs to write another and another and another. I thought I was actually there in her memories....real time....in color. I have read this book several times and I am suggesting it to be read for a book club I belong to. A great read!!!!!

She needs to write another and another and another. I thought I was actually there in her memories....real time....in color. I have read this book several times and I am suggesting it to be read for a book club I belong to. A great read!!!!!

I purchased this book when I was still a teenager, and to be honest, I dont remember what attracted me to the book. I like to consider it one of those moments where fate leads you to somthing that will make life-journies a lot easier.

Bulletproof Diva became "my bible" I carried it in my bookbag along with my schoolbooks and dreamed of becoming a woman like Lisa Jones who so eloquently articulates her lessons her passions, her battles and her life. I am now 26 years old, and my worn dog eared copy of this book (which has survived a building collapse, two moves and several tempermental boyfriends) is still listed as a favorite.

I hope that it will inspire, elevate and nourish your soul, as it has mine!

I absolutely LOVE these series. I'm now reading them for the 4th time. I love how Lund breaks down the parables and teachings of Christ to make them easier to understand. I also love the historical accuracy. He brings you into the story as if you really are there. I highly recommend these books!

I am a huge fan of Gerald N. Lund and love his works. Fire of the Covenant was an excellent read and so I began this series. Lund has a way of making you truly understand the people and times that he writes about. He also raises the question inside yourself, "What would I have done if I were there?". Highly recommend this series and the rest of Lund's works, for LDS or non-LDS.

Love this series! These books really give you some insight on the life of the Savior - when and why he did what he did. These books also help you to understand Jewish traditions, are historical fiction, and very entertaining!

The author's biblical references are integrated into an incredible fictional setting and you will experience Jesus as a real life person.

THis is the most wonderful series I've read in a long time. It helps to fully understand the happenings of the life of Jesus Christ. Gerald Lund writes fictional characters along with real life characters. He helps you understand the Twelve Apostles, the Zealots, Sadducees and the Pharisees. You learn about the life of Jesus Christ; his miracles; his death, and the atonement. You learn about Herod's Temple and what went on there. This series is well worth reading.

"Coping with Physical Loss and Disability" by Rick Ritter, MSW, is a jarring book at 92 pages. When I first got it, I thought it would be a regular self-help book, and I admit I was skeptical. But I opened it and it turned out to be a workbook.

There are six sections of the book, going from what your original loss was to how you could ask for and get help for it. In fact, I really had to consider that particular question. "Describe your loss in detail" was another. That was one of those where I had to write my feelings, and like many with disabilities I've told the story so many times, I figured I'd gotten it to a science. It was a blah story with which I started out, therefore; one I'd told a million times.

Then, something happened inside of me. I got angry. I don't do that too much; usually I'm at most irritated and that's that. Life is irritating to me these days for various personal reasons, so that was what the answer was like till that particular switch in my head went off. All of a sudden, there was a real answer. I actually started yelling "What? You want to know about the stupid primary care physician who said one leg was shorter than the other, when it turned out I had a blood clot in it? You want to know about my parents? What...?"

In the end, the question tore something out of me that I hadn't expected at all.

If you read this book, be prepared to do it slowly. At the end, you'll find a section of resources that is very intense. The author even stuck in movies that deal with disability! The book itself will take you to places inside that you didn't know existed, like that bit of anger -- believe me, I had more than one of those. I cried, I threw things, I felt sorry for myself, I sat for long periods of time thinking hard about questions my mind refused to answer but that on the other hand it wanted to. That test of my own will-power hurt a lot sometimes. But believe me when I say, it's very much worth it.

"Coping with Physical Loss and Disability: A Workbook" - Rick Ritter, MSW; LovingHealing Press 2006.

As we prepared for our oldest daughter's amputaion, I searched for something to help guide us along as a family. This work book is wonderful. Although my daughter was emotionally ready for her loss, Rick Ritter was able to better address some of what we may have missed prior to her surgery. I strongly recomend this book for anyone dealing with physical loss them selves or that of a loved one. Joi Warburton, Las Vegas, NV

After reading the other reviews I purchased this book. I have a degenerative muscle disease for which there is no treatment. Although I have coped fairly well up to this point, I was finding myself more and more isolated. As I answered the questions, I felt it would be better if I were going through this process with a professional. I answered as fully as I was able, but there doesn't seem to be any suggestions as to what to do with this information. The book suggests that you share your answers with three people. In my case that wasn't possible.I can see that it would be useful in conjunction with therapy. Without that professional input, the book left me hanging.

Rick Ritter has written a superb self-help workbook that will benefit readers who have suffered a physical loss or disability. Ritter has included 50 questions to be answered by the reader. He recommends these answers be shared with at least three other people. In responding to these questions, the reader is able to reflect on his or her disability or physical loss. The book engages the reader in discovering ways to deal with their physical loss. To those readers who have experienced such a loss, the workbook will provide a sense of empowerment to those still in grief or depression.

Ritter himself has experienced his own disability. As a social worker(MSW), he has had the opportunity to work with 100 people who have suffered a physical loss or disability. His workbook provides a roadmap for readers to follow to reach attainable goals.

Also included are interesting short stories of people he has worked with ranging from amputation, breast cancer, muscular dystrophy, AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, and quadriplegia. He recounts how these people were able to cope with their loss.

Having a disability or having suffered a physical loss doesn't necessarily lead to unhappiness. How one responds to that loss is what really matters. Rick also uses spirituality, support systems, and holistic methods as an approach to coping with the loss. Resiliency is crucial in facing any loss or disability.

As a mother of a son with cerebral palsy, I can see how this workbook could be very useful. He is now a happy young man working as an attorney. His disability didn't stop him from being productive. Also, having battled my own muscle disease along with rheumatoid arthritis, I found it helpful. As the daughter of a mother transfused with HIV contaminated blood, I can see how this workbook could have benefited her.

The resources included at the end of his book are certainly a bonus. He has listed helpful organizations, suggested reading, and films relating to physical loss and disability.

Rick Ritter has given his readers a wonderful gift. "Coping with Physical Loss and Disability" is an empowering book that will benefit many readers. I highly recommend this workbook. Thank you, Rick for caring. Your workbook will be appreciated by many people.

Nancy A. Draper (Author) A Burden of Silence: My Mother's Battle with AIDS

Reviewed by Christina Gonzalez, LMHC for Reader Views (5/06)

The author starts this very unique workbook with a compelling quote from Christopher Reeve, "So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable". This book is a way to help those who have found their dreams become impossible, find new ways to restructure their life, their ways of thinking and their ways of being in order to find ways to help their dreams become inevitable.

This book is oriented towards those who have experienced some type of a physical loss, whether from a disability, accident or including serious, chronic illnesses and pain. His examples range from people who have suffered knee injuries to quadriplegics, to individuals who have undergone a mastectomy from breast cancer to debilitating illnesses like muscular dystrophy. I would see value for individuals with ANY chronic health condition benefiting enormously from this book.

The author suggests that individuals who use this book consult with at least three people in their lives with whom they can share the results of the exercises which is very wise. The author takes the reader through a series of written exercises and anecdotes through six main chapters: Past and Future, Self Care and Support, Dealing with Loss: Feelings and Beliefs, Understanding Disability, Transforming Circumstance, and The Ongoing Process of Loss and Recovery. Each of these remain only questions and words on paper until the reader takes these questions and looks into their lives and then shares them with another.

As a therapist I will be recommending this book to my clients who are struggling with any chronic health issues. I would love to use this workbook with my clients in their therapy as well as suggest they share the information obtained about themselves with others in their lives. The author includes some excellent exercises to help the reader determine what people in their lives might be supportive to this process of recovery from physical loss and/or any chronic health condition.

The appendices include some excellent resources regarding therapeutic techniques and alternatives, suggested reading for coping with loss and disability, films on issues related to physical loss and disability, guidelines for watching films, and a listing of organizations and other resources that can help individuals coping with loss and disability.

As the mother of a child with Cerebral Palsy and as a psychotherapist myself, I found this book to be highly valuable for people dealing with any type of physical loss. As I mentioned above, just buying the book will not do anything. Filling out the exercises will help, but will not make a huge change. Filling out the exercise, following the author on the journey that he is leading the reader on and sharing with those close to the reader will make a great deal of difference. Some of the exercises I found helpful for those suffering from debilitating mental or emotional illnesses and even less acute health conditions such as asthma or others. This book is highly recommended to any individual who has suffered a physical loss and is still struggling to find their dreams. It would make a great gift from a supportive loved one who is also willing to make a stand to be there with the reader as they go through these exercises, and it would make an excellent aid to an individual who is currently seeing a therapist. I would not recommend this to someone who just wants to do the exercises randomly, haphazardly or in order to just keep their answers to themselves and not share them with another.

This seering uncompromising volume is one of the most important books published in the past thirty years.

The many excellent chapters penned by world-class historians and analysts destroy the mendacious rationale for the welfare-warfare state, that monstrocity at war with America itself and the world.

In particular, Murray N. Rothbard's two essays, "Two Just Wars: 1776 and 1861" and "World War I as Fulfillment: Power and the Intellectuals" are especially crucial to understanding how this messianic drive for empire and regimentation came about.

~The Costs of War: America's Pyrrhic Victories~ is a compelling and powerful anthology directed against the imperial psychosis of our times. It offers a sweeping indictment of the costs of war in terms of loss of life, the effect on morality in the aftermath, inflation, mounting debt, statism, the loss of civil liberties and economic freedom. A multitude of collaborators have contributed to this powerful anthology including John Denson, Samuel Francis, Thomas Fleming, David Gordon, Paul Gottfried, Robert Higgs, Justin Raimondo, Murray Rothbard, Joseph Stromberg, Clyde Wilson, et al. In the words of Justin Raimondo, the "noninterventionist movement" has been "relegated to the margins of American politics, confined to pacifists and extreme leftists, on the one hand, and extreme rightists, including libertarians as well as members of the John Birch Society, on the other." Many of my nominally conservative friends have been of the mindset that a martial obsession is a novel conservative value. However, if they study history more objectively than they will find that there is nothing particularly conservative about being "warlike" and obsessed with "militarism," particularly within the Old Right conservative tradition at home in America. The neoconservative interlopers have led them astray. Notwithstanding our present-day abandonment of the non-interventionist tradition, its roots go back deep into America history. The founding fathers enshrined their commitment to non-interventionism in the Neutrality Act of 1793. "The Great rule of conduct for us," proclaimed George Washington, "in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible... It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." Thomas Jefferson further lauded the virtue of strategic independence, in proclaiming: "Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none." John Quincy Adams surmised, "America does not go abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own." Some of our "monsters" in recent years whether Osama Bin Ladin or Saddam Hussain were actually considered our allies. Moreover, these "monsters" were foreign aid recipients and are actually "monsters" of our own countenance at one time. In my humble opinion, America's security lies in a foreign policy based on strategic independence and armed neutrality, not in reckless intervention abroad or in countless foreign entanglements, alliances, and commitments to international bodies like the United Nations.

Many people see the Second World War as a defining case against non-interventionism, but if they studied history more objectively than they would see how American intervention in the so called war to end all wars, the Great War, in fact paved the way for the Great Crusade in the Second World War. Woodrow Wilson's intervention in the Great War and his campaign to "make the world safe for democracy" actually served to make the world safe for both Hitler and Stalin. The seeds of Nazi Germany were planted by the forced abdication of the Kaiser and the vehement economic retribution perpetrated by the Western Allies like England and France against Germany, which only served to destabilise Germany and radicalise her body politic.

John Denson astutely surmises, "The greatest accomplishment of Western Civilization is arguably the achievement of individual liberty through limits on the power of the state. In the war-torn twentieth-century, we rarely hear that one of the main costs of armed conflict is the long-term loss of liberty to winners and losers alike." War for America, despite our overwhelming victories, has been one Pyrrhic victory after the other. "Beyond the obvious costs of dead and wounded soldiers, there is the lifetime struggle of veterans to live with their nightmares and their injuries; the hidden economic costs of inflation, debts, and taxes; and more generally the damages caused to our culture, our morality, and to civilisation at large." With this erudite anthology, Denson and many others illustrate the costs of war and the heavy toll that an imperial mindset unleashes on a nation. To encapsulate some of the brilliant content therein: Richard Gamble takes on the perennial champion of imperialism in the nineteenth-century Abraham Lincoln in a terse analysis of his sordid legacy, his war of aggression; Richard Raico sketches the costs of America's needless involvement in the Great War, in an essay entitled `World War I: The Turning Point;' Robert Higg's profound essay entitled `War and Leviathan' sketches a history of how war preparedness has led to a continual aggrandisement of power in the hands of the state while proving itself to be detrimental to freedom; and Paul Gottfried asks the most heterodox question of our time, in his essay `Is Modern Democracy Warlike?'

This book squarely challenges the prevailing myth that our sustained history of war in the twentieth-century has made us freer and secured more freedom at home. War is an engine for aggrandisement of power in the hands of state, centralisation, as well as sweeping cultural and moral changes. After WWII, Americans became acclimated to payroll withholding, a hefty income tax, and a mammoth centralised bureaucracy. Nonetheless, the idea that there is somehow salvific cleansing power in the spilt blood of the America G.I. continues to prevail. I whole-heartedly recommend this book. Thomas Woods put it best, "The Costs of War is easily one of the most important books to emerge from American conservatives in a generation." I whole-heartedly recommend this jewel, which is a reminder of the costs of war and a defender of the non-interventionist tradition which must be recovered.

_The Costs of War_ thoroughly examines how the US has gone from being a peaceful republic to the empire it is today. From the Civil War to the Spanish-American War and the World Wars, the essays in this volume tell you about the individuals who deliberately turned the country against its long-standing isolationist tradition, and how and why they did it.

More importantly, in keeping with its title, the book also describes the high price we've paid for the warfare state, not only in human lives, but also in damage to the economy, the culture, and especially liberty.

This book is essential for anyone who wants to understand what's going on in the world today in the context of what has gone before. The information and ideas here are extremely important, now moreso than ever, and I give the book my highest possible recommendation.

John V. Denson edited a useful anthology that undermines the "popular history" (popular nonsense)of recent U.S. History and the rise of empire which is a term the Establishemnt does not like because empire is an honest definition. Denson chose excerpts which deal with the rapid growth of centralized government, the disintegration of constitutional rights, and an ever increasing national debt all of which is related to unnecessary war since the Civl War or the War of Southern Succession.

Denson's introductory essay is worth reading. This essay gives the reader a glimpse of the book's theme, and his essay is a good introduction to the rise of militarism in the United States since 1860. Denson's introduction presents the reader with a cause-and effect relationship between war and the erosion of rights.

The essays that examine the Civil War, especially Murray Rothbard's essay, gives a view of the Civil War that reveals that actual origins of this tragedy as opposed to the childish convention that somehow the Civil War began over the issue of slavery. Readers should note that Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson was opposed to slavery. Gen. Robert E. Lee emancipated his slaves. On the other hand, Gen. Grant had to free his slaves to take command of the Army of the Potomac. Gen. Sherman of the Union also owned slaves. As some of the essays clearly state, Pres. Lincoln antagonized the Southerners with manacing military actions especially on Virginia's border which resulted in the Virginians joining the Confederacy.

The essays dealing with World War I and World War II should be of particular interest to those not familiar with actual the origins of these wars. Textbook writers give the false impression that Pres. Wilson and U.S. authorities were neutral prior to April 6, 1917 when members of the U.S. Congress voted to declare on the Germans and their allies. The facts were that American bankers and powerful political fugures had given money and resources to the British and French espcially after 1915. Pres. Wilson had U.S. supply vessels sail into war zones to assist the British and French and to deliberately antagonize the Germans into provocation.

Murray Rothbard's essay regarding World War I is instructive. He chides Walter Lippmann for being a ferocious advocate of U.S. entry into World War I as well as a proponent of military conscription (slavery). Yet, when Mr. Lippmann realized that he was of draft age and in good health, he used his connections with Felix Frankfurter to avoid having to face angry gunfire. Lippmann's excuse was that he wanted to help shape the post World War I United States in line what the "intellectuals" thought was necessary for everyone else. Mr. Lippmann annointed himself as one of Plato's philosopher kings. This anecdote is indeed instructive. This is line with the adage that, "War hath no fury as that of the non-combatent." One should note that the current group of armchair patriots have never seen combat. Vice President Cheney had five (5) draft deferments and never saw one he did not like. Yet, he is similiar to Walter Lippmann in that Cheney wants war but never wants to face war's dangers. Lippmann and Cheney fit Andy Jacobs' descriptions of War Wimps and Chicken Hawks.

The essays dealing with the costs of war reveal that the plutocratic rich benefit from military expendatures, but the public never gets to see the bills until later when they come due. Those who prefer to remain ignorant and comfortable about the costs of war only protest when taxes and inflation damage their economic status. Yet, these folks may hold a key to stopping the war machine as suggested in one of the essays if they alerted their U.S. Senators and Representatives.

The appeal to "Demokracy" to initiate wars is ludicrous which Messers Gottfired and Hoppe make very clear. The fact is wars in the name of democracy or wars in the name of the people are the most destructive. A point well made is "Vox populi Vox Dei" applies to war. Modern political views state the voice of the public, no matter how stupid or wrong, is a substitute for reason and knowledge.

Mr. Denson's book is useful for those who are puzzled by the rise of the military state. Readers should also consult the bibliogrphy in this book. Harry Elmer Barnes' anthology titled PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE and James J. Martin's REVISIONIST VIEW POINTS are especially useful. Mr. Denson's THE COSTS OF WAR is timely and well worth reading.

Although soundly invested in the critiques provided in each of the contributions to "The Costs of War: America's Phyrric Victories," I find the refusal by Mises intellectuals to entertain extending the franchise of soldiering to the ruling classes (and even, now, to the comfortable middle classes) by way of compulsory service a hollow defense.

Mr. Stromberg (whose analysis here, as in his articles dating back many years, speaks truth to power most lucidly) himself has been heard dismissing the James Fallows assertion. To paraphrase: that until the mothers of soldiers in comfortable white suburban towns are ringing the phones off-the-hook screaming at their Congressmen "YOU KILLED MY BOY!" the lives of Fallows' working-class "Chelsea boys" will continue to be defiled in the name of state sponsored phyrric misadventures as they are marched off to slaughter.

What other than placing the incidence (costs) of warfare squarely in the laps of the decisionmaking class will stall the state-led rush to war? Surely not the scorn of intellectuals. Surely not the "mature restraint" shored up by our shuddering constitutional system, increasingly torn to shreds by means of "unitary executive" assertion. Alas, surely not the thoroughly "professionalized" "all-volunteer" armed forces, marshalled by increasingly unaccountable yes-man officers, themselves at the beck and call of revolving-door insider-intellectuals, presidents, congressmen, and captains of industry as they engage in the lapping up of the "political means to wealth"--the overwhelming majority "exempted" from their service on the battlefield.

An excellent, if somewhat dated book. And here in the South Pacific - complete with its coups and mutinies now - Luttwak seems downright wrong in a number of respects. Perhaps our region is different from 60s Africa. Still, an immensely readable and frighteningly enjoyable book

Edward Luttwak's first and finest work, Coup d'Etat is the product of the close study of how dozens of governments around the world were successfully overthrown.

By examining the successful and failed strategies and tactics of those who staged the coups, Luttwak synthesizes a step-by-step guide to oust a regime and install a replacement. The political technology he develops, like military hardware, is value-neutral - like a firearm, anyone can employ it for ends good or evil.

As long as there are tyrannical regimes, there will always be a need for good people to be able to stage or sponsor successful coups d'etat. This volume is a practical handbook of immense value to the planning, execution, and long-term success of a regime change. Likewise, it provides a real-world aid to devise defensive means of protecting a government against a coup d'etat.

Advances in information technology since the book was written enter new variables into the formula, but Luttwak's basic concept remains fundamentally sound. As long as there will be coups d'etat, there will be a need for students and policymakers to study and master this book.

Perhaps my impression is wrong but it seems to me that there have not been as many coup d'etats in the past decade as there were in the fifties and sixties. Nonetheless the subject remains one of perennial interest. Luttwalk here provides a kind of step-by- step guidebook for any would be coup-ist. He teaches that , "the coup d'etat uses precisely those parts of the state apparatus which are the prime target of revolutionary war: the armed forces, the police and the security agencies. The technique of the coup s the technique of judo : the planners of the coup infiltrate and subvert a small critical part of the security apparatus, which they then use with surgical precisionto displace the political leadership from its control of the rest of the state bureaucracy"
Luttwalk in this book describes and details the intelligence techniques required before the coup, the military techniques required during it and the propaganda techniques required to provide it with legitimacy afterwards..
He says it has no ideology behind it.
This is a compact richly informative work which makes use a variety of examples to establish its principal points.

With Coup d'Etats continuously occurring all over the world, this book is more relevant than ever in dealing with the subject. For example, using the framework developed in this book, it is easy to understand why the many recent coup attempts in Venezuela have failed (both by Chavez and the more recent one against him). Every time there is a coup I find myself referring back to the book in order to determine if there were any telltale signs to predict whether the coup will be successful or not.

His basic framework involves timing, media control and popular support, and government organizational structure. With these factors in mind, the author examines a large number of coups, both successful and failed. The inner stories of many of these coups is fascinating by itself, yet the author does a good job of telling the tale while drawing the main lessons from it.

I ran into this book at the age of 12. When I realized how much fun this book could be (a few years later) it had disappeared from the local library. Looking for years at many university libraries, later I found out that even when it was listed it turned out to be stolen!
Bought it on-line, read it and enjoyed it. Nice for an intercontinental flight and beyond.

Having only just discovered this title, I am surprised that it hasn't hit the best-seller listing. It's an amazing read, and casts a haunting parallel to current events. I thoroughly recommend it to readers of thought-provoking fiction.

This book was sent to me by a friend in the United States. I loved it. Absorbing, funny, horrific, sad, all of these things and more. The characters won me over from the start, and the story? What can I say? Heart-wrenching. As a high school teacher, I want to put it on my senior class reading list, but there's one thing I don't understand. 'The Devil's Madness' is about Australians, it is written by an Australian and yet it is unavailable in this country. How come it's out in the US and not here? Come on Aussie publishers - take a look at this one.

I could not put it down once I started. The characters are real, engaging and the story was captivating. I've recommended it & passed along my copy to friends & family.

This novel blew me away! One of the few times an author has made me really care what happened to the characters. I lived every day with them. I felt their laughter and their pain. Has PM written more novels and if so, where can I get them?

I really enjoyed this book. It captures you immediately and next thing you know, you're almost done. I'm embarrassed to say I knew very little of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War so it was more than entertaining - it was educational. I highly recommend!

I recieved this book as a Christmas present. It is certainly the kind of book I'm fond of reading. This was no exception. As a career diplomat, Kiesling sees the importance of projecting American inflence, but as the subtitle suggest he is "realistic" is how far this influence can go. However, his presenation gets repetitive in places and is needlessly wordy. For example, he included, as an appendix, his letter of resignation. You can see in the personal document that his natural writing style is rather verbose. Some of that style made it way into this book. Still an important addition to the bookshelf library. Four stars.

Kiesling's cogently and convincingly presented lessons are a useful read for anybody who takes an interest in foreign policy, but all our politicians, of BOTH parties, ought to read it. Unfortunately, very few of them will.

Mr. Kiesling is of course famous for his notable letter of resignation at the beginning of the latest Iraq adventure after which he left a 20 year career as a diplomat. Hearing the backstory of his departure alone would have been interesting enough reading. But, surprisingly, that story is only the introduction to the real book.

Diplomacy Lessons ends up being a tour-de-force about the modern craft of international affairs, a book that transmits both the soul of the profession and the technical details that make up getting along in a world transformed by globalization. Befitting the archaeogical background of its author, the book delves into international relations with a much more sweeping view, starting with Greek democracy and projecting into the future. Diplomacy Lessons goes beyond the shallow headlines of our news sources into what's really going on - not just back room details, but simple stuff like "Hey, there are reactionary nationalists in EVERY country." You get the immediate sense that this is the backstory you need in order to understand current events.

Not that it's an easy read. Probably to the reader's benefit, the book has not been overly edited to meet mass appeal. The text can be quite dense at times, and the organization can seem a bit haphazard. Then again, to leave much out would detract from the value it provides.

The author also adds choice phrases that can only come from a man never again considering a career in federal government such as "the flies gathered in swarms like defense contractors." Who knows if a big publishing house would have let such zingers go - but it adds to the color.

If you follow the news AT ALL, then BUY THIS BOOK.

I bought this book after seeing Mr. Kiesling speak about it in a bookshop on PBS. I was impressed by his sincerity and knew, from the chaos of our involvement in Iraq and elsewhere, that his insight was needed. As a career diplomat, he's seen first-hand how diplomacy has been shunted aside in favor of blundering military might. He isn't just defending his own field, however, since he demonstrates how arrogance actually loses ground for the U.S., both by making us more of a target and destroying our credibility with potential friends. While he's on-target as far as he goes, Mr. Kiesling stops a bit short in his criticism of the Bush administration. He sees it as incompetent but basically well-meaning, rather hastily dismissing any ulterior motives. I suppose this is due to residual loyalty, but the more credible doubts about the administration's motives should eventually be attended to.

This is the BEST BOOK I have ever read on real world diplomacy. The combination of his feet on the ground experience and clear eyed view of American diplomacy is most powerful. I started writing down pithy, pertinent quotations as I read it through the second time, but I filled up too many notebook pages. Perhaps it will be best to read it yet again! Here are a few: "A politician who obeys the dictates of a hostile superpower is toast." "..local nationalism and resistance to outsiders trumps the call of ideology or religion." "Someone whose ego has been sandblasted by the humiliations of learning a language successfully from scratch as an adult is bettter at risking the reciprocal vulnerability required for relationship building."

The "Do-it-Yourself Constitutional Amendment Kit" totally delighted me. It's funny and amusing, clever and smart, but also deadly serious. It states the obvious that's never stated. It offers pragmatic solutions that cut through the bull. It opens the door to more political involvement in America. This book gives voice to what many are thinking but never say. And delivers it clearly, succinctly and always with a smile. I heartily recommend it!

A funny, poignant, and strangely idiosyncratic work. Author Whitten has tapped into our American pop-culture angst just as the economic and political forces are coming to an unprecedented boil. His basic argument: maybe we need to re-think this whole "constitution" thing and get some new rules (and rulers) in Washington. This is not a "dummies guide" to politics but a book for smart people who enjoy thought-provoking odd-ball notions about politics and the absurdity of our current 200+-year old system of "democracy." Whitten pokes fun at re-working the amendments with a variety of brief vignettes on subjects ranging from "limiting all political speeches to 14 minutes" to a "reading list" for public officials that includes Salinger & Bukowski. I give this book four-star kudos on concept, but can't give it five stars because I wish there were more of Whitten's funny original material, and less of the actual constitution (which is reprinted here as an appendix) though to be fair to the author, I can see why he re-printed "the original" in this book so people could see what he was talking about -- and truth be told I have not actually read the constitution since 1976. Given how important this document is to Americans, we should all read the constitution again as adults and voters; Whitten provides a "fun" revisionist motive for readers to examine the original document.

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.