Book Description
Based on the author's extensive experience as a working planner, this book gives readers an insider's view of sub-state urban planning—the “nitty-gritty” details on the interplay of politics, law, money, and interest groups. The author takes a balanced, non-judgmental approach to introduce a range of ideological and political perspectives on the operation of political, economic, and demographic forces in city planning. Unlike other books on the subject, this one is strong in its coverage of economics, law, finance, and urban governance. It examines the underlying forces of growth and change and discusses frankly who benefits and loses by particular decisions. A four-part organization covers the background and development of contemporary planning; the structure and practice of contemporary planning; fields of planning; and national planning in the United States and other nations, and planning theory. For individuals headed for a career in planning.
Customer Reviews:
Get a Broad spectrum of Urban Planning for the Beginner.......2000-07-11
This book gives a broad spectrum of what to expect in the planning field, but there are a few flaws. One is that the book is not written for the technocratic planner, it is written for the beginner or someone who is not going to make planning their career. But this book will give the beginner a broad basis to start from and for this I do suggest the beginner to read this before they choose planning as a career.
Customer Reviews:
Get the 7th edition, instead........2007-09-13
This is an older edition of the book. Get the newer, seventh edition. The ISBN for the 7th edition is 0321451341.
An important and useful text for understanding trade theory.......2006-02-27
Krugman and Obstfeld, two world renowned international economists, provide a full detailed analysis and examples for the basis of trade among nations. It is relatively straightforward to comprehend for both economists and noneconomists. International trade is an important component of economic policy for the growth and development of countries. This book examines various theoretical trade models and provides real world examples of policy formulation and their impact. The authors do not take any political positions, thus making their analysis a purely objective, or positive study.
I would highly recommend this book to students interested in doing research in international trade and development. It is a must read for prospective international economists. Noneconomists might also find it as a useful reference. I found the book to be invaluable in my graduate research and dissertation.
Krugman.......2006-02-25
Some complicated theories explained in a way that can be understood.
Esay flow from a concept to the next.
Not What I've Come to Expect from Krugman.......2005-04-03
First off, even if you totally discount the rest of my review, buy the low price international version of this book. On the March 10, 2005 episode of the daily show Krugman elucidated his feelings quite clearly. "The real money is in textbooks. With other books, people need to decide whether to buy them or not. Students have to buy textbooks." Thanks Paul. I think I'm being charitable when I say that at $125 this book is a ripoff. It isn't even full color.
Anyway, on to the actual content of the book. I have to say that I was excited when I found out that my International economics course at Stanford was going to be using Paul Krugman's book. I've enjoyed his articles for the New York Times because they manage to cut right to the core of issues with an unusual amount of punch. Yet, time and time again I was disappointed with the frequently inpenatrable language and obtuse, unrealistic examples in this book. Unfortunately, the only part of Krugman's characteristic writing style that came through was a feeling of overwrought vitriol, which makes sense in an op-ed but has little place in a textbook. Furthermore, this book occupies a strange niche in the world of econ texts, it is not mathematically rigorous, nor is it well written. Usually we see one or the other but rarely both. Initially, I thought these observations were mine alone, but other students began openly voicing pointed criticisms of the book during class (and I am perhaps being too kind here in not repeating them). I've been in school nearly as long as I can remember and I have never seen such discontent with a text.
During the second half of the course even my econ prof became fed up and abandoned the book altogether. Given that, I find all of the positive reviews for this book rather astounding. My suspicion is that there might have been open rebellion amongst my classmates had not the professor decided to leave this text by the wayside. I also found that it is brimming with misplaced, one-sided arguments that come across as Krugman blatantly strawmanning arguments opposed to his own. One of many examples of this comes out of nowhere near the end of chapter 2. Krugman implies that anyone who doesn't believe in unmitigated free trade is intellectually irresponsible!?! This book pushes for unrestrained market fundamentalism throughout, primarily by misrepresenting any arguments that would effectively challenge it's simplistic and seemingly outdated dogma. This book, in particular, feeds into the same system of self serving scientism so prevalent in economics for the last 60 years.
Please don't mistake this review as the bile of a jilted student, I did quite well in the course. However, this is almost certainly the result of looking for alternative explanations of virtually every topic covered. The reason this book gets one star instead of two is because it lacks a lot of the modern learning tools prevalent in almost every other textbook. Things like quality questions, keywords, vocabulary and historical context all get short shrift in this this volume. If you're into learning about incomplete models that only represent a theoretical version of the world, this book is for you. Unfortunately, just like Krugman said on The Daily Show, if you are a student there is probably little chance that you have a choice on the matter. Buy the cheap international edition for 20 bucks. I would recommend that you use to the difference to buy William Easterly's Elusive Quest for Growth...and a beer.
The Undergraduate International Economics Standard.......2004-06-29
Well, I will start off by saying that the book really probably only deserves somewhere between 4-4.5 stars, but I'll give it 5 to offset some of the questionable reviews below.
No, the book is not perfect. However, it is an academic standard at pretty much any major college or university for teaching undergraduate International Econ/Trade theory, and for good reason. The book makes a clear a concise presentation of basic theory and policy, perhaps in points it is a little too simple. As pointed out, while I'm not sure about the 6th edition, there were some diagrammatical mistakes in the 5th...I bet, however, these were done by a graduate student. A quick bit of reasoning and a second of thought should yield the appropriate picture, however. And yes, I think a bit of Krugman's bias comes through, though its not terribly off-putting.
The book could use a bit more math I think. The real equations and difficult problems are few and far between, and are, for the most part, pretty straight forward. At the very most it would take a basic understanding of calculus, but the majority of the problems and equations can be explained and done without it. I have read a number of undergraduate economics books with far more intensive math. Despite this lack, however, the intentions come across pretty well.
No, this book is not for beginners to economics. At least an undergraduate course or reading in both micro and macro are needed, and really and truly, an intermediate level in each is probably better if one wants to get the most out of the book.
If you find the subject matter within to be terribly math intensive and you cannot get motivated to read the subject matter because it doesn't use "pizza and beer" (and um...I don't think I'd want an imported pizza anyway, but thanks), well I guess the subject and this book are not for you. However, if you are trying to enrich your understanding of economics at a very basic level, this book provides a good way to do so.
And, if you want graduate level book, and like Obstfeld, I recommend he and Rogoff's book.
Book Description
This best-seller stands apart from others of its kind by its comparative approach, patient explanation, concern with policy, and ability to stimulate readers' interest. In a clear, accessible style, the authors demonstrate the important role that American states and communities play in the political life of the nation.
Focuses on the sources and nature of conflict in states and communities, along with the structures and processes designed to manage conflict. Includes updates and new topics throughout, with refocused organization; discusses timely issues such as New York City's response to terrorism and the 2000 presidential race. Examines the background and career of prominent political figures. Illustrates a wide variety of current political conflicts, covering issues such as the drinking age and the right to bear arms. Includes informative and entertaining discussion on various aspects of American states and communities such as state birds, nicknames, and ratings for the "most livable" states. provides end-of-chapter "On the Web" sections that direct students to links and additional information on the Internet.
For anyone interested in learning more about the American political process.
Book Description
Now with a free SINGWIN CD-ROM, Evaluating Practice, Fourth Edition is even easier for readers to understand and apply data analysis.
Unsurpassed among human service evaluation books, Evaluating Practice, Fourth Edition, includes the innovative SINGWIN program, created by Charles Auerbach, David Schnall, and Heidi Heft Laporte of Yeshiva University. Evaluating Practice instructs readers on managing cases and charting and filling out scales. Although the authors are best known within the social work discipline, this book can also be used in other professional programs such as nursing, counseling, psychology, and psychiatry. The free supplement with practice test questions provides a number of helpful exercises.
For anyone interested in social work at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Also for those interested in psychology, counseling, psychiatry, or psychiatric nursing.
Customer Reviews:
A great text book..........2007-01-02
I ordered this textbook for an MSW course, and it's wonderful. I love all the examples and the software that comes with it.
Another Edition to a fantastic text.......2005-08-10
This new edition of the text once again proves that these authors are the masters of single subject research. I have used this text for five years in my graduate methods course and am completely satisfied with their coverage of the material of single subject research design. Just when a researcher thought it could not get any better, this new edition comes along with updates to the software.
Get this book.
enough is enough.......2005-03-22
I was pleased to hear that this text had been assigned in a graduate research course at my graduate school of social work. I'm seriously disappointed. I would not recommend this text's continued use. It is excessively repetitive, constantly restating previous material (commonly referred to as 'rehashing'), and, as a sidebar, i can't help but mention an irritating habit of unnecessary references to material yet to come ('we'll talk about that more in chapter 14.'). The writing style is terribly wordy, and in a weighted, clunky pseudo-conversational style that rarely is effective in a textbook. The actual technical information is obscured in a constant river of verbiage, usually in page after page of solid block text, the least helpful format when learning technical information (or when subsequently searching for specific information or techniques). The result? It serves as a strong sedative. Finally, the authors repeatedly express apologies, in what eventually (by page 350) feels like an obsequious and cloying manner, for putting forward an empirical and accountable approach to clinical practice. The worst, though, is the repetition of material, as if the reader were an idiot. The sheer relentlessness of it is what is so galling, and at $100 bucks, neither affordable nor worth the investment. There are other texts out there with clearer, cleaner, more articulate prose, that are more respectful of the reader, and at half the price, such as the classic and affordable: Single-Case Research Designs: Methods for Clinical and Applied Settings by Alan E. Kazdin. Ignore the pollyanna reviews above and below, and avoid this text, or if on the syllabus, protest and suggest an alternative.
A Classic in Practice Evaluation.......2003-11-13
Bloom, Fischer and Orme continue to make an unique contribution to improving practice in the human services by providing a road map by which practitioners can evaluate their effectiveness. I've been using their text book for over 15 years in teaching practice evaluation and in has been an invaluable help. The new edition has a CD Rom with SingWin, CAAP,and CAAS which I was able to install in Windows XP Home edition. You must install CAAS before CAAP for it to work. The sofware computerizes record keeping, score computation, and graph construction. I strongly reccommend this textbook for human services faculty.
Amazon.com
One day in 1992, Thomas Friedman toured a Lexus factory in Japan and marveled at the robots that put the luxury cars together. That evening, as he ate sushi on a Japanese bullet train, he read a story about yet another Middle East squabble between Palestinians and Israelis. And it hit him: Half the world was lusting after those Lexuses, or at least the brilliant technology that made them possible, and the other half was fighting over who owned which olive tree.
Friedman, the well-traveled New York Times foreign-affairs columnist, peppers The Lexus and the Olive Tree with stories that illustrate his central theme: that globalization--the Lexus--is the central organizing principle of the post-cold war world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding onto what has traditionally mattered to them--the olive tree.
Problem is, few of us understand what exactly globalization means. As Friedman sees it, the concept, at first glance, is all about American hegemony, about Disneyfication of all corners of the earth. But the reality, thank goodness, is far more complex than that, involving international relations, global markets, and the rise of the power of individuals (Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden) relative to the power of nations.
No one knows how all this will shake out, but The Lexus and the Olive Tree is as good an overview of this sometimes brave, sometimes fearful new world as you'll find. --Lou Schuler
Book Description
From one of our most perceptive commentators and winner of the National Book Award, a comprehensive look at the new world of globalization, the international system that, more than anything else, is shaping world affairs today.
As the Foreign Affairs columnist for
The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has traveled the globe, interviewing people from all walks of contemporary life: Brazilian peasants in the Amazon rain forest, new entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Islamic students in Teheran, and the financial wizards on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.
Now Friedman has drawn on his years on the road to produce an engrossing and original look at globalization. Globalization, he argues, is not just a phenomenon and not just a passing trend. It is the international system that replaced the Cold War system; the new, well-greased, interconnected system: Globalization is the integration of capital, technology, and information across national borders, in a way that is creating a single global market and, to some degreee, a global village. Simply put, one can't possibly understand the morning news or one's own investments without some grasp of the system. Just one example: During the Cold War, we reached for the hot line between the White House and the Kremlin--a symbol that we were all divided but at least the two superpowers were in charge. In the era of globalization, we reach for the Internet--a symbol that we are all connected but nobody is totally in charge.
With vivid stories and a set of original terms and concepts, Friedman offers readers remarkable access to his unique understanding of this new world order, and shows us how to see this new system. He dramatizes the conflict of "the Lexus and the olive tree"--the tension between the globalization system and ancient forces of culture, geography, tradition, and community. He also details the powerful backlash that globalization produces among those who feel brutalized by it, and he spells out what we all need to do to keep the system in balance. Finding the proper balance between the Lexus and the olive tree is the great drama of he globalization era, and the ultimate theme of Friedman's challenging, provocative book--essential reading for all who care about how the world really works.
Customer Reviews:
Tons of theories, and examples, good read for learning about Globalization.......2007-10-16
Mr. Friedman is very effective in defending the globalization. It did not paint the picture all peachy and cream about globalization. I remember hearing a term, "those who suffered from globalization always know who they are, those who benefited from Globalization does not always know who they are." A lot of the example in the books are quite relevant. The title of the book is a bit off I think, it is a bit puzzling to me. Globalization is inevitable according to Mr. Friedman, I think it is very hard to resist also. Especially when all the information is flowing freely on the net, it is going to get harder for any countries trying to hold on to the old non-competitive way of living.
What is globalization?.......2007-09-16
Just about everyone has a definition of globalization and a view as to whether it is 'good' or 'bad'. For most of us, relative 'goodness' or 'badness' will depend on how we perceive globalization to impact on us individually or on our local communities.
The case for globalization is not made in this book. The relative measurement of global benefits and disadvantages is not something readily accessible to most of us: what benefits me is likely to disadvantage you.
What makes this book worth reading, in my view, is that by using concrete examples (ownership of the olive tree, or desire for the Lexus)readers may come to see debates about globalization as not just being the realm of economists and governments. Whether we like it or not, globalization is part of the current world landscape. We need to consider what this means at an individual level.
This book does not provide answers. What it does provide is a starting point for identifying and thinking about some of the issues.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
utterly vacuous...the case for globalization is made far better elsewhere.......2007-08-21
I read this book years ago. While I realized then that the book was poor, only now after reading several other books on the same topic do I realize just how much. Friedman's only discernible talent seems to be filling pages with fact-like tripe and passing it off as, well, something worthy of attention. In the process of course he's swindling people who are actually interested enough in globalization to buy a book. Thomas Friedman isn't an economist, from what I can tell he's not an expert on much of anything, and his long-sustained role as some sort of eminently knowledgeable commentator on these topics bothers me to no end. People like this slow down the progress of all human kind.
Since I'm what you could characterize for lack of a better term as "pro-globalization", this book makes me doubly angry, as it manages to damage the cause it purportedly supports. He can't even preach to the choir properly, since the choir thinks he's an idiot.
Critics of globalization are laughed off in 20 pages, and even if he spent more time he doesnt have the expertise to make a remotely convincing case. This is done far better elsewhere, I'd recommend Martin Wolf's 'Why Globalization Works.' Its a much tougher read for an intro to globalization, but thats because, uh, Wolf actually knows what he's talking about. So if you're "anti-globalization" and want a book to challenge your perceptions, or are just someone generally interested in the topic, read that. But if you feel like having a laugh at a self-absorbed, self-appointed 'expert' and cheerleader for processes he cant possibly understand, then by all means read Friedman.
And just to reiterate for everyone who's read this already, if you think you learned something from this book about globalization, either for or against, you probably didn't.
Excellent Globalization Primer.......2007-07-25
Even though this book is seven years old, I still found it to be a highly adept examination of globalization and a good primer for anyone who, like myself, has not read every tome on the growing global economy. Friedman is obviously an accomplished journalist and author, and brings these talents to bear on much of the book. I found myself pausing quite often to reflect on some of the theories he presented, like Golden Straightjacket, DOScapital, or - my favorite - the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention.
This last concept serves as a perfect example for the intellectual tone of the book, and some of the debatable concepts. While he was on one of his many globetrotting expeditions, Friedman formed this theory from the observation that no country capable of a sustaining a McDonald's franchise had ever gone to war with another of similar standing. The theory is that by the time the middle class of a country is large enough to support a McDonald's franchise, there is too much for it to loose in terms of global trade capital, to risk a protracted war with another McDeveloped state. Of course, this theory has its adversaries, who often point to the US intervention into Panama or NATO's bombing of Serbia, but that healthy intellectual debate is exactly what makes reading this book so fun and thought provoking.
I only failed to give Mr. Friedman's book 5 stars, because in the end, I thought he could have made his point more succinctly. For, if we truly live in a global world, where we compete against everyone else on the planet, who has time to read a book of over 500 pages?
Mixed reviews.......2007-07-23
I initially found this book pretty interesting. I watched Thomas Friedman's interview on Charlie Rose and found him to be an interesting speaker on timely issues related to globalization.
When I got the book and started reading it, I got pretty tired of reading the made-up terms he used, eg. electronic herd etc..
I found the book to be biased towards the benefits of globalization and dismissing the disadvantages.
What I did like about the book was some of the personal anecdotes he relates to the readers, ultimately giving you the feel that you're hearing the story from the man on the ground.
I found doomsdayer520's review of this book to be particularly helpful.
Book Description
Exceptionally up-to-date and rich in cross-national examples, Political Science offers an unbiased and thorough introduction to the basic concepts and theories of political science. With a critical look at the major theories, it exposes students to many ways of thinking, and challenges them to think critically. Emphasizing both U.S. and comparative politics provides students with a solid foundation for connecting their studies ot what is happening in the world around them.
Customer Reviews:
Author needs to take Political Science 101.......2005-08-31
While study one night I had to stop and write up a review for this "textbook". I agree with the other 1 star reviewer. At first I thought the person was exaggerating. Boy was I wrong.
The author is very biased and one sided and that is just not acceptable when writing a Intro to Political Science book. There are ignorant and bias thoughts and sentences throughout. Here are two examples, both on the first page of the first chapter:
"Interest in politics in the United States has slumped. Not only students but also attentive and educated citizens have turned away from politics."
Here's another, a paragraph down.......
"Perhaps terrorism and recession are needed to renew interest in politics." This guy is an ass!!
Do no waste your money on this rubbish. I suggest in its place "Ideals and Ideologies: A reader" (5th ed. by Terence Ball) as an excellent Intro to Political Science textbook. If your professor requires this "textbook", bring to the attention of him or her that this is not good study material.
"Unbiased?" Yeah, right!.......2005-02-01
Let me start by admitting I have the Seventh Edition (2000), not the 2002 version. However, I doubt that there could be much improvement. This "textbook" can only be the product of gross incompetence or extreme bias, I will let you decide which.
For example, page 340 reads "It is true that some regimes commit acts of great evil; military regimes in Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala killed thousands on the slightest suspicion of leftism. But how is it that these military regimes came to power? Why does system breakdown recur repeatedly in such contries?"
So, does the author not know that we, the US, overthrew the democratically elected Arbenz in Guatemalla, and Allende in Chile? Everyone else knows this...and does the author not know that Chile, prior to this installation of Pinochet, was the one stable democracy in Latin America? So how then is Chile a case of this "recur(ing) repeatedly? (sic)" It happened once. Does the fact that two of his three examples of internal "system breakdown" leading to regime change actualy represent partially, or largely, the external actions of a superpower interfering in the internal affairs of weaker soveriegn countries not seem to be problematic? How can these be used as examples of internal processes when everyone knows what really happened, and that is not it? The author, in order to assert this, must be grossly ignorant of history (thereby disqualifying him as a viable authority in the field) or, knowing history, must be intentionally and knowingly distorting it for political reasons (thereby making him unquestionably biased, intellectually dishonest, and also therefore unsuited for the field).
On top of that we have the unfortunately normal systemic incompetence of the Political Science field in general. "Theory" and "causation" are words which they have no grasp of the meaning of in academic discourse. Methodology is a joke; a pile of correlations mushed together with assertions and assumptions (some already disproven for a few decades elsewhere) to create just-so stories does not make a legitimate theory or even hypothesis. We know too much about human nature, via studies done in Psychology, Neurobiology, and Evolutionary Psychology, and empirical information from anthropology, primatology, and ethology, and theoretical and empirical knowledge supplied by evolutionary biology, to just "assume" that humans are rational and go merrily on our way as Political Science is still doing. There is a huge body of knowledge on this question now, entire books debate it back and forth. It is in no way legitimate to simply plead ignorance and continue to build huge mental constructs of how the world works based on assumptions we in no way can justify making given what is known.
If this field were in any way deserving of the word "science," the knowledge that a fundamental "assumption" was seriously in doubt would result in massive questioning of the veracity of the ideas based on that assumption. That has not happened.
I urge you all not to waste your money on this book, I could give many more equally damning examples but the above should suffice. I also suggest that Evolutionary Psychology would be a far more profitable course of study if you want to know about human political behavior.
Book Description
"Impressive . . . a powerful indictment of U.S. military and foreign policy." Los Angeles Times Book Review, front page In the years after the Soviet Union imploded, the United States was described first as the globe's "lone superpower," then as a "reluctant sheriff," next as the "indispensable nation," and in the wake of 9/11, as a "New Rome." In this important national bestseller, Chalmers Johnson thoroughly explores the new militarism that is transforming America and compelling us to pick up the burden of empire.Recalling the classic warnings against militarism-from George Washington's Farewell Address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex-Johnson uncovers its roots deep in our past. Turning to the present, he maps America's expanding empire of military bases and the vast web of services that support them. He offers a vivid look at the new caste of professional militarists who have infiltrated multiple branches of government, who classify as "secret" everything they do, and for whom the manipulation of the military budget is of vital interest. Among Johnson's provocative conclusions is that American militarism is already putting an end to the age of globalization and bankrupting the United States, even as it creates the conditions for a new century of virulent blowback. The Sorrows of Empire suggests that the former American republic has already crossed its Rubicon-with the Pentagon in the lead.
Amazon.com
Since September 2001, the United States has "undergone a transformation from republic to empire that may well prove irreversible," writes Chalmers Johnson. Unlike past global powers, however, America has built an empire of bases rather than colonies, creating in the process a government that is obsessed with maintaining absolute military dominance over the world, Johnson claims. The Department of Defense currently lists 725 official U.S. military bases outside of the country and 969 within the 50 states (not to mention numerous secret bases). According to the author, these bases are proof that the "United States prefers to deal with other nations through the use or threat of force rather than negotiations, commerce, or cultural interaction." This rise of American militarism, along with the corresponding layers of bureaucracy and secrecy that are created to circumvent scrutiny, signals a shift in power from the populace to the Pentagon: "A revolution would be required to bring the Pentagon back under democratic control," he writes.
In Sorrows of Empire, Johnson discusses the roots of American militarism, the rise and extent of the military-industrial complex, and the close ties between arms industry executives and high-level politicians. He also looks closely at how the military has extended the boundaries of what constitutes national security in order to centralize intelligence agencies under their control and how statesmen have been replaced by career soldiers on the front lines of foreign policy--a shift that naturally increases the frequency with which we go to war.
Though his conclusions are sure to be controversial, Johnson is a skilled and experienced historian who backs up his claims with copious research and persuasive arguments. His important book adds much to a debate about the realities and direction of U.S. influence in the world. --Shawn Carkonen
Customer Reviews:
A Critical Review.......2007-08-05
This book gets everything wrong.
Johnson argues that the demise of the USSR was a great economic victory, having everything to do with the failure of socialist economics and nothing to do with the successes of American foreign policy. Unfortunately for Johnson, the wasted resources of the Cold War arms race - and the wasted resources of the Cold War arms race alone - were what bankrupted the natural-resource rich Soviet states. The United States fought and won the Cold War economically, by forcing the East into a battle it could not win - a battle where the biggest spender (necesarily the economically liberal west) wins by default. Left to its own devices, the Soviet states could have persisted indefinitely in moderate prosperity thanks to the global capital markets and the value of their domestic resources, the lunacy of their domestic economics aside. See China, India, and even Venezuela today.
Johnson further argues that the Pentagon failed to "restructure" and/or "demobilize" following the Cold War. This is categorically false. The United States military (particularly its Army and Air Force) was phased down radically in the two decades between the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the September 11th terrorist attacks. A signifigant Naval presence was maintained as a matter of apparent national necessity - even without a Soviet Union, the post-globalization world demanded the West have at least one member capable of global power projection as a simple matter of motivated self interest. The United States has ALWAYS maintained a signifigant peace-time naval capacity, however. This is nothing new and certainly no product of a "military-industrial" complex. Washington himself, that great hero of the anti-military renegades and oft-quoted as decrying standing armies, comission the first permanent and standing warships of the USN to protect the young country against - whoulda thunk it - Islamic terrorists.
Johnson then argues that the Pentagon's involvement in the war on drugs and terror is a dishonest effort at justification of a bloated budget, but this is historically inane. The American armed forces have always been intimately involved in the enforcement of extramilitary foreign policy. American soldiers pursued Mexican criminals across our sothern border over a century and a half ago. We have dispatched the Navy repeatedly throughout our history to deal with piracy and barbarism when local authorities have been noncooperative. The war on drugs - and military involvement therewith - is simply an extension of this legacy. So, too, is the war on terror.
Everything this book argues is backwards and apparently nonsensical. And everything that Johnson proports to be a "new" product of post-Cold War Pentagon amokism is as old as the Republic he so claims to love. The man could do well to get himself an elementary history lesson, and to spend 15 minutes outside the safe, secure, and utterly arealistic ivory tower that is American elite society. Our half a trillion dollar military is the foundation that keeps his - and to an extent all of our - tower(s) of ignorance erect and pristine. We would all do well to realize that our lives and lifestyles are both historically unprecedented, and unique to our borders and our civilization even today. THE REST OF THE WORLD DOES NOT LIVE AND THINK LIKE WE DO.
The United States maintains the worlds largest and most capable standing army in the history of the planet not because it wants to, but because it must. The world is a dark place. Most if its people are not like Americans (and Westerners), and most of its countries are not as benevolent as America (and the Western world). While the rest of our civilization surrenders its capacity and will to defend itself and its ideological allies, the United States has willfully chosen to bear the burden alone, knowing full well the costs and consequences of this decision. We do this because we have confidence in this old, and grand, Republic. And because we know better than to trust and surrender our fates to the good-will of our less Republican neighbors.
Secrets of our Empire............2007-07-26
Truly a revealing expose of things you never knew about our American military and related.....now you do...and it may surprise you or scare you.....read this book...very revealing.....
might does not make right.......2007-07-03
From George Washington and James Madison to Eisenhower's farewell address in 1961, some of our country's greatest leaders have warned about the dangers of standing armies and the military-industrial complex. In this second installment of his "inadvertent trilogy" about the costs and consequences of America's belligerent empire, Chalmers Johnson describes in meticulous detail the nature and extent of American militarism. In his first book, Blowback (2000), he warned that our global militarism and predatory economic policies virtually assure retaliations for decades to come. He published Blowback about eighteen months before the 9/11 attacks, and in retrospect his warning now reads like a diagnosis. His third volume, Nemesis (2006), is more like an autopsy; it describes our destiny with Nemesis, "the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris" (in Greek, "nemesis" means "to give what is due").
Unlike ancient empires, our imperial hegemony consists not of conquered territories but of military bases. Today the Department of Defense admits that America deploys 254,788 (double that number if you include dependents) military personnel to at least 725 military bases in 153 countries (there are 189 countries in the United Nations). That does not include numerous secret and officially nonexistent bases. Our own country is home to 969 separate bases in all fifty states. It's hard to believe, writes Johnson, that at the beginning of World War II our regular army consisted of 186,000 men; today it numbers 1.4 million. Nor is this any longer a citizen's army, but instead a professional warrior class (41% of whom are nonwhite).
Johnson's book documents our militarism beginning with the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American war; Woodrow Wilson's fervent belief in America's moral exceptionalism and obligation to export democracy to the world; the incestuous marriage of the military to the incredibly lucrative for-profit arms industry, and merry-go-round of former military and corporate personnel; America's sale of weapons to the world; our violations of international treaties and courts that have generated global distrust of much of what we say and do; the roles of oil (our import levels are "at the highest levels ever recorded") and Israel; and the predatory nature of economic globalization.
In a final chapter Johnson suggests four sorrows of our militaristic empire that he now considers all but unavoidable: a state of perpetual war, the loss of democratic processes and institutions, endemic lying by the state (glorification of war, disinformation, propaganda, etc.), and financial ruin. Empires don't last forever, he reminds us. In the last hundred years nine "empires" have collapsed: Nazi Germany, imperial Japan, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, China, Austro-Hungaria, and the Ottomans. Despite our deep delusion about our good intentions and moral exceptionalism, we have no reason whatsoever to expect that history will treat our belligerence and hubris any differently. What we should expect is a meeting with Nemesis.
Better Than Blowback.......2007-06-10
In the first nine chapters of the book, Johnson writes about his perception of an increasing American militarism, and also says there is an emerging American empire. He also describes the privatization of the military through war merchants and mercenaries. A solid case is made against some members of the current administration, but he doesn't spare Clinton's "globalization" in the book either. The tenth and last chapter alone is nearly worth the price. After making a very strong case for the United States to turn from its interventionist tendencies of the last 30 years, Johnson outlines four great dangers the USA will face as it wades deeper into the waters of interventionism. He finds fault with all recent past presidential administrations, and says that Congress has abandoned its duties and responsibilities in favor of greasy palmed careerism.
Like the first part of the trilogy, Chalmers Johnson writes about blowback, a CIA term for unintended consequences of covert action. His theory is that the perils of blowback are increasing, and the country is rapidly descending farther and farther away from its democratic moorings and into a militaristic empire.
This book is written in a more interesting style than part 1 ("Blowback") and keeps the reader interested through out.
Weakness-Some of the original source work is not strong and it is clearly written with a more popular audience in mind. For example, the suspect web site Capital Hill Blue is used as a source. So, perhaps some of the evidence presented is flawed, but the main theme still rings true.
This book, coupled with "Blowback" have seriously altered my thinking of foreign policy matters. I recommend both.
What else has Mr. Johnson done for the Republic lately?.......2007-06-03
Gore Vidal has been writing far longer and more eloquently than Mr. Johnson on the end of the Republic as a consequence of the American Empire. Mr. Johnson adds a dispassionate and steadily accumulating set of figures, monetary and otherwise, that show the true costs of the American Empire and its negative eroding effects on the Republic.
This is Mr. Johnson's second book in his "American Empire Project". The first Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (Second Edition), published before the events of Sept. 11, 2001 now seems eerily prescient. That book pointed out the unintended but inevitable consequences of American foreign policy and interference abroad and suggested a consequent "blowback".
The problem I have with Mr. Johnson and other eminent diagnosticians, even Vidal (though he did try running for elected office in CA a long time ago), is they seem unwilling to go further than write books. Mr. Johnson makes much (pp. 12) of Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the US Constitution which says "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time." Now the latter clause regarding publication of accounts has been honored only in the breach, at least in recent times. I wrote Mr. Johnson asking "What legal attempts by private citizens have been made thus far to attempt to have this provision enforced?" Mr. Johnson replies that "You ask an excellent question but it would take a Constitutional lawyer to answer it." Now if I am to trust Mr. Johnson in his avowed belief in the Republic, its Constitution and the enforcement thereof, I would have expected him to have explored this avenue of enforcement already.
Given that the Republic is not yet dead, and that the rule of law is at least intermittently permitted, and that the courts are not yet entirely corrupt or partisan. I for one don't understand why those of Mr. Johnson's ilk, with their resources, don't approach the courts or petition the few honest or semi-honest legislators left to force the light of day on the costs and consequences of our empire. At least then, no citizen of this our disappearing Republic will be able to say that Mr. Johnson didn't do his best to tell them so. Only writing books doesn't cut it.
Customer Reviews:
A very good guide for an undergraduate course.......2007-03-22
I used several times the fifth edition of the Krugman and Obstfeld's book to teach International Finance to undergraduates in economics and I found it comprehensive, understandable and very didactic. True, the book does not follow a rigorous mathematical approach, less a dynamic approach, but I think that is not the authors' intention. On the contrary, they use simple equations, basic graphical analysis, empirical data illustrations and some economic history to show the main issues they want to. And I must say that they clearly succeed in explaining virtually every topic an undergraduate student should know about international economics.
There are several essential topics that should be part of the backbone of a course in international finance and they are included in this book:
- the asset approach to exchange rates;
- the crucial role of expectations;
- the relationship between money, interest rates and the exchange rates in the short run;
- the long run relationship between prices and exchange rates;
- the internal and external equilibrium for small open economies;
- the interaction of fiscal and monetary policies in an international context;
- inflation bias and other policy formulation problems;
- fixed exchange rates and foreign intervention;
- A description of the evolution of the international monetary system;
- floating exchange rates; macroeconomic policy and international coordination;
- optimum currency areas;
- recent topics on the global capital markets; and
- growth, crisis and reform in developing countries.
In sum, Krugman and Obstfeld's book is a pretty good undergrad textbook to learn for the first time the core of monetary issues in international economics.
One word describes the book.......2007-03-11
Verbose! The authors spend pages upon pages wasting trees trying to explain a concept that could be explained using one paragraph. The authors go in circles in my opinion, sometimes i feel that they forget what they had initially started. And the shyness to use math and write out what could be written as a single equation makes the book about 600 pages when it should only be 200.
A not-so-bad survey of international economics.......2006-11-28
Regarding Gerald Senarclens de Grancy's comments: The idea of Krugman as a Bush administration cheerleader is pretty funny. At first I thought this was a joke but then I realised it wasn't. Granted, the book doesn't mention the Tobin Tax, but there's only so much you can pack into a superficial survey text like this. Overall, I think the authors are pretty unbiased and mainstream. (Haven't used the web supplements, so can't comment on that).
Having seen this book evolve over several editions, I can honestly say that the current one represents a distinct improvement, with the new introductory chapter on the gravity model providing some much needed perspective at the start. However, it's not an ideal book to learn trade theory and open econonmy macro from. My favorite (although slightly more rigorous) is "The International Economy" by Kenen. And if you are only interested in trade theory, "International Trade, Theory and Evidence" by Markusen et. al. is superior.
Totally dissatisfied.......2006-03-28
I'm really unhappy with both the book and the services provided that come with the book. This has several reasons of which I'd like to point out a few here (though I have to note that I only read the second part - the one about international monetary policy):
o) the book follows a pure neclassical approach and seems very biased against everything else
o) it sometimes reads like propaganda for some republican presidents
o) it doesn't discuss (or even mention) very important contemporary concepts such as the tobin tax which could have a deep impact on international monetary policy
o) the web applications are not provided for users of any other software than the core Microsoft systems, which makes them unusable by those who like eg. Apple, Firefox or Linux
o) even running in Internet Explorer the web exercises have some major problems (some of the suggested answers are simply wrong)
o) the web applications refer to graphs that do not appear in the newest edition
o) the explanations are sometimes not very clear, in my point of view there are even contradictions
o)...
concluding I have to say that this book represents to me both a waste of money and a waste of time.
Book Description
The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister is a sweeping, dramatic account of how three great figures changed the course of history, as told by John O'Sullivan, former editor of National Review and the Times of London, who knew all three and has conducted exclusive interviews that shed extraordinary new light on these giants of the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
The President The Pope and The Prime Minister.......2007-10-11
3 people who advanced democracy around the world. Principals over politics. Today we only have wimps instead of statesmen like these three
And they all lived happily ever after..........2007-07-19
I try. I really try to get through this sort of stuff. But I'm familiar with a tourist's view of Washington, DC and realize that most people want the "founding fathers," for example, to be Disney characters.
O'Sullivan knows that his audience wants that too.
Does anyone remember the "social contract?" You know, when a few people felt we have responsibilities to each other? Reagan was, in real life, the lieutenant of a few ideologues who wanted to get us away from that infectious attitude.
As to Maggie Thatcher, excuse me, LADY Thatcher, she was ultimately responsible for "The Full Monty." You know, let's break up the unions and put well-paid working people out of work. Then there's J2P2. Actually, the pope said some worthwhile things, challenging what we're doing to Iraq, for example. But I think it was Penny Lernoux who suggested before she died that he was more appropriate to a Soviet satellite state than he was in a Church in which adults make up their own minds.
In short, this really is a kid's book. And if you have a mind capable of recognizing that the world is more complex than the Bros. Grimm, don't waste your money on it.
Two Great Men, One Great Woman.......2007-07-15
There is a theory in history called the Great Man Theory, which seeks to explain the events of history principally by looking at the impact of pivotal men and women who played a role in world events. On it's most simplistic level, the theory does make some sense. It's hard to imagine the American Revolution happening the way it did without the role played by men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or even King George III. It's equally hard to imagine World War II and all that has happened since without taking into account the individual decisions and personalities of Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin.
The academic left, though, has generally rejected the Great Man Theory and looks to economic, technological, and other factors to explain history. To them, the role of the individual in history is insignificant compared to the role that these "forces" play. What they forget, of course, is that economics, technology, and culture are all created by individuals. So arguing that "forces" rule history and that individual's are irrelevant is inherently irrational.
In reading The President, The Pope, And The Prime Minister, it's easy to see where John O'Sullivan comes down in this debate. He clearly believes that individuals play a vital role in history, and considering the three individuals he profiles -- Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Margaret Thatcher -- it's hard to argue with him.
The hyopthesis of O'Sullivan's book is fairly straightforward. Three individuals who, in the years just before they came to power, were believed to be outside of the mainstream of 1970s era thinking worked together, sometimes at cross purposes and often not consciously, to change the world by putting in place forces that led to the downfall of the Soviet Empire and the remaking of the world.
As O'Sullivan makes clear, the spark was lit in October 1978 when the Catholic Church did the unthinkable by electing a non-Italian Pope for the first time in over 450 years. And not only a non-Italian, put a man who came from behind the Iron Curtain and who had spent much of his career as a priest and bishop resisting tyranny, first from the Nazis and then from the Communists. His election set off a firestorm in Poland that led directly to the formation of Solidarity and its preservation through nearly a decade of martial law.
O'Sullivan also pays considerable attention to former President Reagan, his dealings with the Soviet Union, and, most interestingly, his view of the role of nuclear weapons in the Cold War. Though it was not generally known at the time, and goes against what was being said about Reagan by his critics and even some of his supporters, it has become fairly clear in the years since he left office from the release of private writings that Reagan despised nuclear weapons and pursued a policy that had as its conscious goal their eventual elimination. While some might consider this attitude naive (after all, you can't put the nuclear genie back in the bottle), it sheds a new light on his approach to negotiations with the Soviets and the SDI program. Reagan knew that the Soviets could not compete with America technologically, and that they would never give up their nuclear arsenal willingly. So, he essentially played a waiting game until the "correlation of forces", to borrow a Marxist phrase, were such that that Soviets had no choice but to make a deal in a last ditch effort to save first their empire, and then their very existence.
Reagan told John Paul about his views on nuclear weapons, the Soviets, and the future of Europe early on. And the Holy Father clearly supported these views, as evidenced by the fact that while Catholic Bishops in the United States often spoke out against U.S. foreign policy in the 1980s (sometimes to the consternation of the Vatican), the Holy See rarely did.
O'Sullivan's perspective on Thatcher, and her relationships with Reagan, the Pope, and the Soviets are interesting especially given his connections to the British Conservative Party. What is clear, though, is that even Thatcher herself, clearly one of Reagan's closest friends in world politics, had no idea just how idealistic he was.
This book isn't ground breaking academic research, but it offers an interesting perspective on the life, times, and historical impact on three people who clearly changed the world for the better.
Ron, Maggie and the Pope.......2007-06-03
I read one review that said that they weren't on the same planet as these three leaders were doing their work. I was also on a different planet. I got so disilusioned with the Carter years that I completely turned politics off, and only took care of me and my family. As the years accumilated and GHW Bush became president, I had to return to reality. I have learned a lot about Reagan and JPII over the last few years especially after Mr. Reagan's death. Maggie is still an enigma to me. I want to really like her, but I understand that she was a real bugger to work for while Reagan was wonderful and of course JPII was a saint. Not to be outdone, Mikail was a horrible leader and was the primary reason, along with the decline of the Russian economy, crop disasters and an inempt military, Russia would have self destructed, I think, without much trouble. But the pressure that these THREE placed on the communist system from within is what crumpled the horrible experiment.
Along with Peggy Noonan's two books, one on Reagan and the other on John Paul II, this one is one of the best of the events of Reagans presidency and John Paul's term.
I recommend this book for anyone who want's to get to know how the wall fell and how God can help.
History as it should be written: fact-filled, detached and light on the bias.......2007-05-29
Very readable, smooth flowing inter-weaving of the stories of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II and how, working together, they changed the world. This is history as it should be written. Fact-filled. Detached. Light on the bias. Fascinating. The book is quick to read and hard to put down.
This is the story of three disparate personalities and their unlikely (and synchronous) rises to power. The elderly B-movie actor. The school-marmish scold. The non-Italian Catholic living under the thumb of officially atheistic communism. Together, they defeat the scourge of communism while simultaneously rescuing their respective polities from the slow death spiral of the 60s and 70s, whether than be Reagan resurrecting American swagger and putting the U.S. economy on sound footing, or Thatcher curing Britain of Euro-sclerosis, or the Holy Father rescuing the Catholic church for the suffocating forces of modernism and "reform."
This is an essential history of late 20th Century America and Great Britain. It is an essential history of the recent Catholic church. It is also very much a history of Poland, for it is that land that it is at the center of this narrative. Ronald Reagan always believed that the key to ending the Cold War lay with Poland. And it is events in Poland, from the papal visits, to the strike at the Gdansk shipyard, from the martial law of Jaruszelski, to the rise of Lech Walesa and Solidarity, that shape this story. Reagan's insight into the centrality of Poland proved astonishingly right.
This book is not just for us Republicans. For example, one Carter Era figure prominently and positively figures in events here: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's national security advisor. Brzezinski has not gotten enough credit for seizing control of events in Poland from the late Carter administration through the Reagan administration. This book gives him delayed credit.
Two (minor) criticisms of this book. First, the Holy Father drops out of the narrative, for the most part, in the last third of the book. More Pope, please! Second, the equation of the bombing of Mrs. Thatcher's hotel in 1984, does not really parallel the 1981 assassination attempts on President Reagan and Pope John Paul II. It's a reach that doesn't work. But these are very minor blemishes on a masterful book.
Book Description
New York Times columnist Frank Rich examines the trail of fictions manufactured by the Bush administration from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, exposing the most brilliant spin campaign ever waged.
When America was attacked on 9/11, its citizens almost unanimously rallied behind its new, untested president as he went to war. What they didn't know at the time was that the Bush administration's highest priority was not to vanquish Al Qaeda but to consolidate its own power at any cost. It was a mission that could be accomplished only by a propaganda presidency in which reality was steadily replaced by a scenario of the White House's own invention-and such was that scenario's devious brilliance that it fashioned a second war against an enemy that did not attack America on 9/11, intimidated the Democrats into incoherence and impotence, and turned a presidential election into an irrelevant referendum on macho imagery and same-sex marriage.
As only he can, acclaimed New York Times columnist Frank Rich delivers a step-by-step chronicle of how skillfully the White House built its house of cards and how the institutions that should have exposed these fictions, the mainstream news media, were too often left powerless by the administration's relentless attack machine, their own post-9/11 timidity, and an unending parade of self-inflicted scandals (typified by those at The New York Times). Demonstrating the candor and conviction that have made him one of our most trusted and incisive public voices, Rich brilliantly and meticulously illuminates the White House's disturbing love affair with "truthiness," and the ways in which a bungled war, a seemingly obscure Washington leak, and a devastating hurricane at long last revealed the man-behind-the-curtain and the story that had so effectively been sold to the nation, as god-given patriotic fact.
Customer Reviews:
Too much sarcasm.......2007-09-10
Too much sarcasm from start to finish. It's a far-left view of the Bush administration where author Frank Rich seems to be visibly upset at any Republican administration. He uses references to Jon Stewart's, The Daily Show along with Saturday Night Live numerous times to back his opinions on current political events. In my view, an author of his age background and experience should not have written this farcical, liberal montage of jabs at the office of the President of the United States. Better luck next time Frank.
BRAVO!! Succinct yet complete, and thoroughly absorbing........2007-08-23
By his piece-by-piece dismantling of the façade that is the Bush administration, Rich offers the most plausible and perhaps definitive explanation of Bush-Cheney-Rove & Co.'s rush to war, leaving an unparalleled trail of destruction - Manhattan, New Orleans, Iraq, our constitution and civil liberties, our treasury, our international prestige, and perhaps our way of life - so massive in scope we may never recover from the hubris, deception, cynicism, incompetence, and lawlessness wrought by this gang of crooks.
Approximately since LBJ, television has had the effect of focusing then magnifying the character flaws of our presidents, until, appropriately, professional actor Reagan came along and made the camera work for him. With personal guru Rove behind the curtain directing Bush's every move, word, and decision, W. shamelessly honed this skill to big-brother perfection, until the façade could no longer outpace the complete lack of substance - character, wisdom, intellect, ability - beneath. The consequences of Bush being so exceptionally unqualified for the ultimate responsibility he so unlikely attained became too much for even the Wizard to keep up the ruse. And it all came crashing down.
Rich also pays attention to the cultural context - our infinite indulgence for infotainment, the Enron values - that allowed these charlatans to lead us not just into temptation (endless wars, tax cuts and debt that will break us) but infernal damnation.
There's a case for impeachment and conviction on nearly every page. We can sit it out and pray that W. doesn't wreak more devastation before it's all over, or we can impeach him and Cheney now. That's assuming we can evict them both without them taking us down with them. More than Nixon and all the crooks before or since, these guys belong in prison.
Kudos to Rich for a thorough chronicle of our national nightmare since September 2001. Read it and weep for our country and all we've lost.
Hubris Without Limits.......2007-07-22
There can be little doubt that George W Bush is a lightweight. I can say this from a distance as I am not an American but simply an observer of events. It is a great shame that so many people judge America by his actions. This is most unfair. America is so much more than this simpleton.
I read "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" with keen expectations of gaining some insight to the machinations of American political life. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. This book is very superficial. Even with the benefit of hindsight where we can see events with greater clarity than when they are actually unfolding, Frank Rich sheds little light on matters. This is unfortunate. He was working with such potentially great material.
We all know what a monumental error it was for Bush to land on an aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" sign in the background. This was hubris of immense proportions. A wiser head would never have been involved in such stupidity. I'm certain earlier presidents would have at least thought twice before going ahead. But not this man. His naivety is without bounds.
Where to now? Iraq seems like a giant vortex. Civil war has been unleashed and outsiders seem to hold no sway. Perhaps it is best to just stand back and let time determine an outcome.
Overall, Frank Rich's book has value only in so far as we are reminded of Bush's mendacity. But do we really need reminding? How could we forget?
Best Yet on Iraq and Bush.......2007-07-14
I've read one book after another in my effort to understand how America has gone so wrong so fast. This is the best, right up there with Fiasco and One Percent Doctrine. I look forward to Rich's next foray of book length and hope he will attack the most important and as yet unanswered question of this era --- in the face of a cheerleading national press corps, how did the American people nevertheless reject this war and its leaders even before Katrina,etc. had disclosed their utter incompetence, stupidity, and disdain for us all.....in the answer to this question lies the future of all that is decent in our nation.....
A Soldier is Surprised When He Wakes Up One Morning.......2007-06-20
Imagine if you were one of several soldiers wounded in the Iraqi war who woke up one morning to find that there was a letter to the editor in your newspaper that supported the war and had your signature on it, but you didn't write that letter, and knew nothing about it.. The letter was written by the PR team in your federal government. Or picture this: President Bush is standing at night in the now brilliantly lit Jackson square in New Orleans talking optimistically about the city. Well at least the square seems lit up nicely so we guess the electricity is back on. The speech ends, the flood lights go off, and the square is plunged into total darkness.
This is a book detailing how the government lied and created propaganda to further their cause in both the war, and in the aftermath of Katrina. It's a fascinating book because it follows a time line that shows clearly how the public comments made by public officials changed over time. In fact there is a 78 page time line appendix in the book that details these morphing statements date by date. The book tells about the fake reporters at press conferences, the fake news columnists, and the fake "news" articles that the government distributed to gullible media. As one government person stated, "we create our own reality." When Specialist Wilson asked Rumsfeld why he and his men didn't have adequate armor Rumsfeld said it was a matter of production and capability. That was a lie that was outed quickly when it was revealed that one supplier, ArmorWorks said it could quickly increase production by 100%. During the battle in Falluja we were told that there were 3000 Iraqi soldiers fighting the battle. Reporters on the scene said that the Iraqi soldiers showed up after the fighting was over, posed in their neat, clean uniforms and departed. Certainly you remember the frequent comments about the thousands of Iraqis that have been trained or are almost completely trained. Somehow they never seem to materialize.
You've probably heard a lot of this stuff, but Mr. Rich brings out the deceit of all the Washington shapeshifters in wonderful - or perhaps the word should be horrible - detail. You see the action flow, and learn about a lot of governmental skullduggery that will make you cringe. It's spellbinding reading.
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General
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Readings in Planning Theory (Studies in Urban & Social Change)
Community Planning: An Introduction To The Comprehensive Plan
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
City Reader (Urban Reader Series)
Guide to California Planning
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