Politics Government Books

Delivered early. Great condition. Good delivery info provided. I'll do it again.

I'm currently doing a History course for the IB. A reasonable percentage of final grade orignates from my internal Assessment.

For this i need two realiable sources. This source proved itself to be very helpful and explanatory for it is written in a manner that the reader wants to always know more. The book explains why the Soviet put Nuclear Missiles in Cuba how the Jupiter Missiles influenced this and at the end, it shows how the Americans were able to make the Soviets withdraw their missiles form Cuba.

An execellent book. I recommend!

Reading "Essence of Decision" resonates with Kurosawa, or maybe Stoppard. We have a central story - one of the great non-events in human history, the moment when the Soviet Union and the United States "came eyeball to eyeball" (as Dean Rusk is said to have said) before someone blinked. We hear it three times: one, from the standpoint of the "rational actor;" second from the internal logic of organizations; and third, from the perspective of politics where people more or less rub along together.

It's an event that bears retelling and, with qualification, the device works. The upshot is that we get some insight into the missile crisis. But not at all incidentally, we get some insight into the academic study of politics (I resist calling it "political science"), and a whiff of what it might have to offer for our better understanding of the world.

Aside from the Kurusowa effect, there is another structural innovation. We have, in a sense, two books interleaved, like Faulkner's "Wild Palms." The even-numbered chapters tell (and retell) the basic story. The odd-numbered chapters offer a framework of "theory."

I suppose you might read just the even-numbered chapters - indeed the authors themselves suggest as much, though rather half-heartedly. And indeed, the odd-numbered chapters can be heavy going. One cannot help recalling the old canard about the sociologist as a person who gets a government research grant to find the bordello next door. You are tempted to say that their theory is what sophisticated people know anyway, and the clueless will probably never figure out.

But there is an answer to this dismissal. That is: most (or at least) a lot of history gets told from the standpoint of the "rational actor." A survey of the competing approaches makes it clear just what this approach leaves out. And if the polyphonic approach is so obviously superior to the single narrative line, then why have historians from Thucydides to Henry Kissinger been willing to do without it? One answer might be: for all their talents, they simply haven't learned the way to tell a story in any other way.

So on the whole, retelling works. But not, perhaps, as well as it might. Another reviewer has said that this isn't really a case to illustrate "organization" theory here because this is not a case that highlights organizations - rather, at least for the United States, the response to the Cuban missile crisis was the work of a small group of men, working together in close cooperation. There is some merit to this view: concededly, you do not get the clash of bull elephants that you might have got at another time when Defense makes war on State, and both work together to fend of Intelligence. But you get a taste of it: we find that the Joint Chiefs were most hospitable to an invasion; that State thought that maybe we could talk it through; and that John McCone from the CIA was the one person who most clearly anticipated the threat. Moreover, you see the "organization" problem in a somewhat different light, when you see how the President's orders were massaged or modified by the military (sometimes, even, within the military).

But perhaps in any event, I need not get too distracted by the framework. Along the way, there are any number of nuggets that stand pretty well on their own. I liked in particular, for instance, the discussion of the role of committee work. We tend to stick up our nose at any project done by committee. But, argue our authors, in World War II it was Churchill, high-handed as he was, who worked through committee-and virtually always followed the committee's advice. The "strong leader" who kept things close to his vest, was Hitler.

But more generally - I was already an adult at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, and I remember it well. Specifically, I remember how frightened were so many people in my surroundings. I wasn't that frightened; I figured that one way or another, we would rub along. In the end, of course, I was right - we did rub along. But I think in retrospect, it was I who was kidding myself and the Nervous Nellies who had the right attitude. We did rub along, but as Wellington said about the Battle of Waterloo, it was a near thing. I particularly like Robert Kennedy:

"The fourteen people [in the American inner circle] were very significant-bright, able, dedicated people, all of whom had the greatest affection for the U.S. ... If six of them had been President of the U.S., I think that the world might have been blown up."

[Final technical note: one or more of the other reviews appear to be discussing the first edition of this book. The (current) seocnd edition is not a mere cosmetic update, but substantially a new book].

A great number of books and articles has been published attempting to explore and explain the Cuban missile crisis that had brought the world to the brink of a thermonuclear world war. Allison and Zelikow, in Essence of Decision, explain the Cuban missile crisis through three different lenses, that is, The Rational Actor Paradigm, Organizational Behavior Paradigm and Governmental Politics Paradigm, each of which is based on a different set of assumptions, each of which has a distinct bundle of organizing concepts and, each of which brings different general/specific propositions for the issue under question. Allison and Zelikow investigate the Cuban missile crisis through the lenses of three models in turn by asking three simple questions:

1. Why did the Soviet Union decide to place offensive missiles in Cuba?
2. Why did the United States respond to the missile deployment with a blockade?
3. Why did the Soviet Union withdraw the missiles?

The analyst looking to Cuban missile crisis through the lens of "rational actor model" conceives of governmental action as a "choice" made by a unitary and rational nation or national government. In this model, national government is treated as if it is an "individual" identifying problem, producing solution alternatives and picking one of those alternatives up whose result would satisfy the expected utility function of the nation best based on the "purpose" of the nation. The rational actor model analyst generates hypotheses, for example, about why the Soviet Union decided to send nuclear missiles to Cuba: to defend Cuba, rectify the nuclear strategic balance, or provide an advantage in the confrontation over Berlin? The virtue of the model comes from its power of explanation especially in case it is able to expose the "purpose" of the nation/state. So all the puzzling pieces of the relevant issue under question are to be tied into a coherent and satisfactory story.

The rational actor model falls short of fully understanding of the issue under question in that it does not take account of other equally important considerations. Admittedly, the rational actor model neglects the organizational processes and capabilities that structure the issue or problem under question, and, limit or extend the policy alternatives available to "rational" policy actors. In final instant, it is manifest that policy executives have to decide policy alternative from the "menu" that current organizational technologies and capabilities write. In organizational behavior model, the analyst investigates, for example, the standard operating procedures (SOP) of government organizations in order to understand which policy alternatives are available to political actors and which one is chosen and why. So, the organizational behavior paradigm closes the gaps of the rational actor paradigm.

Finally, the governmental politics model conceives of governmental policy under question not as a rational actor choice or organizational output but as a "resultant" of bargaining along regular circuits among players positioned hierarchically within the government. In this model, the political actors and their intentions, positions and interests, their relative power, the action channels through which the political actors input and exert their influence, decision rules and similar matters stand to the fore in analysis.

The three models, according to Allison and Zelikow, are complementary to each other. "Model I fixes the broader context, the larger national patterns, and the shared images. Within this context, Model II illuminates the organizational routines that produce the information, options, and action. Model III focuses in greater detail on the individuals who constitute a government and the politics and procedures by which their competing perceptions and preferences are combined" (p. 392). Rather than giving different answers to the same question, each of the three models illuminates one corner of the issue and contributes to our understanding. By integrating the factors identified under each lens, the authors argue, explanations can be significantly strengthened.

The final chapter of the book in which the authors hypothetically demonstrate how the interaction of the factors identified under each lens can lead to a nuclear war should be perused by those who firmly believe that after the collapse of the Soviet Union there no longer exists the precipice of a nuclear slaughter.

Though I believe this book is a must-read for everybody (not necessary to mention all the fields), I recommend this masterpiece especially to students of strategic management who have read Strategy Safari by Mintzberg et al. (1998) for which I believe Essence of Decision will be an excellent field book and to students who have read Case Study Research by Robert Yin for which I think Essence of Decision will be a perfect workbook.

Overall, this book is a living example of a dedicated and illuminating scholarship. Highly recommended.

This is a political-sciency version of the closest we came to a nuclear war, in effect using the crisis to introduce the reader to a methodology on how people make decisions. The authors see three ways that things get decided, and when observers confuse them, dire consequences may follow. First, there is the rational-actor who does things for explicit reasons, as if there were one decisionmaker who controls everything from conception to implementation. Second, there is the political decision, often made for purposes of manipulation rather than for stated goals and hance are harder to read. Third, there is bureaucratic decison-making, according to which actors on the ground carry out orders in the way that they are trained (i.e. by standard operating procedures, or SOPs).

Basically, in my reading, they argue that these modes were mixed in the Cuban Missile Crisis - the US thinking that there was a (rational actor) policy to militarise Cuba with nuclear weapons when in fact much of the provocatively appearing construction was due to SOPs of the military who installed the missiles. Thus, the US had less to fear, but its political reality made an over-reaction inevitable.

Now, these are very useful distinctions and the analysis is interesting. However, they do not make for very interesting reading or very good history. That makes this book a slog, which limits its appeal to academics rather than the general reader. I read this for a class - otherwise, I would never have gotten through it.

Recommended on balance, but go elsewhere if you are looking for a good story rather than a rather staid acadeimic analysis.

it is a very humourous and (I guess) honest book. He tells his tales as a child, and the innermost changes that led to leadership.
Interesting AND entertaining!
Greetings form Argentina!

I recently finished a leadership training course sponsored by my company. One of the activities that we did in the class was to reflect on great world leaders and think about what qualities made them great. It came up during the session that some years ago the teachers had led a similar exercise, but had actually asked the participants to try to communicate with a living leader who had personally affected them. The idea had been for people to get in touch with a former manager or teacher. However, it happened that one of the participants (not having a manager who he or she had admired) contacted Nelson Mandela by email. To everyone's surprise, he responded quite kindly and shared some thoughts about leaders and leadership.

When I was traveling in South Africa, I heard many similar stories. Tour groups who told about Mandela coming out of the parliament building to greet and talk to the tourists. Employees at Robben Island talked reverently about how he had taken personal interest in their lives based on the briefest of acquaintenceships. Every story emphasized his humbleness, his respect for others, and his basic approachability.

Long Walk to Freedom, for me, confirms that image of Mandela as a man who is great in part because of his humbleness, and his resistance to myth. He emphasizes his role as the man in the middle, pushed by circumstances and common decency into greatness. He consistently avoids overdone bragging (the little that is there is surely allowed him) and looks hard at the actions that the ANC took in their quest for freedom.

While it would have been interesting to read this before going to South Africa, I actually think that I got more out of it now after seeing the country first.

I really enjoyed the book. It is not a perfect narrative. It suffers in parts from being written over a period of years. There are some little repetitions and awkwardnesses along the way. None of those things matter at all in relation to either the reading experience or the importance of the book. I liked it very much, and would recommend it highly to others. Do not be daunted by its size (625 pages, in my edition). It is actually a very quick read and kept me intensely interested the whole time. Genuinely inspirational.

This book recounts the life of Nelson Mandela beginning in childhood up to the present age. It is written by Mandela himself - it's honest, straightforward style seems to be an honest attempt by Mandela to portray himself objectively, avoiding the tendency to be self-serving.

A fascinating book. It begins with Mandela in his young childhood living in a pre-industrial society of native Africans in the countryside of South Africa where white settlers have dominated industrialized society. It is an engaging society, - perhaps more advanced than our own - as one must reconsider what it means to live in harmony and in cooperation; A true democracy, based on the ideals that all are equal.

Mandela undergoes culture shock when he runs away from his traditional homeland to seek his fortunes in the big city of Johannesberg. Here is encounters white society up close, and is mortified at the inequity that exists between the native blacks, and the immigrant whites that make every attempt to dominate their country and exploit its indigenous peoples.

Mandela encounters a small group of educated, free-thinking educated blacks, and joins the African National Congress. Here he encounters several other oppressed peoples: Indians, Communists, and liberal whites. He slowly makes his life's objective to be a freedom fighter. A fighter for civil rights for all people. A life of struggle, where one must be willing to pay the ultimate price. And he nearly does.

He becomes the inspiration for downtrodden average black citizen, nearly enslaved within their own country. He willingly faces grave danger, is tried several times for his political ideals, denounced as "treason" and is eventually sent to prison "for life."

Mandela's life in prison is austere. But he and his colleagues never yield in their commitment to freedom for all South Africans. His wife, Winnie is an example of true dedication - equally a woman of integrity and worthy of the highest praise. She undergoes severe hardships being married to a "freedom fighter."

Mandela avoids the tendency to give up in the face of severe conditions, showing true mettle as he remains dedicated to the rights for all people to live free in racist South Africa. 27 years later having risked his life and surviving harsh prison conditions, he emerges a national hero.

A must read for anyone - Mandela is history in the making.

This is a fantastic book that provides great insight into one of the most inspirational leaders in modern history. His story in particular and the anti-apartheid struggles in general are fascinating and provide extremely valuable lessons. With his humbleness and incredibly lucid and organized writing style (which admittedly did surprise me), this could be the best autobiography out there. One can only imagine how different the continent would be if other African Nations had such strong leaders with Nelson Mandela's courage and integrity.

Full of humanity, integrity, sacrifice, humility, and character. This is an uplifting book about the power of the human spirit to overcome great adversity. I loved it and I do agree that this book should be required reading for everyone. Parts of this book brought tears to my eyes. It illuminates a great man and the struggle people had to endure to overcome a great blight. To think that the U.S. did not place sanctions on South Africa until the mid 1980's, when men like Mandela were fighting and dying for the right to be considered human. I read recently that Pat Roberston, the great American evangelical, was a supporter of apartheid. How incredibly inhuman. If you know anything about South Africa, you will know that by the end of his long incarceration, even Mandela's captors had acquired great respect for this man. A must read...in many ways, this is a life changing, life affirming book. Powerful.

I enjoyed it very much. I particulary liked the comparisons between the US and France. That made it a more interesting read than just a run down of all the crooked politicians, greedy wholesalers, and colorful criminals that inhabit the wine world.

After working in the wine industry for 7 years I found this book to be a refresher at best. If you don't know much about how the industry works its a great primer, but if you have a good idea of what's going on the book is a bit lacking. I would have like to seen more depth in many chapters.

I finally had a chance to give serious face time to Tyler (Dr. Vino) Colman's newest book: WINE POLITICS: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. A book of this sort is so long overdue and I had been looking forward to it with such great anticipation that I nearly wet my pants when it finally arrived at my door.

I cracked it open somewhere over Nevada on my way to the National Conference of State Legislatures where a panel of industry folks moderated by Senator Sanchez from New Mexico was gong to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court decision, Granholm v. Heald. Apropos, no?

Here's the thing: If you write about wine and don't know the political history of the drink, you owe it to yourself and your readers to read this. If you are a lawmaker at the state level and deal with alcohol issues, you owe it to yourself and your constituents to read this book. If you are a wine lover and find yourself frustrated by the various laws that seem contrived to keep you from enjoying wine then you need to read this book.

What I was most interested in discovering was how an even handed treatment of the subject of wine politics would look and read like. I don't deal in evenhandedness when I approach and work in this area. I've seen enough to know that it accomplishes nothing to give those who work the system the benefit of the doubt. But Colman, in tackling this subject, is obligated to be evenhanded. And he pulls it off quite nicely.

The very first chapter asks, "What is Wine Politics". The answer Tyler provides is telling and explains the need for such a book:

"battles over the politics of wine are more often fought on the ground--sometimes literally. Where are the lines of the best growing zones drawn? Will society stigmatize wine or praise it? How can consumers buy their favorite wines or discover new ones? Is wine 'made in the vineyard,' as the industry likes to claim, or is it made in the lab and tested on focus groups for its consumer appeal? At stake in these battles are not only the livelihood of those in the industry but also the prestige and the profits of an industry whose sales reach $25 billion in the United States alone."

After offering a brief history of wine in France and the United States in Chapter two we move on to the meat of the book, an examination of critical issues in the wine industry that play out in a political framework: Appellations & Quality, American coalitions for and against wine, who dictates tastes and styles of wine, and the politics of environmentalism and wine and where they meet.

Naturally, I was most interested in how Colman dealt with the issue of direct shipment of wine, an issue that has been among the most public of political wine battles in America for the past 20 years. This discussion falls into the chapter appropriately named, "Baptists and Bootleggers". The term is a reference on the one hand to the odd coalition that supported Prohibition and on the other hand to the more recent coalition of social conservatives often driven by religious imperatives and alcohol wholesalers that demand economic protection, both of whom have no interest in, and are willing to work furiously against, allowing consumers alternative channels to access the diverse and growing number of wines available in the country beyond the sacred three-tier system.

It would have been all to easy for a lesser writer to indulge in demonization in this chapter. It would have been very easy to write unflattering things about the nasty, disingenuous and heavy handed actions of American alcohol wholesalers' attempts to screw wine consumers and game the political system for their own economic benefit. Tyler will have none of this.

Rather, he simply lets the story of direct shipping and its political battles play out in his pages in a fairly matter of fact way. Tyler's reporting on how the direct shipping battles progress goes just deep enough so that we are told how and when giant wholesaler Southern Wine & Spirits first asked in response to direct shipment of wine, "Is there any way to stop this". On the other hand, his explanations of the politics of direct shipping do not descend into esoterica, a real possibility where this subject is concerned.

Every state politician in America should at least be made to read the "Baptists and Bootleggers" chapter in this book. It Tyler_colmanprovides a simple and straightforward answer to the question I think too many of them have, but don't know the answer to, when confronted with alcohol-related legislation: "Why is this a big deal and why are consumers jamming my phone lines over a bottle of wine?"

Tyler's book is foundational in the sense that it provides an excellent though not overwrought introduction to the critical issues that surround wine politics and the business of wine. Anyone in the business who does not know this stuff now has a resource where it is all laid out. Those wine lovers who have delved so deeply into the world of wine that they need context to satisfy their mind will also find great value in "Wine Politics".

On Tyler Colman, let me say this: If he chooses to, Tyler could make a very long career out of reporting on wine, educating both wine lovers and the industry, and writing more books on all manner of subjects revolving around wine. This is not an easy thing to do, which is my round about way of saying Tyler Coleman is among the leading pens of a new, younger generation of wine writers who will, hopefully, take those of us who grew into wine with the old guard of writers into our old age happily satisfied with the state of American wine writing and reporting.

There are so many wine books out there this summer, many of them by retailers who have veiled advertorials in the fabric of "passion." It's truly refreshing to see a book like Dr. Coleman's, written with serious thought, using original research, and addressing one of the most important -- and often overlooked -- issues facing the contemporary wine drinker: how do the powers-that-be affect the market and our palates? Where most "wine writers" are erstwhile marketers who treat wine with undue snobbery and elitism, Coleman has delivered a genuinely useful piece of journalism that dispels many of the superfluous mythologies surrounding the world of wine today with empirical data.

As one reviewer put it, this book is sure to become "required reading for any serious wine education program."

Coleman's spare, economic writing style evokes an era when writers (think Hemingway) were not afraid to use words as instruments of thought rather than the other way around. An A+ for readability...

... well this is a lot of those answers.

This was a short but well researched dive into the history and complexity of what goes on behind the scenes of the ever confusing wine world. It's written from an (ironically) sober perspective that gives the reader a chance to gain a sense of the immensity that is wine politics. From prohibition to repeal, natural winemaking, AOC struggles, and critics weight, it lays out the effects of these events as well as what the wine world was like before them.
Anyone interested in wine and/or history will take great pleasure in reading this. My only hope is that we get a follow up from Mr. Colman, I got the sense reading this book that he was holding back for something bigger...

Simply put, this should be the first book one gets when they approach terrorism. Every academic who has written anything about terrorism has quoted him. That should tell you something. If you want a more detailed review, read one of the many 5-star reviews. To the guy who gave this book 2-stars, where are you a student? If you had to use a dictionary then you shouldn't be studying this complex issue to begin with.

Other great books on the subject include but not limited to- Terrorism in Context- Crenshaw; Inside Al-Qaeda- Gunaratna; Ghost Wars- Coll; Origins of Terrorism- Reich. Anything by Robert Pape esp Dying to Win & Bombing to Win(this one isn't about terrorism but it's the best study of how effective aerial bombing campaigns are- very related I would say.)

I picked up Bruce Hoffman's book at the suggestion of an associate who knew of my interest in history and influences therein. Mr. Hoffman's experience and understanding have produced a treatment on the mind of the terrorist and terrorist organizations - both domestic and foreign - that is, in my opinion, unmatched. INSIDE TERRORISM will hold a permanent place in my library, and receives my highest recommendation.

Other Suggest Reading:

Ku Klux Klan America's First Terrorists Exposed (Shadow History of the United States)

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

In the wake of the 9/11 disaster a plethora of books has been published on the nature and structure of the terrorist threat. Some are quite good, but others are absolute nonsense. Interestingly, some of the best books on both terrorism and counter-terrorism predate 9/11 and were written before counter-terrorism became the cottage industry it is today.

This book by Bruce Hoffman in cooperation with the Rand Corporation was published in 1998 and remains one of the best books available on the nature of terrorism. Hoffman provides a useful and on the whole an accurate explanation of the differences between secular, religious, transnational, and state sponsored terrorism providing useful examples of each. He also provides a good deal of probably accurate information on terrorist motivations and operational procedures. Finally he was prescient enough to recognize that the phenomenon represented by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda represent an ideological movement rather than a structured organization. After four years of the so-called, `Global War on Terrorism' this fact is slowly sinking into U.S. Government circles. Hoffman only lightly touches on the related issue of the al Qaeda financial structures, but notes the relatively small amounts of money actually required for most terrorist operations.

As indicated Hoffman does not limit this book to Islamic religious terrorism but also delves into motivations and operations techniques of secular terrorism as well. Perhaps most importantly given the July 2006 Near-East crisis, he uses Hezbollah as an example of the dangerous nature of state sponsored terrorism. All in all a sound book that contains markedly better information on terrorism than many more recent books and reflects the fruits of sound scholarship.

I live in Israel. We live with terrorism daily and I have been following the events worldwide in the news for many years.

This book does an excellent job of summarizing the history of various terror groups, their changing techniques, failures and successes.

HHG

I found this book to be quite enlightening as well as facinating to read. Refusing to engage in the political rhetoric surrounding terrorism, the author, Bruce Hoffman, (an expert in counterterrorism at West Point as well as a professor at Georgetown)follows the evolution of terrorism as a means of calling world attention to forgotten or underpublicized plights of the disenfranchized in order enact political change, through what he terms the "internationalization of terrorism" where terrorists enact "major media events" by the targeting of symbols of power. He examines the refinement of terrorist tactics by the Palestinian organizations, and refutes the idea that terrorism is ineffective, pointing out how the Palestinian cause has gained worldwide recognition and (frequently) sympathy through the advertisement of their cause via use of terrorist events. He investigates the role of the media in this process, and develops the hypothesis that part of what has occurred leading to the current state of affairs is, like an addict, the terrorist organization needs increasingly horrific and intense events to gain the attention that will put it in the media spotlight. This is supported by how the news of "car bombings" in Bagdad start to sound like weather reports--because they are a daily occurance and fail to engender the level of horror and outrage that they should, and would have, just a few years ago. This is an excellent analysis of the historical developments that form the basis of present-day terrorism, and Hoffman is only able to do this by putting aside the rhetoric of "evil" which only confounds our capacity to understand and effectively address the threats of terrorist activity.

I received my book on time and in great condition!! Better than I had expected! Thank you!!

If you are looking for a textbook for upper-division classes on Congress, this is the one. It is thorough, full of interesting stories and examples, it's not too long, and it's easy to read. Oh, and it has lots of pictures! If you want to know how the US Congress works, this is the best text I've seen.

I have ordered this book in its many editions for classes that I have taught on Congress and Legislative Politics. It is one of the best general texts available--and readily accessible to those who are simply interested in the politics of Congress.

One of the key points made by the authors is that there are "two Congresses": One of these is the Congress of "how a bill becomes a law," of the actions and politics characteristic of Capitol Hill. The other is the operation of representatives in their home districts, acting on behalf of their constituents, "the folks back home." The two worlds that members of Congress live in (Washington D. C. and "back home") can produce tensions and dilemmas for members of the legislature. But these conflicts help us to understand the complex nature of Congressional politics and decision-making.

Lawmakers cannot just live in the one Congress or the other. They must navigate and negotiate between the two.

This text covers the full territory, from the history of Congress, to how one ends up getting elected to Congress, to how Congress works and its interactions with other key political actors, to the policy process of which Congress is a key.

For anyone--students or citizens--interested in the nature of Congress, this represents a good starting point.

This is probably the best textbook on Congress for undergraduates that I have seen. Primarily I like it because it's easy to read and very well written, covers all the important topics, and is not tedious. Now you might think being easy to read isn't important since it's for college students. But believe me, if you want students to actually read the assignment, more engaging texts are important.

"Congress and Its Members" is an excellent textbook for any government student wanting a thorough introduction into the actions and events of the United States' Senate and House of Representatives. The discussion found in the book ranges from the differences between the two houses, their procedures, methods of governance, etc... This book is very easy to read and comprehend what the authors convey.

If you don't like being spoonfed only what your professors and the media want you to hear, you should read books like this. Reagan made a comment or two about each day before bed and this book puts you right into his shoes. You'll get a sense of what it's like to be the President, how human the making of history really is when it happens and the strong, determined mindset of one of the 20th century's greatest leaders.

Wonderful.

What a fantastic book; written by President Reagan at the time history was being made. They say hindsight is 20 20 but it's astonishing how spot on he was with his comments, made without the benefit of looking back.
It's very enlightening to see what his thoughts were as history was being made and even the mundane or trivial things take on greater meaning when judged by the context of the present day.
Reagan kept pretty good notes and they're all here. In addition, there are quite a few color photos to put faces to the various people he talks about.
If you are interested in presidential history and in his motives i highly recommend this book!

I gave this book to my aunt who is 89 years young. She reports back to me that she loved it. She read it in 3 days.

This book gives you insight into the thoughts of a great American during a period of recent history that was so vital to our nation and the world.

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book. I got the abridged version, which was quite brief, and I think it was a little too scarce. That being said, it did give me a relatively decent insight into what the man was like. Being that I was still in diapers when Reagan took office, I have no personal memories of him and this is really my first introduction to him other than what I have heard in the news or through word of mouth.

It seems to me that the man was not unintelligent, yet there was a certain simplicity to his thinking which is exactly what endeared him to many, yet frustrated others. There were a few examples of this that were actually laugh out loud funny. When writing about the assassination attempt, he earnestly says, "getting shot hurts." Or when describing a certain economic report, he exclaims "just got the latest assessment of the economy, it's bad!" He comes across as a fundamentally decent man, though one with little tolerance for opposing viewpoints. We also learn exactly what he thought about issues like the Iran-Contra scandal, the air traffic controllers strikes, relations with Russia, Israel, etc. We also learn how important his faith, and his wife Nancy were to him. All in all, this is a decent book, but if you really want more substance you should probably go with the unabridged version.

"The Shia Revival" is, in fact, a history of Islam and its divisions. In this short, concise, readable volume, the reader learns how Sunni, Shia and Wahabi Islam emerged from the same teachings of Mohammed. Most important, it reviews the conflicts between the various approaches to Islam from their historical, economic, political and social aspects. This book should be read by everyone who wants to fully understand the consequences of this religion in today's world.

I read this book last year and found it to be very informative about the religious and political forces that are shaping the Middle East. Maybe John McCain should read this book before he goofs up any more questions about who is funding the "Al Quaeda" in Iraq. Knowlege is Power.

A good book for anyone desiring a deeper understanding of the conflict between Shia and Sunni Islam-

This is an excellent book that gives insight ino the Shia branch of Islam. The Shias are the majority rule in Iraq and are the Muslim church in all of Iran. This book gives you an excellent understanding of the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Iran, of the conflict between the minority Sunni and majority Shia. It helps you understand where and why they are coming from and what to expect from them. It gives and excellent history of Islam and well as encapsulizes what it happening today. It is easy to read and gives you great insight into understanding the current conflicts there, including Saudi Arabia's role in controlling the Sunnis. It opens your eyes to understand what is really happening versus the propraganda we are fed in the U.S. by our government and lobbyists. You become wiser in understanding the many layers of deceit and lies thrown to the uneducated American public. I highly recommend this book if you truly wants some understanding about the conflict with Iraq and Iran.

Nasr has written a terrific book that describes the long history of the Sunni-Shi'a conflict and how it influences modern Middle Eastern politics. I would recommend it as a primer for anyone who would like to know more about the culture and current events of the Arab world. It's detailed, yet accessible and engrossing.

The book begins with description of the Ashoura festivals and the Sunni revulsion to what they consider to be idolatry. It then describes the great split among the backers of various Caliphs which eventually became the modern Sunni/Shi'a conflict, the history of how both sides became entrenched and what continued to fuel the discord between them. From there, Nasr describes how the religious and social luminaries of the Arab world saw their positions as pawns of the superpowers and how this shaped the many conflicting views of what the Muslim future should look like and how to get there. Finally, the author takes us through Iraq and Iran of today to show why the war in Iraq is so intense and shows little sign of slowing down (it's all about who holds what resources) and how and why Iran is using the war to its advantage.

I would like to give this book 4 and a half stars, but I can't give half stars. The only little fault of this great book is a slight tinge of sympathy toward the Shi'a. In a purely analytical and historical work, it doesn't seem fitting to show even the slightest tinge of sympathy or empathy toward the subject of your study. However, this is a very slight point and it doesn't compromise Nasr's command of the facts in any way, shape or form.

This book and the accompanying workbook are providing us with just the material we need to structure our English lessons. We've combined it with a spelling programme and plenty of reading, and both granddad and Elizabeth are delighted with it.

We bought this after my first grader's successful results with the first book. It is sytematic, comprehensive, and the language is not overly simplified. The author doesn't condescend to my third grader, a voracious reader who recognizes "dumbed down" speech and writing and is turned off by it. New material is presented in a no-nonsense, sequential manner, and as each new part of speech is studied, it is also diagrammed. My analytical son really likes that. The emphasis on dictation was a useful surprise. I didn't realize he had a tough time summarizing until we encountered these lessons. This book both diagnosed and addressed weaknesses I didn't know he had due to his extremely high reading ability. I'm very pleased with this one. Note: I tried to use the teacher edition only, but it was a hassle. I broke down bought the workbook and it made things much easier.

Four lessons into this curriculum, I'm very pleased that my reluctant 3rd grade homeschooler seems engaged and willing to move ahead. It feels properly paced for a child and the instructions for both teacher and student are incredibly clear. So far so good!

I am a homeschooling granny and have tried numerous Language Arts Programs. Out of all the programs I have tried this is the best by far in my opinion. In addition to the 8 parts of speech this program also covers the following.

Parts of a book, Initials, Titles of Respect, Punctuations, Direct/Indirect quotations, Diagramming of Sentences, Contractions, 6 Nonfiction Narration Exercises, 6 Poem Memorizations, Writing Letters, Dictionary Skills, Alphabetizing by first, second, and third letter, Syllables and phonetic spelling, Synonyms and antonyms (using a thesaurus)and Avoiding double negatives

I would say this is a pretty comprehensive program. The only complaint I have about this programs is that in order to use it effectively. For variety I sometimes use worksheets from softbasics software and find that I will have more than enough materials to last two or more years

Licensed to Kill : Hired Guns in the War on Terror is a damn good book. It's an unfiltered and unjudgemental look at the security contractors who do security, assault and intelligence work on behalf of governments around the world. If you've heard of companies like Blackwater, DynCorp or Aegis, then by all means, pick up this book.

1. So who are these guys? Who are these guys are all over the news these days, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Basically, security contractors are highly-trained masters of warfare. They are usually ex-special operators (e.g. Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Marine Recon) or at the very least, ex-infantrymen or cops in the governmental forces. Some do security detail work for top dogs like Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former Iraq administrator Paul Bremer. Others guard escorts and convoys, and other work as non-official spies.

On one extreme end there is a guy like Billy Waugh, an ex-Green Beret-turned-CIA-turned-contractor. He is extremely experienced, guile and professional. Most of all, he is very patriotic, and his zeal to defend America keeps him going even though he's almost 80.

And just like sports teams, there are the walk-ons. This one guy named Shannon Campbell is the security contractor's answer to Rudy. He's not a veteran of the Special Forces or SAS, but a regular Joe who had a dream of making it. He trained in martial arts and firearms until he could break in to the industry, and he did!

2. And what are these guys like? They are basically just humans, just like us. They just happen to be extremely alpha. Although many media outlets portray them to be these monsters who have no remorse and shoot kids on the streets of Baghdad for fun, Robert Young Pelton does a great job keeping things in perspective. Security contractors have fun; they have camaraderie; they have fear; they worry about family and finances; they surf the web for porn. They are just like guys out there in the regular "world." It's like asking what NBA players are like, or what NFL players are like. Until you've lived in their world, you don't know what it's like. But if you want to know what they are like as human, just look at the people around you.

Of course, with the good and normal, you have the bad and the ugly. Besides the possibility of someone going berserk on some women and children after having seen too much war, you have guys motivated greatly by greed, greed and more greed. On one hand, you have companies like Sandline and Executive Outcomes and guys like Niek du Toit and Timothy Spicer, who scour for unstable nations rich with resources like Equatorial Guinea and Papua New Guinea and try to capture the market - even overthrowing the government is not out of the question. Niek du Toit sits in a Equatorial Guinean jail, and is unlikely to ever see daylight again.

And in a market that is exclusive, secretive and relatively unregulated, you must always watch out for the opportunists, like Jack Idema. Portraying himself as a well-connected and well-informed ex-Special Forces member, Idema scammed journalists, filmmakers and locals in Afghanistan. Like Niek Du Toit, Jack Idema is currently rotting away in an Afghan prison.

3. And what is the future of the private military/security industry? Only God knows, but the faithful founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, has ambitious dreams. He visions Blackwater fielding a battalion-sized force of security operators with small-arms, heavy weapons and planes, that can be deployed globally on short notice. It may sound bolsterous, but with Blackwater's capital, reach, and track record, Prince's plan is certainly not unrealistic.

Also, with small conflicts popping up everywhere, urbanization, and the rise of mixed martial arts, I can certainly imagine more Shannon Campbells popping up. With more manpower neededm with elite war vets who decide to pass on becoming contractors, and with companies that offer tactical training, it is not unrealistic to envision young males decide to get in shape, learn hand-to-hand and weapons, and join in for some gold and glory.

I don't want to go on forever, but Licensed to Kill : Hired Guns in the War on Terror by Robert Young Pelton was a great read, and I could not put the book down. And I don't think you'd be able to either.

Completely devoid of preaching, no axes to grind, no ideology to promote... you have to wonder how this ever got published in the USA. Not a trace of faux compassion. No uplift. In short, an almost miraculous book. Remarkable achievement.

I really enjoyed this book. A very interesting take on the life of a contractor, without the political objective.

I wanted to learn more about Security contractors after I heard so much about them in the news on Iraq and Afghanistan. I found this book and read it quite quickly for it was very interesting and for the most part worth the money. Robert Pelton has written a engaging investigation where you feel for both the contractors and the opponents against their existence. There is one chapter about a con artist that I felt didn't need to be included in the book but nonetheless I commend Mr Pelton for his good writing ability.

This was a fantastic book. I'm having a hard time finding unbiased literature about the modern trend of PMCs (mercenary companies). Books written by conservatives paint PMCs (especially American ones) as purely patriotic and heroic organizations. They often overlooking or minimize the problems PMCs create and in some cases the crimes they have engaged in. Books written by progressives describe PMCs as evil agencies with immoral killers who profit from death, nothing more.

Mr. Pelton covers how the trend toward smaller government (including militaries) have lead to the rise in PMCs. He describes incidents where mercenaries have stepped into help nations the world will only talk about. He also covers incidents where mercenaries have illegally tried to topple small governments.

Unlike many "expert" authors, Pelton went to hot spots around the world to assess each situation for himself. He spoke with leaders and with people on the ground in and around the business.

Pelton credits the Bush administration for creating a situation where the US military is required to rely heavily on PMCs in Iraq and for their lack of accountability. He also credits the international community's lack of involvement for the fact that smaller nations have resorted to PMCs to end their violent conflicts.

If you think PMCs are the greatest thing on earth, here to promote democracy around the world, or if you think they're hired killers, here to kill innocent indigenous people in the name of corporate wealth and racist regimes, please read this book. Don't merely read books with an agreeable point of view.

Mr. Pelton does express a concern about the lack of oversight and accountability with PMCs around the world, but if he was trying to push another political message, I didn't see it. Great reporting. This is a book with a wealth of information that I didn't have to read with a grain of salt or read with the mindset that the author was trying to manipulate my views one way or another.

You may also want to view the DVD "Shadow Company," which covers the same topic.