Politics Government Books

The book was in good condition and was received in less than a week. For price and shipping time I would recommend.

I was very pleased with my purchase of California Politics & Govt. The book was in great shape and was just like new. The shipping time was wonderful.

This book will never stand on its own. It attempts to introduce far too many ideas in too few pages. It's a lot like Cliffnotes. Used alone, the reader will be left with a skeleton of concepts and ideas...

The book is a muddied introduction to the organization, history, and sociology of the state. Ideas are dumped, not explained. Half of the names appear in only one sentence. It left me unable to remember or care about some of the 50+ names. Sections are seldom coherent.

I ended up using the TOC to draw up my own organized outline. I filled in the pertinent details using wikipedia and ca.gov. And I paid attention to the newspaper. It worked much better.

I've got the latest, sixth edition of this book, and I am very impressed. Relevant, well-organized, and very-well written, this book is a firt-rate primer for those interested in California politics. The book is written in the style I appreciate the most: to the point and matter-of-fact, without needless theorizing and editorializing.

This is not an ordinary textbook. It is not boring or pedantic. Gerston and Christensen present a fascinating panorama of California politics. The book has ten chapters, each of which contains valuable insights and interesting details. The authors completely succeeded in presenting factual information, including tables and graphs, in a way that does not overwhelm the reader or make him want to skip over these things. This masterful integration of factual information into the flow of the narrative makes the book truly enjoyable.

I have a Ph.D. in Political Science; and I rely on information from this book when I get ready to lecture on California politics in my American Government and Politics course in the college I teach. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get acquainted with California politics. And even advanced students of the subject, will find the up-to-date information in this book a valuable tool for understanding California's politics and society. Pick up this awesome resource today.

This book covers many scenarios of decline, examples and data showing us the rate of accelerating change and many arguments for increasing resilience personally, as a community, and nationally. The changes we shall face on our journey to 2012 we should consider moral and solvable. These issues are drastic, human, and not bound to political party. John's book creates a good introduction to this debate - we should have the debate and together develop a brighter future.

A must read by any accounting. Our leadership for the next decade must pay close attention to the myriad of events that will shape the very future of mankind and all living things on this planet. This is not a Right vs Left issue, its rather a set of understandings we all need to comprehend and take action through our elected representives at all levels.

Owen Wormser
Royal Oak, Maryland
A Vision for 2012: Planning for Extraordinary Change

John L. Petersen, the well regarded futurist and head of The Arlington Institute, has written A Vision for 2012, a must read timely essay-length call to action for citizens and governments. In Petersen's view, global warming, fossil fuel depletion, recent economic market disruptions and more, portend massive societal and planetary disruption in the next decade. For some, the year 2012 is a year of foretold doom. 2012 is Petersen's symbolic way of saying "Stop thinking about tomorrow" as the song goes, and start thinking about today. A self-proclaimed optimist, Petersen balances one set of trend lines with another that point to scientific and technological breakthroughs, from new medicines, to the Internet, as holding out the possibility for resolving the challenges we face. But there is no way around the need for government planning and action, and here Petersen is flying on a wing and a prayer. As the book also concedes, governments and society in general usually act conservatively and plan and deal in the less painful policy world of incremental, short term advance until the crisis occurs (think about our failure to address the ticking time bomb of entitlement obligations). We have a lot of political talk about Manhattan projects to develop alternatives to oil or reduce greenhouse emissions (called for in the book) but we know that governments and the citizenry usually act after the fact (e.g. Katrina). Global cooperation is even more difficult and the United States, which the author calls on to lead, has not exactly led over the last decade (think Kyoto) Petersen hopes it can be different if we work together---using technologies like the collaborative Internet---to think, plan, and advocate for change together. Read the book.

It was a good book, I really learned a lot from this book. I have twins boys in school. They don't do too well in school. But I did learn a lot about how to handle the school system. They wanted to put one of my twins in special education. So reading this book taught me a lot. It gave me an edge on the school system, and my right regarding my sons.

I loved this book and bought a copy for my sister in law as well.
The 10 covenants are on my wall. Thank you Tavis Smiley and all of the contributing authors.

Once I started reading this book it was hard for me to put it down. I think that every person of African roots should have this book in their Library and also those with children should encourage them to read this book.

America, and especially Balck America, needs books like this one. It is a powerful book that everyone who wants to understand racism and human nature in general should read. This is a very informative and moving piece dealing with current situation of not only African Americans but also other Americans who are often disenfranchised. The author offers practical, how-to-do information for individuals and communities to take political action on the issues. Definite five stars!

I also suggest to read Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir

After I was disappointed with "Come On People" by Cosby and Poussaint I started looking to see if anyone in the African-American community has written a book describing success in raising community standards or community involvement in improving education. The doorway out of poverty is education. So I got this book edited by Smiley. The back cover sounded promising: "... the time has come for African Americans to shift the conversation from talking about our pain to talking about our plan." That sounds positive. Here are the chapter titles.

(1) Securing the Right to Healthcare and Well-Being, (2) Establishing a System of Public Education in Which All Children Achieve at High Levels and Reach Their Full Potential, (3) Correcting our System of Unequal Justice, (4) Fostering Accountable Community-Centered Policing, (5) Ensuring Broad Access to Affordable Neighborhoods that Connect to Opportunity, (6) Claiming our Democracy, (7) Strengthening our Rural Roots, (8) Accessing Good Jobs, Wealth, and Economic Prosperity, (9) Assuring Environmental Justice for All, and (10) Closing the Racial Digital Divide.

All the chapter titles sound like failed ideas except chapter 8, about good jobs. I hoped that author would talk about working hard in school.

Chapter 8 was written by Marc Morial. He writes, "...closing the equality gap is not merely a challenge for black Americans and other people of color; it is also a challenge for the nation if we are to maintain our position as the economic and moral leader of the world. How do we get there? The most powerful tool we have to make our voices heard is the vote."

What a disappointment. I agree with Morial that the nation needs the African American community to be more successful, but voting will not end poverty. Morial is a humbug. Marc Morial was mayor of New Orleans. I used to live in New Orleans and the city went to pieces under Dutch Morial and Marc Morial. They wrecked New Orleans. The city was a disaster before hurricane Katrina hit. His suggestion for people to improve their lives by voting for African American politicians is self-serving and futile.

The entire book is a disappointment. The only positive development I believe people can replicate is the "Knowledge is Power Program" founded by Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg. It is not mentioned in this book. You can read about it online by googling for it, but it is not in books yet. A lot of people in America want to see the African American community succeed, but this book is self-defeating.

An important insight to the fundamental flaw in the book is in the article by Haki Madhubuti. He writes, "...do what all people who are in control of their own cultural imperatives do: control their own liberating narratives; that is, write their own liberating prescriptions and stories." This means that Madhubuti, and people with the same philosophy, intend to reject everything not created by African Americans. Hmmm, that would include rejecting Christianity. Wait! That's what the Nation of Islam did!

Rejecting all other cultures means rejecting the best ideas of all humanity. Successful people, however, copy the best ideas other people have. Look at Bill Gates at Microsoft. He bought Q-DOS from Seattle Software, he ripped off Windows from Apple and Internet Explorer from Netscape. Every product that makes him money he copied from other companies. Copying what works is the backbone of success in America.

Rejecting good ideas because they did not come from the African American community is self-defeating.

Continuing to think about rejecting good ideas, I discovered that Richard Rorty, in Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, said "ironists" are afraid their ideas were imprinted on them by society and are not really their own ideas. Then I thought about how teenagers are desperate for their own music and don't want to listen to mom and dad's music.

So I can understand how someone will reject good ideas in pursuit of individuality, but it does seem to me that rejecting good ideas only because you did not think of them is short sighted.

According to its title, the book compiles documents from 1933-1945, the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the contents are strongly tilted toward the 1933-1941 period. Maybe that's justified, given Polenberg's clear focus on domestic social and political issues and given, of course, that the New Deal period consituted more years than World War II. But I felt more than a little disappointed by the brief treatment the war effort received. And the documents pertaining to the war focused largely on Japanese internment and the issue of bombing the concentration camps. These are both important topics and worthy of attention, particularly the latter which I fear is sometimes overlooked (and which is in many ways a telling issue). FDR's Four Freedoms speech is not included, nor the Atlantic Charter, nor the Pearl Harbor speech. The book would definitely have profited from inclusion of these documents and perhaps also of documents pertaining to strategy or military policy.

Nevertheless, the book has three strong points that make it worthwhile. One, Polenberg includes a wide variety of primary sources: speeches, photographs, Supreme Court decisions, letters, posters, poems, songs, press conferences, etc. The sources also come from a range of people, left and right, "large and small." This makes the book particularly useful as a teaching tool for showing students how to tackle primary documents of all types.

Two, in the book's imbalance lies its strongest element--it covers the Depression and the New Deal thoroughly, offering new perspectives and carving new dimensions. We hear from the Roosevelts, both Franklin and Eleanor. We read the views of writers John Steinbeck and Upton Sinclair, and of Roosevelt opponents Charles Coughlin and Huey Long. Administration officials provide their opinions on New Deal legislation (including the frequently ignored Federal Theatre Project). Dorothea Lange's photographs depict the misery and poverty of the Depression. Mexican-American, African-American, and Native American viewpoints also receive attention. Polenberg successfully draws documents to paint a multi-dimensional, in-depth portrait of the 1930s.

And three, Polenberg concludes with a fine bibliography for further reading on the various topics of spanned by the documents.

All in all, despite the weak coverage of World War II, the book is eminently useful for readers interested in the period and especially for teachers and students. Had Polenberg covered the war years in the same detail as the Depression/New Deal, this would be a thoroughly excellent sourcebook. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile book and could function quite well in an AP history course, or as a complement to reading, say, David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear.

I used the 3rd edition of this one for a pol sci course a few years ago. Excellent textbook goes into the nitty gritty of postwar European domestic policies. Well organized and clearly written. For self study, use in conjunction with a good general history of postwar Western Europe by Philip Thody or William Hitchcock or Robert Paxton.

"Understanding Contemporary Africa" has not been very useful in the context of Comparative African Politics at Cal Poly Pomona. While the text has interesting summaries about African politics and can help as an introductory resource, there seems to be far superior books. It is fairly easy to read and there is quite a bit of cursory information compiled for introductory insight, which makes it ideal for introduction or review of African politics. But do not expect thorough explanations of applicable theories that try to explain the roots of African modernity.

"Understanding Contemporary Africa" is a lot like a tour guide for college students with just enough information to get you into trouble.

For PLS 442 at Cal Poly Pomona, Comparitive Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa, it is used little and discussed even less. It is possible to go without this book for Obazuaye's class.

Understanding Contemporary Africa is a general textbook that is perfect for introductory courses in African studies. Authors of the various chapters are university-level scholars and teachers of history, political science, sociology, religion, and African studies. The subjects covered are African history, politics, national economies, international relations, population growth and urbanization, the environment, familial structures, women's effect in society, religion, and literature. There is an entire chapter devoted to South Africa.

This book contains many helpful references. Full page maps are near the beginning of the book, showing major physical features, the ITCZ and vegetation zones, natural resources compared to railroads and navigable rivers, early states and empires, colonies in 1914, and current countries and their capitals. I needed to refer to them often enough that I put a paperclip on the pages. Table 5.1 is a current export chart. Each chapter ends in a lengthy bibliography for further study. At the end of the book, acronyms are defined and there is a thorough glossary to which I referred many times. Basic Political Data is the third appendix. Each country is traced from independence to the present day in terms of its leaders.

Although the book suffers from sweeping generalizations, many times these are acknowledged by the authors. There are too few examples of these generalizations for my own taste. I personally prefer more "real people" stories to demonstrate points being made. This does not detract from the excellence of this intended introductory textbook for college-level African studies courses.

The last chapter of the book leaves the reader on the upbeat. There is hope for Africa in the current generation of young, educated middle and upper class men and women. They are seeing a bright future for Africa with hope in place of despair. Autocrats are being replaced with democratic leaders. Small businesses are on the rise; this is always a healthy sign in an economy. Health services and public education have increased since independence. The book closes with the observation that it will take a world partnership with Africa to make things work to neutralize the long term effects of exploitation of the African continent.

I loved this book. It's extremely well-written, sensitive, and demonstrates a wealth of knowledge about African cultures, politics, religions, economies, gender relations, and, in one of the best chapters in the book, literature. You don't often see such a skillful sketch of the impressive African novels and poems that have been written in the past few generations.

This is the perfect book to assign to students who have no exposure to anything African (which, unfortunately, is most undergraduates). Although it's an introduction to the topic, those who know a great deal about it will find that almost all of it resonates with the other literature they have read, whether historical, political, or otherwise. It's a very compassionate and progressive look at Africa. All modern challenges to the continent are presented so that students get a multi-dimensional look at Africa's struggles. Environmental and agricultural problems are presented in tandem with economic and political ones, so that students will have a real context in which to put all future readings about Africa. But unlike so many African books, the text provides sections such as the one on literature, to show that Africa has many achievements, instead of focusing only on negativity, as unfortunately many books on the topic do. At the same time, it does not gloss over the tragedies on the continent and their causes, and difficult topics such as the AIDS crisis are treated in a sensitive manner.

It is a great book and I can't imagine there's one better out there. However, were I to make suggestions to the editors they would be the following:

1. The historical section could be slightly larger. The historical context is dealt with in one chapter, and yet a more extensive discussion of certain historical events would help students better understand some of the continent's present difficulties.

2. The literature section could be extended to include popular culture, music, every day entertainments, festivals, etc. Students would enjoy some additional stories showing the richness of so many African cultures. Although the literature section does this, it could do so more thoroughly.

3. The economic section would benefit from more success stories. Although it has an excellent discussion of the crushing debt burden and the role of international financial institutions in African economies, which students must know about, it would help to see some dicussions not just of how local business and initiative is stifled, but descriptions of these businesses.

I've read some fascinating things about African entrepreneurship and ingenuity in industry against all kinds of odds. Although many of these efforts were stifled by the state, I think students would benefit from knowing about dynamic efforts such as these.



3

As the political season is upon us, I recently decided to read Barry Goldwater's "The Conscience of a Conservative." I was a bit surprised at what I read. There was little concern for the social agenda which has dominated conservative conversations in recent years. One might argue that back in 1960 at the book's writing, the "culture wars" were not on anyone's radar screen. Even in later life, however, Goldwater sparred intensely with religious and social conservatives. Their agenda does not seem to be Goldwater's.

Goldwater's agenda is freedom. His primary observation of human nature is its diversity. Each human being is unique, and it is the responsibility of each individual to realize his or her full potential. When government must exercise control, that action should occur at the most local level possible. Politics, for Goldwater, is "the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of the social order" (pg 5). In modern parlance, Goldwater is probably more libertarian than conservative.

Every other concern of Goldwater flows out of this agenda of freedom--the defeat of the Soviet Union, his reverence for the rule of law, the importance of federalism, his opposition to federal welfare programs, and his disagreement with court decisions and legislation on desegregation. The last is probably the most controversial. Goldwater agrees with the proposition that racial segregation in schools is wrong, but he believes that Brown vs. Board of Education is wrongly decided as an encroachment of the federal courts on what is a state issue. For some, they view Goldwater's position as an issue in semantics hiding racism. Others saw a man who desegregated his family department stores and worked to end segregation in the Arizona National Guard and in the schools and restaurants of Phoenix. Those facts, alas, are not in the book. Nonetheless, one still wonders how the agenda of freedom applied to unenforced civil right laws dating back to Reconstruction or the judicial activism of "separate but equal."

In the preface of my edition, George Will suggests that Goldwater's conservatism was greatly influenced by his Arizona upbringing. The spirit of the West certainly promotes individualism and a desire for limitless opportunity. Perhaps, being raised in Texas, I found some attraction in Goldwater's agenda of freedom. Moreover, I agree with Goldwater that there are human needs for which the government cannot provide. Unfortunately, since this book was about government, Goldwater had little to say about meeting those needs. Goldwater is silent on what is most important. Similarly, the Declaration of Independence hails the importance of the "pursuit of happiness" but is silent on what happiness actually is. Apparently, the individual has the freedom to decide. This isn't a criticism of the book, but it reminds me that politics isn't the source of my salvation. Instead, a free society merely gives me the opportunity to seek it.

This is such a great read. It really rings true even decades after it was published. If you would like a similar view that is more applicable to the problems we are facing today read The Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul.

Barry Goldwater's "The Conscience of a Conservative" was one of the seminal manifestos of the modern-day conservative movement, defining conservative positions in both economic policy and foreign policy. It was published in 1960, when, just as today, many conservatives seemed ashamed to identify themselves as such.

Reading this book will give conservatives a sense their movement's roots and the ideological confidence that comes with knowing that their ideas have a long and distinguished pedigree. I sometimes wonder how America would be different today if Goldwater had beaten Johnson in 1964 and the ideas in this book, not those of the Great Society, had been implemented.

This book is clear and to the point. Mr. Goldwater doesn't waste any time laying it all out on the line about what true conservatism is. My wife and I are adding it to our home school library of required additional reading.

I must first make clear that I am NOT any type of conservative by any stretch of the imagination. However, even as I do come from another time(i'm currently in my early twenties) and another position i do believe that i can fairly and objectively review this artifact of political history.
Having an interest in writers like Allan Bloom(Closing of the American Mind) and Saul Bellow(and generally the U. of Chicago/historical neoconservative crowd), a older retired friend of mine suggested I take up a reading of classic conservative literature to gain perspective. I must admit, I was born into liberal perspective(born into a vegetarian interacial non-religious family does that to you), so i've always had to do a bit of work of understanding the other side. So here it goes...
I must admit being impressed with the lucid nature of the arguementation and reasoning, along with the strong will and character that Mr. Goldwater worked to present in facing the troubles of the time he was writing. While some of the arguements come off as quite antiquated(such as the "states rights" position on segragation), others are quite timely. What really struck me was the question of whether or not today Mr. Goldwaters positions would fly with the modern republican party. I'm a political junkie and I rarely hear a arguement for the rights of states anymore. I can't imagine a modern politican citing Aristotle either. I can go as far as to say, there are things he's says that I like the position of, but today I can't imagine that the republican party today would have much of anything to do with them. It's interesting to me to consider where American politics might be today if the conservative political arena had kept a clear libertarian tone and not moved toward the often bizzare culture war idenity movement it seems to have metamorphasized into today.
Overall the tone is easy to read, and moves along quite rapidly. I enjoyed alot of the writing on facing the Soviet Union. The SU came tumbling down when I was in kindergarden, so its a mindset that almost no one in my generation has a clear working memory of. So besides the historical, I liked that he had a clear moral sense that didn't reek of vanity and stubborness, but more of someone who refused to water down a platform of opposition to the cruelty of Statlinism.

This book presents a rather revolutionary case for the American Empire. Not only IS America an empire (albeit a reluctant one), America SHOULD be an empire. COLOSSUS is the only book that I'm aware of that makes this case in such a straight forward and blatant manner. Not shying from the term empire (with all of its negative connotations), Niall Ferguson makes a brilliant and convincing case for the benefits of empire. He believes that benefits not only come to the country at the center of the empire, but every country included in the empire. A challenging and highly-interesting book, this one should be read by any who are interested in current affairs, no matter their political leanings.

The first half of the book makes the case that empires are the norm, they are beneficial, and that America should be considered the largest and most influential empire in history. This part of the book is really nothing more than an extensive history lesson, describing the overall history of empire, its effects on various nations, ect. The successes and failures of both the British Empire and the American Empire are described, with a major point being that those countries in which a British or American empirical presence was enduring tend to be better off now than countries who denied empire or never were a part of one. His argument swings primarily on the stabilizing influence of a powerful empire on countries where they can increase confidence in the rule of law and encourage international investment.

In the second half, this book talks about the seemingly imminent collapse of the American Empire. Money, men, and motivation are the three essential ingredients that America is missing if it wants to be successful in its attempts to reshape the world (especially the Middle East) in its image. Money is in short supply for the American Empire because of irresponsible government spending and social commitments that cannot realistically be met (primarily Medicare). Manpower also presents a serious limitation, as America just doesn't have enough intelligent people willing to live a large part of their lives overseas to manage other lands. Finally, the American public does not have the will required for extended overseas commitments and prolonged military deployments. Together, these three deficits most likely mean that America will fail in its attempts to remodel the Middle East and any other area of the world it focuses its attention on.

There is really way too much information and too many interesting ideas expressed in this book for an adequate review, but jut know that this book will provide new insights into the world than you had, and will really make you think about what America's role should be. Extremely well-written and unquestionably intellectually challenging, COLOSSUS is a powerful book that presents a radical-seeming message with clarity and purpose. Highly recommended.

I am becoming more impressed with Niall Ferguson the more I read his work. It is refreshing to see someone with such a strong historical perspective review our country and it's foreign policy issues. I became familiar with Ferguson first after seeing him in documentaries on the BBC. His insight was always clear, informative, and challenging, and that's why I started reading his books.

This is one of his best (if not THE best) book of his so far, and like his others it is challenging and very educational - all the while being very entertaining. I feel he sometimes analyzes America's international/imperial role better than I have, even as I am an American citizen with a love of history. I also appreciate the way he takes to task our modern politically correct aversion to what an empire is, could be, and should be. The word empire has become synonymous with evil in many modern liberal discussions, but isolationism can be just as uncaring, especially when millions are dying needlessly in genocides around the world.

I am not going to go into a whole recap of the book, because that has been done pretty well by the first reviewer at the top of the reviewing page. If you want to see more of Niall Ferguson in documentaries, the first American released documentary featuring him is now out, and i just watched it recently, it's called The World Without US, and it is also informative, challenging, and features Mr Ferguson quite well.The World Without US - With Niall Ferguson

Another mighty tour de force from Ferguson, aided by some super smart research helpers at Oxford and Harvard. Following on from his earlier 'Empire', which redressed the balance towards the plus side of the British empire after so much liberal bashing, Ferguson argues that imperial power is not necessarily a bad thing. In particular, a powerful hegemonic power might well be better than no hegemon at all, with global disorder.

Trouble is, America is a self-denying Empire. Even when attacking other sovereign states, its leaders are at pains to stress that this is not old
fashioned imperial warmongering, but a new democratic humanitarian aim.

Thickly slathered with literature (Melville, Kipling, Greene and a host of others) and popular culture (Vietnam war movies and even a reference to the Terminator) Ferguson covers a huge swathe of ground. He traces the origins of America's imperial behaviour, from the purchase of Louisiana to the two Iraq wars, the foreign policy failures, times where they succeeded (post WW2 Japan and Germany) and instances where he believes they lost out due to excess caution (Korea, where the bellicose McCarthur was sidelined).

Ferguson wants the USA to flex its muscle more and act as a full manifestation of Truman's global policeman. Trouble is, appetite for US forces fighting in bloody battles in hell holes of the world is at an all time low amongst the US public. As Ferguson admits, bright graduates of Harvard and Yale want to manage hedge funds and MTV, not dusty dirt tracks in the Middle East. In November the US will have a new president, who will find it harder than ever to promote US hard power worldwide against increasing threats from other countries, democratic and non-democratic alike. He warns, like Gibbon's Rome, of imperial decline and decay. Paints a portrait of a slack, obese nation more concerned with petty consumer concerns than defending Enlightenmnent values of humanity.

Ferguson's thesis is well argued and coherent, but modern day Empire runners are few and far between (there is a chap in Afghanistan called Rory Stewart, an Eton educated Scot who is doing well, but he is an exception). Also, American wealth is declining compared with the rest of the world. In the 1970s, it held almost half of the world's GDP, now the figure is under 30%.

I've been a fan of Professor Ferguson for years now and this book was no disappointment. He's got that clear, accessible way to make history fun and engaging. I also loved the book for being written very logically with a strong sense of cause and effect that creates a digestible story. As a fan of history and geo-politics I have been put to sleep many times by experts that had the facts down, but no sense of story telling. Well, that is not the case here. I also liked the way he substantiated every point he's making about the US involvement.
While looking for his other titles I stumbled on "The World Without US" - a documentary where he appears as the main expert. After checking out the trailer at the film website, I got the DVD and it was quite good. It takes the premise of this book a step farther by asking, what would happen should the US withdraw its military completely from the world? I was eager to see Ferguson for the first time, and to my admiration, his screen presence is as much fun as his writing.
The World Without US - With Niall Ferguson

I learned more about my own country (USA) in this book than I did at University. Dr. Ferguson is a great writer. The book is well-researched, with lots of new facts that I'd never known.

Here's a subject that should set off some alarms as to what the heck we are thinking or not thinking (alarmist?), I would think bio-chemical research would be it. While I read this book from a historical point of view, apparently a lot of people read it from a current events point of view (smoke & mirrors?). With the people I have discussed this book with they seem to find it to be scary and depressing, to me what is shocking is how most of the chapters have either been played down or completly ignored by history and the media (What you don't know, can't hurt you?). So I guess the question to me that this book puts in my mind is when did all these leaders in all these nations decide that people like us (Estimate: 98% Worlds population) (Anarchist?) can not be involved with certain things (Parents & Children?) and furthermore does that mean that as these children we are only symbolically involved in our futures. If you got the answer, let me know, if don't understand the broadnest of this question, continue sucking your thumb.

My conclusion after reading this book: How evil man is! It seems that all what mankind is really concerned about is how to destroy itself by the cruelest, most wicked and gruesome ways possible. The atomic bomb was not enough to satisfy man's craving for destruction. Newer means of killing one's adversaries had to be created. Germs, bacteria, and viruses could fulfill man's desire for gruesome killings - for now!

The book starts in 1984 Dalles, Oregon, when an Indian sect, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, poisons the residents with salmonella. No one died, but nearly 1,000 were infected with a strain of salmonella that the sect had legally obtained, then cultured and distributed by spraying it on the food of the unsuspecting residents. The goal of the sect was to incapacitate the residents in order to keep them home and unable to vote in the coming elections! The authors show how easy it is for anyone to acquire and then scatter biological agents.

The authors then describe other instances when biological agents were used, such as the Aum Shinrikyo sarin attacks on a Tokyo subway. They also trace the history of biological warfare, starting from World War II to the present.

The authors also show how politics play a role in this biological warfare. Governments trick each other, making the other believe they have no biological weapons when in fact they do! They sign treaties between each other banning the culture of biological agents, but secretly break those treaties. The authors explain the biological agents that governments have cultured for warfare (such as Anthrax, and Ebola). They also make us aware that many scientists around the globe (especially in the former Soviet Union) who worked on biological warfare can now be easily recruited by other countries such as Iran and North Korea. The threat of biological warfare is still rising, according to the authors.

Furthermore, they argue, germ warfare is suited to unconventional attacks by terrorists. Germs can kill as many people as atomic bombs, are more discreet to manufacture, transport, and use on targets. They also give time for the terrorist to escape (i.e. leave the country).

The question that will linger on your mind at the completion of the book is whether doomsday will be a result of a massive nuclear war, of microscopic biological agents, or of as now an undiscovered and more horrific weapon!

"Germs: Biological Weapons & America's Secret War," J. Miller, Engelberg & Broad. Simon & Schuster 2001, NY. ISBN: 0-684-87158-0, HC 382 pgs., which includes Index 12 pgs., Notes 44 pgs., Biblio. 4 pgs., 6.5" x 9.5"

All three authors are accomplished, active journalist correspondents (NY Times & Times) who write using well-researched data of the scope & depth of biological research warfare carried out, mostly secretively, by world powers including the Soviets, USA, Iran and Iraq.

"Germs" opens with a desription of how an Oregon cult of Rajneeshees in 1984 deliberately placed cultured Salmonella bacteria in food to poison hundreds (751) of people in an Oregon power grab to take over a county government. They were caught & convicted.

Subsequent chapters are fairly technical, but compelling, on the details of the R & D by the US & its CIA of chemical & biological germ warfare efforts on colossal scales including methods for delivery, dispersal & protection of military using (both cultured normal and genetically altered) bacteria, viruses, & rickettsia: this included tularemia (plague), TB, smallpox, botulism, Valley fever, encephalitis (VEE) organisms and food-poisonings, snake venoms, ricin, etc. The contributing expertise of genetist Joshua Lederberg and the dismal role played by President William Jefferson Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair is discussed in detail. All in all, "Germs" is an unsettling read, and the book ends just prior to the 2nd. attack on the Twin-Towers.

"Germs" highlights the unpreparedness of the United States to deal adequately with any major catastrophe, documented by failures in several mock disasters including the May 17, 2000 Denver, "Operation TopOff." The book also details the 1999 misdiagnosis and ineptness of the CDC in finding the cause of the mysterious human and bird cases of encephalitis in Queens, NY - first citing St. Louis Encephalitis (SLE) - but later discovering it to be a West Nile virus and learning it could be spread sans mosquito vector. If you must know where millions, nay billions, of US tax dollars are spent, read "Germs". This is non-fiction at its finest and at its scariest.

"While the U.S. maintained an active "bugs and gas" program in the '50s and early '60s, bio-weapons were effectively pulled off this country's agenda in 1972 when countries around the world, led by the United States, forswore development of such weapons at the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. The issue reemerged in the early '90s thanks to Saddam Hussein and revelations of the clandestine and massive buildup of bio-weapons in remote corners of the Soviet Union." - Harry Edwards

When Bush 2.0 resisted renewal of a defunct ABM treaty with the USSR, a defunct country, liberal complainers slammed his disrespect for the sacredness of words on paper. Germs, the good book by Times guys & Judith Miller, discloses the aftermath of another sadred treaty with the USSR, the one signed by Nixon & Brezhnev that outlawed development of WBD, weapons of biological destruction.

Nixon and the United States honored that treaty. Brezhnev and the USSR broke it, even after the USSR broke up. Ken Alibek, recent defector from Russia's recent Biopreparat bio-terror program, demonstrated that bad stuff happened back in the USSR and the ex-USSR for at least twenty years after the Reds promised to play well with others & to be nice. Judith Miller, recent star of the Plame Name Blame Game, was certain that residual bugs from Russian germ factories were being stored by Saddam Hussein. Maybe. Maybe it's now in Syria, or maybe Miller got bad intel, Chalabi's revenge.

The good news is that the bio-weapons and poison gas that Saddam apparently didn't have in 2003 were weapons that weren't available for use against liberating and/or invading Americans. The bad news is that, when Americans could not find the weapons that were not used against them, the liberation of Iraq looked to the world like unprovoked aggression and invasion. C'est le guerre.

Ms. Miller and I go way back, back before Iraq. I read this book during our interminable rush to war; then I read Miller's front-page refutations of the anti-war posture of the anti-war Jayson-Blair Times. The Times prominently printed Miller's refutations of its own bias, a bias that now looks prescient while Miller, Bush, Chalabi, and Chalabi's war look bad. C'est le vie.

Still, because germs are with us always, Germs is worth your money and time. Miller's story about the Bhagwan's bio-terror attack on Oregon -- probably the first bio attack on America; forget about bogus apocryphal reports of smallpox-infested blankets delivered to Indians -- is necessary & sufficient reason for reading this book.

There are a lot of people who want to discredit the entire book for one reason or another, and they're just plain wrong. In the early 90's, I was an Army infantry officer; I had gone through the army's NBC school (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical), served as my unit's NBC officer, and did a lot of additional reading on these topics, including reading this book. Almost everything I read in this book rings true. The average American would be smart to read this book (although most Americans are too lazy, too self-absorbed in Reality TV, and too stupid to be able to comprehend the highly-technical information in the book) and to be aware that biochemical weapons are very enticing to terrorists.