Politics Government Books

I wholeheartedly believe that it's imperative that we teach children about the importance of voting. With the freedom of democracy in the United States, we have the ability to choose who we want to lead us. It's up to use to teach our children how wonderful that freedom really is!

Eileen Christelow presents VOTE! in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format, with fun characters and illustrations, that will appeal to even the youngest of readers. Although they may be too young to vote, children of all ages will learn how important that right is.

VOTE! presents the mayoral race of Chris Smith and Bill Brown, two opponents who both want to lead the city. They have different platforms on which they're running, different types of families, and different agendas and reasons that they want to be mayor.

Although the book is a bit one-sided in making one candidate out to be the "good guy" and one to be the "bad guy," children will be able to get a basic understanding of how elections work.

Also of interest is the glossary of election-related terms at the back of the book, along with a timeline of voting rights, interesting facts about political parties, and additional website resources for further exploration.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

Since citizenship education is becoming such a focus in the elementary shcools (and rightly so), it is good to see a really informative and kid-focused book about voting available to the grades that really need the boost. The pictures are engaging and colorful, and the "action" is enough to keep any kid interested. The timeline and glossary and excellent for teachers planning a lesson, and accessible to a kid who is looking for information for a report.

This is a great book to integrate into the classroom or to help your children understand the essentials of the primary element of democracy.

Recommended.

While I like the way the information is presented with the humor of the dogs along with the explanations, I have several problems with this book. #1 I disagree with presenting one candidate in a good light (Chris Smith who is portrayed to care about schools, and has her child campaigning for her, aka "liberals are compassionate"), and the other as a villian (Bill Brown, whose platform is portrayed to be based on building a new stadium, a cold businessman who doesn't like animals or care about children, aka "the non-compassionate conservative"). This nice candidate/mean candidate portrayal is a poor way to teach childen voting discernment. #2 At the end of the book, there is "A Timeline of Voting Rights". Again, this is a great idea- laying out these important dates to understand more easily. However, I find the comments regarding the 2000 Presidential Election troubling. The author carefully implies that the 2000 Presidential Election was bogus, and the 2002 voting act will take care of faulty elections in the future. I believe this book would've been much more effective had the author NOT brought biases into play.

I was so impressed at how easy and enjoyable this book was to read. It's about time someone wrote a good children's book about voting. Most books about voting are dry, dull and totally detached. This book provides a likable protaganist and takes us through the voting and election process. Students of mine who have read non-fiction books on voting and been left totally confused as well as bored may finally "get it" with this one. Good job!

LOVE this book and would recommend this to everyone!! Everyone I know who has read it has found some part applicable to themselves or their friends in high school! Informative and engaging - a must read for all students!!

thia book is great the author has some great points and the book gives you the information in an entertaining way. however there is some bias and you can see the author is only showing you the negtive aspects of an overachieving world. again i think thtat the book is great to read but one must take it in without buying into every word she says. overall an informative book well worth reading

This perceptive examination of the lives of real kids gives us cause for concern, but also great hope. There actually are kids who work hard, do their best and want to make the world a better place. Maybe they need more support than they get. (Don't we all?) But they're out there, doing all they can to be all that they can be. That's a good thing. Robbins does a superb job telling the stories of nine young people fighting their ways through the high school jungle, not always getting what they deserve or what they want, but coping and growing. As we follow these kids through some important formative experiences, we can't help worrying about them and questioning the system that puts so much emphasis on being "the best." Guess what. Not every body can be the best. But the good news is this: to succeed in life people don't need to be "the best." They need to be motivated and competent. If these stretched and stressed kids can adjust their focus just a bit, to realize that happiness is more connected to being "their best" than to being "the best," they will do just fine. Thanks, Ms. Robbins, and thanks to these kids and their families, for this meaningful look at the lives of some terrific young people. For a fine fictional treatment of some of these issues, readers might also enjoy Crunch Timeby Mariah Fredericks.
Janet Gingold
author of Finch Goes Wild

I bought this as a gift for a high school relative of mine that really wants to get into an Ivy school. This student runs herself ragged taking honors classes, getting tutoring, and participating in sports to the point of utter exhaustion. I feel this book will help her and her parents reflect on their college obsessions and realize that not getting into an Ivy will not ruin your life! I thought this book was very insightful to how crazy some students and parents have become in pursuit of success. I think this book speaks to many people including those that do not have children in high school. The sections in the book that cover the "admissions" testing into top rated preschools in NY is fascinating. I remember neighbors of mine who demanded that our public school put their son into gifted and would eagerly talk about their desire for a full scholarship at a local private college for him one day (he was only 6!) Basically this book will strike a cord with any student or parent. I also liked how the author gave a list of ideas/ suggestions on how to solve these problems. Although the solutions/ideas presented may not be realistic it makes excellent discussion material.

This great book comes with a great message: "...our high-stakes educational culture has spiraled out of control. Following along with nine real people in the battleground of SATs and Ivy League colleges, this book explores the issues of our educational system and their consequences from the point of views of both the students and the author.

The flaws of our educational culture has defined an age where people will go to extremes. For example, one mom strangled another's daughter because the other daughter beat her own daughter for a spot in a prestigious preschool, which won't even go on your college resume. AP Frank, one of the characters in this book, is outraged for all his asian mom did to him, like breaking his thumb or abusing him when he got one single B.

In an era where colleges barely care about your SAT grades, students are taking more and more extracurriculars and anything to add to their college resumes. The sacrificed time and grades build up to take the forms of sleep deprivation and even thoughts of suicide. Educational policies are like a hole which "your chances of getting out get lower as you fall deeper." For anyone who is interested in how our students are reacting to everything thrown at them, this book is a must-read.

As head of the US State Department planning staff in 1948 George Kennan wrote: "we have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population... Our real task... is to... maintain this position of disparity... To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming... We should cease to talk about vague and... unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better." After a careful reading of Killing Hope one should be able to grasp the significance of the praise heaped on Kennan by the current US Secretary of State as she spoke of his "profound influence" on her, his "inspiration to generations of men", and his legacy as "one of the greatest strategists in the history of American foreign policy." I honestly don't know which is more disgusting, scumbags like Kennan and Rice or goose-stepping, flag-waving one-star-reviewers.

Over-all, this is a very precious book, and an essential reference on the history of US intervention, both military and clandestine or covert.

As a former Marine Corps infantry office and former clandestine services case officer, and as an avid reader of non-fiction, I will gladly state on the record that this author has it largely right.

I took off one star because the book has NOT been properly updated. The list of U.S. military interventions still ends in 1945, only the the CIA assassination plot list has been updated.

There are other books that complement this one--everything by Noam Chomspky, Derek Leebaert's "The Fifty-Year Wound," Chalmers Johnson on "Sorrows of Empire," Robert McNamara et al, "Wilson's Ghost," the DVD "Why We Fight," Ambassador Palmer's "The Real Axis of Evil" (on the 45 dictators we SUPPORT), and--with respect to the ignorance of America about reality, the two books, "Fog Facts," and "Lost History." See also Marine General Smedley Butler's short but hard-hitting work, "War is a Racket."

While I take the author with a grain of salt and do not appreciate his collaboration with Phil Agee, who betrayed his oaths to the US, whatever his reasons, on balance this book is an essential reference for anyone who wishes to understand why the rest of the world is beginning to conclude that we are the worst of all evils in our foreign policy behavior and misbehavior.

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century
Why We Fight
Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025
War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti=Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It
Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'
Fog Facts : Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin (Nation Books)
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq

I admit that I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but you need not be one in order to be shocked at some of the information contained within. The reason is that many of the sources referenced are mainstream media. Not that this makes the information true necessarily, but it certainly provides a dose of credibility to other more abstruse historical accounts.

I'm sorry to say that I actually spent money on this! I had thought of returning it but I didn't want to allow these misconstrued fantasies to be further spread so I destroyed it. It's sad that the author used biased references and half truths to support his position. As a retired USAF military member I'm ashamed to think that I protected his rights for over twenty years. If he's so against the U.S why doesn't he leave this country and go peddle his stories somewhere else.

The book does a great job showing the irony in the double-standards the US has used in its foreign policy since WWII, as State department officials confessed to (shown in the last chapter). This also makes for a more entertaining read than most other books on the topic. All together though, the book's use of these contradictions are just used to propel a central idea the author has, as stated in his introduction - that the communist threat was largely imagined, either intenionally at times or unintentionally, and that the US media failed to rationalize the discrepancies of state doctrines. So, if you believe this, you'll enjoy the book, otherwise, you'll find it a "worthless left-wing propanganda."

The book does take for granted a large degree of knowledge by the reader. That is, the author only explains US activities (as the book's title plainly states) in particular regions, but general history between time periods and other nations' influences are usually omitted. So if your history isn't up to par it may be a little confusing keeping track of changing foreign attitudes and policies.

The material has been thoroughly revised and updated to take account of developments in exproring new ideas of modern presidency. It provides a convenient and informative work of reference for those who studying the presidency and practitioners. Through this book, James P.Pfiffner has created an outstanding reading material and absolutely fascinating though on modern presidency reference.

This is one of the first generation texts on homeland security. As such, it has a somewhat ad hoc feel to it, as though these (and other) authors are feeling out just what a text on homeland security is all about. The purpose of the book is described on page xiv: "The intent of this book is to provide a primer on homeland security for emergency managers, students of emergency management, and for the countless public and private sector individuals who find themselves suddenly thrust into the ever-expanding domain of homeland security."

The scope of the book is wide, as it covers a lot of territory. One necessary consequence of this is that coverage of individual topics can be a bit thin. On the other hand, the breadth of coverage is itself a virtue. One must trade off a bit of depth for breadth.

The book begins with a discussion of an historic overview of terrorist threats. As such, it does "set the table" for the rest of the book. However, there is actually very little on terrorists, their tactics, etc. Thus, the chapter seems to be written in something of a contextual vacuum. At some point in the volume, there should probably be a chapter on what we know about terrorists.

The book also explores the statutory and organizational infrastructure for homeland security. The resulting chapters are serviceable. Chapters proceed with coverage of safety and security; mitigation, prevention, and preparedness; response and recovery; communications; technology. The final chapter is forward looking, exploring the future of homeland security; it also considers the lessons learned from the reorganization of FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security.

Thus, while there is a "generic" sense to this book, it covers a great deal of territory and provides a broad-based introduction to the subject of homeland security. As such, a useful volume.

I am a former Army intelligence officer and I think that this was a good first cut at the topic. I was enrolled in a Homeland Security class that used this text. We studied the system and response of DHS and then the following week Katrina hit followed by Rita. What should have happened and what actually happened leave much to be fixed. The description of terrorism was so lacking that the instructor allowed me to teach the class. The information on chemical and biological agents looked like it came out of a Hazmat class manual. To be a better book it needs to be updated and revised. FEMA has free online classes which the authors should consider in their update. This book was great as no other book attempted to put together the area of homeland security under the new DHS.

This is an excellent book talking about the policies, organization, and functions of the Department of Homeland Security. The author's provide an historical overview of the terrorist threat which is concise and highlights the September 11 timeline. The life cycle of emergency managment is presented by introducing several case studies which provide incite into failures of preparedness and response to terrorist incidents worldwide. The importance of communications and technology is discussed to help prevent and deter terrorism in security organizations. It is a book that everyone in security management should read.

Introduction to Homeland Security provides a comprehensive view of the dynamics of homeland security in the United States from the view of experienced emergency management facilitators. This is accomplished by providing a historical overview of the terrorist threat which culminates with the September 11th terrorist attacks and thereafter the various legislative, executive orders and organizational actions which lead to the largest re-organization of the federal government in recent history which results in the formation and creation of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). An in-depth discussion and view of the pre-Katrina DHS are provided with applicable questions regarding the functionality and capabilities of this new department. Homeland security hazards are discussed with emphasis also placed on the safety and security of various aspects of the infrastructure of our society. The text also discusses the addition of prevention to the comprehensive emergency management life cycle of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. The book concludes with a discussion of the importance of effective communications with special emphasis placed on risk communications; the various types of technology being employed and various technology players and their activities; and, provides a discussion of the future of homeland security.

This book is especially beneficial in pointing out, through probing questions, that the federal government and bureaucracy thereof, both legislative and executive, cannot remember and/or don't listen to the lessons learned of the past, which ensures that we will be repeating them again, to the suffering and detriment of our citizens. The authors of this text were already asking questions regarding the security of our homeland in all regards, to which the answers have been so effectively pointed out through the Hurricane Katrina response and recovery failures of the DHS. For an understanding of the dynamic that is homeland security, and the core answer to what must be done to secure our homeland this book is a must read.

My professor selected this book to supplement my government class. This is an excellent book that teaches its audience about democracy. I love how Held talks about each model of democracy without siding with any model. However, you must have patience to understand the book because the language is a bit complex. My professor picked an excellent book for government class!!

I found this book to be a useful analysis of the differing interpretations of what democracy should be, from ancient civilisations to modern times. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in thinking about democracy.

I was very satisfied with the book. It came in excellent condition and I didn't wait long to receive it. I would purchase from this seller again.

This is a superb book as an entry road into democratic theory. It is far-reaching but not too superficial, the analysis and interpretation are spot on, and the critical lines persued are persuasive and important. Although the solution is not fully expanded Held makes it clear that this is not his intention as this is primarily a survey of democratic theory over the years rather than a constructive thesis.

Excellent introduction into political theory, giving good background on the current political debates. However, the solution proposed, a "cosmopolitian democracy", does not seem very concrete.

"An Insider's Guide to the UN" is an excellent, basic overview of the UN and the many agencies within. Should be required for anyone aspiring to or expressing interest in today's international world.

An excellent introduction to Navigating the United Nations. Not soo much an inside view.

Though initially overjoyed at finding a book which I thought would give me a balanced account of the UN with which to supplemant my knowledge, after reading the first thrity pages my joy changed to regret for buying this book. With chapter labels such as "The American Ambassadors" and with phrases such as "The UN cannot succed if the US does not support it","A strong coherant US lead at the UN is nearly always followed by UN member states","Yet, can we ignore it?" ("It" being the UN, and "we" being Americans, with Mrs. Fasulo ungraciously asumming that the readers of her books with inevitably be Americans), and "I'm struck by how relevant the work that i've had to do at the UN has ben to the US national security and foreing policy agenda"(quoting John Negroponte), this book generally ignores anything non-American. Try another book if you'd prefer a more international and balanced account of the UN.

The book offers a clear explanation of the United Nations' structure. it's a great book for the beginners, people who are just starting to learn about the Organization. A must-read for the Model UN delegates and for those young idealists considering to apply for a UN job.

At the same time, the book is touching on the important issues in the debates about the UN as a whole; for instance, Fasulo defends the UN being slow and inefficient during the 1990s genocides. Touch questions of UN finances and sponsorship are raised. The book reminds of the role of individuals in the system; the chapters on the Secretary-General are especially interesting.

The only downside of the book is its bias towards the US. Fasulo is overstating the role of the United States in the work of the UN, without considering the role of other nations as profoundly. The book is aimed at the American reader and may leave a foreigner questioning many Fasulo's points.

This would be a fine book for high school and college students - and me. Very basic explanation of the UN and how it works. Fasulo also explains some of the supposed controversies that exist with regards to the UN: paying of dues, reform, human rights, etc. Also pointed out in the book is the expansive reach of the UN. Many people recognize the General Assembly and the Security Council, but the UN is so much more. Not very riveting to read, but helpful.

Hopefully the US can better appreciate the importance of the UN in the future, and I hope the UN can make many of the needed reforms that, if made, could allow the organization to have a much more positive impact on the world. But then, when there is no sovereign control over its members, and it operates on such a low budget, it's tough to see it become the leader many expect it to be. For its amazingly low budget, however, the UN sure does take on a lot with many fine successes.

As a beginning student of international relations, I found this book to be of great assistance. Professor Nye accurately and honestly critiques the Bush Administration's actions on the world stage and the theories behind them. In a social and political milieu that has been dominated by neoconservatism for much of the past six years, it was refreshing to read a different point of view so ardently put forth. After reading this book, one can clearly see the danger that America faces if we continue down the path of unilateralism and continue to unabashedly embrace the concept of an "American empire." As this book argues with excellent clarity, we must return to the combination of hard and soft power that constructed and cemented the international alliances which defeated communism and prepared much of Eastern Europe for democracy.

Came to this after reading "Imperial Grunts," a much better book. Soft Power has a valid point -- power isn't all from the end of the gun, but it doesn't help much after you acknowledge that. Perhaps I am too Republican. When I read Nye was AS Defense under Clinton, that seemed to explain a lot.

Joseph Nye is a renowned foreign policy expert and former government official, and some of his previous books have been highly erudite and influential. Therefore one has to wonder about the lack of depth or detailed discussion in this particular book, which was either written for the (very) general reader or was tossed off quickly without the proper amount of research effort. Nye's basic premise is strong enough. Soft power is the ability to encourage, rather than force, other political entities to contribute to your best interests, and the best way to succeed in world politics is to smartly mix soft power with hard power - a tactic that has fallen by the wayside in very recent American history. But beyond that serviceable premise, this book is poorly written and lacks a truly authoritative voice.

The concept of soft power is not very wide-ranging, and this subject matter would be presented better in a short but hard-hitting journal article. And while this book only has 147 pages of text, it still feels padded with flimsy examples and repetitive explanations of the basic concept. Nye has a particular problem with formulating believable examples to support his argument. For instance, the fact that AIDS originated in Africa and SARS originated in Asia is used as evidence that America is not dominant in globalization (yes you read that correctly), and pop culture items are supposedly filled with "subliminal" messages about American lifestyles (Nye may have meant "subtle"). Another problem with this book is that quantities of cultural and political accomplishments are often used in arguments about the quality of soft power exercised by America and other nations. And finally, Nye is capable of far more in-depth analysis on current events than the rather shallow punditry that he has written here. [~doomsdayer520~]

The thesis of this book is that there are many ways to get people to do what you want, and that in world politics, the US has been good at using these various methods until recently with the Bush administration. I am not sure whether this book was written as a sideways attack on the Bush administration, but the points it does bring out are true and worth paying attention to. Specifically, the author states how in the past, the US has used methods such as trade deals, political favors, immigration quotas, economic investments, and other non-violent and non-confrontational techniques to convince other nations to do things the American way. The author then shows how the current Bush administration has strayed away from these methods and chosen to use more direct ones such as trade embargoes, sanctions, ultimatums, and outright military invasions to get things done. The consequences have been disastrous; loss of friends and allies, lack of cooperation from multinational bodies, bad press, and of course, good propaganda for our enemies.

Many of these themes have been written about in editorials throughout the web and printed press since G W Bush came to office, and this book by the dean of one of Harvard's schools just adds weight to the arguments. The problem with this book is the insufficient coverage of all the dirty laundry of previous administrations.

A thorough comparison between Bush's foreign policy, and those of every president since 1900, will show that nearly every president used force to get other countries to cooperate when alternatives were possible. Examples include the various assasinations and coups of foreign leaders orchestrated by the US throughoug the world during the 1900s. These include the leaders of Iran, Chile, Indonesia, and the Congo. Saddam Hussein himself was paid by the CIA to assasinate an Iraqi government official during his younger days. Funny how this was not mentioned. In general, most presidents use a combination of stick and carrot to deal with foreign policy situations. Previous presidents were better than Bush at showing the carrot and hiding the stick.

Overall a good book, but one that tends to overemphasize the failures of the Bush administration, and skims over the failures of previous ones.

"Soft power" is flying over the sky. This idea is used in lectures, seminars and conferences. You may hear that Japan wants to increase its soft power by promoting sushi and comics. India desires to increase its soft power by boosting Bollywood movies. Indeed, "soft power" is not only an academic term, but also a cool phrase right now.

Nye redefines power in hard and soft power. Military capability and economic strength are hard power; cultural influence and political values are soft power. In Soft Power - The Means to Success in World Politics, Nye outlines the sources, strengths and weaknesses of soft power. In writing his conclusion, Nye believes that the United States has to use power more smartly by exercising both hard and soft power.

Nevertheless, it seems that the European Union and China are using soft power better than the United States in this moment. The European Union shares the same aim with the United States, but using soft power to achieve its goal rather than American's hard power. China is creating its soft power, but this soft power is different form Nye's one.

Nye criticizes that the United States did not use its soft power well in the Gulf War and the war on terrorism. It is absolutely true. But what is the reason behind? Why does the United States (especially under the Bush's administration) ignore the importance of soft power? Indeed, it is very easy to answer this question from the realist or the hawkish perspective. Just because using hard power is the fastest way to achieve national goal. Let's look at Nye's comparison on hard and soft power, "...soft power resources are slower, more diffuse and more cumbersome to wield than hard power resources" (p.100). Indeed, soft power is only the second choice of the superpower, but it is always the first choice of the regional powers such as the European Union and China.

The European Union, without any formidable military force, in order to expand its influence and achieve its goal, the only way is to build up soft power. It is interesting that both the United States and the European Union want to promote the ideas of democracy and human rights around the world. But the United States tends to achieve its goal by hard power such as war and economic sanction, while the European Union insists on using soft power such as cultural exchange and multilateral negotiation (recently the expansion of the European Union is regarded as one of the forms of soft power - transformative power). As Nye admits that the European Union is more attractive than the United States nowadays, and the United States is blamed for its double standards on the issues of human rights (prisoner of war in Iraq) and nuclear proliferation (Bush promised to provide India with nuclear technology although India has not signed the Non-proliferation Treaty yet).

Since the rise of China has become a hot debate, the Chinese leaders acknowledge that building up soft power is the only way to solve the tensions and suspicions between China and its neighboring countries. Thus, China's soft power is not cultural, but it is practical. It is clear that cultural element such as Confucianism, democracy and human rights are not on the Chinese selling list, the selling items are practical in nature such as respecting every nation's sovereignty, denying intervention on other nation's internal policy, and developing economic prosperity among neighboring countries.

In contrast, Chinese soft power is built for strategic necessities (or for regime security) in practical terms, while the soft power of European Union is built for ideology in cultural terms.

Indeed, it is easier for China to promote its soft power than the United States and the European Union. It is because both the United States and the European Union are selling their own values, and these values may not be easily accepted by various countries. Nye quoted the President of Iran in his book, "The new world order and globalization that certain powers are trying to make us accept, in which the culture of the entire world is ignored, looks like a kind of neocolonialism" (p.40). However, China is now selling the common interest among nations, when China addresses that every nation's internal policy should be respected and should not be intervened by foreign powers, this notion really attracts the Arabic countries and the countries in Southeast Asia. When China calls for multilateral cooperation in foreign affairs, this also attracts the potential great powers such as Russia, India and the European Union who are disappointed with the American's unilateralism. More importantly, Nye notices that "To a large extent, international order is a public good - something everyone can consume without diminishing its availability to others. Of course, pure public goods are rare. And sometimes things that look good to Americans may not look good to everyone else, and that is why consultation is important" (p.61).

In sum, hard power politics reflects the will of great power or superpower, but soft power politics reflects the international public good. I guess China's soft power will win over the American and European soft power in the coming decades. It is because there is no "clash of value" in China's soft power, but there are "clashes of values" between "the west and the rest of the world" as what Huntington said.

Soft power is a very fascinating concept, but in terms of stability, peace and the suspicions of "the rest of the world", is it better to have mutual understanding and cultural assimilation rather than "power" in soft manner?

I thought that in general the book was pretty good. I liked the essay format as they were good sized chunks that explored a single topic well. It is a very easy read, especially at a chapter or two a day. I would have liked to see more mathematical discussion of some points, but that is not the point of the book so I can't fault it for not covering any. All in all a good read, but a bit dated at this point, thus the 4 stars.

All you need to know about this book is that it's written by a useful idiot helping out the government who makes completely false claims such as that:

1.) The Federal Reserve protects the dollar, never mind that the dollar has lost over 90% of its value since the Federal Reserve was created.

2.) The government should work to guarantee full employment, never mind that government policies and regulations are what cauase massive unemployment to begin with and government jobs themselves are usually less useful to the rest of society, such as paper shuffling.

3.) The government should manage international trade, never mind that massive problems that have come about because of institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the Orwellian titled North and Central American Free Trade Agreements. Never mind that regulation of international trade usually exploits consumers for politically-connected domestic interests.

4.) The government should protects us from pollution of our environment when it's places where government is biggest such as in D.C. where it's usually dirtiest.

5.) The government can create in increased standard of living for all, yet Americans' standard of living has decreased for nearly thirty years due to the growth of government and its having its hands in almost every area of the economy.

6.) There is such a thing as overall demand in the economy when there really isn't amongst consumers.

7.) Investments and capital are the same thing. Actually they're very diverse.

8.) Perhaps the biggest superstition is the attempt to separate micro from macro in economic affairs and claim that the decisions of individuals don't affect the overall picture. This is false because the decisions of numerous individuals is what makes up the overall picture.

This is a GREAT book to use to understand the macroeconomy. I read it in 2002 and although the book was written 10 years ago, it described what was happening in the economy perfectly. The 30 10-page essays are an ideal way to learn an important but dense topic: small, manageable bites. I highly recommend this book. After taking my time reading it, I am going to read it again after 6 months. It is worth the price and the time to read it.