When the Bush presidency began to collapse, pundits were quick to tell a tale of the imperial presidency gone awry, a story of secretive, power-hungry ideologues who guided an arrogant president down the road to ruin. But the inside story of the failures of the Bush administration is both much more complex and alarming, says leading policy analyst Alasdair Roberts. In the most comprehensive, balanced view of the Bush presidency to date, Roberts portrays a surprisingly weak president, hamstrung by bureaucratic, constitutional, cultural and economic barriers and strikingly unable to wield authority even within his own executive branch. The Collapse of Fortress Bush shows how the president fought-and-lost key battles with the defense and intelligence communities. From Homeland Security to Katrina, Bush could not coordinate agencies to meet domestic threats or disasters. Either the Bush administration refused to exercise authority, was thwarted in the attempt to exercise authority, or wielded authority but could not meet the test of legitimacy needed to enact their goals. Ultimately, the vaunted White House discipline gave way to public recriminations among key advisers. Condemned for secretiveness, the Bush administration became one of the most closely scrutinized presidencies in the modern era.

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Alasdair Roberts - The Collapse of Fortress Bush, The Crisis of Authority in American Government (20 08).pdf

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David Pellow, Lisa Park - The Silicon Valley of Dr eams, Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy (2002).jpg

USA Books1 - David Pellow, Lisa Park - The Silicon Valley of Dream...igrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy 2002.jpg

Next to the nuclear industry, the largest producer of contaminants in the air, land, and water is the electronics industry. Silicon Valley hosts the highest density of Superfund sites anywhere in the nation and leads the country in the number of temporary workers per capita and in workforce gender inequities. Silicon Valley offers a sobering illustration of environmental inequality and other problems that are increasingly linked to the globalization of the world's economies.

In The Silicon Valley of Dreams, the authors take a hard look at the high-tech region of Silicon Valley to examine environmental racism within the context of immigrant patterns, labor markets, and the historical patterns of colonialism. One cannot understand Silicon Valley or the high-tech global economy in general, they contend, without also understanding the role people of color play in the labor force, working in the electronic industry's toxic environments. These toxic work environments produce chemical pollution that, in turn, disrupts the ecosystems of surrounding communities inhabited by people of color and immigrants. The authors trace the origins of this exploitation and provide a new understanding of the present-day struggles for occupational health and safety.

The Silicon Valley of Dreams will be critical reading for students and scholars in ethnic studies, immigration, urban studies, gender studies, social movements, and the environment, as well as activists and policy-makers working to address the needs of workers, communities, and industry.

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David Pellow, Lisa Park - The Silicon Valley of Dr eams, Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy (2002).pdf

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John Lawrence Tone - War and Genocide in Cuba, 189 5-1898 (2006).jpg

From 1895 to 1898, Cuban insurgents fought to free their homeland from Spanish rule. Though often overshadowed by the "Splendid Little War" of the Americans in 1898, the longer Spanish-Cuban conflict, according to John Tone, was in fact more remarkable, foreshadowing the wars of decolonization in the twentieth century. Employing newly released evidence, including hospital records, intercepted Cuban letters, battle diaries from both sides, and Spanish administrative records, Tone offers new answers to old questions concerning the war. He examines the origin of Spain's genocidal policy of "reconcentration"; the causes of Spain's military difficulties; the condition, effectiveness, and popularity of the Cuban insurgency; the necessity of American intervention; and Spain's supposed foreknowledge of defeat. The Spanish-Cuban-American war proved pivotal in the histories of all three countries involved. Tone's fresh analysis will provoke new discussions and debates among historians and human rights scholars as they reexamine the war in which the concentration camp was invented, Cuba was born, Spain lost its empire, and America gained an overseas empire.

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John Lawrence Tone - War and Genocide in Cuba, 189 5-1898 (2006).pdf

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Jules Lobel - Success Without Victory, Lost Legal Battles and the Long Road to Justice in America (2 004).jpg

"This eloquent and moving memoir raises profound questions about law, justice, tradition, and community; the path to constructive social change; and not least, how to live a decent life. It is an inspiring story, with many valuable lessons to ponder."
--Noam Chomsky

Winners and losers. Success and failure. Victory and defeat. American culture places an extremely high premium on success, and firmly equates it with winning. In politics, sports, business, and the courtroom, we have a passion to win and are terrified of losing.

Instead of viewing success and failure through such a rigid lens, Jules Lobel suggests that we move past the winner-take-all model and learn valuable lessons from legal and political activists who have advocated causes destined to lose in court but have had important, progressive long term effects on American society. He leads us through dramatic battles in American legal history, describing attempts by abolitionist lawyers to free fugitive slaves through the courts, Susan B. Anthony's trial for voting illegally, the post-Civil War challenges to segregation that resulted in the courts' affirmation of the separate but equal doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson, and Lobel's own challenges to United States foreign policy during the 1980s and 1990s.

Success Without Victory explores the political, social, and psychological contexts behind the cases themselves, as well as the eras from which they originated and the eras they subsequently influenced.

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Jules Lobel - Success Without Victory, Lost Legal Battles and the Long Road to Justice in America (2 004).pdf

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Lewis D. Solomon - Paul D. Wolfowitz, Visionary In tellectual, Policymaker, and Strategist (2007).jpg

With the announcement of his resignation from the World Bank, the ongoing saga of Paul Wolfowitz, played out in the front pages of the world's newspapers, came to a dramatic conclusion. Paul D. Wolfowitz, as columnist George F. Will wrote in th2003), "has never been elected to office or served in a president's cabinet, but he has mattered much more than most who have." A longtime State Department hand (Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Ambassador to Indonesia), a leading scholar/intellectual (Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies), Deputy Secretary of Defense for five years, and one of the architects of the Bush Doctrine, Wolfowitz is a crucial figure in post-Cold War foreign and security policy. He most recently served at President the World Bank. In each of these roles, he has stood out for his conservative and uncompromising positions. It is no wonder that he is often vilified by the Left and lionized by the Right. In this first full-length biography of Wolfowitz, Solomon attempts to capture him not by delineating the quotidian details of his career, but by tracing his intellectual development and bureaucratic influence at key points along the road to Baghdad and beyond.

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Lewis D. Solomon - Paul D. Wolfowitz, Visionary In tellectual, Policymaker, and Strategist (2007).pdf

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Scott Ritter - Iraq Confidential, The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the U N and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (2006).jpg

USA Books1 - Scott Ritter - Iraq Confidential, The Untold Story of...to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein 2006.jpg

Scott Ritter is the straight-talking former marine officer who the CIA wants to silence.
After the 1991 Gulf War, Ritter helped lead the UN weapons inspections of Iraq, and found himself at the center of a dangerous game between the Iraqi and United States regimes. As Ritter reveals in this explosive book, Washington was only interested in disarmament as a tool for its own agenda. Operating in a fog of espionage and counter-espionage, Ritter and his team were determined to find out the truth about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The CIA was equally determined to stop them. For the truth, we now know, is that Iraq was playing a deadly bluffing game, and actually had no WMD. But to have revealed this would have derailed America's drive for regime change. Iraq Confidential charts the disillusionment of a staunch patriot who came to realize that his own government sought to undermine effective arms control in the Middle East. Ritter shows us a world of deceit and betrayal, in which nothing is as it seems. A host of characters from Mossad, MI6 and the CIA pepper this powerful narrative, which contains revelations that will permanently affect the ongoing debates about Iraq.

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Scott Ritter - Iraq Confidential, The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the U N and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (2006).pdf

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Noam Chomsky - The New Military Humanism, Lessons From Kosovo (2002).jpg

Scarcely had the dust settled on NATO's 1999 bombing of Serbia when prolific political commentator Noam Chomsky brought out The New Military Humanism, which raises incisive, unsettling questions about the motives of the United States and England--the two most vocal proponents of Operation Allied Forces--and the efficacy of their handiwork. Chomsky pulls together much damning evidence, including testimony from the military commander who led the attack, to demonstrate that the assault was not intended to bring an end to Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic's "ethnic cleansing" of the disputed territory in Kosovo; it seems very likely, in fact, that President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair knew full well that their actions would ultimately exacerbate the situation. Chomsky also points out that if the United States was genuinely concerned with ending the horrors of genocide, its continued financial and military support of repressive regimes in countries like Turkey and Indonesia is at the very least extremely puzzling. (The New Military Humanism was written and published before the international community decided in September 1999 to intervene in East Timor, which had been subject to Indonesian occupation for over 20 years.) Ultimately, Chomsky suggests, such contradictions exist because what the United States claims to be a "humanitarian" mission is--no matter how glowingly the mass media portrays it--nothing more than American muscle flexing. "The contempt of the world's leading power for the framework of world order," he concludes, "has become so extreme that there is little left to discuss."- Ron Hogan.

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Noam Chomsky - The New Military Humanism, Lessons From Kosovo (2002).pdf

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Peter Stearns - Anxious Parents, A History of Mode rn Childrearing in America (2003).jpg

"A strong, effective, and readable portrayal of how twentieth-century American parents have invested and over-invested in their children. In a fairly short compass, Stearns has demonstrated many of the things that historians have tended to belabor-the role of expertise, why despite their declining numbers, children have become so important socially, the new realm of consumption, how the anxiety about children has become a central matter in twentieth-century culture and even an identifier of American life. Stearns knows what is going on and that children are not a means to express other anxieties, but the very source of many of the anxieties we express."
—Paula S. Fass, University of California, Berkeley

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw a dramatic shift in the role of children in American society and families. No longer necessary for labor, children became economic liabilities and twentieth-century parents exhibited a new level of anxiety concerning the welfare of their children and their own ability to parent effectively. What caused this shift in the ways parenting and childhood were experienced and perceived? Why, at a time of relative ease and prosperity, do parents continue to grapple with uncertainty and with unreasonable expectations of both themselves and their children?

Peter N. Stearns explains this phenomenon by examining the new issues the twentieth century brought to bear on families. Surveying popular media, "expert" childrearing manuals, and newspapers and journals published throughout the century, Stearns shows how schooling, physical and emotional vulnerability and the rise in influence of commercialism became primary concerns for parents. The result, Stearns shows, is that contemporary parents have come to believe that they are participating in a culture of neglect and diminishing standards. Anxious Parents: A Modern History of Childrearing in America shows the reasons for this belief through an historic examination of modern parenting.

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Peter Stearns - Anxious Parents, A History of Mode rn Childrearing in America (2003).pdf

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Osprey - Men-at-arms 418 - Elizabeth von Aderkas - American Indians of the Pacific North West (2005).jpg

This book explores the Indians of the Pacific North West - where about one third of all Native Americans are believed to have once lived. It details the area's two distinct cultures: Coastal and Plateau. The Coastal tribes were famously warlike, and contact with whites from the 1770s and the Gold Rush led to conflicts with the US government, particularly in the mid 19th century. The Modoc War of 1875 in the Lava Fields, one of the most savagely fought of all, and its leader Kintpuash - 'Captain Jack' - are examined. With a wealth of illustrations and lavish colour plates from Christa Hook this title is a fascinating exploration of the lives of these famous warriors.

About the Author
Elizabeth von Aderkas grew up in Trinidad and England. She received her BA from University of Manchester. A freelance writer, she now lives with her husband and children in Victoria, British Columbia. Christa Hook began her illustrating career in 1986. Her work has featured extensively in the worlds of publishing and television. Her illustrations combine the historian's attention to detail with the artist's sense of drama and atmosphere, and they are sought after by collectors worldwide.

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Osprey - Men-at-arms 418 - Elizabeth von Aderkas - American Indians of the Pacific North West (2005).pdf

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Craig A. Doherty, Katherine M. Doherty - Plateau I ndians (2008).jpg

"Plateau Indians", from the new 10-volume set "Native America", tells the history and culture of the Plateau Indians. This book begins with a brief set introduction that discusses some of the broad history and themes found throughout the Plateau Indian culture, as well as explains the concept of culture areas to students. Narrative text of the chapters is interspersed with numerous box features that highlight important people, events, and topics, as well as sidebars. This book also includes a timeline, a list of museums and sites related to these tribes, further reading, and an index.

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Craig A. Doherty, Katherine M. Doherty - Plateau I ndians (2008).pdf

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Charles Fairchild - Pop Idols and Pirates, Mechani sms of Consumption and the Global Circulation of P opular Music (2008).jpg

USA Books1 - Charles Fairchild - Pop Idols and Pirates, Mechanisms...tion and the Global Circulation of Popular Music 2008.jpg

The music industry has been waging some very significant battles in recent years, reacting to numerous inter-related crises provoked by globalization, digitalization and the ever more extensive commercialization of public culture. These struggles are viewed by many as central to the survival of the central mediators in the consumption of popular music. These battles are not just against piracy and the sharing of digital song files on the internet. The music industry is also struggling to find ways to compete or integrate with many other forms of entertainment, including films, television programmes, mobile phones, DVDs and video games in an extremely crowded communications environment. The battles currently being fought by the music industry are about nothing less than its continued ability to create and maintain specific kinds of profitable relationships with consumers.This book presents two inter-related cases of crisis and opportunity: the music industry's epic struggle over piracy and the 'Idol' phenomenon. Both are explicit attempts to control and justify the particular ways in which the music industry makes money from popular music through specific kinds of relationships with consumers. The battles over piracy have been fought with a remarkable collection of campaigns consisting of advice, coercion and argument about what is or is not the best way to consume music. From these complicated and often contradictory campaigns we form an unusually clear picture of what many within the music industry imagine their industry to be. In a complementary way, 'Idol' works to demonstrate the joy and pleasure of consuming popular music the 'right' way.By creating a series of intertwined relationships with consumers around multiple sites of consumption, incorporating television, radio, live performance, traditional print media campaigns, text messaging and all manner of internet-based systems of communication and 'fan management,' the producers of 'Idol' present an ideal relationship between musicians and audiences. Instead of focusing on selling CDs, the music industry's digital Achilles' heel, 'Idol' has given the music industry an integrated platform for displaying its expanded palette of products and venues for consumption. When understood in specific relation to the battle against piracy, Fairchild's analysis of 'Idol' and the emerging promotional cultures of the music industry it exhibits shows how multiple sites of consumption, and attempts to mediate and control the circulation of popular music, are being used to combat the foundational challenges facing the music industry.

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Annie Heloise Abel - The American Indian in the Ci vil War, 1862-1865 (1992).jpg

Annie Heloise Abel describes the 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge, a bloody disaster for the Confederates but a glorious moment for Colonel Stand Watie and his Cherokee Mounted Rifles. The Indians were soon enough swept by the war into a vortex of confusion and chaos. Abel makes clear that their participation in the conflict brought only devastation to Indian Territory.

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Annie Heloise Abel - The American Indian in the Ci vil War, 1862-1865 (1992).zip

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Osprey - Elite 73 - Philip Katcher - American Civi l War Commanders (1), Union Leaders in the East (2 002).pdf

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Randy-Michael Testa - In the Valley of the Shadow, An Elegy to Lancaster County (1996).jpg

A land controversy captures in microcosm the forces endangering the Amish and Mennonite culture, faith, and livelihood.

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Randy-Michael Testa - In the Valley of the Shadow, An Elegy to Lancaster County (1996).zip

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Robert H Webb, Lynn Fenstermaker, Jill Heaton, Deb ra Hughson, Eric McDonald, David Miller - The Moja ve Desert, Ecosystem Processes and Sustainability (2009).jpg

USA Books1 - Robert H Webb, Lynn Fenstermaker, Jill Heaton, Debra H...e Desert, Ecosystem Processes and Sustainability 2009.jpg

This title presents new research on the Mojave Desert. In "The Mojave Desert", thirty-eight scientists who are all specialists in desert ecology address the threats to the Mojave, as well as the potential for natural recovery and active restoration. The contributing authors discuss the desert from several perspectives: regional threats such as expanding human populations, climate change, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, and invasive plants; the impact of roads in a desert ecosystem; soils and plant communities; shrinking aquifers; and the monitoring and sustainability of this fragile ecosystem. Finally, they discuss the importance of long-term data and the ways scientists and resource managers can interact to enhance understanding of the processes of change in the Mojave Desert and to advance the preservation and restoration of its precious resources. "The Mojave Desert" offers the fruits of extensive research in a number of disciplines and a sound assessment of the current state and possible future of one of the world's major deserts. As human intrusion and climate change increasingly threaten the Mojave's ecosystem, studies like this are essential in helping scientists, land managers, and the general public understand what is at risk and what can be done to preserve this austere and hauntingly beautiful region.

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Robert H Webb, Lynn Fenstermaker, Jill Heaton, Deb ra Hughson, Eric McDonald, David Miller - The Moja ve Desert, Ecosystem Processes and Sustainability (2009).pdf

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S.K. Robisch - Wolves and the Wolf Myth in America n Literature (2009).jpg

This book presents a new perspective on the role of the wolf in American literature. The wolf is one of the most widely distributed canid species, historically ranging throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere. For millennia, it has also been one of the most pervasive images in human mythology, art, and psychology. "Wolves and the Wolf Myth in American Literature" examines the wolf's importance as a figure in literature from the perspectives of both the animal's physical reality and the ways in which writers imagine and portray it. Author S. K. Robisch examines more than two hundred texts written in North America about wolves or including them as central figures. From this foundation, he demonstrates the wolf's role as an archetype in the collective unconscious, its importance in our national culture, and its ecological value. Robisch takes a multidisciplinary approach to his study, employing a broad range of sources: myths and legends from around the world; symbology; classic and popular literature; films; the work of scientists in a number of disciplines; human psychology; and field work conducted by himself and others. By combining the fundamentals of scientific study with close readings of wide-ranging literary texts, Robisch astutely analyzes the correlation between actual, living wolves and their representation on the page and in the human mind. He also considers the relationship between literary art and the natural world, and argues for a new approach to literary study, an ecocriticism that moves beyond anthropocentrism to examine the complicated relationship between humans and nature.

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