Few figures in the past quarter-century have played a more significant role in American foreign policy than Colin Powell. He wielded power at the highest levels of the most important foreign policy bureaucracies: the Pentagon, the White House, the joint chiefs, and the state department. As national security advisor in the Ronald Reagan administration, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and secretary of state during George W. Bush's first term, he played a prominent role in four administrations, Republican and Democrat, spanning more than twenty years.

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Christopher D. O'Sullivan - Colin Powell, American Power and Intervention From Vietnam to Iraq (2009 ).pdf

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Christine Harold - OurSpace, Resisting the Corpora te Control of Culture (2007).jpg

When reporters asked about the Bush administration’s timing in making their case for the Iraq war, then Chief of Staff Andrew Card responded that “from an marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.” While surprising only in its candor, this statement signified the extent to which consumer culture has pervaded every aspect of life. For those troubled by the long reach of the marketplace, resistance can seem futile. However, a new generation of progressive activists has begun to combat the media supremacy of multinational corporations by using the very tools and techniques employed by their adversaries.

In OurSpace, Christine Harold examines the deployment and limitations of “culture jamming” by activists. These techniques defy repressive corporate culture through parodies, hoaxes, and pranks. Among the examples of sabotage she analyzes are the magazine Adbusters’ spoofs of familiar ads and the Yes Men’s impersonations of company spokespersons.

While these strategies are appealing, Harold argues that they are severely limited in their ability to challenge capitalism. Indeed, many of these tactics have already been appropriated by corporate marketers to create an aura of authenticity and to sell even more products. For Harold, it is a different type of opposition that offers a genuine alternative to corporate consumerism. Exploring the revolutionary Creative Commons movement, copyleft, and open source technology, she advocates a more inclusive approach to intellectual property that invites innovation and wider participation in the creative process.

From switching the digital voice boxes of Barbie dolls and G.I. Joe action figures to inserting the silhouetted image of Abu Ghraib’s iconic hooded and wired victim into Apple’s iPod ads, high-profile instances of anticorporate activism over the past decade have challenged, but not toppled, corporate media domination. OurSpace makes the case for a provocative new approach by co-opting the logic of capitalism itself.

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Christine Harold - OurSpace, Resisting the Corpora te Control of Culture (2007).pdf

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Richard M. Miller - Funding Extended Conflicts, Ko rea, Vietnam, and the War on Terror (2007).jpg

One aspect of war is often overlooked: how much do they cost and how are they funded. Funding Extended Conflicts develops a baseline on Federal spending for the two extended conflicts of the Cold War era, Korea and Vietnam, and compares them with the global war on terror, including current outlays for Iraq and Afghanistan. It also provides wartime cases that offer recommendations on how to pay for future wars and focuses on the length of the "tails" of such spending, which are often omitted in the final analyses and distort funding estimates. Background chapters examine financing and budget issues as well as problems associated with defining the real cost of Korea, Vietnam, and the so-called "long war" against terrorism and are complemented by an assessment of the open-ended commitment to support homeland defense and conduct ongoing military operations in Southwest Asia.

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Richard M. Miller - Funding Extended Conflicts, Ko rea, Vietnam, and the War on Terror (2007).pdf

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Gary Dorrien - Imperial Designs, Neoconservatism a nd the New Pax Americana (2004).jpg

In the waning months of the cold war, shortly before an expiring Soviet Union finally disintegrated, a group of neoconservative policymakers and intellectuals began to argue that the moment had come to create an American-dominated world order. Some of them called it "the unipolarist imperative." Instead of reducing military spending, they contended, the United States needed to expand its military reach to every region of the world, using America's tremendous military and economic power to create a new Pax Americana. This book describes how the ideology of American global preeminence originated during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, developed in the 1990s, gained power with the election of George W. Bush, and reshaped American foreign policy after September 11, 2001.
Structured as a narrative, this account deals with government policymakers and outside advocates. It tells the story of the development of unipolarist ideology and its role in recent American Foreign policy. It makes an argument about the nature and problems of this ideology, emphasizing that an unrivaled superpower makes the whole world its geopolitical neighborhood. It offers a critique of the unilateralist militarism of the second Bush administration. And it contends that the problem of imperial expansiveness, though dramatically heightened by the Bush administration, did not begin with it. The problem is inherent in the anxiety of being a global hegemon.

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Gary Dorrien - Imperial Designs, Neoconservatism a nd the New Pax Americana (2004).pdf

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Samir Amin - The Liberal Virus, Permanent War and the Americanization of the World (2004).jpg

Samir Amin's ambitious new book argues that the ongoing American project to dominate the world through military force has its roots in European liberalism, but has developed certain features of liberal ideology in a new and uniquely dangerous way. Where European political culture since the French Revolution has given a central place to values of equality, the American state has developed to serve the interests of capital alone, and is now exporting this model throughout the world. American Imperialism, Amin argues, will be far more barbaric than earlier forms of imperialism, pillaging natural resources and destroying the lives of the poor. The Liberal Virus examines the ways in which the American model is being imposed on the world, and outlines its economic and political consequences. It shows how both citizenship and class consciousness are diluted in 'low-intensity democracy' and argues instead for democratisation as an ongoing process - of fundamental importance for human progress - rather than a fixed constitutional formula designed to support the logic of capital accumulation. In a panoramic overview, Amin examines the objectives and outcomes of American policy in the different regions of the world. He concludes by outlining the challenges faced by those resisting the American project today: redefining European liberalism on the basis of a new compromise between capital and labour, re-establishing solidarity among the people of the South, and reconstructing an internationalism that serves the interests of regions that are currently divided against each other.

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Samir Amin - The Liberal Virus, Permanent War and the Americanization of the World (2004).pdf

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Jodi Dean, Paul Passavant - Empire's New Clothes, Reading Hardt and Negri (2003).jpg

The publication of Empire last year created a sensation that spread from academia to the media to cocktail-party buzz. A book that causes such a "scholarly commotion" comes along "only once every decade or so" wrote the New York Times, as the book's radical vision of imperial power in the new millennium sparked both histrionic condemnation and serious academic engagement.
After September 11 this discussion of Empire's political and legal theories was closely linked with the struggle to redefine America's place in a changed world. The book was read as a diagnosis of our era and a call for liberatory action, while Michael Hardt was acclaimed as the next Jacques Derrida. Framing the debate about this landmark work, The Empire's New Clothes brings together leading scholars to make sense of Empire's new vocabulary and tackle its claims head on. Does the authors' vision accurately describe the power structure of today's world? Do the processes of "globalization" today represent a fundamental break from the past? Is the book really a "communist manifesto" for the new age?
Empire's New Clothes investigates these and other key issues, giving academics, students, and lay readers a handle on a work that touches the most vital themes of current political, social, and economic life.

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Jodi Dean, Paul Passavant - Empire's New Clothes, Reading Hardt and Negri (2003).pdf

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Fred Siegel - The Prince of the City, Giuliani, Ne w York and the Genius of American Life (2005).jpg

The Prince of the City is at once a fascinating character study of one of America's most charismatic public figures, a history of New York over the last forty years, and a classic inquiry into the issue of how cities thrive or die. Siegel's story culminates with a dramatic account of September 11, 2001, revealing how Giuliani's s eight years in office had prepared him and the city to rise to this tragic occasion and how in the aftermath of the attack he became America's Mayor. Siegel concludes with a look at how Guiliani's successor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has handled his legacy and at what lies in Guiliani's political future.

In this first comprehensive account of the career of "America's Mayor," Fred Siegel shows how Rudolph Giuliani's successes in New York-restoring law and order, cutting taxes and radically reducing the welfare rolls-demonstrated that cities might again become vibrant and dynamic places to live after thirty years of middle-class flight. The Prince of the City is at once a fascinating character study, a history of New York over the last forty years, and an insight on how cities function. The story that Siegel tells culminates with an account of September 11, 2001, showing how Giuliani's eight years in office had prepared him and the city to rise to the occasion.

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Fred Siegel - The Prince of the City, Giuliani, Ne w York and the Genius of American Life (2005).pdf

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Tariq Ali - Bush in Babylon. Die Re-Kolonisierung des Irak (2003).jpg

Abendzeitung, 15. September 2003
Eine provokante Streitschrift gegen den Krieg als Mittel der Politik.

Süddeutsche Zeitung, 11. September 2003
In seinem aktuellen Buch zeigt Ali die Parallelen zwischen den Kolonialregimen früherer Epochen und dem Unilateralismus der Bush-Regierung auf. Durch Kenntnisse über die irakische Geschichte möchte Ali helfen, das entstandene Chaos zu verstehen.

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Tariq Ali - Bush in Babylon. Die Re-Kolonisierung des Irak (2003).pdf

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Kam C. Wong - The Impact of USA Patriot Act on Ame rican Society, An Evidence Based Assessment (2007).jpg

Much has been written about the USA Patriot Act, and the controversy that surrounds this far-reaching legislation has also generated a great deal of confusion and uncertainty about its impact and importance in the war on terrorism. As Professor Kam C. Wong notes in this important contribution to the literature: "There is little scholarly research on the legislation, implementation and impact of the Act". Undoubtedly, few Americans are actually aware of most of the details in the Act, or its implications in a free society.The events of September 11, 2001 in attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon prompted a unique response by Congress in passing a series of wide reaching laws, expanding the powers of law enforcement and the judiciary. Of particular concern to many are the requirements of public and private organisations to provide information in connection with homeland security that is considered intrusive and in violation of privacy rights. Ultimately, it will be many years before the actual impact of the Patriot Act can be assessed. In this new and important book, Professor Wong provides a critical analysis of the legislation and its capacity for abuse.

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Kam C. Wong - The Impact of USA Patriot Act on Ame rican Society, An Evidence Based Assessment (2007).pdf

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Charles Duelfer - Hide and Seek, The Search for Tr uth in Iraq (2009).jpg

Charles Duelfer is one of the most senior intelligence officers with on-the-ground experience to have worked in Iraq before, during, and after the Gulf War. His 2004 CIA report is widely renowned as the most authoritative account on how the world was led to believe that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. But until now, Duelfer has never publicly shared his unrivaled expertise on just how the U.S.-Iraq relationship spiraled into a second war, and ultimately into chaos.

Hide and Seek is his account—based on unparalleled access to Iraqi leadership, the White House, and the CIA—of the long and tragic unraveling of the U.S. relationship with Iraq. This book sees beyond the propaganda and deceits of both sides to tell the story of the miscalculations in assessing Iraq as a threat, why Saddam responded as he did to U.S. demands, and precisely how the U.S. implemented its decision to topple Saddam’s regime. No one is better able than Duelfer to see inside the mindsets of the two administrations, with their mismatched priorities, wounded pride, and dangerous ability to bluff and counterbluff.

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Charles Duelfer - Hide and Seek, The Search for Tr uth in Iraq (2009).pdf

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Daniel C. Hallin - The Uncensored War, The Media a nd the Vietnam (1986).jpg

Vietnam was America's most divisive and unsuccessful foreign war. It was also the first to be televised and the first of the modern era fought without military censorship. From the earliest days of the Kennedy-Johnson escalation right up to the American withdrawal, and even today, the media's role in Vietnam has continued to be intensely controversial. The "Uncensored War" gives a richly detailed account of what Americans read and watched about Vietnam. Hallin draws on the complete body of the New York Times coverage from 1961 to 1965, a sample of hundreds of television reports from 1965-73, including television coverage filmed by the Defense Department in the early years of the war, and interviews with many of the journalists who reported it, to give a powerful critique of the conventional wisdom, both conservative and liberal, about the media and Vietnam. Far from being a consistent adversary of government policy in Vietnam, Hallin shows, the media were closely tied to official perspectives throughout the war, though divisions in the government itself and contradictions in its public relations policies caused every administration, at certain times, to lose its ability to "manage" the news effectively. As for television, it neither showed the "literal horror of war," nor did it play a leading role in the collapse of support: it presented a highly idealized picture of the war in the early years, and shifted toward a more critical view only after public unhappiness and elite divisions over the war were well advanced. The "Uncensored War" is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Vietnam war or the role of the media in contemporary American politics.

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Daniel C. Hallin - The Uncensored War, The Media a nd the Vietnam (1986).pdf

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Donald Rapp - Bubbles, Booms, and Busts, The Rise and Fall of Financial Assets (2009).jpg

This book provides a thorough explanation of the nature and history of booms, bubbles and busts in financial markets. The first part of the book deals with financial booms and bubbles and how they emerge, develop and collapse. It describes the distribution of wealth, inflation, rationality of bankers, monetary and fiscal policy, the role of central banks, tax policies, social security, US federal, state, municipal and personal debt, and valuation of common stocks.

The book describes historical boom/bust cycles including bubbles of the 1720s, the Florida land boom and the stock market in the 1920s, the depression of the 1930s, the S&L scandal of the 1980s, the great bull market of 1982-1995, the crash of 1987, the dot.com mania of 1995-2000, corporate swindles of the 1990s and 2000s, the sub-prime fiasco of the 2000s, and Japan in the late 20th century.

Most of the recent wealth generation has derived from increased debt and appreciation of paper assets. The architects of the new economics were Ronald Reagan and Arthur Greenspan. Inevitably, the US Government's cure for excessive spending and inadequate revenues is to increase spending and cut revenues. American voters must choose between `tax and spend' Democrats and `spend and borrow' Republicans. The theme of American finance was uttered by VP Cheney: `Deficits don't matter'.

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Donald Rapp - Bubbles, Booms, and Busts, The Rise and Fall of Financial Assets (2009).pdf

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Elliott West - The Last Indian War, The Nez Perce Story (2009).jpg

Starred Review. A distinguished scholar of American history makes a significant contribution to Oxford's excellent series Pivotal Moments in American History in this definitive analysis of the United States' 1877 war with the Nez Percé. West (The Contested Plains) integrates a broad spectrum of sources to depict the fate of a people whose history of friendship with the U.S. dated to 1805. The Nez Percé were caught up in the questions posed by the Civil War and the period of expansion that followed: who would be the Americans and what obligations would bind them together? Such questions influenced Idaho and Oregon, where the Nez Percé lived, as much as Massachusetts and Virginia. The 1877 war, the Nez Percé's epic journey to reach the Canadian border, American conquest and Indian exile is the heart of the book, and West tells it brilliantly. No less compelling is his account of the Nez Percé taking up farming and making and selling Indian trinkets, developing their image as beloved losers and negotiating their return home—on white terms, but with honor and integrity upheld. 40 b&w illus., maps.

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Elliott West - The Last Indian War, The Nez Perce Story (2009).pdf

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Gabor Boritt - The Lincoln Enigma, The Changing Fa ces of an American Icon (2001).jpg

Nearly a century and a half after his death, Abraham Lincoln remains an intrinsic part of the American consciousness, yet his intentions as president and his personal character continue to stir debate.
Now, in The Lincoln Enigma, Gabor Boritt invites renowned Lincoln scholars, and rising new voices, to take a look at much-debated aspects of Lincoln's life, including his possible gay relationships, his plan to send blacks back to Africa, and his high-handed treatment of the Constitution. Boritt explores Lincoln's proposals that looked to a lily-white America. Jean Baker marvels at Lincoln's loves and marriage. David Herbert Donald highlights the similarities and differences of the Union and Confederate presidents' roles as commanders-in-chief. Douglas Wilson shows us the young Lincoln--not the strong leader of popular history, but a young man who questions his own identity and struggles to find his purpose. Gerald Prokopowicz searches for the military leader, William C. Harris for the peacemaker, and Robert Bruce meditates on Lincoln and death. In a final chapter Boritt and Harold Holzer offer a fascinating portfolio of Lincoln images in modern art.
Acute and thought-provoking in their observations, this all-star cast of historians--including two Pulitzer and three Lincoln Prize winners--questions our assumptions of Lincoln, and provides a new vitality to our ongoing reflections on his life and legacy.

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Gabor Boritt - The Lincoln Enigma, The Changing Fa ces of an American Icon (2001).pdf

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Herbert Druks - The Uncertain Alliance, The U.S. a nd Israel from Kennedy to the Peace Process (2001).jpg

This critical examination of American-Israeli relations from the last year of the Kennedy administration to the last year of Bill Clinton's tenure in office is a companion volume to Herbert Druks' previous book The Uncertain Friendship: The U.S. and Israel from Roosevelt to Kennedy.

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James Kitfield - War & Destiny, How the Bush Revol ution in Foreign and Military Affairs Redefined Am erican Power (2005).jpg

USA Books1 - James Kitfield - War Destiny, How the Bush Revolution...gn and Military Affairs Redefined American Power 2005.jpg

Throughout time, major wars have defined historical epochs and charted the rise and decline of great powers. The U.S. global "war on terror," with Iraq as the Bush administration’s chosen centerpiece, is almost certainly destined to do the same. Indeed, the Bush doctrine for conducting the war on terror and the Iraqi Freedom campaign are likely to prove benchmarks in U.S. history precisely because of the many orthodoxies and traditions the administration has purposely challenged. At the same time, fundamental flaws have already appeared in many tenets underlying the Bush transformation of foreign and military affairs.

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