The Fourth Estate's most important job is to present unbiased, accurate information about events, issues, and policies to the public. Without public scrutiny, administrations can become a breeding ground for bad and dangerous ideas. In recent years, for several reasons--including the brilliant psychological manipulation of the nation after the September 11, 2001, attacks--the American media have allowed administration officials to present information to the public without having to worry much about answering uncomfortable questions or having their policies deconstructed for public consumption. Relevant information is buried deep inside newspapers, and gaping holes can be found in many stories; in short, obvious and important questions remain unasked. The lack of questions from reporters led to a misunderstanding of the facts by the American public and, consequently, to their support of policies based on misinformation. Polls have revealed that more than half of Americans believe mistruths about the war in Iraq and world terrorism. Many, including members of the media, say the press has failed to do its job. Very few news reports filled in the basic blanks--the who, what, where, when, and whys--about U.S. foreign policy, the USA Patriot Act, the administration's insistence on the need for secrecy and more power, the truth about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the necessity of sending our soldiers to topple another country's dictator, throwing an already tenuous region into dangerous imbalance. Very few reports are filling in those blanks now. No Questions Asked takes an overarching view of media coverage from the day of the 9/11 attacks through the war in Iraq. It also compares and contrasts how the U.S. vs. international media covered key events during this period. Fact-based rather than polemical, it explains why journalists responded the way they did during wartime and explores the ramifications for democracy of a weak press.

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10,1 MB
6 mar 13 5:36

Lisa Finnegan - No Questions Asked, News Coverage since 9-11 (2006).pdf

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David Runciman - The Politics of Good Intentions, History, Fear and Hypocrisy in the New World Order (2006).jpg

USA Books - David Runciman - The Politics of Good Intentions, Hist...istory, Fear and Hypocrisy in the New World Order 2006.jpg

Tony Blair has often said that he wishes history to judge the great political controversies of the early twenty-first century--above all, the actions he has undertaken in alliance with George W. Bush. This book is the first attempt to fulfill that wish, using the long history of the modern state to put the events of recent years--the war on terror, the war in Iraq, the falling out between Europe and the United States--in their proper perspective. It also dissects the way that politicians like Blair and Bush have used and abused history to justify the new world order they are creating. Many books about international politics since 9/11 contend that either everything changed or nothing changed on that fateful day. This book identifies what is new about contemporary politics but also how what is new has been exploited in ways that are all too familiar. It compares recent political events with other crises in the history of modern politics--political and intellectual, ranging from seventeenth-century England to Weimar Germany--to argue that the risks of the present crisis have been exaggerated, manipulated, and misunderstood. David Runciman argues that there are three kinds of time at work in contemporary politics: news time, election time, and historical time. It is all too easy to get caught up in news time and election time, he writes. This book is about viewing the threats and challenges we face in real historical time.

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James Oliver Horton - Slavery and Public History, The Tough Stuff of American Memory (2008).jpg

America's slave past is being analyzed as never before, yet it remains one of the most contentious issues in U.S. memory. In recent years, the culture wars over the way that slavery is remembered and taught have reached a new crescendo. From the argument about the display of the Confederate flag over the state house in Columbia, South Carolina, to the dispute over Thomas Jefferson's relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and the ongoing debates about reparations, the questions grow ever more urgent and more difficult.

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3,0 MB
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James Oliver Horton - Slavery and Public History, The Tough Stuff of American Memory (2008).pdf

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Steven E. Woodworth - Decision in the Heartland, T he Civil War in the West (2008).jpg

The verdict is in: the Civil War was won in the "West"--that is, in the nation's heartland, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Yet, a person who follows the literature on the war might still think that it was the conflict in Virginia that ultimately decided the outcome. Each year sees the appearance of new books aimed at the popular market that simply assume that it was in the East, often at Gettysburg, that the decisive clashes of war the took place. For decades, serious historians of the Civil War have completed one careful study after another, nearly all tending to indicate the pivotal importance of what people during the war referred to as "the West." In this fast paced overview, Woodworth presents his case for the decisiveness of the theater. Overwhelming evidence now indicates that it was battles like Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Chattanooga, and Atlanta that sealed the fate of the Confederacy-not the nearly legendary clashes at Bull Run or Chancellorsville or the mythical "high-water mark" at Gettysburg. The western campaigns cost the Confederacy vast territories, the manufacturing center of Nashville, the financial center of New Orleans, communications hubs such as Corinth, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, along with the agricultural produce of the breadbasket of the Confederacy. They sapped the morale of Confederates and buoyed the spirits of Unionists, ultimately sealing the northern electorate's decision to return Lincoln to the presidency for a second term and thus to see the war through to final victory. Detailing the "Western" clashes that proved so significant, Woodworth contends that it was there alone that the Civil War could be--and was--decided.

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11,1 MB
6 mar 13 5:36

Steven E. Woodworth - Decision in the Heartland, T he Civil War in the West (2008).pdf

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79 KB
6 mar 13 5:36

Scott W. Allard - Out of Reach, Place, Poverty, an d the New American Welfare State (2008).jpg

Sweeping changes in welfare programs since 1996 have transformed the way America cares for its poor. Today, for every dollar spent on cash welfare payments, some twenty dollars are spent on service programs targeted at the working poor—job training, adult education, child care, emergency assistance, mental health care, and other social services. This important book examines our current system and the crucial role that geography plays in the system’s ability to offer help. Drawing on unique survey data from almost 1,500 faith-based and secular service organizations in three cities, Scott W. Allard examines which agencies are most accessible to poor populations and looks at the profound impact of unstable funding on assistance programs. Allard argues that the new system has become less equitable and reliable, and he concludes with practical policy recommendations that address some of the more pressing issues in improving the safety net.

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2,9 MB
6 mar 13 5:36

Scott W. Allard - Out of Reach, Place, Poverty, an d the New American Welfare State (2008).pdf

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45 KB
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Michael Mandel - How America Gets Away With Murder , Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage and Crimes Again st Humanity (2004).jpg

USA Books - Michael Mandel - How America Gets Away With Murder, Il...s, Collateral Damage and Crimes Against Humanity 2004.jpg

* How impartial are war crimes tribunals?
* Are all crimes against humanity treated equally?
The trial of Slobodan Milosevic has raised the prospect of many former political leaders being tried for crimes against humanity. War crimes tribunals and the international criminal courts are supposedly independent mechanisms through which we can administer international justice, and through which tyrants and errant regimes can be brought to account. But is it really that simple? For example, although Milosevic wound up on trial at The Hague, other attempts at war crimes prosecutions -- notably Pinochet and Sharon -- face insurmountable obstacles. Despite the hopes raised about "an end to impunity", the United States is currently exempting itself entirely from the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court. This new book by renowned scholar Michael Mandel offers the first truly critical account of the war crimes movement. Mandel argues that this movement is not actually about ending war crimes, or impunity for war crimes, but about selectively punishing "the usual suspects" as part of the imperial strategy of the great powers -- primarily the United States. Examining issues chapter-by-chapter, Mandel explores the moral and legal debates over the recent wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, supposed exercises in "humanitarian intervention" and "self-defense." He analyzes the role the war crimes movement has played in these wars, variously promoting them or not stopping them, despite their immorality and illegality. Mandel takes a hard look at the development of the International Criminal Court and its likely destiny. He gives special attention to recent tribunals -- like the one trying Milosevic -- and the way they have been used to prosecute America's enemies. He shows how these tribunals shield America and its allies from responsibility for what is termed "collateral damage," but what is in reality murder on a vast scale.

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13,6 MB
6 mar 13 5:36

Michael Mandel - How America Gets Away With Murder , Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage and Crimes Again st Humanity (2004).pdf

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41 KB
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Nancy Gentile Ford - The Great War and America, Ci vil-Military Relations during World War I (2008).jpg

The First World War marked a key turning point in America's involvement on the global stage. Isolationism fell, and America joined the ranks of the Great Powers. Civil-Military relations would face new challenges as a result. Ford examines the multitude of changes that stemmed from America's first major overseas coalition war, including the new selective service process; mass mobilization of public opinion; training diverse soldiers; civil liberties, anti-war sentiment and conscientious objectors; segregation and warfare; Americans under British or French command. Post war issues of significance, such as the Red Scare and retraining during demobilization are also covered. Both the federal government and the military were expanding rapidly both in terms of size and in terms of power during this time. The new group of citizen-soldiers, diverse in terms of class, religion, ethnicity, regional identity, education, and ideology, would provide training challenges. New government-military-business relationships would experience failures and successes. Delicate relationships with allies would translate into diplomatic considerations and battlefield command concerns.

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16,4 MB
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Nancy Gentile Ford - The Great War and America, Ci vil-Military Relations during World War I (2008).pdf

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Gareth Porter - Perils of Dominance, Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (2006).jpg

Perils of Dominance is the first completely new interpretation of how and why the United States went to war in Vietnam. It provides an authoritative challenge to the prevailing explanation that U.S. officials adhered blindly to a Cold War doctrine that loss of Vietnam would cause a "domino effect" leading to communist domination of the area. Gareth Porter presents compelling evidence that U.S. policy decisions on Vietnam from 1954 to mid-1965 were shaped by an overwhelming imbalance of military power favoring the United States over the Soviet Union and China. He demonstrates how the slide into war in Vietnam is relevant to understanding why the United States went to war in Iraq, and why such wars are likely as long as U.S. military power is overwhelmingly dominant in the world. Challenging conventional wisdom about the origins of the war, Porter argues that the main impetus for military intervention in Vietnam came not from presidents Kennedy and Johnson but from high-ranking national security officials in their administrations who were heavily influenced by U.S. dominance over its Cold War foes. Porter argues that presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson were all strongly opposed to sending combat forces to Vietnam, but that both Kennedy and Johnson were strongly pressured by their national security advisers to undertake military intervention. Porter reveals for the first time that Kennedy attempted to open a diplomatic track for peace negotiations with North Vietnam in 1962 but was frustrated by bureaucratic resistance. Significantly revising the historical account of a major turning point, Porter describes how Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara deliberately misled Johnson in the Gulf of Tonkin crisis, effectively taking the decision to bomb North Vietnam out of the president's hands.

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17,9 MB
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Gareth Porter - Perils of Dominance, Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (2006).pdf

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Miriam Joyce - Anglo-American Support for Jordan, The Career of King Hussein (2008).jpg

This book focuses on US-UK relations with Jordan for the entire period of King Hussein’s reign, explaining Hussein's successes and failures, while emphasizing the declining influence of London and the rising influence of Washington.

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Miriam Joyce - Anglo-American Support for Jordan, The Career of King Hussein (2008).pdf

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Bill Hubbard Jr. - American Boundaries, The Nation , the States, the Rectangular Survey (2009).jpg

For anyone who has looked at a map of the United States and wondered how Texas and Oklahoma got their Panhandles, or flown over the American heartland and marveled at the vast grid spreading out in all directions below, American Boundaries will yield a welcome treasure trove of insight. The first book to chart the country’s growth using the boundary as a political and cultural focus, Bill Hubbard’s masterly narrative begins by explaining how the original thirteen colonies organized their borders and decided that unsettled lands should be held in trust for the common benefit of the people. Hubbard goes on to show—with the help of photographs, diagrams, and hundreds of maps—how the notion evolved that unsettled land should be divided into rectangles and sold to individual farmers, and how this rectangular survey spread outward from its origins in Ohio, with surveyors drawing straight lines across the face of the continent.

Mapping how each state came to have its current shape, and how the nation itself formed within its present borders, American Boundaries will provide historians, geographers, and general readers alike with the fascinating story behind those fifty distinctive jigsaw-puzzle pieces that together form the United States.

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David E. Johnson - Learning Large Lessons, The Evo lving Roles of Ground Power and Air Power in the P ost-Cold War Era (2006).jpg

USA Books - David E. Johnson - Learning Large Lessons, The Evolvin...ound Power and Air Power in the Post-Cold War Era 2006.jpg

The relative roles of U.S. ground and air power in warfighting have shifted since the end of the Cold War. To assess this shift (i.e., between the Army and Air Force, respectively), the author of this report analyzed post-Cold War conflicts in Iraq (1991), Bosnia (1995), Kosovo (1999), Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003).

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15,8 MB
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David E. Johnson - Learning Large Lessons, The Evo lving Roles of Ground Power and Air Power in the P ost-Cold War Era (2006).pdf

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William E. Nelson - The Common Law of Colonial Ame rica, Volume I, The Chesapeake and New England 160 7-1660 (2008).jpg

USA Books - William E. Nelson - The Common Law of Colonial America...olume I, The Chesapeake and New England 1607-1660 2008.jpg

William E. Nelson here proposes a new beginning in the study of colonial legal history. Examining all archival legal material for the period 1607-1776 and synthesizing existing scholarship in a four-volume series, The Common Law in Colonial America shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies--initially established in response to divergent political, economic, and religious initiatives--slowly converged into a common American legal order that differed substantially from English common law.
Drawing on groundbreaking and overwhelmingly in-depth research into local court records and statutes, the first volume explores how the law of the Chesapeake colonies--Virginia and Maryland--diverged sharply from the New England colonies--Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, New Haven, Plymouth, and Rhode Island--and traces the roots of these dissimilarities from their initial settlement until approximately 1660. Nelson pointedly examines the disparate motives of the legal systems in the respective colonies as they dealt with religion, price and labor regulations, crimes, public morals, the status of women, and the enforcement of contractual obligations. He reveals how Virginians' zeal for profit led to a harsh legal framework that efficiently squeezed payment out of debtors and labor out of servants; whereas the laws of Massachusetts were primarily concerned with the preservation of local autonomy and the moral values of family-centered farming communities. The law in the other New England colonies, Nelson argues, gravitated towards the Massachusetts model, while Maryland's law, gravitated toward that of Virginia.
Comprehensive, authoritative, and extensively researched, The Common Law in Colonial America, Volume 1: The Chesapeake and New England, 1607-1660 is the definitive resource on the beginnings of the common law and its evolution during this vibrant era in America's history. William E. Nelson here proposes a new beginning in the study of colonial legal history.

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William E. Nelson - The Common Law of Colonial Ame rica, Volume I, The Chesapeake and New England 160 7-1660 (2008).pdf

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Kenneth Roman - The King of Madison Avenue, David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising (2009).jpg

Famous for his colorful personality and formidable intellect, David Ogilvy left an indelible mark on the advertising world, transforming it into a dynamic industry full of passionate, creative individuals. This first-ever biography traces Ogilvy’s remarkable life, from his short-lived college education and undercover work during World War II to his many successful years in New York advertising. Ogilvy's fascinating life and career make for an intriguing study from both a biographical and a business standpoint. Idiosyncratic, full of contradictions, and characterized by a powerful intellect, he redefined the business and became an icon within the advertising world, inspiring countless people to devote their lives to it.
This biography is based on a wealth of material from decades of working alongside the advertising giant, including a large collection of photos, memos, recordings, notes, and extensive archives of Ogilvy’s personal papers. The book describes the creation of some of history's most famous advertising campaigns, such as:
* "The man in the Hathaway shirt" with his aristocratic eye patch
* "The man from Schweppes is here" with Commander Whitehead, the elegant bearded Brit, introducing tonic water (and “Schweppervesence”) to the U.S.
* Perhaps the most famous automobile headline of all time--“At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”
* “Pablo Casals is coming home--to Puerto Rico.” Ogilvy said this campaign, which helped change the image of a country, was his proudest achievement.
* And his greatest (if less recognized) sales success--“DOVE creams your skin while you wash.”
Fifty years later, still on his original proposition that it doesn’t dry your skin, Dove has become the largest selling cleansing brand in the world.
Roman also carries Ogilvy's message into the present day, showing the contemporary relevance of the bottom-line focus for which his business ventures are remembered, and how this approach is still key for professionals in the modern advertising world.

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1,0 MB
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Kenneth Roman - The King of Madison Avenue, David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising (2009).pdf

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Chris Atton - Alternative Media (2001).jpg

In this book, Chris Atton offers a fresh introduction to alternative media: one which is not limited to `radical' media, but can also account for newer cultural forms such as zines, fanzines, and personal websites.
Alternative Media:
Examines how and why people produce and use alternative media - to make meaning, to interpret, and to change the world in which they live
Encompasses a wide range of alternative media and draws on examples from both the United States and United Kingdom
Locates contemporary alternative media in their cultural, historical and political contexts
Alternative Media provides a timely corrective to media theorizing which focuses almost exclusively on the output of the media conglomerates. As such it will be an essential purchase for all students and researchers with an interest in the true nature of the contemporary media environment.

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2,7 MB
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Chris Atton - Alternative Media (2001).pdf

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Johnny Bernard Hill - The First Black President, B arack Obama, Race, Politics, and the American Drea m (2009).jpg

USA Books - Johnny Bernard Hill - The First Black President, Barac...ck Obama, Race, Politics, and the American Dream 2009.jpg

The First Black President is a critical and passionate reflection on the political and historical implications of an Obama administration concerning the issue of race in America. Obama’s rise to political power has forever changed the contours of race relations in the country as many hail the new age of a “post-racial” society. Yet, an Obama presidency could further complicate real racial progress and could set race relations back in the country for decades to come if not viewed in the proper context. The book demonstrates that the Obama presidency must be celebrated as a historical triumph based on America’s racist past, but also the struggle for equality, justice and freedom must also intensify with recognition of its global consequences. The problem of race in America no longer just affects American citizens but impacts cultures around the globe. The book speaks to both optimists and pessimists alike who are struggling to understand how race factors into the domestic and international policy agenda of Obama who now sits in the highest seat of political and global power.

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1,1 MB
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Johnny Bernard Hill - The First Black President, B arack Obama, Race, Politics, and the American Drea m (2009).pdf

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Jon Proctor - Boeing 720 (2001).jpg

Details Boeing's intermediate range jetliner. Whilst only 154 were built, this economical and shorter range member of the 707 family filled an important niche. This volume covers a brief history of the aircraft's development and early proposed configurations, flight testing, initial and subsequent airline operations, non-airline use, safety and accident reviews and production listings. 300 mostly colour photos.

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