In June 2004, millions of parents and teachers across the United States will receive report cards in the mail alerting them that their local schools have "failed". For many Americans, this will be the first introduction to President Bush's controversial No Child Left Behind legislation, which calls for expanded student testing, more stringent accountability requirements, and annual school-focused report cards at the state, district, and school levels. The legislation ties substantial federal funds for disadvantaged students--which many schools have already been receiving for almost four decades--to performance requirements dictated by the new legislation.
But will these report cards be accurate? In America's "Failing" Schools, W. James Popham provides parents and teachers explanations of No Child Left Behind as a whole, walking them through the implications for standardized testing in particular, in language that is uncomplicated and straightforward. Popham offers definitions of the law andits key terms, explanations of what it really means when a school is labeled "failing," and concrete suggestions for what can be done in response.
Because parents with children in failing schools will have the heretofore rare option of transferring their children to other, non-failing schools, they will need to understand why a "failing" school may actually still be a good school. Similarly, the teachers and administrators at both failing and passing schools need to know whether their school's label was truly deserved, and how to bring about the changes required by the new legislation.
Whether parent, teacher, administrator, or involved citizen, anyone concerned with the state of education in the U.S. will want to read America's "Failing" Schools.

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W. James Popham - America's Failing Schools, How P arents and Teachers Can Cope With No Child Left Be hind (2004).pdf

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Andrew J. Bacevich - American Empire, The Realitie s and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy (2004).jpg

In a challenging, provocative book, Andrew Bacevich reconsiders the assumptions and purposes governing the exercise of American global power. Examining the presidencies of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton--as well as George W. Bush's first year in office--he demolishes the view that the United States has failed to devise a replacement for containment as a basis for foreign policy. He finds instead that successive post-Cold War administrations have adhered to a well-defined "strategy of openness." Motivated by the imperative of economic expansionism, that strategy aims to foster an open and integrated international order, thereby perpetuating the undisputed primacy of the world's sole remaining superpower. Moreover, openness is not a new strategy, but has been an abiding preoccupation of policymakers as far back as Woodrow Wilson.

Although based on expectations that eliminating barriers to the movement of trade, capital, and ideas nurtures not only affluence but also democracy, the aggressive pursuit of openness has met considerable resistance. To overcome that resistance, U.S. policymakers have with increasing frequency resorted to force, and military power has emerged as never before as the preferred instrument of American statecraft, resulting in the progressive militarization of U.S. foreign policy.

Neither indictment nor celebration, American Empire sees the drive for openness for what it is--a breathtakingly ambitious project aimed at erecting a global imperium. Large questions remain about that project's feasibility and about the human, financial, and moral costs that it will entail. By penetrating the illusions obscuring the reality of U.S. policy, this book marks an essential first step toward finding the answers.

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Andrew J. Bacevich - American Empire, The Realitie s and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy (2004) [DjVu Document].pdf

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Jeffrey Toobin - The Nine, Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (2007).jpg

Bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin takes you into the chambers of the most important—and secret—legal body in our country, the Supreme Court, and reveals the complex dynamic among the nine people who decide the law of the land.

Just in time for the 2008 presidential election—where the future of the Court will be at stake—Toobin reveals an institution at a moment of transition, when decades of conservative disgust with the Court have finally produced a conservative majority, with major changes in store on such issues as abortion, civil rights, presidential power, and church-state relations.

Based on exclusive interviews with justices themselves, The Nine tells the story of the Court through personalities—from Anthony Kennedy's overwhelming sense of self-importance to Clarence Thomas's well-tended grievances against his critics to David Souter's odd nineteenth-century lifestyle. There is also, for the first time, the full behind-the-scenes story of Bush v. Gore—and Sandra Day O'Connor's fateful breach with George W. Bush, the president she helped place in office.

The Nine is the book bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin was born to write. A CNN senior legal analyst and New Yorker staff writer, no one is more superbly qualified to profile the nine justices.

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Jeffrey Toobin - The Nine, Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (2007).pdf

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LT. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez - Wiser in Battle, A S oldier's Story (2008).jpg

Amid all of the criticisms of America's war in Iraq, one essential voice has remained silent—until now. In his groundbreaking new memoir, Wiser in Battle, Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, former commander of coalition forces in Iraq, reports back from the front lines of the global war on terror to provide a comprehensive and chilling exploration of America's historic military and foreign policy blunder.

With unflinching candor, Sanchez describes the chaos on the Iraqi battlefield caused by the Bush administration's misguided command of the military, as well as his own struggle to set the coalition on the path toward victory. Sanchez illuminates the fallout of the communication breakdown between the leadership on the front and the politicians in Washington, revealing fractious discussions he had with, among others, Ambassador Paul Bremer and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Drawing on his tenure on the ground, Sanchez shows how minor insurgent attacks grew into synchronized operations that finally ignited into a major insurgency and all-out civil war. He provides an insider's account of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, explaining the circumstances that led to the abuses, who perpetrated them, and what the formal investigations revealed—all the while reflecting on America's objectionable use of torture and the grave need for the country's leadership to pursue an ethical course of action in the war on terror. Sanchez also details the cynical use of the Iraq War for political gain in Washington and shows how the pressure of an around-the-clock news cycle drove and distorted critical battle decisions, such as troop drawdowns, the fight for Fallujah, and the transfer of sovereignty.

In addition, Sanchez shares the story of his career. He tells of the journey from his poverty-stricken youth on the Texas banks of the Rio Grande to joining the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at sixteen and later serving in Kosovo, Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and, ultimately, Iraq. At the time of his retirement, Sanchez was the highest-ranking Hispanic in the U.S. Army.

The first book written by a former on-site commander in Iraq, Wiser in Battle is essential reading for all who wish to understand the current war and the American military's role in the new century.

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Karen J. Greenberg - The Torture Debate in America (2005).jpg

Widely acclaimed as a publishing milestone, The Torture Papers (Cambridge, 2005) constitutes the definitive book of public record detailing the Bush Administration's policies on torture and political prisoners. In the process of assembling the documents, memoranda, and reports that comprise the material in The Torture Papers, a vital question arose: What was the rationale behind the Bush Administration's decision to condone the use of coercive techniques in the interrogation of detainees suspected of terrorist connections? The use of these techniques at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo has sparked an intense debate in America. The Torture Debate in America captures the arguments on torture that have been put forth by legislators, human rights activists, and others. It raises the key moral, legal, and historical questions that have led to current considerations on the use of torture. Divided into three sections, the contributions cover all sides of the debate, from absolute prohibition of torture to its use as a viable option in the War on Terror.

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Karen J. Greenberg - The Torture Debate in America (2005).pdf

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Sandra Silberstein - War of Words, Language, Polit ics and 9-11 (2004).jpg

At first there were no words to describe the horror of September 11, only a national hush that expressed the sudden absence of so many innocent lives.
Then the floodgates opened: eyewitness accounts, expert analyses, bitter denunciations, tributes to fallen heroes, patriotic exortations, eulogies, and spin. Almost immediately, the Bush Administration and the media launched an unprecendented rhetorical campaign aimed at manufacturing support for the "War on Terror."
A fascinating glimpse into the full impact of 9/11 on America's psyche, War of Words takes a critical look at the strategic use of language to create a series of national transformations. A terrorist attack became an "act of war," requiring commensurate response. The President, until then the butt of national jokes, ascended to Commander in Chief, while the leader of the city we love to hate became "America's mayor." TV ads for cars and clothing featured flags and firemen, showing that consumerism is patriotism.
With a keen ear for the hidden messages in our national stories, Sandra Silberstein unearths the dark side of this patriotic rhetoric, including the attacks on those who question U.S. policy and the denunciation of liberal intellectuals by the conservative American Council of Trustees and Alumni.
Timely and penetrating, War of Words shows how the stories we told after the attacks fashioned a post-9/11 American identity and reinscribed our national beliefs.

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Sandra Silberstein - War of Words, Language, Polit ics and 9-11 (2004).pdf

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Justin A. Frank - Bush on the Couch Rev Ed, Inside the Mind of the President (2007).jpeg

Insightful and accessible, courageous and controversial, Bush on the Couch sheds startling new light on George W. Bush's psyche and its impact on the way he governs, tackling head-on the question few seem willing to ask: Is our president psychologically fit to run the country? With an eye for the subtleties of human behavior sharpened by thirty years of clinical practice, Dr. Justin A. Frank traces the development of Bush's character from childhood through his presidency, identifying and analyzing his patterns of thought, action, and communication. The result is a troubling portrait filled with important revelations about our nation's leader—including disturbing new insights into:
How Bush reacted to the 2006 Democratic sweep in Congress with a new surge of troops into Iraq
His telling habits and coping strategies—from his persistent mangling of English to his tendency to "go blank" in the midst of crisis
The tearful public breakdown of his father, George H. W. Bush, and what it says about the former president's relationship to his prominent sons
The debacle of Katrina—the moment when Bush's arrogance finally failed him

With a new introduction and afterword, Bush on the Couch offers the most thorough and candid portrait to date of arguably the most psychologically damaged president since Nixon.

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Justin A. Frank - Bush on the Couch Rev Ed, Inside the Mind of the President (2007).pdf

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Keith Olbermann - The Worst Person in the World, A nd 202 Strong Contenders (2006).jpg

For his first book as a newsman, the smart, sarcastic host of MSNBC's nightly newsmagazine program Countdown with Keith Olbermann has compiled nearly one years' worth of his wickedly righteous Worst Person in the World feature. Of course, when he says "worst," Olbermann isn't talking about Hitler; these specimens-including Tom Cruise, OJ Simpson and Ann Coulter-are "the mortal enemies of honesty and dignity, of selflessness and class." Though the peppery host often pillories the merely stupid or ridiculous behavior of regular Americans and celebrities, the recurring theme is corporate, political and media malfeasance of every stripe. FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, school boards around the country, Rush Limbaugh and George Bush all make multiple appearances. But the real star of the book-not counting Olbermann himself-is his ratings rival Bill O'Reilly (their shows air at the same time), who gets taken to task again and again. Depending on your politics, you're either going to love or hate the fierce, progressive Olbermann, and his printed rants aren't nearly as cathartic as they are when delivered in his confident, mocking boom, but this collection makes a fine book for flipping.

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Keith Olbermann - The Worst Person in the World, A nd 202 Strong Contenders (2006).pdf

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Ofira Seliktar - The Politics of Intelligence and American Wars with Iraq (2008).jpg

Coming at the heels of September 11, Operation Iraqi Freedom has focused the limelight on the way in which the United States predicts and manages political change. The failure to find WMD and more important, the continued violence in Iraq instead of the hoped for democracy, has engender an acrimonious debate on the motives of the Bush administration and its uses or misuses of intelligence. The question of who got what right or wrong has been fought out along ideological, and partisan lines, with supporters claiming that, given what was known about Saddam Hussein, the decision to change his regime was justified and detractors arguing that a group of largely Jewish neoconservatives, acting on behalf of Israel, manipulated intelligence in order to trick the United States into an unnecessary and costly war. The book provides a systematic and objective analysis of the problems that faced American intelligence in deciphering the behavior of the highly secretive and confusing Iraq regime and its enigmatic leader.

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Ofira Seliktar - The Politics of Intelligence and American Wars with Iraq (2008).pdf

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Emily Schultz - Michael Moore, A Biography (2005).jpg

Michael Moore's life story, from shy Eagle Scout to vocal critic of the Bush presidency, is told in this biography. In-depth research and interviews sort lies from truth and reveal both the passionate and cranky sides of this bestselling author and Academy Award-winning filmmaker. Previously undocumented information provides insights into Moore's mysterious and disastrous jump from local muckraker to editor of Mother Jones and narrates the runaway success of his first film, Roger & Me. This incisive account lets readers see beyond the myths and presents a verifiable perspective on one of the most visible public figures of our age.

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Emily Schultz - Michael Moore, A Biography (2005).pdf

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Katrina vanden Heuvel - Meltdown, How Greed and Co rruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover (2009).jpg

USA Books - Katrina vanden Heuvel - Meltdown, How Greed and Corrup...tered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover 2009.jpg

America’s economy is in meltdown. Banks have failed, foreclosures are sweeping the housing market, and stocks have suffered their worst losses since the Great Depression. Faced with a complex and spiraling crisis, the government has poured billions of taxpayer cash into a bailout with no end in sight.

At every step of the way, The Nation, America’s oldest weekly magazine, has tackled the most urgent questions facing the nation’s leaders and its citizens with clarity and insight. Meltdown draws together nearly twenty years of the best of their coverage of the financial crisis and explores what steps President Obama and his new administration must take to ensure a more secure future for everyone.

Contributors include:
William Greider on Alan Greenspan’s flawed ideology
Robert Sherrill on why the bubble popped
Thomas Frank on the rise of market populism
Christopher Hayes on the coming foreclosure tsunami
Barbara Ehrenreich on the implosion of capitalism
Kai Wright on how the subprime crisis is bankrupting black America
Naomi Klein on Bush’s final pillage
Joseph E. Stiglitz on Henry Paulson’s shell game
Jesse Jackson on trickle-down economics
Katrina vanden Heuvel and Eric Schlosser on why America needs a New New Deal

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Katrina vanden Heuvel - Meltdown, How Greed and Co rruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover (2009).pdf

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Karen J. Greenberg - The Least Worst Place, Guanta namo's First 100 Days (2009).jpg

In January 2002, the first flight of detainees captured in the global war on terror disembarked in Guantanamo Bay. They were dazed, bewildered, and--more often than not--alarmingly thin. Given very little advance notice, the military's preparations for this group of predominantly unimportant ne'er-do-wells were hastily thrown together, but as Karen Greenberg shows, a number of capable and honorable Marine officers tried to create a humane and just detention center--only to be thwarted by the Bush Administration. The Least Worst Place is a gripping narrative account of the first one hundred days of Guantanamo. Greenberg, one of America's leading experts on the Bush Administration's policies on terrorism, tells the story through a group of career officers who tried--and ultimately failed--to stymie the Pentagon's desire to implement harsh new policies in Guantanamo and bypass the Geneva Conventions.

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Paul Krugman, - The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 (2nd Edition) (2009).jpg

In 1999, in The Return of Depression Economics, Paul Krugman surveyed the economic crises that had swept across Asia and Latin America, and pointed out that those crises were a warning for all of us: like diseases that have become resistant to antibiotics, the economic maladies that caused the Great Depression were making a comeback. In the years that followed, as Wall Street boomed and financial wheeler-dealers made vast profits, the international crises of the 1990s faded from memory. But now depression economics has come to America: when the great housing bubble of the mid-2000s burst, the U.S. financial system proved as vulnerable as those of developing countries caught up in earlier crises and a replay of the 1930s seems all too possible.

In this new, greatly updated edition of The Return of Depression Economics, Krugman shows how the failure of regulation to keep pace with an increasingly out-of-control financial system set the United States, and the world as a whole, up for the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s. He also lays out the steps that must be taken to contain the crisis, and turn around a world economy sliding into a deep recession. Brilliantly crafted in Krugman's trademark style—lucid, lively, and supremely informed—this new edition of The Return of Depression Economics will become an instant cornerstone of the debate over how to respond to the crisis.

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

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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