Traces liberalism back to the Bill of Rights, and lauds such liberal achievements as Social Security, unemployment compensation, and environmental protection.
How did liberalism, the great political tradition that from the New Deal to the 1960s seemed to dominate American politics, fall from favor so far and so fast? In this history of liberalism since the 1930s, a distinguished historian offers an eloquent account of post-war liberalism, where it came from, where it has gone, and why. The book supplies a crucial chapter in the history of twentieth-century American politics as well as valuable and clear perspective on the state of our nation's politics today.
Day by day and minute by minute, the historic struggle for Jerusalem and the birth of Israel. Here is the classic retelling of the spellbinding events of the birth of Israel. Moment by moment, Collins and Lapierre weave a brilliant tapestry of shattered hopes, fierce pride, and breathtaking daring as the Arabs, Jews, and British collide in their fight for control of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem! meticulously recreates this historic struggle. The Jews: From the commanders -- Ben Gurion and Golda Meir -- to the soldiers, rabbinical students, and refugees taken directly from their ships to fight. The Arabs: From the explosives expert planting bombs to the charismatic chieftain whose death in battle doomed the Arab cause but inspired a generation of Palestinians. The British: From the legacy of peacekeeping after General Allenby's conquest of Jerusalem to their departure in the face of the onslaught. O Jerusalem! is a towering testament to the fiery birth of Israel and an unforgettable tale of faith and violence, of betrayal and indomitable courage. - Publisher.
A low-level government investigator looking at the books of a failed Northern California bank stumbles upon an account that has no explanation. It is a tiny thread that will ultimately unravel a criminal tapestry of unbelievable audacity, complexity, and scope, a conspiracy ranging from the cocaine fields of the Andes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. Few other novelists today know as much about the intersection of big money and global crime as Michael M. Thomasand none can match his storytelling power. Charged with action, surprise, and inside knowledge, Black Money gathers an unlikely team of heroes, led by Lee Boynton, a wealthy heiress turned journalist, and Thurlow Coole, a Wall Street wizard turned computer-fraud expert. They find themselves challenging a criminal alliance that, in a diabolically clever scheme, is laundering billions of drug dollars through a skein of businesses ranging from Wall Street firms to fast-food stores. At a relentless pace, Black Money leads us into the inner coils of the vast global web, along whose filaments trillions of dollars move every day, and into the brain of JEDI, the top-secret government computer network the penetration of which lies at the heart of the plot. This is a whole new kind of techno-thriller - one in which the weapon is more awesome than any missile.
A thin, flat, ineffectual biography of the upstart 1940 Republican presidential candidate and wartime champion of One WorM. In the introduction, Chicago Tribune White House correspondent Neal (Tom McCall, The Eisenhowers) strikes all the customary notes: Willkie's support for aid to the Allies, contra Republican isolationism; his ""fresh and appealing"" personality, his ""tousled"" hair and rumpled clothes and ""Hoosier twang,"" his energy and drive; the acidulous anti-Willkie comments (""barefoot boy from Wall Street,""etc.); his post-defeat trajectory--the foreign missions, support for civil rights, political collapse. But the single interpretive peg in the text is that, civil rights apart, Willkie was a trimmer: ""Despite his strong principles, Willkie's decision to join a fraternity provided an early indication that he was willing to bend them when there were personal considerations."" (His girl-friend insisted.) ""In later years, Willkie was eulogized as the political rarity who would rather be right than be president, yet when confronted with a test of principle in the fall of 1940, he buckled to expediency""--and, behind in the campaign, denounced Roosevelt as a warmonger. This turnabout Willkie later referred to, famously, as ""campaign rhetoric"": Neal notes that Republicans were incensed, but makes no further comment. He also leaves the impression--perhaps deliberately, perhaps for want of direction--that Willkie was indeed a media and PR phenomenon: Luce, Cowles (Look), and Reid (N.Y. Herald Tribune) support catapulted him into national prominence; packing the galleries with ""We want Willkie!""--ites, and loosing a flood of telegrams, clinched the nomination. (The heating-up war was, or wasn't, crucial.) The pre-1940 and post-1940 sections are weak for other, opposite reasons. Neal makes no attempt to trace the transformation of Willkie, the successful Akron lawyer (1919-29) and prominent, out-of-step Democrat into the functionary and chief of Commonwealth & Southern, the nation's largest utility holding company (1929-40) and FDR-critic-cum-internationalist; the one thing about which we hear at some length (""A Love in Shadow"") is his attachment to Herald Tribune book editor Irita Van Doren (who probably was, however, a considerable influence). Post-defeat, the mass of undifferentiated detail tends to blur the outlines--and, as regards Willkie's purported blind passion for Madame Chiang, to detract from his accomplishments. In particular, Neal doesn't see the power, in 1943, of Willkie's One World vision. There are some new political scraps (many, however, from aggrieved or otherwise unfriendly sources); Neal incorporates considerable material published since the last Willkie bio; but in contrast with Richard Norton Smith's recent life of Dewey, which adds substance and interest to a slight, unpopular figure, this makes its subject smaller than life.
The L Word by David P. Barash | Literally Just Books
