America Afire is the powerful story of the election of 1800, arguably the most important election in America's history and certainly one of the most hotly disputed. Former allies Adams and Jefferson, president versus vice president, Federalist versus Republican, squared off in a vicious contest that resulted in broken friendships, scandals, riots, slander, and jailings in the fourth presidential election under the Constitution.

Examines the implications of angry voters for the future of American politics, discussing Americans' growing disillusionment with the political system and its inability to deal with the nation's problems. 25,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Newton Minow’s long engagement with the world of television began nearly fifty years ago when President Kennedy appointed him chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. As its head, Minow would famously dub TV a “vast wasteland,” thus inaugurating a career dedicated to reforming television to better serve the public interest. Since then, he has been chairman of PBS and on the board of CBS and elsewhere, but his most lasting contribution remains his leadership on televised presidential debates. He was assistant counsel to Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson when Stevenson first proposed the idea of the debates in 1960; he served as cochair of the presidential debates in 1976 and 1980; and he helped create and is currently vice chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has organized the debates for the last two decades. Written with longtime collaborator Craig LaMay, this fascinating history offers readers for the first time a genuinely inside look into the origins of the presidential debates and the many battles—both legal and personal—that have determined who has been allowed to debate and under what circumstances. The authors do not dismiss the criticism of the presidential debates in recent years but do come down solidly in favor of them, arguing that they are one of the great accomplishments of modern American electoral politics. As they remind us, the debates were once unique in the democratic world, are now emulated across the globe, and they offer the public the only real chance to see the candidates speak in direct response to one another in a discussion of major social, economic, and foreign policy issues. Looking to the challenges posed by third-party candidates and the emergence of new media such as YouTube, Minow and LaMay ultimately make recommendations for the future, calling for the debates to become less formal, with candidates allowed to question each other and citizens allowed to question candidates directly. They also explore the many ways in which the Internet might serve to broaden the debates’ appeal and informative power. Whether it’s Clinton or Obama vs. McCain, Inside the Presidential Debates will be welcomed in 2008 by anyone interested in where this crucial part of our democracy is headed—and how it got there.

This book comprises findings from the author's wide-ranging research since 1948 on the unresolved Arab/Israel protracted conflict. Brecher reflects back on his detailed analysis of the UN Commission created in November 1947, and his near-seven decades of research and publications on this complex protracted conflict continued since the first of nine Arab/Israeli wars. The book includes an analysis of the crucial early phase of the unresolved struggle for control of Jerusalem in 1948-49 and beyond, based on extensive interviews with Israel’s leaders and prominent Egyptian senior officials, journalists and academics. It addresses the many diverse attempts at conflict resolution, including a peace plan to resolve the Arab/Israel conflict of the author's own design. It concludes with historical reflections about Israel’s behavior, domestically and externally, in 1948-1949 and 2008 and beyond. No other book on this protracted conflict contains so many important interviews with the first two generations of Israeli leaders and Egyptian officials and academics, and no other author can speak from such a deep and prolonged engagement.

Combining statistical analysis with well-written narrative history, this re-evaluation of the 1928 presidential election gives a vivid portrait of the candidates and the campaign. Lichtman has based his study primarily on a statistical analysis of data from that election and the presidential elections from 1916 to 1940 for all the 2,058 counties outside the former Confederate South. Not relying exclusively on the results of his quantitative analysis, however, Lichtman has also made an exhaustive survey of previous scholarship and contemporary accounts of the 1928 election. He discusses and challenges previous interpretations, especially the ethnocultural and pluralist interpretations and the application of critical election theory to the election. In disputing this theory, which claims that 1928 was a realigning election in which the coalitions were formed that dominated future elections, Lichtman determines that 1928 was an aberration with little impact on later political patterns.

In a time of massive social transformation in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, worldwide attention has been focused on the growth of independent peace movements in this region. In Search of Civil Society is the first comprehensive analysis of the progressive social movements that are proving vital to the expansion of grassroots civil societies. The volume presents case studies of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and the Soviet Union. Written by some of the best-informed scholars in Eastern European studies, many of them dissidents and activists, these essays analyze the current status of civil societies. The contributors tackle a host of related issues and concerns: dissent, non-violence, intra- and anti-systemic opposition, post-Stalinism, conscientious objection, and human rights. Moving beyond the arena of politics, the volume also examines the various ways peace movements are affecting cultural and moral life in these societies. Through a combination of first-hand information and scholarly interpretations, these changes are examined in view of the movement of Communist society towards pluralism.

This book describes political and sociological developments in Israel before and after the February 2009 elections, alongside an analysis of electoral trends. It provides an effective analysis of contemporary political and sociological Israeli history. Rather than focusing narrowly on electoral politics alone, this book broadens its focus to make it relevant to undergraduate and graduate students in Middle Eastern, Israeli and Jewish studies and the liberal arts. Israel at the Polls has been updated and published annually for thirty years, providing readers with up-to-date analysis and continuity of scholarship; this book offers an expert long-term assessment of Israeli politics. This book was published as a special issue of Israel Affairs.

Earlier this year, 2012, I published a book with Ishi Press entitled, Ron Paul for President in 2012: Yes to Ron Paul and Liberty. That book title has been overtaken by the press of events. I write, now, on August 31, 2012, and Mitt Romney has just been chosen as the standard bearer for the GOP in the upcoming November election. I persist in believing that had the Republican Party played fair, to say nothing of the mainstream media, Dr. Paul might have had a real chance to beat Governor Romney for that nomination. If Paul had won the GOP nomination, I still maintain that the Congressman from Texas would have easily overwhelmed President Barack Obama in the fall vote. Recent head to head surveys between the two resulted in a dead heat. My thought is that when the Obama voters realize that Paul stands with them on peace, on legalization of drugs, on opposition to bail outs to those to the fat cat crony capitalists who are “too big to fail,” on the closure of Guantanamo, on personal liberties, there would not have been much of a contest between the two of them. But this is not to be. So, I am coming out with another book, exactly like the previous one, except for this preface to what might be considered the second edition of that publication, and also except for the change in title. This new book is now entitled: Yes to Ron Paul and Liberty. Did Ron Paul fail in his presidential bid? When the Republican primaries began, these were the candidates: Michele Bachman, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, John Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. Guess who, after a long grueling contest, were the last two standing? Despite the fact that Ron Paul was the last one to leave the race, obviously, yes, he “failed.” He received more votes from Democrats and Independents than any other person in the primary race, and more financial contributions from members of our armed forces, but Dr. Ron Paul will still not be on the November ballot. So why publish this “new” book? Because our beloved rEVOLution goes on. Ron Paul will continue to expose millions of Americans, and billions of people all around the world, to the evils of imperialistic war-mongering, to the mischief of the Federal Reserve System, to the benefits of true free market capitalism. He will again and again make the case in favor of Austrian economics, the gold standard and private property rights. He will demonstrate, again and again and yet again, the evils of the National Defense Authorization Ac, of murdering American citizens without a trial, of water boarding, of indefinite detention. He will defend whistle blowers such as Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. He will make the case that the war on drugs is no more justified, nor pragmatic, than alcohol prohibition. He will make the case that American troops in 900 foreign military bases in some 140 different countries does not at all constitute “defense”; that had any other country done anything like this, we would all see it for the imperialism that it really is. He will convince people that the best course of action is to “legalize freedom.”