"From the bestselling author of A People's History of the United States comes this selection of passionate, honest, and piercing essays looking at American political ideology." " Howard Zinn brings to Passionate Declarations the same astringent style and provocative point of view that led more than a million people to buy his book A People's History of the United States. He directs his critique here to what he calls "American orthodoxies" -- that set of beliefs guardians of our culture consider sacrosanct: justifications for war, cynicism about human nature and violence, pride in our economic system, certainty of our freedom of speech, romanticization of representative government, confidence in our system of justice. Those orthodoxies, he believes, have a chilling effect on our capacity to think independently and to become active citizens in the long struggle for peace and justice." -- Book Jacket.

David Horowitz underwent the most dramatic political conversion since Whittaker Chambers. And at every stop of his intellectual journey, he has produced sparkling and provocative commentary. From his youthful days as a leader of the New Left in the 1960s to his current role as master strategist of the right, Horowitz’s polemical legacy is unmatched in wit and integrity. Horowitz’s newest book, Left Illusions: An Intellectual Odyssey, provides the first map of his intellectual development. Complementing his acclaimed autobiography, Radical Son, the selections in Left Illusions range from his first book, published over forty years ago, to his most recent writings on the war against terror. The pieces include his polemics, journalism, and scholarship, along with select chapters from most of his books. Their subjects range from the origins of the New Left to the Cold War, from the fall of communism to political radicalism, race relations, the war on terror, the intellectual culture wars, and modern conservatism. Twenty-eight of the selections have not been published in book form or are contained in texts that are generally unavailable. "I make no apologies for my present position," Horowitz writes. "My values have not changed, but my sense of what supports them and makes them possible has." He became profoundly disillusioned with the radical movement because of a tragedy both personal and political. The whole fascinating story is here for the reader to follow as it unfolded. Left Illusions is really the story of our times, lived out by an extraordinary individual.

A classic of American politics returns. Sidney Blumenthal's seminal study of contemporary politics describes how the Republican Party built its infrastructure to arrive at the Reagan triumph in the years following Barry Goldwater's defeat and Nixon's cataclysmic resignation in 1974.

Crisis of the House Divided is the standard historiography of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Harry Jaffa provides the definitive analysis of the political principles that guided Lincoln from his reentry into politics in 1854 through his Senate campaign against Douglas in 1858. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the original publication, Jaffa has provided a new introduction. " Crisis of the House Divided has shaped the thought of a generation of Abraham Lincoln and Civil War scholars."—Mark E. Needly, Jr., Civil War History "An important book about one of the great episodes in the history of the sectional controversy. It breaks new ground and opens a new view of Lincoln's significance as a political thinker."—T. Harry Williams, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences "A searching and provocative analysis of the issues confronted and the ideas expounded in the great debates. . . . A book which displays such learning and insight that it cannot fail to excite the admiration even of scholars who disagree with its major arguments and conclusions."—D. E. Fehrenbacher, American Historical Review

"A rising China, climate change, terrorism, a nuclear Iran, a turbulent Middle East, and a reckless North Korea present serious challenges to our national security. But the biggest threat to the United States comes not from abroad-but from within. Burgeoning deficit and debt, crumbling infrastructure, second class schools, and an outdated immigration system have resulted in a country less competitive and far more vulnerable than it should be. In Foreign Policy Begins at Home, Council on Foreign Relations President Richard N. Haass describes a twenty-first century in which power is widely diffused. Globalization, revolutionary technologies, and power shifts have created a "nonpolar" world of American primacy but not domination. Still, it is a relatively forgiving world, one with no great power rival. How long this strategic respite will last, though, depends entirely on whether the United States puts its own house in order. Haass outlines a process of Restoration that will ensure the United States has the resources it needs to lead the world, set examples other societies will want to emulate, reduce the country's vulnerability to hostile forces and fickle markets, and discourage would-be adversaries from mounting aggression. Provocative and bold, Foreign Policy Begins at Home lays out a new vision for American Restoration. It will require hard choices, but hard choices are called for. At stake is nothing less than America's future and the character of the coming era of history. "--

"Norman Finkelstein first made his name while still in graduate school when he exposed an acclaimed national bestseller as a hoax. He went on in subsequent decades to subject Israel's apologists as well as Holocaust hucksters to withering scrutiny. In his new book, Finkelstein focuses his keen forensic eye on the canonical texts of identity politics. After methodically parsing them, Finkelstein concludes that they're lacking in intellectual substance. Instead, the real purpose of identity politics is to derail a class-based movement bent on radical change. In a long, scathing chapter, Finkelstein analyzes the cult surrounding Barack Obama, which he reveals as the ultimate product of identity politics. The first Black president rose to power by having, in Obama's own cynical words, "pulled off a neat trick" by standing for nothing except his skin color. If "woke" liberals embraced him, it was because, beneath his hip veneer, Obama was a sure bet to prop up the corrupt status quo. Along the way, Finkelstein recalls his own life in radical politics and his close encounters with cancel culture, which left him unemployed and unemployable. He situates his personal story within broader debates on academic freedom and poignantly concludes that, although occasionally bitter, he harbors no regrets about the choices he made. "If I can't laugh, I don't want your revolution," Finkelstein declares. Laced with his signature wit, readers of this book will get to laugh along with him."--provided by publisher.

A groundbreaking collection of essays by celebrated international writers bears witness to the human cost of fifty years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In Kingdom of Olives and Ash, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, two of today's most renowned novelists and essayists, have teamed up with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence--an organization comprised of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories and saw firsthand the injustice there--and a host of illustrious writers to tell the stories of the people on the ground in the contested territories. Kingdom of Olives and Ash includes contributions from several of today's most esteemed storytellers including: Colum McCann, Jacqueline Woodson, Colm Toibin, Geraldine Brooks, Dave Eggers, Hari Kunzru, Raja Shehadeh, Mario Vargas Llosa and Assaf Gavron, as well as from editors Chabon and Waldman. Through these incisive, perceptive, and poignant essays, readers will gain unique insight into the narratives behind the litany of grim destruction broadcasted nightly on the news, as well as deeper understanding of the conflict as experienced by the people who live in the occupied territories. Together, these stories stand witness to the human cost of the occupation.

"In Goliath, New York Times bestselling author Max Blumenthal takes us on a journey through the badlands and high roads of Israel-Palestine, painting a startling portrait of Israeli society under the siege of increasingly authoritarian politics as the occupation of the Palestinians deepens. Beginning with the national elections carried out during Israel's war on Gaza in 2008-09, which brought into power the country's most right-wing government to date, Blumenthal tells the story of Israel in the wake of the collapse of the Oslo peace process. As Blumenthal reveals, Israel has become a country where right-wing leaders like Avigdor Lieberman and Bibi Netanyahu are sacrificing democracy on the altar of their power politics; where the loyal opposition largely and passively stands aside and watches the organized assault on civil liberties; where state-funded Orthodox rabbis publish books that provide instructions on how and when to kill Gentiles; where half of Jewish youth declare their refusal to sit in a classroom with an Arab; and where mob violence targets Palestinians and African asylum seekers scapegoated by leading government officials as "demographic threats." Immersing himself like few other journalists inside the world of hardline political leaders and movements, Blumenthal interviews the demagogues and divas in their homes, in the Knesset, and in the watering holes where their young acolytes hang out, and speaks with those political leaders behind the organized assault on civil liberties. As his journey deepens, he painstakingly reports on the occupied Palestinians challenging schemes of demographic separation through unarmed protest. He talks at length to the leaders and youth of Palestinian society inside Israel now targeted by security service dragnets and legislation suppressing their speech, and provides in-depth reporting on the small band of Jewish Israeli dissidents who have shaken off a conformist mindset that permeates the media, schools, and the military. Through his far-ranging travels, Blumenthal illuminates the present by uncovering the ghosts of the past-the histories of Palestinian neighborhoods and villages now gone and forgotten; how that history has set the stage for the current crisis of Israeli society; and how the Holocaust has been turned into justification for occupation. A brave and unflinching account of the real facts on the ground, Goliath is an unprecedented and compelling work of journalism"--

Donald Trump blindsided them all: the media, campaign consultants on both sides, and Hillary Clinton's vaunted data operation. Now two insiders -- Joel Pollak, senior editor-at-large for Breitbart News, eye-witness to the election from his unique position as the only conservative reporter aboard the Trump press plane in the last pivotal weeks of the campaign, and professional historian Larry Schweikart, whose "Renegade Deplorables" group of volunteer analysts supplied the Trump campaign with data the mainstream pollsters didn't have -- reveal the true story of how Trump defied the pundits, beat the polls, and won.

"The Bush-Cheney Administration transgressed the law in ways that trampled the Constitution, crushed the concept of lawful conduct and harmed the image of the U.S. around the world. The 2009 release of secret torture documents, in particular, ripped apart the notion that "'we' do not torture," as President Bush liked to say. Torture is against the law, plain and simple. The documents paint a bleak picture of the involvement of President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and top Administration officials in unleashing, sanctioning and conspiring in the infliction of torture. Without indictments, prosecution or accountability, their activities make a mockery of the United States law and especially of the unwavering standard that "no person is above the law." The failure to indict, prosecute or hold officials at the highest level accountable sets frightening precedents. Cheating Justice identifies in clear language why the nation needs to address the Bush-Cheney Administration's willing plunge into torture, and, more specifically, how to do it. With Watergate-era reforms as a model, the book will describe the plain steps to undoing the damage that the Bush-Cheney Administration inflicted and to putting into place new protections that will block future presidents from similarly abusing the law. Few topics can be more important for our times: these actions are vital to our freedom and to the nation's future. Following upon their book, The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens, (Nation Books, September 2006) (http://www.channonart.com/impeachBush/index.html) co-authors Elizabeth Holtzman and Cynthia L. Cooper discuss clearly and plainly how and why Bush, Cheney and others can and must be held accountable. "--

Conquest, Famine, War, Death – the four horsemen are coming, in the form of the national debt, widespread dependence on government, turmoil in the Middle East, and the expansion of the bureaucratic state. In Obama’s Four Horsemen, syndicated columnist David Harsanyi takes a provocative look at how the Obama Administration allowed four big problems to mushroom into looming disasters we can no longer avoid or postpone. In his famous conversational, fact-driven, and humorous tone, Harsanyi argues that President Obama’s handling of both domestic and foreign crises has set the stage for a disaster of Biblical proportions. Under Obama, America has become a land of more dependence, more hand-outs, more federal programs, and more government agencies. The great danger is that Americans have gotten used to it. Many people today expect, as a matter of fact, that the government will hand them health insurance, student loans, birth control, and anything else they might need or desire – while they are increasingly numb to the pernicious creep of the bureaucratic state and the alarming escalation of unsustainable spending and debt. Meanwhile, powerful forces abroad seek to destroy American and Western culture while Obama has sat on his thumbs and looked the other way, tossing out politically correct platitudes when asked about his response to their open threats and aggression. America is facing a time of great upheaval, domestic and global – Obama’s Four Horseman is a provocative expose on how we got here, and a chilling prediction of what’s to come.

"From one of the world's most celebrated moral philosophers, an examination of the current political crisis. In The Monarchy of Fear Martha C. Nussbaum--an acclaimed scholar and humanist--analyzes the political standoff that has polarized American life since the 2016 presidential election and focuses on what so many pollsters and pundits have overlooked: the political is always emotional. Globalization, automation, and the rising costs of higher education have produced feelings of powerlessness in millions of American people. Related issues trouble European unity. That sense of powerlessness and a pervasive underlying fear of change bubble into resentment and blame: of immigrants, Muslims, those of other races, and cultural elites. While this politics of blame played a role in the election of Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit, Nussbaum argues it can be found on all sides of the political spectrum--confusingly intertwined, however, with reasonable arguments aiming at greater justice. She argues that retribution is always a bad response to fear and articulates a politics of constructive work and hope. Drawing on a mix of historical and contemporary examples, from classical Athens to the musical Hamilton, The Monarchy of Fear untangles our web of emotions and provides a road map of where to go next."--Dust jacket ; Globalization, automation, and the rising costs of higher education have produced feelings of powerlessness in millions of American people. That sense of powerlessness and a pervasive underlying fear of change bubble into resentment and blame: of immigrants, Muslims, those of other races, and cultural elites. While this politics of blame played a role in the election of Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit, Nussbaum argues it can be found on all sides of the political spectrum. She analyzes the political standoff that has polarized American life since the 2016 presidential election and focuses on what so many pollsters and pundits have overlooked: the political is always emotional. -- adapted from jacket

"Analyzes the role of right-wing extremist politics in American life from 1790 until the present ... ranging from the Anti-Masonic Party, the Know-Nothings, and the American Protective Association ... to the Ku Klux Klan, the John Birch Society, the George Wallace campaigns of recent times, and assorted proto-fascist movements"--Back cover.

"Philadelphia's progressive district attorney offers an inspiring vision of how people can take back power to reform criminal justice, based on lessons from a life's work as an advocate for the accused." --

Presents the major ideas that have formed the modern Latin American political mind and profiles influential revolutionaries, thinkers, poets, and novelists, from Che Guevara to Octavio Paz and Gabriel García Márquez

The theme of this book is the gradual emergence of the Jewish people from total political powerlessness - a development stretching over nearly 100 years and culminating in the consolidation in the State of Israel. Ironically, Professor Bauer demonstrates, events during this period stemmed in part from a belief in the power of the international Jewish community that never existed - but that motivated both the Germans and, after the war, the British.This is a brief but absorbing study by one of the world's great experts on the Holocaust, who has drawn on a huge body of material to depict one of the unforgettable events in recent history from an arresting and unfamiliar view point.

"This book, by one of America's most intelligent and decent political writers, tells liberals how the conservative movement rose and fell, and how they could emulate its successes while avoiding its failures." --George Packer, author of Blood of the Liberals and The Assassins' Gate "No one is better than Todd Gitlin at describing the crucial dynamic through which movements gain or lose political power. Justly celebrated for his seminal work on such dynamics during the 1960s, Gitlin now explains everything that's happened since, with passion and wisdom--and happily, because of Bushism's collapse, legitimate optimism about the future." --Michael Tomasky, Editor, Guardian America "An impassioned yet realistic plea for Democrats and liberals to become more serious about politics. They would do well to follow his advice." --Alan Wolfe, Director, Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Boston College "A brilliant and indispensable book. Gitlin convincingly urges liberals to take seriously the greater difficulty the Democrats have forging cohesion among identity-based groups over the Republicans persuading the less diverse Republican base to bury disagreements in the drive for victory. Gitlin argues that Democrats will have to bite the bullet and unite under a big tent. It's a hard lesson for ardent newcomers to the movement to swallow. Gitlin is dead right." --Thomas B. Edsall, Special Correspondent, The New Republic "This is an indispensable book by one of our most gifted public intellectuals. Todd Gitlin explains--with splendid scholarship, reporting, and wit--how the Bush machine debased our political life and how progressives, in all their variety, are struggling to build a new majority. It is the best guide we have to America's recent past and its possible future." --Michael Kazin, author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan and Professor of History, Georgetown University

Liberals take great pride in their supposed open-mindedness. Yet when it comes to hot-button issues like radical Islam, global warming, and abortion, "open-minded" liberals go to great lengths to discredit and suppress the ideas of their opponents. Breitbart senior editor Joel Pollak exposes the ten key ideas that today's liberals are desperate to suppress, revealing the blatant hypocrisy of left-wing leaders and pundits who preach tolerance but practice intolerance.

"The 1990s was a decade of extreme change. Shifts in culture, politics, and technology radically altered the way Americans did business, expressed themselves, and thought about their role in the world. At the center of it all was Bill Clinton, the charismatic and flawed baby boomer president, along with his polarizing but increasingly popular wife, Hillary. Although it was in many ways a Democratic Gilded Age, the 1990s was also a time of great anxiety. The Cold War was over. America was stable and prosperous. Yet Americans felt more unmoored and isolated. This was the era of glitz and grunge, when we relished living in the Republic of Everything even as we feared it might degenerate into the Republic of Nothing. Bill Clinton dominated this era, but his complex legacy has yet to be clearly defined. Historian Gil Troy examines Clinton's presidency alongside the decade's cultural changes. Taking the '90s year by year, Troy shows how the culture of the day shaped the Clintons even as the Clintons shaped it, offering answers to two enduring questions about Bill Clinton's legacy: How did such a talented politician leave Americans thinking he accomplished so little when he actually accomplished so much? And to what extent was Clinton responsible for the catastrophes of the following decade, specifically 9/11 and the collapse of the housing market? Even more relevant as we head toward the 2016 election, The Age of Clinton will appeal to readers on both sides of the aisle as it chronicles the wild, transformative decade and the president at its center"--