When George W. Bush Became President in January 2001, he took office with a comfortably familiar surname, bipartisan rhetoric, and the promise of calming a public shaken by the convulsions of a contested election. Then, after the tragedy of 9/11, both the country and the world looked to him for leadership that could unite people behind great common goals. Instead, George W. Bush squandered the good will felt toward America, turned allies into adversaries, and ran what may well be the most radical and divisive administration in the history of the presidency. Carefully documented and with vivid detail, The Book on Bush traces the guiding ideology that runs through a wide range of W.'s policies. The Book on Bush is an invaluable resource that exposes plutocracy posing as patriotism and, in area after area, the encroachment of radical right-wing ideology onto a moderate country. Book jacket.

Barack Obama himself told veteran political reporter Richard Wolffe, 'You'll get more access than anyone else', and Renegade is his unique story of how a political newcomer with no money and an outsider's name grew into the world's most powerful leader. But it is also a uniquely intimate portrait of the person behind the iconic posters, the man codenamed 'Renegade' by the Secret Service when protecting him. Wolffe portrays an historic candidate and his u until now u inscrutable character and campaign in untold, stunning detail, from his university lecturer's office in Iowa to the Oval Office in Washington. With unprecedented access, gained over a dozen exclusive interviews with Obama, Wolffe shares with us his front row seat. We fly on the candidate's plane and ride in his bus on an odyssey across a country in crisis; we stand next to him at a bar on the night he secures the nomination; and feel the tension backstage as he delivers his convention speech to a stadium crowd and a transfixed TV audience. Renegade is not just an election epic but is also an insightful biography of the new President of the United States.

Now with an updated preface When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, he also won a long-running debate with Michelle. Contrary to her fears, politics now seemed like a worthwhile, even noble pursuit. Together they exuded promise and possibility and planned a White House that would be as normal and sane as possible. Then inauguration came. Jodi Kantor takes us inside the White House as Michelle and Barack Obama begin their transformation into President and First Lady. Filled with insight, surprising behind-the-scenes detail, and stories that never made headlines, it is a revelatory story of personal history on the political stage. With a new preface surveying their post-White House future, Jodi Kantor's The Obamas illuminates the extraordinary partnership behind a historic presidency.

A powerfully moving biography of JFK by one of his closest friends and advisors. Sorensen's work was first published in 1965 when the wounds caused by the assassination had barely time to heal. It has remained a classic and is indispensable for an evaluation of Kennedy and his place in history.

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's books are events. They stir passionate public debate among political and civic leaders, scholars, and the general public because they compel people to rethink the most powerful conventional wisdoms and stubborn moral problems of the day. Worse Than War gets to the heart of the phenomenon, genocide, that has caused more deaths in the modern world than military conflict. In doing so, it challenges fundamental things we thought we knew about human beings, society, and politics. Drawing on extensive field work and research from around the world, Goldhagen explores the anatomy of genocide explaining why genocides begin, are sustained, and end; why societies support them, why they happen so frequently and how the international community should and can successfully stop them. As a great book should, Worse than War seeks to change the way we think and to offer new possibilities for a better world. It tells us how we might at last begin to eradicate this greatest scourge of humankind.

Near the end of his second term as president of France, Francois Mitterrand decided to talk openly about his life, both personal and political. President for fourteen years, longer than anyone else in the history of the French Republic, Mitterrand was interested not in constructing an elaborate memorial to himself in words but in leaving behind a living testament. He therefore turned to someone whom he knew and trusted, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, a close friend of many years, to join him in a vibrant, vigorous exchange. The topics they discuss in these pages are childhood, faith, war, power, writing, and those moments - however and whenever they arrive - that shape and sometimes define us as people. Mitterrand and Wiesel's dialogue is spontaneous, thoughtful, lyrical, blunt, far-reaching, and candid, whether it involves controversial moments in Mitterrand's political career, Wiesel's memories of Auschwitz, the importance of family and religion in their lives, or simply their favorite books and walks. Here is an unobstructed view into the lives and times of two of the greatest figures of conscience of our century, an inspiring memoir in two voices.

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.

In this striking book, Yehezkel Dror bravely goes where few authors dare, offering a big-picture view of the fateful choices facing the human species. He urges humankind to adopt unconventional survival and thriving strategies, including elevating the future of humanity above state interests, limiting the production and spread of dangerous knowledge and tools, and strengthening humanity's collective deliberative capacity. The author confronts the evolutionary trap of science and technology ensnaring unprepared humankind by providing it with awesome future-shaping power, which contemporary values and institutions are unable to handle. Dror warns that tribal and nationalist values, the inability to learn from history, and mediocre leadership will catastrophically endanger the future of human life, making radical, even painful, innovations essential. According to Dror, the prevailing form of politics is obsolete. Instead, he argues urgently for a new type of political leader - "Homo Sapiens Governors" - willing and able to fulfill the daunting mission to save humanity from itself. Recognizing that the tyrannical status quo will try to prevent essential transformations, Dror predicts new crises making what is still unthinkable clearly compelling - and that humankind will have to choose: learn rapidly to survive and thrive, or perish. YEHEZKEL DROR is professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Recognized as a founder of modern policy studies, he integrates multi-disciplinary scholarship with extensive personal experience as a global advisor into a novel paradigm on alternative evolutionary futures of humanity - as shaped by fateful choices humanity has never before faced.

The revelation that a long forgotten novel first published anonymously in 1834 is the work of Benjamin Disraeli and his sister Sarah is an exciting literary event. Newly discovered letters between brother and sister prove without doubt that it was written jointly by them. We do not have to look far for the reason for their secrecy. The vividly described election which forms the centrepiece of the story is clearly based on Disraeli's recent experiences as an unsuccessful candidate in two elections at High Wycombe. His political career had a long way to go and the last thing he wanted was to jeopardize it by revealing his motives in the past or his hopes for the future. The hero, Aubrey Bohun, has, like Disraeli, recently returned from mysterious travels in the East, but unlike him has his own castle and an income of £30,000 a year. Bohun obviously contains an element of wish fulfilment and allows the authors to incorporate in the novel elements of wish fulfilment and allows the authors to incorporate in the novel elements of a popular genre known in its day as 'silver fork' fiction – revelations of high life. Although there is much of this and of melodrama too, there is also some splendid social irony. Michael Foot says 'the volume is quite fit to takes its place in the true Disraeli canon and contains many gems which add fresh gleams to the portrait of Disraeli himself.' Two appendixes explain the literary detection that proved the book's authorship and the parallels between the politics of Aubrey Bohun and Disraeli.

The Inside Story of Politics, Power and the Media. The relationship between those who wield power and those whose job it is to tell us what they are doing has always been fraught with tension. Politicians now expect to be on camera and facing aggressive questions from the moment they open their front door to the moment they return home at night. Everything they say and do is instantly broadcast and dissected on 24-hour rolling news channels, blogs and Twitter. It was not always this way. "Live from Downing Street" takes us on an absorbing journey through the hard-fought battles for the right to tell the public about the decisions taken on their behalf. Parliament once imprisoned those who dared to report what MPs had said. Broadcasters used to be banned by law from debating anything newsworthy and even from covering elections. Since that censorship ended, the two sides have clashed repeatedly. We follow the fluctuations of the power struggle from Walpole to modern times, dwelling in fascinating detail on those who fought back -- Churchill, Wilson, Thatcher and Blair. At the same time we learn of the emergence of the equally charismatic key players from radio and television: the Dimblebys, Day, Frost, Walden, Paxman and Humphrys. Nick Robinson provides a colourful and personal examination of what life is like as the BBC's Political Editor -- a role described in a report for the White House as 'the most important job in British political journalism'. Peppered with informative but witty anecdotes, his account reveals his own considered view of the controversial issue of impartial reporting. "Live from Downing Street" is a gripping story written by someone uniquely placed to add his own perceptive insights and observations.

Thumb through the index of almost any study of the Thatcher years -- biographical, scholarly or journalistic -- and you will come across the name of Sir Alfred Sherman. In her memoirs Lady Thatcher herself pays tribute to Sherman's 'brilliance', the 'force and clarity of his mind', his 'breadth of reading and his skills as a ruthless polemicist'. She credits him with a central role in her achievements, especially as Leader of the Opposition but also after she became Prime Minister. Born in 1919 in London's East End, until 1948 Sherman was a Communist and fought in the Spanish Civil War. But he ended up an indefatigable free-market crusader. The book describes his early relationship with Sir Keith Joseph and his own role in the formation of the Centre for Policy Studies in 1974. Sherman examines the origins and development of 'Thatcherism', but concludes that the Conservative administrations of the 1980s were, for the most part, an 'interlude' and that the post-war consensus remains largely unscathed -- 'we are back to where we started'.

Walter Gordon was a born member of the Canadian Establishment, a senior partner in one of the country's major accounting firms, successful and powerful in the world of business. After considerable persuasion by his close friend Prime Minister Lester Pearson, Gordon left business for politics and became finance minister in the Liberal government in 1963. But Gordon was different from many of his associates--he had an abiding concern for Canada, and for ensuring the independence of its enconomy. He worked to enshrine this perspective in the Liberal Party, the Pearson government and in Canadian politics generally. Walter Gordon: A Political Memoir tells the story of a politician who put principles above personal ambition, who suffered disappointments and defeats, but who always stood out as a man who remained true to his beliefs.