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Suggestions for the Spring of 2006.
| Title | Author | Information | Submitted by Votes VOTES RECEIVED |
| The United States Of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy | T. R. Reid | List Price: $25.95 ($15.57 at Amazon) | Paul Silvers 3 votes |
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Paul Silvers writes: Here is another suggestion for our next book. Just finished the
first two chapters. It's well written, timely, interesting, disturbing,
controversial, instructive and occasionally lighthearted. A good read and I believe
a book that will generate lively discussions. From Publishers Weekly While 'old Europe' is most often portrayed as more bark than bite in its differences with the current U.S. administration, NPR commentator and former Washington Post European bureau chief Reid finds the E.U. as a whole 'determined to change a world that has been dominated by Americans.' The opening chapters quickly summarize everyday Europeans' love-hate relationship with the States, the legacies of the 20th-century wars, and the creation of the Euro. The center chapters present GE as a case study in transatlantic trade gone wrong ('Welch's Waterloo') as well as other snafus that show Europe attempting to dominate market share of everything from cell phones to pharmaceuticals. A chapter detailing what's left of Europe's welfare states is followed by a relatively bleak assessment of Europe's armies, and the spin that the E.U. is betting on economic 'soft power' for eventual global dominance. The concluding chapters warn that the U.S. ignores Europe's new 25-nation strong union at its economic and political peril, but also draw attention to Europe as a huge, tariff-free market and potential sharer of global burdens. There's little surprising here, but Reid's primer on recent U.S. European relations genially summarizes an evolving, if often reluctant, partnership | |||
| Party of the People | Jules Whitcover | Non-fiction | Paul Silvers 11 votes , the selected book |
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Paul Silvers writes " I thumbed through and I recommend them without reservation. "
From RandomHouse.com:
Category: History - United States; Political Science
ABOUT THIS BOOK: After more than two centuries of sometimes stormy, always intriguing history, the Democratic Party of the United States survives as the oldest political organization in the world. In Party of the People, veteran political chronicler Jules Witcover traces the Democratic Party?s evolution, from its roots in the agrarian, individualistic concepts of Thomas Jefferson to its emergence as today?s progressive party of social change and economic justice. Witcover describes the Democrats' dramatic struggle to deÞne themselves and shares with us half a century of personal observation of the party through its most turbulent times. First called, oddly enough, the Republican Party but later known as the Democratic-Republican Party and eventually the Democratic Party, this creature of Jefferson and James Madison evolved from an early ideological and personal struggle with the commerce-minded Alexander Hamilton. Seasoned by the populism of Andrew Jackson, the party was nearly undone by the ?peculiar institution? of slavery in the South, which led to the birth of the rival Republican Party and to the Civil War. Half a century later, America emerged from World War I under Democrat Woodrow Wilson as a reluctant international player, and from World War II under Franklin Roosevelt as a liberal bastion and global superpower. In the civil rights revolution, the party shed much of its racist past, but subsequent white middle-class resentments and the divisive Vietnam War opened the door to a rival conservatism that effectively demon-ized Democratic liberalism. Defensively, the party under Bill Clinton sought safer centrist ground and seemed on the brink of establishing a ?third way," until the disastrous 2000 electoral college defeat of Al Gore left the Democrats shaken and splintered. As the new century emerges, they are debating whether to return to their liberal roots, setting themselves clearly apart from the Republicans, or press on with the centrist pursuit of a broader, less liberal constituency. In Party of the People (a perfect companion to Grand Old Party by Lewis L. Gould, a history of the Republicans published simultaneously by Random House), Jules Witcover offers a rich and comprehensive popular history of the ideas, struggles, and key figures that have defined the Democratic Party over the past two hundred years and are now | |||
| China, Inc 'How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World ' | Ted C. Fishman | Hardback | Fred Sage 11 votes |
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From Amazon.com : China has the world's most rapidly changing large economy, and according to Ted Fishman, it is forcing the world to change along with it. 'No country has ever before made a better run at climbing every step of economic development all at once,' he writes, in China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World. China is currently the largest maker of toys, clothing, and consumer electronics, and is swiftly moving up the ladder in car production, computer manufacturing, biotechnology, aerospace, telecommunications, and other sectors thanks to low-cost, high-tech factories. China is also where the world is investing. In 2004, for instance, the city of Shanghai alone attracted over $12 billion in direct foreign investment, roughly the same amount as all of Indonesia and Mexico received. In tracing China's ascendancy over the past 30 years (with annual growth of an astonishing 9.5 percent), Fishman presents a flood of fa
cts, figures, forecasts, and anecdotes and examines the implications of this unprecedented growth for China, the U.S., and the rest of the world.
Calling China's huge population 'arguably the greatest natural resource on the planet,' Fishman details how hundreds of millions of peasants have migrated from rural to urban areas to find manufacturing jobs, providing an unlimited, low-wage workforce to power China's economy. In the process, this shift has changed both Chinese culture and the global business climate in significant ways. Simply put, American companies can't compete with wages as low as 25 cents an hour and lack of regulation and oversight, so are forced to move their operations to China or completely change the focus of their business. And it's not just a problem for the U.S.--even Mexico is outsourcing to China. Though it remains to be seen whether this will truly be the 'Chinese Century' as Fishman asserts, China, Inc. is a brisk and informative look at why so many American corporations, and American jobs, are heading to China. --Shawn Carkonen " | |||
| The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World | Paul Roberts | Paperback, $11.20 at Amazon, 416 pages | Bob Goddard 7 votes |
| Bob Goddard writes " From the prologue: In the first five chapters, I set the stage for the current crisis, by explaining how and why energy has become so vital a part of our existence. Chapter 1 offers a short history of energy, describing the long, slow rise from muscle power and sweat to a sprawling, hydrocarbon-powered economy. In Chapter 2, we tackle the question of how much oil is left and see firsthand how difficult the search for oil has become. Chapter 3 takes a sharp look at one of oil's most talked about challengers - the hydrogen fuel cell - highlighting that technology's awesome potential, yet showing just how far it has to go. Chapter 4 discusses the connections between energy and power and outlines the role energy plays in domestic and international politics, trade, and even war. The first part closes with a chapter on global climate change -- a complex phenomenon that is both the consequence of our current energy economy and, perhaps, the most important impetu s for building a new one. In Part Two, we look at the mechanics of the energy order. In Chapter 6, we examine energy consumption and see how our evolving use of oil, electricity, and other forms of energy has become one of the most powerful economic and political forces on the planet. In Chapter 7, we meet the producers of oil and gas, and learn how the energy business is undergoing a radical and potentially disastrous transformation. Chapter8 takes us on a tour of the options for that new system -- the alternative fuels and systems, their potential for changing the world, and the many obstacles they face. Chapter 9 introduces the important yet often-neglected concept of energy conservation and shows how a radical improvement in energy efficiency will be essential to any new and sustainable energy economy. In Part Three, we chart the promise and the peril of our energy future. Chapter 10 describes how the existing energy system is already failing to meet even current needs -- and shows how the race to develop 'clean' energy must compete with the more basic need to produce enough energy of any kind. Chapter 11 describes the colossal inertia of the current energy order, and the way it has influenced, shaped, and, too often, corrupted economies and entire nations. Chapter 12 lays out the terms of the coming struggle, as defenders of the energy status quo go up against a new generation of players. Chapter 13 offers a speculative account of the transition to a new system might actually emerge. " | |||
| Great Decisions: 2006 | Foreign Policy Association | $15 + S/H | John Rushton 8 votes |
| John Rushton writes " This is a publication with various articles on Foreign Policy. They include: 'Human Rights in an Age of Terrorism', 'Turkey', 'UN Reform', 'The U.S. and Iran', 'Energy Resources', 'Brazil', 'Global Health Pandemics and Security', and 'China and India: Partners or Competitors'. " | |||
| Collapse:How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed | Jared Diamond | $20 paperback | Art Smoot 4 votes |
| From the Penguin Group: " As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Moving from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe. Environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of these societies, but other societies found solutions and persisted. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society's apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana. " | |||