Political Science : Federal Government

Editor Anne McKinneyReviews and ExcerptsThis book is designed to help people who seek their first federal government job as well as federal employees who want to advance in the system. The process of getting a government job often involves preparing complex applications, and those applications frequently require written statements or "elements" which are called "Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities" or KSAs. In the competitive hiring process, the individual who gets hired for the federal job usually has the best KSAs. This book shows examples of effective KSAs that have worked for real people. The book doesn't simply "tell how" to write KSAs; it actually "shows how" to write KSAs in sample after sample related to multiple fields. This book will do a great deal to make the federal hiring process understandable as it illuminates one of the most complex features of getting a government job: writing the KSAs or "elements," as they are often called. "Distinguished by its highly readable samples." - Library Journal1-885288-34-4 more...

Price: $24.95

A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degration of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason At the time George W. Bush ordered American forces to invade Iraq, 70 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11. Voters in Ohio, when asked by pollsters to list what stuck in their minds about the campaign, most frequently named two Bush television ads that played to fears of terrorism. We live in an age when the thirty-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry. Related to this and of even greater concern is this administration's disinterest in the process by which the truth is ascertained, the tenets of fact-based reasoning-first among them an embrace of open inquiry in which unexpected and even inconvenient facts can lead to unexpected conclusions. How did we get here? How much damage has been done to the functioning of our democracy and its role as steward of our security? Never has there been a worse time for us to lose the capacity to face the reality of our long-term challenges, from national security to the economy, from issues of health and social welfare to the environment. As The Assault on Reason shows us, we have precious little time to waste. Gore's larger goal in this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has evolved into a place hospitable to reason's enemies, to make us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds, and to lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and safeguard our future. Drawing on a life's work in politics as well as on the work of experts across a broad range of disciplines, Al Gore has written a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking. more...

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"They could write like angels and scheme like demons." So begins Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Larson's masterful account of the wild ride that was the 1800 presidential election -- an election so convulsive and so momentous to the future of American democracy that Thomas Jefferson would later dub it "America's second revolution.". A Magnificent Catastrophe is history writing at its evocative best: the riveting story of the last great contest of the founding period. more...

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The life of an Australian polymath, a passionate advocate for Australia, a politician held in great affection by all sides of politics. more...

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An executive briefing on developing a successful human capital strategy in government from a knowledge management perspective. more...

Price: $43.95