Current Events : Political

The million-copy New York Times bestseller from the Fox News anchor who’s brought new excitement–and massive amounts of populist common sense and rock-solid honesty–to television news. Now four seasons strong, Bill O’Reilly’s nightly cable news program, “The O’Reilly Factor,” is one of the hottest shows on the air. more...

Price: $14.99

Remote, forbidding, and volatile, the Caspian Sea long tantalized the world with its vast oil reserves. But outsiders, blocked by the closed Soviet system, couldn’t get to it. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and a wholesale rush into the region erupted. more...

Price: $27.95

On 17 March 2003, Robin Cook, Leader of the House of Commons and former Foreign Secretary, resigned from the Cabinet in protest against the coming war in Iraq. His resignation speech against that war prompted the first standing ovation in the history of the House and marked the end of the ministerial career of one of Labour's most brilliant politicians. His arguments against that war are of profound interest and importance to American readers. more...

Price: $24.95

A compelling indictment of the Bush Administration's cynical, anti-democratic manipulation of the media In this devastating analysis of American politics today, a former Democratic campaign advisor pulls back the curtain on the pervasive political manipulation of the media-and reveals just how fragile our democracy is. From political ads and talk shows to mainstream media reporting, Glenn Smith shows how American political discourse is now dominated by carefully scripted images and rhetoric-most of which benefit the Republicans and their corporate allies. The result is public apathy toward politics-and a real threat to American freedom. more...

Price: $24.95

From one of the nation's leading foreign-policy minds comes a provocative new account of how to think about—and use—America's power in the twenty-first century. Inspired by Machiavelli's classic The Prince , Leslie H. Gelb offers illuminating guidelines on how American power actually works and should be wielded in today's tumultuous world, writing with the perspective of four decades of extraordinary access and influence in government, think tanks, and journalism. He argues that Washington risks losing the essential lifeblood of its national security—its power—unless American leaders relearn the lessons of how to use that power. Contrary to runaway fashion, Gelb argues that the world is not flat, power is not soft, and that we have not entered a post-American era in global affairs. The United States remains far and away the most powerful country in a world where power remains sharply pyramidal. But the U.S. is not the dominant power, and it can't dictate to others. Gelb persuasively shows that America's future power must be based on the principle of mutual indispensability: Washington is the indispensable leader because it alone can galvanize coalitions to solve major international problems (and all nations know this), while other key nations are indispensable partners in getting the job done. The reality is this: succeed together or fail apart. Washington will also fail if it forgets that power is still, as in the days of Machiavelli, about pressure and coercion, carrots and sticks. Reason, values, and understanding are foreplay, but not the real thing. Gelb provides an incisive look at the major U.S. foreign-policy triumphs and tragedies of the last half century, and offers practical rules on how to effectively exercise power today. Power Rules is an impassioned challenge to both liberals and conservatives and a plea to reclaim the true meaning of power and the essential role of common sense in solving global problem more...

Price: $21.99