Not Without Peril

Not Without Peril
Author: Nicholas S. Howe
Publisher:
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2000
Genre: History
ISBN:

These compelling profiles of 22 adventurous yet unlucky climbers chronicle more than a century of exploration recreation and tragedy in New Hampshire's Presidential Range

Audacity

Audacity
Author: Jonathan Chait
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2017-01-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0062426990

"An essential starting point for those assessing the Obama presidency.” —Washington Monthly Two presidencies later, the time has never been better to revisit the legacy of Barack Obama. In Audacity, New York Magazine writer Jonathan Chait makes the unassailable case that, in the eyes of history, Obama will be viewed as one of America’s best and most accomplished presidents. Over the course of eight years, Barack Obama has amassed an array of outstanding achievements. His administration saved the American economy from collapse, expanded health insurance to millions who previously could not afford it, negotiated an historic nuclear deal with Iran, helped craft a groundbreaking international climate accord, reined in Wall Street and crafted a new vision of racial progress. He has done all of this despite a left that frequently disdained him as a sellout, and a hysterical right that did everything possible to destroy his agenda even when they agreed with what he was doing. Now, as the page turns to our next Commander in Chief, Jonathan Chait, acclaimed as one of the most incisive and meticulous political commentators in America, digs deep into Obama’s record on major policy fronts—economics, the environment, domestic reform, health care, race, foreign policy, and civil rights—to demonstrate why history will judge our forty-fourth president as among the greatest in history. Audacity does not shy away from Obama’s failures, most notably in foreign policy. Yet Chait convincingly shows that President Obama has accomplished what candidate Obama said he would, despite overwhelming opposition—and that the hopes of those who voted for him have not been dashed despite the smokescreen of extremist propaganda and the limits of short-term perspective.

Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut

Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut
Author: Paul Krassner
Publisher: Catapult
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2012-09-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1593764928

Uncensored, uncontained, and thoroughly demented, the memoirs of Paul Krassner are back in an updated and expanded edition. Paul Krassner, “father of the underground press” (People magazine), founder of the Realist, political radical, Yippie, and award-winning stand-up satirist, shares his stark raving adventures with the likes of Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey, Groucho Marx, and Squeaky Fromme, revealing the patriarch of counterculture’s ultimate, intimate, uproarious life on the fringes of society. Whether he’s writing about his friendship with controversial comic Lenny Bruce, introducing Groucho Marx to LSD, his investigation of Scientology, or John Kennedy’s cadaver, no subject is too sacred to be skewered by Krassner. And yet his stories are soulful and philosophical, always authentic to his iconoclastic brand of personal journalism. As Art Spiegelman said, “Krassner is one of the best minds of his generational to be destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked—but mainly hysterical. His true wacky, wackily true autobiography is the definitive book on the sixties.”

The Idea of Identification

The Idea of Identification
Author: Gary C. Woodward
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0791486478

Illustrated with interesting examples drawn from politics and art, The Idea of Identification draws on classical social and rhetorical theories to establish a systematic framework for understanding the varieties and forms of identification. Woodward references a variety of contexts in contemporary life to explore the rhetorical conditions that create powerful and captivating moments. By invoking the influential ideas of Kenneth Burke, George Herbert Mead, Joshua Meyrowitz and others, he shows how the rhetorical process of identification is separate from psychological theories of identity construction. Woodward concludes with an argument that film theory has perhaps offered the most vivid descriptive categories for understanding the bonds of identification.

U.S. Democracy in Danger

U.S. Democracy in Danger
Author: Adebowale Akande
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 607
Release: 2023-10-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3031360990

Historically, Donald Trump will be remembered as the first American president to be impeached twice and indicted. He fed the grotesque myth that the election was stolen and summoned his supporters to storm Congress on 6 January 2021 in a bid to thwart the certification of Joe Biden's U.S. presidential election victory. This volume vividly recounts the dramatic narrative of the January 6 Coup in America and how close we came to losing U.S. democracy. For anyone seeking a comprehensive and multidisciplinary global overview of democracy, an astute analysis of the forces that drive the dominance of the (neo)liberal paradigm of the last decades should look no further than this volume. Yet the volume takes the issue further by vigorously documenting the decline of the U.S. treaty process (America’s dysfunctional diplomacy and the doctrine of unpredictability). There is an urgent need for a massive infusion of strategic support for democracy in the United States. Because come 2024 or thereafter an unfinished work might drag American democracy to a dangerous inflection point. Trump (who has a complete hold on the Republican party, still has a stranglehold on the MAGA base no matter what he does, was instrumental to the breaking of U.S. diplomacy. Undermining the democratic legitimacy of International Law adversely affected U.S. foreign policy. Some federal and lower courts in the judiciary of the United States pose a real threat to Americans’ democracy as well. To that end, when ‘the principle of truth’ loses its relevance and meaning as benchmarks for appraisals and decisions, and becomes a harmful tool for willful propaganda. Everybody should be worried about U.S. democracy. A "real" crisis is coming! U.S. Democracy is at a breaking point. Like a giant modern mirror standing behind democracy itself, this book is a citizen's guide to saving U.S. Democracy. Expertly drawn on global and regional examples and current literature, the volume closes a gap in the multidisciplinary field. Quite useful as a valuable resource as it helps us understand the shifting Trump agenda in diverse areas. Essential reference across a range of subjects, bringing together contributions from scholars, and policymakers alike. This extraordinarily well-researched and practically crafted, culture-inclusive text could not be more relevant or timelier. It is a must for everyone. This volume will help to shape the political landscape of the 21st century and will remain a vital source of inspiration for modern-day scholars and political activists.

A Fish in the Water

A Fish in the Water
Author: Mario Vargas Llosa
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 849
Release: 2011-07-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1429922540

In this literary memoir, the Nobel Prize–winning author and Peruvian politician shares “a convincing self-portrait . . . an often funny and cautionary tale” (Time). In 1990, Mario Vargas Llosa decided to run for the presidency of his native Peru. He campaigned on a platform of economic reform and stringent counterterrorism against the far-left gorilla group, Sendero Luminoso. His failed campaign against Alberto Fujimori generated international headlines, transforming the renowned author into a politician of world stature. A Fish in the Water is Vargas Llosa’s personal account of his life as seen through the lens of his time as a candidate. He evokes the experiences that gave rise to his fiction, while—in parallel—he describes the social, literary, and political influences that led him to enter the political arena as a crusader for democracy and a free-market economy.

The Toddler in Chief

The Toddler in Chief
Author: Daniel W. Drezner
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2020-03-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 022671425X

“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. . . . And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”—An anonymous senior administrative official in an op-ed published in a New York Times op-ed, September 5, 2018 Every president faces criticism and caricature. Donald Trump, however, is unique in that he is routinely characterized in ways more suitable for a toddler. What’s more, it is not just Democrats, pundits, or protestors who compare the president to a child; Trump’s staffers, subordinates, and allies on Capitol Hill also describe Trump like a small, badly behaved preschooler. In April 2017, Daniel W. Drezner began curating every example he could find of a Trump ally describing the president like a toddler. So far, he’s collected more than one thousand tweets—a rate of more than one a day. In The Toddler-in-Chief, Drezner draws on these examples to take readers through the different dimensions of Trump’s infantile behavior, from temper tantrums to poor impulse control to the possibility that the President has had too much screen time. How much damage can really be done by a giant man-baby? Quite a lot, Drezner argues, due to the winnowing away of presidential checks and balances over the past fifty years. In these pages, Drezner follows his theme—the specific ways in which sharing some of the traits of a toddler makes a person ill-suited to the presidency—to show the lasting, deleterious impact the Trump administration will have on American foreign policy and democracy. The “adults in the room” may not be able to rein in Trump’s toddler-like behavior, but, with the 2020 election fast approaching, the American people can think about whether they want the most powerful office turned into a poorly run political day care facility. Drezner exhorts us to elect a commander-in-chief, not a toddler-in-chief. And along the way, he shows how we must rethink the terrifying powers we have given the presidency.

Suck It, Wonder Woman!

Suck It, Wonder Woman!
Author: Olivia Munn
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2010-06-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1429924829

Suck It, Wonder Woman! brings Olivia Munn's unique humor, incredible wit, and lightning-fast costume changes to a world that needs more scrapbooking, sea monkeys, and for the love of God, a freakin' hoverboard! In this hilarious collection you'll find essays like "thought's About My First Agent's Girlfriend's Vagina," wherein Olivia skewers what it's like to live in Hollywood. In "Sex: What You Can Do to Help Yourself Have More of It," she frankly gets down to the business of getting it on, including advice on how to appropriately wrap it and bag it. In "What to Do When the Robots Invade (Yes, When!)," Olivia offers valuable information on . . . what to do when the robots invade! And just when you thought she couldn't get any more geeky, she can. This book also includes such handy treasures as a timeline of great moments in Geek history, a flip book, an unofficial FAQ section, and a nifty (read: smokin') foldout poster.

Queen of Chaos

Queen of Chaos
Author: Diana Johnstone
Publisher: Counterpunch
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780989763769

U.S. wars are getting repetitive. Always the same old scenario. The mainstream media alert public opinion to the latest "villain" supposedly threatening to slaughter "his own people". The U.S. does the job instead with its drones and missiles. The new "villain" is soon forgotten, but his country is left in a shambles, with competing fanatics vying to dominate the chaos. Something new is needed. How about a woman War President? Hillary Rodham Clinton has painstakingly groomed herself for the role. Her record as Secretary of State shows that she is fully qualified to be the first woman to be known as the "mother of all drones" or even to launch World War III.