Editorial Review

Barack Obama's first book, Read more

Reviews (8)

Obama Wraps His Personal Journey Around His Political Beliefs With Refreshing Authenticity
As the acknowledged rising star of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama has done an admirable job in maintaining the precarious balance between being a media lightning rod and a largely unproven senator out to establish his record. While it may speak to the current vacuity in the party's leadership, Hillary Clinton aside, Obama certainly cannot be underestimated for the political acumen he has displayed during key high-attention moments like his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He wrote an insightful personal memoir over a decade ago before entering politics, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance", which I read a couple of years back and thought was quite lucidly written if rather guarded in exploring his racial dichotomy.
A prelude to the White House

STRAIGHT TALK, IMPRESSIVE IDEAS FROM A MAN POISED FOR THE FUTURE!
Five SAGACIOUS Stars!! Senator Barack Obama shows in this highly personal reflection that he is a man of great IDEALS and iDEAS. Indeed, he appears to be more 'statesman' than 'politician'. The book is almost conversational in tone, making it easy to read. Senator Obama's own written words anoint him as a man possibly poised on the edge of greatness, when we all want new political 'heroes', Republican as well as Democrat (and Independents like myself). He is a relatively young Democratic Senator from the great state of Illinois with the name recognition of a much older politician, nationally and internationally.In Africa and in the US, he hasalmost 'rock star' status among certain groups.
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Subjects:  1. African American legislators    2. Biography    3. Essays    4. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General    5. Government - Legislative Branch    6. Legislators    7. National characteristics, American    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. U.S. - Political And Civil Rights Of Blacks    12. U.S. Senate    13. United States    14. Current Events / Political   

Reviews (8)

The Broken Branch
Excellent analysis by the authors - one from AEI & one from Brookings -- gives a good analysis from right and left.

Wake Up Call on a Dysfunctional Congress
Mann and Ornstein have written a nice treatise on the frighteningly dysfunctional modern Congress.It is clear that Congress has abdicated it's responsibly to the American people and that personal agendas (including the almighty dollar) take precedence to good governance.
Power Corrupts; Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein bring to light what many Americans don't know, or don't care to know. The legislative branch of government, the House of Representatives and the Senate have long ago stopped serving the constituents they were elected to serve.
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Subjects:  1. Congress    2. Government - Legislative Branch    3. Government - U.S. Government    4. Political Science    5. Politics / Current Events    6. Politics/International Relations    7. Reform    8. United States.    9. Central government    10. Political Science / Congress    11. Politics | American Politics | Legislative Studies    12. USA   

Reviews (12)

Interesting history...
This was an interesting read.Napolitano is a Fox News Contributor who is an advocate of interpreting via natural law and reading the Constitution literally for it's intended meaning.As a result, the Fox News bashers will tend to ignore the book but it's worthy of their attention too because the leftwing liberal idea of reinterpeting the Constitution for today is what lead to legislation like the Patriot Act.In an unbiased way (politically), his criticisms of the current administration are well-balanced with a good explanation and examples of abuse.I've traditionally been a supporter of the Republicans and the Patriot act but the Judge's book have made me rethink the Patriot Act.I was also surprised at how far back in time some of the interpretation contraversies go, some dating back to Hamilton and Jefferson themselves.

Outstanding work by Judge Napolitano
I have never written a review for Amazon but this book was so good that I felt compelled to go through the process.
For Freedom loving Americans
Judge Napolitano commicated what I been seeing happen. He has the legal background to explain how the Federal Government has sized power that was never intended for them to have. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Constitutional history    2. Constitutions    3. Executive power    4. General    5. Government - General    6. Government - Legislative Branch    7. Government - U.S. Government    8. History    9. Political Freedom & Security - General    10. Political Science    11. Politics / Current Events    12. Politics/International Relations    13. Popular works    14. Separation of powers    15. U.S. Constitutional History    16. United States    17. Political Science / General   

Reviews (2)

Excellent look at the development of the House
A few months ago, I read The Most Exclusive Club, Lewis Gould's history of the modern U.S. Senate.When I saw that a book about the House of Representatives was coming out, I knew that it would be a good companion piece to Gould's book.Then I saw it was by Robert Remini, the fabulous biographer of Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster and knew that this book was a must-read.And though Remini has expanded beyond the Jacksonian era he has specialized in, he has still written a great book.
A good narrative but lacking in some respects
Long regarded as "the people's House," the House of Representatives has enjoyed a special position in American history.Devised as the most democratic of the institutions outlined in the Constitution, it has defined innumerable aspects of the country's development, as well as witnessing the struggles over the key issues in our nation's past.In chronicling over two centuries of its existence, the distinguished historian Robert Remini has undertaken no small challenge - to recount the people and events of a part of government often overshadowed by more distinguished bodies and positions withing our governing system.
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Subjects:  1. Congress.    2. Government - Legislative Branch    3. Government - U.S. Government    4. History    5. House    6. Political Science    7. Political Science (General)    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Politics/International Relations    10. U.S. Government (General)    11. United States - General    12. United States.    13. Political Science / Congress   

Reviews (7)

Essential Read for Lobbyist
Robert Guyer hit the nail on the head with this book."The Guide to State Legislative Lobbying" is a wonderfully insightful examination of the lobbying process.The book goes well beyond the academic exercise of understanding the process of lobbying but provides actual useful tools in how to navigate the legislative machine and get results!The book is a must read for all who are involved in the lobbying process both for seasoned professionals and novices alike.The book provides strategies on how to ensure that you are engaged in creating effective change through lobbying for your constituents.

Essential Information
Consider this Legislative Lobbying 101. Robert Guyer's Guide to State Legislative Lobbying is as practical and informative a guide to the fundamentals of successful legislative lobbying as you are likely to find. And it's packed into cogent, readable chapters. The straightforward, accessible narrative carefully describes the major legislative procedures, political tactics and strategic choices confronting any modern lobbyist or advocacy group attempting to achieve visibility and influence in state legislative policymaking.The candid discussion constitutes a practical education in the legislative process especially useful to policy advocates new to legislative decisionmaking, but there's plenty of helpful information for anyone who wants to understand how policy is actually made in legislative chambers.In addition to thoughtful tactical advice, the book is especially valuable in leading the reader through the labyrinth of the formal legislative process which can easily intimidate and confound the uninitiated.The book is akeeper.

Essential reading.
I am more than a little surprised by the previous review and feel compelled to add my 2 cents.I have found Robert Guyer's book essential to my own lobbying efforts.Certain aspects of the lobby game may remain outside one's control (the money tossed around by opponents, the strength of a particular constituency), but this does not negate the importance of Guyer's book -- a richly informative guide that transforms the art of lobbying into more of a science, providing insight into the elements crucial to any successful lobbying venture.After reading it (and taking Guyer's course), I was much clearer on what I needed to do to hit a home run. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Government - Legislative Branch    2. Handbooks, manuals, etc    3. Lobbying    4. Lobbyists    5. Political Process - Political Advocacy    6. Political Science    7. Political Science / Congress    8. Political Science / Political Process / Political Advocacy    9. Politics and government    10. Practical Politics    11. States    12. United States   

Subjects:  1. Congress    2. Government - Legislative Branch    3. Legislation    4. Legislative bodies    5. Political Science    6. Politics / Current Events    7. Politics/International Relations    8. States    9. U.S. Federal Legislative Bodies    10. United States    11. Central government    12. Political Science / General    13. Political structure & processes    14. USA   

Subjects:  1. Architecture    2. Architecture, Domestic    3. Arts And Crafts    4. Arts and crafts movement    5. Design & Drafting    6. Design - Furniture    7. Designs and plans    8. Government - Legislative Branch    9. House Plans    10. Individual Architect    11. Residential Interior Design    12. United States    13. Architecture / Individual Architect    14. Individual architects    15. Residential buildings, domestic buildings   

Subjects:  1. Government - Legislative Branch    2. Government - U.S. Government    3. Political Science    4. Politics / Current Events    5. Politics/International Relations    6. Reference   

Editorial Review

Due to the timing of its publication, Read more

Reviews (3173)

Unfair
I think that this was an unfair attack on John Kerry. He would have been a better President than other people because he has actually scene action instead of asking his daddy to get him into the Guard and then go A.W.A.L from it.

Poorly researched, poorly written hack piece
It's rather amazing how many five star "reviewers" have so much of the same bad information to impart about John Kerry, but so little to say about the substance of this book.
Thank you, Swift Boat Veterans
This book is a MUST READ. Whether you call yourself liberal, or conservative, I don't care. If you think of yourself as one who demands integrity in public servants at all levels of service, then you owe it to yourself to understand the kind of man That John Kerry really is, how frighteningly close he came to winning that election and how vigilant we voter's MUST be. The forthright accounts in this book- from numerous individuals expose John Kerry as entirely despicable and self serving.
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Subjects:  1. 1943-    2. Biography    3. Government - Legislative Branch    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. Kerry, John,    6. Legislators    7. Military - Vietnam War    8. Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism    9. Political Process - Elections    10. Political Science    11. Politics / Current Events    12. Politics/International Relations    13. Presidential candidates    14. Public opinion    15. Soldiers    16. U.S. Presidential Elections    17. U.S. Senate    18. United States    19. American history: postwar, from c 1945 -    20. Naval forces & warfare    21. Political Science / General    22. Political leaders & leadership    23. USA   

Reviews (5)

Thank you!
I received my book on time and in great condition!! Better than I had expected! Thank you!!

Excellent Textbook on Congress
This is probably the best textbook on Congress for undergraduates that I have seen.Primarily I like it because it's easy to read and very well written, covers all the important topics, and is not tedious.Now you might think being easy to read isn't important since it's for college students.But believe me, if you want students to actually read the assignment, more engaging texts are important.

Excellent textbook, lots of examples, and a good read
If you are looking for a textbook for upper-division classes on Congress, this is the one.It is thorough, full of interesting stories and examples, it's not too long, and it's easy to read. Oh, and it has lots of pictures! If you want to know how the US Congress works, this is the best text I've seen. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Government - Legislative Branch    2. Political Science    3. Politics / Current Events    4. Politics/International Relations    5. U.S. Congress (General)    6. Central government    7. Political structure & processes    8. USA   

Reviews (5)

A "must" read for Nurses!!!
This book is like a bible to me. I have read the book several times, picking it up, reading parts...and always being empowered by it. I would highly recommend this book for nurses of all walks. Authors, Buresh & Gordon help nurses understand the deliberate dimantling of their profession/healthcare and give them clear tools (with examples) on how to reclaim their most valued existance. Nurses and their patients have a symbiotic relationship...if nursing is lost...so are their patients. From Silence to Voice will teach the reader how to enlist the public for survival. Thank you to Ms. Buresh & Ms. Gordon. The reader won't be disappointed!

Finding Voice
From Silence to Voice by Bernice Buresh and Suzanne Gordon is a must-read for all nurses. The message of the book is one nurses need to hear: talk about your work, show the world what you do, communicate the fact that nursing is skilled, responsible and interesting work. Buresh and Gordon make clear that much of the devaluing of nursing arises out of the fact that nurses avoid the limelight. Like the ubiquitous 'good woman' behind every successful man, nurses let their work be the backdrop for medical care, and for patients managing their own care. The consequences of downplaying the contribution of nursing to patient care is that our work is not noticed, our profession is not valued, and fewer and fewer people want to become nurses. Buresh and Gordon not only argue convincingly that nurses can be their own worst enemies in this respect, they provide a comprehensive range of strategies to teach nurses how to talk about their work, and (vitally) how to make people interested in hearing about it. These strategies range from ways of talking about nursing work to friends and family, to running a media campaign to support a union action, to writing oped pieces for major newspapers. I learnt a great deal from reading and re-reading From Silence to Voice and I recommend that it be part of curriculum for nursing students, be used for professional development sessions for working nurses, and adopted as a tool kit for union activists, professional officers and nursing leaders. Whether you are a student starting out in the nursing profession, a bedside clinican, a manager, organizer or educator, Buresh and Gordon's text is an eye-opener. Nurses as individuals and as a profession need to develop the communication skills and political savvy this book offers. And we need to do it right now! Sioban Nelson, RN, PhD, BA(Hons), School of Postgraduate Nursing,The University of Melbourne,Victoria, AustraliaEditor, Nursing Inquiry.

These two journalists are nursing the nurses
Bernice and Suzanne are two journalists who have taken on the nursing profession more or less the way we take on a patient with a life-threatening condition that is curable but requires both intensive and long term care.The diagnosis is silence.On account of our collective silence, we nurses miss the opportunity to show ourselves as consequential in the delivery of health care.And, as we well know, being inconsequential is ultimately fatal not just to nursing jobs and the status of the nursing profession but to our patients, who pay the highest price for inadequate nursing care.The remedy for silence is voice--our voices raised in conversation first and foremost with our families, friends and patients and also with the general public. I love this book.It's full of stories and information.It's also refreshingly direct.My copy is marked up from front to back. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Communication in nursing    2. Government - Legislative Branch    3. Mass media    4. Medical    5. Medical / Nursing    6. Nursing    7. Nursing - Issues    8. Nursing - Nurse & Patient    9. USA   

Editorial Review

Conservative talk radio host, lawyer, and frequent Read more

Reviews (216)

some of the usual faulty rhetoric
Mark Levin's book falls into some of the usual pitfalls that almost all biased political argumentation today falls into--evidence is often stretched and recontextualized to fit certain predisposed conclusions.The book is clearly well researched, and Levin is no doubt quite knowledgeable about legal process and the language of the US Constitution, but his conclusions are often stretched to a degree that no longer fits the evidence.I would hesitate comparing his method to a smokescreen, for I am not entirely sure if Levin is purposefully making exaggerated claims that he doesn't support but artfully disguises in the ethos of research, but at the core of many of his ideas are assumptions or basic contradictions that he just can't back up.
Excellent Choice of Subject Matter
Overall, Americans tend to pay little attention to politics. When they do, the vast majority of that attention is focused on the Executive and Legislative Branches. As a result, the judicial branch has almost no accountability and becomes the weak link in the chain of Democracy. Levin shows that it is through this weak link that liberals are able to get their agendas voted in to law (bypassing the Congress, the President and the American people) simply by having a liberal judge impose their personal opinion on us under the guise of a "ruling". This is clearly not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

Judicial tyranny
Probably one of the best books you will find out there at this time on the Constitution and the tyrannical judiciary system.Of course this was a few months ago now.Make sure to read Constitutional Chaos by Judge Andrew Napolitano.The supreme court is turning the Constitution on it's head by making law instead of faithfully interpreting it as it was written.
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Subjects:  1. Conservatism    2. Courts - Supreme Court    3. Government - Judicial Branch    4. Government - Legislative Branch    5. Legal System    6. Liberalism    7. Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism    8. Political Science    9. Politics / Current Events    10. Politics/International Relations    11. Current Events / General   

Reviews (2)

Analyzing the influence of the judicial decision-making and control through congressionally appointed judges
When Courts And Congress Collide: The Struggle For Control Of America's Judicial System by Charles Gardner Geyh (Professor of Law and Charles L. Whistler Faculty Fellow at Indiana University at Bloomington) is an in-depth, comprehensive, and scholarly study of the history of various checks and balances involved in the procedures of the American court system. Analyzing the influence of the judicial decision-making and control through congressionally appointed judges, When Courts And Congress Collide produces a definitive study of the intricate political power struggle arising from the ideological processes of judicial powers and competing influences throughout the entirety of America political, cultural, and economic life. When Courts And Congress Collide is very strongly recommended to students of American history and political science, as well of the study of the American judicial system in history, in the present, and the foreseeable future.
Congress and Judicial Independence
Given all the recent conservative uproar about Terry Schiavo, and the resulting DeLay/Frist threats to "discipline" the federal courts, not to mention the continuing fallout over Bush v. Gore, this book could not have come along a more opportune time.And a fine book it is irrespective of the timing.The author, currrently a law professor but formerly a judicial clerk, litigator, Judiciary Committee staffer, and judicial branch "lobbyist," is admirably equipped to address this important topic. This is simply the best book on this topic I have seen and an invaluable reference source on this topic.
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Subjects:  1. Courts - General    2. Government - Judicial Branch    3. Government - Legislative Branch    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. Judicial power    6. Law    7. Legislative power    8. Politics / Current Events    9. United States    10. Courts & procedure    11. Political Science / Government / National    12. USA   

Reviews (6)

A history of the House, its actions, and how past decisions differ from modern times
The House of Representatives is supposed to be closest to the desires of ordinary citizens - but in reality it's lost its way and in recent years are more fixed on power plays than consumer representation: that's the message of FIGHT CLUB POLITICS: HOW PARTISANSHIP IS POISONING THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Here's an important survey for any who would understand modern politics: it provides a history of the House, its actions, and how past decisions differ from modern times.
Explains Why the House is so Extreme
The creation of politically safe, more ideologically tilted congressional seats through redistricting has cemented the Republican hold on power and made the House of Representatives unrepresentative - so charges Eilperin in "Fight Club Politics."Republicans take about two-thirds of committee seats, even though they had only 52.9% of the vote in '94.Another "innovation" was having leadership PACs dole out money, instead of challengers, junior lawmakers, and possibly more independent lawmakers.
insightful and enjoyable
This book is a pleasure to read, offering insightful and amusing anecdotes and quotes gathered personally by the author. For veterans of Capitol Hill, Fight Club offers fresh analysis of what ails Congress. For those less familiar with the inner workings of Congress, this book is a fun and educational read that helps explain why the two parties are unable to find common solutions to some of the country's most pressing issues. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Apportionment (Election law)    2. Election districts    3. Government - Legislative Branch    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. History    6. Legislative Bodies    7. Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism    8. Political Parties    9. Political Process - Elections    10. Political Process - Political Parties    11. Political Science    12. Politics / Current Events    13. Politics/International Relations    14. United States    15. Central government    16. Political Science / General    17. Political Science / Political Parties    18. USA   

Reviews (9)

Umm, did I read the same book?
I'm having a hard time believing the reviews I see here. Gucci Gulch is by far one of the most boring books I've read this year. Perhaps, it's because it was required literature for Intro to Poli Sci, but that's beside the point. This book is too detailed. I agree with the comment where it should have been condensed, but I want to stress that this information cannot be found elsewhere without intense research. I commend the author for his diligent work, but this book just wasn't for me. It's 291 pages on the Tax Reform of 1986. If that's your cup of joe, I would highly suggest it. Avoid it if you are a casual reader.

a good book
Definitely an enjoyable book that gives insight into the behind-the-scenes details of congressional politics. "Showdown" is a great book if you are interested in the nitty-gritty details of lobbying or Congress and Birnbaum and Murray provide a knack for detail (and humour) rarely found in today's books. Written in '86ish, and still a classic. A great supplement to "The Power Game" by Hedrick Smith.