Review:Is American democracy dying? This is the question that Harvard government professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt set out to answer in How Democracies Die. Drawing on decades of research in comparative politics around in Europe and Latin America, they review the conditions of today's fractured American polity with Donald Trump in the White House.
Four Indicators of Authoritarian Behavior
The principal contribution Levitsky and Ziblatt bring to their topic are the Four Indicators of A... Read more

Review:This week I've reviewed two very different yet very good books...this one and Necessary Evil: How to Fix Finance by Saving Human Rights
By: David Kinley. Both are exceptionally well written. Both present unique perspectives on the current state of affairs and both bring up compelling points for the reader to carefully consider. it's the solutions that are so incredibly diverse and that lends credence to the idea that these are incredibly challenging circumstances with equally divisive perspec... Read more

Review:Spycraft, an important work that must be listen to/read and understood, especially in light of cooling relations with the Russians (once again). Anyone who has lived through the cold war will remember the tensions of the 'doomsday' clock and how it colored our world. As I remembered living through those times I felt there was an under current beyond our perception, struggling for dominance. This book details the struggle and fills in all the things you thought must have been happening. Read more

Review:Very well written, very interesting, and well researched. What I didn't like is that in the Kindle edition there are charts, graphs, photos, etc. that should have been included right along with the text. As it turns out, while reading one must skip elsewhere in the book time after time. That becomes very annoying and breaks up any meaningful continuity of the read. (I chose not to take the time often). There are also too many misspelled words, incomplete sentences, and other errors. Better pro... Read more

Review:This appears to be an extremely interesting book, however I have to rate it low because it's mostly illegible. For whatever reason, the publisher decided to make the pages of the entire book look dingy and most of the regular print is blurred (I guess to give the piece a more mysterious or secretive look). There are very many copies of declassified documents included in the book, but they're mostly in very tiny print and/or very blurred print (like you're looking at copies of copies of copies - ... Read more

Review:This book should be required reading for everyone who decides questions of war and peace, even as a citizen writing letter to Congress or the President. General Butler gives a whole new view of what is involved in using military force "to protect American interests." WARNING: Some of the photographs in the back of war's results are not just graphic but gruesome. Read more

Review:Napolitano tells it like it is, sparing the typical fluff you get from the network news analysts. This book provides the insights and template for reversing the insidious government "creep" that is choking what's left of the American Dream. Patriots Unite! Before it's too late. Read more

Review:I bought this simply because so many think no one should be allowed to have it and that was good enough for me, so I orderd it. I haven't read it but I am sure it is prominently placed in my book shelf so it will be as controversial as possible to all my peace love and stoner friends. I actually have no desire to know the stuff in the book but I really don't like people telling me they have read it and others should not be allowed to because it didn't hurt them but others can't handle it. Read more

Review:This book is even more relevant today than it was in the time of Nixon when it was written. The fact that too few people read it explains how this country was able to be suckered by con-servative artists like Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush, along with their cronies in Saudi Arabia, Capitalist China, Silverado, Enron, Halliburton, etc. Read more

Review:An incisive critique of the enigma that Gandhi was, the gigantuan effort he put into, to shape and wield the political and psychological forces that led to the ousting of the island nation of England, who found India , their 'Jewel in the Crown, too good to leave behind. Great book. Read more