Best of
Government

1979

The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court


Bob Woodward - 1979
    The Brethren is the first detailed behind-the-scenes account of the Supreme Court in action.Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong have pierced its secrecy to give us an unprecedented view of the Chief and Associate Justices—maneuvering, arguing, politicking, compromising, and making decisions that affect every major area of American life.

The Craft of Power


R.G.H. Siu - 1979
    Presents basic techniques for the management of people and organizations. Guidelines are presented in a ``how to'' fashion, illustrated by real-life examples. Evaluates power posture, then spells out operational specifics. Defines power and the social setting in which power is exercised. Explains fifteen ways of measuring one's competitive strength. Deals with techniques for harnessing people and money in the drive for power.

The Government Against the Economy


George Reisman - 1979
    Again and again, it illustrates the economic coordination of a free economy by contrasting it with the chaos produced by price controls and, as the ultimate culmination of price controls, socialism.Written for the intelligent layman who may have no previous knowledge of basic economic theory, this book not only shows where government policy went wrong in imposing price controls, it also shows how free-market prices are essential to the success of our economic system in producing for the benefit of everyone. Included are explanations of: how a free market would progressively reduce the cost of energy, along with that of all other goods; why the Arab oil embargo would not have been a threat to a free economy; how price controls actually raise prices; how partial price controls lead to universal price controls; how universal price controls represent de facto socialism; why Nazi Germany was a socialist country; and why socialism, rather than representing any kind of genuine economic planning, is in fact chaotic and necessarily tyrannical.For those who want to understand how a free-market economy really works and how price controls and socialism create chaos and poverty, this book is mandatory reading.Here is what two of the most famous advocates of the free market have said about this book:“Every commentator on current affairs who is not a fully trained economist ought to read this book if he wants to talk sense. I know no other place where the crucial issues are explained as clearly and convincingly as in this book.” - F. A. Hayek, Nobel Laureate, in Economics for 1975“This is one of the most powerful and convincing books I know. Its explanations are brilliantly clear; its analyses are lethal; it is uncompromising. Readers who come to it without any previous knowledge of basic economic theory will find it a luminous introduction. If any book can slow down the economic destructionism of our age, this could be it.” - Henry Hazlitt, Economist, Author, former Newsweek columnist and New York Times financial editor

The Man Who Kept The Secrets: Richard Helms And The CIA


Thomas Powers - 1979
    For 30 years--from the very inception of the Central Intelligence Agency & before--he occupied pivotal positions in that shadowy world: OSS operator, spymaster, planner, plotter, &, finally, for over 6 years, Agency director. No other was so closely & personally involved, over so long a period, with so many CIA activities, successful & otherwise. His story is the story of the CIA. In portraying Helms' extraordinary career, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Powers has in fact written the 1st comprehensive inside history of the CIA itself. It's a history, moreover, that is entirely uncensored. While the information on which it's based has been drawn from intensive interviews with dozens of former key Agency officials, including Helms himself, as well as from exhaustive research thru hundreds of published & unpublished sources, the author isn't subject to the kind of legal restraints that have burdened others writing about the CIA. The result is a picture of the Agency more objective, more complete & more revealing than any hitherto available. Because it's written with an eye for character & anecdote, it's as readable as it's important.