Best of
Government
1992
Inside American Education
Thomas Sowell - 1992
An indictment of the American educational system criticizes the fact that the system has discarded the traditional goals of transmitting knowledge and fostering cognitive skills in favor of building self-esteem and promoting social harmony.
Distant Voices
John Pilger - 1992
This edition also contains more new material as well as all the original essays - from the myth-making of the Gulf War to the surreal pleasures of Disneyland. Breaking through the consensual silence, Pilger pays tribute to those dissenting voices we are seldom permitted to hear.
Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy
William Greider - 1992
Here is a tough-minded exploration of why we're in trouble, starting with the basic issues of who gets heard, who gets ignored, and why. Greider shows us the realities of power in Washington today, uncovering the hidden relationships that link politicians with corporations and the rich, and that subvert the needs of ordinary citizens. How do we put meaning back into public life? Greider shares the stories of some citizens who have managed to crack Washington's "Grand Bazaar" of influence peddling as he reveals the structures designed to thwart them. Without naiveté or cynicism, Greider shows us how the system can still be made to work for the people, and delineates the lines of battle in the struggle to save democracy. By showing us the reality of how the political decisions that shape our lives are made, William Greider explains how we can begin to take control once more.
The Portable Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln - 1992
Features the "House Divided" speech, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and 75 other selections.
The World Order: Our Secret Rulers
Eustace Clarence Mullins - 1992
It also includes some interesting history of the major tax exempt foundations. Unfortunately, this edition does not include footnotes.
The Tragedy of American Compassion
Marvin Olasky - 1992
Examines America's dismal welfare state and challenges the church to return to its biblical role as guardian of the poor.
America: What Went Wrong?
Donald L. Barlett - 1992
Barlett and Steele deftly expose the shifting tax burdens, deregulation, foreign investment, bankruptcy laws, and other changes that have reeked havoc on the middle class.
Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations, and the U.S. Constitution
Oren Lyons - 1992
European philosophers of the Enlightenment such as Jean Jacques Rousseau had begun pressing for democratic reforms in Europe on the basis of glowing reports by early settlers about the New World and its native inhabitants. The founding fathers of the United States, in turn, were inspired to fight for independence and to create the great American documents of freedom through contact with Native American statesmen and exposure to American Indian societies based on individual freedom, representative government and the democratic union of tribes.Yet American Indians have never been acknowledged for their many contributions to the founding of the United States of America, and they have never been permitted to fully share the benefits of the freedoms they helped establish. Exiled in the Land of the Free is a dramatic recounting of early American history and an eloquent call for reform that will not be ignored.Written by eight prominent Native American leaders and scholars, each a specialist in his area of expertise, Exiled in the Land of the Free is a landmark volume, sure to be read by generations to come. An aspect of American history that has been ignored and denied for centuries is the extent to which we are indebted to Native Americans for the principles and practices on which our democratic institutions are based. This is the first work to recognize that legacy and trace our model of participatory democracy to its Native American roots.This book, which was written into the Congressional Record, has major implications for future relations between Indian tribes and the governments of the United States and other nations. It presents the strongest case ever made for Native American sovereignty. American history has finally been written--not from the European point of view--but from an Indian perspective.
Ruby Mae Has Something to Say
David Small - 1992
in full color. Miss Ruby Mae Foote, governor of Nada, Texas, has a big ambition: to deliver a message of universal peace and understanding at the United Nations. Problem is, she's tongue-tied. To help her out, her nephew Billy Bob invents the "Bobatron" (a hatlike device made out of kitchen utensils). When Ruby Mae puts it on she becomes eloquent--and successful.
FREEDOM OF OPPORTUNITY NOT EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY
George Reisman - 1992
Achieving it would require that children all be raised in the same environment and have the same genetic inheritance. In contrast, the essay shows that what we should actually strive for is the freedom of opportunity. Freedom of opportunity means the ability to exploit the opportunities afforded by reality, without being stopped by the initiation of physical force, in particular the initiation of physical force by the government or that takes place with the sanction of the government.For example, people are unable to find work not because there is no work for them to do in physical reality, but because government and labor-union interference, based on the initiation of physical force, prices their labor beyond the reach of potential employers. The amount of work that is out there waiting to be done may be gauged by adding up all the goods and services people would like to have but presently can’t afford to buy. The total of such work far exceeds our ability ever to preform it. Physical force, or the threat of physical force, is what stops people from seizing such opportunities to the point of all who want jobs finding jobs. It creates unemployment in violating people’s freedom of opportunity.The essay shows what opportunities actually are, how they are the product of human thought and effort, and why and how they require individual freedom for their exploitation. The essay upholds the idea of “the self-made man” and demonstrates how and why in later life—in a free society—children born to poor parents can, and again and again do, overtake and surpass the children of far wealthier parents.The essay is essential reading for anyone who wants to defend not only individual freedom but also economic inequality and the institution of inheritance.
Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Institutional Powers and Constraints
Lee J. Epstein - 1992
Photographs of litigants, exhibits from the cases, and descriptions of events that led to suits animate the text.This new edition is extensively revised to bring developments in constitutional law up to date, including major dissenting and concurring opinions, decision making, and discussions of future trends.
The Lockean Theory of Rights
John A. Simmons - 1992
But The Lockean Theory of Rights is the first systematic, full-length study of Locke's theory of rights and of its potential for making genuine contributions to contemporary debates about rights and their place in political philosophy. Given that the rights of persons are the central moral concept at work in Locke's and Lockean political philosophy, such a study is long overdue.
The Great Thirst: Californians and Water: A History
Norris Hundley Jr. - 1992
People the world over confront these problems, and Hundley examines them with clarity and eloquence in the unruly laboratory of California.The obsession with water has shaped California to a remarkable extent, literally as well as politically and culturally. Hundley tells how aboriginal Americans and then early Spanish and Mexican immigrants contrived to use and share the available water and how American settlers, arriving in ever-increasing numbers after the Gold Rush, transformed California into the home of the nation's preeminent water seekers. The desire to use, profit from, manipulate, and control water drives the people and events in this fascinating narrative until, by the end of the twentieth century, a large, colorful cast of characters and communities has wheeled and dealed, built, diverted, and connived its way to an entirely different statewide waterscape.
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's Grand and Global Alliance
John F. Kennedy - 1992
In some ways his admonition to look beyond containment resembles President Bush's recent emphasis on collective security and a "new world order", but JFK's "global alliance" seems more specific in several details which are developed in the editor's essay in the text. President Kennedy's proposed global alliance could provide the foundation for international political machinery to check tyranny, harbor ideological differences, curb environmental deterioration and secure the peace.
Forty Days
Bob Simon - 1992
Simon recounts his harrowing ordeal and the events leading up to his release, including the intervention of Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Maximum Wage: A Common Sense Perscription For Revitilizing America By Taxing The Very Rich
Sam Pizzigati - 1992
Traces the history of attempts to limit incomes, and proposes the adoption of a maximum wage as a way to revitalize both democracy and the economy.