Best of
Journalism

2008

Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee


Chloe Hooper - 2008
    Forty minutes later he was dead in the jailhouse. The police claimed he'd tripped on a step, but his liver was ruptured. The main suspect was Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley, a charismatic cop with long experience in Aboriginal communities and decorations for his work. Chloe Hooper was asked to write about the case by the pro bono lawyer who represented Cameron Doomadgee's family. He told her it would take a couple of weeks. She spent three years following Hurley's trail to some of the wildest and most remote parts of Australia, exploring Aboriginal myths and history and the roots of brutal chaos in the Palm Island community. Her stunning account goes to the heart of a struggle for power, revenge, and justice. Told in luminous detail, Tall Man is as urgent as Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and The Executioner's Song. It is the story of two worlds clashing -- and a haunting moral puzzle that no reader will forget.

Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives


Jim Sheeler - 2008
    It begins with a knock at the door. “The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know,” said Major Steve Beck. Since the start of the war in Iraq, Marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines. Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead Marine’s name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark. In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Salute is the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.

The Forever War


Dexter Filkins - 2008
    We go into the homes of suicide bombers and into street-to-street fighting with a battalion of marines. We meet Iraqi insurgents, an American captain who loses a quarter of his men in eight days, and a young soldier from Georgia on a rooftop at midnight reminiscing about his girlfriend back home. A car bomb explodes, bullets fly, and a mother cradles her blinded son.Like no other book, The Forever War allows us a visceral understanding of today’s battlefields and of the experiences of the people on the ground, warriors and innocents alike. It is a brilliant, fearless work, not just about America’s wars after 9/11, but ultimately about the nature of war itself.

Vanity Fair: The Portraits: A Century of Iconic Images


Graydon Carter - 2008
    The photographers — from Edward Steichen and Cecil Beaton to Annie Leibovitz and Mario Testino — are a glittering and celebrated group themselves. Their portraits have become the iconic likenesses of the best-known figures from the worlds of art, film, music, sports, business, and politics.From legends such as Pablo Picasso, Amelia Earhart, Cary Grant, and Katharine Hepburn to the stars, writers, athletes, style icons, and titans of business and politics of today, Vanity Fair: The Portraits offers an authoritative roster of talent and glamour in the 20th century.

Flat Earth News: An Award-Winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media


Nick Davies - 2008
    In this eye-opening exposé, Davies uncovers an industry awash in corruption and bias. His findings include the story of a prestigious Sunday newspaper that allowed the CIA to plant fiction in its columns; the newsroom that routinely rejects stories about black people; the respected paper that hired a professional fraudster to set up a front company to entrap senior political figures; as well as a number of newspapers that pay cash bribes to bent detectives. His research also exposes a range of national stories that were in fact pseudo events manufactured by the public relations industry and global news stories that were fiction generated by a machinery of international propaganda. The degree to which the media industry has affected government policy and perverted popular belief is also addressed. Gripping and thought-provoking, this is an insider’s look at one of the world’s most tainted professions.

In a Different Time: The Inside Story of the Delmas Four


Peter Harris - 2008
    They are a highly trained and experienced assassination squad reporting directly to Chris Hani.The narrative details their infiltration into the country, their operations, arrest and subsequent trial. These men are the foot soldiers who sacrificed everything. As their trial unfolds with their attorney fighting to save them from the gallows, so too does the story of their own lives and the choices they make. The story is set in a South Africa gripped by unrest and political tension, when the ANC was in exile and repression at its height.It tells of the extraordinary lengths people go to in order to fight for what they believe, and the acts people will commit to preserve the status quo. The characters are linked by bizarre coincidence and tragedy in a true account narrated by their attorney.Woven through the narrative is the construction of a bomb and its journey towards its target, and the circumstances which enable that meeting.

Moyers on Democracy


Bill Moyers - 2008
    In the searching of our souls demanded by this challenge . . . kindred spirits across the nation must confront the most fundamental liberal failure of the current era: the failure to embrace a moral vision of America based on the transcendent faith that human beings are more than the sum of their material appetites, our country is more than an economic machine, and freedom is not license but responsibility—the gift we have received and the legacy we must bequeath. “Although our sojourn in life is brief, we are on a great journey. For those who came before us and for those who follow, our moral, political, and religious duty to make sure that this nation, which was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all are equal under the law, is in good hands on our watch.” —from “For America’s Sake”People know Bill Moyers mostly from his many years of path-breaking journalism on television. But he is also one of America’s most sought-after public speakers. His appearances draw sell-out crowds across the country and are among the most reproduced on the Web. “And one reason,” writes noted journalist Bill McKibben, “is that Moyers pulls no punches. His understanding of America’s history is at least as deep as his understanding of Christian tradition, which is an integral part of his background . . . With his feet firmly planted in the deepest American traditions, Bill Moyers is helping to keep alive an oratorical tradition that is fading after two centuries. Trained by his career in broadcasting, he writes for the ear, his cadences and his repetitions timed to bring an audience to full realization of its role and its power.” And that is the message of this book. Moyers on Democracy collects many of Bill Moyers’s most moving statements to connect the dots on what is happening to our country—the twinned growth of private wealth and public squalor, the assault on our Constitution, the undermining of the electoral process, the accelerating class war against ordinary (and vulnerable) Americans inherent in the growth of economic inequality, the dangers of an imperial executive, the attack on the independence of the press, the despoiling of the earth we share as our common gift—and to rekindle the reader’s conviction that “the gravediggers of democracy will not have the last word.” Richly insightful and alive with a fierce, abiding love for our country, Moyers on Democracy is essential reading in this fateful presidential year.

The Gonzo Tapes: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson


Hunter S. Thompson - 2008
    Hunter S. Thompson, filmmaker Alex Gibney and archivist Don Fleming were given permission by Thompson's widow to explore boxes of tapes stored in the basement of his Owl Farm home in Woody Creek, Colorado. Recorded by Thompson between 1965 and 1975, these audio notes capture his thoughts and descriptions both as they're happening and during the writing process, from his travels with Terry the Tramp and the rest of the Hell's Angels, through the infamous Las Vegas trips, to Thompson's trek across Southeast Asia during the fall of South Vietnam. Fleming—former front man of the band Velvet Monkeys and now a music producer for the likes of Sonic Youth and Alice Cooper—transferred the tapes and cassettes to digital files for use in the film, but also realized their tremendous value as a direct window into Thompson's thoughts and methods. Here Fleming presents these recordings in a 5-CD set, boxed in a 6 x 12-inch coffee-table format with a booklet full of never-before published images from Thompson's estate, as well as photos and an introduction from Gibney, and an essay by Thompson's fellow correspondent Loren Jenkins.- Daedalus Books Online

Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production


Jonathan Kern - 2008
    Maybe you’re thinking about starting a podcast, and want some tips from the pros. Or maybe storytelling has always been a passion of yours, and you want to learn to do it more effectively. Whatever the case—whether you’re an avid NPR listener or you aspire to create your own audio, or both—Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production will give you a rare tour of the world of a professional broadcaster.Jonathan Kern, who has trained NPR’s on-air staff for years, is a gifted guide, able to narrate a day in the life of a host and lay out the nuts and bolts of production with equal wit and warmth. Along the way, he explains the importance of writing the way you speak, reveals how NPR books guests ranging from world leaders to neighborhood newsmakers, and gives sage advice on everything from proposing stories to editors to maintaining balance and objectivity. Best of all—because NPR wouldn’t be NPR without its array of distinctive voices—lively examples from popular shows and colorful anecdotes from favorite personalities animate each chapter.As public radio’s audience of millions can attest, NPR’s unique guiding principles and technical expertise combine to connect with listeners like no other medium can. With today’s technologies allowing more people to turn their home computers into broadcast studios, Sound Reporting couldn’t have arrived at a better moment to reveal the secrets behind the story of NPR’s success.

Souls in the Hands of a Tender God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets


Craig Rennebohm - 2008
    In Souls in the Hands of a Tender God, he tells the evocative stories of persons who desperately need psychiatric, psychological, and spiritual support-like Mary, who surrounds herself with huge trash bags for protection from a threatening world; Jerry, whose fits of rage get him barred from every shelter and meal program in Seattle; and others, abandoned and marginalized by their community, who need care and treatment to find their way back to a life of stability and meaning. As Rennebohm reaches out to each one, their stories become parables that explore mental illness and the spiritual heart of care and recovery, helping us understand what it means to be human, on a pilgrimage together toward wholeness.As these stories unfold, we encounter Rennebohm's powerful experiences with a God of kindness and compassion, drawn from his own life and the lives of those he has aided in their struggles with homelessness and with mental illness. Souls in the Hands of a Tender God offers a clear understanding of Spirit, faith, soul, and religion that will prove invaluable to individual conversations and to dialogue among congregations about how we can best serve "the least among us."Souls in the Hands of a Tender God follows the path of healing and the way of companionship to build communities of caring that welcome and include our most fragile and troubled neighbors. With gentleness and grace, solid knowledge and wisdom, Rennebohm lays down the foundations of healing communities in which all may have a home, safely rest, and be well.

Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson


Hunter S. Thompson - 2008
    Thompson (1937-2005) commandeered the international literary limelight with his best-selling, comic masterpiece Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Following his 1966 debut Hell's Angels, Thompson displayed an uncanny flair for inserting himself into the epicenter of major sociopolitical events of our generation. His audacious, satirical, ranting screeds on American culture have been widely read and admired. Whether in books, essays, or collections of his correspondence, his raging and incisive voice and writing style are unmistakable.Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson is the first compilation of selected personal interviews that traces the trajectory of his prolific and much-publicized career. These engaging exchanges reveal Thompson's determination, self-indulgence, energy, outrageous wit, ire, and passions as he discusses his life and work.Beef Torrey is the editor of Conversations with Thomas McGuane and co-editor of the forthcoming Jim Harrison: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Kevin Simonson has been published in SPIN, Rolling Stone, Village Voice, and Hustler.

The War Nerd


Gary Brecher - 2008
    But Brecher writes about war, too. War Nerd collects his most opinionated, enraging, enlightening, and entertaining pieces. Part war commentator, part angry humorist àla Bill Hicks, Brecher inveighs against pieties of all stripes — Liberian generals, Dick Cheney, U.N. peacekeepers, the neo-cons — and the massive incompetence of military powers. A provocative free thinker, he finds much to admire in the most unlikely places, and not always for the most pacifistic reasons: the Tamil Tigers, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Danes of 1,000 years ago, and so on, across the globe and through the centuries. Crude, scatological, un-P.C., yet deeply informed, Brecher provides a radically different, completely unvarnished perspective on the nature of warfare.

The Kitchen Readings: Untold Stories of Hunter S. Thompson


Michael Cleverly - 2008
    Do not attempt them at home.

The Hell of It All


Charlie Brooker - 2008
    It's been downhill ever since. For all this talk of our dazzling modern age, the two biggest advances of the past decade are Wi-Fi and Nando's. That's the best we can do.'In his latest laugh-out-loud collection of misanthropic scribblings, hideous Q-list celebrity failure Charlie Brooker tackles everything from the misery of nightclubs to the death of Michael Jackson, making room for Sir Alan Sugar, potato crisps, global financial meltdown, conspiracy theories and Hole in the Wall along the way. The collapse of civilisation has never felt this funny (unless you're a sociopath, in which case it's been an uninterrupted laugh riot since the days of the Somme).This book is guaranteed to brighten your life, put a spring in your step, and lie to you on its back cover.

Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands


Christina Lamb - 2008
    Since leaving England aged 21 with an invitation to a Karachi wedding and a yearning for adventure, Christina Lamb has spent 20 years living out of suitcases, reporting from around the world and becoming one of Britain’s most highly regarded journalists. She has won numerous awards, including being named Foreign Correspondent of the Year a remarkable four times.‘Small Wars Permitting’ is a collection of her best reportage, following the principal events of the last two decades everywhere from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. But Lamb’s main interest has always been in the untold stories, the people and places others don’t visit. Undaunted by danger, disease or despots, she has travelled by canoe through the Amazon rainforest in search of un-contacted Indians, joined a Rio samba school to infiltrate crime rackets behind Carnival and survived a terrifying ambush by Taliban.No less remarkable are the characters that Lamb meets along the way, from Marsh Arabs who covet Play Stations instead of buffaloes to an Armenian compère for performing dolphins with whom she travelled during the war in Iraq.Lamb’s writing is passionate, powerful and poetic, transforming reportage into literature. Through the stories she tells – and her own development from a self-confessed ‘war junkie’ to a devoted mother – Lamb attempts to comprehend the human consequences of conflict in the countries she has come to know.

The New York Times


The New York Times - 2008
    Widely quoted, and often hotly debated, The New York Times is held by its readers to the highest of standards and continues to be regarded by many as the nation's pre-eminent newspaper. The New York Times has earned an unprecedented 94 Pulitzer Prizes, far more than any other newspaper. A global news staff covers a wide range of interests: from world, national and New York issues to business, culture, science, religion, travel, style, food, sports, health and home. In addition to outside contributors, the editorials page features The New York Times' own team of award-winning columnists: David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Thomas L. Friedman, Bob Herbert, Nicholas D. Kristof, Paul Krugman, Frank Rich and John Tierney. The Kindle Edition of The New York Times contains articles found in the print edition, but will not include some images and tables. Also, some features such as the crossword puzzle, box scores and classifieds are not currently available. For your convenience, issues are automatically delivered wirelessly to your Kindle at 5:00 AM on the weekdays and 5:30 AM on weekends New York City local time. We will share the name, billing address, and order information associated with the publisher of this periodical. Because this publisher is the seller of the periodical, we will provide this information to them for use by them as data controller including for direct marketing purposes.

Photojournalism: The Professionals' Approach [With Dvdrom]


Kenneth Kobre - 2008
    The DVD features footage of working professionals handling on-the-job challenges. This revised edition features information on new laws affecting photojournalists, new trends in multimedia to keep skills competitive, and as the world grows smaller, a look back at some international history in the photography world. Updates throughout the a imaging chapter, feature pictures, picture editing, ethics, law and wartime censorship keep this book the bible it is known to be. More interviews and case studies with industry greats result in a stunning and dramatic showcase of the best of photojournalism. What's new to this edition: * Chapter on Multimedia introduces still photojournalists to reporting and sound gathering for multimedia and video reports for the Internet and television.* Chapter on Video examines tools and techniques for shooting and storytelling in video.* DVD includes a new hour-long documentary that takes readers inside Sports Illustrated to see how editors at the weekly magazine edit the world s greatest sports photos.* Professor Kobre s blog provides links to multimedia and video pieces featured in this edition, and beyond: http: //kenkobre.blog.bom

Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist


Philip Dray - 2008
    Wells was not yet two years old, the Emancipation Proclamation freed her from the bond of slavery. For her family and others like them, it was a time of renewed faith in America's promise of freedom and justice for all. Blessed with a strong will, an eager mind, and a deep belief in this promise, young Ida never turned away from the challenges she faced. She insisted on holding her family together after the death of her parents. She defied convention and went to court when a railroad company infringed on her rights. And she used her position as a journalist to speak out about injustice. But Ida's greatest challenge arose after one of her friends was lynched. How could one headstrong young woman help free America from the shadow of lawlessness that loomed over the country? Author Philip Dray tells the inspirational story of Ida B. Wells, from her birth into a slave family in Mississippi and her early encounters with racism to her lifelong commitment to end injustice. Award-winning illustrator Stephen Alcorn's remarkable illustrations recreate the tensions that threatened to upend a nation a century ago while paying tribute to a courageous American hero.

Guys and Dolls and Other Writings


Damon Runyon - 2008
    From sports writing to short fiction, this unique collection offers an eclectic sampling of his extraordinary talent. Here are newspaper pieces, stories- including the last one he ever composed-poetry, and, of course, the Broadway tales for which he is chiefly remembered: Guys and Dolls, Blood Pressure, The Bloodhounds of Broadway, and others. Featuring works that are impossible to find elsewhere, and Runyon's signature eye for detail-particularly the sounds, smells, and tastes of New York-this book brings an American icon to a new generation of readers.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

A.J. Liebling: World War II Writings


A.J. Liebling - 2008
    J. Liebling spent five years reporting the dramatic events and myriad individual stories of World War II. As a correspondent for The New Yorker, Liebling wrote with a passionate commitment to Allied victory, an unfailing attention to telling details, and an appreciation for the literary challenges presented by the ?discursive, centrifugal, both repetitive and disparate? nature of war. This volume brings together three books along with 26 uncollected New Yorker pieces and two excerpts from The Republic of Silence (1947), Liebling?s collection of writing from the French Resistance.The Road Back to Paris (1944) narrates Liebling?s experiences from September 1939 to March 1943, including his shock at the fall of France and dismay at isolationist indifference in the United States; it contains classic accounts of a winter voyage on a Norwegian tanker during the Battle of the Atlantic, visits to front-line airfields in North Africa, and the defeat of a veteran panzer division by American troops in Tunisia. Mollie and Other War Pieces (1964) brings together Liebling?s portrait of a legendary nonconformist American soldier in North Africa with his eyewitness account of Omaha Beach on D-Day, evocative reports from Normandy, and investigation of a German atrocity in rural France. In Normandy Revisited (1958) Liebling writes about his return to France in 1955 and recalls the joyous liberation of his beloved Paris while exploring with bittersweet perception how wartime experience is transformed into memory. The selection of uncollected New Yorker pieces includes a profile of an RAF ace, surveys of the French underground press, and an encounter with a captured collaborator in Brittany, as well as postwar reflections on battle fatigue, Ernie Pyle, and the writing of military history. With maps and chronology.

Going Deep: 20 Classic Sports Stories


Gary Smith - 2008
    This collection gathers 20 of Smith's stories that showcase the richness of his reporting and the compassion of his craft.

The Zeitgeist Movement: Observations and Responses - Activist Orientation Guide


Peter Joseph - 2008
    Jacque currently lives in Venus, Florida, working closely with his associate, Roxanne Meadows. Now, let it be understood that Mr. Fresco will be the first to tell you that his perspectives and developments are not entirely his own, but rather uniquely derived from the evolution of scientific inquiry which has persevered since the dawn of antiquity. Simply put, what The Venus Project represents and what The Zeitgeist Movement hence condones, could be summarized as: ‘The application of The Scientific Method for social concern.’Through the humane application of Science and Technology to social design and decision-making, we have the means to transform our tribalistic, scarcity driven, corruption filled environment into something exceedingly more organized, balanced, humane, sustainable and productive. To do so, we have to understand who we are, where we are, what we have, what we want, and how we are going to obtain our goals. Given the current state of affairs, many of which will be addressed in the first part of this book, the reader should find that we not only need to move in another direction…we have to. The current economic system is falling apart at an accelerating rate, with the prospect of worldwide unemployment occurring on the largest scale ever seen. Simultaneously, we are courting the “point of no return” in regard to the destruction of the environment.Our current methods of social conduct have proven to have no chance in resolving the problems of environmental destruction, human conflict, poverty, corruption and any other issue that reduces the possibility of collective human sustainability on our planet. It is time we grow up as a species and really examine what the true problems and solutions are, as uncomfortable, nontraditional and foreign as they might seem.This work will first present the current economic problems we face, recognizing root causes, consequences and inevitabilities, while then presenting solutions derived from an assessment of what is actually relevant to life and society. Additionally, information will be provided as to how each one of us can help in this challenge, presenting methods of communication and activism that will hopefully speed up the process of transformation.It is very important that those who begin this work pause for a moment and think about the windows of perspective they have been indoctrinated into. Considering the current vastness of human values and ideologies, coupled with the identification that grows over time with associations to a particular train of thought, tradition or notion of reality, it can be difficult and even painful for aperson to revise or remove the cherished understandings which they have considered true for long periods of time. This ‘ego’ association, coupled with the perpetual state of ‘limited knowledge’ each one of us has, will be the biggest hurdle many will face when reading the information presented here. It is time to broaden our loyalties and affiliations beyond the narrow confines of the marketplace, tradition, and the nation-state to encompass the human species as a whole, along with the planetary environment that supports us all. It is time we view the earth as an indivisible organic whole, a living entity composed of countless forms of life, all brought together in a single community.If nature has taught us only one thing, it is that the only constant is change. There is no such thing as a Utopia. Therefore, in order for us to grow productively as a species, we need to become experts at “changing our minds” about anything and everything. If you choose to approach this material with a conscious attempt at being open-minded and objective, we feel the ideas expressed here will realign your vision of the world, yourself, and the future of our human family in a way that is the most productive, humane and effective.

Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq


Farnaz Fassihi - 2008
    Yet almost no one has spoken at length to the constituency that represents Iraq’s last best hope for a stable country: its ordinary working and middle class.Farnaz Fassihi, The Wall Street Journal’s intrepid senior Middle East correspondent, bridges this gap by unveiling an Iraq that has remained largely hidden since the United States declared their “Mission Accomplished.” Fassihi chronicles the experience of the disenfranchised as they come to terms with the realities of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In an unforgettable portrait of Iraqis whose voices have remained eerily silent—from art gallery owners to clairvoyants, taxi drivers to radicalized teenagers—Fassihi brings to life the very people whose goodwill the U.S. depended upon for a successful occupation. Haunting and lyrical, Waiting for An Ordinary Day tells the long-awaited story of post-occupation Iraq through native eyes.

Economist Book of Obituaries


Keith Colquhoun - 2008
    Each stylishly written story and accompanying photograph surprises, entertains, and stimulates. The titled, wealthy, and powerful are here, of course, including Diana, Princess of Wales, Gerald Ford, Bob Hope, John Paul II, Norman Mailer, Mstislav Rostropovich, and General William Westmoreland, but so are others: a cookery teacher and spy, the inventor of instant noodles, a self-proclaimed gypsy king, a musical psychic, an American gangster, a patriotic crook, a philosopher of consumerism, a master of tabloid journalism, a protector of minorities, a veteran of Gallipoli, the greatest of second bananas, and so on.This book is as entertaining as it is edifying; it's a great gift for biography, history, and popular-culture fans, as well as for everyone who turns first to the obituary pages in the daily newspaper. As Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) put it: "I never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure."

Standing Up To the Madness: Ordinary Heroes In Extraordinary Times


Amy Goodman - 2008
    Where are the millions marching in the streets to defend human rights, civil liberties, and racial justice? Where is the mass revulsion against the killing and torture being carried out in our name? Where are the environmentalists? Where is the peace movement?The answer: They are everywhere. The award-winning sister-brother team of Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and investigative journalist David Goodman traveled the country to detail the ways in which grassroots activists have taken politics out of the hands of politicians. Standing Up to the Madness tells the stories of everyday citizens who have challenged the government and prevailed. As the Bush administration has waged war abroad and at home, it has catalyzed a vast groundswell of political action. From African-American residents of deluged New Orleans who are fighting racism and City Hall to regain their homes; to four Connecticut librarians who refused to spy on their patrons, challenged the USA PATRIOT Act, and won; to a group of high school students who were barred from performing a play they wrote on the Iraq War based on letters from soldiers; to the first U.S. Army officer to publicly refuse orders to deploy to Iraq, charging that his duty as an officer is to refuse to fight in an illegal and immoral war, Standing Up to the Madness profiles citizens rising to extraordinary challenges. And, in the process, they are changing the way that politics is done, both now and in the future. In communities around the United States, courageous individuals have taken leaps of faith to stop the madness. They could only hope that if they led, others would follow. That is how movements are born. What begins as one, eventually becomes many. In that tradition, the authors have included the ways in which any individual can take action and effect change.

The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture


Philip F. Lawler - 2008
    The collapse of Catholicism in Boston became apparent with the explosion of the sex-abuse crisis. Lawler shows that the sex-abuse scandal was neither the cause nor the beginning of Catholicism's decline in Boston.

Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918


Jeffrey Babcock Perry - 2008
    Harrison's ideas profoundly influenced "New Negro" militants, including A. Philip Randolph and Marcus Garvey, and his synthesis of class and race issues is a key unifying link between the two great trends of the Black Liberation Movement: the labor- and civil-rights-based work of Martin Luther King Jr. and the race and nationalist platform associated with Malcolm X.The foremost Black organizer, agitator, and theoretician of the Socialist Party of New York, Harrison was also the founder of the "New Negro" movement, the editor of Negro World, and the principal radical influence on the Garvey movement. He was a highly praised journalist and critic (reportedly the first regular Black book reviewer), a freethinker and early proponent of birth control, a supporter of Black writers and artists, a leading public intellectual, and a bibliophile who helped transform the 135th Street Public Library into an international center for research in Black culture. His biography offers profound insights on race, class, religion, immigration, war, democracy, and social change in America.

Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report-And Survive-The War in Iraq


Kimberly Dozier - 2008
    In Breathing the Fire Dozier offers a personal memoir of tenacity as well as dedication and drama. Through her often painful and inspiring account, readers learn what wounded military personnel-along with their families and friends-endure on the long road to recovery. Dozier also recounts her rise to network broadcasting, shares insights into the culture of war-zone reporting, and describes the unique demands and perils of women covering dangerous events. Dozier is a fighter. She fought to reach her position as a television reporter for CBS News, placing herself on the streets of Baghdad with a military patrol. And she fought to survive after a parked car erupted with deadly shrapnel, shattering her legs, riddling her skull, and killing several in her group. Her book traces the roots of her inner strength, which continues to propel her against daunting obstacles that most people would perceive as insurmountable. In that respect, this book is an inspiring story for women, demonstrating that their dreams and aspirations are limited only by their own resolve-a story that is perfect for its time.

Analisis Framing


Eriyanto - 2008
    

The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century


Steve Coll - 2008
    Until now, however, it is a story that has never been fully told, as the Bin Ladens have successfully fended off attempts to understand the family circles from which Osama sprang. In this the family has been abetted by the kingdom it calls home, Saudi Arabia, one of the most closed societies on earth.Steve Coll’s The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century is the groundbreaking history of a family and its fortune. It chronicles a young illiterate Yemeni bricklayer, Mohamed Bin Laden, who went to the new, oil-rich country of Saudi Arabia and quickly became a vital figure in its development, building great mosques and highways and making himself and many of his children millionaires. It is also a story of the Saudi royal family, whom the Bin Ladens served loyally and without whose capricious favor they would have been nothing. And it is a story of tensions and contradictions in a country founded on extreme religious purity, which then became awash in oil money and dazzled by the temptations of the West. In only two generations the Bin Ladens moved from a famine-stricken desert canyon to luxury jets, yachts, and private compounds around the world, even going into business with Hollywood celebrities. These religious and cultural gyrations resulted in everything from enthusiasm for America—exemplified by Osama’s free-living pilot brother Salem—to an overwhelming determination to destroy it.The Bin Ladens is a meticulously researched, colorful, shocking, entertaining, and disturbing narrative of global integration and its limitations. It encapsulates the unsettling contradictions of globalization in the story of a single family who has used money, mobility, and technology to dramatically varied ends.

These are the Days That Must Happen To You


Dan Walsh - 2008
    His book documents the travels and travails of a bikeworld rebel.

Lapham's Quarterly: Ways of Learning


Lewis H. Lapham - 2008
    Scott Fitzgerald, Geoffrey Chaucer, Donald Barthelme.

Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy


Michael Soussan - 2008
    His mission is to help Iraqi civilians survive the devastating impact of economic sanctions that were imposed following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.As a gaffe-prone novice in a world of sensitive taboos, Soussan struggles to negotiate the increasing paranoia of his incomprehensible boss and the inner workings of one of the world’s notoriously complex bureaucracies. But as he learns more about the vast sums of money flowing through the program, it becomes clear that all is not what it seems. Soussan becomes aware that Saddam Hussein is extracting illegal kickbacks, a discovery that sets him on a collision course with the organization‘s leadership. On March 8, 2004, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed editorial, Soussan becomes the first insider to call for “an independent investigation” of the U.N.’s dealings with Saddam Hussein. One week later, a humiliated Kofi Annan appointed Paul Volcker to lead a team of sixty international investigators, whose findings resulted in hundreds of prosecutions in multiple countries, many of which are still ongoing.Backstabbing for Beginners is at once a witty tale of one man’s political coming of age, and a stinging indictment of the hypocrisy that prevailed at the heart of one of the world’s most idealistic institutions.

African Air


George Steinmetz - 2008
    In African Air, Steinmetz captures stunning panoramas in more than fourteen countries in Africa, giving readers captivating and intimate views of areas that have rarely, if ever before, been photographed.  From densely packed urban centers to small, remote villages, from migrating herds of wildebeests and elephants to infinite miles of desert, African Air is a compelling testament and celebration of the majesty and splendor of Africa’s most breathtaking landscapes. With extraordinary vision and a unique perspective, Steinmetz portrays sky, land, and water in ways that have never been expressed before.

Chinese Whispers: The True Story Behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour


Hsiao-Hung Pai - 2008
    You’ll remember the harassed waitress from your local Chinese restaurant. You’ve noticed those builders across the street working funny hours and without helmets. You’ve eaten the lettuce they picked, or bought the microwave they assembled. The words ‘cockle-pickers’, ‘Morecambe Bay’, ‘Chinese illegals found dead in lorry’ will ring a bell. But did you know that there are hundreds of thousands of undocumented Chinese immigrants in Britain? They’ve travelled here because of desperate poverty, and must keep their heads down and work themselves to the bone. Hsiao-Hung Pai, the only journalist who knows this community, went undercover to hear the stories of this hidden work force. She reveals a scary, shadowy world where human beings are exploited in ways unimaginable in our civilized twenty-first century.CHINESE WHISPERS exposes the truth behind the lives of a hidden work force here in Britain. You owe it to yourself, and them, to read it.

A.J. Liebling: The Sweet Science and Other Writings


A.J. Liebling - 2008
    For the first time in one volume, Hamill presents five great books that demonstrate Liebling's extraordinary vitality, humor, and versatility as a writer.

Making Headlines: The American Revolution as Seen through the British Press


Troy Bickham - 2008
    Troy Bickham asserts that the war proved almost as divisive in the motherland, as the British wielded the almighty pen and went to battle on the pages of the press in Britain. Surpassing the breadth of previous studies on the subject, Making Headlines offers a look at the British press as a whole—including analysis of London newspapers, provincial newspapers, and monthly magazines. The free press in Britain, Bickham argues, was too widespread and too lucrative to be susceptible to significant government interference and therefore provided in-depth coverage on all aspects of the war. Private letters, official dispatches, extracts from foreign newspapers, maps, and detailed tables of fleet strengths and locations filled the pages of daily publications that provided more extensive and more rapid information than even the government could. Due to the inexpensive and easily accessible printed news, the average British citizen was often as well informed as a cabinet minister. The open editorial nature of the press also allowed someone as socially low as a blacksmith’s wife, under the cloak of anonymity, to scrutinize and offer commentary on every political decision and military maneuver, all in front of a national audience. Bickham adeptly leads the reader on an exploration into the varied national debates that raged throughout Britain during the American Revolution, one of Britain’s historically most unpopular wars. The British public debated how to defeat George Washington—whose perseverance and conduct was much admired in Britain—whether captured Americans should be held as prisoners of war or hung as traitors, and the morality of including American Indians in the war effort. Making Headlines also reflects the global perspective of the war held by most Britons, who saw the conflict not only as a fight for America but also as a struggle to protect their worldwide empire as America’s European allies turned the conflict into a world war, threatening even the British Isles themselves. This study will appeal to those interested in early America, the American Revolution, British history, and media studies.

President Obama Election 2008: A Collection of Newspaper Front Pages Selected by the Poynter Institute


The Poynter Institute - 2008
    President Obama Election 2008 is a collection of over seventy November 5th, 2008 and January 20, 2009 newspaper front pages from around the world. There is no better statement of the emotion, excitement, and significance of these moments in history.During his campaign for the White House, Barack Obama garnered an almost frenzied following. President Obama Election 2008 is a cherished keepsake or gift for any of the millions of Americans who cast their vote for the 44th President of the United States. Here is the must-have commemorative book on this historic event. * Features 109 historic newspaper front-pages from the day after the election and the day after the inauguration, including international, campus, and ethnic publications.* Includes an introduction by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau.* Compiled by The Poynter Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan school of journalism.

Debrett's Guide for the Modern Gentleman


Tom Bryant - 2008
    Embracing work, home, time off, women, sport, food and travel, this is the ultimate, aspirational guide to contemporary and stylish 21st-century living. A miscellany of information, from the fundamental to the arcane and quirky, equips today s man to confront myriad challenges and opportunities with savior faire and panache.

Queen of the Oil Club: The Intrepid Wanda Jablonski and the Power of Information


Anna Rubino - 2008
    Wanda Jablonski was an investigative reporter, publisher, and power broker who came to wield exceptional influence on twentieth-century geopolitics by shedding light on the secretive world of oil from the 1950s through the 1980s. Jablonski unveiled many mysteries of the oil club, an elite group of Western executives who once controlled the international petroleum business. Nicknamed the midwife of OPEC, Jablonski undermined Big Oil's dominance by exposing the vulnerabilities of the major oil companies and encouraging the rise of oil nationalism. Her scoops, commentaries, and private networking helped shape the debate that led to the creation of OPEC, the oil shocks of the 1970s, and the largest transfer of wealth in history.Tenacious and glamorous, Wanda-as she was known in the oil world-coaxed her way into exploration sites in Middle Eastern deserts, drilling camps in the Venezuelan jungle, male-only boardrooms in New York and London, and the king's harem in Saudi Arabia. She survived threats, boycotts, and suspicions of espionage as she elicited information and insight from CEOs of the oil giants and political leaders, including the shah of Iran.Working for the Journal of Commerce and other New York publications, Jablonski defied the prevailing view that a woman reporting on business had no credibility. In 1961, divorced and suddenly jobless, she took a big gamble by starting her own newsletter, Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, which was soon dubbed the "bible" of the oil world.Today, when conflict in the Middle East and climate change cause us to reexamine our reliance on oil, Jablonski's prescience-whether about oil dependency, cultural insensitivity, or market manipulation-proves remarkable.Anna Rubino, who reported for Jablonski in the 1980s, uses scores of interviews, exclusive access to her private papers, and newly declassified information to tell the dramatic story of this journalistic pioneer and the power of information.

Becoming The Media: A Critical History Of Clamor Magazine


Jen Angel - 2008
    Clamor published 38 issues and featured over 1,000 different writers and artists. The mission statement was:Clamor is a quarterly print magazine and online community of radical thought, art, and action. An iconoclast among its peers, Clamor is an unabashed celebration of self-determination, creativity, and shit-stirring. Clamor publishes content of, by, for, and with marginalized communities. From the kitchen table to shop floor, the barrio to the playground, the barbershop to the student center, it's old school meets new school in a battle for a better tomorrow. Clamor is a do-it-yourself guide to everyday revolution.This analysis is presented as a case study on how movement projects and organizations deal with vital but rarely discussed issues such as management, sustainability, ownership, structure, finance, decision making, power, diversity, and vision.

A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery


E. Benjamin Skinner - 2008
    With years of reporting in such places as Haiti, Sudan, India, Eastern Europe, The Netherlands, and, yes, even suburban America, he has produced a vivid testament and moving reportage on one of the great evils of our time. There are more slaves in the world today than at any time in history. After spending four years visiting a dozen countries where slavery flourishes, Skinner tells the story, in gripping narrative style, of individuals who live in slavery, those who have escaped from bondage, those who own or traffic in slaves, and the mixed political motives of those who seek to combat the crime.Skinner infiltrates trafficking networks and slave sales on five continents, exposing a modern flesh trade never before portrayed in such proximity. From mega-harems in Dubai to illicit brothels in Bucharest, from slave quarries in India to child markets in Haiti, he explores the underside of a world we scarcely recognize as our own and lays bare a parallel universe where human beings are bought, sold, used, and discarded. He travels from the White House to war zones and immerses us in the political and flesh-and-blood battles on the front lines of the unheralded new abolitionist movement.At the heart of the story are the slaves themselves. Their stories are heartbreaking but, in the midst of tragedy, readers discover a quiet dignity that leads some slaves to resist and aspire to freedom. Despite being abandoned by the international community, despite suffering a crime so monstrous as to strip their awareness of their own humanity, somehow, some enslaved men regain their dignity, some enslaved women learn to trust men, and some enslaved children manage to be kids. Skinner bears witness for them, and for the millions who are held in the shadows.In so doing, he has written one of the most morally courageous books of our time, one that will long linger in the conscience of all who encounter it, and one that -- just perhaps -- may move the world to constructive action.

The Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the World of Immigrant America


Tom Buk-Swienty - 2008
    Born in 1849 in rural Denmark, Riis immigrated to America in 1870 following a devastating romantic breakup. Penniless and starving, Riis stumbled into journalism, eventually becoming a charismatic police reporter for the New York Tribune, where he befriended Theodore Roosevelt and witnessed firsthand the appalling tenement conditions of late nineteenth-century New York. His resulting exposé, How the Other Half Lives, was the first major American muckraking book. It brought Americans in touch with their lost humanity, establishing a precedent for Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Jane Addams, and Upton Sinclair. Described by Roosevelt as "the ideal American," Riis died in 1914, mourned by millions, a celebrated hero. Tom Buk-Swienty's long-awaited biography, a superb evocation of the muckraking era, is a compelling work, designed with 55 haunting images from Riis's own photographic oeuvre.

In Defense of Our Neighbors: The Walt and Milly Woodward Story


Mary Woodward - 2008
    Walt and Milly Woodward, publishers of the island's community newspaper, fought the forced internment of their neighbors, and helped the island community grapple with their exile. Mary Woodward tells her parents' story, fully illustrated with period photographs and documents. This brave, principled couple remain heroes to the Japanese-American community—the story of their fight helps us comprehend how precious our civil liberties are, and how easily they can be lost.

On Their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam


Joyce Hoffmann - 2008
    Many of those women won esteemed prizes for their reporting, including the Pulitzer, the Overseas Press Club Award, the George Polk Award, the National Book Award, and the Bancroft Prize for History. Tragically, several lost their lives covering the war, while others were wounded or taken prisoner. In this gripping narrative, veteran journalist Joyce Hoffmann tells the important yet largely unknown story of a central group of these female journalists, including Dickey Chapelle, Gloria Emerson, Kate Webb, and others. Each has a unique and deeply compelling tale to tell, and vivid portraits of their personal lives and professional triumphs are woven into the controversial details of America's twenty-year entanglement in Southeast Asia.

Sacred Violence: Torture, Terror, and Sovereignty


Paul W. Kahn - 2008
    This book investigates the reasons for the resort to violence.

Pure Country: The Leon Kagarise Archives, 1961-1971


Eddie Dean - 2008
    . . live country music from the 50s and 60s performed in its most natural setting.”—National Public Radio“...One of the year's best music picture books...”—Dan Deluca for Philadelphia InquirerPure Country offers a front row ticket to a moment when scores of artists came into their prime and “hillbilly music” transformed into a national popular phenomenon, and a view of a vanished world when country artists such as Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and George Jones mingled up close with their fans like kin at a mountain family reunion.In the ’50s and ’60s, in outdoor parks throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania, rural families paid $1 a carload and picnicked under the trees as recording stars and regional acts performed. With an artful eye and the passion of an avid fan, Leon Kagarise, a sound engineer by trade, amassed an archive of four thousand hours of live recordings and hundreds of vibrant, candid color photographs of these great musicians and their fans. Upon their discovery thirty years later, the Library of Congress placed the collection among the most important documents in the history of American music.Pure Country is the first book to publish this outstanding collection. The book’s text presents a fascinating and lively history of the golden age of country and bluegrass as celebrated by one of its biggest fans.

Inside Out: Writings on Cricket


Gideon Haigh - 2008
    This title explains the finer points of cricket technique from taking guard to the leave.

Harvey Pekar Conversations


Michael G. Rhode - 2008
    Since 1976, Pekar (b. 1939) has reported on his life through his comics. Pekar's comic books deal with his life as a Veterans Administration clerk and freelance music critic; his friends and co-workers and their stories; and his home city of Cleveland. Pekar's struggles with physical and mental problems, a low-paying job, Hollywood, marriage, his daughter's adoption, and success are all laid out in his comics. Pekar prides himself on depicting his life in all its "splendor.""Harvey Pekar: Conversations" offers almost twenty-five years of interviews from a variety of sources including small fanzines, local public radio shows, and the "Washington Post." The volume reveals his thoughts and feelings about comics, autobiography, his appearances on David Letterman's show in the 1980s, his life with cancer, and how a successful 2003 movie adaptation of "American Splendor" has changed and not changed his life. His comics work has won the National Book Award, spawned theatrical productions, and served as the basis for the award-winning movie starring Paul Giamatti as Pekar.Michael G. Rhode is an independent comics scholar and an editor of the "International Journal of Comic Art." His work has been published in the "Comics Journal" and "Hogan's Alley."

Eddie Adams: Vietnam


Eddie Adams - 2008
    Adams’ 1968 Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph cemented his reputation in the public eye and stands forever as an icon for the brutality of our last century: the image of Nguyen Ngoc Loan, police chief of Saigon, firing a bullet at the head of a Vietcong prisoner. Adams’ image fueled antiwar sentiment that ultimately changed the course of history.Adams’ life in the headlines took him to the remotest corners of this troubled, beautiful planet compiling a historic record of the days of our lives. His forty-five-year career covered thirteen wars and amassed some five hundred photojournalism awards. He was a man to whom Clint Eastwood said, “Good shot;” Fidel Castro said, “Let’s go duck hunting;” and the Pope said, “You’ve got three minutes.” This is the man behind the Pulitzer Prize–winning picture that changed the world in 1968.Through astonishing never-before-seen pictures, articles written by Adams, pages from journals, and other artifacts, one great journalist’s experience of the war is told in gripping detail.Edited by Alyssa Adams, with an essay by AP Bureau Chief Hal Buell, and contributions by Peter Arnett, Tom Brokaw, David Halberstam, George Esper, David Kennerly, Dirck Halstead, Tom Curley, Kerry Kennedy, and more, this is a classic of modern history and photography.

All the Art That's Fit to Print (and Some That Wasn't): Inside The New York Times Op-Ed Page


Jerelle Kraus - 2008
    Not only did the "New York Times"'s nonstaff bylines shatter tradition, but the pictures were revolutionary. Unlike anything ever seen in a newspaper, Op-Ed art became a globally influential idiom that reached beyond narrative for metaphor and changed illustration's very purpose and potential.Jerelle Kraus, whose thirteen-year tenure as Op-Ed art director far exceeds that of any other art director or editor, unveils a riveting account of working at the "Times." Her insider anecdotes include the reasons why artist Saul Steinberg hated the "Times," why editor Howell Raines stopped the presses to kill a feature by "Doonesbury"'s Garry Trudeau, and why reporter Syd Schanburg--whose story was told in the movie "The Killing Fields"--stated that he would travel anywhere to see Kissinger hanged, as well as Kraus's tale of surviving two and a half hours alone with the dethroned peerless outlaw, Richard Nixon."All the Art" features a satiric portrayal of John McCain, a classic cartoon of Barack Obama by Jules Feiffer, and a drawing of Hillary Clinton and Obama by Barry Blitt. But when Frank Rich wrote a column discussing Hillary Clinton exclusively, the "Times" refused to allow Blitt to portray her. Nearly any notion is palatable in prose, yet editors perceive pictures as a far greater threat. Confucius underestimated the number of words an image is worth; the thousand-fold power of a picture is also its curse.Op-Ed's subject is the world, and its illustrations are created by the world's finest graphic artists. The 142 artists whose work appears in this book hail from thirty nations and five continents, and their 324 pictures-gleaned from a total of 30,000-reflect artists' common drive to communicate their creative visions and to stir our vibrant cultural-political pot.

Punk Zine: The Art/History Issue


James Payne - 2008
    Touches on the Legion of Doom, New Bomb Turks, The Neil House, Shit-Gaze, Bike Punks, Delay, a Janitor's strike, John Malta, Phonzie Davis, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Defiance, Ohio, August Renoir, The Evens and much, much else.

All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo


Bryan Mealer - 2008
    Amid burned-out battlefields, the dark corners of the forests, and the high savanna, where thousands have been massacred and quickly forgotten, Mealer searches for signs that Africa's most troubled nation will soon rise from ruin.At once illuminating and startling, All Things Must Fight to Live is a searing portrait of an emerging country devastated by a decade of war and horror and now facing almost impossible odds at recovery, as well as an unflinching look at the darkness and greed that exists in the hearts of men. It is nonfiction at its finest--powerful, moving, necessary.

The Nightmare World of Jack Chick


Jimmy Akin - 2008
    Chick's comic book-like tracts. They have titles such as Are Roman Catholics Christian?, The Death Cookie, and Why is Mary Crying? And they're full of wild, false, and downright malicious charges against the Roman Catholic Church and its teachings.Read them, and you step into a nightmarish world of shadow and intrigue, a world of paranoia and conspiracy theories, a world where the Catholic faith is the devil's greatest plot against mankind.Chick has sold more than 700 million of these tracts, and has turned millions of Catholics and Protestants against the Church and its teachings in the process.Jimmy Akin's new book The Nightmare World of Jack T. Chick aims to change that. It reveals everything you need to know about Jack Chick and the many lies he tells about the Catholic Church and its teachings. And it reveals how you can defend the faith against Chick's lies. It's a must-have for anyone who cares about the cause of truth.

The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food


Wayne Roberts - 2008
    The guide goes on to present the alternatives that are emerging based on the concept of community food security.Wayne Roberts is a leading North American writer, activist, and practitioner in community food security. An author and columnist for NOW Magazine, he’s on the board of the Community Food Security Coalition and Food Secure Canada, and coordinates the Toronto Food Policy Council, the most respected city food group in the world.

Footsteps of Fire (Ngāti Dread, #1)


Angus Gillies - 2008
    But those in Gisborne and the East Coast merely cast their minds back to the Ruatoria Troubles. From 1985 until 1990 the township was terrorised by a cannabis-growing Maori sect calling itself the Rastafarians. Their story is one of the most bizarre chapters in modern New Zealand history. Yet most people have never heard of The Rastas or their reign of terror... until now. The first book in the series, Footsteps of Fire covers the philosophies and roots of the Rastas and the early crimes that cemented their fearsome reputation, such as “beating the devil out” of an acquaintance, the beheading of Lance Kupenga, the dragging of a horse which later died, and the kidnapping of a police officer.

Ethics in Journalism


Ron F. Smith - 2008
    Nearly every public opinion poll shows that people have lost respect for journalists and lost faith in the news media. In this fully updated and expanded 6th edition of Ethics in Journalism, author Ron F. Smith provides a highly readable introduction to journalism ethics, and offers solutions for the many ethical dilemmas facing journalists today.Utilizes dozens of new case studies, mostly taken from everyday experiences of reporters at both large and smaller newspapers and TV stations Explores the practical ethical issues involved in developing sources, coming to terms with objectivity, and bringing compassion to the pressures of journalism Considers the impact of blogs and the internet on traditional values of journalism Compares journalistic practices across different free societies

Investigating Science Communication in the Information Age: Implications for Public Engagement and Popular Media


Richard Holliman - 2008
    It addresses current theoretical, practical and policy developments in science communication, including recent calls for greater openness andtransparency; and engagement and dialogue on the part of professional scientists with members of the public. It provides a timely and wide-ranging review of contemporary issues in science communication, focusing on two broad themes.The first theme critically reviews the recent dialogic turn and ascendant branding of 'public engagement with science'. It addresses contemporary theoretical and conceptual issues facing science communication researchers, and draws on a range of methodological approaches and examples.The second theme, popular media, examines recent trends in the theory and research of these forms of science communication. It includes contemporary accounts of the study of 'traditional' forms of popular media, including television and newspapers, examining how they are produced, represented andconsumed. This theme also documents examples where novel forms of popular media are challenging researchers to re-think how they approach these forms of science communication.A companion volume, Practising Science Communication in the Information Age, provides an ideal introduction to anyone wishing to reflect on the practices of contemporary science communication.

The World of Robert Fisk Volume 1: 1989-1998 From Beirut to Bosnia


Robert Fisk - 2008
    For decades, The Independent's man in Beirut has been unrivalled as a witness to the world's troubled places. Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Algeria, Northern Ireland, former Yugoslavia - he has reported from them all in their darkest hours, fearlessly seeking out the truth and recording it with an honesty, passion and integrity that have won him a global following.This volume, the first of two, spans from 1989 - 1998 and from Beirut to Bosnia.

Going to Stay: How George W. Bush Mired America in the Long War for Oil & Empire


Thomas Powers - 2008
    Bush invade Iraq? What were the real motives, the overarching policy decisions that drove events from September 11 until the war began?To a large extent, we still don’t know. But by now we do know in some detail, as Thomas Powers carefully explains in the essays collected here, how the administration made its case for war, using faulty intelligence to argue that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a mounting threat to the Middle East. Once Iraq was occupied and the weapons turned out not to exist, the case for war seemed to disappear as well. Bit by bit the evidence–the documents suggesting that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger, the aluminum tubes that the United States claimed were meant for uranium enrichment, the Iraqi defector code-named Curveball who claimed Saddam had mobile biological weapons labs–has been exposed as unreliable, misinterpreted, “cherry-picked,” exaggerated, or just fake.But as faulty as the intelligence was, it was always only a pretext, a way of persuading Congress, America, and the world to support a war that President Bush had already decided to wage. The real question remains: Why did Bush insist on a war of choice, refusing to accept any solution short of an American occupation of Iraq? The answers Powers proposes to that question, which assess the Iraq invasion as an insistence on responding to political and cultural conflicts with military action, suggest an overarching failure of American policy in the region that, as long as it remains insufficiently understood and publicly debated, will make it difficult for any president to change course.No one is better prepared than Powers to evaluate the way the Bush administration used intelligence to make its case for war, used the CIA for political ends, and used arguments of secrecy to advance both its geopolitical agenda and its claims for executive power. But beyond the now-familiar stories of nonexistent WMDs, The Military Error proposes a new, deeper analysis of the error of using military force, which has succeeded primarily in generating opposition and increasing resistance to American aims. America went into Iraq full of bright hopes and confident ideas, but Powers argues that those ideas, based on the ability of force to solve problems, defeat opponents, and make friends, were largely illusions. Such illusions, as we learned at great cost in Vietnam, die hard, but we can make decisions about our future role in Iraq only by understanding the errors that got us embroiled there in the first place.

Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left


Christopher HitchensNorman G. Finkelstein - 2008
    His most recent book, God Is Not Great, was on the New York Times bestseller list in 2007 for months. Like his hero, George Orwell, Hitchens is a tireless opponent of all forms of cruelty, ideological dogma, religious superstition and intellectual obfuscation. Once a socialist, he now refers to himself as an unaffiliated radical. As a thinker, Hitchens is perhaps best viewed as post-ideological, in that his intellectual sources and solidarities are strikingly various (he is an admirer of both Leon Trotsky and Kingsley Amis) and cannot be located easily at any one point on the ideological spectrum. Since leaving Britain for the United States in 1981, Hitchens thinking has moved in what some see as contradictory directions, but he remains an unapologetic and passionate defender of the Enlightenment values of secularism, democracy, free expression, and scientific inquiry.The global turmoil of the recent past has provoked intense dispute and division among intellectuals, academics, and other commentators. Hitchens writing during this time, particularly after 9/11, is an essential reference point for understanding the genesis and meaning of that turmoil#151;and the challenges that accompany it. This volume brings together Hitchens most incisive reflections on the war on terror, the war in Iraq, and the state of the contemporary Left. It also includes a selection of critical commentaries on his work from his former leftist comrades, a set of exchanges between Hitchens and various left-leaning interlocutors (such as Studs Terkel, Norman Finkelstein, and Michael Kazin), and an introductory essay by the editors on the nature and significance of Hitchens contribution to the world of ideas and public debate. In response, Hitchens provides an original afterword, written for this collection.p pWhatever readers might think about Hitchens, he remains an intellectual force to be reckoned with. And there is no better place to encounter his current thinking than in this provocative volume.

Burning Faith: Church Arson in the American South


Christopher B. Strain - 2008
    These arsonists predominately targeted African American congregations and captured the attention of the media nationwide. Using oral histories, newspaper accounts, and governmental reports, Christopher Strain gives a chronological account of the series of church fires.  Burning Faith considers the various forces at work, including government responses, civil rights groups, religious forces, and media coverage, in providing a thorough, comprehensive analysis of the events and their fallout. Arguing that these church fires symbolize the breakdown of communal bonds in the nation, Strain appeals for the revitalization of united Americans and the return to a sense of community.   Combining scholarly sophistication with popular readability, Strain has produced one of the first histories of the last decade and demonstrates that the increasing fragmentation of community in America runs deeper than race relations or prejudice.