Best of
Political-Science

1984

Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality


Thomas Sowell - 1984
    Board of Education. Thomas Sowell takes a tough, factual look at what has actually happened over these decades -- as distinguished from the hopes with which they began or the rhetoric with which they continue, Who has gained and who has lost? Which of the assumptions behind the civil rights revolution have stood the test of time and which have proven to be mistaken or even catastrophic to those who were supposed to be helped?

The Evolution of Cooperation


Robert Axelrod - 1984
    Widely praised and much-discussed, this classic book explores how cooperation can emerge in a world of self-seeking egoists—whether superpowers, businesses, or individuals—when there is no central authority to police their actions. The problem of cooperation is central to many different fields. Robert Axelrod recounts the famous computer tournaments in which the “cooperative” program Tit for Tat recorded its stunning victories, explains its application to a broad spectrum of subjects, and suggests how readers can both apply cooperative principles to their own lives and teach cooperative principles to others.

Law and Liberty


Rousas John Rushdoony - 1984
    Therefore, when the religion of a people is weakened, so also is its morality undermined. The result is a progressive collapse of law and order, and the breakdown of society.Men, though, see law as a limitation on their liberty, and Christianity is held to be the most restrictive with its emphasis upon Biblical law as the foundation for morality and liberty. Humanistic man wants total liberty, but he does not realize that total liberty leads only to total anarchy, and that leads to the death of law and liberty. Unless every man’s liberty is limited by law, no liberty is possible for any one.In this concise volume, R. J. Rushdoony expounds on the central themes of the application of Biblical law to every area of life. This book is a great starting point to understanding Rushdoony’s larger expositions on Biblical law.

Chains and Images of Psychological Slavery


Na'im Akbar - 1984
    In this book you will learn how to break the chains of your mental slavery by ordering this new book by one of the world's outstanding experts on the African-American mind.

That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right


Stephen P. Halbrook - 1984
    It is one of the only scholarly works on the subject, but has proven widely accessible. Halbrook traces the origins of the Second Amendment back to ancient Greece and Rome, and then through the “freemen” movement in 18th-century England and France. He demonstrates that the framers of the Constitution were conscious of such history when they drafted the Second Amendment, and that the Second Amendment was clearly intended to allow possession of firearms not just for defense of personal life and property but also to prevent government infringement of human liberties. His meticulous, thorough scholarship demonstrates that the right to bear arms is as fundamental a right under the Constitution as freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Love Letter to America


Tomas Schuman - 1984
    I am what you may call a "defector" from the USSR, and I have a message for you: I love you very much. I love all of you-- liberals and conservatives, "decadent capitalists" and "oppressed masses," blacks and whites and browns and yellows, rednecks and intellectuals. For me you are the people who created a unique nation, country and society in the history of mankind,-- by no means a perfect one, but, let's face it-- the most free, affluent and just in today's world.I am not alone in this love. People all over the Earth, whether they praise America or bitterly criticize her, look upon you as the only hope for mankind's survival and the last stronghold of freedom. Some may not think in these idealistic terms, but they certainly enjoy the fruits of your civilization, often forgetting to be grateful for them. Millions of people in the so-called "socialist camp" or in the "Third World" literally owe their lives to America.

The Day We Bombed Utah


John G. Fuller - 1984
    George, Utah. Within a few days, more than 4,000 sheep were dead of a mysterious illness. Within a few years, a plague of cancer and birth defects had rippled through the area- a plague that may have caused the cancer-related deaths of John Wayne and over 100 other cast and crew members of The Conqueror, which was filmed only miles from the test site. And when the survivors claimed compensation, the government successfully denied all responsibility.This uncompromising expose' of "the greatest government cover-up of all time" brings to light a shocking thirty-year conspiracy of falsified reports, suborned witnesses, and "lost evidence"- a record of shame that, like the testing itself, continues to this day.

Weapons and Hope


Freeman Dyson - 1984
    (Amazon.com)

The Radical Politics of Thomas Jefferson


Richard K. Matthews - 1984
    Matthews's Jefferson emerges as America's first and foremost advocate of permanent revolution, a democratic communitarian, and an anti-market theorist. This interpretation has been suggested in the past, but seldom has it been argued so persuasively or so intensely.It is Matthews's intent to extricate Jefferson from the myths that surround, envelop, and ultimately distort him. The interpretation of Jefferson's idea of democracy presented here could spark new thinking about contemporary democracy.

Russia and the Formation of the Romanian National State, 1821-1878


Barbara Jelavich - 1984
    In the early nineteenth century the centers of Romanian political life were the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which were both under Ottoman rule but which had separate, autonomous administrations. Although welcoming Russian aid against the Ottoman Empire, the Romanian leadership at the same time feared that the Russian government would use its military power to establish a firm control over the Principalities or would annex Romanian lands, as indeed occurred in 1812. Here this difficult relationship is examined in detail as it developed during the century in connection with the major events leading to the international acceptance of Romanian independence in 1878.

The Illogic of American Nuclear Strategy


Robert Jervis - 1984
    

The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book


Bruce Andrews - 1984
    Enough stone or other jugs lineup of whatever is In Through Out That’s light as much as known Differences evanesce Like, where and/or what on the equator might be french or spanish Longitude and latitude, yep yep sure Americana.”—Larry Eigner, commentary on a selection from Ger­trude Stein’s Tender Buttons This selection of essays and poetry from the first three volumes of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine dis­cusses a “spectrum of writing that places its attention primarily on language and ways of making meaning, that takes for granted neither vocabulary, grammar, process, shape, syntax, program, nor sub­ject matter.” (Bernstein and Andrews) The various writers shun labels, slogans, or catch-phrases; their exploration of the ways that meanings and values are re­vealed through the written word is in­tended to open the field of poetic activity, not close it. The common thread of these essays is the multitude and scope of words’ refer­ential powers—denotative, connotative, and associational; and studying these powers is ultimately a social and political activity as well as an aesthetic one.

The State and Political Theory


Martin Carnoy - 1984
    He analyzes the most recent recasting of Marxist political theories in continental Europe, the Third World, and the United States; sets the new theories in a context of past thinking about the State; and argues for the existence of a major shift in Marxist views.Originally published in 1984.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Patrons, Clients and Friends: Interpersonal Relations and the Structure of Trust in Society


S.N. Eisenstadt - 1984
    Characterised by its voluntary and highly personal but often fully institutionalised nature, it is a type of behaviour found in almost every human society. It touches upon basic aspects of the construction and regulation of social order and is therefore closely connected to major theoretical problems and controversies in the social sciences. This book analyses some special types of these interpersonal relations - ritual kinship, patron-client relations and friendship - and the social conditions in which they develop. The authors draw upon a wide range of examples, from societies as diverse as these of the Mediterranean, Latin America, the Middle and Far East and the U.S.S.R., in their study of the core characteristics of such relationships. They look at them as mechanisms of social exchange, examine their impact on the institutional structures in which they exist, and assess the significance of the variations in their occurrence. Their analysis highlights the importance of these relationships in social life and concludes with a stimulating discussion of the ensuring tensions and ambivalences and the ways in which these are dealt with - though perhaps never fully overcome. Patrons, clients and friends is the first systematic comparative study of these interpersonal relations and makes the first attempt to relate them to central aspects of social structure. It will therefore be an important contribution to both comparative analysis and social theory and will be of interest to a wide range of social scientists.

Egalitarian Envy: The Political Foundations of Social Justice


Gonzalo Fernández de la Mora - 1984
    A widely heralded and much debated bestseller in Europe, Egalitarian Envy begins with the problem of the origin of evil. Is man by nature good, wicked, or simply fallen?“Egalitarian Envy is a brave and brilliant contribution to contemporary political theory by one of the seminal thinkers of our era, a work that confronts the most serious problems of modern political theory and challenges assumptions that are rarely examined by leaders in the free world.” —M.E. Bradford, From the Forward “Egalitarian Envy is an intelligent and imaginative book that freshly reconceives some familiar problems.” —Joseph Sobran National Review

Stefano delle Chiaie. Portrait of a black terrorist


Stuart Christie - 1984
    A superb piece of investigative research into the whole fascist terror network, involved everywhere from the Italian bombings during the 'strategy of tension' to South America.

The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America


Richard John Neuhaus - 1984
    It is not enough that more people should believe or that those who believe should believe more strongly. Rather, the faith of persons and communities must be more compellingly related to the public arena. "The naked public square"--which results from the exclusion of popular values from the public forum--will almost certainly result in the death of democracy. The great challenge, says Neuhaus, is the reconstruction of a public philosophy that can undergird American life and America's ambiguous place in the world. To be truly democratic and to endure, such a public philosophy must be grounded in values that are based on Judeo-Christian religion. The remedy begins with recognizing that democratic theory and practice, which have in the past often been indifferent or hostile to religion, must now be legitimated in terms compatible with biblical faith. Neuhaus explores the strengths and weaknesses of various sectors of American religion in pursuing this task of critical legitimation. Arguing that America is now engaged in an historic moment of testing, he draws upon Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish thinkers who have in other moments of testing seen that the stakes are very high--for America, for the promise of democratic freedom elsewhere, and possibly for God's purpose in the world. An honest analysis of the situation, says Neuhaus, shatters false polarizations between left and right, liberal and conservative. In a democratic culture, the believer's respect for nonbelievers is not a compromise but a requirement of the believer's faith. Similarly, the democratic rights of those outside the communities of religious faith can be assured only by the inclusion of religiously-grounded values in the common life.The Naked Public Square does not offer yet another partisan program for political of social change. Rather, it offers a deeply disturbing, but finally hopeful, examination of Abraham Lincoln's century-old question--whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

Language and Politics: Why Does Language Matter to Political Philosophy?


Fred R. Dallmayr - 1984
    

The Politics of the World-Economy: The States, the Movements, and the Civilizations


Immanuel Wallerstein - 1984
    Whereas those books centred on the historical development of the modern world-system, the essays in this volume explore the nature of world politics in the light of Wallerstein's analysis of the world-system and capitalist world-economy. Throughout, the essays offer new perspectives on the central issues of political debate today: the roles of the USA and the USSR in the world-system, the relations of the Third World states to the capitalist 'core', and the potential for socialist or revolutionary change. Different sections deal with the three major political institutions of the modern world-system: the states, the antisystemic movements, and the civilizations. The states are a classic rubric of political analysis. For Wallerstein, the limits of sovereignty are at least as important as the powers - these limits deriving from the obligatory location of the modern state in the interstate system. Social movements are a second classic rubric. For Wallerstein, the principal questions are the degree to which such movements are antisystemic, and the dilemmas state power poses for antisystemic movements. Civilizations, in contrast, are not normally seen as a political institution. That however is for Wallerstein the key to the analysis of their role in the contemporary world, and thereby a key to understanding the politics of social science.

The Ideology of the Offensive: Military Decision Making and the Disasters of 1914


Jack Snyder - 1984
    By 1914, the European military powers had adopted offensive military strategies even though there was considerable evidence to support the notion that much greater advantage lay with defensive strategies. The author argues that organizational biases inherent in military strategists' attitudes make war more likely by encouraging offensive postures even when the motive is self-defense.Drawing on new historical evidence of the specific circumstances surrounding French, German, and Russian strategic policy, Snyder demonstrates that it is not only rational analysis that determines strategic doctrine, but also the attitudes of military planners. Snyder argues that the use of rational calculation often falls victim to the pursuit of organizational interests such as autonomy, prestige, growth, and wealth. Furthermore, efforts to justify the preferred policy bring biases into strategists' decisions--biases reflecting the influences of parochial interests and preconceptions, and those resulting from attempts to simplify unduly their analytical tasks.The frightening lesson here is that doctrines can be destabilizing even when weapons are not, because doctrine may be more responsive to the organizational needs of the military than to the implications of the prevailing weapons technology. By examining the historical failure of offensive doctrine, Jack Snyder makes a valuable contribution to the literature on the causes of war.

Culture and Values, Volume II: A Survey of the Humanities


Lawrence S. Cunningham - 1984
    Available in two volumes, or as an alternate single volume without end-of-chapter readings, this text remains the most readable and reliable textbook for college and university students in the integrated humanities.