Best of
Politics

1969

A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches


Martin Luther King Jr. - 1969
    King's best-known oration, "I Have a Dream, " his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, and "Beyond Vietnam, " a compelling argument for ending the ongoing conflict. Each speech has an insightful introduction on the current relevance of Dr. King's words by such renowned defenders of civil rights as Rosa Parks, the Dalai Lama, and Ambassador Andrew Young, among others.

The Best and the Brightest


David Halberstam - 1969
    Using portraits of America's flawed policy makers and accounts of the forces that drove them, The Best and the Brightest reckons magnificently with the most important abiding question of our country's recent history: Why did America become mired in Vietnam and why did it lose? As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded. It's an American classic.

Huey Long


T. Harry Williams - 1969
    Yet, at the time of his death, he had become a serious rival to Franklin Roosevelt for the presidency. In this biography, the first full-scale analysis of Long, this intriguing and incredible man stands wholly revealed and understood.The eminent historian T. Harry Williams has created a work masterly in its scope and detail. This award-winning biography brings fresh life to the sensation-ridden years when Long became a figure of national importance. Huey Long was winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto


Vine Deloria Jr. - 1969
    race relations, federal bureaucracies, Christian churches, and social scientists. This book continues to be required reading for all Americans, whatever their special interest.

Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 Reported by James Madison


James Madison - 1969
    Madison's clear and precise account of the historic summer of 1787 is the primary record of the events that established the United States government, its division of power, and ultimately the character of American democracy. The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 includes Madison's notes and remarks and other requisite data for interpreting the events of that historic year. The work is divided into two parts: "Antecedents of the Federal Convention of 1787," which presents the complete text of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, and "The Federal Convention of 1787," a day-by-day description of the debates surrounding the formation of the Constitution. With a preface by University of Richmond historian Robert Alley, this landmark work is absolutely indispensable for historians, scholars, and all those who treasure America's heritage.

Liberty: Incorporating Four Essays on Liberty


Isaiah Berlin - 1969
    Writing in Harper's, Irving Howe described it as an exhilarating performance--this, one tells oneself, is what the life of the mind can be. Berlin's editor Henry Hardy has revised the text, incorporating a fifth essay that Berlin himself had wanted to include. He has also added further pieces that bear on the same topic, so that Berlin's principal statements on liberty are at last available together in one volume. Finally, in an extended preface and in appendices drawn from Berlin's unpublished writings, he exhibits some of the biographical sources of Berlin's lifelong preoccupation with liberalism. These additions help us to grasp the nature of Berlin's inner citadel, as he called it--the core of personal conviction from which some of his most influential writing sprung.

RFK: A Memoir


Jack Newfield - 1969
    On the right he has been idolized by Rudy Giuliani and memorialized by Attorney General John Ashcroft, who renamed the Justice Department after him. On the left, his admirers say he represented the last hope of revitalizing the liberal tradition. But who was Robert Kennedy? To acclaimed reporter Jack Newfield, who worked closely with him during his last years, RFK was a human being far different from the myths that surrounded his name. "Part of him was soldier, priest, radical, and football coach. But he was none of these. He was a politician. His enemies said he was consumed with selfish ambition, a ruthless opportunist exploiting his brother's legend. But he was too passionate and too vulnerable ever to be the cool and confident operator his brother was." In this haunting and memorable portrait we see what kind of man died when Robert Kennedy was shot. And what kind of leader America lost.

The Emergence of Modern Turkey


Bernard Lewis - 1969
    It covers the emergence of Turkey over two centuries, from the decline and collapse of the Ottoman Empire up to the present day. In a new chapter, Lewis discusses the origins of his book in the Cold War era and the events that have taken place since its first publication in 1961. This new edition addresses Turkey's emergence as a decidedly Western-oriented power despite internal opposition from neutralists and Islamic fundamentalists. It examines such issues as Turkey's inclusion in NATO and application to the European Union, and its involvement with the politics of the Middle East. Authoritative and insightful, The Emergence of Modern Turkey remains the classic text on the history of modern Turkey.

85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy


Jules Witcover - 1969
    Kennedy’s seminal presidential campaign.85 Days is veteran Washington journalist Jules Witcover’s masterpiece of political reportage. It brilliantly captures a lost moment in time when the politics of conviction seemed to converge with America’s youth movement in opposition to the Vietnam War. At its center was the charismatic Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the slain President John F. Kennedy. Robert Kennedy’s impassioned opposition to the Vietnam War, and his vision for a more egalitarian United States, launched him on one of the most memorable, though brief, campaigns in U.S. political history.Witcover’s driving narrative follows Kennedy’s campaign throughout the primary season, as Kennedy mulled a run, developed his core issues and supporter base, and shot to the top of the polls, culminating in a victory in California just two days before he was tragically killed. A timeless work of political journalism, 85 Days captures the character and spirit of a man who came to symbolize an unforgettable era in America.

Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man


Garry Wills - 1969
    By considering some of the president's opinions, Wills comes to the controversial conclusion that Nixon was actually a liberal. Both entertaining and essential, Nixon Agonistes captures a troubled leader and a struggling nation mired in a foolish Asian war, forfeiting the loyalty of its youth, puzzled by its own power, and looking to its cautious president for confidence. In the end, Nixon Agonistes reaches far beyond its assessment of the thirty-seventh president to become an incisive and provocative analysis of the American political machine.

The State In Capitalist Society


Ralph Miliband - 1969
    Demonstrating that capitalist control of the state was so comprehensive that partial reforms were impossible, this reference attempts to explain how society has managed to evade socialism, exploring how its claims have failed to persuade many intellectuals and the potential benefactors of an alternative order. Reviewing the influence of economic elites and the dominant class, this study also probes the states claims to legitimacy, defines the purpose and role of governments, and analyzes the concepts of reform and repression. Depicting how the state reemerged from behind the mystifications of the political system and its behavior to become the central theme of political studies, this radical and philosophical investigation combines a political appeal with thorough, detailed scholarship. A discussion of servants of the state and the concept of imperfect competition are also included.

Black Awakening in Capitalist America: An Analytical History


Robert L. Allen - 1969
    A classic study of the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s.

Man vs. the Welfare State


Henry Hazlitt - 1969
    

An Introduction to the Logic of Marxism


George Novack - 1969
    It considers all phenomena in their development, in their transition from one state to another. And it is materialist, explaining the world as matter in motion that exists prior to and independently of human consciousness.

Challenge of the Congo


Kwame Nkrumah - 1969
    Challenge of the Congo Kwame Nkrumah First published in 1967, this book provides a contemporary account of Congo's recent history by one of the Heads of State most closely involved.

An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968


Lewis Chester - 1969
    Beginning with the foreboding events of 3/31-4/6, they plunge onward thru the primaries to the conventions, paying rather less attention to the anti-climactic Nixon-Humphrey bout which followed. Using the mass-psychoanalytic approach developed by the better journalism since '63, the authors probe the styles & personalities of the major figures, & interpret phenomena such as Daley, Abby Hoffman & the Kennedy intellectuals. They comment on American violence, on the role of the media & on the conflict between rhetoric & reality in American life. Their insights will not startle readers of liberal-left periodicals, but they write with wit & concision, & have some sharp moments, as in their dissection of Johnson's Vietnam advisers, or in their remarks on Mayor Daley's Newspeak version of the Chicago police frolic. Their acquaintance with American history & idiom is impressive. Some flaws: an attempt to say too much & a paucity of straight political analysis (votegetting strategies etc.) which renders the book less valuable as campaign history than the White studies on '60 & '64. Still, until the mists clear further, this will serve to keep alive the drama of a fantastic & frightening election year.--Kirkus

The Constitution of the United States: An Introduction, Revised and Updated Edition


Floyd G. Cullop - 1969
    Cullop's study of "The Constitution Of The United States" carefully explains and comments on its Preamble, main body and amendments so that readers may fully understand what it meant to our founding fathers and what it means to us today. This revised and updated edition covers all the changes that have been made in the structure of the federal government since the original publication of the book. This is the ideal introduction to a document that remains as relevant today as when it was first drafted over two hundred years ago.

Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism


Рой Медведев - 1969
    The internationally known historian Roy Medvedev has included more than one-hundred new interviews, unpublished memoirs, and archives from survivors of Stalin's death camps. This updated version of a classic work was written during a time of great change in the Soviet Union. With the advent of perestroika and glasnost, more progressive leadership has sought to demolish the Stalinist system which had finally crippled the Soviet Union and incited public discontent.Let History Judge contains new material on purges in 1929-1931 and terror against the peasantry; the Kirov assasination and show trials; the "great terror" from 1936-1938, which caused irreparable damage to the Soviet Union and left it vulnerable for Hilter's attack in 1941; the trial of Bukharin; Trotsky's revolutionary activity and Stalin's involvement with his murder in Mexico; Stalin's miscalculations and errors during the war, which cost the Soviet Union nearly 25 million in casualties; new purges from 1946-1953; and the actual vote of the Seventeenth Congress, which decided Stalin's candidacy.Since the first edition was finished by the author in 1969 and published in 1971, dozens of new informants have come forward to give their evidence to Roy Medvedev. Distinguished Soviet literary, cultural, and political figures like the late Alexander Twardovsky, Ilja Ehrenburg, Konstantin Simonov, Yuri Trifono, Mikhail Romm and many others have accumulated documentary records of Stalinism in anticipation of an expanded version.

Enemies of the Permanent Things: Observations of Abnormity in Literature and Politics


Russell Kirk - 1969
    Enemies of the Permanent Things, first published in 1969, is the most significant extended meditation on culture and politics to come out of the rough and tumble of those years. It is an invaluable document, articulating the response of a critical witness to the radically anti-authoritarian turn taken by the intellectual elite in that destructive decade.

The Myth of Over-Population


Rousas John Rushdoony - 1969
    Explains how socialism leads to food shortages because socialism robs the farmer (and other hard workers) while rewarding the slacker, then blames the resulting economic problems (no money for food) on overpopulation.

Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department


Dean Acheson - 1969
    He joined the Department of State in 1941 as Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs and, with brief intermissions, was continuously involved until 1953, when he left office as Secretary of State at the end of the Truman years.Throughout that time Acheson's was one of the most influential minds and strongest wills at work. It was a period that included World War II, the reconstruction of Europe, the Korean War, the development of nuclear power, the formation of the United Nations and NATO. It involved him at close quarters with a cast that starred Truman, Roosevelt, Churchill, de Gaulle, Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Attlee, Eden Bevin, Schuman, Dulles, de Gasperi, Adenauer, Yoshida, Vishinsky, and Molotov.

The German Dictatorship


Karl Dietrich Bracher - 1969
    None, however, has satisfactorily explained why the Weimar Republic failed, how Hitler succeeded in taking power, and whether National Socialism has been truly defeated or survives in Germany today. In his search for the answers to these questions, Karl Dietrich Bracher has written what has already been acclaimed as a masterpiece of historical and political analysis, the most comprehensive and illuminating study of National Socialism to appear to date."

The Agony Of The American Left


Christopher Lasch - 1969
    Under the rubric of "the collapse of mass-based radical movements," Lasch examines the decline of populism, the disintegration of the American socialist party, and the weaknesses of black nationalism. Also included is a history of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and a discussion of the '60's revival of ideological controversy.

We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World


Melvyn Dubofsky - 1969
    Originally published in 1969, Melvyn Dubofsky's We Shall Be All has remained the definitive archive-based history of the IWW. While much has been written on aspects of the IWW's history in the past three decades, nothing has duplicated or surpassed this authoritative work. The present volume, an abridged version of this labor history classic, makes the compelling story of the IWW accessible to a new generation of readers. In its heyday, between 1905 and 1919, the IWW nourished a dream of a better America where poverty-–material and spiritual–-would be erased and where all people, regardless of nationality or color, would walk free and equal. More than half a century ago the Wobblies tried in their own ways to grapple with issues that still plague the nation in a more sophisticated and properous era. Their example has inspired radicals in America and abroad over the greater part of a century

Freedom and Reality


Enoch Powell - 1969
    (1969) Yet the popular image of Enoch Powell is much more clearly established than are the facts of what he actually believes and has said on particular issues. This book will be invaluable in setting the record straight. Here, with a welcome freedom from political verbiage and catch-phrases are the highly characteristic views which Mr. Powell has expressed on:The self-defeating futility of economic planningThe encroachment of Socialism on the Citizen’s rightsThe folly of state intervention in wage settlementsThe delusive myth of Britain’s world roleThe consequences of immigrationThe benefit of capitalism and many other topicsIncluded in this book are the speeches on immigration (Rivers of Blood) which he made at Birmingham and Eastbourne.

Your Rugged Constitution: How America's House Of Freedom Is Planned And Built


Bruce Findlay - 1969
    

Hear the Sound of My Feet Walking, Drown the Sound of My Voice Talking


Dan O'Neill - 1969
    

Hitler for a Thousand Years


Leon Degrelle - 1969
    Translated and introduced by Alexander Jacob. The sensational semi-autobiographical work from the Waffen-SS’s most famous foreign volunteer, translated into English for the very first time.First published in French in French as Hitler pour 1000 ans in 1969, this suppressed work was Degrelle’s personal account of his pre-war political career, his personal interactions with Hitler, the formation of what became the Walloon SS, the war on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, his dramatic escape to Spain in 1945, and his life in exile.Along the way, Degrelle provides insight into some of the most pressing questions of World War II: why Hitler invaded the Soviet Union when he did; how Mussolini’s invasion of Greece wrecked Hitler’s plans; how lower-ranking German military commanders deliberately disobeyed Hitler’s orders on industrial production which directly affected the war’s outcome; how the defeat at Stalingrad occurred because the Sixth Army’s commander refused to follow Hitler’s orders to break out to the west; the turning point battle of Kursk, and much more.Degrelle also provides a fascinating personal view of Hitler, gained from a personal friendship. Finally, Degrelle describes the vision of a united Europe, which, he says, was Hitler’s ultimate vision. This belief in a strong united Europe gave rise to the saying of Hitler for a thousand years, the title of this book.“If objective historians still existed, I could be for them a very valuable witness with regard to their documents. Who, among the survivors of 1945, knew Hitler or Mussolini more directly than I? Who could explain with more precision than me, explain what type of men they were, men as they really were?“This ‘essential thing’ in the great tragedy of the Second World War, what was it for us? How did the ‘fascisms’ — which have been the essential thing of our lives — arise? How were they deployed ? How did they collapse? And, above all, after a quarter century: what balance sheet can one draw up of this whole gigantic affair?"

The Ulster Crisis: Resistance to Home Rule, 1912-14


A.T.Q. Stewart - 1969
    

Self-Criticism After the Defeat


Sadik al-Azm - 1969
    . . . al-Azm sought to strip Arab thought of its belief in fate and folk tales and superstition. . . . He told his people the sort of truths that outsiders are too embarrassed to tell, even when they were themselves able to see these truths."—Fouad AjamiThe 1967 War—which led to the defeat of Syria, Jordan, and Egypt by Israel—felt like an unprecedented and unimaginable disaster for the Arab world at the time. For many, the easiest solution was to shift the blame and to ignore some of the glaring defects of Arab society.Hailed as one of the foremost Arab intellectuals of recent decades, Sadik al-Azm was one of the few to challenge such a view in his seminal Self-Criticism After the Defeat. In it, he offered a penetrating analysis that probed deep into Arab society, and reasoned that Arabs had to embrace democracy, gender equality, and science to achieve progress.Self-Criticism After the Defeat represents a milestone in modern Arab intellectual history. It marked a turning point in Arab discourse about society and politics on publication in 1968, and spawned other intellectual ventures into Arab self-criticism. This is the first translation of the work into English.Born in Damascus in 1934, Sadik al-Azm is professor emeritus of modern European philosophy at the University of Damascus, Syria. He earned his PhD (1961) from Yale University, and was visiting professor in the department of near Eastern studies at Princeton University until 2008.

The Counter-Revolution


Thomas Steven Molnar - 1969
    

ABOUT ANARCHISM


Nicolas Walter - 1969
    Introduced by Nicolas’s daughter, Natasha, ‘About Anarchism’ neatly summarises what anarchists believe, how they differ, what they want, and what they do. “This is a struggle that we may not win and which may never end, but which is still worth fighting”

Communist Councilman from Harlem: Autobiographical Notes Written in a Federal Penitentiary


Benjamin J. Davis - 1969
    Introduction by Simon W. Gerson for this new edition of Ben Davis's 1960s book. Written while Ben Davis served prison time for a Smith Act conviction later ruled unconstitutional. Index. Notes.

The Essential Thomas Paine


Thomas Paine - 1969
    His Common Sense galvanized the colonists to form the United States and declare independence from Great Britain. The American Crisis—opening with the immortal cry, "These are the times that try men's souls"—rallied the young nation's war-weary troops and citizens. Upon his return to Europe, Paine continued to promote freedom by proclaiming The Rights of Man and decrying religious persecution with The Age of Reason.The brilliant social and political philosopher possessed a gift for stating complex ideas in concise terms, making him one of the first journalists to write in language accessible to anyone who could read. This anthology features highlights from Paine's best-known works, along with selections from his letters, articles, and pamphlets. Editor John Dos Passos—the acclaimed author of Three Soldiers and the epic U.S.A. trilogy—distills the radical intellectual's philosophy into a single cohesive volume that resounds with ever-relevant views on democracy and justice.

The Myth of Independence


Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - 1969
    Advocating a tougher stance against India, stronger relations with the People's Republic of China, and a reassessment of Pakistan's interests aligning themselves with the United States' during the Cold War, Bhutto writes with a coherent grasp of both world affairs and regional power plays. Written before assuming the office of premier himself, it is a primer on Pakistan's place in the world by one of its most controversial statesmen.

Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: A Critical Examination of the Foreign Policy on Franklin Delano Roosevelt


Harry Elmer Barnes - 1969
    

Views of a nearsighted cannoneer


Seymour Krim - 1969
    

Language in America: A Report on Our Deteriorating Semantic Environment


Neil Postman - 1969
    

Political Elites


Geraint Parry - 1969
    It deals with both the 'classic' elite theorists -- Mosca, Pareto, Michels, Burnham and C. Wright Mills -- and with many of the empirical and theoretical works on elites by modern political scientists and sociologists. It seeks to clarify the central terms of elite discourse, some of which have entered the everyday political vocabulary -- 'elitism', 'power elite', 'establishment', 'elite consensus', 'iron law of oligarchy' and 'mass'. It explores the ways in which the descriptions of power relationships can subtly be infiltrated by the values of the observers.

Nationalism and Its Alternatives


Karl Wolfgang Deutsch - 1969
    Although I have omitted many technicalities, I have tried to keep in view the heart of each of the major problems, which together make up the great questions of nationalism and internationalism and of war and peace, with which we must deal not only as scholars and students but also as citizens of our countries and of mankind. These questions will require decisions from all of us--decisions of policy, as well as decisions of basic attitudes, of the distribution of risks, and of the balance between present commitments and future inquiries. The case for such decisions can be introduced in common, nontechnical language, and this is the task of this book. If it provokes some readers to further thought and study, and perhaps to some responsible civic action, it will have served its task."

Political Essay on the Island of Cuba: A Critical Edition


Alexander von Humboldt - 1969
    But his visit to Cuba during this time yielded observations that extended far beyond the natural world. Political Essay on the Island of Cuba is a physical and cultural study of the island nation. In it, Humboldt denounces colonial slavery on both moral and economic grounds and stresses the vital importance of improving intercultural relations throughout the Americas. Humboldt’s most controversial book, Political Essay on the Island of Cuba was banned, censored, and willfully mistranslated to suppress Humboldt’s strong antislavery sentiments. It reemerges here, newly translated from the original two volume French edition, to introduce a new generation of readers to Humboldt’s astonishing multiplicity of scientific and philosophical perspectives. In their critical introduction, Vera Kutzinski and Ottmar Ette emphasize Humboldt’s rare ability to combine scientific rigor with a cosmopolitan consciousness and a deeply felt philosophical humanism. The result is a work on Cuba of historical import that will attract historians of science as well as cultural historians, political scientists, and literary scholars.

The National Liberation Movement in the East


Vladimir Lenin - 1969
    

The Myth Of Asia


John M. Steadman - 1969
    

Have I Ever Lied to You?


Art Buchwald - 1969
    

The Substance Of Politics


Arjun Appadurai - 1969
    The book is critical as well as factual and presents a consistent thesis that the state exists for the benefit of the individual and not the individual for the State. It should be of great help to students, teachers and the general reader who is interested in a well-written and modern introduction to politics.

The Fiscal Revolution in America: Policy in Pursuit of Reality


Herbert Stein - 1969
    This revised edition describes the revolution in US fiscal policy that occurred during administrations of various 20th-century American presidents, when the principle of balancing the budget gave way to that of managing government expenditure and taxes.

Living the Word, Resisting the World: The Life and Thought of Jacques Ellul


Andrew Goddard - 1969
    Last century, the extensive writing of French Reformed lay theologian and social critic Jacques Ellul (1912-94) shed a disturbing light on western society and challenged Christians to be faithful to God?'s word by resisting the world. This major study draws on both published and unpublished material to provide the only available introduction to Ellul?'s life and thought as a whole. Within the context of a detailed biography, it offers an original interpretation of both Ellul?'s theological ethics and his personalist-inspired sociological analysis of our contemporary crisis of civilization. Detailed case studies of his writings on violence, law, the state and politics then demonstrates that this prophetic Christian thinker remains of great significance for both the church and the world at the start of a new century.

My Struggle: A Political Autobiography


Otto Strasser - 1969
    It was published 6 years before his death.

Power and Humanism (European Socialist Thought)


Lucien Goldmann - 1969
    Two essays: "Power and Humanism" and "Eppur si muove".