We are in the midst of a Dwight Eisenhower revival. Today pundits often look to Eisenhower as a model of how a president can govern across party lines and protect American interests globally without resorting too quickly to the use of force. Yet this mix of nostalgia and frustration with the current polarized state of American politics may mislead us. Eisenhower’s presidency has much to teach us today about how a president might avert crises and showdowns at home or abroad. But he governed...

This book traces the evolution of the speechwriting process for presidents in the White House from the administration of Franklin Roosevelt to the present. While institutionalization of the speechwriting process has often been blamed for bland presidential rhetoric, this book draws out the many varied consequences of institutionalization on the speechwriting process. Ultimately, it concludes that the institutionalization of the process has actually served the presidency well by helping pre...

This "provocative and profoundly disturbing" history of US election rigging "details political corruption reaching to the highest levels of government" ( Skeptic Files).This book is the culmination of a twenty-five-year investigation into computerized vote fraud in the United States. Journalists James and Kenneth Collier pose the question, "Why can't we vote the bastards out?" Their answer: "Because we didn't even vote the bastards in."Votescam

Bringing together leading scholars of literature, history, library studies, and communications, Print Culture Histories Beyond the Metropolis rejects the idea that print culture necessarily spreads outwards from capitals and cosmopolitan cities and focuses attention to how the residents of smaller cities, provincial districts, rural settings, and colonial outposts have produced, disseminated, and read print materials.Too often print media has been represented as an engine ...

New York Times Bestseller: A history of the S&L scandal that caused a financial disaster for American taxpayers: "Hard to put down" ( Library Journal).For most of the 20th century, savings and loans were an invaluable thread of the American economy. But in the 1970s, Congress passed sweeping financial deregulation at the insistence of industry insiders that allowed these once quaint and useful institutions to spread their taxpayer-insured assets in...

A "devastating" exposé of the United States' Latin American policy and the infamous career and assassination of agent Dan Mitrione ( Kirkus Reviews).In 1960, former Richmond, Indiana, police chief Dan Mitrione moved to Brazil to begin a new career with the United States Agency for International Development. During his ten years with the USAID, Mitrione trained and oversaw foreign police forces in extreme counterinsurgency tactics—including torture—aimed at ...

A disturbing chronicle of the US government's mistreatment of American soldiers and veterans throughout history, with a new introduction by Charles Sheehan-MilesTime and time again, the sacrifices made by veterans and their families have been repaid with scorn, discrimination, lack of health services, scant financial compensation, and other indignities. This injustice dates back as far as the American Revolution, when troops came home penniless and without prospects...

With a new introduction by Adi Ophir: An early and fierce critique of Zionism from a Jewish child of Palestine who argued against nationalism and injustice.Born in 1893, Moshe Menuhin was part of the inaugural class to attend the first Zionist high school in Palestine, the Herzliya gymnasium in Tel Aviv. He had grown up in a Hasidic home, but eventually rejected orthodoxy while remaining dedicated to Judaism.As a witness to the evolution of Israel, Menuhin g...

A "smoldering indictment" of the corrupt influences that rescued Ronald Reagan's career, made him millions, and shaped his presidency ( Library Journal) .Founded in 1924, the Music Corporation of America got its start booking acts into speakeasies run by such notorious Chicago mobsters as Al Capone. How then, in only a few decades, did MCA become the driving force behind music publishing, radio, recording...

"Our most provocative scholar of American power " reveals the forces behind the assassination of JFK—and their continuing influence over our world (David Talbot, Salon) .On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald. Shortly after, Oswald himself was killed. These events led many to believe there was a far greater plan at work, with a secret cabal of powerful men manipulatin...

The definitive portrait of the powerful, corruption-ridden Teamsters union and its legendary president, Jimmy Hoffa—organizer, gangster, convict, and conspirator—with a new afterword by the authorJames Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in twentieth-century America. His remarkable journey from young union organizer to all-powerful head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is an epic tale worthy of a Hollywood bloc...

A "blistering exposé" of the USA's secret history of financial, political, and cultural exploitation of Latin America in the 20th century, with a new introduction ( Publishers Weekly ).What happened when a wealthy industrialist and a visionary evangelist unleashed forces that joined to subjugate an entire continent? Historians Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett tell the story of the forty-year campaign led by Standard Oil s...