After decades of Politically Correct attitudes, big-government fixes, culture wars and muddled foreign policy, the U.S. finds itself on the brink of what may become an historic decline from preeminence. In addition, recent trends and events such as globalism and the war on terror have created an environment for the U.S. which is increasingly more dangerous. America was founded on the principles of democracy and freedom. In the last half of the 20th century America forgot these important principles and allowed elements potentially dangerous to freedom and democracy to prevail. What can citizens do to change this trend? As the nation's social and political institutions are in peril of failure citizens must rise up and demand change. Several areas are identified for reform including education, the media and the political process.

Ready or not, America's challenges of the 21st century must be addressed with an eye to both the future's perils as well as the Founders principles.

Further information and topical updates may be accessed at http: //bridgesburning.com.

This is the first collection to bring together leading scholars from diverse disciplines to offer a variety of perspectives on ideology and its analysis, emphasizing the input of different intellectual and scholarly traditions to the meaning of ideology. The articles explore commonalities in the use and understanding of ideology as well as delineating constructive differences in its interpretation, while illuminating the changes that the concept of ideology, as well as the practices it signifies, has undergone in recent years. Contributions are included from the fields of political theory, history, literature, political science, cultural studies, post-Marxism, discourse analysis, language studies, law, and sociology. The Meaning of Ideology advances our understanding of the intricacy and relevance of ideology, and offers the latest theories and insights that currently inform scholarship on the subject. Ideology emerges through the pages of this collection more strongly than ever as a major tool of understanding political language and as a durable and normal phenomenon that is inherent in the many ways we conceive the world around us. This book was previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Political Ideologies and will be of interest to students of political ideologies and political and social theory.

By turns radical, uncertain, ambitious and autocratic, Mikhail Gorbachev and his bid to reform the Soviet Union have shaped the contemporary world. This concise and lively book provides an introduction to the man and his times, setting them in the context of a decaying and ramshackle empire and an ideology long since betrayed by its professed followers. Drawing on the latest memoirs and scholarship, this book follows Gorbachev's increasingly desperate attempts to control the forces he unleashed and hold together a state whose days were over.

Psychologist, H. John Lyke, and author of "What Would Our Founding Fathers Say?," asks the question:

"At the end of this century, will the United States still be a world leader or will we continue to be an inferior caricature of what we once were or, even worse, will we have become another fallen empire? Put another way, will the dreams and promises of Americans for their country continue to become unattainable?"

This book offers political straight talk about today's issues between the right and the left by looking through the eyes of the patriots who wrote the plans for our fledging nation. Are we following that plan? What was between the lines that our representatives seem to have forgotten? What was expected of the citizenry that the rest of us are neglecting to do? Lyke provides a clear and impassioned plea to get back to basics. And he shows us, in this treatise of some substance, why the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights were written, and why those superb documents continue to stand the test of time.

Lyke believes he has provided the bipartisan political formula necessary for his children and grandchildren, as well as his fellow Americans living in this country, to be able to live their lives with dignity, respect and a sense of purpose and pride of accomplishment - in a way not possible in the world of politics today.

A crisis makes you rethink your life. The recent economic crisis is no exception. All of us are now thinking how the world could be run differently. Despite this, a radical alternative has hardly emerged to mobilize the masses. Written for the public and students, this book explores the character and spirit of radical politics in our times.

"How a more positive form of identity politics can restore public trust in government Illiberalism, Thomas Main writes, is the basic repudiation of liberal democracy, the very foundation on which the United States rests. Itsays no to electoral democracy, human rights, the rule of law, toleration. It is a political ideology that finds expression in such older right-wing extremist groups as the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists and more recently among the Alt-Right and the Dark Enlightenment. There are also left-of-center illiberal movements, including various forms of communism, anarchism, and some antifascist movements. The Rise of Illiberalism explores the philosophical underpinnings of this toxic political ideology and documents how it has infiltrated the mainstream of political discourse in the United States. By the earlytwenty-first century, Main writes, liberal democracy's failure to deal adequately with social problems created a space illiberal movements could exploit to promote their particular brands of identity politics as an alternative. A critical need thus is for what the author calls "positive identity politics," or a widely shared sense of community that gives a feelingof equal importance to all sectors of society. Achieving this goal will, however, be an enormous challenge. In seeking actionable remedies for the broken political system of the United States, this book makes a major scholarly contribution tocurrent debates about the future of liberal democracy. "

From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Nazi Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy comes a true, little-known story about the first assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy, right before his inauguration.

Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States, is often ranked among Americans’ most well-liked presidents. Yet what most Americans don’t know is that JFK’s historic presidency almost ended before it began―at the hands of a disgruntled sociopathic loner armed with dynamite.

On December 11, 1960, shortly after Kennedy’s election and before his inauguration, a retired postal worker named Richard Pavlick waited in his car―a parked Buick―on a quiet street in Palm Beach, Florida. Pavlick knew the president-elect’s schedule. He knew when Kennedy would leave his house. He knew where Kennedy was going. From there, Pavlick had a simple plan―one that could’ve changed the course of history.

Written in the gripping, page-turning style that is the hallmark of Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch’s bestselling series, this is a slice of history vividly brought to life. Meltzer and Mensch are at the top of their game with this brilliant exploration of what could’ve been for one of the most compelling leaders of the 20th century.

A fascinating insight into political life after the collapse of communism and the fall of the Iron Curtain in the late 1980s.
For Communist parties and their successors (CSPs), the challenge was perhaps the greatest - to redefine themselves within new, 'westernized' political systems. As these parties sought to adapt their programmatic appeals to their new environments, they searched for policies from abroad that could fit these new political structures.
The political parties of Western Europe provided a rich range of programs from which policies could be drawn. This book analyzes how, to what extent and under what conditions external influences came to bear on the programmatic development of CSPs. It argues that while some parties remain neo-communist in orientation, growling about the evils of capitalism on the far-left of their respective political systems, others have developed into social democratic actors, embracing programmatic ideals that often bear a strong resemblance to those of center-left actors in Western Europe.
This book was previously published as a special issue of "The" "Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics."

This book brings the idea of realism back to the focus of political science. Contrary to current mainstream thought, the author contributes to the recently renewed interest in political realism by suggesting we return to the basics understanding of politics: power and political action.

This book is about the metamorphosis of national ideology in Ba'thist Iraq. By "ideology" the reference is to a very broad sense of the term, closer to a "collection of political proposals...somewhat intellectualistic" than to a comprehensive world view or an interpretation of history fully, systematically and rigorously thought out, presented and elaborated. Speeches by leading politicans, historiography and the writings of intellectuals in regard to Iraq's political community, are considered here as ideology, even if these ideas do not constitute a complete "politico-social programme".;This book is an attempt to follow and analyze the change in the Ba'th party's perception and representation of Iraq as a political community. By resurrecting and imbuing with great national significance elements previously rejected, ignored or downplayed in Ba'th ideology such as territory, race and local pre-Islamic and pre-Arab historical epochs, the Ba'th regime of Iraq has sought to re-shape the collective identification of its countrymen. In several cases, this reshaping took the form of re-enforcing and fully legitimizing an already existing identification that hitherto the party had looked

The so-called "Islamic State" (IS) that has swept into power in parts of Syria and Iraq presents an imminent danger to the global community with its capacity as an effective, ideologically motivated, and bloodthirsty fighting force, coupled with its expanding territorial reach, on the ground and online. The IS has taken on a quasi-state form that mixes modernity with ancient rites, and aggressively promotes sectarian violence and religious extremism with a decidedly apocalyptic bent. Too, it has introduced to the Middle East a new level of extremism and brutality, marked by volatile fluidity, with far-reaching, dangerously destabilizing effects on state and non-state actors, regionally and globally. This book offers insights into the nature of the IS and what the international community can do to combat it. In order to achieve this objective, the origins, intentions, leadership, capabilities, and operations of the IS are explored. The Islamic State's multifaceted efforts and effects in the region and beyond are described. Also, national, regional, and global strategies that are being pursued to address the new threat are examined. To this end, a range of recommendations are offered on specific steps that governmental, intergovernmental, and non-governmental bodies can take to counter the IS menace. Lastly, additional insights are presented relevant to combating the IS and undermining its potential future capabilities.

What do classical elitists like Pareto and Mosca have in common with Marxists like Labriola and Gramsci? In this collection of essays, Joseph Femia argues that all four thinkers are united by the 'worldly humanism' they inherited from Machiavelli. Their distinctively Italian hostility to the metaphysical abstractions of natural law and Christian theology accounted for similarities in their thought that are obscured by the familiar terminology of 'left' and 'right'. The collection includes critical essays on each of the four thinkers, as well as an introductory chapter on their links with Machiavelli.

This book discusses the extent to which the theoretical relevance and analytical rigor of the concept of the public sphere is affected (or undermined) by current processes of transnationalization. The contributions address fundamental questions concerning the viability of a socially and politically effective public sphere in a post-Westphalian world. To what degree are the theoretical presuppositions regarding the critical function and democratic quality of public deliberation still valid in contemporary societies that adhere decreasingly to the Westphalian logic of closed national political communities and modes of communication? Under what conditions is the critical impetus of the public sphere still applicable in a world that, in Europe and beyond, is increasingly responding to processes of trans-border interaction and communication?

ANTHONY L. HALL takes aim at the global events of 2013 with a unique and refreshing perspective. Here are some of the topics he addresses: Public outrage over NSA spying"There's no rationalizing their outrage over the NSA monitoring their promiscuous and indiscriminate footprints (online and via telephone). For, evidently, these nincompoops think it's okay for Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Facebook, and others to spy on them to sell them stuff, but not okay for the NSA to do so to keep them safe."National praise NBA player Jason Collins got for coming out"His courageous stand is somewhat undermined by the fact that he waited to take it on his way out of the league."

Women who'd rather pose nude than be caught without makeup

"Who would've thought the liberation inherent in the sexual revolution and feminist movement would devolve into a self-abnegating farce where women themselves consider it a 'brave decision' to go out in public without makeup?"

Mediterranean Sea becoming a graveyard for Africans migrants

"I just hope the damning irony is not lost on any proud African that, 50 years after decolonization, hundreds of Africans (men, women, and children) are risking their lives, practically every day, to subjugate themselves to the paternal mercies of their former colonial masters in Europe."

Pope rebuking church for neglecting poor

"Nothing indicates how far mainstream Christians have backslidden quite like the pope's good old-fashioned religion being hailed as revolutionary."

World paying tribute to Nelson Mandela

"As you see the most powerful people in the world falling all over themselves to sing Mandela's praises in the coming days, bear in mind that the people Mandela himself loved and admired most (outside of family members) are old comrades--most of whom you will never see on TV or social media."

The Lega Nord, one of the most important right-wing populist parties in Western Europe, is the focus of this well researched look into Italian regional politics. The author links the Lega Nord's rise to the socio-economic development of the north over the south in Italy and the political process which created a voting block in the south. This led the north of Italy to see "Rome" as a predatory entity, drawing resources and impeding progress in the north to support the south. The author examines this process and explores the implications it produces for the whole of Europe.

In recent years, the English School or international society approach to International Relations has risen to prominence because its theories and concepts seem able to help us explain some of the most complex and seemingly paradoxical features of contemporary world politics. In doing so, the approach has attracted a variety of criticisms from both ends of the political spectrum. Some argue that the claim that states form an international society is premature in an era of terror where power politics and the use of force have returned to the fore. Others insist that international society's state-centrism make it an inherently conservative approach unable to address many of the world's most pressing problems. International Society and its Critics provides the first in-depth study of the English School approach to International Relations from a variety of different theoretical and practical perspectives. Sixteen leading scholars from three continents critically evaluate the School's contribution to the study of international theory and history; consider its relationship with a variety of alternative perspectives including international political economy, feminism, environmentalism, and critical security studies; and assess how the approach can help us to make sense of the big issues of the day such as terrorism, the management of cultural difference, global governance, the ethics of coercion, and the role of international law. They find that whilst the concept of international society helps to shed light on many of the important tensions in world politics, much work still needs to be done. In particular, the approach needs to broaden its empirical scope to incorporate more of the issues and actors that shape global politics; draw upon other theoretical traditions to improve its explanations of change in world politics; and recognize the complex and multi-layered nature of the contemporary world.

What can creative methods offer our understanding of military power and militarised cultures? What constitutes ‘creative research’ in military studies? And, what are some of the challenges of this type of work? This edited volume brings together authors working at the cutting edge of creative research in military studies, to explore how creativity and creative practice can shed new light on often taken for granted concepts in critical military research. In twelve empirically and conceptually rich chapters, authors from a diverse range of disciplinary fields draw on theatre, model-making, songwriting, dance, spoken word, paper making, and more, to question what military research can and should look like. As a collection, the book explores topics of central concern in military studies such as militarism, military experience, and militarised cultures, as well as more practical questions around ethics, positionality, and research relationships. This path-breaking new volume considers what exactly constitutes creativity in critical military research, while offering the tools for researchers to think anew about big questions in the field.

This in-depth examination looks at African American women's navigation of the interlocking obstacles of race and gender specifically within the political arena. Conflict: African American Women and the New Dilemma of Race and Gender Politics offers a provocative examination of an increasingly important voting bloc, one that impacted the 2008 election and whose loyalties will have far-reaching implications for future contests. This fascinating study is three-pronged. It explores the conflicts African American women experience in prioritizing race over gender, offers data-backed analysis of the substantial power of this bloc to influence elections, and looks at the ways in which the very existence of that influence impacts the political and social empowerment of this dual-identity population. As background to the present-day story, the book surveys the history of African American females in elective office in the United States, as well as their roles in the Women's Suffrage and Civil Rights movements. The first work to undertake a study of African American women in this expansive political context, this important volume will help readers assess where African American women have been, where they are now, and what their roles might be in the future. Quotes from African American women about their dual-identity conflicts A bibliography

Federalism and Regionalism in Western Europe seeks to clarify the relevance, problems and consequences of operating federal systems of government in Western Europe. It discusses the institutional features of federalism and regionalism and brings in recent insights from the viewpoint of neo-institutional scholarship. Rather than providing a case-by-case approach, the book offers a thematic analysis of federalism and regionalism. In addition, the book also analyzes and explains varieties in the allocation of resources, in the political decision-making process and in the policy content and problem-solving capacity of West-European federal and regional states.

This book examines the response to right-wing extremism in the US from both the government and non-governmental organisations. It provides a detailed portrait of the contemporary extreme right in the US including interviews with several of the movement's leading figures from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Militias, American Renaissance and the White Aryan Resistance. The author also explains how the activities of these racist groups have been curbed due to the campaigning efforts of anti-racist and anti-fascist watchdogs who have helped to shape and influence government policy.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203563212

An urgent and galvanizing argument for an Economic Bill of Rights—and its potential to confer true freedom on all Americans. Since the Founding, Americans have debated the true meaning of freedom. For some, freedom meant the provision of life’s necessities, those basic conditions for the “pursuit of happiness.� For others, freedom meant the civil and political rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights and unfettered access to the marketplace—nothing more.  As Mark Paul explains, the latter interpretation—thanks in large part to a particularly influential cadre of economists—has all but won out among policymakers, with dire repercussions for American society: rampant inequality, endemic poverty, and an economy built to benefit the few at the expense of the many. In this book, Paul shows how economic rights—rights to necessities like housing, employment, and health care—have been a part of the American conversation since the Revolutionary War and were a cornerstone of both the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement. Their recuperation, he argues, would at long last make good on the promise of America’s founding documents. By drawing on FDR’s proposed Economic Bill of Rights, Paul outlines a comprehensive policy program to achieve a more capacious and enduring version of American freedom. Among the rights he enumerates are the right to a good job, the right to an education, the right to banking and financial services, and the right to a healthy environment. Replete with discussions of some of today’s most influential policy ideas—from Medicare for All to a federal job guarantee to the Green New Deal—The Ends of Freedom is a timely and urgent call to reclaim the idea of freedom from its captors on the political right—to ground America’s next era in the country’s progressive history and carve a path toward a more economically dynamic and equitable nation.  

As recent events in the Far East have demonstrated, China is a nation that is in the midst of a massive social and political upheaval. The Chinese leadership is as uncertain as the populace on the future course for modern China, and remains dramatically split over capitalism and communism, pragmatism and realism, and democracy and despotism. In this work, Ronald Glassman analyzes the remarkable changes that are occurring in China, and examines the country's difficult movement from state-run economics to free enterprise, and from Communist Party dictatorship to electoral democracy.

The book focuses on the emergence of a modern middle class in China, illuminating their political and economic desires and their impact in a postcommunist society. Glassman provides a Weberian analysis of the recent radical changes, using the concepts of rationalization, the bureaucratic middle strata, the greater degree of efficiency of capitalism over socialism, the independent power of the state, and charismatic leadership to help explain China's transition to modernity. His study is divided into four sections, covering the majority middle class and democracy, free enterprise and democracy, the transition to a legal democratic state, and political culture, legitimacy, and charisma. The book concludes with the thesis that China will make the transition to democracy when the new generation of leaders comes to power and the middle class becomes the mediating stratum. Students of sociology, political science, and Chinese history will find this work to be a valuable resource, as will both public and academic libraries.