Why did George Washington personally lead the militia that put down the Whiskey Rebellion? What drove Harry Truman to fire Douglas MacArthur at the height of the Korean War? Did Gerald Ford know that his pardon of Richard Nixon could very well end his political career? Why did John F. Kennedy challenge America to reach for the moon?
This book examines more than a dozen major decisions of the presidency--Truman dropping the Bomb; Nixon going to China; Jefferson purchasing the Louisiana Territory--and the stories behind them. Told in a crisp, narrative writing style, the author brings the presidency and its big decisions to life with his unique storytelling and pacing, and highlights the lessons to be learned. Some of the decisions are well known; others are not. But they're all told in a way that will keep you turning the pages to learn more. Each chapter stands as a study in leadership and decision-making. By the end of the book, you'll be an expert in the men and the decisions that shaped the country, and the lessons that can be learned from their leadership and often their courage.
With a concluding chapter that assesses President Obama's first year in office and reviews his major decisions, this lively, illuminating book will appeal to history buffs, devotees of politics, students, and anyone interested in decision-making at the highest and most influential level.

Professors Murphy and Choi use postmodern philosophy to expose an important source of racism and cultural domination. They examine foundationalism, which they see at the core of the Western intellectual tradition and which is shown to foster a metaphysics of domination. By contrast, postmodernism undermines this root of racism.

They demonstrate that foundationalism is not needed to support identity, institutions, or political order. Indeed, they assert that true pluralism is possible once foundationalist approaches to knowledge and order are set aside. Special attention is directed to two current modes of discrimination: institutional racism and symbolic violence. Murphy and Choi provide an intriguing look at ways to undercut the justification for racism and other threats to cultural difference. This volume will be of particular interest to scholars and other researchers in the areas of race relations, cultural studies, and political theory.

The MADISON PAPERS James Madison appreciated the significance of the Federal Convention and took great care to compile an accurate report of its proceedings, which were held behind closed doors. His journal, which covers the period from May 14 to September 17, 1787, is often referred to as "The Madison Papers" or "Madison's Notes." It remains the most complete record of the proceedings. This volume is based on the edition of 1840. Edited from Madison's original manuscripts, which were purchased by the Federal government from Mrs. Madison, it was published under the direction of President Jackson. The volume also includes the text of another manuscript that traces the history of American constitutionalism from 1754 to 1787 and E.H. Scott's complete "general and analytical" index. Founding father, statesman and political theorist, JAMES MADISON 1751-1836] was the primary author of the United States Constitution. While a member of the First Congress, he drafted the Bill of Rights and helped to organize the new Federal government. Along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, he was one of the authors of the Federalist Papers. He established the Democratic-Republican Party with Thomas Jefferson. Elected in 1809, Madison served two terms as president. He was, without question, one of the most inflfl uential national leaders in the early years of the United States.

The American South has long been a subject of endless scholarly fascination. Historians and social scientists have endeavored to decipher the ""enigma"" of the region and to identify the formative factors that have molded the southern experience.They have searched for a ""central theme"" that would explain southern behavior and have debated the extent to which the region was ""distinctive"" from the rest of the nation. More recently, historical scholarship has shown a growing interest in the evolution of southern culture and the forces that shaped it. The southern enigma is yet to be fully deciphered, but The Evolution of Southern Culture addresses questions crucial to an understanding of the region's history. The book brings together original, searching essays by nine of the nation's most distinguished scholars: Immanuel Wallerstein, Eugene D. Genovese, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Eric Foner, Nell Irvin Painter, George M. Frederickson, Joel Williamson, Bertram Wyatt-Brown

The intertwining of development and human rights is the subject of the twelve essays collected by the editors. The individual authors extensively examine the commonly held belief that economic development cannot take place in Third World countries without the short term sacrifice of political liberty and demonstrate that there is considerable evidence to the contrary. Following a theoretical stage-setting that concentrates on the severe power limitations and the dependency of weak Third World states, case studies focus on such issues as state terrorism, food, the right to modernize, refugees, and support of apartheid in Latin America, the People's Republic of China, the Middle East, and Africa. Several essays concern the implementation of human rights and the role of multinational corporations and international nongovernmental organizations in protecting them. The final essay considers the international framework of government, law, and organization as a means for implementing human rights development in the Third World.

This volume collects the papers presented at a conference sponsored by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to mark the bicentennial of the framing and adoption of the U.S. Constitution. The conference joined distinguished members of the American judiciary, bar, and academia and their Israeli counterparts in an intensive debate on the part the Constitution has assumed in American life during the 200 years of its existence. Each paper focuses specifically on one aspect of the Constitution; the subject matter ranges from executive-legislative relations to minority rights, religious freedom, and constitutional reform. Throughout, comments and rebuttals are also included. Unique in its international approach to constitutional issues and developments, this volume will be of significant interest to constitutional and legal scholars.

Following two papers that provide a backdrop to the debate by reviewing the historical background of the Constitution and examining the rise of the Supreme Court, the contributors move on to address such issues as: the issue of executive-legislative relations and the impacts of the Constitution on these relations over the years; the inherent tensions that exist between the establishment and free exercise clauses in the First Amendment; the question of minority rights under the Constitution as relates to both race and gender; and the newly discovered right of privacy under the constitution. Subsequent papers address whether the Constitution needs amending and explore the impact of the U.S. Constitution on Israeli jurisprudence. In the final group of essays, the contributors deal with the possible assumption by the U.S. Supreme Court of a new role--a more forthright involvement in promoting social justice.

For students of the early American republic, James Madison has long been something of a riddle, the member of the founding generation whose actions and thought most stubbornly resist easy summary. The staunchest of Federalists in the 1780s, Madison would turn on his former allies shortly thereafter, renouncing their expansive nationalism as a threat to the Constitution and to popular government.

In a study that combines penetrating textual analysis with deep historical awareness, Gary Rosen stakes out important new ground by showing the philosophical consistency in Madison's long and controversial public life. The key, he argues, is Madison's profound originality as a student of the social compact, the venerable liberal idea into which he introduced several novel, and seemingly illiberal, principles.

Foremost among these was the need for founding to be the work of an elite few. For Madison, prior accounts of the social compact, in their eagerness to establish the proper ends of government, provided a hopelessly naive account of its origin. As he saw it, the Federal Convention of 1787 was an opportunity for those of outstanding prudence (understood in its fullest Aristotelian sense) to do for the people what they could not do for themselves. This troublesome reliance on the few was balanced, Rosen contends, by Madison's commitment to republicanism as an end in itself, a conclusion that he likewise drew from the social compact, accommodating the proud political claims that his philosophical predecessors had failed to recognize.

Rosen goes on to show how Madison's idiosyncratic understanding of the social compact illuminates his differences not only with Hamilton but with Jefferson as well. Both men, Madison feared, were too ready to resort to original principles in coming to terms with the Constitution, putting at risk the fragile achievement of the founding in their determination to invoke, respectively, the claims of the few and the many.

"As American Compact" persuasively concludes, Madison's ideas on the origin and aims of the Constitution are not just of historical interest. They carry crucial lessons for our own day, and speak directly to current disputes over diversity, constitutional interpretation, the fate of federalism, and the possibilities and limits of American citizenship.

Laws are essential to the lives of all British citizens and crucial to the survival of British Governments. This book follows the work of House of Commons bill committees as they scrutinise legislation and reveals the hidden depths of law making in the British Parliament.

The chapters in this volume provide a varied yet consistent analysis of the ways in which ideologies have been used, misused, or abandoned in Latin America in the twentieth century. The volume offers scholars and students a challenging collection of interpretations of and explanations for the ways in which ideologues and ideologies have played a crucial role in the political development of the continent. And, while illuminating key reasons for the rise and fall of specific ideologies and their repeated betrayal throughout the century--from anarchism to communism, to socialism, to Peronism, to neoliberalism--the volume indicates how much there is still left to learn about the importance of ideological discourse in the mind and polity of Latin America. With chapters examining Mexico, Chile, Cuba, Paraguay, and Argentina, this work will be of interest to all Latin Americanists.

This book opens the institutional Pandora's box of conflict management, focusing on two central questions: To what degree do Latin American political contexts create spaces for institutional designs that deal with conflicts in a feasible and legitimate way? How can institutional architects exploit such spaces to manage conflict innovatively? The authors' point of departure is that institutions are primarily conflict-solving entities guiding individual and social behaviour, and that they set out to be much more than rules of the game: institutions do (and should) evolve and are eventually redesigned to meet human necessities. In light of the pending socioeconomic challenges in most of Latin America, institutional designers are confronted with the fact that nothing inherent within the institutions guarantees that conflict is processed in ways that tackle distributive and ethnic inequalities.

This book introduces the background of China's issue of nationality from the very beginning. Throughout the country's history, all the nationalities that lived and prospered on Chinese land created a pattern of cultural diversity within national unity through their interaction and integration. The formation of this pattern is due not only to the geographical fact that China covers a broad expanse on the Asian continent but also to the historical fact that it is home to disparate and ancient human heritages, and to culturally diverse historical sources.The book's five chapters explain the evolution of the CPC's policy towards nationalities. At the time of the PRC's founding, the Common Program (in essence an interim Constitution) passed by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress (which was composed of people from all sectors of society and all of China's nationalities) not only declared that people of all China's nationalities had equal rights, but also stipulated that: regional national autonomy would be practiced in all areas where minority nationalities were concentrated; that all nationalities had the right to develop their native languages and culture and to maintain or reform their customs and religious beliefs; and also mandated that people's governments support the development of minority nationalities in the areas of politics, the economy, culture and education.In the final section, the book demonstrates that the subject of how the CPC addresses nationality-related issues is a dynamic one that encompasses the past, present and future, and is simultaneously an answer, a process and a question.

Since the 1990s journalism education programs have expanded exponentially around the world, but media freedom has not. Globally comparative, this edited volume assesses journalism education and the challenging environment in which it is delivered in countries with a partly free or not free status according to global press freedom. The countries covered include China, Singapore, Cambodia, Palestine, Oman, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Brazil, Russia, Romania, and Croatia. Contributors demonstrate through careful analysis that wealthy nations are able to set the terms of their journalism education while less affluent countries are more open to the influence of foreign NGOs. Although this book evidences the disconnection between what is taught and what can be practiced, it also illustrates the degree to which journalism education can be an agent of change.

The nine essays in this volume examine women's public and private lives from sixteenth century England to twentieth-century Chicago, from Queen Elizabeth I to Jane Addams of Hull House. Editor Janet Sharistanian's main purpose in organizing these essays is to offer a response to and a critique of theories of the domestic/public split in Western ideology and history that have emerged from feminist anthropology.

Zimmerman places in perspective the important roles played by interstate compacts and interstate administrative agreements in the governance systems of the United States. Compacts are identified and classified by type. Particular emphasis is placed on federal government promotion of compacts, including the U.S. Congress enactment of federal-state compacts in which the federal government joins member states as partners to achieve stated goals.

Formal and informal interstate administrative agreements have increased in number dramatically during the past six decades and relate to both minor and very important issues. Credit for many interstate administrative agreements must be ascribed to associations of state government officers which encourage their members to promote interstate cooperation and also draft model state laws and administrative agreements. Although compacts and agreements have lubricated the functioning of the United States governmental system, as Zimmerman makes clear, the full potential of compacts and agreements has not been achieved to date, and he makes recommendations to improve the level of interstate cooperation. An important resource for scholars and students of American government--federal, state, and local--as well as administrators and policymakers.

Why do policy actors create branded policy ideas like the big society and does launching them on Twitter extend or curtail their life? This book reveals how policy analysis can adapt in an increasingly mediatised world, offering interpretive insights into the life and death of policy ideas in an era of hashtag politics.

South Georgia - "Dog Days" - August, 1967, David Wiggins, then a mere eight year old boy, had a brief, but lasting encounter with an Eastern Diamond Back Rattlesnake. This "chance" meeting would make a "forever"change and jeopardize both the lives of David and the snake.; each having effects that would last for all time.

From the outset, Silvio Berlusconi's career was expected to be short, and he has been considered finished several times, only to have reemerged victorious. This fascinating political and historical study shows that Berlusconi's success and resilience have lain in his ability to provide answers to longstanding questions in Italian history.

Studies of colonialism and empire have increasingly drawn attention to the problem of conceptualizing the political logic of colonial projects and the circumstances of state formation in colonial contexts. However, the nature and workings of the colonial state remains under-theorized and under-analysed. This volume addresses the analytical challenges of the colonial state from a variety of theoretical and thematic angles, and across a range of empirical cases that stretch over a vast span historically and geographically, to provide a new approach to analyzing the colonial state and its governmental practices.

This book discusses parliamentary oversight and its role in curbing corruption in developing countries. Over the past decade, a growing body of research at the global and regional levels has demonstrated that parliamentary oversight is an important determinant of corruption and that effective oversight of public expenditure is an essential component of national anti-corruption strategies and programs. However, little research has been undertaken at the country level regarding how parliamentary oversight is undertaken, which oversight mechanisms are effective or on how national parliaments interact with other anti-corruption stakeholders. This book presents the results of a new large-scale, quantitative analysis which identifies the mechanisms through which institutional arrangements impact corruption, specifically through country case studies on the Caribbean region, Ghana, Myanmar, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Addressing a gap in scholarly knowledge while presenting practical policy advice for parliaments and for anti-corruption assistance agencies, this book will be of use to scholars interested in development, anti-corruption, public finance, as well as members of parliament, anti-corruption practitioners, and organizations working in parliamentary strengthening.

The inability of many democratic governments in Africa to govern effectively has been an important factor in the many problems that the continent and its constituent countries have faced over the past decades. The question for scholars has been in learning what has caused the endemic failure of public institutions throughout Africa and understanding how to create good government in the future of the continent. Strongly supported by empirical evidence, this book challenges the existing literature on the subject by breaking with the traditional notion among academics that the key to good government in Africa is through the creation of unique administrative structures, or at the very least developing significantly adapted foreign structures with an emphasis on the specific structure of African societies. Instead the author contrasts this notion with theories from other research fields suggesting that public officials are likely to be interested in following professional norms and that organizations generally strive to imitate each other, regardless of geographical location. This book presents rich original empirical research from the field of state audit in Sub-Saharan Africa where the above different theoretical approaches are empirically explored. The research results contradict many assumptions made in the literature on development and points to the importance of adding other dimensions, such as professional norms, to nuance the discussion of the future of the African continent.