Liberal World Order is seen by many as either a fading international order in response to declining American hegemony, or as a failing international order riddled with internal tensions and contradictions. Either way, liberal world order is assumed to be in crisis. The contributors to Liberal World Orders do not reject the argument that liberal order is in crisis. Instead they contend that the crisis is primarily one of authority. This has been compounded by the relative lack of historical context supplied by liberal theorists of 'the international'. By not looking further than the 20th century, the field has ignored moments when similar tensions and contradictions have been evident. The authors question the way in which the debate about liberalism has been conducted. Against the theoreticians it is proposed that liberalism has suffered from being too closely tied to the quest for scientific authenticity, resulting in a theoretical perspective with little or no commitment to political values and political vision. By reformulating the classical liberalism of Kant, Paine, and Mill into neo-liberalism, liberalism lost its critical and normative potential. Against the policy-makers it is proposed that the practices of liberal ordering are resilient enough to prove durable despite the relative decline in the power and authority of liberal states. Just as cooperative practices between states predated liberalism, aspects of world order today which evolved during the high point of liberal internationalism may succeed in outliving liberalism.

America has departed from its founding as a Christian nation and is rapidly abandoning the godly principles which blessed its people with liberty and justice for all. While many people from every level of society have offered secular solutions to the social and economic woes of today's America, it is clear the problem has resulted from the denial of God's providential hand on America by ungodly forces. The pathway from America's founding as a constitutional republic kept only by godly virtue to the loss of good will and reason which has now hopelessly dead-locked and divided the nation can be traced here. The only solution left for Christians is to get on their knees and pray for God to rain down a national spiritual revival reminiscent of the Great Awakenings which have historically and miraculously swept the land.

ln Transforming the Frontier Bram Buscher questions why peace parks - large areas that protect biodiversity while stimulating international development through ecotourism - have become such a popular conservation model. Drawing from extensive fieldwork in the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project (MDTP), Buscher looks at the reasons and ways transfrontier conservation has been touted as a global solution. While frontier politics previously focused on ecological preservation, Buscher claims that the discourse has drastically shifted away from preservation, and instead transfrontier conservation has become an integral mechanism of neoliberal political economies. Moreover, Buscher argues that the grandiose diplomatic presumptions of peace park initiatives and community-based conservation efforts fail to take into account the limited resources and leadership of local groups, as well as the complexities of everyday life that inhibit the implementation of this `global solution'. Buscher begins by situating conservation within South Africa's colonial and postcolonial history and tracing how that history affected the political mobilisation and Iegitimation of transfrontier conservation. He examines how struggles over consensus undermined the Maloti-Drakensberg's twofold goals of conserving biodiversity and pursuing development through ecotourism. Buscher then studies the people and actors centrally involved in the implementation of these efforts -the South African and Lesotho Project Coordination Units (PCUs) -and the difficulties they encountered as they tried to govern these policies and convince outside stakeholders to fund and support transfrontier conservation. Buscher shows how neoliberal conservation became less about on-the-ground developments and instead centered on politics, power and governance in a political ecology reframed by geography and conservation practices.

International peace parks--transnational conservation areas established and managed by two or more countries--have become a popular way of protecting biodiversity while promoting international cooperation and regional development. In "Transforming the Frontier," Bram Buscher shows how cross-border conservation neatly reflects the neoliberal political economy in which it developed.

Based on extensive research in southern Africa with the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation and Development Project, Buscher explains how the successful promotion of transfrontier conservation as a "win-win" solution happens not only in spite of troubling contradictions and problems, but indeed because of them. This is what he refers to as the "politics of neoliberal conservation," which receives its strength from effectively combining strategies of consensus, antipolitics, and marketing. Drawing on long-term, multilevel ethnographic research, Buscher argues that transfrontier conservation projects are not as concerned with on-the-ground development as they are purported to be. Instead, they are reframing environmental protection and sustainable development to fit an increasingly contradictory world order.

This new textbook invites readers to explore their own responses to debates about democracy's meaning. It provides tools for thinking actively about democracy as a practice, an ideal, and a site of contestation.

Open-minded and written with genuine clarity for an undergraduate audience, Saward's book avoids providing easy answers to democracy's dilemmas. Instead, it offers to students the diverse approaches to democracy, showing how the key narratives of contemporary political life have been created and adapted.

Working through a series of compelling real and hypothetical cases, twentieth-century narratives of democracy and their roots, and major new challenges such as globalization and environmentalism, the book makes the ideal starting point both for students already curious and those needing to be enticed and provoked. It concludes with an extraordinary snapshot and appraisal of the new theories of democracy that are making waves in the twenty-first century, and invites informed speculation on the shape of the democracy of the future. "Democracy" includes an extensive glossary of types of democracy, as well as a guide to further reading.

There has been a recent outpouring of memoirs and biographies of the 'great men' of the southern African liberation movements. But the writing of critical reflective histories of these movements by non-partisan, independent scholars is still in its infancy. This collection of essays illustrates the intertwined histories of southern African liberation struggles and those of regional and international solidarity movements from the 1960s to the establishment of a non-racial democracy in South Africa in 1994, reflecting the new directions currently taken by 'indigenous' southern-African based scholars, and those writing from abroad. Distinct from the polemical, hagiographic, justificatory or partisan accounts that have flowed since the inception of the liberation struggles, the essays probe beyond the heroic portrayals of armed struggles and nationalist resistance to examine the fissures and tensions that existed within them. The essays also provide insights into the more troubling and darker aspects of the movements' histories: human rights abuses perpetrated by the 'liberators'; the important, if ambiguous, roles played by other southern African states which hosted, and provided succour for, the ANC and its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in exile; the support provided to the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) by the Lesotho government and the ways in which the fractious and personality-dominated politics of the organisation contributed to its weakness and ultimate eclipse by the ANC; the relationship between Muslims in Northern Mozambique and that country's liberation movements. These essays also seek to present more nuanced accounts of the solidarity movements that flourished alongside the liberation and exile movements, such as the British-based Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), which in the 1970s found itself at odds both with international interest groups pursuing constructive engagement with the South African government and with elements in the country's grassroots movements. Even this organisation, committed to the downfall of systemic racial domination in South Africa, was beset by its own tensions of race, and had a difficult relationship with Black Britons. The collection's uniqueness lies in drawing together internal and external struggles in exile. And it provides new insights into the relationships that exiles and guerrillas developed with host societies and solidarity organisations, both within the southern African region, and in the United Kingdom.

"My culture is depraved, Not sure it can be saved . . . Of Thee I Zing. Land filled with STDs, Pants way down to the knees, Nary a "thanks" or "please" This is going to sting. . . . "
While Laura Ingraham was walking through a Northern Virginia shopping mall one Saturday afternoon, it all became clear to her: Our country is in grave peril. Our culture of ignorance, arrogance, and gluttony undermines our present and endangers our future. Everywhere she turned, she saw signs of the impending disaster: zombie teens texting each other across a cafe table; a man having his eyebrows threaded at a kiosk; a fiftyish woman shoehorned into a tube top and skinny jeans; and a storefront ad featuring a Victoria's Secret model spilling out of her push-up bra and into the faces of young passersby. Ingraham wondered, "Is this it? Is this what our forefathers fought for? What my parents struggled for? I wonder if Victoria's Secret is still having that two-for-one sale?"
In an act of patriotic intervention, the most-listened-to woman in talk radio casts her satirical eye upon all that ails American society. In this sharp-witted comic romp, Laura Ingraham takes you on a guided tour through ten levels of our cultural hell.
"You know we're in trouble when . . . "
Airplane seats shrink--just as the passengers expand.
Celebrity baby names go from the peculiar (Apple, Stetson, and Daisy Boo) to the pathetic (Bamboo, Blanket, and Bronx).
People meticulously tend their virtual crops on Farmville, while their children eat takeout.
"Breaking News" usually means it happened yesterday.
The weddings last longer than the marriages.
Facebook has become a verb and reading has become an ancient art form.
"Of Thee I Zing "is cultural commentary too funny to ignore, igniting a national conversation long past due. America, your cultural recovery begins here.

Evolution/ Science/ Darwin/ BiographyAre we politically, economically, morally, spiritually, and environmentally going up, down, sideways, or crazy? As progressive vision is swept aside by the politics of lunacy, what's to be done about global warming, nuclear overkill, terrorism, galloping corruption, rule by corporation?How are we to go forward rather then be driven backward in evolution? Darwin's Second Revolution is the first book of a trilogy written to provide a new grounding in historical, political, economic, moral, spiritual, and environmental reality for the theory and story of evolution and an integrated new scientific vision for our troubled time.Part I, The Triumph of the Neos, uncovers the story of what set us off in both better and worse evolutionary directions for the 20th and 21st centuries. Part II, A New Language for Evolution and Revolution, cuts through the baffling overload of scientific concepts and languages to a new path for moving ahead. Part III, The Rise and Fall of the Super Neos- including a hard-hitting critique of Richard Dawkins and fellow sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists, in contrast to the vision of Stuart Kauffman, Ervin Laszlo, and scores of Darwinian second revolutionaries-completes an amazing story of global psychotherapy for the 20th century with a vision of liberation for the 21st century. ..". An amazing accomplishment ...scholarship of deep humanity and needful wisdom... advances a new vision." Robert J. Richards, national award-winning science historian and Darwin scholar. "David Loye's is one of the few voices desperately needed in the Darwin debates... Read him, it's one of the most important topics alive today." Ken Wilber, pioneering integral philosopher and psychologist, author A Brief Theory of Everything."To shift from despair to hope as we face the renewed challenge of evolution: that and nothing less, is the challenge and the task taken up by David Loye in his profound, thorough, and deeply inspiring books on Darwin and evolution. Ervin Laszlo, pioneering systems philosopher, scientist, and global activist...". stupendous output ...clearly and entertainingly ...points the way to new paradigms for science crucial to our sustainable future." Ralph Abraham, pioneering mathematician and chaos theorist...". must-read for all of us working for global transformation to a cleaner, greener, more equitable future for the human family." Hazel Henderson, author, Creating Alternative Futures, Building a Win-Win World. The author, David Loye, is a psychologist, former member Princeton and UCLA School of Medicine faculties; founder of the multinational Darwin Project with a council of over fifty leading American, European, and Asian scientists and educators; and author of the national award-winning The Healing of a Nation. This is the first book for the trilogy Darwin and the Battle for Human Survival. See opening pages for nine pages of endorsements by concerned scientists and authors.Cover by John MasonProduction: Cassandra Gallup BridgeBack cover photo: Don Eddy

This book compares the trajectories of states and societies in Africa, Asia and Latin America under neoliberalism, a time marked by serial economic crises, escalating social conflicts, the re-militarisation of North-South relations and the radicalization of social and nationalist forces. Sam Moyo and Paris Yeros bring together researchers and activists from the three continents to assess the state of national sovereignty and the challenges faced by popular movements today. They show that global integration has widened social and regional inequalities within countries, exacerbated ethnic, caste, and racial conflicts, and generally reduced the bureaucratic capacities of states to intervene in a defensive way. Moreover, inequalities between the countries of the South have also widened. These structural tensions have all contributed to several distinct political trajectories among states: from fracture and foreign occupation, to radicalization and uncertain re-stabilization. This book re-draws the debate on the political economy of the contemporary South and provides students of international studies with an important collection of readings.

When Israel declared its independence in 1948, Harry Truman issued a memo recognizing the Israeli government within eleven minutes. Today, the U.S. and Israel continue on as partners in an at times controversial alliance-an alliance, many argue, that is powerfully influenced by the Christian Right. In The Fervent Embrace, Caitlin Carenen chronicles the American Christian relationship with Israel, tracing first mainline Protestant and then evangelical support for Zionism. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, American liberal Protestants argued that America had a moral humanitarian duty to support Israel. Christian anti-Semitism had helped bring about the Holocaust, they declared, and so Christians must help make amends. Moreover, a stable and democratic Israel would no doubt make the Middle East a safer place for future American interests. Carenen argues that it was this mainline Protestant position that laid the foundation for the current evangelical Protestant support for Israel, which is based primarily on theological grounds. Drawing on previously unexplored archival material from the Central Zionist Archives in Israel, this volume tells the full story of the American Christian-Israel relationship, bringing the various "players"-American liberal Protestants, American Evangelicals, American Jews, and Israelis-together into one historical narrative.

Libertarianism seems fairly straightforward on the surface: "Keep your government out of my bedroom and my wallet." But how that principle applies to real-world political and economic issues is complicated.

In "Libertarianism, from A to Z," acclaimed Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron sets the record straight with a no-frills dictionary that walks us through the movement's controversial stances on prostitution and drug use to explore issues ranging from abortion to the war on terror. He shows us how to follow those principles to their logical--and sometimes controversial--ends and how to think like a libertarian.

The collapse of the bipolar international system near the end of the twentieth century changed political liberalism from a regional system with aspirations of universality to global ideological dominance as the basic vision of how international life should be organized. Yet in the last two decades liberal democracies have not been able to create an effective and legitimate liberal world order. In A Liberal World Order in Crisis, Georg Sorensen suggests that this is connected to major tensions between two strains of liberalism: a "liberalism of imposition" affirms the universal validity of liberal values and is ready to use any means to secure the worldwide expansion of liberal principles. A "liberalism of restraint" emphasizes nonintervention, moderation, and respect for others.

This book is the first comprehensive discussion of how tensions in liberalism create problems for the establishment of a liberal world order. The book is also the first skeptical liberal statement to appear since the era of liberal optimism based in anticipation of the end of history in the 1990s. Sorensen identifies major competing analyses of world order and explains why their focus on balance-of-power competition, civilizational conflict, international terrorism, and fragile states is insufficient."

Is Winning a Second Presidential Term Really Barack Obama's "Ultimate End Game"?
Considering twelve specific events - with foreign policy implications - that have occurred during the first 18 months of the Obama Presidency, there is one common thread that emerges suggesting a recurring potential political motivation beyond just President Obama's desire to serve a second Presidential term. And, if so, the American people have a right to know it before the 2012 Presidential Election. The Voters can then decide for themselves whether they are concerned or not as to what degree Barack Obama's attitudes and judgment regarding U.S. foreign policy issues - as President of the United States - may be influenced or constrained by his "Ultimate End Game" and, potentially, conflict with America's best self-interests.
Supplanting ObamaCare
Regarding meaningful Health Care Reform, although professing that The Will of The People was paramount, President Obama consciously made no Health Care decision that, at all, conflicted with the interests of his two biggest campaign donors - Trial Lawyers and Unions - or his own prospects for re-election in 2012. In fact, even at the risk and on the verge of a failed Presidency that a defeat on Health Care would bring (as the bar previously set by the Democrats themselves), President Obama still refused, in reality, to even consider compromising on either Health Care Premium Price Competition across state lines - a non-starter with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) - or Tort Reform - the bane of all Trial Lawyers. But, exactly why would President Obama insist on taking such a risk?
It is not that the Obama Administration is, by any means, the first and only Presidential administration to be influenced by political interest groups or the political consequences of their actions. However, this book chronicles the pervasive extent to which the priority interests of Labor Unions and Trial Lawyers enveloped the Presidential decision-making process within the Obama Administration - to the detriment of The Will of The People.
The Optimal Health Care Solution
However, through just a single change in the tax law (as detailed and recommended herein), President Obama not only could have accomplished comprehensive Health Care Reform, but simultaneously achieved both 1) Health Care premium cost control as well as 2) meaningful Medical Provider cost reduction and containment - neither tenet of which was addressed in the ObamaCare legislation as passed. Nor would this simple tax law change necessitate - as does ObamaCare - the pervasive government control of one-sixth of the U.S economy; dictating the creation of more than 120 separate new federal bureaucracies, agencies and boards and the hiring of tens of thousands of additional federal government employees to staff and run them at an average lifetime cost of $4 million per new federal employee hired.
Finally, in dissecting ObamaCare, an extensive analysis was performed of 1) the additional budgetary ramifications of deals struck by Congressional Democrats - with President Obama's blessing - to subsequently pass ObamaCare; 2) obvious Health Care expenses not included (e.g. The "Doctor Fix") and 3) the $500 Billion in unrealistic and virtually unattainable cost savings offsets pertaining to the recovery of Fraudulent Medicare payments and waste. Revealingly, this analysis disclosed that, in actuality, the ultimate cost of ObamaCare balloons well beyond $3 Trillion - more than three times the CBO estimate of $940 Billion.

Was the financial collapsecaused by free-market capitalismand deregulation run amok, as liberals claim?

Not on your life, says Peter Schweizer. In Architects of Ruin, Schweizer describes how a coalition of left-wing activists, liberal politicians, and "do-good capitalists" on Wall Street leveraged government power to achieve their goal of broadening homeownership among minorities and the poor. The results were not only devastating to the economy, but hurt the very people they were supposedly trying to help.

This tale of liberal "Robin Hood capitalism run wild" has never beentold. But more than just a story about the past, Architects of Ruin is also an urgent warning about the future. The very same people who planted the seeds of the collapse are back in Washington, determined to use the crisis they caused as cover for a massive overhaul of the American economic system. These people have learned nothing from their past mistakes and are busy applying the same methods to other sectors of the economy--health care, the auto industry, real estate (again!), and above all the promotion of"green" technologies--inflating bubbles that are sure to bring about another crisis. Ordinary Americans who foot the bill for the last state-capitalist bubble have reason to be afraid--very afraid--of the inevitable result.

C Street - where piety, politics, and corruption meet Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside the C Street House, the Fellowship residence known simply by its Washington, DC address. The house has lately been the scene of notorious political scandal, but more crucially it is home to efforts to transform the very fabric of American democracy. And now, after laying bare its tenants' past in "The Family," Sharlet reports from deep within fundamentalism in today's world, revealing that the previous efforts of religious fundamentalists in America pale in comparison with their long-term ambitions.
When Barack Obama entered the White House, headlines declared the age of culture wars over. In "C Street, " Sharlet shows why these conflicts endure and why they matter now - from the sensationalism of Washington sex scandals to fundamentalism's long shadow in Africa, where Ugandan culture warriors determined to eradicate homosexuality have set genocide on simmer.
We've reached a point where piety and corruption are not at odds but one and the same. Reporting with exclusive sources and explosive documents from C Street, the war on gays in Uganda, and the battle for the soul of America's armed forces - waged by a 15,000-strong movement of officers intent on "reclaiming territory for Christ in the military" - Sharlet reveals not the last gasp of old-time religion but the new front lines of fundamentalism.

The Conscience of a Conservative reignited the American conservative movement and made Barry Goldwater a political star. It influenced countless conservatives in the United States, and helped lay the foundation for the Reagan Revolution in 1980. It covers topics such as education, labor unions and policies, civil rights, agricultural policy and farm subsidies, social welfare programs, and income taxation. This significant book lays out the conservative position both politically and economically that would come to dominate the Conservative Movement in American.

Despite political theorists' repeated attempts to demonstrate their incoherence, liberal values appear to have withstood the test of time. Indeed, engagement with them has become the meeting point of the different political philosophical traditions. But should radical critique justifiably become a thing of the past? Should political philosophy now be conducted in the light of the triumph of liberalism? These are the wider questions that the book takes up in an attempt to demonstrate the intellectual power of systemic critique in the tradition of Hegel. Working through the theories of prominent liberal theorists, John Rawls, Jeremy Waldron, Charles Larmore and Will Kymlicka, the author demonstrates that an adequate appreciation of the deep structural flaws of liberal theory presupposes the application of critical reconstructionism, a philosophical methodology that has the power to reveal the systemic interconnections within and between the varieties of liberal inquiring practices. In the absence of such a methodology liberalism's radically aspiring critics, whether communitarian, feminist, discourse ethicist, post-Marxist or postcolonial, have yet to trace the individualist commitment of liberal theory back to its source in liberal inquiring practices.

The new political movement that now controls much of the Republican party is a coalition of Americans who simply wish to be left alone by the government. They want to be free to run a business, keep the money they earn, own a gun, practice their faith, and perhaps homeschool their children--in short, to control their own destinies. Directly opposed is the descriptively titled Takings Coalition, which is at the heart of the tax-and-spend left. These forces will battle for control of America's future over the next fifty years.

In this compelling and powerful narrative, Grover Norquist describes the two competing coalitions in American politics, what they can achieve and what they cannot do, and how you may fit into the contest. Required reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of politics in America today, "Leave Us Alone" outlines the order of battle for the next generation.

An engaging be hind-the-scenes look at the lesser-known forces that fueled the profound social reforms of the 1960s
Provocative and incisive, "The Liberal Hour" reveals how Washington, so often portrayed as a target of reform in the 1960s, was in fact the era's most effective engine of change. The movements of the 1960s have always drawn the most attention from the decade's chroniclers, but it was in the halls of government-so often the target of protesters' wrath-that the enduring reforms of the era were produced. With nuance and panache, Calvin Mackenzie and Robert Weisbrot present the real-life characters-from giants like JFK and Johnson to lesser-known senators and congressmen-who drove these reforms and were critical to the passage of key legislation. "The Liberal Hour" offers an engrossing portrait of this extraordinary moment when more progressive legislation was passed than in almost any other era in American history.

For almost four decades, Bruce Springsteen's music has directly inspired, influenced, and uplifted millions of devoted fans, who hold a special place in their hearts and minds for his work. Springsteen's rise to the top of American music coincided with the triumph of American conservatism, and the veneration of marketplace values above democratic principles and humanistic priorities. Springsteen has consistently summoned his creative power and artistic vision to indict these political developments and demand the cultivation of a more compassionate and progressive society. And yet his often harsh critique of the status quo and radical ideas for reform have either been ignored or misunderstood, as a result of his "All American" image and his narrative storytelling style.

On nearly every major issue--poverty, racism, urban decay, war, and peace-- Springsteen's music has offered a unique vision for moving forward with the agenda of creating the "country we carry in our hearts"--as he called it in an op-ed for the New York Times." Filled with provocative analysis of Springsteen's best known hits and his most obscure songs, comparisons to other important works of American culture--ranging from The Sopranos "to Edward Hopper--and a wealth of information about the last fifty years of American politics, culture, and society, Working On a Dream "is a powerful and engaging study of this songwriter and performer's art.

David Masciotra shows how Springsteen's music darkly comments on the increased isolation of Americans, and calls for a return to community living and values, based on compassion, empathy, and tolerance. He illustrates how Springsteen has forced listeners to wrestle with the facts of rising poverty rates in the world's richest nation, of wars with questionable justification, and of the continued mistreatment of racial minorities, arguing that Springsteen does this by emphasizing the suffering that everyday people - usually ignored in mainline political discussions - endure on a daily basis.

By using Springsteen's life and music to shine a light on the dark recesses of America's most important political and social trials and conflicts-- race, religion, and working class hardship--Working on a Dream "connects readers with the power, purpose, and promise of Springsteen's extraordinary and enduring music.

This book features the return of a classic history of liberalism. In a book that William E. Leuchtenburg, writing in the ""Atlantic"", called 'a work of considerable power', Allen Matusow documents the rise and fall of 1960s liberalism. He offers deft treatments of the major topics - anticommunism, civil rights, Great Society programs, the counterculture - making the most, throughout, of his subject's tremendous narrative potential. Matusow's preface to the new edition explains the sometimes critical tone of his study. The Unraveling of America, he says, 'was intended as a cautionary tale for liberals in the hope that when their hour struck again, they might perhaps be fortified against past error. Now that they have another chance, a look back at the 1960s might serve them well'.

An essential toolkit for all progressives- helping them to respond to the current sustained right-wing criticism of US domestic and foreign policy

"The game is begun," Rush Limbaugh said, the day after Barack Obama won the presidency; and he was right. The clash of views on US domestic and foreign policy is, if anything, even more intense now than it was before the change of leadership in Washington. Right-wing media figures and Republican politicians regularly regale us with conservative criticisms of the realignment of policy and politics now underway. Even more than in 2008, now is the time for liberals to "answer back," to counter those criticisms by both recognizing their content and locating their weaknesses. In the great clash of parties and philosophies that will shape the next American century, an informed citizenry will require more accurate information, ideas, and arguments than right-wing radio characteristically provides, and the market is wide open for a book that engages with both the worst and the best of the Republican case. "Answering Back "is that book.

"Answering Back "intends to lift the quality of political discourse in the United States by bringing together the best conservative and the best liberal arguments on the eight key policy issues now in contention between the parties: trickledown economics and the role of public spending, the desirability of welfare reform, the future of social security, the establishment of health care for all, the possibility of comprehensive immigration control, religious issues and the social agenda, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the causes of the financial meltdown.
Each chapter begins with a brief introduction, followed by conservative views and a point-by-point progressive response. Each stage of each argument is labeled for easy memorization, and the language used is deliberately jargon free, to make the material as accessible as possible. The sources of both conservative and progressive arguments (and their supporting evidence) are cited to open the door to further research.
"Answering Back "is a completely revised and expanded version of "A Liberal "Tookit, intially published by Praeger in 2007. This new version is a handbook of arguments, data, and sources that present today's key policy debates in an even-handed and accessible manner. This will be an essential tool for anyone interested in policy reform, party politics, and American politics. It is written in a manner that is, at one and the same time, scholarly, useful, accessible, and fun

How self-directed democratic schooling builds fulfilling lives and can lead the way back to a civilized society Education is ripe for democratic disruption. Students in most schools are denied fundamental social ideals such as personal freedom, public government, rule of law, and free enterprise. In our increasingly authoritarian post-truth world, self-directed democratic schooling offers a timely alternative: educating children in civilized society and showing that self-motivation outperforms coercion in its power to educate and fulfill. When Kids Rule the School is the first comprehensive guide to democratic schooling, where kids practice life in a self-governed society-empowered as voters, bound by laws, challenged by choice, supported by community, and driven by nature. Through heartwarming stories and hard-headed details, this book covers: Democratic schooling philosophy, theory, and practice School governance by students and staff together Student self-direction and day-to-day life Deep play, cognitive development, and critical thinking Why democratic schooling is morally right and effective Model bylaws and guidance for starting a democratic school. Created for educators, parents, and scholars, When Kids Rule the School will immerse you, heart and mind, in a promising new approach to education, and stretch your thinking about what school can be.

Today almost half of all Americans decline to define themselves as either "liberal" or "conservative." In fact, modern liberalism and conservatism seem hopelessly fragmented ideologies. Liberals claim to believe in individual freedom yet advocate a more collectivistic approach to government and an increasingly paternalistic role for the state. Conservatives are hopelessly divided between two incompatible ideals--the highly individualistic, limited-state philosophy of classical liberalism and an older, more collectivistic tradition of cultural conservatism that holds government responsible for shaping social morality. As a result, modern liberals are economic collectivists and moral individualists, while conservatives are economic individualists and moral collectivists.

Centrists reject each of these fragmented and polarized approaches to politics. We believe that government has a role to play in structuring social and economic opportunities and in reinforcing basic moral norms, yet we are deeply troubled by ever-expanding government. We reject libertarianism, left-liberalism, and the various schools of conservatism as a model for government.

Part I of "The Political Centrist" briefly traces the trajectory of the liberal and conservative traditions. It argues that modern liberalism is an unprincipled fusion of classical liberal and socialist ideals while modern conservatism is an untenable hybrid of economic liberalism and social conservatism. Part II offers a centrist approach to many of the most contentious contemporary political and social issues. Those include:

-- abortion

-- affirmative action

-- the death penalty

-- gay marriage

-- illegal immigration

-- judicial activism

-- the relationship of religion and politics

-- the role of government in the economy