During the formative years of Dallas, Texas, the Hispanic population moved in circles that united and developed as a uniform society, building and molding the community to reach out and redefine themselves. But over the years, this trend slowly subsided. By uniting and bridging our differences, we can better appreciate today's increasingly misunderstood Hispanic culture.

From personal experiences in an impoverished and violent neighborhood to his political race for the House of Representatives, author Tony Aguilar details the political history of Dallas and the rising tide of Hispanic immigrants in Texas. He also discusses political trends and shifts, and customs in various Mexican communities, including:

* The birth of the Tejano
* The era of the dead horse
* The flashback movement
* Illegal immigration

Aguilar addresses the faults and possible short-comings that await political leaders with regard to the increasing Hispanic population. He also demonstrates the influence of family and tradition in modern politics. Texas Tide serves as a survival guide and road map to success for anyone interested in entering or continuing in politics in the American Southwest.

White House expert Lauren A. Wright identifies, explains, and measures the impact of the expanding role of presidential spouses in the White House and presidential campaign communications strategy, with a focus on the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. More than any other time in history, the First Lady now bears responsibilities tantamount to those of any high-ranking cabinet member. This fascinating book documents the growing presence of the president's wife in the communications strategies of the last three administrations, explaining why their involvement in a campaign has been critical to its survival. The book explores how the First Lady serves to persuade public opinion, make personal appeals to the public on behalf of the president, and promote initiatives that serve as uncontroversial frames for controversial policies. The author delves into political discussions about what makes presidents and presidential candidates likable, what draws public support to their agendas, and why spouses appear to be more effective in these arenas than other surrogates or even the presidents themselves. The content features dozens of interviews with former White House staff and communications strategists; in-depth analysis of almost 1,700 public speeches made by Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Michelle Obama; and surveys testing the effect of public relations strategies involving spouses on political opinion.

Wife of one president and mother of another, Barbara Bush was an outspoken first lady who looked more like her constituents than did her predecessors. A White House resident for only four years, she nevertheless became and remains one of the most admired women in the world.

This new look at Barbara Bush draws on recently opened records at the Bush library, the first lady's many speeches, interviews with the first lady's staff, and an exclusive interview with Mrs. Bush to impart a new appreciation for this beloved former first lady. And while other biographies-and her own memoir-have hinted at seeming contradictions in the Barbara Bush persona, Myra Gutin looks squarely at her White House years to set the record straight and show that she was more than "America's Grandmother" in faux pearls.

Gutin's portrait reveals a woman who was more of a success as first lady than her husband was as president-who in many ways was the public face of the George H. W. Bush administration. And while she wasn't an innovator as presidential wife, Gutin shows how the "Silver Fox" used her rich experience in politics to master the public relations side of first ladyship with as much skill as any White House spouse.

Gutin argues that Barbara was more politically astute than George-even though she denied any input into policymaking and maintained an apolitical image. In fact, she played an integral role in campaigning, fund-raising, and other activities that often blurred the line between the humanitarian and the political. Piercing through the first lady's public persona, Gutin reveals Barbara's backstage political skills in action-along with her closely held views on social issues like gun control and abortion.

From behind the faade of an ideal American family, Gutin also includes frank accounts of George H. W. Bush's alleged adultery and of the death of the Bushes' daughter Robin. In addition, she lends new insight into Barbara's relationship with her mother, her role as entertainer, and her role in wartime.

Gutin gives us a vibrant woman who lent warmth to her husband's cool image and whose legacy lives in the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and several best-selling books. It is a richly textured narrative that depicts a woman of loyalty, candor, and common sense, who knew when and how to apply those qualities in the service of her husband.

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders in Britain and France. He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Here is his life in his own words.

Understanding how leaders make foreign policy and national security decisions is of paramount importance for the policy community and academia. This book explores how leaders such as Trump, Obama, Netanyahu and others make decisions using the Applied Decision Analysis (ADA) method. The chapters gathered here analyse the decisions made by key political figures around the world, past and present, in order to shed light on how these decisions are made and what policy implications they have for their own and other nations. Several chapters also focus on military decision making, including around pivotal times in history including the second world war and the evolution of nuclear warfare.

When the Democrats retook control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2007 after twelve years in the wilderness, Nancy Pelosi became the first woman speaker in American history. Given current electoral trends, she will probably serve for many terms to come. In Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American Politics, Ron Peters, one of America's leading scholars of Congress, and Cindy Rosenthal, one of America's leading scholars on women and political leadership, provide a comprehensive account of how Pelosi became speaker and what this tells us about Congress in the twenty-first century. They consider the key issues that Pelosi's rise presents for American politics, and also on the core themes that have shaped, and continue to shape, her remarkable career. She has always had to deal with challenges that women face in the male-dominated world of American politics, particularly at its highest levels. The authors also focus on her political background: first as the scion of a powerful Baltimore political family whose power base lay in east coast urban ethnic politics, and later as successful politician in what is probably the most liberal city in the country, San Francisco. After exploring her roots, they trace how she built her base within the House Democratic Caucus and ultimately consolidated enough power to win the leadership. They then consider how twelve years out of power allowed her to fashion a new image for House Democrats, and close with an analysis of her institutional leadership style. The book will be the first scholarly account of this major American political leader in her institutional context, and the authors will carry the account through the first year of the Obama administration.

Secret lunches, off-the-record briefings, the leaking of confidential information and tightly-organized media launches - the well-known world of modern political spin. But is this really a new phenomenon or have politicians been manipulating the press for as long as newspapers have existed? In this important new book, Paul Brighton shows that spin is not something dreamed up by modern, media-savvy politicians. In fact, it was one of the best-kept political secrets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From Peel and Palmerston to Gladstone and Disraeli, Prime Ministers have all tried to manipulate the press to a greater or lesser extent. Brighton uncovers the covert contacts between Westminster and Fleet Street and reveals how the Victorian occupants of 10 Downing Street secretly conveyed their viewpoints via the newspapers. For the first time, "Original Spin" tells the whole, unvarnished, story.

"Well-researched and straightforward"
--"International Affairs, Oct. 2001"

"This is a well-documented and perceptive analysis of the workings of the Syrian regime and of the problems confronting the country...well worth reading"
--"International Journal, Autumn 2001"

For more than thirty years Hafez al-Asad has ruled Syria with an iron fist. Six U.S. presidents and eight Israeli prime ministers have come and gone, but Asad remains, one of the last of the old generation of Arab leaders. But in the post-Cold War Middle East Asad and his country are faced with an array of bewildering choices. Will they allow greater civil liberties and economic liberalization, or assert strong, centralized one-party control of the state? Will they make peace with Israel, and at what price? Will they cement their growing relationship with the United States or return to the hostilities of the past?

Eyal Zisser tackles these questions and gets inside the mind of the man President Clinton called "the smartest leader in the Middle East." He also examines the peculiar dynamics of the Asad family with its Byzantine power plays and competing factions. He tells the fascinating story of how Asad struggles to appease his relatives and his clan while his son waits in the wings to assume power and his brother plots from abroad to gain control of the nation he regards as rightfully his.

Asad's Legacy is the most up-to-date, thorough treatment of Asad's role in the history and politics of the contemporary Middle East. Zisser sheds new light on the story of Asad's rule over his nation and points the way to the future of Syria and the entire region.

First president of his generation. Second president to be impeached. Bill Clinton led the nation during eight years of unprecedented economic prosperity and peace, creating millions of new jobs, swapping deficit for surplus, and advancing his agenda of social programs. Yet he was riddled with scandal. This encyclopedia of more than 230 alphabetical entries covers all the major events, issues, and personalities of the Clinton administration, including full treatments of his impeachment, Whitewater, Travelgate, Monica, key members of his administration, Congressional opponents, foreign and domestic policy, elections, laws, terms and catchphrases, and national and foreign events that impacted Clinton's presidency. This balanced account is a perfect reference for students of, detractors from, and supporters of, William Jefferson Clinton.

Among the domestic issues covered are health care reform, gays in the military, abortion, gun control, and welfare reform. Also included are the many foreign policy issues Clinton dealt with such as Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East. Numerous charts, tables, and graphs provide vital statistical information about legislation, the economy, federal spending, election returns, and crime during the Clinton years. A chronology of events and many photos accompany the text. Thorough cross-referencing will aid researchers, as will bibliographies of print and Internet sources following each entry.

One of the great ironies of American politics is that George McGovern, one of the most misinterpreted and misunderstood men ever to seek the presidency, was also perhaps one of the most intelligent and far-sighted. Sadly, he is generally remembered for his landslide defeat to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential contest. The stigma of that defeat has often overshadowed McGovern's otherwise influential and respectable career in politics. Richard Michael Marano shows that despite his infamous defeat, McGovern--very much a man of high principles--stood tall and spoke his conscience when he decided in 1983 that he would again run for the presidency. While his candidacy was at first seen by many as a pathetic attempt by a political has-been to relive past glories, McGovern quickly proved his critics wrong by running a solid, admirable campaign. In an era of conservatism, McGovern offered the American voter a clear alternative to the politics of Ronald Reagan, and his campaign helped guide the Democratic candidates onto a platform based on substantive issues and common sense ideas. Marano, a McGovern activist in the Connecticut campaign, provides an inside, yet detailed and documented, account of McGovern's last play on the national stage and all that went into it. This book is an in-depth analysis of the 1984 Democratic campaign, as well as a detailed discussion of George McGovern's common sense program for America.

Simon Bolivar has been for two hundred years a political idol of and symbolic figure for both left and right politicians. The author examines the real historical figure, as well as the dimensions of the myth around him.

Kelley provides an examination of Hillary Rodham Clinton's rhetorical responses to mediated versions of crises in the Clinton Administration. She begins by examining the historical First Lady, and then looks at mediated political realities in general as well as those of the Clinton presidency. Kelley also examines the rhetorical management of political crises and the crises management style of First Ladies, including Florence Harding and Eleanor Roosevelt.

The book focuses on the analysis of Hillary Rodham Clinton's rhetorical management of crises in her husband's Administration, including health care, Travelgate, Whitewater, and allegations of sexual misconduct. Kelley's approach is grounded in Kenneth Burke's framework of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation through rhetorical identification. She concludes with speculation regarding both the degree of success of Hillary Clinton's efforts as well as the implications of those efforts to rhetorical and political communication and feminist theory. This book will be of particular interest to scholars and researchers of the presidency and the role of the First Lady, political communication, and feminist studies.

Investigative reporter Patrick J. Sloyan, a former member of the White House Press Corps, revisits the last years of John F. Kennedy's presidency, his fateful involvement with Diem's assassination, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights Movement. Using recently released White House tape recordings and interviews with key inside players, The Politics of Deception reveals: The Politics of Deception is a fresh and revealing look at an iconic president and the way he attempted to manage public opinion and forge his legacy, sure to appeal to both history buffs and those who were alive during his presidency.

This illustrated A–Z biographical companion presents information about all aspects of Winston Churchill's remarkable career, spotlighting the events and people with whom he was most closely associated. When Winston Churchill was still in his teens, he was already a man in a hurry—partly due to his fear that, like his father, he would die young. Born into aristocratic politics, he sought glory through battle as a means to secure a position in politics, fame, and money through the writing of books. To promote their careers, both he and his father made full use of their family connections and the allure of their social life. Among the telling details revealed are that his mother, Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph), was an American heiress and was his major adviser and reliable friend when he was younger, and that his wife, Clementine, disliked and distrusted many of Winston's political cronies. This A–Z biographical dictionary covers everything from his grandiose spending, trademark agar and whiskey sodas, and silk underwear to his mother's many marriages and affairs, and his relationships with Edward VIII and Queen Elizabeth II.

Few statesmen in history have inspired the imagination of generations of Germans more than the founder of the Kaiserreich, Otto von Bismarck. The archetype of charismatic leadership, the Iron Chancellor maintained his pre-eminent position in the pantheon of Germany's political iconography for much of the twentieth century.
Based on a large selection of primary sources, this book provides an insightful analysis of the Bismarck myth's profound impact on Germany's political culture. In particular, it investigates the ways in which that myth was used to undermine parliamentary democracy in Germany after the Great War, paving the way for its replacement by authoritarian rule under an allegedly 'Bismarckian' charismatic leader, Adolf Hitler.
As one of the most powerful weapons of nationalist agitation against the Weimar Republic, the Bismarck myth was never contested. The nationalists' ideologically charged interpretation of Bismarck as the father of the German nation-state and model for future political decision-making clashed with rivalling - and thoroughly critical - democratic and communist perceptions of the Iron Chancellor. The quarrel over Bismarck's legacy demonstrates how the clash of ideologies, particularly between 1918 and 1933, resulted in a highly political fight for the 'correct' and universal interpretation of the German past.
Essential reading for anyone interested in modern German history, this book sheds new light on the Weimar Republic's struggle for survival and the reasons for its failure.

This unique edited volume by some of the leading scholars in the field, examines the importance, or non-importance, of the personalities of political leaders in determining the outcomes of democratic elections. The book argues, contrary to conventional wisdom, that relatively few voters are swayed by candidates' personal characteristics. Their findings imply that modern democratic pointers is not nearly as candidate-cent red and personality-orientated as is often supposed. They also suggest that parties' policies and their performance in office usually count for far more than the men and women they chose as their leaders.