On June 4, 2009, President Barack Obama delivered a much-anticipated speech at Cairo University in Egypt. Coming on the heels of Obama's worldwide "Apology Tour," the speech signaled not only how Obama viewed his country, but how he would set himself apart in "a new beginning" that would change America's course from what he presented as a dangerous and belligerent approach by his predecessor, President George W. Bush. The version of history that Obama presented, however, cast the Middle East and Islam in a more favorable light than the facts would warrant. The President's Cairo Speech carries great historical and political significance because it set out Obama's Middle East policy and his vision of the United States in the international arena. It also presents insights into the character of the president. Like George Washington's Farewell Address and John F. Kennedy's Inauguration Speech, the Cairo Speech will likely be studied as an important document in American history. Obama's promise of "a new beginning" cannot yet be evaluated critically. Unfolding events - and the outcome of the promises made -- will determine the greatness of the speech. This happens only in retrospect, with the benefit of historical reflection. Unfortunately, the Cairo Speech is already being reprinted in anthologies and textbooks, and is taught to students as a hallmark of rhetorical brilliance and as an unalloyed diplomatic victory. The cult of personality that has sprung up around President Obama is carried into classrooms where educators "teaching the speech" encourage students to unquestioningly accept the President's calls for action and support. Such directives stand opposite to American traditions and ideals of independent thinking and self-government, as well as to standards of excellence in scholarship. This Dissident Prof Guide offers resources for critical thinking to students who are being asked to admire, not analyze, Obama's Cairo Speech. The Guide includes a handy point-by-point analysis of the speech, a bibliography of trusted historical sources, and an account of the numerous errors of historical fact, including those pointed out by commentators and historians in the days following the speech's delivery. It will serve as a handy reference for all who might wish to understand and analyze this pivotal moment in our nation's history. The Dissident Prof Guide includes: Summary of the purpose and strategies of political speeches, going back to Aristotle and Cicero; Analysis of rhetorical strategies employed in this speech; An overview of American foreign policy since the founding of the United States Comparisons to other speeches by Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy, and Reagan; A summary of the reactions to the speech by historians, political commentators, and American Muslims; Information about events in the Middle East since the speech was delivered; Strategies for dealing with biased assignments. Whether for the American citizen wanting a refresher on current events, history, and rhetoric, or the student faced with a biased assignment, this Guide Book will provide fair and knowledgeable information. This book will: Help the student write an A paper without compromising his principles; Help the concerned citizen make informed and reasoned arguments. Dissident Prof Guide Books are written by professors in the field and are designed to give reader-friendly advice in a succinct and lively style. Both authors, Mary Grabar and Brian Birdnow, hold Ph.D.'s (in English and history, respectively) and have each taught at the college level for decades. Both are widely published authors of articles and commentaries in general interest publications as well.

It is beyond question that Gerald R Ford, the thirty-eighth President of the United States, brought honesty and integrity back into the White House at a time when the country needed those qualities and, in doing so, he restored a sense of calm to a troubled and anxious country. He embodied the qualities and virtues of the American heartland and put these into practice in his public life. Gerald Ford was the All-American President. This book places President Gerald Ford in his proper position within the American pantheon and concentrates on Ford as a solid Midwesterner who fairly radiated integrity and used his talent to earn high political office.

A riveting chronicle of Communist Party efforts to propagate Communism in the United States, concurrent with Hollywood's "Golden Age" of creativity that came to define classical Hollywood cinema. From the Great Depression through World War II, the American Communist Party tried to take control of the motion picture industry. This comprehensive and chronological account of Communist influence in Hollywood surveys the topic from the Popular Front's fight against Fascism during the 1930s to the height of the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the late 1940s. Birdnow, an established historian and chronicler of domestic Communism, outlines Communist International's organizational efforts promoting international communism, focusing on the work of Communist political activists such as Willi Munzenberg, a media mogul with an international network; Gerhart Eisler, patron of a Hollywood composer; and Otto Katz, a high-profile publicist of the party line involved in movies in the 1930s and 1940s. The book explores the covert ways in which Hollywood Communists and Soviet sympathizers attempted to tailor movie scripts to suit the Soviet agenda and discusses Communist front groups such as the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League in great detail. Final chapters offer convincing proof that the directors, producers, and screenwriters blacklisted by studios for their possible Communist affiliations, known as the Hollywood Ten, were members of the Communist Party. Gives readers insight into how the Communist Party used the creative explosion in the movie industry to actively establish a foothold in the United States Draws a parallel between the rise of the Community Party and the rise of the motion picture industry in the United States Profiles Communist Party USA leaders close to Hollywood Takes a closer look at the "Hollywood Ten," detailing who each of the blacklisted individuals were and how their names came to be on the list