Two conflicting developments have recently characterized civic life in the United States. The first, the centralization of formal agencies of government, too often leads to diminishing political liberties and tyranny. The second, which is characterized by a greater amount of civic participation and individual self-actualization, is the formation of a whole new layer of sublocal institutions, both public and private. These include residential community and condominium associations; property owner-based business improvement districts in nearly all major cities; neighborhood improvement districts in large cities; and even self-governing public schools. Neighborhood Futures is a realistic exploration of how, for a society to move forward and improve, its citizens must exercise the power to act creatively, and feel they are both competent and responsible individuals. Supporting his ideas with the Dutch innovation of the woonerf, or neighborhood street government, Liebmann follows through by discussing other foreign models of civic life forms and illustrating how they have resulted in resident satisfaction. George W. Liebmann is a partner of Liebmann & Shively, P.A., a Baltimore law firm that specializes in local government and education law. In addition to having served as a top aide to one of Maryland's governors, he is a former faculty associate of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and is the author of Little Platoons and The Gallows in the Grove.

Recent American political developments, including the election of Donald Trump, reveal profound disquiet with the highly centralized political regime based on discretionary allocation of funds and powers to interest groups that has developed since the creation of emergency institutions after America's entry into World War I. This book demonstrates the effectiveness in American history of measures conceived in a different spirit, addressing the population at large, rather than particular interest groups, relying on citizen and local initiative, and founded not on the distribution of frequently unearned benefits and powers but on reciprocal contributions and obligations. George W. Liebmann discusses John Winthrop and his foundation of New England towns; John Locke and the creation of Southern plantations; Thomas Jefferson and his scheme for the organization of Northwestern townships and American territories and states; Joseph Pulitzer and the origins of municipal home rule; John Wesley Powell and the creation of reclamation districts; Hugh Hammond Bennett and the fostering of soil conservation districts; and Byron Hanke and the development of residential community associations. The book concludes with a number of public policy proposals relating to housing, urban renewal, care of the elderly, immigration and youth unemployment conceived in the same spirit. Liebmann brings to light little-known facts concerning the growth of practices and institutions that Americans take for granted. His book will be of interest to students of biography, history and government.

Diplomacy Between the Wars is a detailed inside story of diplomacy seen through the careers of five remarkable career diplomatists. Here is a unique and authentic picture of practical diplomacy and its effect during periods of international crisis which shaped the twentieth century. These were not the statesmen and politicians who dominated the international stage but practical diplomats with long experience, linguistic competence, deep knowledge of the local conditions, history, culture and of the people of the countries where they served. George Liebmann also brings acute political awareness to the subject. The achievements of these diplomats - often unsung during their careers and gleaned largely from history books - were considerable and a monument to practical, professional diplomacy.Lewis Einstein was influential in demonstrating the central role - and its control - of finance and credit in modern wars and urging massive US economic assistance to Europe and after World War II providing the intellectual underpinnings of the Marshall Plan; Sir Horace Rumbold's work was vital in avoiding war between Great Britain and Turkey and in warnings of the dangers of Hitler; Johann von Bernstorff opposed Germany's 'naval militarism', supported a negotiated end to the First World War and peaceful revision of the Treaty of Versailles; Count Carlo Sforza urged restraint on Italy's territorial ambitions and tolerance for former Fascists and Communists; and Ismet Inonu kept Turkey out of war, preserved her national interest at the Treaty of Lausanne and maintained friendship with the great powers. He worked for religious toleration and the limitation of dictatorship in Ataturk's secular Turkish Republic.

The dramatic story of the last fifty years of the Speyer banking dynasty, a Jewish family of German descent, is surprisingly little known today, yet at the turn of the 20th century, Speyer was the third largest investment banking firm in the United States, behind only Morgan and Kuhn, Loeb. It had branches in London, Frankfurt and New York, and the projects it financed included the Southern Pacific Railroad, the London Underground and the infrastructure of the new Cuban republic. Later, it was the first major banking firm to finance Germany's Weimar Republic, as well as providing League of Nations loans to Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria. Yet, the firm was doomed by the nationalist passions aroused by World War I. Its English partner was denaturalised and exiled; its American partner enjoyed reduced standing because of his connection to Germany; and the Frankfurt branch closed with the coming of the Third Reich, its German partner fleeing into exile. The firm was dissolved in 1939, a surprisingly anticlimactic end to one of the great international banking companies of modern times. George W. Liebmann here tells the story of the firm and the family - shedding new light on the protagonists of a remarkable dynasty, who came undone in the dramatic years of the early 20th century.

Recent American political developments, including the election of Donald Trump, reveal profound disquiet with the highly centralized political regime based on discretionary allocation of funds and powers to interest groups that has developed since the creation of emergency institutions after America's entry into World War I. This book demonstrates the effectiveness in American history of measures conceived in a different spirit, addressing the population at large, rather than particular interest groups, relying on citizen and local initiative, and founded not on the distribution of frequently unearned benefits and powers but on reciprocal contributions and obligations. George W. Liebmann discusses John Winthrop and his foundation of New England towns; John Locke and the creation of Southern plantations; Thomas Jefferson and his scheme for the organization of Northwestern townships and American territories and states; Joseph Pulitzer and the origins of municipal home rule; John Wesley Powell and the creation of reclamation districts; Hugh Hammond Bennett and the fostering of soil conservation districts; and Byron Hanke and the development of residential community associations. The book concludes with a number of public policy proposals relating to housing, urban renewal, care of the elderly, immigration and youth unemployment conceived in the same spirit. Liebmann brings to light little-known facts concerning the growth of practices and institutions that Americans take for granted. His book will be of interest to students of biography, history and government.

Can John D. Negroponte be described as "The Last American Diplomat?" In a career spanning 50 years of unprecedented American global power, he was the last of a dying breed of patrician diplomats - devoted to public service, a self-effacing, and ultimate insider, whose prime duty was to advise, guide, and warn. Negroponte served as US ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines and Iraq; he was US Permanent Representative to the UN, Director of National Intelligence and Deputy Secretary of State to George W. Bush. His was a high-flying and seemingly conventional career but one full of surprises. He opposed Kissinger in Vietnam, argued against direct military action against Marxists in Central America and warned that the Iraq War could be another "Vietnam." George W. Liebmann's incisive account of Negroponte's life and career is based on personal and shared experience, as well as thorough research and interviews with Negroponte and other leading actors. It will provide fascinating reading for students and researchers interested in the inside-story of American diplomacy, revealing personal and policy struggles, and the underlying fissures present even in the world's last remaining superpower.