An oil boycott was the crucial factor in the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was organized by the U.S. against Japan, which feared economic strangulation, and attacked Pearl Harbor as the cul-mination of a period of political, economic, and military compe-tition between Japan and the West. Japan was a new world power and in the 1930s created a "sphere of interest" in East Asia, as the U.S. and the European powers had done before. But the latter opposed aggressive imperialism by a non-Western power with diplomatic and economic means. The irreconcilable differences between Japan and the U.S. in the 1930s and early 1940s are reflected in this selection of diplomatic sources which include draft treaties, diplomatic notes, intercepted messages, and other documents. The result is a case study of the origins of WWII, the events that led to the attack on December 7, 1941, and of diplomacy gone awry.

The Bork hearings marked the beginning of a trend toward ideological evaluation of Supreme Court judicial nominees. These were the first and last hearings to feature such extensive discussion of legal and constitutional issues, as presidents quickly discovered that a nominee without a lengthy "paper trail" of opinions was more likely to escape the deep probing that Bork underwent. "This volume beautifully conveys the essence of the confirmation hearing which turned into the most remarkable seminar on constitutional law in the history of the United States Senate. For four days Judge Robert Bork and the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee debated fundamental issues of original intent, First Amendment protections, equal protection of the laws, and the validity of Roe v. Wade.