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America's Budget Impasse, 2001-2019
by Richard H.K. VietorAmerica's Budget Impasse, 2001-2019 draws on recent government documents to explore America's economic performance since 2001, the ideology and effects of the Bush tax cuts, Obama's fiscal stimulus in 2009, the Trump tax cuts in 2017, the bipartisan budget deal in 2018, and President Trump's budget proposal for FY2019.
America's Budget Impasse, 2001-2020
by Richard H.K. VietorAmerica's Budget Impasse, 2001-2020, draws on recent government documents to explore America's economic performance since 2001, the ideology and effects of the Bush tax cuts, Obama's fiscal stimulus in 2009, the Trump tax cuts in 2017, and President Trump's budget proposal for FY2020.
America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money: Your Guide to Living Better, Spending Less, and Cashing In on Your Dreams
by Annette Economides Steve EconomidesDo you have too much month at the end of your money? Is your credit card screaming for relief? Are you tired of robbing Peter to pay Paul . . . whoever they are? Meet Steve and Annette Economides. They've been called cheapskates, thriftaholics, and tightwads, but in these tough economic times, Steve and Annette have managed to feed their family of seven on just $350 per month, pay off their first house in nine years and purchase a second, larger home, buy cars with cash, take wonderful vacations, and put money in savings. Without degrees in finance or six-figure salaries, Steve and Annette have created a comfortable, debt-free life for themselves and their children. In America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money, they show you how they did it and how you can do it too. Steve and Annette share many down-to-earth principles and the simple spending plan that they have used since 1982. They have taught this economizing lifestyle to thousands of people worldwide through seminars and their newsletter, and they include lots of real-life stories to make you feel as if you're having your own private coaching session. Not only will you find solutions to your financial dilemmas, you'll also discover a whole new way of life. You don't need to be a CPA or a math wizard to learn their revolutionary system, which will teach you: - hundreds of ways to save money on everyday household expenses, including groceries, clothing, and health care - how to save in advance for major purchases such as homes, cars, and vacations - how to stop living paycheck to paycheck - how to eliminate debt forever! America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money puts meeting your financial goals, and living well at the same time, in reach for every family.
America's Competitive Secret
by Judy B. RosenerThe United States has a large number of well educated, experienced professional women ready, willing and able to move into the boardrooms and executive suites of corporate America. Together they represent a great, untapped economic resource, a resource no other country in the world can claim.This is America's competitive secret, argues Judy B. Rosener in this refreshingly pragmatic new book for managers who want to improve their bottom line. A leading expert on women and men at work and a highly sought-after speaker, Rosener argues that not only are men and women different, so are male and female managers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with top-flight executives and middle managers and the latest research on working women andorganizational change, she describes the unique contribution of female professionals. Her profiles of top women managers reveal that they cope well with ambiguity, are comfortable sharing power, and they tend to empower others-- leadership traits that Rosener contends lead to increased employeeproductivity, innovation, and profits. As businesses today struggle with corporate reorganization and an increasingly diverse workforce, America's Competive Secret offers compelling evidence that the changes that help organizatiions more fully utilize the talents of women are the same changes thatwill give them an important edge in today's fast-changing, service oriented, global workplace. Rosener explains why the so-called glass ceiling still prevents many competent women from reaching the upper echelons of management. She analyzes why women and men are perceived and evaluated differently at work, and provides new insight into the feelings of men who are asked to interact with womenin new roles when there are few new rules. Rosener shows that removing the glass ceiling can no longer be viewed solely in terms of social equity--it is now an economic imperative. Too many American businesses have limited their economic strength by viewing the promotion of women employees only within the context of federally mandated affirmative action laws and policies. America's Competitive Secret redefines the issue for a new era, showing that America's most successfulcompetitive strategy is one that most effectively utilizes all its human resources.
America's Corporate Art: The Studio Authorship of Hollywood Motion Pictures (1929-2001)
by Jerome ChristensenContrary to theories of single person authorship, America's Corporate Art argues that the corporate studio is the author of Hollywood motion pictures, both during the classical era of the studio system and beyond, when studios became players in global dramas staged by massive entertainment conglomerates. Hollywood movies are examples of a commodity that, until the digital age, was rare: a self-advertising artifact that markets the studio's brand in the very act of consumption. The book covers the history of corporate authorship through the antithetical visions of two of the most dominant Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. and MGM. During the classical era, these studios promoted their brands as competing social visions in strategically significant pictures such as MGM's Singin' in the Rain and Warner's The Fountainhead. Christensen follows the studios' divergent fates as MGM declined into a valuable and portable logo, while Warner Bros. employed Batman, JFK, and You've Got Mail to seal deals that made it the biggest entertainment corporation in the world. The book concludes with an analysis of the Disney-Pixar merger and the first two Toy Story movies in light of the recent judicial extension of constitutional rights of the corporate person.
America's Cup in 2013: Oracle Team USA vs. Emirates Team New Zealand (A)
by Alan Maccormack Rory Mcdonald Vanessa AmpelasFour teams across the world are furiously designing, building, testing, and learning to sail a boat that would be one-of-a-kind, in order to win the 2013 America's Cup. Choosing the best development path was a challenge as the teams had less than three years to prepare, and each decision would affect the performance of the boat as well as the duration of the sailors' training. The case traces the dilemma faced by the favorite, ORACLE TEAM USA (OTUSA), as rumors grew that the challenger was pursuing a revolutionary technology that would enable its six-ton boat to literally fly above waves. With only a year left before the Cup, should OTUSA keep refining its current technology called "skimming", or should it pivot towards "foiling" (flying)? At this stage "foiling" could be a red herring, and even if it was not, the limits of the performance of a foiling boat would remain a mystery for some time. The case explores the dilemma of managing innovation in an uncertain environment, where the decision would be sanctioned a year later by a win or a loss.
America's Cup in 2013: Oracle Team USA vs. Emirates Team New Zealand (A)
by Alan Maccormack Rory Mcdonald Vanessa AmpelasFour teams across the world are furiously designing, building, testing, and learning to sail a boat that would be one of a kind, in order to win the 2013 America's Cup. Choosing the best development path was a challenge as the teams had less than three years to prepare, and each decision would affect the performance of the boat as well as the duration of the sailors' training. The case traces the dilemma faced by the favorite, ORACLE TEAM USA (OTUSA), as rumors grew that the challenger was pursuing a revolutionary technology that would enable its six-ton boat to literally fly above waves. With only a year left before the Cup, should OTUSA keep refining its current technology called "skimming", or should it pivot towards "foiling" (flying)? At this stage foiling could be a red herring, and even if it was not, the limits of the performance of a foiling boat would remain a mystery for some time. The case explores the dilemma of managing innovation in an uncertain environment, where the decision would be sanctioned a year later by a win or a loss.
America's Economic Way of War: War and the US Economy from the Spanish-American War to the First Gulf War
by Hugh RockoffHow did economic and financial factors determine how America waged war in the twentieth century? This important new book exposes the influence of economics and finance on the questions of whether the nation should go to war, how wars would be fought, how resources would be mobilized, and the long-term consequences for the American economy. Ranging from the Spanish-American War to the Gulf War, Hugh Rockoff explores the ways in which war can provide unique opportunities for understanding the basic principles of economics as wars produce immense changes in monetary and fiscal policy and so provide a wealth of information about how these policies actually work. He shows that wars have been more costly to the United States than most Americans realize as a substantial reliance on borrowing from the public, money creation and other strategies to finance America's war efforts have hidden the true cost of war.
America's Economic Way of War: War and the US Economy from the Spanish-American War to the Persian Gulf War
by Hugh RockoffHow did economic and financial factors determine how America waged war in the twentieth century? This important new book exposes the influence of economics and finance on the questions of whether the nation should go to war, how wars would be fought, how resources would be mobilized, and the long-term consequences for the American economy. Ranging from the Spanish-American War to the Gulf War, Hugh Rockoff explores the ways in which war can provide unique opportunities for understanding the basic principles of economics as wars produce immense changes in monetary and fiscal policy and so provide a wealth of information about how these policies actually work. He shows that wars have been more costly to the United States than most Americans realize as a substantial reliance on borrowing from the public, money creation and other strategies to finance America's war efforts have hidden the true cost of war.
America's Failing Economy and the Rise of Ronald Reagan
by Eric R. CrouseThis book examines one of the most important economic outcomes in American history—the breakdown of the Keynesian Revolution. Drawing on economic literature, the memoirs of economists and politicians, and the popular press, Eric Crouse examines how economic decline in the 1970s precipitated a political revolution. Keynesian thought flourished through the presidencies of Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford, until stagflation devastated American workers and Jimmy Carter’s economic policies faltered, setting the stage for the 1980 presidential campaign. Tracking years of shifting public opinion and colorful debate between free-market and Keynesian economists, this book illuminates a neglected era of American economic history and shows how Ronald Reagan harnessed a vision of small government and personal freedom that transformed the American political landscape.
America's Finest Companies 2010
by Bill Staton Hirsch Mary StatonA detailed look at the best American companies to invest inAmerica's Finest Companies 2010 (now in its 19th annual edition) is a reliable guide to investing, containing every publicly traded company in the United States with at least ten consecutive years of higher dividends and/or earnings per share.With this detailed directory, Bill Staton--a successful financial advisor and money manager for almost four decades--shares his simple, time-tested way to make your money grow at an above-average rate with substantially reduced risk. The companies found here are well-run and profitable, and with long histories of rising annual dividends and/or earnings, they are sure to boost the bottom line of any portfolio.Offers essential insights into building a portfolio of American companies with rising annual dividends and/or earningsContains new listings and delistings as well as a break down of companies by industryFilled with thoughtful editorial pieces such as "Dow 30,000 by 2018", "Trends Don't Go On Forever", and "Turning Chaos Into Tremendous Opportunity"America's Finest Companies 2010 will help you rebuild your portfolio and keep it on sound financial footing for years to come. If you're looking to invest successfully, look no further than America's Finest Companies 2010.
America's First Great Depression: Economic Crisis and Political Disorder after the Panic of 1837
by Alasdair RobertsFor a while, it seemed impossible to lose money on real estate. But then the bubble burst. The financial sector was paralyzed and the economy contracted. State and federal governments struggled to pay their domestic and foreign creditors. Washington was incapable of decisive action. The country seethed with political and social unrest. In The First Great Depression, Alasdair Roberts describes how the United States dealt with the economic and political crisis that followed the Panic of 1837. As Roberts shows, the two decades that preceded the Panic had marked a democratic surge in the United States. However, the nation's commitment to democracy was tested severely during this crisis. Foreign lenders questioned whether American politicians could make the unpopular decisions needed on spending and taxing. State and local officials struggled to put down riots and rebellion. A few wondered whether this was the end of America's democratic experiment. Roberts explains how the country's woes were complicated by its dependence on foreign trade and investment, particularly with Britain. Aware of the contemporary relevance of this story, Roberts examines how the country responded to the political and cultural aftershocks of 1837, transforming its political institutions to strike a new balance between liberty and social order, and uneasily coming to terms with its place in the global economy.
America's Fiscal Constitution: Its Triumph and Collapse
by Bill WhiteWhat would Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Truman, and Eisenhower have done about today's federal debt crisis?America's Fiscal Constitution tells the remarkable story of fiscal heroes who imposed clear limits on the use of federal debt, limits that for two centuries were part of an unwritten constitution. Those national leaders borrowed only for extraordinary purposes and relied on well-defined budget practices to balance federal spending and revenues. That traditional fiscal constitution collapsed in 2001. Afterward-for the first time in history-federal elected officials cut taxes during war, funded permanent new programs entirely with debt, grew dependent on foreign creditors, and claimed that the economy could not thrive without routine federal borrowing.For most of the nation's history, conservatives fought to restrain the growth of government by insisting that new programs be paid for with taxation, while progressives sought to preserve opportunities for people on the way up by balancing budgets. Virtually all mainstream politicians recognized that excessive debt could jeopardize private investment and national independence.With original scholarship and the benefit of experience in finance and public service, Bill White dispels common budget myths and distills practical lessons from the nation's five previous spikes in debt. America's Fiscal Constitution offers an objective and hopeful guide for people trying to make sense of the nation's current, most severe, debt crisis and its impact on their lives and our future.
America's Free Market Myths: Debunking Market Fundamentalism
by Joseph ShaananThis book describes and refutes thirteen ideas involving free market principles and the US economic system, arguing that these (mostly familiar) ideas are myths. The myths are deeply ingrained in the United States' self-image and in political discourse, and are hailed as indisputable, scientifically grounded truths. Unfortunately, an economy dominated by giant corporations bears little resemblance to a free market. So why is so much effort and expense devoted to disseminating these stories? The answer is simple. The different myths generate the recommendation that the system's rewards should flow upward to corporations and a small group of wealthy and politically influential people. The myths help entrench existing economic and political power while distancing America from a more productive and widely beneficial form of capitalism.
America's Frozen Neighborhoods: The Abuse of Zoning
by Robert C. EllicksonThis book examines local zoning policies and suggests reforms that states and the federal government might adopt to counter the negative effects of exclusionary zoning In this book, Robert Ellickson asserts that local zoning policies are the most consequential regulatory program in the United States. Many localities have created barriers to the development of less costly forms of housing. Numerous economists have found that current zoning practices inflict major damage on the national economy. Using Silicon Valley, the Greater New Haven area, and the northwestern portion of Greater Austin as case studies, Ellickson shows in unprecedented detail how the zoning system works and recommends steps for its reform. Zoning regulations, Ellickson demonstrates, are hard to dislodge once localities have enacted them. He develops metrics to measure the existence and costs of exclusionary zoning, and suggests reforms that states and the federal government could undertake to counter the detrimental effects of local policies. These include the cartelization of housing markets and the aggravation of racial and class segregation.
America's Healthcare Transformation: Strategies and Innovations
by Thomas H. Lee Sandra A. Weiss Nikhil G. Thaker Arthur Tim" Garson David W. Bates Hanh H. Hoang Philip Greenland Tine Hansen-Turton Sarah Slight James L. Field Susan A. Abookire Thomas W. Feeley Amir Rubin Janet J. Teske Julia D. Andrieni Alicia D.H. Monroe Kenneth Patric Steven R. Steinhubl Elizabeth Malcolm Nana Ekua Coleman Mark R. Chassin William S. Weintraub Kasey R. Boehmer Arnold Milstein Sharyl Wojciechowski Marc L. Boom Victor M. Montori Henry H. Ting Ju Young Kim Erin S. Dupree Gary S. Kaplan Mauro Ferrari Jason Gorevic Kasaiah Makam Kunal N. Karmali Alberta T. Pedroja Dr Robert A. Phillips Deirde MylodA revolution in American medicine is in full swing, with the race from fee-for-service to fee-for-value at the front line in an epic battle that will transform healthcare delivery for decades to come. In America's Healthcare Transformation, eminent physician leader Robert A. Phillips brings together key thought leaders and trail-blazing practitioners, who provide a wide-ranging exploration of the strategies, innovations, and paradigm shifts that are driving this healthcare transformation. The contributors offer a panoramic look at the dramatic changes happening in the field of medicine, changes that put the patient at the heart of the process. Among other subjects, the essays evaluate innovative high quality and low cost care delivery solutions from around the United States and abroad, describe fundamental approaches to measuring the safety of care and the impact that guidelines have on improving quality of care and outcomes, and make a strong case that insurance reform will fundamentally and irreversibly drive delivery reform. In addition, America's Healthcare Transformation reviews the role of health information technology in creating safer healthcare, provides a primer on the development of a culture of safety, and highlights ground-breaking new ways to train providers in patient safety and quality. Finally, the book looks at reports from Stanford Health Care and Houston Methodist which outline how successful behaviorally based strategies, anchored in values, can energize and empower employees to deliver a superior patient experience. Drawing on the wisdom and vision of today's leading healthcare innovators, America's Healthcare Transformation provides a roadmap to the future of American healthcare. This book is essential reading for all health care providers, health care administrators, and health policy professionals, and it will be an invaluable resource in the effort to improve the practice of medicine and the delivery of healthcare in our communities and nation.
America's Inadvertent Empire
by William E. Odom Robert DujarricThe United States finds itself at the center of an empire of a new type, wealth-generating and voluntary, not a traditional imperial system, say the authors of this compelling book. William E. Odom and Robert Dujarric examine America's unprecedented power within the international arenas of politics, economics, demographics, education, science, and culture. They argue persuasively that the major threat to this unique empire is ineffective U. S. leadership, not a rising rival power center. America cannot simply behave as an ordinary sovereign state, Odom and Dujarric contend. They describe the responsibilities that accompany staggering power advantages, and they explain that resorting to unilateralism makes sense only when it becomes necessary to overcome paralysis in multilateral organizations. The authors also offer insights into the importance of liberal international institutions as a source of power, why international cooperation pays, and why spreading democracy often inhibits the spread of constitutional order. If the United States uses its own power constructively, the authors conclude, the American empire will flourish for a long time. Book jacket.
America's Inequality Trap (Chicago Studies in American Politics)
by Nathan J. KellyThe gap between the rich and the poor has grown dramatically in the United States and is now at its widest since at least the early 1900s. While by most measures the economy has been improving, soaring cost of living and stagnant wages have done little to assuage economic anxieties. Conditions like these seem designed to produce a generation-defining intervention to balance the economic scales and enhance opportunities for those at the middle and bottom of the country’s economic ladder—but we have seen nothing of the sort. Nathan J. Kelly argues that a key reason for this is that rising concentrations of wealth create a politics that makes reducing economic inequality more difficult. Kelly convincingly shows that, when a small fraction of the people control most of the economic resources, they also hold a disproportionate amount of political power, hurtling us toward a self-perpetuating plutocracy, or an “inequality trap.” Among other things, the rich support a broad political campaign that convinces voters that policies to reduce inequality are unwise and not in the average voter’s interest, regardless of the real economic impact. They also take advantage of interest groups they generously support to influence Congress and the president, as well as state governments, in ways that stop or slow down reform. One of the key implications of this book is that social policies designed to combat inequality should work hand-in-hand with political reforms that enhance democratic governance and efforts to fight racism, and a coordinated effort on all of these fronts will be needed to reverse the decades-long trend.
America's Last Great Newspaper War: The Death of Print in a Two-Tabloid Town
by Mike JaccarinoNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE WEEK BY THE NEW YORK POSTALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIOBOOKA from-the-trenches view of New York Daily News and New York Post runners and photographers as they stop at nothing to break the story and squash their tabloid arch-rivals.When author Mike Jaccarino was offered a job at the Daily News in 2006, he was asked a single question: “Kid, what are you going to do to help us beat the Post?” That was the year things went sideways at the News, when the New York Post surpassed its nemesis in circulation for the first time in the history of both papers. Tasked with one job—crush the Post—Jaccarino here provides the behind-the-scenes story of how the runners and shooters on both sides would do anything and everything to get the scoop before their opponents.The New York Daily News and the New York Post have long been the Hatfields and McCoys of American media: two warring tabloids in a town big enough for only one of them. As digital news rendered print journalism obsolete, the fight to survive in NYC became an epic, Darwinian battle. In America’s Last Great Newspaper War, Jaccarino exposes the untold story of this tabloid death match of such ferocity and obsession its like has not occurred since Pulitzer– Hearst.Told through the eyes of hungry “runners” (field reporters) and “shooters” (photographers) who would employ phony police lights to overcome traffic, Mike Jaccarino’s memoir unmasks the do-whatever-it-takes era of reporting—where the ends justified the means and nothing was off-limits. His no-holds-barred account describes sneaking into hospitals, months-long stakeouts, infiltrating John Gotti’s crypt, bidding wars for scoops, high-speed car chases with Hillary Clinton, O.J. Simpson, and the baby mama of a philandering congressman—all to get that coveted front-page story.Today, few runners and shooters remain on the street. Their age and exploits are as bygone as the News–Post war and American newspapers, generally. Where armies once battled, often no one is covering the story at all.Funding for this book was provided by: Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund
America's Leaning Ivory Tower: The Measurement of and Response to Concentration of Federal Funding for Academic Research (SpringerBriefs in Political Science)
by Yonghong WuThis book will expand the body of literature on capacity-building in science and improve public understanding of the issues regarding geographical concentration of federal research funding. The federal government has been the primary sponsor of academic research in the U.S., and the peer-review system has been the primary mechanism for distributing federal government funding for research among universities. The peer-review system ensures the production of the best science by funding the most capable researchers in the country. As a result, federal research funding has been concentrated in high-capacity states where many of the most capable researchers reside. Despite official action - such as the implementation of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which targets low capacity jurisdictions for federal funding - the amount of resources going to each state for research is highly uneven. This book provides recommendations on how to improve policy design and program implementation for better research capacity-building outcomes. The book lends itself to a wide audience, as it does not focus entirely on high-level statistical analysis, but will have specific appeal to researchers in science policy, federal budgeting and higher education policy.
America's Moment: Creating Opportunity in the Connected Age
by Rework America Zoë BairdIt is time for a new conversation. Amid the biggest economic transformation in a century, the challenge of our time is to make sure that all Americans benefit from the wave of digital revolutions around the world that have permeated and upended modern life. Yet today's economic arguments seem stuck. We need a new vision of a hopeful future and a new action agenda. So many Americans are uncertain about the future. How can there be so many paths to opportunity with so few people traveling them? As a nation, we have to understand what is required to help Americans succeed now, and how to prepare our country for what comes next. We have been here before. A hundred years ago, America experienced the greatest economic transformation and technological revolution in its history. The transformation of the past twenty years--as the world has moved through the information era into the digital age--has turned our life and work upside down once again. It is a time of tremendous change but also of tremendous possibility. Rework America is a group of American leaders who know from experience the challenges we face--and the potential solutions. In America's Moment they suggest a practical agenda for an exciting future. It is illustrated by people who are already showing the way and includes actions Americans can take today in their own communities: preparing people to succeed, using the reach of the Internet and data to innovate jobs and to reach new markets all over the world, using technology to match employers and workers, and transitioning to a "no-collar" working world-- neither blue collar nor white collar. Set against the history of how Americans succeeded once before in remaking their country, America's Moment is about the future. It describes how the same forces of change--technology and a networked world--can become tools that can open opportunity to everyone.
America's New Working Class: Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in a Biopolitical Age
by Kathleen R. ArnoldToday’s political controversy over immigration highlights the plight of the working class in this country as perhaps no other issue has recently done. The political status of immigrants exposes the power dynamics of the “new working class,” which includes the former labor aristocracy, women, and people of color. This new working class suffers exploitation in advanced industrial countries as the social cost of capitalism’s success in a neoliberal and globalized political economy. Paradoxically, as borders become more open, they are also increasingly fortified, subjecting many workers to the suspension of law.In this book, Kathleen Arnold analyzes the role of the state’s “prerogative power” in creating and sustaining this condition of severe inequality for the most marginalized sectors of our population in the United States. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical literature from Locke to Marx and Agamben (whose notion of “bare life” features prominently in her construal of this as a “biopolitical” era), she focuses attention especially on the values of asceticism derived from the Protestant work ethic to explain how they function as ideological justification for the exercise of prerogative power by the state.As a counter to this repressive set of values, she develops the notion of “authentic love” borrowed from Simone de Beauvoir as a possible approach for dealing with the complex issues of exploitation in liberal democracy today.
America's Private Forests: Status And Stewardship
by John Gordon Laurie A. Wayburn Constance Best Pacific Forest TrustNearly 430 million acres of forests in the United States are privately owned, but the viability, and indeed the very existence, of these forests is increasingly threatened by population growth, sprawling urbanization, and patchwork development. Scientists, policymakers, and community leaders have begun to recognize the vital role of private forests in providing society with essential goods and services, from sustainable timber supplies to clean water. Yet despite the tremendous economic and ecological importance of private forests, information about their status and strategies for their protection have been in short supply.America's Private Forests addresses that shortcoming, presenting extensive data gathered from diverse sources and offering a concise overview of the current status of privately owned forests in the United States. As well as describing the state of private forests, the book sets forth detailed information on a wide range of approaches to conservation along with an action agenda for implementing those strategies likely to be most effective.Based on extensive research of existing literature as well as interviews and consultation with leading forestry and conservation experts, America's Private Forests is a unique sourcebook that offers a solid basis for discussion of threats to private forests along with an invaluable compendium of potential solutions. It will serve as an invaluable reference for those working to conserve and steward forest resources, including forest owners and their consultants, conservation organizations, and agency personnel, as well as researchers and students involved with issues of forestry, biodiversity, land use, and conservation.
America's Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam War
by David MilneWalt Rostow's meteoric rise to power -- from Flatbush, Brooklyn, to the West Wing of the White House -- seemed to capture the promise of the American dream. Hailing from humble origins, Rostow became an intellectual powerhouse: a professor of economic history at MIT and an influential foreign policy adviser to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Too influential, according to some. While Rostow inspired respect and affection, he also made some powerful enemies. Averell Harriman, one of America's most celebrated diplomats, described Rostow as "America's Rasputin" for the unsavory influence he exerted on presidential decision-making. Rostow was the first to advise Kennedy to send U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam and the first to recommend the bombing of North Vietnam. He framed a policy of military escalation, championed recklessly optimistic reporting, and then advised LBJ against pursuing a compromise peace with North Vietnam. David Milne examines one man's impact on the United States' worst-ever military defeat. It is a portrait of good intentions and fatal misjudgments. A true ideologue, Rostow believed that it is beholden upon the United States to democratize other nations and do "good," no matter what the cost. America's Rasputin explores the consequences of this idealistic but unyielding dogma.
America's Social Health: Putting Social Issues Back on the Public Agenda
by Sandra Opdycke Marque-Luisa MiringoffCalling for a fundamental change in the focus of public policy in America, this book paints a vivid portrait of the nation's social health. Miringoff and Opdycke clearly show that social progress has stalled and the country's energies need to be directed at critical domestic issues in the years ahead.The authors propose a new agenda for monitoring America's social well-being built around sixteen key indicators of American life, such as infant mortality, teenage suicide, health insurance coverage, and affordable housing. They maintain that social conditions, like economic conditions, must be constantly monitored in order to have a clear sense of "how we are doing" as a society.The book builds on the work of the Institute for Innovation in Social Policy and argues that there needs to be a greater visibility for social issues - and a closer link between social reporting and public action - to better address the nation's social problems. It considers the critical role of the media in advancing public understanding of social issues, and examines important advances in the community indicators movement and international social reporting. Eye-opening and compelling, the book is a provocative centerpiece for policy debates and national initiatives on today's crucial domestic concerns.