Less than a year after the United States entered the Second World War, Nicholas Spykman wrote a book that placed the war effort in the broader context... of the 1940s global balance of power. In America's Strategy in World Politics, Spykman examined world politics from a realist geopolitical perspective. The United States, he explained, was fighting for its very survival as an independent country because the conquests of Germany and Japan raised the specter of our geopolitical encirclement by hostile forces controlling the power centers of Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. Spykman warned that the United States could not safely retreat to a defensive position in the Western Hemisphere. Spykman looked beyond the immediate strategic requirements of the Second World War, envisioning a postwar world in which the United States would help shape the global balance of power to meet its security needs. Even though Soviet Russia was our wartime ally, Spykman recognized that a geopolitically unbalanced Soviet Union could threaten to upset the postwar balance of power and thereby endanger U.S. security. Spykman also foresaw the rise of China in postwar Asia, and the likely need for the United States to ally itself with Japan to balance China's power. He also recognized that the Middle East would play a pivotal role in the postwar world. Spykman influenced American postwar statesmen and strategists. During the Cold War, the U.S. sought to deny the Soviet Union political control of Western Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. Spykman's geopolitical vision of U.S. security, supported by a balanced Eurasian land mass, coupled with his focus on power as the governing force in international relations, makes America's Strategy in World Politics relevant to the twenty-first century.

This new edition of Patterson's widely used book carries the story of battles over poverty and social welfare through what the author calls the... "amazing 1990s," those years of extraordinary performance of the economy. He explores a range of issues arising from the economic phenomenon--increasing inequality and demands for use of an improved poverty definition. He focuses the story on the impact of the highly controversial welfare reform of 1996, passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Democratic President Clinton, despite the laments of anguished liberals.

America's Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage chronicles the evolution of the social movement for same-sex marriage in the United States and examines the... political controversies surrounding gay people's quest for access to the civil institution of marriage. The book focuses on the momentous events that began in November 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared unequivocally that the state's conferral of marriage only on opposite-sex couples violated constitutional principles of respect for individual autonomy and equality under law. The decision both triggered a political backlash of national proportion and prompted officials in San Francisco, Multnomah County (OR), Sandoval County (NM), and New Paltz (NY) to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The volume relies on in-depth interviews to provide an insider account of how courts, politicians, and activists maneuver and deal with a cutting-edge social policy issue, as well as real-life narratives about everyday people whom the debate immediately affects.

Through clear, accessible writing and the strongest research base and documentation on the market, this edition offers a positive, teacher-centered view... of the profession. America’s Teachers: An Introduction to Education, Fifth Edition accurately reflects how teachers themselves feel about their work. With critical and informative material on teaching as an occupation, the foundations of education, and emerging issues affecting today’s classrooms, this textbook provides prospective teachers with a realistic look at teaching.  This new edition provides a stronger emphasis on cultural diversity in every chapter, particularly in Chapter 8 and thorough integration of No Child Left Behind throughout the text.

The media's presentation suggests that American teenage culture today is the most violent, sexual, and amoral youth culture in history. In this book,... Nichols and Good deconstruct the negative images held by large numbers of adults. Recognizing that many teenagers are left by adults to socialize themselves and the consequences of this "careless indifference," the authors' goal is to influence a more positive view leading to stronger social policies and better services, resources, and programs to meet the needs of America's youth. Unique features of America's Teenagers--Myths and Realities: Media Images, Schooling, and the Social Costs of Careless Indifference include:*powerful analytic lenses used to revisit typical depictions of youth;*a wealth of information brought to bear on understanding teenagers' behavior; and*consideration of a broad range of adolescent behaviors across critical socializing settings. The book begins with a discussion of the continuing myth of adolescence--how and why youth are devalued, and an overview of current beliefs about youth drawn from two 1990s Public Agenda Polls. This is followed by chapters on youth and the media, and the pressures that youth face in various dimensions of their lives. Topics include youth violence; the sex lives of teenagers; tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and teens; healthy living and decision making; working teens; and youth and education. The concluding chapter pulls together themes generated throughout the book and provides examples of policies that would underscore the value of viewing youth as a social investment. General guidelines are provided for teachers, parents, policymakers, and citizens to facilitate responding to youth in meaningful, proactive ways that improve the quality of life for teenagers and the broader society.

Stunning in its sweep, Americas is the most authoritative history available of contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean. From Mexico to Tierra del... Fuego, and from Cuba to Trinidad and Tobago, Americas examines the historical, demographic, political, social, cultural, religious, and economic trends in the region. For this new edition Peter Winn has provided a new preface and made revisions throughout to include the most up-to-date information on changes and developments in Latin America since the last revised edition of 1999.

Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "the single best book written in recent years on the sweep of American political history," this... groundbreaking work divides our nation's history into three "regimes," each of which lasts many, many decades, allowing us to appreciate as never before the slow steady evolution of American politics, government, and law. The three regimes, which mark longer periods of continuity than traditional eras reflect, are Deferential and Republican, from the colonial period to the 1820s; Party and Democratic, from the 1830s to the 1930s; and Populist and Bureaucratic, from the 1930s to the present. Praised by The Economist as "a feast to enjoy" and by Foreign Affairs as "a masterful and fresh account of U.S. politics," here is a major contribution to the history of the United States--an entirely new way to look at our past, our present, and our future--packed with provocative and original observations about American public life.

"It is a treat to have [these stories] pulled together here, reflecting as they do the dignity of individuals and the strength of family bonds across... different cultures."—School Library JournalWelcome to America Street, where every story is as vital and unique as the friends, neighbors, and relatives we encounter every day. Here are fourteen stories about young people told by some of America's best storytellers: Duane Big Eagle, Toni Cade Bambara, Robert Cormier, Langston Hughes, Gish Jen, Francisco Jiménez, Mary K. Mazotti, Nicholasa Mohr, Toshio Mori, Leslie Namioka, Naomi Shihab Nye, Grace Paley, Gary Soto, and Michele Wallace.

In contrast with most histories of this period, America's Uncivil Wars: The Sixties Era from Elvis to the Fall of Richard Nixon does not treat the 1960s... as a single historical moment or as successive waves of activism. Rather, it employs a chronological narrative to identify three distinct phases during which events of the era unfolded. The first began with the cultural ferment of the 1950s and ended with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. During the second phase, from 1964-1968, the "uncivil" wars began in earnest: Americans disagreed about new social and cultural mores, protests against the Vietnam War increased in size and vehemence, and American cities erupted in racial violence. From 1967 through 1968, all of these forces combined to divide Americans more deeply than they had been since the Civil War. In the third phase, Richard Nixon promised to bring Americans together. However, a host of new value and identity movements--environmentalists, consumer advocates, feminists, gay, Latino, and Native American activists--frustrated his design. Only after the Watergate scandals forced this polarizing figure from office did a measure of civility return to the nation's public discourse. America's Uncivil Wars captures the broad sweep of this tumultuous era, analyzing both the cultural and political influences on the movements of the 1960s. Paying particular attention to Latinos, Native Americans, feminism, and gay liberation, it integrates the politics of gender and race into the central political narrative. The book also covers such topics as McCarthyism; the FBI; rock and roll; teen culture in the 1950s; the origins of SDS, SNCC, and YAF; and the environmental and consumer movements. With its engaging narrative style and broad cultural emphasis, America's Uncivil Wars brings a fresh approach to our understanding of not only the 1960s but also U.S. history since 1945.

Although there is a widespread belief that uneven voter turnout leads to biased outcomes in American democracy, existing empirical tests have found few... effects. By offering a systematic account of how and where turnout matters in local politics, this book challenges much of what we know about turnout in America today. It demonstrates that low and uneven turnout, a factor at play in most American cities, leads to sub-optimal outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities. Low turnout results in losses in mayoral elections, less equitable racial and ethnic representation on city councils, and skewed spending policies. The importance of turnout confirms long held suspicions about the under-representation of minorities and raises normative concerns about local democracy. Fortunately, this book offers a solution. Analysis of local participation indicates that a small change to local election timing - a reform that is cost effective and relatively easy to enact- could dramatically expand local voter turnout.

  Hal Foster and Megan Nosol speak boldly about not only the inequalities that exist in America's schools but also of strategies that give those kids... the rich education we want for all students - the rich education each student deserves. - Kylene Beers Author of When Kids Can't Read - What Teachers Can Do   Do you teach in a forgotten high school? Where students are limited by poverty, the facilities are in dire need of repair, and the district has declared an academic emergency but doesn't know how to remedy the situation?   Harold Foster and Megan Nosol have taught - successfully - in forgotten schools. In America's Unseen Kids they reject stereotypes of urban students and schools and focus on new ways to reach out to teens in the English/language arts classroom. Foster and Nosol know from experience that students will rise to the challenge of higher expectations when you strengthen your relationships with them. Their strategies will help you: involve students in their learning by making it personal get students to raise their own expectations by setting yours higher and reinforcing them drive growth in reading and writing by making them explicit and repeatable use student interests to support learning by connecting school life to real life meet all students' needs through flexible teaching.   No matter how tough your school is, America's Unseen Kids will inspire and empower you to help students imagine new possibilities and realize them. Read it today because your school may be forgotten, but your students will always remember the heights you helped them reach.

Despite its venerated place atop American law and politics, our written Constitution does not enumerate all of the rules and rights, principles and... procedures that actually govern modern America. The document makes no explicit mention of cherished concepts like the separation of powers and the rule of law. On some issues, the plain meaning of the text misleads. For example, the text seems to say that the vice president presides over his own impeachment trial—but surely this cannot be right. As esteemed legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar explains in America’s Unwritten Constitution, the solution to many constitutional puzzles lies not solely within the written document, but beyond it—in the vast trove of values, precedents, and practices that complement and complete the terse text.In this sequel to America’s Constitution: A Biography, Amar takes readers on a tour of our nation’s unwritten Constitution, showing how America’s foundational document cannot be understood in textual isolation. Proper constitutional interpretation depends on a variety of factors, such as the precedents set by early presidents and Congresses; common practices of modern American citizens; venerable judicial decisions; and particularly privileged sources of inspiration and guidance, including the Federalist papers, William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. These diverse supplements are indispensible instruments for making sense of the written Constitution. When used correctly, these extra-textual aids support and enrich the written document without supplanting it.An authoritative work by one of America’s preeminent legal scholars, America’s Unwritten Constitution presents a bold new vision of the American constitutional system, showing how the complementary relationship between the Constitution’s written and unwritten components is one of America’s greatest and most enduring strengths.

"This book has been long needed: a concise, complete and dispassionate survey of the Vietnam War.... Best of all, the no-nonsense approach answers... questions as soon as they arise in the reader's mind." —Kliatt"If there is such a thing as an objective account [of the Vietnam War], this is it.... If you want to read one book about Vietnam, read this one." —New York Review of BooksA short, narrative history of the origins, course, and outcome of America's military involvement in Vietnam by an experienced guide to the causes and conduct of war, Larry H. Addington. He begins with a history of Vietnam before and after French occupation, the Cold War origins of American involvement, the domestic impact of American policies on public support, and the reasons for the ultimate failure of U.S. policy.

The Right has politicized private life, expanding the zone of public sexuality. This guarantees policies that will worsen social problems and increase... personal anxiety, providing proof that sexuality is fundamentally negative—so citizens demand more sex-negative policies.With examples ripped from today's headlines, with brutal honesty and a wicked sense of humor, Marty Klein names names, challenges political hypocrisy, and shows the financial connections between government and conservative religious groups that are systematically taking away your rights. And, in the process, changing American society—forever.In our free society, people have the right to choose how they live their lives.— President George Bush, June 3, 2006So why does our government want to censor what you read, hear, and see, try to limit your access to contraception, attempt to legislate good moral values, and try to brainwash your kids about abstinence?These are the kinds of questions Dr. Marty Klein asks—and answers—in his new book, America's War on Sex. With hundreds of examples ripped from today's headlines, he names names, challenges political hypocrisy, and shows the financial connections between government and conservative religious groups that are systematically taking away your rights. Dr. Klein isn't shy about it. He demands to know—as you should demand to know—answers to difficult questions, such as: If 50 million Americans consume pornography, why does the government dare to regulate it without consulting any consumers? Why do Congressmen listen to victims of porn but not healthy adults who use porn? Now that abstinence-only sex education has been proven a failure, why does the government still give it $200 million each year? And how can most of that money go to faith-based groups who tell your kids how God feels about their sexual choices? Why do hundreds of American communities feel they have the right to eliminate legal adult entertainment, claiming we're not that kind of city? Why do family courts have the right to judge the private sexual habits of each parent when making custody decisions? How can licensed pharmacists and physicians claim they have the right to deny you legal medical care if it violates their conscience?Our glorious Constitution guarantees us the widest range of rights civilization has ever seen. Why are those rights systematically undermined and revoked when it comes to sexual expression?Is there a conspiracy to deny us our sexual rights? No, says Marty Klein: It's worse than a conspiracy. It's a war. They're very open about it—it's a War on Sex.It's a war that threatens the very fabric of our secular democracy. The American Taliban, our own sexual jihadists, want to replace our government with laws based on the Bible, creating a country in which normal sex is narrowly defined and no one has the right to alternative sexual information, health care, or personal expression.America is fighting a war on terror to prevent the overthrow of our way of life by fanatics who want to base all law on their strict religious beliefs. It is completely unacceptable that a group of conservative Americans is trying to accomplish the same thing right here.

" A brilliant and scholarly demonstration of the way a single act of violence can affect the course of history. ... The reasons for the resort to war... ... have never been brought into such clear focus as through the lens of this remarkable study." - Julian P. Boyd, editor, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson"One of the most important books ever written about the origins of the American Revolution." - Journal of American History