Surviving non-Hodgkins lymphoma, melanoma, and prostate cancer, former White House chief-of-staff Hamilton Jordan shares his personal and political reflections--from his experiences with the Civil Rights movement to his civilian volunteer tour in Vietnam, from his years of scrutiny under the Carter administration to his agonizing, yet triumphant times battling cancer. Quickly motivated to accept cancer as a fact in his life, Jordan deals with the stages of the disease, "Denial? Deny what? I've got a mass in my chest the size of an apple ... Angry? At whom? I have lived a great life and have been blessed with much more than I deserve ... 'Why me?' but 'Why not me?' ... Bargaining with God? The God that I believe in has all the cards ..." Serving as an inspiration to others, Jordan stresses the importance of becoming proactive and maintaining a positive attitude in the face of a terminal disease. The warm voice of narrator Tom Stechschulte gives us an intimate portrait of this tireless public servant and crusader.
Solomon, nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics and founder of the Institute for Public Accuracy, speaks eloquently about the seductive power of the media and how it shapes our understanding of the world, and our response to critical world events.
Chris Matthews is the host and anchor of CNBC's & MSNBC's Hardball as well as being a frequent contributor to NBC's The Today Show and substitute anchor of Weekend Today. He is a nationally syndicated columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, appearing in 200 newspapers nationwide. Matthews got his start as a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and later as the top aide to House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. He is the author of Hardball and Kennedy & Nixon. Matthews lives with his wife Kathleen Matthews, news anchor for ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., and their three children in Chevy Chase, MD.
Have you ever wondered how George W. Bush got to be President? Writer, political strategist, and Bush campaign worker Stuart Stevens takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Bush presidential campaign. He shows us the hidden moments in the small towns of Texas which added up to success for the former Major League Baseball owner: the humble Bush practicing his speeches in a small Methodist church in Crawford, Texas; the blue-jeaned Bush, hoping for a chance to "bond" with his strategists; the innocent Bush, convinced he would win despite overwhelming odds and an opponent who was counting on them. With humor, Stevens relays hair-raising tales of the campaign trail.
What makes power tick and how does it become entrenched and abused? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, so the saying goes. What lies beneath power? Understanding the nature of power can help us move towards a world of freedom, justice and economic equity for all.
Originally a radical socialist, the current driving force behind the rise of the Hollywood right recounts how he moved from one set of political convictions to another over the course of thirty years, and challenges readers to consider how they came by their own convictions.
Fast Food Nation - the groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that has changed the way America thinks about the way it eats - and spent nearly four months on the New York Times bestseller list - now available on cassette!
Are we what we eat? To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar America. Though created by a handful of mavericks, the fast food industry has triggered the homogenization of our society. Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelling the juggernaut of American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.
Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from the California subdivisions where the business was born to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike where many of fast food's flavors are concocted. Along the way, he unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths - from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, even real estate. He also uncovers the fast food chains' efforts to reel in the youngest, most susceptible consumers even while they hone their institutionalized exploitation of teenagers and minorities. Schlosser then turns a critical eye toward the hot topic of globalization - a phenomenon launched by fast food.
Bill O’Reilly is even madder today than when he wrote his last book, The O’Reilly Factor, and his fans love him even more. He’s mad because things have gone from bad to worse in politics, in Hollywood, in every social stratum of the nation. True to its title, The No Spin Zone cuts through all the rhetoric that some of O’Reilly’s most infamous guests have spewed to expose what’s really on their minds, while sharing plenty of his own emphatic counterpoints along the way.
Shining a searing spotlight on public figures from President George W. Bush and Senator Hillary Clinton to the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to his former CBS News colleague Dan Rather, The No Spin Zone is laced with the kind of straight-shooting commentary that has made O’Reilly the voice of middle America’s disenfranchised.
On September 11, 2001, the world changed forever as more than three thousand men, women, and children lost their lives in the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. The attack was masterminded by Osama bin Laden and his Jihad group -- an organization that CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen calls Holy War, Inc. One of the few Western journalists to have interviewed bin Laden face-to-face, Bergen has produced the definitive book on the global Jihadist network, revealing:
How bin Laden lives, travels, and communicates with his "cells."
How his role in the crushing defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan made him a hero to Muslims all over the world.
How the bombings of the American embassies in Africa and the USS Cole in Yemen were planned and executed.
What we can expect from Islamic extremists in the future.
Above all, Peter Bergen helps us to see bin Laden's organization in a radically new light: as a corporation that has exploited modern technology and weaponry in the service of global terrorism and the destruction of the West.
In this wide-ranging dialogue, Jimmy Carter has some surprising things to say about the presidential election of 2000 and the Florida vote count. He also speaks poignantly of his rural, southern roots, which did so much to shape his values and worldview of today.
Perhaps the last Washington secret is how the Federal Reserve and its enigmatic chairman, Alan Greenspan, operate. What do they do? Why precisely do they do it? Who is Greenspan? How does he think? What is the basis for his decisions? Why is he so powerful? What kind of relationships has he had with Reagan, Bush, and Clinton -- presidents during the 13 years he has been Fed chairman?
The Greenspan years, 1987 to 2000, are presented here as a gripping, intimate narrative, a remarkable portrait of how one man has become the symbol of American economic preeminence.
Maestro reveals a fascinating intellectual journey. Greenspan, and old-school anti-inflation hawk of the traditional economy, was among the first to realize the potential in the modern, high-productivity new economy -- the foundation of the current American boom.
Reappointed by Clinton in 2000 for another four-year term, Greenspan is slated to serve as Fed chairman until 2004. He is not only a major figure in the world's economic past, but is central to its future.
An American sub-culture dubbed 'Cultural Creatives' has been growing, quietly revolutionizing American life. This group has been creating new social systems, world views and ways of life. Sherry Ruth Anderson and Paul Ray, who have spent thirteen years researching this emerging sub-culture explain how this group has reached critical mass, despite being largely unaware of each other.
