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  Desegregating Texas Schools -...

  Robyn Duff Ladino

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  This study of school integration struggles in 1950s Texas demonstrates how power politics denied black students their constitutional rights.   In the famous Brown v. the Board of Education decisions of 1954 and 1955, the United States Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. Yet it took more than a decade of struggle before black students gained full access to previously white schools. Mansfield, Texas, a small community southeast of Fort Worth, was the scene of an early school integration attempt. In this book, Robyn Duff Ladino draws on interviews with surviving participants, media reports, and archival research to provide the first full account of the Mansfield school integration crisis of 1956.   Ladino explores how politics at the local, state, and federal levels ultimately prevented the integration of Mansfield High School in 1956. Her research sheds new light on the actions of Governor Allan Shivers—who, in the eyes of the segregationists, validated their cause through his actions—and it underscores President Eisenhower’s public passivity toward civil rights during his first term of office.   Despite the short-term failure, however, the Mansfield school integration crisis helped pave the way for the successful integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. Thus, it deserves a permanent place in the history of the civil rights movement.

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  Power Trip - The Epilogue

  Damian McBride

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  "Explosive" – Daily Telegraph
  "Utterly gripping" – The Scotsman
  "Racy, lucid and very well-informed" – Evening Standard
  "Achingly vivid and horribly revealing" – BookTalk
  "Devastatingly forthright" – Sunday Times
  "Tremendous" – Sunday Times
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  From 1999 to 2009, Damian McBride worked at the heart of the Treasury and No. 10. He was a pivotal member of Gordon Brown's inner circle before a notorious scandal propelled him out of Downing Street and onto the front pages. When he released his memoir Power Trip in 2013, its frank depiction of the dirty work that props up British politics was greeted with shock, disgust and awe. Never before had the lid been blown off the Westminster system with such ferocity. Throughout the book, McBride made no effort to cleanse his reputation; instead, he sought relentlessly to expose the manipulation, plotting and skullduggery that lay at New Labour's core.
  Ten years on, Power Trip remains the essential guide to understanding the murky underbelly of modern politics and how it can shape and corrupt those who inhabit it for too long. Now updated with a new foreword, this is the 10th anniversary edition of the most explosive political memoir of the past decade.

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  50+ - Igniting a Revolution to...

  Bill Novelli, Boe Workman

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  Bill Novelli doesn't believe that retirement has to mean rocking one's way into the sunset. As the head of the strongest organization of retired people in the world, the AARP, Novelli believes that retirement can be a time of action and influence rather than one of illness and decline.In this inspiring book, Bill Novelli will speak to the growing number of Americans age 50 and older about what they can do to shape the national debate about aging and influence government policy towards retirees. For a long time, many of the government forces in Washington have hoped to divide the nation along various lines and one of those dividing lines is age. Against this "divide and conquer" mentality, Novelli will argue that the common, shared experience of aging will serve not to divide the US, but to unite it. And the united tide of change is potentially enormous: When the Baby Boomer generation ages to the 50-year mark, they will create the largest group of retirees in the history of the country, solidifying a powerful constituency for major change in ways beneficial to the entire nation. Novelli believes that this group is capable of just about anything. 50+ is a rallying cry for an aging America by a man who knows how to get the job done.A Macmillan Audio production.

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  Deadly Spin - An Insurance...

  Wendell Potter

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  "My name is Wendell Potter, and for twenty years I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies. I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick-all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors." -Senate testimony, June 24, 2009Wendell Potter is the insurance industry's worst nightmare.In June 2009, Wendell Potter made national headlines with his scorching testimony before the Senate panel on health care reform. This former senior vice president of CIGNA explained how health insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, how they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and how they skew political debate with multibillion-dollar public relations campaigns designed to spread disinformation.Potter had walked away from a six-figure salary and two decades as an insurance executive because he could no longer abide the routine practices of an industry where the needs of sick and suffering Americans take a backseat to the bottom line. The last straw: when he visited a rural health clinic and saw hundreds of people standing in line in the rain to receive treatment in stalls built for livestock.In Deadly Spin, Potter takes listeners behind the scenes to show how a huge chunk of our absurd health care spending actually bankrolls a propaganda campaign and lobbying effort focused on protecting one thing: profits. Whatever the fate of the current health care legislation, it makes no attempt to change that fundamental problem. Potter shows how relentless PR assaults play an insidious role in our political process anywhere that corporate profits are at stake-from climate change to defense policy. Deadly Spin tells us why-and how-we must fight back.

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  People Get Screwed All the Time...

  Robert Massi

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  What would you do if you were accused and arrested for a crime that you didn't commit? How about if you realized that you'd just been scammed for thousands of dollars? What about if, due to a circumstance as unavoidable as having the same name as a criminal, your credit rating kept you from buying a house or a car, or getting a loan for college? Most people trust that everything will work out and assume that the government will help them if trouble arises. However, Robert Massi reveals what the government doesn't want you to know-daily life and decisions are fraught with potential danger, and government mismanagement often has disastrous consequences for innocent, law-abiding citizens. Familiar to viewers as a national TV legal analyst, Robert Massi has heard countless stories of well-intentioned individuals getting caught up in damaging situations that they didn't see coming. Nonetheless, the most frustrating part of these heartaches is that they could-and should-have been avoided. Massi will share some of these astonishing stories of real people-and then he'll show you how to learn from these mishaps. Touching on everything from dodging identity theft to starting a business, People Get Screwed All the Time explains how to avoid falling for scams, getting entrenched in endless legal battles, and inadvertently ending up on the wrong side of the law. Also, if worse comes to worst, it provides unbeatable tips for how to extract yourself from a wide variety of sticky situations. By suggesting small steps that can be taken today, People Get Screwed All the Time helps you to avert catastrophe tomorrow. Calling for action and awareness, this is a vital and eye-opening handbook that proves that ignorance is anything but bliss.

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  The Middle Way - How Three...

  Derek Chollet

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  When thinking about America's role in the world, Dwight Eisenhower, George H. W. Bush, and Barack Obama may not seem to have a lot in common. But they do. While divided by background, generation, and political party, they exemplify a distinct and underappreciated tradition of American leadership: The Middle Way. As the scholar and former senior foreign policy official Derek Chollet shows in this deeply researched book, these three presidents took a centrist—and effective—approach to foreign policy. With so many challenges facing the United States, Chollet makes the case for why the nation must reclaim this brand of leadership, learn from it, and champion it.This timely book blends history, politics, and biography to reveal how these presidents viewed the world and approached the task of leadership. By providing behind-the-scenes accounts and incisive analysis of the foreign policies of Ike, Bush 41, and Obama, The Middle Way offers a fresh way of thinking about American power. It shows how these three leaders defined a foreign policy archetype too often obscured by partisan blinders and historical amnesia. With vivid storytelling and astute insights, Chollet makes a compelling argument for how we should remember the past, think about the present, and approach the policy challenges of tomorrow.

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