Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Constitution - Enduring...

  Andrew Porwancher

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  One Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds of religion, government, literature, and social justice. Amid the heat of a Philadelphia summer in 1787, the delegates of the Constitutional Convention gathered to save a fledgling republic whose very existence was mired in doubt. Americans had waged a bloody war against their mother country a decade earlier to win their independence. Now, as the delegates debated the contours of a new frame of government, they were all too aware that if they failed, the people might once again take up arms. At this pivotal moment in history, the delegates drafted a Constitution that endures today as the oldest surviving national charter still in effect anywhere in the world. But what did the framers really mean? Did they intend the Establishment Clause to merely ban a national religion or completely separate church and state? Was the Second Amendment designed to protect the rights of individuals or just militias? Were the framers unanimously in favor of allowing only men to vote, or were there some who felt differently? How much do we actually know about what transpired in Independence Hall? What myths were later invented and accepted as law? The surprising answers to these questions matter, not only for uncovering the truth about our history but for rethinking the laws that govern our lives today. This audio lecture includes a supplemental PDF.

  Show book

• 

  Our Common Cause - Establishing...

  Étienne Chouard

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  I want to talk to you about democracy. The real one. The one that does not exist, and the one we really need today. My research method is that of Hippocrates, who said, look for the cause of causes. In other words, to cure a disease, to solve a problem, it is useless to attack the consequences, it is useless to attack the different causes. There is always a determining cause (the one that determines all the others)—and that is our common cause.
  The first decisive battle is to push the important words "right side up":
  First. I am not a "citizen" (a citizen is autonomous; he votes himself his laws). I am only a "voter;" that is to say, a political child—because I am subject to the law voted into existence by someone other than me.
  Second. My "parents" in politics, the elected officials, do not want me to emancipate myself from them—they do not allow me to vote for or against the laws to which I have to submit myself.
  We are "the incompetents." They treat us like children. But it is our fault, because children also believe in "Santa Claus," and so voters believe in "universal suffrage," which we accept to call "democracy" (demos kratos, power belongs to the people). The so-called modern "democracy".

  Show book

• 

  Citizenship in a Republic - "Man...

  Theodore Roosevelt

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “Citizenship in a Republic” is the title of a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910. In the speech Roosevelt discusses the attributes required of its citizens and leaders to sustain a thriving national character, not least of which are a high moral character and energetic engagement. He has harsh words for those who act purely in self-interest, who cause division, and who sit on the sidelines while others do the heavy lifting. The address is also known as “The Man in the Arena” speech owing to a notable passage that is often quoted:“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”Numerous politicians, athletes, speakers and others have turned to the passage for inspiration. Incoming freshman at the U.S. Naval Academy are required to memorize the passage. NBA champion LeBron James has the “Man in the Arena” written on his shoes.

  Show book

• 

  Summary of Robert Greene’s The...

  Falcon Press

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Summary of Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power is a self-help book offering advice on how to gain and maintain power, using lessons drawn from parables and the experiences of historical figures. 
  Power depends on the relationship between a person and those he or she seeks to control. 

  Show book

• 

  Learning by Doing - The Real...

  James Bessen

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “Bessen sets out to refute the arguments of . . . techno-pessimists, relying on economic analysis and on a fresh reading of history” (The Wall Street Journal).   Technology is constantly changing our world, leading to more efficient production. But where once technological advancements dramatically increased wages, the median wage has remained stagnant over the past three decades. Many of today’s machines have taken over the work of humans, destroying old jobs while increasing profits for business owners and raising the possibility of ever-widening economic inequality.   Here, economist and software company founder James Bessen discusses why these remarkable advances have, so far, benefited only a select few. He argues the need for unique policies to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to implement rapidly evolving technologies. Currently, this technical knowledge is mostly unstandardized and difficult to acquire, learned through job experience rather than in classrooms, but labor markets rarely provide strong incentives for learning on the job. Basing his analysis on intensive research into economic history as well as today’s labor markets, Bessen explores why the benefits of technology can take decades to emerge. Although the right policies can hasten the process, policy has moved in the wrong direction, protecting politically influential interests to the detriment of emerging technologies and broadly shared prosperity. This is a thoughtful look at what leaders need to do to ensure success not only for the next quarter, but for society in the long term.   “Everyone agrees that education is the key to wage growth. But what kind of education? . . . This enlightening and insightful book . . . shows that economic history can provide some useful and surprising answers.” —Hal Varian, chief economist at Google

  Show book

• 

  Miami and the Siege of Chicago

  Norman Mailer

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  1968. The Vietnam War was raging. President Lyndon Johnson, facing a challenge in his own Democratic Party from the maverick antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy, announced that he would not seek a second term. In April, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and riots broke out in inner cities throughout America. Bobby Kennedy was killed after winning the California primary in June. In August, Republicans met in Miami, picking the little-loved Richard Nixon as their candidate, while in September, Democrats in Chicago backed the ineffectual vice president, Hubert Humphrey. TVs across the country showed antiwar protesters filling the streets of Chicago and the police running amok, beating and arresting demonstrators and delegates alike. 
  In Miami and the Siege of Chicago, Norman Mailer, America's most protean and provocative writer, brings a novelist's eye to bear on the events of 1968, a decisive year in modern American politics, from which today's bitterly divided country arose.

  Show book