Otros libros que te pueden interesar

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  The Parties Versus the People -...

  Mickey Edwards

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  “An urgent and engaging look at how American politics have become the founding fathers’ worst nightmare” (The Daily Beast).   America’s political system is dysfunctional. We know it, yet the problem seems intractable—after every election, voters discover yet again that political “leaders” are simply quarreling in a never-ending battle between the two warring tribes.   As a former congressman, Mickey Edwards witnessed firsthand how important legislative battles can devolve into struggles not over principle but over party advantage. He offers graphic examples of how this problem has intensified and reveals how political battles have become nothing more than conflicts between party machines. In this critically important book, he identifies exactly how our political and governing systems reward intransigence, discourage compromise, and undermine our democracy—and describes exactly what must be done to banish the negative effects of partisan warfare from our political system and renew American democracy.   “Overcoming tribalism and knee-jerk partisanship is the central challenge of our time. Mickey Edwards shows why and how in this fascinating book filled with sensible suggestions.” —Walter Isaacson, New York Times–bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci   “Many Americans, whether Democrats, Republicans, independent or otherwise, would welcome a few more like [Edwards] in office.” —The Boston Globe

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  High Tension - FDR's Battle to...

  John A. Riggs

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  An account of Franklin Roosevelt’s battle against the power industry to bring electricity to rural communities in the United States. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in the depths of the Depression, high tension―or high voltage―power lines had been marching across the country for decades, delivering urban Americans a parade of life-transforming inventions from electric lights and radios to refrigerators and washing machines. But most rural Americans still lived in the punishing pre-electric era, unconnected to the grid, their lives consumed and bodies broken by backbreaking chores.High Tension is the story of FDR’s battle against the “Power Trust,” an elaborate Wall Street-controlled web of holding companies, to electrify all of America―even when the corrupt captains of the industry and their cronies (led by a formidable and honest champion, Wendell Willkie, whose role in the battle propelled him to a presidential bid to unseat Roosevelt in 1940) cried that running lines to rural areas would not be profitable and that in a free market there would simply have to be a divide between the electricity haves and have-nots. Roosevelt knew better. And in this story of shrewd political maneuvering, controversial legislation, New Deal government organizations like the Tennessee Valley Authority, the packing of Federal courts, towering business figures, greedy villains, and the crying needs of farmers and other rural citizens desperate for services critical to their daily lives, John A. Riggs has chronicled democracy’s greatest balancing act of government intervention with private market forces. Here is the tale of how FDR’s efforts brought affordable electricity to all Americans, powered the industrial might that won World War II, and established a model for public-private solutions today in areas such as transportation infrastructure, broadband, and health care.Praise for High Tension “The little known but captivating story of electricity is at the heart of the New Deal. John A. Riggs is the perfect person to tell the tale.” ―Walter Isaacson, author of The Innovators, Leonardo da Vinci, and Steve Jobs “[A] lucid and compelling tale. This is a fresh angle of vision on one of the most important and under-appreciated stories of the first half of the 20th century.” ―Jonathan Alter, author of The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope “An innovative history of the chaos and conniving that created America’s transformative electricity system. . . . A compelling read. Thoroughly researched and gracefully written. . . . A must for historians, it is also a gripping read for all.” ―Martin J. Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer “[A]n exhaustive look at President Franklin Roosevelt’s multipronged war against the private utility sector. . . . Riggs dives deep into the legislative, judicial, and public opinion battles over Roosevelt’s energy initiatives, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, and argues that the hybrid public-private system that emerged in America was critical to the nation’s “economic global supremacy” during and after WWII. . . . [T]his authoritative account is a valuable resource for students of America’s energy policy.” ―Publishers Weekly

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  King of the Lobby - The Life and...

  Kathryn Allamong Jacob

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  A biography of the “influential and engaging character” who courted Congress with food, wine, and gifts in the post-Civil War era (The Washington Post Book World). 
   
  King of the Lobby tells the story of how one man harnessed delicious food, fine wine, and good conversation to become the most influential lobbyist of the Gilded Age. 
   
  Scion of an old and honorable family, best friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and charming man-about-town, Sam Ward held his own in an era crowded with larger-than-life personalities. Living by the motto that the shortest route between a pending bill and a congressman’s “aye” was through his stomach, Ward elegantly entertained political elites in return for their votes. 
   
  At a time when waves of scandal washed over Washington, the popular press railed against the wickedness of the lobby, and self-righteous politicians predicted that special interests would cause the downfall of democratic government, Sam Ward still reigned supreme. By the early 1870s, he had earned the title “King of the Lobby,” cultivating an extraordinary network of prominent figures and a style that survives today in the form of expensive golf outings, extravagant dinners, and luxurious vacations. Kathryn Allamong Jacob’s account shows how the king earned his crown, and how this son of wealth and privilege helped to create a questionable profession in a city that then, as now, rested on power and influence. 
   
  “Her extensive research is reflected in her recounting of Ward’s life, successfully putting it into the context of the history of lobbying…will appeal to American history buffs.” —Publishers Weekly

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  A Brief History of Neoliberalism

  David Harvey

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  Neoliberalism—the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action—has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. Writing for a wide audience, David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism and The Condition of Postmodernity, here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization came from and how it proliferated on the world stage. Through critical engagement with this history, he constructs a framework, not only for analyzing the political and economic dangers that now surround us, but also for assessing the prospects for the more socially just alternatives being advocated by many oppositional movements.

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  Six for the Tolpuddle Martyrs -...

  Alan Gallop

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  In 1834 six farm laborers from the Dorset hamlet of Tolpuddle fell foul of draconian Victorian laws prohibiting assembly. Today the names of George Loveless and his brother James, Thomas Standfield and his son John, James Brine and James Hammett, who made up the Tolpuddle Martyrs, stand high on the roll of British men who have been victimized for their beliefs but stood steadfast in the face of persecution. They refused to be persuaded to betray their principles either by the promise of release or by transportation to Australia. The Tolpuddle men fought to win their freedom sustained by their passionate conviction that their sacrifices would not be in vain. Their experience and example have proved to be an inspiration for future generations and they remain icons of pioneering trade unionism.The Author has thoroughly researched their story and the result is a fascinating and revealing reexamination of this legendary saga. Their triumph over legal persecution and abuses of power over 180 years ago is told afresh in this comprehensive and attractively illustrated book which delves deeper into their story than ever before.

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  Color Communism And Common Sense

  Manning Johnson

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  Here is the story of one Black American Communist who became disillusioned with Communism and penned this cautionary tale of the perils of his experience. According to the author: "Ten years I labored in the cause of Communism. I was a dedicated "comrade."All my talents and efforts were zealously used to bring about the triumph of Communism in America and throughout the world. To me, the end of capitalism would mark the beginning of an interminable period of plenty, peace, prosperity and universal comradeship. All racial and class differences and conflicts would end forever after the liquidation of the capitalists, their government and their supporters. ..Little did I realize until I was deeply enmeshed in the Red Conspiracy, that just and seeming grievances are exploited to transform idealism into a cold and ruthless weapon against the capitalist system-that this is the end toward which all the communist efforts among Negroes are directed. Indeed, I had entered the red conspiracy in the vain belief that it was the way to a "new, better and superior" world system of society. Ten years later, thoroughly disillusioned, I abandoned communism." From the preface.

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