The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk - Susan McDougal - Hardcover: 336 pages. From Publishers Weekly: "There were four people who knew what went on in Whitewater," McDougal explains in her wry memoir (cowritten with a close friend and legal advisor). "Two of them were in the White House," and not about to talk, while McDougal's ex-husband, Jim, lacked credibility, leaving her as the sole credible witness.

The problem was that nobody in the media or the office of independent counsel Ken Starr wanted to hear what she had to say: that Whitewater was just "a stupid land deal that went bad," and the McDougals weren't all that close to the Clintons anyway.

McDougal offers up her full life story, including an Arkansas childhood and the raunchy antics of the Clinton-run statehouse, and details her turbulent marriage to Jim McDougal, exacerbated by his long-undiagnosed manic-depression. But she knows that readers want to learn about-her experiences being grilled, then jailed for contempt for refusing to give Starr his smoking gun-and she lays on the horrific details with righteous fury.

The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked, September 11, 2001 - Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed - Paperback: 400 pages. Amazon Book Description: A disturbing expose' of the American government's hidden agenda, before and after the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks. A wide range of documents show U.S. officials knew in advance of the "Boeing bombing" plot, yet did nothing. Did the attacks fit in with plans for a more aggressive U.S. foreign policy?

Nafeez Ahmed examines the evidence, direct and circumstantial, and lays it before the public in chilling detail: how FBI agents who uncovered the hijacking plot were muzzled, how CIA agents trained Al Qaeda members in terror tactics, how the Bush family profited from its business connections to the Bin Ladens, and from the Afghan war. A "must read" for anyone seeking to understand America's New War on Terror.

Buck Up, Suck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up - by James Carville and Paul Begala - Hardcover: 224 pages. Even if you fervently disagree with the party bias they tout proudly and often, you probably concur that Democratic political consultants Paul Begala and James Carville know what it takes to craft a winning strategy. In Buck Up, Suck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up, the two lay out 12 of the rules they developed while separately and jointly masterminding some of the hottest political races in recent years.

And with entertaining and enlightening behind-the-scenes anecdotes drawn from both effective and futile experiences along the campaign trail - most notably their work with Bill Clinton during his two presidential terms - Begala and Carville present a practical course that can be followed in business as well as politics.

"If the audience you're trying to reach is smaller than the one hundred million voters we spend our time trying to reach," they write, "we believe these lessons are even more important because your target audience is even more sophisticated, even more interested, even more up-to-the-minute."

Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush - by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose - Paperback: 193 pages. Amazon.com review: "Youthful political reporters are always told there are three ways to judge a politician," write Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose in Shrub. "The first is to look at the record. The second is to look at the record. And third, look at the record."

The record under scrutiny in this brief, informative book belongs to one George W. Bush - dubbed "Shrub" by Ivins - governor of Texas and 2000 presidential hopeful. These two veteran journalists know how politics are played in Texas and they've done their homework, writing a comprehensive examination of Bush's professional and political life that's a lively read, to boot.

And if the title alone doesn't convey their particular slant, perhaps the following caveat from the introduction will: "If, at the end of this short book, you find W. Bush's political resume' a little light, don't blame us. There's really not much there. We have been looking for six years."

Beginning with his admission to the Texas National Guard during the Vietnam War (where he bypassed a waiting list of about 100,000), the authors go on to deconstruct his losing congressional bid, his failed career as an oil executive, and his role as managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, revealing how he was helped every step of the way by wealthy and influential friends of the family.

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High Finance Fraudsters - by Greg Palast - Hardcover: 224 pages. Vincent Bugliosi, author of "None Dare Call it Treason and "Helter Skelter" writes: "Palast is astonishing, he gets the real evidence no one else has the guts to dig up."

C-Span TV calls Palast "The last of the great journalists." Alan Colmes, Fox Television network says "He is America's journalist hero of the Internet." The Village Voice, May 24, 2002 review: "...his book provides a road map for other journalists...Let's hope more DIY muckrakers heed the call."

Made In Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics - by Michael Lind - Hardcover: 224 pages. From Publishers Weekly: Lind (The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics) delves deep into the heart of George W. Bush's Texas, and what he finds may give moderates pause and send liberals scurrying.

According to Lind (a fifth-generation Texan), the politics of West Texas are steeped in racism, environmental exploitation, jingoistic militarism, crony capitalism, an anti-public education bias and a fundamentalist evangelicalism inconsistent with the separation of church and state.

About President Bush's relation to these beliefs, Lind in part merely implies it by association, saying, "Cultural geography is of little use in analyzing the personalities of politicians-but it is indispensable in understanding their politics." However, Lind argues, with considerable verve, that the constellation of political beliefs embodying Bush-style politics is designed to exploit the nation's natural and human resources for the benefit of a powerful oligarchy.

According to Lind, Bush's election translates to the "capture... of the vast power of the federal apparatus by Southern reactionaries...." and is "a threat to the peace and well-being not only of America but of the world."

Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush - by Paul Begala - Paperback: 160 pages. James Carville says, "Every Democrat should memorize this book, every Independent should read it, and every Republican should fear it."

Book Description: He was a poor student who somehow got into the finest schools. He was a National Guardsman who somehow missed a year of service. He was a failed businessman who somehow was made rich. He was a minority investor who somehow was made managing partner of the Texas Rangers. He was a defeated politician who somehow was made governor. You can hardly blame him for expecting to inherit the White House.

"Is Our Children Learning?" examines the public life and public record of George W. Bush and reveals him for who he is: a man who presents the thinnest, weakest, least impressive record in public life of any major party nominee this century; a man who at every critical juncture has been propelled upward by the forces of wealth, privilege, status, and special interests who use his family's name for their private gain. A Texan, political analyst, strategist, and partisan, Paul Begala has written a devastating assessment of the Bush brand of politics.

War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know - by William Rivers Pitt with Scott Ritter - Paperback: 96 pages. Book Description: War on Iraq offers a balanced, non-partisan examination of the current debate in Washington and beyond.

In this shocking expose on the impending offensive against Iraq, activist, author, and teacher William Rivers Pitt sits down with former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter to expose the truth behind the hawkish rhetoric of the Bush administration. Ritter - ex-Marine, intelligence specialist, expert on Iraqi military strategy, and Gulf War veteran - dismantles the myths surrounding Saddam Hussein's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons capabilities while revealing the neo-conservative forces pushing the White House toward war.

During the seven years the inspections took place, Ritter and other inspectors were able to confirm that Iraq's chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs were effectively destroyed, counter to current White House claims. Pitt and Ritter also explain the lack of any plausible link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and highlight the absurdity of forcing democracy on a nation that has been divided for centuries.

The book closes with a stark forecast for American troops if a ground war ensues and urges the White House to seek a diplomatic solution. A complete listing of contact information for U.S. senators as well as outreach and activist resources is included.

The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder by Mark Crispin Miller - Paperback: 370 pages. From Publishers Weekly: Miller, a New York University professor of media studies, has fashioned a devastating compendium of President George W. Bush's grammatical gaffes, syntactical shipwrecks, mind-boggling malapropisms and simply dumb comments.

Page after page (after page) of quotations, suggests Miller, reveal that Bush is a man who, while not stupid, is prodigiously illiterate and woefully uneducated. Further, and compounding the problem, Bush could not care less about these shortcomings.

How then, Miller asks, and this is his larger concern, did someone in Miller's opinion so obviously unqualified to be president convince so many voters that he was? Miller's answer is, in a word, television: Bush succeeded on TV not despite his "utter superficiality," but because his superficiality blended seamlessly with the vacuous culture of the tube.

It was not simply that Bush's handlers were able to manipulate his image, attempting to construct out of his ignorance an anti-intellectual "good ole boy" persona, but that news professionals in the medium were all too willing to go along with this ploy.

They went along because the pundits of TV have become, according to Miller, increasingly right-wing, thus natural Bush allies, but also because they no longer care to talk about substance, preferring instead discussion of "likability" and other attributes of pure image.

We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives - by James Carville - Paperback: 183 pages. From Booklist: Despondent Democrats and lonely liberals will discover an arsenal of ammunition for election-year debates in the Ragin' Cajun's chatty, pointed survey of the differences between the Democratic and Republican Parties' visions of the U.S. and why these differences matter.

One can almost see the sneaky twinkle in Carville's eye-and the light reflecting off his skull-as he quotes GOP myths and debunks them, challenging antigovernment rhetoric with long lists of "Things Government Does Right," from the GI Bill and Head Start to the Clean Air Act, Meals-on-Wheels, and the earned income tax credit.

About a third of the book is devoted to rapid responses and extended answers to standard Republican rhetoric on the Reagan-Bush years, welfare, taxes, and the crimes of big government; other chapters cover jobs and income disparity, "family values" as a Democratic issue, education, health care, race, and what progressives can and should do.

For hungry readers, Carville includes a couple of recipes; for those who need a good laugh, he offers sidebars - e.g., top 10 lists, particularly ludicrous GOP statements-and a brief transcript of his guest spot on an imaginary Sunday morning chat show called "Press the Meat." Fast, funny, energizing: expect requests. - Mary Carroll

The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President - by Vincent Bugliosi, Molly Ivins (Foreword), Gerry Spence - Paperback: 164 pages. From Publishers Weekly: On December 12th, 2000, in a 5-4 decision, the U. S. Supreme Court put an end to the recounting of presidential votes in Florida, thus assuring that George W. Bush would win the election.

This action by the Court's majority, argues trial lawyer and bestselling author Bugliosi, was a "judicial coup d'etat" that stole the election from U.S. citizens and simply handed the presidency over to the Court's guy, a conservative Republican like themselves.

It was also treasonous, asserts Bugliosi, if not by statute it does not fit the legal definition of treason at least in spirit; the five justices are "criminals in the very truest sense of the word," he says, who have exhibited "the morals of an alley cat."

The Florida recount, claimed the Court, was invalid because it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment; as different counties used different methods for determining voter intent, voters were being treated unequally.

Bugliosi argues, in precise yet accessible language, on page after page, that this justification does not stand up to scrutiny; that it is an incorrect and unprecedented use of the equal protection clause, feebly applied and argued, and was simply the best excuse the Court majority could come up with.

Bugliosi, perhaps best known as the author of Helter Skelter, often writes with the subtlety of a professional wrestler, but here he diverges from much of the outrage that passes for political commentary these days by backing up his bluster with careful legal analysis.

Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative - by David Brock - Hardcover: 288 pages. Amazon.com review: David Brock made his name (and big money) by trashing Anita Hill as "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty." But it was Brock's reporting that was nutty and slutty, he confesses in the riveting memoir Blinded by the Right.

He absolves Hill; claims he helped Clarence Thomas threaten another witness into backing down; portrays a ghastly right-wing Clinton-bashing conspiracy of hypocrites, zillionaires, and maniacs; and accuses himself of being "a witting cog in the Republican sleaze machine."

Now Brock is sliming his former fellows-everyone from the lawyer who argued the Bush v. Gore case to gonzo pundits Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham ("the only person I knew who didn't appear to own a book or regularly read a newspaper") to Matt Drudge and Tom Wolfe. Brock excoriates the gay hypocrites of the right wing, including himself, and tells how he cleverly spun his own outing.

It's Still the Economy, Stupid: George W. Bush, The GOP's CEO - by Paul Begala - Paperback: 208 pages. Tom Daschle Senate Leader wrote: "Paul Begala is one Texan who really understands the economy. It's Still the Economy, Stupid is a good read that makes great sense."

Book Description: When he took office in 2001, George W. Bush inherited the strongest economy in American history. He inherited the largest federal budget surplus in American history - and the prospect of paying off the entire national debt in just eight years. He inherited a strong dollar and sound fiscal policy. He inherited a nation whose economy was so strong that commentators who just a decade before were predicting American decline were now complaining about American dominance.

And yet, Dubya blew it. Squandered everything he'd inherited from President Clinton. We thought if Junior was good at anything, it was inheriting things. It's Still the Economy, Stupid is the story of how America's CEO - our first MBA president - has trashed our economy.

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press - by Kristina Borjesson (Editor), Gore Vidal (Foreword) - Hardcover: 392 pages. From Library Journal: Significant stories by investigative reporters do not always reach the air or find their way into print; some of them get caught in "the buzzsaw" that rips through both their reporting and their reputations.

Borjesson, an Emmy Award-winning reporter, pulls together 18 essays written by journalists who have either personally experienced this buzzsaw or who have closely observed the media industry. Her own reporting on TWA Flight 800 for CBS made her a target of the FBI, who interfered with her investigative work. She was harassed, her computer and reporter's notebook were stolen, and in the end CBS fired her. The experience changed her perception of the media establishment.

Her colleagues here detail accounts of their own buzzsaw encounters covering such stories as Florida's voting in the recent presidential election, Tailwind, a massacre during the Korean War, and CIA involvement with the drug trade.

A biographical sketch precedes each piece. This book would have benefited from a more substantial introduction to provide adequate context, but Robert McChesney's closing essay on the history of professional journalism does underscore the fragile state of reporting. Recommended for all academic journalism collections and public libraries where media books circulate well. Judy Solberg, George Washington Univ. Lib., Washington, DC

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters - by Greg Palast - Updated Paperback: 368 pages. The Village Voice wrote: "The guts for [Michael] Moore's screed on the 2000 election came from Greg Palast."

Book Description: Award-winning investigative journalist Greg Palast digs deep to unearth the ugly facts that few reporters working anywhere in the world today have the courage or ability to cover. From East Timor to Waco, he has exposed some of the most egregious cases of political corruption, corporate fraud, and financial manipulation in the US and abroad.

His uncanny investigative skills as well as his no-holds-barred style have made him an anathema among magnates on four continents and a living legend among his colleagues and his devoted readership.

Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden - by Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie, Wayne Madsen, Lucy Rounds (Translator) - Paperback: 208 pages. From Booklist: There's been a lot of prepublication buzz about this book, especially on the Web.

A best-seller in Europe and banned in Switzerland (because of a bin Laden lawsuit), this first American edition links the events of September 11 to pipeline politics, especially as practiced by the Bush administration. Although these sorts of charges have been made in a general way, the authors have collected a great deal of information, all footnoted.

Investigating for three years, Brisard and Dusquie were able to follow the dots along a "parallel diplomacy" in which the private negotiations of oil tycoons, religious extremists, international financiers, and American politicians had little to do with the U.S.' best interests.

The book is not particularly easy on the Clinton administration; however, especially incriminating is the authors' claim that FBI counterterror chief John O'Neil quit his job to become security head at the Twin Towers, where he died, because of his frustrations with the Bush administration's willingness to accommodate the Taliban (and bin Laden) for the sake of the pipeline.

Considering how complicated the material is, this book is surprisingly easy to follow. It could wind up as the first 9/11 book for conspiracy theorists or as the story behind the story. Maybe both. - Ilene Cooper

The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda - by Paul David Wellstone - Hardcover: 256 pages. From Publishers Weekly: Minnesota Senator Wellstone opens this memoir with his attendance at the funeral service of archconservative Barry Goldwater. Wellstone was there because as a boy he had read Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative.

Paradoxically, he credits his admiration for Goldwater's political integrity with providing the moral basis for his own liberalism. And he is very liberal, indeed. After reading this lucid and personal book, however, even those of opposite views would find it hard not to admire him. Wellstone presents two propositions.

The first, that integrity in politics is essential, will be widely applauded. The second, that liberal political values reflect mainstream American values, will receive a mixed reception.

At the core of this account is Wellstone's desire to mobilize voters to organize around issues he believes important to the country's well-being. The litany of societal problems addressed is broad and includes health care, education and testing, economic justice (welfare reform) and campaign finance reform.

About each, Wellstone provides cogent and thought-provoking facts, figures and expert opinions, as well as personal stories that humanize the damage and loss of human potential he sees flowing from current public policies. He also offers solutions consistent with his view that government is capable of making a positive difference.

Grand Theft 2000: Media Spectacle and a Stolen Election - by Douglas Kellner - Paperback: 256 pages. From Publishers Weekly: Kellner (Television and the Crisis of Democracy) originally planned a chapter on the 2000 election in another book but expanded it in light of the postelection drama.

The result is somewhat formless and unfocused, with an improvisational air as Kellner's shifting lens encompasses everything from direct reportage on the television spectacle to brief reflections on corporate media agendas, intriguing but neglected stories covered only in print or cyberspace, and various theoretical considerations and speculations.

Kellner, a professor of the philosophy of education at UCLA, develops a good number of interesting ideas, arguments and stories only enough to whet readers' appetites.

These range from the squalid (understudied scandals of the Bush clan dating back to Prescott's involvement financing Hitler) to the crucial (how Gore was tarred as a liar for substantially truthful claims, while Bush's distortions were repeated as gospel) to the abstract (how do conservative denunciations of relativism and postmodern views of "truth" square with the Republicans' relentless attack on the classic search for truth embodied in counting votes?).

Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle Against Corporate Media (Open Media Series) - by John Nichols, Robert Waterman McChesney, and Noam Chomsky - Paperback: 140 pages. Book Description: Much of the U.S. media is consolidated in the hands of a few large companies, which results in journalism biased toward the corporate point of view, this book contends. The authors argue for local control, chronicle the rise of grassroots media activism, and conclude with a proposal for meaningful improvement.

What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News - by Eric Alterman - Hardcover: 322 pages. From Publishers Weekly: While the idea that a liberal bias pervades the mainstream media has been around for years, it gained new currency with the 2001 publication of Bernard Goldberg's Bias and its 2002 successor, Ann Coulter's Slander.

Alterman (Sound & Fury; Who Speaks for America?; etc.) now seeks to debunk the notion and goes so far as to argue that bastions of alleged liberalism like the Washington Post and ABC News "have grown increasingly cowed by false complaints of liberal bias and hence, progressively more sympathetic to the most outlandish conservative complaints."

He largely succeeds: whatever your politics, Alterman delivers well-documented, well-argued research in compulsively readable form. His chapter on business journalism, for instance, is a thrill-ride through the excesses of late 1990s optimism and the subsequent crash in stock valuations and mood. But he also counters that while the economy was peaking, major media outlets virtually ignored traditional left-wing issues like labor rights, which had been neglected, and income inequality, which was growing.

Spin This! : All the Ways We Don't Tell the Truth - by Bill Press - Hardcover: 320 pages. Book Description: We're all familiar with the warning, "Don't believe everything you see or hear." Bill Press, the popular co-host of CNN's Crossfire, will have you wondering whether you should believe anything at all.

Spin - intentional manipulation of the truth - is everywhere. It's in the White House, in the courtrooms, in headlines and advertising slogans. Even couples on dates - not to mention book jackets - are guilty of spin. Now, analyst Bill Press freeze-frames the culture of spin to investigate what exactly spin is, who does it and why, and its impact on American society as a whole.

Depending upon who is doing it, spinning can mean anything from portraying a difficult situation in the best possible light to completely disregarding the facts with the intent of averting embarrassment or scandal. Using examples drawn from recent history - the Clinton presidency, the Florida recount, and the Bush White House - Press first probes spin's favorite haunt: politics.

In addition to surveying the incarnations of spin in the fields of journalism, law, and advertising, Press also chews on the spin of sex and "dating," a word that has become the very embodiment of spin. Perhaps surprisingly, however, Press argues that spin isn't all bad, and that without it the harsh truths of our times might be too tough to swallow.

The Emerging Democratic Majority - by John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira - Hardcover: 213 pages. From Publishers Weekly: In 1969 a prescient Kevin Phillips published The Emerging Republican Majority, predicting the rise of the conservative Republican movement. Now Judis, a senior editor at the New Republic, and Teixeira, a fellow at the Century Foundation and author of The Disappearing American Voter, argue that, if current demographic and political trends continue, a new realignment of political power is inevitable, this time sweeping Democrats to power.

In support of their thesis they argue that the electorate is becoming increasingly diverse, with growing Asian, Hispanic and African-American populations-all groups that tend to vote Democratic. On the other hand, the number of white Americans, the voting population most likely to favor Republicans, remains static. Further, according to the authors, America's transition from an industrial to a postindustrial economy is also producing voters who trend strongly Democratic.

Judis and Teixeira coin the word "ideopolis" for the geographic areas where the postindustrial economy thrives. They also argue that other changes, specifically the growing educated professional class and the continuing "gender gap," will benefit Democrats, whose political ideology is more consonant with the needs and beliefs of women and professionals.

Judis and Teixeira predict that all these elements will converge by 2008, at the latest, when a new Democratic majority will emerge. Wisely, they warn that their predictions are just that, and that events might overtake the trends. But their warning will bring little comfort to Republicans, who will find their well-supported thesis disturbing. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bush v. Gore: The Court Cases and the Commentary - by E. J. Dionne et al - Paperback: 288 pages. Book Description: The Five Week Recount War that followed the 2000 presidential election generated tumultuous debate in the courts of justice as well as the court of public opinion. This debate engaged fundamental issues of the democratic process, including obligations of fairness and equality and the roles of elected bodies and the courts in interpreting and vindicating the Constitution.

Bush v. Gore captures this historic conversation by gathering the landmark legal cases from the Supreme Court of Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court along with the best editorial commentary from prominent journalists and scholars on both sides of the political divide.

Contributors include: George F. Will, Scott Turow, Griffin Bell, Lani Guinier, Charles Krauthammer, Jesse L. Jackson and John J. Sweeney, David Tell, Thomas L. Friedman, Michael McConnell, Hendrik Hertzberg, Ramesh Ponnuru, Akhil Reed Amar, John Yoo, Linda Greenhouse, Nelson Lund, Pamela S. Karlan and others.

Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights - by Thom Hartmann - Hardcover: 320 pages - Book Description: "Beneath the success and rise of American enterprise is an untold history that is antithetical to every value Americans hold dear. This is a seminal work, a godsend really, a clear message to every citizen about the need to reform our country, laws, and companies." - Paul Hawken, author of Natural Capitalism and The Ecology of Commerce.

Unequal taxes, unequal accountability for crime, unequal influence, unequal privacy, and unequal access to natural resources and our commons - these inequalities and more are the effects of corporations winning the rights of persons while simultaneously being given the legal protections to avoid the responsibilities that come with these rights.

Hartmann tells the intriguing story of how it got this way - from the colonists' rebellion against the commercial interests of the British elite to the distorted application of the Fourteenth Amendment - and how to get back to a government of, by, and for the people.

From Unequal Protection: "...over the past two centuries, those playing the corporate game at the very highest levels seem to have won a victory for themselves - a victory that is turning bitter in the mouths of many of the six billion humans on planet Earth. It's even turning bitter in unexpected ways for those who won it, as they find their own lives and families touched by an increasingly toxic environment, fragile and top-heavy economy, and hollow culture - all traceable back to the frenetic systems of big business that resulted from the doctrine that corporations are persons."

A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights - by Jesse L., Jr. Jackson, et al - Hardcover: 420 pages. From Publishers Weekly; After coauthoring the recent Legal Lynching with his father (Forecasts, Aug. 13), Congressman Jackson takes the lead in this book written with his press secretary, laying out his moral and political vision.

The first, autobiographical section serves as an introduction to his historical review of how race and states' rights have been intertwined both in theory and practice. Jackson sees "race as the lens through which to see all of American history," but economics and sectional politics are the substance.

From colonial times to the present, Jackson stresses both the contradictions within Southern conservative ideology (such as Southern states-righters' insistence on federal fugitive slave laws) and its consistencies across time (small local government, low taxes, economic underdevelopment and opposition to providing broad economic opportunities for all), which have opposed progress toward a more perfect union, hitting blacks the hardest, but hitting an even larger number of poor, working-class and even middle-class whites.

The contrasting struggle for broadly shared economic development, political power and personal freedom can best be advanced, Jackson argues, by adopting eight new, benchmark-setting constitutional amendments, guaranteeing rights primarily grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the U.S. has ratified.

Each is treated in a separate chapter: the rights to quality health care, housing, education, a clean environment, fair taxes, full employment, equality for women and the right to vote. Though occasionally rough and repetitious, the book's breadth, boldness and candor stirringly challenge conventional political timidity.

UP FROM CONSERVATISM - by Michael Lind - Paperback: 304 pages. From Publishers Weekly: Lind is perhaps the most prominent convert from 1980s neoconservatism. Though his book only occasionally dips into his personal story, it is a powerful attack on conservatives who, he says, use "the culture war, a revival of racism and radical antigovernment rhetoric" to distract voters from the realities of their own economic exploitation.

Lind's language is strong, and he has much ammunition. The most damaging conservative hoax of recent years, he argues, is supply-side economics, which led to our current deficit, "the central fact of American politics today." He also critiques proposals for school vouchers, tax policies that shift burdens to the middle class and proposals to cut welfare, noting the much larger "Hidden Welfare State" of programs such as mortgage subsidies.

It is too late to rescue American conservatism from the radical right, he declares, pointing out the surprising sympathy conservatives have for antigovernment hate groups. Lind doesn't dwell on attacking the left; he did that in The Next American Nation. Given that few politicos today espouse the "national liberalism" he propounds a centrist populism that unites moderate social conservatism with economic class warfare. Lind urges his readers to support neoliberals such as President Clinton.

Anatomy of Greed: The Unshredded Truth from an Enron Insider - by Brian Cruver - Hardcover: 366 pages. From Library Journal: Having received his MBA degree in 1999, Cruver was hired by Enron in late March 2001 to be part of a bankruptcy-trading group. Through Cruver, we see how a typical Enron employee viewed the company's dramatic collapse. He talks about the initial concerns when CEO Jeff Skilling resigned, worries of layoffs as new falsifications of financial statements came to light, and the idle days of going to work after most operations had ceased.

Although expressing resentment at the millions made by top executives, he writes with a wry sense of humor. He tells how, even after he was fired, Enron accidentally kept paying him for months. He also recounts that when he was first hired, some employees jokingly referred to Enron as the "Crooked E," supposedly because of its slanted-E logo.

The book's title is deceptive in that the author was an insider only in the sense that he worked for Enron. Except for one unidentified source, most of the book's information about Enron's fraudulent accounting practices came from public sources. Still, because Cruver's fast-paced book puts a human face on the many employees hurt by the Enron and similar scandals, it is recommended for most business collections. - Lawrence R. Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich - by Kevin Phillips - Hardcover: 432 pages. Amazon.com review: Most American conservatives take it as an article of faith that the less governmental involvement in affairs of the market and pocketbook the better. The rich do not, whatever they might say - for much of their wealth comes from the "power and preferment of government." So writes Kevin Phillips, the accomplished historian and one-time Washington insider, in this extraordinary survey of plutocracy, excess, and reform.

"Laissez-faire is a pretense," he argues; as the wealth of the rich has grown, so has its control over government, making politics a hostage of money. Examining cycles of economic growth and decline from the founding days of the republic to the recent collapse of technology stocks, Phillips dispels notions of trickle-down wealth creation, pricks holes in speculative bubbles, and decries the ever-increasing "financialization" of the economy - all of which, he argues, have served to reduce the well-being of ordinary Americans and government alike.

Highly readable for all its charts and graphs, Phillips's book offers a refreshing - and, of course, controversial - blend of economic history and social criticism. His conclusions won't please all readers, but just about everyone who comes to his pages will feel hackles rising. -- Gregory McNamee

The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath - by Kevin Phillips - Paperback: 288 pages. From Publishers Weekly: Blending economic analysis and historical comparisons, Phillips ( Mediacracy ) proposes that the legacy of Reagan's presidency includes an enormous concentration of wealth at the top, intensifying pain and inequality for the poor, a massive, mounting debt, and foreigners gobbling up large chunks of America. The losers in this economic polarization include women, racial minorities, young people, single-parent families.

Phillips demonstrates that deregulation has especially hurt organized labor, poorer city neighborhoods, people in small towns and rural areas. His analysis linking Reaganism to America's global loss of economic power is compelling.

While George Bush keeps "imitating Ike in the 1990s" and refuses to develop a national strategy, post-Reagan Democrats take the blame for failure to resuscitate liberal economic populism. A stunning refutation of George Gilder's Wealth and Poverty , Phillips's dispassionate report offers no solutions yet zeroes in on key problems.

Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media - DVD - Noam Chomsky - Amazon.com review: Peter Wintonick and Mark Achbar made this penetrating documentary about the career and views of linguist and media critic Noam Chomsky. While the man is the subject of the movie, the filmmakers wisely and carefully choose not to make Chomsky more important than his insights into the way print and electronic journalism tacitly and often willingly further the agendas of the powerful.

We learn a lot about Chomsky's formative experiences as a child, student, academic, activist, and politician (he has campaigned for office), but we learn just as much about the media institutions that deny him access today, from ABC to PBS. The centerpiece of the film, arguably, is a long examination into the history of the New York Times' coverage of Indonesia's atrocity-ridden occupation of East Timor, reportage that (as Chomsky shows us) was absolutely in lock step with the government's unwillingness to criticize an ally. --Tom Keogh Also available on VHS Tape.

The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage - by Martin Merzer, et al - Hardcover: 352 pages. Book Description: The Complete Investigation of the 2000 Presidential Election Including Results of the Independent Recount. The Miami Herald presents an in-depth study of Florida's 2000 presidential election, drawing on the independent vote review conducted by the accounting firm of B.D.O. Seidman, and answering the question that millions of Americans are still asking: If the Supreme Court hadn't halted the Florida recount, who would be the 43rd President?

Americans woke up on November 8, 2000 unsure who their next president would be. A population accustomed to knowing the outcome of electoral contests before the polls closed-and often much earlier than that-would endure another thirty six days of high-stakes political and legal maneuvering before the U.S. Supreme Court stopped recounts in the State of Florida, effectively sealing the race for Texas Governor George W. Bush.

[In this book] The Miami Herald, which won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Miami's corrupt 1997 mayoral elections, delves into the deeply flawed 2000 contest, revealing: That Florida election officials had known for decades that the state's obsolete punch-card ballots constituted a serious problem-yet 24 of the state's 67 counties still used them in 2000.

That not only were the motives of some public officials-entrusted with the fair outcome of the race-called into question, but also that Florida's Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, revealed in an email obtained by The Herald that she saw herself in Biblical terms as a defender of the unborn. That votes were uncounted in disproportionate numbers in poor and minority voting districts-and that many registered American voters were prevented from voting altogether....

Fools for Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater - by Gene Lyons - Paperback: 224 pages. From Library Journal: Lyons argues that Whitewater is basically a hoax created and sustained by the media. He singles out the New York Times for special attention and offers a detailed critique of its Whitewater coverage; four major stories from the Times are included in the appendix.

The partisan sources that journalists have relied on for their articles are documented here. Lyons, now a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a passionate and witty writer who has covered Whitewater for Harper's Magazine.

Although it is too early for the definitive Whitewater book, and recent convictions and new unindicted co-conspirators test his argument, Lyons offers details for those paying close attention to the case. Add to journalism collections and to libraries where books on current events circulate well. --Judy Solberg, George Washington Univ., Washington, D.C.

Arrogant Capital: Washington, Wall Street, and the Frustration of American Politics - by Kevin Phillips - Paperback: 290 pages. From Publishers Weekly: Decrying the influence of political and financial elites, veteran pundit Phillips ( The Emerging Republican Majority ) here attempts to channel the dissatisfactions of the general populace, as evinced on radio talk shows, into national reform.

"Capitals rot first," he declares, drawing briefly on such historical analogues as Hapsburg Spain and 18th-century Holland to buttress his argument that the current centers of American power, Washington and Wall Street, have sunk into decadence.

Echoing recent critiques like Jonathan Rauch's Demo sclerosis, he highlights a bipartisan support for the government status quo. While Phillips wisely focuses on governmental, not social reform, his generalization that conservatives blame cultural weakness while liberals underscore economic decline ignores the influence of more nuanced thinkers like Cornel West.

Among Phillips's better suggestions: move away from the two-party system by allowing referenda and considering proportional representation; raise taxes on the "really rich." Some problems, like the mercenary culture of lobbyists, may be less amenable to remedy by policy than by moral suasion, but Phillips sets an agenda for debate.