This New York Times bestseller is the hilarious philosophy course everyone wishes they d had in school Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors and born vaudevillians Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR s Weekend Edition . Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar . . . is a not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical thinkers and traditions, from Existentialism ( What do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common? ) to Logic ( Sherlock Holmes never deduced anything ). Philosophy 101 for those who like to take the heavy stuff lightly, this is a joy to read and finally, it all makes sense! Watch a QuickTime trailer for this book. ,

Party Influence in Congress challenges current arguments andevidence about the influence of political parties in the U.S.Congress. Steven S. Smith argues that theory must reflect policy,electoral, and collective party goals. These goals call forflexible party organizations and leadership strategies. They demandthat majority party leaders control the flow of legislation;package legislation and time action to build winning majorities andattract public support; work closely with a president of theirparty; and influence the vote choices for legislators. Smithobserves that the circumstantial evidence of party influence isstrong, multiple collective goals remain active ingredients afterparties are created, party size is an important factor in partystrategy, both negative and positive forms of influence areimportant to congressional parties, and the needle-in-the-haystacksearch for direct influence continues to prove frustrating.

Locked in the Cabinet is a close-up view of the way thingswork, and often don't work, at the highest levels ofgovernment--and a uniquely personal account by the man whose ideasinspired and animated much of the Clinton campaign of 1992 and whobecame the cabinet officer in charge of helping ordinary Americansget better jobs. Robert B. Reich, writer, teacher, socialcritic--and a friend of the Clintons since they were all in theirtwenties--came to be known as the "conscience of the Clintonadministration and one of the most successful Labor Secretaries inhistory. Here is his sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignantchronicle of trying to put ideas and ideals into practice. With wit, passion, and dead-aim honesty, Reich writes of those inWashington who possess hard heads and soft hearts, and those withexactly the opposite attributes. He introduces us to the careerbureaucrats who make Washington run and the politicians who, onoccasion, make it stop; to business tycoons and labor leaders whoclash by day an

A compelling and deeply felt exploration and defense ofliberalism: what it actually is, why it is relevant today, and howit can help our society chart a forward course. The Future of Liberalism represents the culmination of fourdecades of thinking and writing about contemporary politics by AlanWolfe, one of America’s leading scholars, hailed by one critic as“one of liberalism’s last and most loyal sons.” Wolfe mines thebedrock of the liberal tradition, explaining how Immanuel Kant,John Stuart Mill, John Dewey, and other celebrated minds helpedshape liberalism’s central philosophy. Wolfe also examines thosewho have challenged liberalism since its inception, fromJean-Jacques Rousseau to modern conservatives, religiousfundamentalists, and evolutionary theorists such as RichardDawkins. Drawing on both the inspiration and insights of seminal workssuch as John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, Adam Smith’sTheory of Moral Sentiments, Kant’s essay “What is Enlightenment?,”and Mil

“Uttering lines that send liberals into paroxysms of rage,otherwise known as ‘citing facts,’ is the spice of life. When I seethe hot spittle flying from their mouths and the veins bulging andpulsing above their eyes, well, that’s when I feel trulyalive.” So begins If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans, AnnCoulter’s funniest, most devastating, and, yes, most outrageousbook to date. Coulter has become the brightest star in the conservativefirmament thanks to her razor-sharp reasoning and biting wit. Ofcourse, practically any time she opens her mouth, liberal elitesdenounce Ann, insisting that “She’s gone too far!” and hopefullypredicting that this time it will bring a crashing end to hercareer. Now you can read all the quotes that have so outraged her enemiesand so delighted her legions of fans. More than just the definitivecollection of Coulterisms, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d BeRepublicans includes dozens of brand-new commentaries written byC

The ideas of US Air Force Colonel John Boyd have transformedAmerican military policy and practice. A first-rate fighter pilotand a self-taught scholar, he wrote the first manual on jet aerialcombat; spearheaded the design of both of the Air Force's premierfighters, the F-15 and the F-16; and shaped the tactics that savedlives during the Vietnam War and the strategies that won the GulfWar. Many of America's best-known military and political leadersconsulted Boyd on matters of technology, strategy, andtheory. In The Mind of War, Grant T. Hammond offers the first completeportrait of John Boyd, his groundbreaking ideas, and his enduringlegacy. Based on extensive interviews with Boyd and those who knewhim as well as on a close analysis of Boyd's briefings, thisintellectual biography brings the work of an extraordinary thinkerto a broader public.

Reagan’s War is the story of Ronald Reagan’s personaland political journey as an anti-communist, from his early days asan actor to his years in the White House. Challenging popularmisconceptions of Reagan as an empty suit who played only a passiverole in the demise of the Soviet Union, Peter Schweizer detailsReagan’s decades-long battle against communism. Bringing to light previously secret information obtained fromarchives in the United States, Germany, Poland, Hungary, andRussia—including Reagan’s KGB file—Schweizer offers a compellingcase that Reagan personally mapped out and directed his war againstcommunism, often disagreeing with experts and advisers. Anessential book for understanding the Cold War, Reagan’s War should be read by open-minded readers across the politicalspectrum.

Revival is the dramatic inside story of the definingperiod of the Obama White House. It is an epic tale that followsthe president and his inner circle from the crisis of defeat tohistoric success. Over the span of an extraordinary two months inthe life of a young presidency, Obama and his senior aides engagedin a desperate struggle for survival that stands as the measure ofwho they are and how they govern. Bestselling Obama biographer Richard Wolffe draws on unrivaledaccess to the West Wing to write a natural sequel to his criticallyacclaimed book about the president and his campaign. He traces anarc from near death to resurrection that is a repeated pattern forObama, first as a candidate and now as president. Starting at thefirst anniversary of the inauguration, Wolffe paints a portrait ofa White House at work under exceptional strain across a sweepingset of challenges: from health care reform to a struggling economy,from two wars to terrorism. Revival is a road map to understanding the dynamics,cha

In his final book, completed just before his death, Edward W.Said offers impassioned pleas for the beleaguered Palestinian causefrom one of its most eloquent spokesmen. These essays, whichoriginally appeared in Cairo’s Al-Ahram Weekly, London’s Al-Hayat,and the London Review of Books, take us from the Oslo Accordsthrough the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, and present information andperspectives too rarely visible in America. Said is unyielding in his call for truth and justice. He insistson truth about Israel's role as occupier and its treatment of thePalestinians. He pleads for new avenues of communication betweenprogressive elements in Israel and Palestine. And he is equallyforceful in his condemnation of Arab failures and the need for realleadership in the Arab world.

The former president's personal tale of political intrigue andsocial conflict during his first campaign for public office.Iluminates the origins of his commitment to human rights and bearsfurther witness to the accomplishments of an extraordinary man.

A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, agroundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plansand the Western intelligence failures that culminated in theassault on America. Lawrence Wright’s remarkable book is based onfive years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conductedin Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England,France, Germany, Spain, and the United States. The Looming Tower achieves an unprecedented level of intimacy andinsight by telling the story through the interweaving lives of fourmen: the two leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Aymanal-Zawahiri; the FBI’s counterterrorism chief, John O’Neill; andthe former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turkial-Faisal. As these lives unfold, we see revealed: the crosscurrents ofmodern Islam that helped to radicalize Zawahiri and bin Laden . . .the birth of al-Qaeda and its unsteady development into anorganization capable of the American embassy bombings in Kenya andTanza

For nearly twenty years, Aaron David Miller has played acentral role in U.S. efforts to broker Arab-Israeli peace as anadvisor to presidents, secretaries of state, and national securityadvisors. Without partisanship or finger-pointing, Miller recordswhat went right, what went wrong, and how we got where we aretoday. Here is a look at the peace process from a place at thenegotiation table, filled with behind-the-scenes strategy, colorfulanecdotes and equally colorful characters, and new interviews withpresidents, secretaries of state, and key Arab and Israelileaders. Honest, critical, and often controversial, Miller’s insider’saccount offers a brilliant new analysis of the problem ofArab-Israeli peace and how it still might be solved.

In The Fatal Englishman, his first work of nonfiction,Sebastian Faulks explores the lives of three remarkable men. Eachhad the seeds of greatness; each was a beacon to his generation andleft something of value behind; yet each one died tragicallyyoung. Christopher Wood, only twenty-nine when he killed himself, was apainter who lived most of his short life in the beau monde of 1920sParis, where his charm, good looks, and the dissolute life thatfollowed them sometimes frustrated his ambition and achievement asan artist. Richard Hillary was a WWII fighter pilot who wrote a classicaccount of his experiences, The Last Enemy, but died in a mysterious trainingaccident while defying doctor’s orders to stay grounded afterhorrific burn injuries; he was twenty-three. Jeremy Wolfenden, hailed by his contemporaries as the brightestEnglishman of his generation, rejected the call of academia to become a hackjournalist in Cold War Moscow. A spy, alcoholic, and openhomosexual at a time when su

“Nearly forty years after I first got involved, I remaincaptivated by the possibilities of politics and public service. Infact, I believe that my chosen profession is a noble calling.That’s why I wanted to be a part of it.” –Joe Biden As a United States senator from Delaware since 1973, Joe Biden hasbeen an intimate witness to the major events of the past fourdecades and a relentless actor in trying to shape recent Americanhistory. He has seen up close the tragic mistake of the VietnamWar, the Watergate and Iran-contra scandals, the fall of the BerlinWall, the reunification of Germany, the disintegration of theSoviet Union, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, a presidentialimpeachment, a presidential resignation, and a presidentialelection decided by the Supreme Court. He’s observed Nixon, Ford,Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and two Bushes wrestling with thepresidency; he’s traveled to war zones in Europe, the Middle East,and Africa and seen firsthand the devastation of genocide. Heplayed a vital role

In the era of Kennedy and Khrushchev, power was expressed interms of nuclear missiles, industrial capacity, numbers of menunder arms, and tanks lined up ready to cross the plains of EasternEurope. By 2010, none of these factors confer power in the sameway: industrial capacity seems an almost Victorian virtue, andcyber threats are wielded by non-state actors. Politics changed,and the nature of power—defined as the ability to affect others toobtain the outcomes you want—had changed dramatically. Power is notstatic; its story is of shifts and innovations, technologies andrelationships. Joseph Nye is a long-time analyst of power and a hands-onpractitioner in government. Many of his ideas have been at theheart of recent debates over the role America should play in theworld: his concept of "soft power" has been adopted by leaders fromBritain to China; "smart power” has been adopted as thebumper-sticker for the Obama Administration’s foreign policy. Thisbook is the summation of his work, as relevant to gene