USEFUL IDIOTS
CLASS WARFARE
THE RULE OF LAWYERS
THE TWO FACES OF ISLAM

THE SAVAGE NATION
Author: Michael Savage
Publisher: WND Books
December 2002

>From the Publisher
America is hungry for a book that reinforces patriotism, family, and traditional American values. Radio talk show host Michael Savage argues this viewpoint offering an insightful approach to reclaiming and preserving the nation's heritage.

Michael Savage attacks big government and liberal media bias. The son of immigrants, Savage shows how traditional American freedoms are being destroyed from the outside and undermined from within-not just our own government, but also from alien forces within our own society. Savage argues that if the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, then only a more "savage nation" will enjoy these liberties. Savage's high ratings and the rapid growth of his program prove he is in touch with the concerns of the average American.

***********

USEFUL IDIOTS:
How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First
Author: Mona Charen
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
March 2003

>From the Publisher
In Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First, Mona Charen holds liberals accountable - and reveals the horrifying crimes that these liberals helped defend and cover up for the Communists.

Meet the "useful idiots":
Jane Fonda, Dan Rather, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, and all the other liberals who were - and are - always willing to blame America first and defend its enemies as simply "misunderstood." These are the liberals who flocked to Castro's Cuba and called it paradise, just as a previous generation of liberals visited the Soviet Union and proclaimed its glorious future. They are the liberals who saw Communist Vietnam and Cambodia - in fact, Communism everywhere - as generally a beneficial force, and blamed America as a gross, blind, and blundering giant.

Now that the Cold War has been won, these liberals, amazingly, are proud to claim credit for the victory - conveniently forgetting their apologies for the Communists and their spluttering attacks on Cold Warriors like Ronald Reagan.

But nationally syndicated columnist Mona Charen isn't about to let them rewrite history.

**********

CLASS WARFARE:
Besieged Schools, Bewildered Parents, Betrayed Kids and the Attack on Excellence
Author: J. Martin Rochester
Publisher: Encounter Books
June 2002

Synopsis
Rochester (political science, U. of Missouri-St. Louis) has spent years as a parent and educator grappling with the shifting regulations being applied to American public schools. In this volume he describes in detail the origins and theory behind these policies-including block scheduling, the replacement of academic with non-academic activities, and the professional development center movement-offering a fervent critique of the many ways in which American education has come to value equity over achievement. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR

>From The Critics
Library Journal
Straightforward and hard-hitting, Rochester (Between Two Epochs: What's Ahead for America, the World, and Global Politics in the 21st Century), a political scientist who has spent 30 years teaching and writing about international relationships, takes on America's K-to-12 public education. He highlights an inadequate emphasis on academics in the schools and a systemic collapse of standards. Through a firsthand account, he seeks to encourage readers to get involved as parents and to become informed critics of a system in which nonacademic diversions crowd out academic study and subordinate a commitment to excellence to an obsession with "equity." In that regard, his discussion of the move from merit-based ability grouping toward heterogeneous grouping and lowest-common-denominator education is a model of clarity and critical thinking. Those who enjoyed Diane Ravitch's Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms or Sam Wineburg's Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts will be engaged by Rochester's well-documented argument. Highly recommended for education collections in academic and public libraries.

**************

THE RULE OF LAWYERS:
How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law
Author: Walter K. Olson
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
December 2002

>From the Publisher
Big-ticket litigation is a way of life in this country. But something new is afoot-something typified by the $246 billion tobacco settlement, and by courtroom assaults that have followed against industries ranging from HMOs to gunmakers, from lead paint manufacturers to "factory farms." Each massive class-action suit seeks to invent new law, to ban or tax or regulate something that elected lawmakers had chosen to leave alone. And each time the new process works as intended, the new litigation elite reaps billions in fees-which they invest in fresh rounds of suits, as well as political contributions.

The Rule of Lawyers asks: Who picks these lawyers, and who can fire them? Who protects the public's interest when settlements are negotiated behind closed doors? Where are our elected lawmakers in all this? The answers may determine whether we slip from the rule of law to the rule of lawyers. Author Biography: Walter K. Olson is the author of The Litigation Explosion. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, Olson has written on law and lawyers for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, City Journal, and others. He lives and works in Chappaqua, NY.

**********

TWO FACES OF ISLAM:
The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror
Author: Stephen Schwarz
Publisher: Doubleday
October 2002

>From the Publisher
In this informed, compelling exploration of Moslem beliefs and of the sectarian conflicts within the community, a Jewish historian paints a sympathetic portrait of mainstream Islam and exposes the centuries-old roots of Osama bin Laden's extremism.

The difficult, protracted war against terrorism has raised unsettling questions about the nature of Islam and its influence on America's declared enemies. In The Two Faces of Islam, Stephen Schwartz, who has devoted years to the study of Islam, explains its complex history and describes the profound philosophical and religious differences that distinguish traditional beliefs from the radical sects that have sprung up over the past fifteen hundred years. He focuses on Wahhabism, the puritanical sect to which Osama bin Laden belongs. Founded in the eighteenth century by a radical cleric, this intolerant "Islamo-fascist" sect became the official creed of the Saudi Arabian state and has been exported to Moslem countries from the Balkans to the Philippines, as well as to Islamic communities in Western Europe and the United States.

By setting the current upheavals within an historical and religious context, Schwartz demonstrates that Osama bin Laden and his followers are not really fighting a war against America. Rather, they are engaged in a revolution within Islam itself-a movement that parallels the turmoil within Christianity during the sixteenth century. Schwartz not only exposes the collusion of the Saudi Arabian government in the spread of radical Islam (which makes them at best reluctant allies of the West), he shows that the majority of Moslems have little sympathy for the Wahhabis and thatmany openly denounce their motivations and goals.

A riveting narrative that never smacks of propaganda, The Two Faces of Islam is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand who we are fighting, what our enemies believe, and who our friends in the Moslem world really are.

Author Biography: Stephen Schwartz, an author and journalist, has reported on religious affairs in the Balkans and other areas around the world for many years. He was on the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle, worked as a reporter for the Weekly Forward, and is currently a news writer at Voice of America. He lives in Washington, D.C.