Current Events : American

The American prison system has grown tenfold in thirty years, while crime rates have been relatively flat: 2 million people are behind bars on any given day, more prisoners than in any other country in the world — half a million more than in Communist China, and the largest prison expansion the world has ever known. more...

Price: $16.00

As the economic crisis forces a new focus on long-term investment in institutions, it is essential that we recognize the contributions of America’s great research universities to our national welfare. Though Americans and people throughout the world have become increasingly dependent upon American universities, few of us understand the extent to which they act as engines of change that affect our daily life. From discoveries that led to the laser, the global positioning system, the MRI, radar, and even Viagra, to predicting weather patterns, American research universities are one of our most essential sources of economic growth and social welfare. They have been a model of innovation throughout the world, and they can be used to solve the complex economic, social, scientific, technological, security, and medical problems that we face. In a transforming economic landscape, it is crucial that we support and nurture this powerful—yet underappreciated—national resource. more...

Price: $35.00

Bestselling author T. R. Reid guides a whirlwind tour ofsuccessful health care systems worldwide, revealing possible pathstoward U.S. reform. In The Healing of America, New York Times bestselling author T. R. Reid shows how all the otherindustrialized democracies have achieved something the UnitedStates can’t seem to do: provide health care for everybody at areasonable cost. In his global quest to find a possible prescription,Reid visits wealthy, free market, industrialized democracieslike our own—including France, Germany, Japan, the U.K.,and Canada—where he finds inspiration in example. Reidshares evidence from doctors, government officials, health careexperts, and patients the world over, finding that foreign healthcare systems give everybody quality care at an affordable cost.And that dreaded monster “socialized medicine”turns out to be a myth. Many developed countries provideuniversal coverage with private doctors, private hospitals, andprivate insurance. In addition to long-established systems, Reid alsostudies countries that have carried out major health carereform. The first question facing these countries—and theUnited States, for that matter—is an ethical issue: Is healthcare a human right? Most countries have already answered witha resolute yes, leaving the United States in the murky moralbackwater with nations we typically think of as far less just thanour own. The Healing of America lays bare the moral questionat the heart of our troubled system, dissecting the misleadingrhetoric surrounding the health care debate. Reid sees problemselsewhere, too: He finds poorly paid doctors in Japan, endlesslines in Canada, mistreated patients in Britain, spartan facilitiesin France. Still, all the other rich countries operate at a lowercost, produce better health statistics, and cover everybody.In the end, The Healing of America is a good news book: Itfinds models around the world that Americans can borrow toguarantee health care f more...

Price: $25.95

Newsbreaking and controversial -- an award-winning investigative journalist uncovers the thirty-year relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saud and explains its impact on American foreign policy, business, and national security. more...

Price: $15.00

The Culture Wars Are Over and the Idiots Have Won A veteran journalist's acidically funny, righteously angry lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States. In the midst of a career-long quest to separate the smart from the pap, Charles Pierce had a defining moment at the Creation Museum in Kentucky, where he observed a dinosaur. more...

Price: $26.00