Articles tagged with book-reviews

The new book “A Promise in Haiti” focuses on three families and puts meat on the bones of a nation most of the world sees as just a carcass.

In the new book “Out of Practice,” a primary care physician tells why he quit his practice and why the care of 78 million aging baby boomers can’t be left to specialists.

Like other great figures, new writings about Mohandas Gandhi tell us something about the subject but perhaps more about our times.

Social critic Peter Corning argues for a new social structure based on equality, equity and reciprocity in his new book “The Fair Society.”

Carl Cranor’s book “Legally Poisoned” says lax, outdated law puts Americans at risk from untested industrial chemicals.

“Academically Adrift,” a new book on the failures of higher education, finds that undergrads don’t study, and professors don’t make them.

New books “Self Comes to Mind” and “On Second Thought” examine the origins of consciousness, and the unconscious pulls that influence our behavior.

Susan Herman, author of “Parallel Justice for Victims of Crimes,” wonders what if society did not see its help for victims as mere compassion or charity, but a core societal obligation?

The author of “China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know” examines the current crop of books aiming to open Western eyes to China in this “post-post-Cold War Era.”

“Stretched Thin,” “Both Hands Tied,” and “The War on Welfare” are three new books that highlight welfare reform’s failure to address the enduring poverty of single mothers and their children.

What good is a high SAT score if you make a mess of your life? For a possible answer, peer into Robert Sternberg’s book, “College Admissions for the 21st Century.”

Nancy Baron’s new book is an excellent guide for academic researchers on how to effectively communicate with the press, public and policymakers.

A new book, “Just Give Money to the Poor,” says the poor will spend the cash wisely and boost the economy, too.

A new book, “The Enemy In Our Hands,” looks at how America has treated — and mistreated — prisoners of war through history resonates in the age of terror.

State courts should stand firm on equal school funding and make sure legislators and governors show kids the money, a law scholar writes.

A lucid look at decades of failed attempts to reach seismology’s Holy Grail: the precise prediction of when earthquakes will occur.

A new book on the discount chain’s down-home early days doesn’t tell us much about its status as the world’s largest — and most controversial — retailer.

Three books suggest America has slipped into a polarized state of undermined self-government. None convincingly suggests how we can slip back out.

An esteemed professor rightly takes AIDS denialists to task, but his valuable history of the movement is at times a caustic read.

A Harvard psychologist argues that our mindless acceptance of stereotypes leads to premature aging.

New book Healing the Broken Mind by Timothy Kelly demonstrates how to begin fixing America’s utterly failed mental health care system.

A new book says that Iran’s leadership is opportunistic, not evil, and therefore open to imaginative American policy initiatives.

In a new book that questions the concept of ‘class war,’ two academics argue that income inequality is not a partisan issue but an American problem, and that citizens should ‘make a ruckus’ about it.

Wonks examine the state of American self-governance; little hopeful audacity is found.

The book “It’s Great! Oops, No It Isn’t” explains how different research and analysis methods lead to “definitive” studies with opposite conclusions, offers remedies for the problem and remains, throughout, a surprisingly good read.

History professor and blogger Juan Cole succeeds at debunking American myths about the Muslim world. It’s the policy prescription that’s trite.

If you’re looking for someone to blame for the subprime mortgage fiasco, don’t stop at George Bush. Go all the way back to Herbert Hoover.

In his new book, professor Jonathan Fast describes the similar cultural factors that create the rampage killer.

What the vacationing wonk might take to the beach, courtesy of the Miami book fair and the Bush administration.

The case for making American universities into patrons of the arts.

A Miller-McCune interview with Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State.

Two professors explain why small government, loose regulations and an over-reliance on markets eventually cost taxpayers.

Looking at the complex U.S.-Saudi relationship in a time of terrorism, rising oil prices and climate change.

Hey, man, this baby boomer retirement thing ain’t that big a deal. OK?

An essay collection makes the case that, in the digital age, community is more a matter of ideas than of geography. Even if the idea is a Nigerian e-mail scam.

A comprehensive new robotics handbook raises the question: Will we take these machines into our everyday lives? A Miller-McCune interview of the University of Naples’ Bruno Siciliano.

A journalism professor finds a straw woman on daytime TV and, in the name of scholarship, knocks her right down.

A legal analyst argues for a novel solution to the legal wars over anti-terrorism policy: Congress doing its job.

A new British book, “Flat Earth News,” provides a well-researched answer to the age-old question: Why are the news media so dumb?

When an academic gets to introduce his new book on “The Daily Show,” you know he’s reaching a wider audience. A Miller-McCune interview of The Earth Institute’s Jeffrey Sachs.

How and why the threat of bioterrorism has been so greatly exaggerated. A Miller-McCune interview of UCLA’s William R. Clark.

The “megacommunity” approach to problem solving, with a dose of consultant-speak.