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RingsidePolitics
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The Political Bookstore
New & Notable
The Political Bookstore presents some of the most popular, provocative and controversial books at up to 40% off publishers prices. Remember, if you can't find what you are looking for, try our search page where you can search this site and Amazon.com.
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| It is beyond irony for Dick
Morris, the man who has done as much as anyone in the 1990s to increase cynicism in the
political process and encourage politicians to play to our worst fears and instincts, to
turn around and say that politicians should be more idealistic because that's what people
want. Yet that's the premise of The New Prince. Morris--who rose to national
prominence by telling Bill Clinton what to say to appease Democratic liberals as he
shifted party policy to the right--argues that the new pragmatism in politics is "to
stay positive; to focus on the issues; to rise above party; and to lead through ideas....
Our candidates and office holders need to change their tactics, their focus, and their
strategies--not in the interest of better government, but in order to succeed in their
chosen line of work." Fewer people are voting, he says, but the ones who do are
better informed, so message is more important than money now. Although he argued for
early negative ads in the 1996 presidential campaign, Morris has seen the light, saying
that "voters have moved beyond" negative ads. He also thinks Americans are sick
of scandal, which is why the Republicans couldn't impeach Bill Clinton over his affair
with Monica Lewinsky. Arguing that politicians have to constantly take the public
temperature to govern effectively--"Each day is election day in modern
America"--Morris justifies the constant polling that he has used as a political
tactic throughout his career. So what is leadership? Morris defines it as maintaining
"sufficient forward momentum to control events and steer public policy without losing
public support." Essentially, The New Prince is a handbook for politicians who want to get themselves elected, whether it be to the school board or the presidency, and on that level it works. But as a sage commentary on the state of politics at the end of the 20th century... heaven help us. --Linda Killian |
List Price: $22.95
Also by Morris: |
| In every arena, Jesse Ventura puts a headlock on the
competition--now he's turning the country on its ear How did an outrageous, outspoken, boa-wearing pro wrestler nab the title of Minnesota's governor in an overwhelming upset? This is the question the nation is asking. From Jesse Ventura's Navy SEAL days, to his infamous wrestling years, to his stunning political victory, read the story of the Body, a man who truly embodies the American Dream. Get the real story on: -His intense training to become an elite Navy SEAL and his experiences overseas during the Vietnam War -His lengthy career in the pro wrestling field -- from flamboyant pro wrestler to colorful commentator -- including his feuds with Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon Jr. -Ventura's acting stints, including a part in the film Predator -His rise through the ranks of politics, from mayor to governor -- and maybe beyond -Ventura's political vision -- what he sees for Minnesota and the country. The Body Politic Will Never Be the Same |
 Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story
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 I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up
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"Career politicians are bought and sold,"
says Jesse Ventura, but "no one owns me. I come with no strings attached." His
victory in the Minnesota gubernatorial race was one of the most surprising stories of the
1998 elections; even after he'd served as mayor of his small Minneapolis suburb, few
pundits expected that the former pro wrestler, film actor, and radio personality had what
it took to win a statewide campaign against two established politicians. I Ain't Got Time to Bleed takes its title from the best remembered line in Ventura's film debut, the action/horror flick Predator. It's a phrase that neatly encapsulates his rough and tumble approach to political activism. In addition to a look behind the scenes at his campaign, and his stand on the issues affecting his state (particularly tax reform and public education), Ventura also shares with readers his experiences as a member of the U.S. Navy's SEAL program and as a pro wrestler. It's a lively read that's sure to satisfy his established fans and surprise skeptics with its thoughtful approach to politics and civic responsibility. |
 Unvanquished:
A U.S. - U.N. Saga
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Boutros Boutros-Ghali offers a frank chronicle of his
five years as secretary-general of the United Nations. Although Unvanquished describes
ambitious activities in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central America, and elsewhere, its
title is clearly a pun (capitalize those first two letters and look at it again), and this is a bitter memoir of hardball diplomacy. The central story line features Boutros-Ghali's confrontations with the United States, with a special focus on how the Clinton administration prevented him from serving a second term as secretary-general -- a "rejection of democracy," he calls it, because the United States was the only member of the Security Council to vote against him. The serious trouble began as a result of election-year politics in the United States: "the White House apparently felt a growing need to compete with the GOP over which party was more anti-United Nations." Yet it seems clear that trouble was brewing for much longer. Consider how Boutros-Ghali describes his early impression of Madeleine Albright, who was the U.S. representative to the United Nations before she became secretary of state: "I was puzzled, however, by what seemed her desire to strike attitudes rather than address substantive issues.... She seemed to assume that her mere assertion of a U.S. policy should be sufficient to achieve the support of other nations." Boutros-Ghali is fiercely unapologetic, and his narrative is feisty and engaging. --John J. Miller |
| Gay Republicans? Yes, gay Republicans -- not only do they exist, but they are proactive in both party and national politics, and as this book explains, they are intent on changing the status quo. In Party Crasher: A Gay Republican Challenges Politics as Usual, Richard Tafel, head of the Log Cabin Republicans, issues a challenge to some of America's most sacred political institutions with an insightful analysis of the past, present, and future of gay politics in this country. Using personal anecdotes as well as the stories of other gay and lesbian Republicans, Rich Tafel succeeds in humanizing the struggle he and others have undertaken in their effort to have their party deal fairly with gays and gay issues, as well as their campaign to make gays aware of the benefits that can accrue from having political alliances with others besides traditional left-leaning Democrats. |
 Party Crasher: A Gay Republican Challenges Politics As Usual List Price: $25.00
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 Man Without a Gun: One Diplomat's Secret Struggle to Free the
Hostages, Fight Terrorism, and End a War
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Man Without a Gun is a thrilling memoir of
Giandomenico Picco's two decades as a high-level diplomat for the United Nations. Over the course of his career, Picco helped negotiate the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and helped bring an end to the bloody Iran-Iraq war, but he also had several harrowing encounters with Middle Eastern terrorists--whom he met unarmed. In one memorable episode, he walked out of an embassy in Beirut and was grabbed on the street, thrown into a car with his face jammed to the floor, and whisked to a secret location to discuss the release of Western hostages with their masked captors. Other experiences are equally unnerving, such as a trip to Tehran to share unwelcome news with Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani: the United States had just refused to reciprocate an act of goodwill (the release of hostage Terry Anderson). Picco wondered whether he would get out of the country alive; he did, but only because Rafsanjani offered this advice: "I think it is best if you leave Tehran very, very quickly." |
A veteran White House reporter tells it like
she sees it. Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times List Price: $26.00
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Anyone who has watched a televised White House news conference has
seen and heard Helen Thomas at the front of the press room; the United Press International
correspondent always asks one of the first questions--usually one of the toughest. She has
covered eight presidents, and considers herself, as she writes, "privileged to be a
witness to instant history." Now, with the publication of Front Row at the White House, the general public finally gets an opportunity to learn about how she came to such a prestigious position. Thomas was a pioneering reporter in the 1940s and '50s, entering the field at a time when most women were relegated to covering society events. In fact, that's how she made it to the White House beat, initially covering Jackie Kennedy, who Thomas says hated her and the other women reporters following the Kennedy's' every move. Thomas has been there ever since, and she clearly has a reverence both for the institution of the presidency and for the sacred trust and responsibility reporters have to find the truth and tell it. "We in the press have a special role since there is no other institution in our society ... that can hold the president accountable," she writes. "I do believe that our democracy can endure and prevail only if the American people are informed." Just as she has little patience for presidents who limit access and refuse to answer questions, she is equally dismissive of anyone who doesn't get how hard it was for women reporters when she started. Once, when another reporter asked her whether she faced obstacles that a man wouldn't have, she responded tartly, "Where did you come from, Mars?" That feisty spirit is amply reflected in the engaging (and often moving) Front Row at the White House. She dissects the presidents, first ladies, and press secretaries she has known; discusses the press conference ritual; talks about travel on Air Force One; and recalls great and small moments of presidencies past and present. Jokingly suggesting that she is probably best known as the "torturer of presidents," she adds, "I didn't get into this business to be loved; I'd rather be respected for being fair." --Linda Killian |
| In this explosive book, two veteran congressional
investigators deliver detailed evidence of the most shocking Clinton scandal expose to
date: How Bill Clinton compromised American security for Chinese money. List Price: $24.95 |
 Year of the Rat:
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 The
Last Patrician: Bobby Kennedy
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Part biography, part cultural retrospective, Michael
Beran's work is a somewhat controversial reassessment of Robert Kennedy's public and private life. Thirty years after Kennedy was murdered, he is still remembered, along with other great liberal contemporaries such as Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, as a tragic crusader for liberalism. List Price: $23.95 |
| The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Susie
Linfield: Philip Gourevitch's account of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and its
aftermath is the most important book I have read in many years. In fact, I am tempted to
say it is the only important - or, to be more precise, necessary -- book I have read in
many years. Gourevitch's book poses the preeminent question of our time, beside which all
others must, of necessity, pale: What--if anything--does it mean to be a human being at
the end of the 20th century? List Price: $25.00 |
 We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our
Families: Stories from Rwanda
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 The City on a Hill: Fulfilling Ronald Reagan's Vision
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Popular talk-radio host Michael Reagan offers a
political manifesto meant to update his father's philosophy for the 1990s. Much of it will
make sense to conservatives who still wish Ronald Reagan occupied the White House.
The book lays out a detailed agenda, some of it bland, but at times quite pointed.
Overall, it demonstrates that turning ideas into a reality requires the skills of a master
politician, such as the one who sat in the Oval Office for most of the 1980s. List Price: $19.99 |
| First at the
Washington Post, and later at Newsweek, Isikoff researched the stories that turned
Paula Jones, Linda Tripp, and Monica Lewinsky into household names. Un- covering Clinton
is his version of All the Pres- ident's Men, a play- by - play account of how he put the
pieces together and gradually came to the conclusion, based on the allegations sur-
rounding Bill Clinton's sexual behavior, that the president was "psy- chologically
disturbed." List Price: $25.00 |
 Uncovering
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 Spin Cycle
Also by Kurtz: |
Spin Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine, is
an en- grossing, backroom look at how news is created and packaged in the White House and
the methods used to dis- tribute it to the public. Kurtz shows how the use of
controlled leaks, meticulously worded briefs, and the outright avoidance of certain
questions allows the White House to control the scope and content of the stories that make it to the front page and the nightly network news. List Price: $25.00 |
| Horowitz's biography wonderfully details the
maturation of his lifelong held beliefs. His simple confrontation of the truth that
juxtaposed the radical creed still held by much of the political left carefully dismembers
the morally bankrupt ideology of the Communist, Marxist, Socialist theory still affecting
our current political climate. List Price: $14.00 |
 Destructive Generation
Also by Horowitz: |
 It Takes a Village
Also by Clinton: |
Drawing on her experiences as daughter, mother, public
servant, and long-time child advocate -- and on her observations of children and families
across the country and around the world--the First Lady reflects on the needs of children
and the poss- ibilities they suggest for rekindling a better quality of family and
community life in today's fast-paced, fragmented world. List
Price: $10.00 |