Whether readers want a game-changing biography of Karl Marx or the first biography of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, this spring’s titles offer portraits of political responsibility at home and abroad.
Readers who kept up with the interminable 2012 election cycle would be forgiven for wondering what exactly is the “real” America. New Yorker staff writer George Packer addresses this question in his new book, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America. Covering three decades, Packer combines narratives of individual Americans (from a factory worker in the Rust Belt to a Silicon Valley billionaire) with an analysis of the new social order.
A similar combination of personal and political can be found in Claire Conner’s Wrapped in the Flag: A Personal History of America’s Radical Right. Based on records, documents, and firsthand knowledge (her father was the first Chicago member of the John Birch Society), progressive and activist Conner presents a history of that radical right-wing organization. Though unlikely to please conservatives, Conners’s book will likely add a human dimension to the movement’s heated rhetoric.
Simon & Schuster hopes to shape the conversation about Obama’s re-election and the Roberts Court with two of its spring titles. In The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies, Bloomberg View columnist Jonathan Alter follows up The Promise: President Obama, Year One with a book written as the 2012 election unfolded. Informed by her 19 years of experience covering the Supreme Court, journalist Marcia Coyle narrates the journey of five recent cases and the decisions of the 5–4 conservative/liberal justices in The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution.
Additional perspective on Obama’s first term, re-election campaign, and a definition of “Obamaism” can be found in the as yet untitled book about President Obama by Chuck Todd, chief White House correspondent and political director of NBC News.
Turning to foreign policy debates, Vali Nasr, author of The Shia Revival and a former State Department adviser for Afghanistan and Pakistan, argues that the Obama administration’s timidity undermined its effort to boost American credibility abroad in The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat. Similarly critical of Washington is Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in the Middle East by Pulitzer Prize winner David Rhode. In his reporting, Rhode examines the government’s failures in Iraq and Afghanistan and argues that the nonmilitary weapons of technology, trade, and education would be more effective for promoting change. Though Hillary Clinton makes an appearance in Nasr’s book, she receives the full biographic treatment in BBC correspondent Kim Ghattas’s The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power. PW says Clinton emerges as “charismatic” and “tireless” in this “vivid portrait,” which also analyzes America’s role in solving foreign crises.
Moving from present to past, now that political biographies appear on this list, readers should look for University of Missouri historian Jonathan Sperber’s Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life. Situating Marx in the Victorian era and humanizing this legendary figure, Sperber had unlimited access to Marx and chief disciple Friedrich Engels’s complete writings. Meanwhile, with an announced first printing of 150,000 copies, Coolidge by Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man, is likely to make waves with its remarkably positive take on the 30th president of the United States.
PW’s Top 10: Politics
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America. George Packer. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May
Wrapped in the Flag: A Personal History of America’s Radical Right. Claire Conner. Beacon, July
The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies. Jonathan Alter. Simon & Schuster, May
The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution. Marcia Coyle. Simon & Schuster, May
Untitled book about President Obama. Chuck Todd. Little, Brown, Apr.
The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat. Vali Nasr. Doubleday, Apr.
Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in the Middle East. David Rhode. Viking, Apr.
The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power. Kim Ghattas. Henry Holt, Mar.
Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life. Jonathan Sperber. W.W. Norton/Liveright, Mar.
Coolidge. Amity Shlaes. Harper, Feb.
Politics Listings
Atlantic Monthly Press
The Garments of Court and Palace: Machiavelli and the World That He Made by Philip Bobbitt (Mar. 5, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-0802120748). In this new interpretation of Machiavelli’s The Prince, Bobbitt (The Shield of Achilles) debunks the myth of the ruthless, immoral Machiavellian prince, explaining that Machiavelli’s work is both profoundly moral and constitutional.
Big Small Smart: How American Government Can Accomplish More with Less Through Open Innovation, Collaboration, and Participation by Aneesh Chopra (June 4, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0802121332). From the first chief technology officer of the United States, a look at our government, private sector “open innovation,” and how to be smart, do more with less, and reshape our approach to the 21st century.
Basic Books
The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being in Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be by Moisés Naím (Mar. 5, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0465031566). Power is changing, becoming harder to use and easier to lose. As a result, argues former Foreign Policy editor Naím, all leaders have less power than their predecessors, and the potential for upheaval is unprecedented.
Intellectuals and Race by Thomas Sowell (Mar. 12, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0465058723). The latest from the author of Intellectuals and Society examines the role of intellectuals in racial strife in an international context.
Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA by Randall B. Woods (Apr. 9, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-0465021949). Historian Woods (Fulbright: A Biography) presents a gripping biography of one of the most fascinating and controversial figures of the postwar period: a WWII commando, Cold War spy, Saigon CIA station chief, and eventual CIA director under Nixon and Ford.
Foreign Policy Begins at Home: The Case for Putting America’s House in Order by Richard Haass (Apr. 30, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-0465057986). The Council on Foreign Relations president outlines a process that will ensure the United States has the resources it needs to lead the world, set examples other societies will want to emulate, reduce the country’s vulnerability to hostile forces and fickle markets, and discourage would-be adversaries from mounting aggression.
Beacon Press
Wrapped in the Flag: A Personal History of America’s Radical Right by Claire Conner (Jul. 2, hardcover, $25.95, ISBN 978-0807077504). A narrative history of the John Birch Society by a daughter of one of the infamous organization’s founding fathers. This intimate account, based on records, documents, and firsthand knowledge, gives readers an inside look at one of the most radical right-wing movements in U.S. history.
Bloomsbury
The Letters of John F. Kennedy, edited by Martin W. Sandler (May 14, hardcover, $30, ISBN 9781608192717). The first collection of correspondence to and from John F. Kennedy comes on the 50th anniversary of his death.
Broadside Books
The End Is Near and It’s Going to Be Awesome: How Going Broke Will Leave America Richer, Happier, and More Secure by Kevin D. Williamson (May 7, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0062220684). A National Review Online contributor argues that the United States government is disintegrating—and not a moment too soon. 30,000-copy announced first printing.
Silent Revolution: How the Left Rose to Political Power and Cultural Dominance by Barry Rubin (June 18, hardcover, $22.99, ISBN 978-0062231765). Historian and political scientist Rubin exposes the radicalism that masquerades as liberalism today. 15,000-copy announced first printing.
City Lights
(dist. by Consortium)
Arguing for Our Lives: A User’s Guide to Constructive Dialog by Robert Jensen (Apr. 16, trade paper, $13.95, ISBN 978-0872865730). In this primer on critical thinking, Jensen draws on more than two decades of classroom experience and community organizing to share strategies on how to challenge “conventional wisdom” in order to confront the crises of our times. 10,000-copy announced first printing.
Crown Forum
Leading the Way: The Story of Ed Feulner and the Heritage Foundation by Lee Edwards (Mar. 26, hardcover, $27.50, ISBN 978-0770435783). From the author of The Conservative Revolution comes a history of the Heritage Foundation, its influential founder, and the conservative movement.
The Last Line of Defense: The New Fight for American Liberty by Ken Cuccinelli (Feb. 12, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0770437091). Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli was the first attorney general to argue in court against President Obama’s federal health care law. He provides a behind-the-scenes account of legal battles in which states are the only instruments of resistance to federal abuses of power.
Doubleday
The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat by Vali Nasr (Apr. 23, hardcover, $28.95, ISBN 978-0385536479). A former State Department adviser for Afghanistan and Pakistan and a bestselling author (The Shia Revival) delivers a sharp indictment of America’s flawed foreign policy and outlines a new relationship with the Muslim world and with new players in the changing Middle East.
Dutton
An Atheist in the FOXhole: A Liberal’s Eight-Year Odyssey Inside the Heart of the Right-Wing Media by Joe Muto (June 4, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0525953951). The “Fox Mole”—whose dispatches for Gawker made headlines—delivers a funny, opinionated memoir of his eight years at the Fox News Channel.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Rule of the Clan: What an Ancient Form of Social Organization Reveals About the Future of Individual Freedom by Mark S. Weiner (Mar. 12, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0374252816). A revealing look at the role kin-based societies have played throughout history and around the world. PW calls the book “a full-throated defense of the modern centralized state, which [Weiner] sees as necessary to protect human rights,” and “an entertaining mix of anecdote and ethnography.”
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer (May 21, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0374102418). An examination of a nation in crisis, from political journalist Packer, a New Yorker staff writer and author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq. Packer portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer relevant, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
Georgetown Univ.
Managing Disasters Through Public-Private Partnerships by Ami J. Abou-bakr (Feb. 1, trade paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-1589019508). Using examples from 9/11 and Katrina, the book assesses whether public-private partnerships for the purposes of disaster recovery are viable at the federal level, identifies why these partnerships have largely fallen short, and suggests how to ensure more robust collaborations in the future.
China’s Sent-Down Generation: Public Administration and the Legacies of Mao’s Rustication Program by Helena K. Rene (Mar. 15, trade paper, $32.95, ISBN 978-1589019874). During China’s Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong’s “rustication program” resettled 17 million urban youths, known as “sent downs,” to the countryside for manual labor and socialist re-education. This is the first comprehensive study of the program published in English or Chinese.
Harper
Coolidge by Amity Shlaes (Feb. 12, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0061967559). The bestselling author of The Forgotten Man delivers a provocative re-examination of America’s 30th president. PW says Shlaes “glowingly portrays Coolidge as an unappreciated economic hero.” 150,000-copy announced first printing.
Harvard Univ. Press
Blacks In and Out of the Left by Michael C. Dawson (June, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 9780674057685). The radical black left has largely disappeared from the struggle for equality and justice. University of Chicago political scientist Dawson examines the causes and consequences, and argues that the conventional left has failed to take race seriously as a force in reshaping American institutions and civil society.
Henry Holt/Times Books
The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power by Kim Ghattas (Mar. 5, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0805095111). From the State Department correspondent for the BBC comes the first inside account about Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state. PW says Ghattas’s reportage “shrewd analysis of America’s role as the still-indispensable nation.”
Knopf
The Art of Controversy: Political Cartoons and Their Enduring Power by Victor S. Navasky (Apr. 9, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0307957207). A lavishly illustrated, witty, and learned look at the power of the political cartoon throughout history, by a former editor of the New York Times Magazine and the longtime editor of the Nation.
Act of Congress: How America’s Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn’t by Robert G. Kaiser (May 7, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0307700162). Longtime Washington Post reporter Kaiser portrays the dramatic journey of a financial reform bill in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse to show just how Congress really works.
Little, Brown
Untitled by Chuck Todd (Apr. 9, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0316079570). A nuanced, behind-the-scenes narrative of President Obama’s first term explores what “Obamaism” is. NBC’s award-winning Chief White House correspondent draws upon his unprecedented inner-circle sources to create a gripping account of Obama’s tumultuous first term and campaign to win another. 60,000-copy announced first printing.
William Morrow
With Patience and Fortitude: A Memoir by Christine Quinn (May 14, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0062232465). Quinn, the first woman and first openly gay Speaker of the New York City Council, shares the moving and inspiring story of her life, her career, and the city she loves. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Nation Books
Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel by Max Blumenthal (May 14, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1568586342). In his journey through Israel, Blumenthal finds a country overrun by extremists, where the Jewish Right has hijacked constitutional protections for both minorities and those in the majority who dissent.
W.W. Norton
The Second Arab Awakening: Revolution, Democracy, and the Islamist Challenge from Tunis to Damascus by Adeed Dawisha (Apr. 8, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 9780393240122). Miami University political scientist Dawisha (Iraq: A Political History) brings a deep historical perspective to the recent Arab uprisings, tracing the fledgling and uncertain progress so far of these revolutions and the Islamist challenge that has emerged in their wake.
Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch by Barbara A. Perry (July 15, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0393068955). In this biography, Perry (Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier) mines newly released diaries and letters to capture Rose Kennedy’s genuine contributions to her family’s political dynasty.
W.W. Norton/Liveright
Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life by Jonathan Sperber (Mar. 11, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0871404671). Contextualizing Marx’s personal story within a larger historical stage, Sperber (The European Revolutions, 1848–1851) examines Marx’s public actions and theoretical publications against the backdrop of a European continent roiling with political and social unrest. PW calls it “a major work” that is “likely to be the standard biography of Marx for many years.”
NYU Press
Two Presidents Are Better Than One: The Case for a Bipartisan Executive Branch by David Orentlicher (Mar. 11, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0814789490) proposes replacing our one-person, one-party presidency with a two-person, two-party executive branch in an effort to undo what is increasingly becoming an “imperial presidency” and calm the escalating rancorous partisan conflict. PW says “Orentlicher makes a surprisingly persuasive case for this radical change.”
Oxford Univ. Press
The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia by Andrei Lankov (May 8, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0199964291). A fresh and intimate look at this opaque police state, revealing how North Koreans live, how their leaders rule, and how both survive, from historian Lankov (From Stalin to Kim Il Sung: The Formation of North Korea, 1945–1960). Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for overheated rhetoric.
The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle for America’s Future by Michael Levi (May 1, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0199986163). Energy expert Levi offers a penetrating look at the changes sweeping American energy, illuminating the opportunities, dangers, and difficult decisions ahead.
Penguin Press
Comandante: Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela by Rory Carroll (Mar. 7, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-59420-457-9). In what PW calls an “incisive portrait of a histrionic ruler,” Carroll, the Guardian’s former Latin American bureau chief, “captures the tragic absurdity of life in a country flush with petrodollars but where many go without adequate health care.” Based on interviews with ministers, aides, courtiers, and citizens, the book chronicles a unique experiment in power.
Princeton Univ. Press
Political Bubbles: Financial Crises and the Failure of American Democracy by Nolan McCarty, Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal (May 26, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0691145013) demonstrates how political bubbles helped create the real estate–generated financial bubble and the 2008 financial crisis, arguing that similar government oversights in the aftermath of the crisis undermined Washington’s response to the “popped” financial bubble, and showing how such patterns have occurred throughout U.S. history.
PublicAffairs
The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World by Kishore Mahbubani (Feb. 12, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1610390330) Around 88% of the world’s population is rising to Western living standards and sharing Western aspirations, and Mahbubani warns that a new global order needs new policies and attitudes. Policymakers all over the world must accept that we live in one world, and China, India, Africa, and the Islamic world must be integrated.
The Great Deformation: How Crony Capitalism Corrupted Free Markets and Democracy by David Stockman (Apr. 2, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-1586489120). Reagan’s outspoken budget director offers an exegesis of where capitalism went wrong, how it was corrupted, and how it might be restored. Stockman describes how the working of free markets and democracy has long been under threat in America, and provides a nonpartisan, surprising catalogue of the corrupters and defenders.
Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right: What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas by Erica Grieder (Apr. 23, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1610391924). A fresh, contrarian exploration of the new politics and forward-thinking policies of Texas by the Economist’s Southwestern correspondent. While acknowledging that it still has plenty of 21st-century problems to face, Grieder finds in Texas a model of governance whose power has been drastically underestimated.
Random House/Spiegel & Grau
The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement by David Graeber (Apr. 9, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0812993561) tells the story of the resilience of the democratic spirit and the adaptability of the democratic idea.
Scribner
All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings by George H.W. Bush (Mar. 5, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1476731162). Since the former president does not plan to write his autobiography, this collection of letters, diary entries, and memos, with his accompanying commentary, will fill that void. This new edition includes letters and photographs from the past 15 years.
Sentinel
Roger Ailes: Off Camera by Zev Chafets (Mar. 19, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1595230959). The author of Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One offers a rich biography of Roger Ailes, founder and CEO of the Fox News Channel, the man who (with the backing of Rupert Murdoch) has given conservatives a game of their own, infuriated the establishment, changed the way millions understand the world, and had a rollicking good time doing it.
Seven Stories
The Big Book of Ralph Nader Columns by Ralph Nader (Mar. 19, trade paper, $23.95, ISBN 978-1609804749). The column is the most natural literary form for a citizen’s advocate, and Nader may be its most robust and forceful practitioner. This collection presents a panoramic portrait of the problems confronting our society and provides examples of the many actions an organized citizenry could and should take to create a more just and environmentally sustainable world.
Simon & Schuster
The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies by Jonathan Alter (May 7, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1451646078) is a narrative thriller about the battle royale surrounding Obama’s quest for a second term amid widespread joblessness and one of the most poisonous political climates in American history. In this sequel to his bestselling The Promise, Alter digs into the backstory of the campaign and Obama’s performance as president.
The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution by Marcia Coyle (May 7, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1451627510). The Roberts Court—seven years old, with a predominantly 5–4 conservative/liberal split—sits at the center of a constitutional maelstrom. Coyle, chief Washington correspondent for the National Law Journal, reports on its direction under Chief Justice Roberts, as she traces the paths and resolutions of five landmark decisions on race, guns, immigration, campaign finance, and health care.
All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt by John Taliaferro (May 14, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-1416597308). From secretary to Abraham Lincoln to secretary of state for Theodore Roosevelt, Hay remained a major figure in American history for more than half a century. This first full-scale biography since 1934 is a reflection of American history from the Civil War to the emergence of the nation as a world power as Woodrow Wilson is about to take office.
Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage by Jeffrey Frank (Feb. 5, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1416587019). A groundbreaking narrative of the relationship between Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon—from the politics that divided them to the marriage that united their families. Based on archival research and interviews with dozens of men and women who knew and worked with both men, including family members, it offers fresh views of both.
Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden (Mar. 5, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1451609912) is the first biography focused on Churchill’s early career: a never-before-told account of his ambitious romantic pursuits, his outmaneuvering of rival political giants, and the fatal mistakes that sidelined him for years. PW calls the latest from Pulitzer Prize–finalist Shelden “a fluid and informative examination of the early career of one of modern Britain’s most outstanding political leaders.”
Simon & Schuster/Threshold Editions
Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution by Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick (Apr. 23, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1476713458). The former Republican governor of Florida and a leading constitutional litigator present a timely and provocative look at one of the most divisive issues facing the nation today—immigration—with a solution based on two core principles: immigration is vital to America’s future, fueling its growth, vibrancy, and creativity, but any enduring solution must follow America’s laws.
Showdown 2012: Our Guerrilla Media Battle to Expose Fraud and Save the 2012 Election by James O’Keefe (June 4, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1476706177). Starting at the state houses, continuing through Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice, and ending up at the White House, conservative activist O’Keefe provides a hard-hitting look at the unseen action behind the campaigns of the 2012 election.
St. Martin’s
American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character by Diana West (Apr. 23, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 9780312630782). Conservative columnist West (The Death of the Grown-Up) uncovers how and when America gave up its core ideals and began the march toward socialism.
St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne
Son of a Gambling Man: My Journey from a Casino Family to the Governor’s Mansion by Bob Miller, foreword by Bill Clinton (Mar. 12, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0312591816) is a memoir of growing up in mob-run Sin City and becoming a casino heir-turned-governor of Nevada.
Verso
(dist. by Norton)
Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control by Medea Benjamin, foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich (Apr. 9, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1781680773) is a groundbreaking exposé of the rapid shift to robot warfare, by a leading antiwar activist. In addition to examining the legal and moral implications of the use of drones, Benjamin also looks at what activists, lawyers, and scientists across the globe are doing to ground these weapons.
Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown by Philip Mirowski (May 7, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1781680797). After the financial apocalypse, neoliberalism rose from the dead, stronger than ever. University of Notre Dame historian and philosopher Mirowski provides the basis for an anti-neoliberal account of the current crisis and our future prospects.
Landgrabbing: Journeys in the New Colonialism by Stefano Liberti, trans. from the Italian by Enda Flannery (July 9, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1781681176). In this arresting account of how millions of hectares of fertile soil are being stolen to feed the wealthy thousands of miles away, journalist Liberti reveals how modern-day corporations and governments are raiding the Third World.
They Can’t Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy by Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzellini (July 9, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1781680971). Based on extensive interviews with movement participants in Spain, Venezuela, Japan, and across the U.S., two international activist intellectuals provide an expansive portrait of the assemblies, direct democracy forums, and organizational forms championed by the new movements.
Viking
Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East by David Rohde (Apr. 18, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0670026449). Distilling 11 years of reporting for the New York Times, Reuters, and the Atlantic Monthly into a clarion call for change, the Pulitzer Prize winner exposes how a dysfunctional Washington squandered billions on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, neglected its true allies in the war on terror, and failed to employ its most potent nonmilitary weapons: American consumerism, technology, and investment.
Wiley
Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry by Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady (Apr. 9, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1118146682). The bestselling coauthors of The Command: Deep Inside the President’s Secret Army explore the real-world ramifications of a trend that ought to trouble everyone from government hawks to civil libertarians.
Yale Univ. Press
Democracy in Retreat: The Revolt of the Middle Class and the Worldwide Decline of Representative Government by Joshua Kurlantzick (Mar. 19, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0300175387). In this challenge to conventional wisdom about democracy, the author investigates the state of democracy in a variety of countries, why the middle class has turned against democracy in some cases, and whether the decline in global democratization is reversible. 10,000-copy announced first printing.
The Resurgence of the West: How a Transatlantic Union Can Prevent War and Restore the United States and Europe by Richard Rosecrance (June 18, hardcover, $27.50, ISBN 978-0300177398) calls for the U.S. to join forces with the European Union and create a transatlantic economic union. Such a U.S.-Europe community would unblock arteries of trade and investment, rejuvenate the West, and enable Western countries to deal with East Asian challenges from a position of unity and economic strength.
Totally Unofficial: The Autobiography of Raphael Lemkin by Raphael Lemkin, edited by Donna-Lee Frieze (June 18, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0300186963). The never-before-published autobiography of ethical thinker Lemkin (1900–1959) . Lemkin altered international law and redefined the world’s understanding of group rights. He invented the concept and word “genocide,” propelled the idea into international legal status, and was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
