Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad [Hardcover]

Alan Cutis (Editor), Kevin Phillip (Foreword), Eric Alterman (Contributor), Phyllis A. Bennis (Contributor), Sophie Body-Gendrot (Contributor), Julian Borger (Contributor), David Corn (Contributor), Elliott Currie (Contributor), Eric M. Davis (Contributor), Jeff Faux (Contributor), Alton Frye (Contributor), James K. Galbraith (Contributor), Amy Goodman (Contributor), Robert Greenstein (Contributor), William Greider (Contributor), Fred R. Harris (Contributor), Gary Hart (Contributor), William D. Hartung (Contributor), JimHightower (Contributor), Laurie E. King-Irani (Contributor), Richard C. Leone (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 2004

Why have American policies failed? What alternative policies can return America to its promise, internally and in the eyes of a global community? This book answers these questions in a preposterous way. It asks citizens and policy makers to actually connect the dots--to move America forward by developing mutually supportive and complementary foreign, national security, Middle East, economic, domestic, inner city, media, campaign finance, and voting reform policies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[Takes] a hard look at the United States and suggests practical alternatives to present policies. (Washington Post )

Enormously important. (Sorensen, Theodore C. )

This volume can only help restore America's promise at home and abroad. (Kevin Phillips )

This is one of the clearest, most important books of our time written by some of the most insightful and provocative experts. It is a truth-telling book that makes the connections from individual failures to the comprehensive indictment of what is wrong with America. This one book says it all with some of the most honest voices of our time. (Celinda Lake )

How do you get to the American people? They are aware of what is happening to some extent. It's the solutions that they need and we have failed. Patriotism, Democracy and Common Sense can begin to reverse that. It offers a cogent and comprehensive policy prescription that people can understand. (Ian Williams )

From the Publisher

In the late 1960s, the bipartisan Eisenhower Violence Commission, formed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson and extended by President Richard Nixon, warned that most civilizations have fallen less from external assault than from internal decay.

Over recent years, the internal decay prophesied by the Violence Commission, but also by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his military-industrial complex farewell speech, has been reflected in American public policies.

The fault lies on both sides of the political aisle.

After Pearl Harbor, "Mr. Republican," Senator Robert A. Taft, said criticism is patriotic. Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense assembles more than three dozen patriots. They range from Kevin Phillips, chief political strategist for Richard Nixon's victory in 1968, and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, called a "true American hero" by President George H. W. Bush in 1991, to Jessica Tuchman Mathews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and former Oklahoma Senator Fred R. Harris, who advocated grassroots, populist policies when he ran for president in the 1970s.

Why have American policies failed? What alternative policies can return America to its promise, internally and in the eyes of a global community shaken by, among other things, American torture and sexual humiliation of prisoners in Iraq?

Patriotism, Democracy and Common Sense answers these questions in a preposterous way. It asks citizens and policy makers to actually connect the dots-to move America forward by developing mutually supportive and complementary foreign, national security, Middle East, economic, domestic, inner city, media, campaign finance and voting reform policies.

Too much to expect of our civilization?

This important and timely effort is published in cooperation with The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (September 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742542165
• ISBN-13: 978-0742542167
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,821,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Have Utterly Failed To Understand The Rest Of The World, February 19, 2005

By 

G. Reid (Roseland, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad (Hardcover)

We are making all the wrong decisions. It is our democracy. We have to take it back. The sound-byte political debates offer slogans and marginalize comprehensive thinking. It is a very dangerous time. America is being aggressive to "spred" democracy around the world with our out-of-control materialism. It can't work. One can't spred democracy with military violence and nonsensical materialism. Does the rest of the world really need 25 brands of toothpaste, but without adequate affordable dental care as we have in the United States?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally a comprehensive policy prescription for our nation, May 28, 2005

By 

Leila McDowell (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad (Hardcover)

An excellent compendium of leading thinkers on the ills that plague us. Not only do they accurately point out the flawed policies that have gotten us into the mess we are in right now, they give us solutions that work. A must read for anyone who cares about the future of this country.