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Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual: How to Rebuild Our Country So the Politics Aren't Broken and Politicians Aren't Fixed
 
 
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Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual: How to Rebuild Our Country So the Politics Aren't Broken and Politicians Aren't Fixed [Paperback]

Sam Smith (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Book Description

July 17, 1997

How to rebuild our country so its politics aren't broken and its politicians aren't fixed.

"Neither right nor left but ahead" is the only political course for maverick journalist Sam Smith in this entertaining, myth-busting guide to a new American crossover politics. Witty and profound, opinionated and informative, Smith has important things to say to politically disaffected Americans of all stripes. This primer gives hope that the coughing engines and stripped gears of American democracy can be made to work again if we can recover our can-do spirit and practice a politics of common sense and common decency combined with a search for common ground.

In chapters such as "How to figure out why you need this book a diagnostic test for political deficit disorder," "How to stay alive a poker player's guide to the environment," "How to find things out despite the media and other obstacles," and "How to get along with other Americans living next to 250 million people who aren't quite like you," Smith conjoins hilarity and wisdom, education and provocation, giving us what we need to fix America and have a good time while we're at it.

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Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Droll, no-nonsense prescriptions for the body politic, by the editor of the Progressive Review. Smith (Shadows of Hope: A Freethinkers Guide to Politics in the Time of Clinton, 1994) offers numbers of specific, hands-on ideas for citizens intent not on fixing but on ``transforming and replacing the system . . . that controls America,'' injecting it with new levels of democracy, common sense, and compassion, so that the system, now dominated by large, entrenched interests, ``serves and does not rule.'' The pace tends to be hectic, as Smith surveys everything from the national debt to the need for new kinds of sewer systems, offering both brief summaries of the problems and succinct suggestions for remedies. There is an abundance of (clear) lists and statistics, and most of Smith's analyses are presented as terse, often witty, paragraphs. That makes the book eminently browsable, but sometimes confusing. Insights are tossed off with abandon, and it is, at times, hard to tell what Smith thinks is important and what merely amusing or outrageous. Nonetheless, a useful, stirring, and ingenious guidebook for perplexed citizens. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Smith offers a community based, participatory politics that's neither left nor right wing but the whole bird. . . . His work is truth-seeking, independent, fair-minded, and debunking. (Colman McCarthy - Washington Post )

Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (July 17, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393316270
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393316278
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,425,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful take on modern society and politics, November 7, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual: How to Rebuild Our Country So the Politics Aren't Broken and Politicians Aren't Fixed (Paperback)
While you may not agree with Sam Smith's views or solutions, he does a wonderful job of showing what is wrong with the system in America. His book is full of great quotes and wonderful humor and offers hordes of ideas that will make you optimistic about the future despite the large number of depressing points Smith brings up. He shows how America has worked in many areas and how it has failed - most importantly though he offers loads of solutions on how to fix what's broken. A must-read for people on all sides of the political spectrum, and especially for people apathetic about the promise of politics.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Important reading for activists and ordinary Americans, March 3, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual: How to Rebuild Our Country So the Politics Aren't Broken and Politicians Aren't Fixed (Paperback)
Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual talks a lot about lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is solving problems by coming up with non-traditional alternatives. Specifically, Sam Smith talks about political problems and lateral solutions. Smith gives both liberals and conservatives something to think about in this fascinating book.

I use it in introductory political science classes because it is a simple read and explains complex topics (like voting systems) lucidly.

Smith encourages looking beyond political correctness and beyond corporate media spin to search for real solutions to American problems which, as Smith admits, may not work, but promise to move us beyond stalemate over broken programs and failed solutions.

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