This
page contains:
America Beyond Capitalism by Gar Alperovitz
 America Beyond Capitalism by Gar Alperovitz challenges the conventional wisdom about the future of the Democratic Party and lays out a realistic agenda for changing the system.
"Capitalism" only exists in textbooks. According to Alperovitz, the world we actually live in is a corporate-centered, market system with all the power and riches concentrated in the hands of the few. The future lies in developing a more community-centered, more democratic system. Alperovitz shows how new approaches have been able to force changes at the state and local levels, pointing the way to a new overall model for progressive politics beyond free-market fundamentalism. Full of realistic, forward-thinking strategies, his book represents an entirely new way of resolving the problems facing America today.
Visit the America Beyond Capitalism website to learn more >>
Index
of Environmental Trends
1995.
68 pages. $10.00 plus $4 shipping/handling.
 Several
years ago, the National Center initiated a research project
which examined data from nine industrialized countries in
an attempt to develop a composite, aggregated gauge of environmental
quality. The goal: to produce an overall measure of the effectiveness
of the actions the world's major economic powers have taken
to protect the planet's environment.
Like the
U.S. Consumer Price Index, the Index of Environmental Trends
brings together a range of measures of change. Twenty-one
broadly accepted environmental trend indicators for air, land,
and water quality, chemical and waste generation, and energy
use since 1970 are included.
After two
decades of intense efforts to reverse the trends of environmental
destruction, the question is, are we succeeding? Rachel's
Environment & Health Weekly has said of the Index:
"So far as we know, only one study has tried to answer this
question in a rigorous way."
The study
found that there have been few real environmental trend reversals
within industrialized countries. Allowing for exceptions,
overall the environment in all of the countries surveyed declined
over the 20 year period surveyed. In other words, despite
many reforms, the general quality of the environment continues
to deteriorate.
Click to
read Executive Summary . Top
of the page . Order Now
What
Comes Next: Proposals for a Different Society,
by Thad Williamson
1998. 185 pages.
$15.00 plus $4 shipping/handling.
 This
annotated bibliography examines and makes accessible a selection
of recent proposals for alternative political-economic systems.
The works and views of more than 50 writers are assessed.
The central question posed in this body of literature concerns
the nature of a coherent alternative to the dominant political
and economic systems of the 20th century: corporate capitalism
and state socialism. The bibliography is intended to serve
as an introductory guide to the emerging literature and also
as a tool to provoke discussion and evaluation of the particular
strengths, weaknesses and overall contributions of each writer
from the perspective of this overall effort. Among the authors
and thinkers reviewed are William Greider, Robert Kuttner,
John Kenneth Galbraith, Leland Stauber, William Ophuls, Murray
Bookchin and Juliet Shor.
A central
assumption of the book is that a democratic alternative for
the new century must emerge from a democratic process: no
one thinker or group can possibly have "all the answers."
By beginning to catalogue and evaluate the growing number
of serious alternative proposals, What Comes Next is
designed to contribute to a further democratization of intellectual
and political work -- and to a far-ranging and ever deepening
dialogue about what the future might hold.
Click to
read Preface . Top
of the page
. Order Now
The
Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
by Gar Alperovitz
1995.
847 pages. Vintage. $16.00 plus $4 shipping/handling.
 Fifty
years after the bombing of Hiroshima, America remains divided
by one question: Was the bombing necessary? This extensively
documented work by the foremost historian of the atomic decision
and its aftermath provides the indispensable materials and
argumentation for any serious attempt to answer that terrible
question.
As it minutely
reconstructs the events leading up to Hiroshima, The Decision
to Use the Atomic Bomb reveals what President Truman and
his advisors knew about Japan's willingness to continue fighting;
how they viewed the Soviet Union's declaration of war against
Japan; and how they transformed the atomic bomb from a military
weapon into an instrument of postwar diplomacy and then effectively
rewrote history to rationalize their actions.
The
Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb is based on many years
of archival research and includes important new documentary
discoveries. It assesses who knew what and when, and who did
what and why. It is the fullest account yet written of this
momentous and sobering episode in twentieth-century history.
"...
will almost certainly serve as a bible for the next generation
of revisionist scholars."
— The New York Times Book Review
"A
massively detailed yet fascinating and readable work of
scholarship.
—
San Francisco Chronicle
"A
comprehensive and definitive history."
—
Los Angeles Times
Click to
read Introduction . Top
of the page . Order Now
A
R T I C L E S
On
Community Building
On
Disarmament and Security
|
