"No other book combines so much of modern military history with so rich an exploration of related factors in industry, finance, education, and technology, as well as statecraft. Combining strands of history from all these areas, Pearton makes an unusually complete and cogent case for the breakdown of traditional distinctions between the civil and the military, and even between war and peace. This is an excellent work of military and economic history."--Russell F. Weigley, author of The American Way of War.

"Pearton's historical approach adds needed depth and perspective to...

Now widely regarded as the best available guide to the study of the Founding, the first edition of Interpreting the Founding provided summaries and analyses of the leading interpretive frameworks that have guided the study of the Founding since the publication of Charles Beard's An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution in 1913. For this new edition, Gibson has revised and updated his study, including his comprehensive bibliography, and also added a new concluding chapter on the "Unionist Paradigm" or "Federalist Interpretation" of the Constitution.

As in the original work, Gibson...

From the end of Georgia's white primary in 1946 to the present, Atlanta has been a community of growing black electoral strength and stable white economic power. Yet the ballot box and investment money never became opposing weapons in a battle for domination. Instead, Atlanta experienced the emergence and evolution of a biracial coalition. Although beset by changing conditions and significant cost pressures, this coalition has remained intact. At critical junctures forces of cooperation overcame antagonisms of race and ideology.

While retaining a critical distance from rational choice...

If you think your job is hopelessly difficult, you may be right. Particularly if your job is public administration.

Those who study or practice public management know full well the difficulties faced by administrators of complex bureaucratic systems. What they don't know is why some jobs in the public sector are harder than others and how good managers cope with those jobs.

Drawing on leadership theory and social psychology, Erwin Hargrove and John Glidewell provide the first systematic analysis of the factors that determine the inherent difficulty of public management jobs and of the...

Big Brother just gets bigger. Are we worried?

Distrust of a strong central government has been a recurrent theme in our political culture, from the Antifederalists through the Bush administration. What lies behind our preference for a weak central government? Are Americans still fearful of being swallowed whole by the leviathan?

The Bennetts say not. Charting trends in American public opinion about big government from the 1930s to 1989, with emphasis on the last 25 years, they trace how we have adapted to a growing national government. They analyze what these opinions tell us about...

Big Brother just gets bigger. Are we worried?

Distrust of a strong central government has been a recurrent theme in our political culture, from the Antifederalists through the Bush administration. What lies behind our preference for a weak central government? Are Americans still fearful of being swallowed whole by the leviathan?

The Bennetts say not. Charting trends in American public opinion about big government from the 1930s to 1989, with emphasis on the last 25 years, they trace how we have adapted to a growing national government. They analyze what these opinions tell us about...

The spectre of a plant closing can cast a deep shadow over a city. During the last fifteen years plant closings have eliminated about 15 million factory jobs and, as a result, brought economic devastation to numerous plant-dependent cities.

Other writers have chronicled the often catastrophic effects of these shutdowns on urban workers and their communities. John Portz is the first to provide an in-depth look at what local governments have done--and can do--to cope with these crises.

Portz combines a rich synthesis of the literature on urban politics and political economy with a close...

When Art Agnos campaigned for mayor of San Francisco in 1987, he articulated and defended the "left" isms--liberalism, environmentalism, and populism. He won.

Seeing Agnos as a defender of slowgrowth vs. progrowth, the city's progressives had high hopes. But to their disappointment, in the wake of the passage of Proposition M--the most restrictive growth control legislation of any large U.S. city--Agnos supported waterfront development and proposals to build a new baseball stadium in China Basin and a large residential and business development in Mission Bay. In 1991 Agnos ran for...

The veto power, claimed Woodrow Wilson, is the president's most formidable prerogative. Despite that assertion, Richard Watson shows that the presidential veto of significant legislation is frequently overridden by Congress.

Although the veto has a major impact on public policy, past research on it has dealt only with legal and historical issues. This is the first systematic, in-depth study of the actual effect of the use of the veto. Watson focuses on those elements of the policy-making process that influence presidential veto decisions. His analysis of presidential vetoes from Franklin...

Charles Walcott and Karen Hult maintain that the organization of the White House influences presidential performance much more than commonly thought and that organization theory is an essential tool for understanding that influence. Their book offers the first systematic application of organizational governance theory to the structures and operations of the White House Office.

Using organizational theory to analyze what at times has been a rather ad hoc and disorganized office might seem quixotic. After all, the White House Office exists within a turbulent political environment that...