From Family Collapse To America S Decline

From Family Collapse to America's Decline looks at the effect of family fragmentation on education, and in turn the American economy.

“Audacious . . . offers a fierce critique of democracy’s most dangerous adversary: the abuse of democratic power by democratically elected chief executives.” (Benjamin R. Barber, New York Times bestselling author of Jihad vs. McWorld ) Bruce Ackerman shows how the institutional dynamics of the last half-century have transformed the American presidency into a potential platform for political extremism and lawlessness. Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the War on Terror are only symptoms of deeper pathologies. Ackerman points to a series of developments that have previously been treated independently of one another?from the rise of presidential primaries, to the role of pollsters and media gurus, to the centralization of power in White House czars, to the politicization of the military, to the manipulation of constitutional doctrine to justify presidential power-grabs. He shows how these different transformations can interact to generate profound constitutional crises in the twenty-first century?and then proposes a series of reforms that will minimize, if not eliminate, the risks going forward. “The questions [Ackerman] raises regarding the threat of the American Executive to the republic are daunting. This fascinating book does an admirable job of laying them out.” —The Rumpus “Ackerman worries that the office of the presidency will continue to grow in political influence in the coming years, opening possibilities for abuse of power if not outright despotism.” —Boston Globe “A serious attention-getter.” —Joyce Appleby, author of The Relentless Revolution “Those who care about the future of our nation should pay careful heed to Ackerman’s warning, as well as to his prescriptions for avoiding a constitutional disaster.” —Geoffrey R. Stone, author of Perilous Times

The United States has the highest family fragmentation rates in the industrial world. Nonmarital birth rates for the nation as a whole are 40%, with proportions dramatically higher in many communities as defined by race, ethnicity, or geography. Divorce rates, while moderating in recent decades, are still estimated at about 40% for first marriages and 50% for second ones. Together, this fragmentation impacts millions of children as well as adults, leading to educational, economic, and other losses that in turn lead to lower social mobility and deepening class divisions. In Broken Bonds, Mitch Pearlstein explores the declining state of the American family and what its disintegration means for our future. Based on candid interviews with forty leading family experts across the political spectrum - from Stephanie Coontz, to Heather Mac Donald - Pearlstein ruminates on the political, social, and spiritual fallout of this trend. In honest and frank conversations, Pearlstein and his interviewees fearlessly diagnose the problems that many have been too timid to explore and suggest ways to reverse these trends that threaten our social fabric.

Politicianthe dirtiest word in the English language. says Jacob Pirandello Kharinsky, a character in this book hailed as the UNDERGROUND CLASSIC OF OUR GENERATION: The DECLINE and FALL of THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA part I. (A theme which implies many things, possibilities and perspectives.) Jake Kharinsky discovers himself in an unknown labyrinth, a clandestine initiation, and is unable to recall what leads him there. Stranger than fiction events and stories unfold...with aesthetic word play, symbolism, humor and an architectured structure, as if crafted and written by a musician, to lead one into an expansion of consciousness, a journey of the mind, right into the HEART & UNCONSICOUS of AMERICA and beyond. At times, engaging a psychological evaluation of the American political mind, and ways out of the swamps and wastelands. Jakes visionary pursuits for the meaning of life and his endless patriotic studies into the nature and origins of our political, social, and cultural realities leads him to write an Underground Notebook which will one day be a condensed guide for the coming dark era of: collapse, fascism, empire, civil war and revolution, though the Notebook is written with hopes towards identifying and preventing this disaster. (The Decline and Fall fleshes out what Emmanuel Goldsteins The Book, from Orwells 1984, may look like today.) America, as we are conditioned and believe we know it to be, is dissolving before our very eyes. Ask yourself: what is it that is not being said? This analysis is not a black and white, an Us vs. Them simplification or pessimism (as many still hold to valid ideals in a system that no longer works for We the people.) There is no simple view, traveling towards our future from the elusive illusions of the past. Prophetic, DYSTOPIAN, at times surrealin a exploratory epic seeking to make sense of it all, utilizing both fiction and non-fiction. Raising questions about how the spectrums of cultures and power influence and create our realities and consciousnesshow blind wealth, corruption, greed and propaganda orbit and control our lives behind seemingly invisible curtains and veils. Dynamic changes with every chapter and the flowing weight of compelling content draws and gravitates the reader to see the world differently and envision new possibilities. ( A recipe for REVOLUTION? A GENERAL STRIKE? In the organizing a grassroots Aquarian Renaissance Movement... ) Endless hours of entertainment and edifying knowledge & inspiration.*** A book unlike ever before written, yet following through on a lineage & fusion of varied literary traditions, schools of thought, and paradigms suffused with humor and knowledge. A justified literate denial of the two party bankster corporate diseased entity of the machine grinding our lives away. A welcoming and inviting challenge to trace the angst of our contemporary American wasteland and world nightmare to blaze through this storm. , Rebridge and pick up where our ancient Renaissance and organic connections were cut off, and leave the old world behind. GET INITIATED!!! Author can be viewed reading excerpt on Youtube under: information8090: http://youtu.be/mkWyFYfT_8Q [Back cover]: A Book for both genuine LIBERALS and CONSERVATIVES, and beyond, who are utterly disgusted with Democrats and Republicans... A genre of both Kafkaesque Dystopian fiction, & non-fiction (the Orwellian BOOK within the book), inviting the reader on a journey of Mind, Concept, Metaphor and Languageof questions and provocations, Aesthetics and Spirituality; to evoke, articulate, and gather all those things that are collectively on our minds, confused yet envisioned, as a Nation, and as a World; of which we all possess pieces, and herein begin to puzzle together these telling elements: Of Politics, History, Religion, Culture, Education, Philosophy and Deconstruction of our Ideologies, whose $old out and manipulated Idea$ have warped the

When it was first published in 1950, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody spent four months on The New York Times best-seller list, and Edward R. Murrow devoted more than two-thirds of one of his nightly CBS programs to a reading from Cuppy's historical sketches, calling it "the history book of the year." The book eventually went through eighteen hardcover printings and ten foreign editions, proof of its impeccable accuracy and deadly, imperishable humor.

This 1995 book is a detailed study of Sicilian life and economy in the 'transitional' reign of Frederick III (1296-1337).

The cultural Cold War in Latin America was waged as a war of values--artistic freedom versus communitarianism, Western values versus national cultures, the autonomy of art versus a commitment to liberation struggles--and at a time when the prestige of literature had never been higher. The projects of the historic avant-garde were revitalized by an anti-capitalist ethos and envisaged as the opposite of the republican state. The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City charts the conflicting universals of this period, the clash between avant-garde and political vanguard. This was also a twilight of literature at the threshold of the great cultural revolution of the seventies and eighties, a revolution to which the Cold War indirectly contributed. In the eighties, civil war and military rule, together with the rapid development of mass culture and communication empires, changed the political and cultural map. A long-awaited work by an eminent Latin Americanist widely read throughout the world, this book will prove indispensable to anyone hoping to understand Latin American literature and society. Jean Franco guides the reader across minefields of cultural debate and histories of highly polarized struggle. Focusing on literary texts by Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa, Roa Bastos, and Juan Carlos Onetti, conducting us through this contested history with the authority of an eyewitness, Franco gives us an engaging overview as involving as it is moving.

Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today’s fractured America. Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called “a very important book” and Putnam, “the de Tocqueville of our generation.” Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans’ changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it’s with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the “social capital” that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection—as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation. At the time of its publication, Putnam’s then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.