primer to break political deadlock

America's political system is dysfunctional. While this is a widely held view, it is a problem that - so far - has proved intractable. After every election voters discover yet again that political "leaders" aren't leading. Instead they are simply quarreling in a never-ending battle between the two warring tribes, the Republicans and Democrats. In this critically important book, a distinguished statesman and thinker identifies exactly how our political and governing systems reward intransigence, discourage compromise, and indeed undermine our democracy. He then describes exactly what must be done to banish the negative effects of partisan warfare from our political system. As a former Congressman, Mickey Edwards witnessed firsthand how important legislative battles can devolve into struggles not over principle but over party advantage. He offers graphic examples of how this problem has intensified and reveals how political battles in the Obama era have become nothing more than conflicts between party machines. Edwards'solutions - specific, practical, fair, and original - show the way to break the stranglehold of the political party system. The "Parties Versus the People" offers hope for a fundamental renewal of American democracy.

Eisenhower - Going Home to Glory

When President Dwight Eisenhower left Washington, D.C., at the end of his second term, he retired to a farm in historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that he had bought a decade earlier. Living on the farm with the former president and his wife, Mamie, were his son, daughter-in-law, and four grandchildren, the oldest of whom, David, was just entering his teens. In this engaging and fascinating memoir, David Eisenhower—whose previous book about his grandfather, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—provides a uniquely intimate account of the final years of the former president and general, one of the giants of the twentieth century. In Going Home to Glory, Dwight Eisenhower emerges as both a beloved and forbidding figure. He was eager to advise, instruct, and assist his young grandson, but as a general of the army and president, he held to the highest imaginable standards. At the same time, Eisenhower was trying to define a new political role for himself.





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Woodward "Obama's Wars"

The book, "Obama's Wars," details how the Obama Administration was -- and is -- extremely divided over strategy in Afghanistan. According to the book, the president said "I have two years with the public on this" and asked his advisers how to avoid a big escalation in the nine-year, U.S.-led Afghanistan war. 

JIMMY CARTER - White House Diary

Each day during his presidency, Jimmy Carter made several entries in a private diary, recording his thoughts, impressions, delights, and frustrations. He offered unvarnished assessments of cabinet members, congressmen, and foreign leaders; he narrated the progress of secret negotiations such as those that led to the Camp David Accords. When his four-year term came to an end in early 1981, the diary amounted to more than five thousand pages. But this extraordinary document has never been made public-until now.

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