One Nation: America Remembers September 11, 2001
Author: LIFE Magazin
With an Introduction by Rudolph Guiliani
During our nation's most trying times, it has been Life that has provided the images that help us understand, remember, and in the process, renew. Now the editors of Life have assembled a moving, brilliantly illustrated account of tragedy and triumph. This is about firemen going in amidst the rubble, but it is also about a Frenchman in Paris holding up a sign that says, "We are all Americans." This is about our leaders taking charge, but it is also about schoolchildren in Iowa hanging an American flag on a tree in their backyard. Beginning with the history of lower Manhattan, the book explains what happened on September 11, profiles many of the heroes, victims and rescuers (fireman, police, doctors, and rescue dogs among them), and paints an inspiring portrait if a nation and world coming together in sadness, pride and resolve.The book is more than photographs. Explanatory text runs throughout, and the book also includes a selection of original essays about America and September 11, written by such notables as Maya Angelou, Thomas Keneally (Schindler's List), Stephen Ambrose, Melissa Fay Greene (The Temple Bombing), Andrei Codrescu, Gordon Parks, Doug Stanton (In Harm's Way), Bob Greene (Duty), James Bradley (Flags of Our Fathers), and others.
Ten percent of the cover price of this book will be donated to the September 11th Fund of the New York Community Trust and the United Way of New York City. The purpose of this fund is to help address the immediate and longer-term needs of victims, their families, and communities affected by the events of September 11, 2001.
New interesting textbook: Medline or Fitness for Life
Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country and It's Time to Take It Back
Author: Jim Hightower
Its Time to Take It Back
Author Biography: National radio commentator, columnist, public speaker, political sparkplug and author of If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be: consumers, working families, environmentalists, small business, and just-plain-folks.
Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Hightower believes that the true political spectrum is not right to left, but top to bottom, and he has become a leading national voice for the 80 percent of the public who no longer find themselves within shouting distance of the Washington and Wall Street powers at the top.
Known as "America's Most Popular Populist," Hightower is a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, spreading the message of progressive populism all across the American grassroots.
He broadcasts daily radio commentaries that are carried in more than 100 commercial and public stations, on the web, on Armed Forces Radio, Radio for Peace International, One World Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.
Each month, he publishes a populist political newsletter, "The Hightower Lowdown," which now has more than 100,000 subscribers and is the fastest growing political publication in America. The hard-hitting Lowdown has received both the Alternative Press Award and the Independent Press Association Award for best national newsletter.
Constantly on the hustings, he delivers about 100 speeches a year to colleges, union meetings, environmental groups, citizen rallies, farm and food organizations, social justice gatherings, teachers, legal activists, community groups, and others.
His newspaper column is carried in more than 75 independent newspapers, magazines, and other publications. He is also a frequent contributor to The Nation, America's leading progressive journal.
A best-selling author, his latest book, THIEVES IN HIGH PLACES: They've Stolen Our Country and Its Time to Take it Back is published by Viking. His previous books are If the Gods Had Meant Us To Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates, There's Nothing In the Middle Of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos, Eat Your Heart Out, and Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times.
He frequently appears on television and radio programs, bringing a passionate populist viewpoint that rarely gets into the mass media. In addition, he works closely with the alternative media, and in all of his work he keeps his ever-ready Texas humor up front, practicing the credo of an old Yugoslavian proverb: "You can fight the gods and still have fun."
Hightower also devotes much of his energy to revitalizing grassroots progressive politics with his nationwide "Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour." Sort-of like a county fair of progressive activism, these festivals include top-notch speakers, great music, how-to workshops, food, drink, games, clowns & fun for the whole family. In 2002, the Rolling Thunder Tour traveled to Austin, Chicago, Tucson, Seattle, Minneapolis and Duluth. The Tour will continue to roll on in 2003 with the aim of becoming a permanent fixture on the American political landscape.
Hightower was raised in Denison, Texas, in a family of small business people, tenant farmers, and working folks. A graduate of the University of North Texas, he worked in Washington as legislative aide to Sen. Ralph Yarborough of Texas before returning to his home state, where he was editor of the feisty biweekly, The Texas Observer.
He then made what he calls "the only downward career move you can make from journalism" by entering politics. He was twice elected to statewide office, serving two productive and boisterous terms as Texas Agriculture Commissioner (1983-1991).
Since then, Hightower has become his own media conglomerate, using his writings and voice to reach millions of people a year, raising issues, raising hope and raising hell. Describing himself as a Luddite with a Website, Hightower provides updated information about his newsletter, radio commentaries, books, speaking schedule, and other work at jimhightower.com.
Publishers Weekly
Populist radio commentator, columnist and author Hightower (If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates) delivers a timely manifesto for progressives living in what he calls a nation ruled by "a confederacy of kleptocrats." In Hightower's view of the current political situation, "King George the W" reigns atop a greedy hierarchy of corporate-politico corruption in which many politicians have become no more than handmaidens of corporations and the super-rich. Devotees of Hightower's populist politics and his sardonic style will find much to admire, but the average reader will consider the book a jumble of loosely connected treatises laced with distracting sidebars and peppered with hyperbolic forebodings of government evil. Hightower warns the reader, "Big Brother is no longer a paranoid's nightmare, but is alive and very much on the prowl." Hightower's prose at times bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the propaganda he condemns. While he does offer inspirational stories of community action and even practical information (e.g., how to contact a long list of public interest groups), the book's disorganization is baffling: he careens in one chapter from professional sports through the fate of public libraries to the history of Santa Claus. In addition, Hightower's quasi-comical, off-the-wall pronouncements (suggesting, for instance, that CEOs of companies with tax-free Bermuda bank accounts be required to wear Bermuda shorts at all times) tend to stifle his worthy, impassioned calls for action. Progressives will need a more comprehensible spokesperson if they hope, as Hightower envisions, to "take [America] back." Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
A former Texas public official turned author and lecturer, Hightower (If The Gods Had Meant Us To Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates) takes on the conservative political establishment, calling them "kleptocrats" and arguing that the nation is ruled by thieves who have stolen democracy from the people and used the levers of government to enrich themselves and their fat-cat friends. President George W. Bush, the "Thief-in-Chief," comes in for especially harsh criticism. With biting and often on-target wit, the author attempts to speak truth to power, calling on the public to wake up and reclaim the democracy they have lost. Hightower is a gifted humorist who often brings his considerable talents to the defense of a brand of liberal populism that has difficulty finding a voice in post-9/11 America. This book won't change any minds, and it certainly won't appeal to conservatives or supporters of the President, but it will entertain Bush's critics and help establish Hightower as one of the stronger voices of liberalism in the country.-Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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