Category Archives: Politics and Civic Interest

Divided Highways

Posted on November 7, 2016 by smellincoffee

Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life©  Tom Lewis 2007, 2013416 pages No engineering project in the United States is more impressive than the interstate system; dense with the connections of a street grid, it serves not blocks … Continue reading →

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America First

Posted on September 21, 2016 by smellincoffee

America First: Its History, Culture, and Politics© 1995 Bill Kauffman296 pages For slightly over a year prior to the attack at Pearl Harbor, there existed a civic organization of nearly a million people called the America First Committee. It dedicated … Continue reading →

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Playing to the Edge

Posted on August 11, 2016 by smellincoffee

Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror© Michael Hayden 2016464 pages As someone who became a civil libertarian in response to the increasingly sweeping powers of the surveillance state during the Bush administration, I began reading … Continue reading →

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Glass Houses

Posted on August 2, 2016 by smellincoffee

Glass Houses: Privacy, Secrecy, and Cyber Insecurity in a Transparent World© 2011, 2013 Joel Brenner320 pages Glass Houses, originally titled  America the Vulnerable, outlines some of the major ways that private citizens, corporations, and the government itself are exposed to … Continue reading →

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The Great Debate

Posted on June 29, 2016 by smellincoffee

The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the  Birth of Right and Left© 2013 Yuval Levin296 pages The Great Debate uses the war of letters between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine  to explain the philosophical differences between conservatism and … Continue reading →

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Lights Out

Posted on June 13, 2016 by smellincoffee

Lights Out: A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared© 2015 Ted Koppell288 pages In Lights Out,  investigatory journalist Ted Koppel comments on the vulnerability of the United States’ power grid to a cyber attack,  and reviews the way government agencies, private citizens, … Continue reading →

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Cyber War

Posted on June 10, 2016 by smellincoffee

Cyber War: The Next Threat to Our National Security and What to Do About It© 2010 Richard Clarke, Robert Knake320 pages Soon, the ultimate tool will become…the ultimate enemy! So said the 1982 trailer for Tron, a heavily dated computer … Continue reading →

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Saving Congress from Itself

Posted on June 7, 2016 by smellincoffee

Saving Congress from Itself: Emancipating the States and Empowering their People© 2014 James F. Buckley120 pages According to the latest Gallup poll, only 11% of Americans approve of Congress’ job performance, but virtually every senator or representative who runs for … Continue reading →

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Big Box Swindle

Posted on June 5, 2016 by smellincoffee

Big Box Swindle:  The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses© 2006 Stacy Mitchell336 pages What happened? Where did America go? ..everything’s Wal-Mart all the time, no more mom & pop five and dime.. (Merle Haggard, … Continue reading →

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On the Grid

Posted on May 14, 2016 by smellincoffee

On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems That Make Our World Work© 2010 Scott Huler256 pages If modern humans have retained a penchant for magical thinking, little wonder. Our homes accomplish marvels seemingly by the … Continue reading →

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