#vspoliticalselects

“Ratification was by no means a foregone conclusion. The proposed Constitution transferred many powers formerly held by sovereign states to a new federal government. Only a few years past, Americans had rejected British rule, and many now feared that creating a powerful central government was not the best idea.”

In this essential edition, acclaimed historian Ray Raphael guides us through the Constitution clause by clause and amendment by amendment, illuminating the origins of its content, the intentions of its framers, its evolution throughout the centuries, and its meaning today. Thoughtful and nuanced, lively and highly readable, this Constitution is for all of us to read and refer to—the ultimate political fact-checking source for every American. 

"As recently as a decade ago the prevailing view was also that great wealth trickled downward - that the rich made investments in jobs and growth that benefited all of us. So even if we doubted that we ourselves would be wealthy, we assumed we'd still benefit from the fortunes made by a few. But that view, too, has lost its sheen. Americans can see that nothing has trickled down."

"It should be remembered that you can threaten the enemy and get away with it.

From the founder of modern radical activism in America, Saul Alinsky, whose the bestselling classic Rules for Radicals has reinvigorated the political left in America. “Organizational genius” Alinsky lays out the thirteen rules that all have-nots must follow to wage a successful campaign against the haves. Wielding tremendous influence to this day, and used as a bible by leading organizers since it was first published almost fifty years ago, these vital words of wisdom are written with humor, wit and unassailable power.

"Although American political life has rarely been touched by the most acute varieties of class conflict, it has served again and again as an arena for uncommonly angry minds. Today this fact is most evident on the extreme right wing, which has shown, particularly in the Goldwater movement, how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority."

A timely reissue of acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter’s authoritative and unforgettable essay. First published in 1964 and no less relevant half a century later, The Paranoid Style in American Politics scrutinizes the conditions that gave rise to the extreme right of the 1950s and the 1960s, and presages the ascendancy of the Tea Party movement and, now, Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.