Books

On July 9, 2008, the New America Foundation hosted Michael A. Cohen, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, to discuss his new book, Live From the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Speeches of the Twentieth Century and How they Shaped Modern America. He was joined by Jeremy Rosner, Former Speechwriter for Bill Clinton, and James Pinkerton, senior fellow at the New America Foundation. Steve Coll, president and CEO of the New America Foundation, moderated the discussion.… more

In this collection of 27 of the most influential presidential campaign speeches of the twentieth century, Michael A. Cohen brings to life the words that have shaped American politics over the last century. From the legendary, like William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" and Ronald Reagan's call for a "national crusade to make America great again"; to the infamous, including Richard Nixon's maudlin "Checkers" speech and Bill Clinton's rhetorical broadside against the rapper Sister Souljah; to the poignant, such as… more

The United States stands at a historic crossroads; essential to the world yet unappreciated. America’s decline in popularity over the last eight years has been nothing short of astonishing. With wit, brilliance, and deep affection, Ted Widmer, a scholar and a former presidential speechwriter, reminds everyone why this great nation had so far to fall. In a sweeping history of centuries, Ark of the Liberties recounts America’s ambition to be the world’s guarantor of liberty. It is a… more

* This article was excerpted from "Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream" by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam.

The Old Consensus

When Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 presidential election by 16 million votes, carrying only six states and faring worse than any major-party candidate since Alf Landon in 1936, nobody seriously entertained the possibility that conservatism would rise from his defeat, let alone that the race might mark the beginning of a… more

Of all the countries to emerge from the wreckage of the Second World War, perhaps none overcame post-war adversity quite as successfully as Japan. By the time the country surrendered in 1945, it was in dire straits. It had lost some 2.8 million people during the war, 3.8% of its 1939 population. Thousands more were so severely maimed or ill that they would never resume productive… more

Is there an upside to the worst foreign policy disaster in U.S. history? Maybe. The current war in Iraq should definitively, permanently settle a handful of critical questions about American conduct in the world. Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War provides a list of those questions and even ventures some answers in the form of key lessons from Iraq.

Join us for a lively discussion of these lessons with noted contributors. The panel will be followed by… more

...Steve Coll's outstanding new book not only shatters various myths about Osama bin Laden - notably the extent of his personal fortune - it inculpates the most Westernised branches of his family in Arabia's vulgar modernisation that the terrorist is so murderously exercised by...LINK

To paraphrase an old axiom: You don’t buy water, you only rent it. So why did Americans spend nearly $11 billion on bottled water in 2006, when we could have guzzled tap water at up to about one ten-thousandth the cost? The facile answer is marketing, marketing and more marketing, but Elizabeth Royte goes much deeper into the drink in “Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It,” streaming trends cultural, economic, political and hydrological into an… more

On June 27, 2008, Peter Gosselin, L.A. Times National Economics Correspondent, offered an atypical view of the economy that faces the average American family. Rather than the usual top-down macroeconomic perspective, he talked about how the economy looks “out the front door”. He was accompanied by comments from Ellen Seidman, Director of New America’s Financial Services and Education Project, to discuss Gosselin's new book, “High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families.” An MP3 audio recording can… more

Pennsylvania Avenue started out as a mere spoke on one of L’Enfant’s radial sketches of the new federal city, connecting the would-be Capitol with the would-be White House. Today it is among the country’s most celebrated thoroughfares, right up there with Madison Avenue, Wall Street and Route 66. It is not much of an exaggeration to call it, as this book does, “America’s Main Street.”

But it is also a street that has radically changed over the last generation, not only… more