"What is clear from Ms. Peters' account is that there are people on both sides who have a large stake in making sure the Afghanistan conflict continues . . . Ms. Peters makes some excellent policy suggestions at the end of her book. She is sensitive to the situation of small Afghan farmers, who would be crushed by debt to traffickers if their crops were eradicated. Instead, she suggests that counternarcotics policy should be oriented toward netting the big traffickers, including, if necessary, the traffickers who work inside official government positions . . . In addition to these policies, Ms. Peters maintains that any counternarcotics strategy will fail without the accompaniment of classical counterinsurgency tactics: protecting the population and bringing insurgents into the political realm."—Ian Chesley, Far Eastern Economic Review

“Doug Schoen offers a number of very intelligent, bipartisan solutions to make American government more responsive and effective. The book provides a road map to making our system work more like our Founding Fathers envisioned.”—Bill Clinton

"An excellent introduction to China for anyone in search of solid but concise information about that complicated country. Packed with facts and figures, but enlivened with firsthand observations."—Lucian W. Pye, The New York Times

"Is the United Nations boring and irrelevant? This book certainly is not. Call the organization a 'haven of hypocrites' or 'humanity's best hope,' tote up its many miseries and few glories. But if you want to understand this vexing creature with its 192 heads, The Best Intentions is one of the finest guides around, indeed, the best in recent memory . . . Traub, always the dispassionate analyst, neither condemns nor condones. His is a melancholy tale, beautifully written and meticulously researched—about a hero who was not so much flawed as indecisive, whose clout could never measure up to his lofty purpose. How could it? A secretary general is precisely what the title says: a secretary beholden to 192 bosses, all seeking power while pretending to serve the common good."—Josef Joffe, The New York Times

"Wilentz's concise and clear short biography (part of the remarkable and useful series of short presidential biographies under the editorship of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.) reflects the research behind his accomplished Rise of American Democracy."—Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs

“This compact, meaty volume ought to be on the reading list of every candidate for national office in November's elections. In an age of cant and baloney, Andrew Bacevich offers a bracing slap of reality. The Limits of Power is gracefully written and easy to read . . . chockablock with provocative ideas and stern judgments. Bacevich's brand of intellectual assuredness is rare in today's public debates. Many of our talking heads and commentators are cocksure, of course, but few combine confidence with knowledge and deep thought the way Bacevich does here. His big argument is elegant and powerful.”—The Washington Post