David Abshire - Böcker

Putting America's House In Order: The Nation as a Family is a call to action for the leaders of this generation to endow their heirs with the kinds of values, prospects, and prosperity that has sustained the American family, personally and nationally, for two hundred years. The authors' proposals are specific. They range from ways to reach a zero deficit budget to substituting a tax code that favors savings, investment, and growth. They also delineate the elements of leadership—local, state, and national—that are necessary to meet America's greatest challenge since the winning of the Cold War.There is a feeling among the electorate that something is terribly wrong with America and its leadership. This perception defines one of those rare moments when sustained change is possible at the local, state, and national levels. But change demands bold action. Taking their cue from the courageous Strengthening of America Commission, chaired by Senators Sam Nunn and Pete Domenici, the authors lay down a comprehensive blueprint including: a 7-year write-down to a zero deficit budget; strict caps on the growth of non-Social Security entitlements; and the substitution of a tax code that favors savings, investment, and growth. The authors also call for a process of deregulation that develops innovative market approaches through careful and inclusive dialogue.Abshire and Brower call for the experiments underway in our states and localities, to summon the creativity of the American business revolution. They put forth a cogent analysis of the leadership problem in our public life and the need for character, strategic direction, and vision. And ultimately, it is the idea of the American family, personally and nationally, to which the authors turn for the ideas that animate these changes and to define those who will be the enduring beneficiaries. In short, they urge a reemphasis on the ^Iunum^R in our national motto, ^Ie pluribus unum.^R

This absorbing intellectual history vividly recreates the unique social, political, and philosophical milieu in which the extraordinary promise of Einstein and scientific contemporaries took root and flourished into greatness. Feuer shows us that no scientific breakthrough really happens by chance; it takes a certain intellectual climate, a decisive tension within the very fabric of society, to spur one man's potential genius into world-shaking achievement. Feuer portrays such men of high imaginative powers as Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, de Broglie, influenced by and influencing the social worlds in which they lived.

This absorbing intellectual history vividly recreates the unique social, political, and philosophical milieu in which the extraordinary promise of Einstein and scientific contemporaries took root and flourished into greatness. Feuer shows us that no scientific breakthrough really happens by chance; it takes a certain intellectual climate, a decisive tension within the very fabric of society, to spur one man's potential genius into world-shaking achievement. Feuer portrays such men of high imaginative powers as Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, de Broglie, influenced by and influencing the social worlds in which they lived.

The late Ambassador David Abshire lived a quintessentially American life, one that spanned the Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War. He graduated from West Point, fought in the Korean War, earned a doctorate in history from Georgetown University, and served in government during the Vietnam War. He also co-founded one of the world’s preeminent think tanks in the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Along the way he became a personal adviser to multiple presidents, earning a reputation as one of Washington, D.C.’s truly wise men. All of which makes the warnings contained in these memoirs so topical. Writing near the end of his life, Abshire concludes that our country has lost its sense of strategic direction and common purpose. Our domestic politics have entered an era of hyper-partisanship and gridlock, even as dangerous challenges to U.S. interests gather overseas. America, Abshire concludes, is in deep trouble. In this extraordinary final love letter to his country, Abshire tells his fellow citizens how to reclaim American exceptionalism. That journey begins with rejecting the great incivility that has infected our national discourse. That fundamental lack respect among political partisans has eroded our trust in each other, and faith in our leaders. The only way to recapture them, Abshire argues persuasively, is to reinvigorate a politics of lively, robust debate within a framework of respect and civil behavior. Before it is too late.