The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right by Thane Rosenbaum Quote:American culture is obsessed with the law, the legal system, and lawyers. Much in our everyday lives revolves around the law, and we are bombarded daily by cultural images of lawyers and the legal system at work. We indulge in dramatic television shows and feature films about lawyers, we read legal thrillers, and observe trials as they unfold. Many of us wish for our children to attend law school and become lawyers. At the same time, most people report that they don't trust lawyers and hold them and the legal system in very low esteem. Those who have had unfavorable experiences with the law have walked away bitter and resentful. Some have observed that lawyers operate according to their own professional worldview, one that is emotionally detached and unfeeling, overly logical, technical, narrow, bureaucratic, and insensitive to basic human emotions and moral principles. We are, paradoxically, both fascinated and repulsed by our legal system. The dramatic allure of judgment keeps us enthralled; the absence of moral conviction in the law makes us furious. In The Myth of Moral Justice, law professor and novelist Thane Rosenbaum suggests that this paradox stems from the fact that citizens and the courts are at odds when it comes to their definitions of justice. Individuals seek out lawyers and enter courtrooms because they have an emotional grievance as well as a legal complaint. They expect the law to do the right thing. Yet our legal system, bent on separating the legal from the emotional, willfully ignores basic moral criteria. As a result, the justice system undermines truth, perpetuates secrets and lies, prevents victims from telling their stories, promotes adversarial enmity over community repair, and fails to equate legal duty with moral responsibility. Legal outcomes that make sense to lawyers and judges feel simply wrong to most people and enrage others. With a lawyer's expertise and a novelist's sensibility, Rosenbaum tackles complicated philosophical questions about our longing for moral justice. He also takes a critical look at what our legal system does to the spirits of those who must come before the law, along with those who practice within it. Rosenbaum reinforces his themes with artistic representations of lawyers and legal systems from the classic works of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Franz Kafka, along with various important feature films that illuminate why our legal system fails to do what's right.Lawyer-turned-novelist Rosenbaum argues for the ideal of a morally centered legal system rather than our current one, which is so rigid and formulaic that it rarely delivers just outcomes. What most often brings people to court are "indignities done to the spirit" that require more than the remedie s of punishment and monetary compensation. Sometimes it is spiritual and restorative remedies that are required, such as simply giving victims the opportunity to speak and be heard. Instead, our system is plagued with machinations from plea bargaining, settlements, evidence rules, technicalities, and widespread lying under oath, which lead to a loss of faith or, worse, untreated emotional injuries that get played out in conflicts, riots, and vengeance. Looking at literature and movies, from The Verdict to The Merchant of Venice, and real-life trials, including the O. J. Simpson trial, Rosenbaum explores the moral complexities within the law and human lives and our never-ending fascination and frustration with the law. This is a thoughtful look at the shortcomings of the American legal system. Vanessa BushCopyright

I'm currently reading the following book, which is well-written and has lots of important ideas:The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachswww.amazon.com/End-Povert...04-7126359Quote:Amazon.comCelebrated economist Jeffrey Sachs has a plan to eliminate extreme poverty around the world by 2025. If you think that is too ambitious or wildly unrealistic, you need to read this book. His focus is on the one billion poorest individuals around the world who are caught in a poverty trap of disease, physical isolation, environmental stress, political instability, and lack of access to capital, technology, medicine, and education. The goal is to help these people reach the first rung on the "ladder of economic development" so they can rise above mere subsistence level and achieve some control over their economic futures and their lives. To do this, Sachs proposes nine specific steps, which he explains in great detail in The End of Poverty. Though his plan certainly requires the help of rich nations, the financial assistance Sachs calls for is surprisingly modest--more than is now provided, but within the bounds of what has been promised in the past. For the U.S., for instance, it would mean raising foreign aid from just 0.14 percent of GNP to 0.7 percent. Sachs does not view such help as a handout but rather an investment in global economic growth that will add to the security of all nations. In presenting his argument, he offers a comprehensive education on global economics, including why globalization should be embraced rather than fought, why international institutions such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank need to play a strong role in this effort, and the reasons why extreme poverty exists in the midst of great wealth. He also shatters some persistent myths about poor people and shows how developing nations can do more to help themselves.Despite some crushing statistics, The End of Poverty is a hopeful book. Based on a tremendous amount of data and his own experiences working as an economic advisor to the UN and several individual nations, Sachs makes a strong moral, economic, and political case for why countries and individuals should battle poverty with the same commitment and focus normally reserved for waging war. This important book not only makes the end of poverty seem realistic, but in the best interest of everyone on the planet, rich and poor alike. --Shawn Carkonen From Publishers WeeklySachs came to fame advising "shock therapy" for moribund economies in the 1980s (with arguably positive results); more recently, as director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, he has made news with a plan to end global "extreme poverty"--which, he says, kills 20,000 people a day--within 20 years. While much of the plan has been known to economists and government leaders for a number of years (including Kofi Annan, to whom Sachs is special advisor), this is Sachs's first systematic exposition of it for a general audience, and it is a landmark book.For on-the-ground research in reducing disease, poverty, armed conflict and environmental damage, Sachs has been to more than 100 countries, representing 90% of the world's population. The book combines his practical experience with sharp professional analysis and clear exposition. Over 18 chapters, Sachs builds his case carefully, offering a variety of case studies, detailing small-scale projects that have worked and crunching large amounts of data. His basic argument is that "[W]hen the preconditions of basic infrastructure (roads, power, and ports) and human capital (health and education) are in place, markets are powerful engines of development." In order to tread "the path to peace and prosperity," Sachs believes it is encumbant upon successful market economies to bring the few areas of the world that still need help onto "the ladder of development." Writing in a straightfoward but engaging first person, Sachs keeps his tone even whether discussing failed states or thriving ones. For the many who will buy this book but, perhaps, not make it all the way through, chapters 12 through 14 contain the blueprint for Sachs's solution to poverty, with the final four making a rigorous case for why rich countries (and individuals) should collectively undertake it--and why it is affordable for them to do so. If there is any one work to put extreme poverty back onto the global agenda, this is it. Sachs would totally disagree with this statement from the review of the Liberia book.Quote:Pham argues that these states must take responsibility for their own reconstruction and reconstitution as democratic nations, without Western intervention, if they are ever to emerge from their current struggle. Edited by: JulianTheApostate at: 6/6/07 1:32 am

Chris, I'd be interested in the Liberia book, and having it be the official selection for next quarter will make me a lot more likely to participate.

Then let's try to find the very best book on Liberia and get it in this suggestion thread. Or do you think the one I listed is pretty decent?

Cool beans. THe book you suggested looks like it might be worthwhile. Here are two other suggestions I found on Amazon:The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War(This one might appeal to the forum at large, since it discusses the religious factor of the Liberian civil war. I don't know a hell of a lot about the current situation in Liberia, so I'm not even sure what that factor is, but if nothing else that component of the book ought to contribute to discussion. A potential drawback -- some of the reviews describe the book as having a very "academic" style, which may be a turn to people who might otherwise get in on a discussion like this. We might do better to look for something more accessible.)The Evolution of Deadly Conflict in Liberia: From 'Paternaltarianism' to State Collapse(Looks like a broader approach, and based on the book description, I'd say it probably provides a more systematic view of the history of Liberia. I also like the approach: the author is specifically trying to answer the question of why civil conflict keeps taking place there, which is part of the reason I raised the topic in the first place. The big problem here is gonna be price: so far as I can tell, the book is only available in hardback.)Ps. here is the Amazon.com browse page for Books

Anyone else want to chime in here with your opinion? We should put the next poll up during this weekend and we could use some more feedback on the current book suggestions.Mad, I will read up on those other two books right now.

Here is a review of the book you suggested, from Foreign Affairs magazine.And EzCode Parsing Error:=]http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_tod ... lkins.html]here[ is a review of "The Mask of Anarchy", which says that Ellis' discussion of the religious component is problematic. If that's true, then we may be better off using a book that doesn't make so much of an emphasis on religion.

If you're interested in African history, you might want to read this book:The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair by Martin MeredithThough it's excellent, at 700 pages it wouldn't be an appropriate BookTalk selection.

Interventions by Noam Chomsky "Chomsky is a global phenomenon . . . perhaps the most widely read voice on foreign policy on the planet."-The New York Times Book ReviewInterventions is Noam Chomsky at his best. Not since his all-time best-selling title, 9/11, published in the Open Media series in 2001, have readers had a timely, short, easy-to-read, affordable Chomsky. Unlike 9/11, Interventions is a writerly work-a series of more than thirty tightly argued essays aimed at various aspects of US power and politics in the post-9/11 world. While critical of US military interventions around the globe, each piece in the book is in itself an intellectual intervention aimed at raising public ire about the consequences of US use of power at home and abroad. Interventions' subjects span from 9/11 and the Iraq war to Social Security and Intelligent Design, South America and Asia, the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the election of Hamas, Hurricane Katrina, and the US concept of "just war." According to BusinessWeek, "With relentless logic, Chomsky bids us to listen closely to what our leaders tell us-and to discern what they are leaving out. . . . Agree with him or not, we lose out by not listening." Chomsky's Interventions delivers what readers want: an accessible set of skeleton keys for opening up a wide range of global issues dominating today's political landscape.Since 2002, the New York Times Syndicate has been distributing op-eds written by the pre-eminent foreign policy critic and scholar of our time, Noam Chomsky. The New York Times Syndicate is part of the same company as the New York Times newspaper, and while readers around the world have had a chance to regularly read Chomsky's articles, the New York Times newspaper has never published a single one. Only a few regional newspapers in the US have picked up the Op-eds, such as the Register Guard, the Dayton Daily News, and the Knoxville Voice. Internationally, the Op-eds have appeared in the mainstream British press including the International Herald Tribune, the Guardian, and the Independent. Now, City Lights Books has just published a complete collection of these 1000 word Op-eds in a single book called Interventions.

The Chomsky suggestion is one I would love to read.Here goes another one: The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Really Matter (Peter Singer)Publishers Weekly:Quote:Ethicist Singer and co-author Mason (Animal Factories) document corporate deception, widespread waste and desensitization to inhumane practices in this consideration of ethical eating. The authors examine three families' grocery-buying habits and the motivations behind those choices. One woman says she's "absorbed in my life and my family...and I don't think very much about the welfare of the meat I'm eating," while a wealthier husband and wife mull the virtues of "triple certified" coffee, buying local and avoiding chocolate harvested by child slave labor, though "no one seems to be pondering that as they eat." In investigating food production conditions, the authors' first-hand experiences alternate between horror and comedy, from slaughterhouses to artificial turkey-insemination ("the hardest, fastest, dirtiest, most disgusting, worst-paid work" ). This sometimes-graphic expose is not myopic: profitability and animal welfare are given equal consideration, though the reader finishes the book agreeing with the authors' conclusion that "America's food industry seeks to keep Americans in the dark about the ethical components of their food choices." A no-holds-barred treatise on ethical consumption, this is an important read for those concerned with the long, frightening trip between farm and plate.Audiofile:Quote:If Rick Adamson ranted and raved his way through this treatise on the ethical and economic repercussions of eating animals, it would be easy to ignore. But he delivers it so objectively that he gives the issue even more gravitas. This work, by a Princeton ethicist and an animal rights activist and writer, demonstrates why Americans should take a hard look at the food they eat. Even if it were possible to ignore the facts of factory farming's cruelty to animals, the listener can't ignore the environmental and economic impact of food production. It's also a good handbook for conscientious shoppers trying to figure out labels like "certified humane," "fair trade," and others. This book could change your life.