A new biography by American Museum of Natural History curator and trained biologist Niles Eldredge is an excellent source of information about the biographical details of the scientist's life, as well as a careful and not too arcane account of the basic theories at which Darwin arrived.

In December 2005, the New York Times reporter, James Risen, created quite a stir when he reported that the Bush Administration had assigned the National Security Agency to engage in putatively illegal wiretapping of telephone and email communications within the U.S.

A new book on archaeology makes the claim that "our understanding of our own origins was changed forever" by a very significant dig in Turkey. Michael Balter, author of "The Goddess and the Bull: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization," is a correspondent for the journal "Science."

While happy to wage imperialist wars abroad, the very heart of the empire itself is beset by appalling levels of poverty, deeply rooted racism and a lack of social welfare provision that makes many western European countries look positively benevolent.

According to Thomas Friedman, the "world is flat" or fast becoming flat as information technology transforms world capitalism, giving everyone a chance to share in the enormous global pie. Together with this hopeful world scene, Friedman's new book, The World is Flat (2005), voices the typical alarmism that defines the mindset of modern capitalists.

This is a handbook for on the job activists, for those who find themselves living under a virtual dictatorship when they go to work. Slaughter quotes Dan La Botz, "when we get to work, we lose our rights. The boss takes over, a little dictator in the banana republic that is our home away from home." "Banana republic" may be an objectionable term, but the point is well made.

Kurt Vonnegut, at age 82, has published over two dozen books.  His latest is called "A Man Without a Country."  It's a book that is brutally honest in its hopelessness, in fact – I think – overly hopeless, and yet humorous.

If the accomplishments of this book could be summarized in a single statement, it would be that Ollman successfully presents Marx’s thought as a coherent unity by systematically explaining the apparent difficulties, contradictions, and various emphases in his work that have long puzzled, perplexed and even divided Marxist thinkers.

The "W" Effect, edited by radio personality and author Laura Flanders, is an excellent resource for examining the Bush administration’s record on issues that impact women’s lives, and for that matter are directly linked to all us.

How did the universe begin? Where do the galaxies, stars, and planets come from? These questions have puzzled humans since they first looked up.

Not since the mass spraying of Agent Orange in Vietnam has there been such a heinous crime against humanity as that now being perpetrated on the people of Colombia.

Here is another of our occasional book roundups consisting of short notices of works we have not been able to fully review. If any of our readers are inspired to read one of these books and wishes to write a full review, please contact pabooks@politicalaffairs.net.

Here is another of our occasional book round ups consisting of short notices of recent. These are essentially meta-reviews (reviews of reviews). If any of our readers are inspired to read one of these books and wishes to write a full review, please contact pabooks@politicalaffairs.net.

Today we know more about the civilization of Ancient Egypt than has been known since its own time. We must come to grips with his new knowledge, and especially with the recovered literature of the Egyptians and "attempt" as Assmann says, "to enter into a dialogue with the newly readable messages of ancient Egyptian culture and thus to reestablish them as an integral part of our cultural memory."

The author is a well-known commentator on Pacifica Radio, particularly "Democracy Now" where his reports on the illegal US invasion of Iraq have garnered a wide and appreciative audience.

Here is another of our occasional book roundups consisting of short notices of works we have not been able to fully review. These are essentially meta-reviews (reviews of reviews). If any of our readers are inspired to read one of these books and wish to write a full review, please contact pabooks@politicalaffairs.net.

Imagine you could take years and years to carefully study political history, that you could read numerous sources of political news from around the world, that you could do your own research into declassified government documents and little known areas of information...Chomsky knows an incredible amount of information and is brilliant at analyzing it. He does so without any theory or pretense, using a vocabulary that any high school graduate has mastered.

COMPARING the destruction of the twin towers with the Reichstag fire is not likely to win you any accolades in US government circles, but then Gary Indiana is not out to win praise from them.

"I TOLD the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11."

Niall Ferguson, Herzog Professor of Financial History at the Stern School of Business, Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (which continues to bring to global scholarship the weltanschauung of Herbert and the praxis of J. Edgar) has written for hip Marxists a campy coffee table book titled Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and Its Lessons for Global Power.