Books published by Potomac Books Inc

Several years ago, Eric Friedman decided to donate a substantial percentage of his income to charity. As many people do when making a big decision, he researched the best path he should take to accomplish his goal.

In America, 2.3 million people-a population about the size of Houston's, the country's fourth-largest city-live behind bars. Sick Justice explores the economic, social, and political forces that hijacked the criminal justice system to create this bizarre situation.

Since September 11, 2001, the extensive literature on the United States' image abroad, by popular pundits and academics alike, leaves the reader with a false impression that foreigners' views of America are normally negative and impervious to change. In fact they are complex, emotional, frequently internally contradictory, and often change quickly.

Since the conclusion of World War II, the Korean people and the international community have contemplated a unified peninsula, but a divided Korea remains one of the last visible vestiges of the Cold War.

"A Free Man of Color and His Hotel" weaves the story of a uniquely successful black businessman into the burgeoning post - Civil War political struggle that pitted the federal government against the states' desire to remain autonomous. Born in Washington, D.C., James Wormley worked as a hacker in his father's livery stable and a steward on Mississippi River steamboats before establishing his own catering and boardinghouse businesses. During a period of limited opportunity for African Americans, he built and operated D.C.'s luxurious Wormley Hotel at a time when most financial and governmental business was conducted in hotels. Not only did a number of notable diplomats and politicians live at the hotel, but because of its location in the commerical and political center of Washington, Wormley also hosted the city's movers and shakers. Wormley's rise, however, occurred as three landmark decisions by the Supreme Court effectively dismantled Reconstruction and led to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision that legalized segregation. This cautionary tale illustrates how key Supreme Court decisions hindered other African Americans' potential successes after Reconstruction. By examining the issue of states' rights in terms of one man's against-the-odds success, Carol Gelderman shows how these same issues are still relevant in a post-segregation nation.

It began as a Depression era, winner-take-all challenge between two Chicago stockbrokers, one of them a flamboyant daredevil with more guts than money and the other with more money than sense. It erupted into a national news story, one never told in its entirety - until "King of Clubs: The Great Golf Marathon of 1938". In September 1938, thirty-two-year-old J. Smith Ferebee agreed to play 600 holes of golf in eight cities, from Los Angeles to New York, over four consecutive days. The ordeal meant playing more than thirty-three rounds in just ninety-six hours. The stakes: Ferebee's friend and former business partner, Fred Tuerk agreed that if Ferebee succeeded, he would pay the $30,000 mortgage on 296 acres of waterfront Virginia land on Ferebee's behalf. Brokers on LaSalle Street in Chicago piled up bets. Before long, the marathon was estimated to be worth $100,000, or well more than $1 million today. Playing despite a severe leg injury, Ferebee faced one obstacle after another, including a gambler's brazen sabotage attempt in Philadelphia. He started the morning rounds before dawn and ended the afternoon rounds in darkness, with lighting provided by spectators' cars, local fire departments, or flares. Remarkably, Ferebee never lost a ball. Combining the appeal of "Seabiscuit" and "The Greatest Game", "King of Clubs" will amaze and entertain readers from opening drive to final putt.

William Douglas Pawley was a cross between Indiana Jones and Donald Trump. A self-made millionaire with little education, he immersed himself in whatever business venture he chose and usually came out on top. As a sales representative for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Pawley travelled to China in the 1930s and positioned himself as the one source of American military aircraft for the Chinese government. Eventually, he worked to support the Flying Tigers, the American volunteers flying for the Chinese Air Force, and built an airplane factory in India to give the Allies air power in Asia. President Harry Truman appointed Pawley as ambassador to Peru (1945-46), and to Brazil (1946-48). When Dwight Eisenhower ran for president, Pawley switched parties, campaigned for Ike, and was later assigned to the State Department. During this period, he dealt with world leaders on sensitive national security matters, such as back-door diplomacy in the Dominican Republic under Rafael Trujillo in Cuba at the time of Fidel Castro's takeover, and in a plot to overthrow the Guatemalan government in 1954. Later, in an effort to discredit President John Kennedy, Pawley financed secret Operation Tilt to help Russian missile officers defect from Cuba to the United States. This episode, involving a cast of characters from Mafia members to soldiers of fortune, was one of many in an adventure story beyond belief. Anthony R. Carrozza's in-depth biography looks at the extraordinary life of a man whose work influenced thirty years of American and international relations during World War II and the Cold War, and whose death resulted from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia that has been under the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev since independence in 1991, has proven that a mostly Muslim nation can be active on the international scene.

They are Americans, and they are mujahideen. Hundreds of men from every imaginable background have walked away from the traditional American dream to volunteer for battle in the name of Islam. Some have taken part in foreign wars that aligned with U.S.

The Ohio State Buckeyes have been a national story for decades, with numerous national championships and National Football League draftees to their credit. With such a successful history, it's no wonder that the passion for Ohio State football has reached a level of devotion that has religious overtones.

Now in its sixth year, the conflict in Mexico is a mosaic of several wars occurring at once: cartels battle one another, cartels suffer violence within their own organizations, cartels fight against the Mexican state, cartels and gangs wage war against the Mexican people, and gangs combat gangs. The war has killed more than 60,000 people since President Felipe Calderón began cracking down on the cartels in December 2006. The targets of the violence have been wide ranging¿from police officers to journalists, from clinics to discos.Governments on either side of the U.S.- Mexican border have been unable to control the violence. The war has spilled over into American cities and affects domestic policy issues ranging from immigration to gun control, making the border the nexus of national security and public safety concerns.Drawing on fieldwork along the border and interviews with officials at the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Department of Defense, U.S. Border Patrol, and Mexican military officers, Paul Rexton Kan argues that policy responses must be carefully calibrated to prevent stoking more cartel violence, to cut the incentives to smuggle drugs into the United States, and to stop the erosion of Mexican governmental capacity.

From the 1950s through the 1990s, antisemitism everywhere seemed to be on the wane. But as Neil Kressel documents in this startling book, the Muslim world has resurrected in recent decades almost every diatribe that more than two millennia of European hostility produced against the Jews, and it has introduced many homegrown and novel modes of attack. Though it is impossible to determine precisely how many of the world¿s 1.2 billion Muslims hold anti-Jewish beliefs, Kressel finds that much bigotry comes from the highest levels of religious and political leadership.Compounding the problem, as Kressel demonstrates, many in the West refuse to recognize this issue. The growing epidemic of hate has been largely ignored, misunderstood, or downplayed, Kressel reveals, because of apathy, ignorance, confusion, bigotry, ideology, purported pragmatism, and misguided multiculturalism. Those who value human rights ignore antisemitism at their own risk, he cautions, noting that no antisemitic regime or movement has ever been otherwise reasonable or progressive. Kressel argues convincingly that Muslim antisemitism provides an acid test of the seriousness of Western liberalism. If the West fails to stem this growing tide, as now seems likely, future affairs will not go well for the true proponents of democracy. Kressel moves beyond sounding the alarm to explore the diverse religious, political, social, and psychological forces that have created and nurtured the new hostility to Jews in the Muslim world; he concludes with a bold and clear plan for what must be done to confront this hostility.

Rarely has a foreign policy event spawned such interest in international public opinion as has the Iraq War.

"Haunted Victory: The American Crusade to Destroy Saddam and Impose Democracy on Iraq" explores the dynamic trajectory of beliefs, actions, and their consequences in what will forever be debated as among the most controversial and costly operation in U.S. history in terms of American security, power, wealth, and honor. While many others have written about the Iraq War, William Nester unveils the moral dilemmas that entangled the George W. Bush administration and the American public through each stage of planning, selling, fighting, and attempting to end the Iraq War. He includes vivid revelations of the administration's private tugs-of-war over whether to invade Iraq and then how to fight that war. Nester pulls no punches and discloses who deserves credit for what went right and who deserves condemnation for what went wrong. In his engaging style, Nester has written a page-turner. General readers, students, and experts alike will eagerly welcome Haunted Victory for its concise and comprehensive analysis of the key facets of the Iraq War.

How do Arabs view America? How do Arabs learn about America? The answers to these questions have assumed tremendous importance since 9/11,because therein lies the key to influencing Arab opinion of the United States in a favorable direction. Attainment of this goal has, thus far, eluded diplomats, foreign policy experts, and military strategists.

It has long been held that humans need government to impose social order on a chaotic, dangerous world. How, then, did early humans survive on the Serengeti Plain, surrounded by faster, stronger, and bigger predators in a harsh and forbidding environment? Pirates, Prisoners, and Lepers examines an array of natural experiments and accidents of human history to explore the fundamental nature of how human beings act when beyond the scope of the law. Pirates of the 1700s, the leper colony on Molokai Island, prisoners of the Nazis, hippie communes of the 1970s, shipwreck and plane crash survivors, and many more diverse groups¿they all existed in the absence of formal rules, punishments, and hierarchies. Paul and Sarah Robinson draw on these real-life stories to suggest that humans are predisposed to be cooperative, within limits.  What these ¿communities¿ did and how they managed have dramatic implications for shaping our modern institutions. Should today¿s criminal justice system build on people¿s shared intuitions about justice? Or are we better off acknowledging this aspect of human nature but using law to temper it? Knowing the true nature of our human character and our innate ideas about justice offers a roadmap to a better society.

Pakistan's stability is key to regional peace, to the future of Afghanistan, and to the global struggle against violent extremism. Understanding Pakistani politics is crucial to working with this challenging American ally. In "The Pakistan Cauldron", James Farwell, who has advised the Department of Defense on Pakistan, analyzes how Pakistani leaders employ strategic communication, playing to diverse audiences to attain their goals. He assesses how well or badly the key players have used strategic communication in dealing with Pakistan's nuclear program, the conspiracy theories swirling around the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and Pakistan's current turmoil. Pakistan is an enigma to many Westerners. Farwell portrays a nation whose government and politics are dysfunctional and riddled with paranoia, conspiracy, and treachery. Only by understanding the often bizarre forces that shape Pakistan's individual leaders can we uncover their true intentions. Pakistan is a nuclear power caught between conflicting ideologies and religious extremists who are increasingly making their influence felt.

The 95th Bomb Group (Heavy), the most highly decorated bomb group of World War II, participated in every major mission of the war in Europe from May 1943 through the war¿s end and was awarded an unprecedented three Presidential Unit Citations. Flying the celebrated B-17 Flying Fortress, the 95th was the first U.S. bomb group to bomb Berlin¿a feat that put it on the centerfold of Life magazine¿and the last group to lose a plane over Europe in World War II. Over six hundred men in the 95th never came home.The Wild Blue Yonder and Beyond is the first book to cover a World War II bomb group from its inception through the present day. Utilizing interviews with nearly a hundred air war veterans, dozens of unpublished crew memoirs, all the bomb group¿s official mission reports from the National Archives, and nearly a hundred other sources, author Rob Morris (assisted by air war historian Ian Hawkins) provides a deep tactical and human understanding of the group. Also included are the stories of the veterans¿ wives and families, who fought a different kind of war at home, and the residents of Horham, whose tiny English village was suddenly on the war¿s front lines. Intensely human, exhaustively researched, and lovingly told, this book is certain to be a classic in the field and a resource for anyone interested in the workings of a World War II bomb group.

As leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and then the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Michael Collins developed a bold, new strategy to use against the British administration of Ireland in the early twentieth century.

Emphasizes how shared political objectives supersede cultural differences in the long history of cooperation between Latin American radicals, Islamist fundamentalists, and even far-right extremists; Explains the tactics of "peripheral asymmetric warfare" that Venezuela and Iran use to subvert their enemies; Explores the domestic political context of establishing U.S. foreign policy for the Western hemisphere, including the role of human rights NGOs in Latin America and the influence on Capitol Hill of Venezuelan and Cuban lobbyists

Explores the need for a new vision of postpartisan politics

Working with thousands of previously unreleased documents and drawing on more than one thousand interviews, with many witnesses speaking out for the first time, Joan Mellen revisits the investigation of New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, the only public official to have indicted, in 1969, a suspect in President John F. Kennedy's murder.