My Friends Write Books

Several of my friends have books out in 2008 or coming shortly in 2009

Wichtia's Robert Beattie, having written a book that helped breakl the BTK case has a new one out in early January on another intriguing Kansas murder case. The Language of Evil is describes this way

Brilliant linguist, charming professor, and renowned writer Tom Murray had a way with words.

He used them to seduce.

And he used them to get away with murder.

Erudite Kansas City professor Tom Murray seduced, then married his starry-eyed student Carmin Ross. But when Carmin attempted to leave their violent marriage, Tom stabbed her in the throat thirteen times, but left behind no evidence.

Convinced he’d committed a perfect crime, Tom didn’t even solicit a lawyer. But he hadn’t counted on relentless small town deputy sheriff Doug Wood, who refused to be underestimated. What happened next would result in one of the most unforgettable, shocking, and unexpected trials in Kansas state history.

Joseph Schwartz has written a book blurbed by Michael Walzer, Cornell West, and Francis Fox Piven. Not bad. The Future of Democratic Equality: Rebuilding Social Solidarity in a Fragmented America Here's the publisher's description

Why has contemporary radical political theory remained virtually silent about the stunning rise in inequality in the United States over the past thirty years? Schwartz contends that since the 1980s, most radical theorists shifted their focus away from interrogating social inequality to criticizing the liberal and radical tradition for being inattentive to the role of difference and identity within social life. This critique brought more awareness of the relative autonomy of gender, racial, and sexual oppression. But, as Schwartz argues, it also led many theorists to forget that if difference is institutionalized on a terrain of radical economic inequality, unjust inequalities in social and political power will inevitably persist.

Schwartz cautions against a new radical theoretical orthodoxy: that "universal" norms such as equality and solidarity are inherently repressive and homogenizing, whereas particular norms and identities are truly emancipatory. Reducing inequality among Americans, as well as globally, will take a high level of social solidarity--a level far from today's fragmented politics. In focusing the left's attention on the need to reconstruct a governing model that speaks to the aspirations of the majority, Schwartz provocatively applies this vision to such real world political issues as welfare reform, race relations, childcare, and the democratic regulation of the global economy.

UMKC and Levy Institute economist Randall Wray co-authored the introduction to Hyman Minsky's Stabilizing and Unstable Economy.Minsky was a legendary economist who further developed some of John Maynard Keynes idea to explain an inherent tendency toward crisis and instability in capitalist economies. Never more relevant than today!

Max Skidmore, who teaches political science at UMKC, has Securing America's Future: A Bold Plan to Preserve and Expand Social Security