在中央提出科学发展观和建立和谐社会的今天，认真回顾和总结了50多年来所制定的十个五年计划和实施国民经济宏观管理方面的经验教训，对于完善我国社会主义市场经济理论和体制，都是一件意义十分重大的工作。
——刘国光（首届中国经济学杰出贡献奖获得者、中国社会科学院特邀顾问）
从上个世纪50年代初期制定与实施第一个五年计划至今，我国在半个多世纪中已经制定和实施了十个五年计划。认真回顾和总结制定五年计划以及实施国民经济宏观管理方面的教育，对于完善中国社会主义市场经济理论和体制，是一件意义重大的工作。
我国制定与实施五年计划的历史，可以1978年的中共十一届三中全会为标志，大致划分为改革开放前、改革开放后两个时期。与此相应，第一至第五个五年计划，是处于计划经济时期，而第六至第十个五年计划，则是处于转轨的和市场经济时期。研究和叙述这十个五年计划，自然也反映了这两个时期的特征。
本书从大量第一手资料入手，在深入研究的基础上，用了三年多时间完成书稿。但是，由于这50多年是中国经济、社会以空前规模发展和转型时期，中国经历了社会主义计划经济和向社会主义市场经济的过渡，其间经济体制变动之剧烈、经济增长速度之快、人口由传统农业向非农产业转移规模之庞大，工业化、现代化步伐之大，都是中国历史上空前的，在世界历史上也是罕见的；其中有些问题是我们眼界和能力难以准确把握的；有些问题由于发生不久，时间离的较近，也不容易看清楚。

The most significant conquest of the twentieth century may well have been the triumph of American consumer society over Europe's bourgeois civilization. It is this little-understood but world-shaking campaign that unfolds in Irresistible Empire, Victoria de Grazia's brilliant account of how the American standard of living defeated the European way of life and achieved the global cultural hegemony that is both its great strength and its key weakness today. </p>
De Grazia describes how, as America's market empire advanced with confidence through Europe, spreading consumer-oriented capitalism, all alternative strategies fell before it--first the bourgeois lifestyle, then the Third Reich's command consumption, and finally the grand experiment of Soviet-style socialist planning. Tracing the peculiar alliance that arrayed New World salesmanship, statecraft, and standardized goods against the Old World's values of status, craft, and good taste, Victoria de Grazia follows the United States' market-driven imperialism through a vivid series of cross-Atlantic incursions by the great inventions of American consumer society. We see Rotarians from Duluth in the company of the high bourgeoisie of Dresden; working-class spectators in ramshackle French theaters conversing with Garbo and Bogart; Stetson-hatted entrepreneurs from Kansas in the midst of fussy Milanese shoppers; and, against the backdrop of Rome's Spanish Steps and Paris's Opera Comique, Fast Food in a showdown with advocates for Slow Food. Demonstrating the intricacies of America's advance, de Grazia offers an intimate and historical dimension to debates over America's exercise of soft power and the process known as Americanization. She raises provocative questions about the quality of the good life, democracy, and peace that issue from the vaunted victory of mass consumer culture. </p>

《朱镕基讲话实录》收入了朱镕基担任国务院副总理、国务院总理期间的重要讲话、谈话、文章、信件、批语等348篇，照片272幅，批语、书信及题词影印件30件，编入《实录》的文稿，是根据朱镕基同志出席重要会议和到地方、部门考察调研讲话的音像资料、文字记录稿编辑而成，绝大部分是第一次公开发表。
这些讲话、谈话、文章等从各个方面翔实记录了朱镕基领导中国经济的历程，内容涉及中国财税体制改革、金融体制改革、国有企业改革、社会保障体制改革、投融资体制改革、住房制度改革、应对亚洲金融危机冲击、治理通货膨胀等经济社会各领域重大问题。
朱镕基同志担任国务院副总理和国务院总理期间，适逢我国从计划经济体制向社会主义市场经济体制转变的关键时期。在党中央、国务院领导下，朱镕基同志直接主持了财税体制改革、金融体制改革、价格与流通体制改革、国有企业改革、政府机构改革、社会保障体制改革、住房制度改革、投融资体制改革等一系列重大改革，初步建立了社会主义市场经济体制的框架。也正是在这个时期，我国有效治理严重的通货膨胀，实现了经济“软着陆”；成功应对亚洲金融危机的冲击，扭转了通货紧缩趋势，保持了经济稳定、快速增长。《实录》翔实反映了朱镕基同志在中国改革和发展中的工作历程，内容丰富，语言生动，图文并茂，可读性强。本书不仅是读者深入了解朱镕基经济社会管理思想、领导风格、个人魅力和心路历程最全面的读本，也是读者回顾和解读中国经济发展历程和基本规律的一部丰富史料。
《朱镕基讲话实录》的出版发行，对于了解20世纪90年代至21世纪初我国改革开放和经济、社会发展的进程，进一步推进中国特色社会主义伟大事业，具有重要意义。
《朱镕基讲话实录》的独有特色：
（1）极强的真实性。
（2）“朱氏风格”的可读性。收录篇目多为朱镕基即席讲话的实录，反映出深刻、简单、直接的“朱氏风格”，有编辑称是继《毛泽东选集》之后最为好读的领导人著作之一。
（3）宝贵的史料价值。是中国经济走出困境、发展壮大历程的权威总结。
（4）全面反映朱镕基经济思想和心路历程。
（5）全面透露高层领导处理国家和个人事务的真实状况。
（6）全面展示朱镕基直面问题的勇者作风。
（7）全面揭示朱镕基抓住主要矛盾解决复杂问题的高超艺术。
（8）全面刻画朱镕基有血有肉的总理形象。

本书是以一个较为完整而系统的形式，将我从1958年到1969年发表的有关五胡北朝史的一系列论文加以编修而成的。在整个编修过程中，论文题目以及内容较之原文都作了一些修订，其中几篇还进行了大幅度缩减。此外，为了使各编各章之间的关系更加明确，又重新增加了一些章节。不过这些修改工作尽量限定在技术上，而不致使其影响全书的主旨。 通过一定的排列来看这十年间写成的文章，就会发现内容涉及五部北朝史的各个时期、各个阶段，关注的问题大都集中于政治史，书名或许叫五胡北朝政治史更为妥帖。但之所以没有这样做，是因为推动上述研究的我自己的学问志趣与隋唐帝国的形成问题密切相连接之故。

A study of Robert Lowe (1811-1892), a philosophical radical in the utilitarian tradition, educationalist and politician. He held a number of government positions, and as vice-president of the Committee of Council on Education (1859-1864) he introduced the controversial 'payment by results' scheme, 'results' being measured by examinations and constituting the pre-condition for the payment of State grants. Mr Sylvester assesses Lowe's career and political importance, and argues for a reconsideration of his somewhat reactionary reputation.

The startling story of the monumental growth of lobbying in Washington, D.C., and how it undermines effective government and pollutes our politics.
A true insider, Robert G. Kaiser has monitored American politics for The Washington Post for nearly half a century. In this sometimes shocking and always riveting book, he explains how and why, over the last four decades, Washington became a dysfunctional capital. At the heart of his story is money—money made by special interests using campaign contributions and lobbyists to influence government decisions, and money demanded by congressional candidates to pay for their increasingly expensive campaigns, which can cost a staggering sum. In 1974, the average winning campaign for the Senate cost $437,000; by 2006, that number had grown to $7.92 million. The cost of winning House campaigns grew comparably: $56,500 in 1974, $1.3 million in 2006.
Politicians’ need for money and the willingness, even eagerness, of special interests and lobbyists to provide it explain much of what has gone wrong in Washington. They have created a mutually beneficial, mutually reinforcing relationship between special interests and elected representatives, and they have created a new class in Washington, wealthy lobbyists whose careers often begin in public service. Kaiser shows us how behavior by public officials that was once considered corrupt or improper became commonplace, how special interests became the principal funders of elections, and how our biggest national problems—health care, global warming, and the looming crises of Medicare and Social Security, among others—have been ignored as a result.
Kaiser illuminates this progression through the saga of Gerald S. J. Cassidy, a Jay Gatsby for modern Washington. Cassidy came to Washington in 1969 as an idealistic young lawyer determined to help feed the hungry. Over the course of thirty years, he built one of the city’s largest and most profitable lobbying firms and accumulated a personal fortune of more than $100 million. Cassidy’s story provides an unprecedented view of lobbying from within the belly of the beast.
A timely and tremendously important book that finally explains how Washington really works today, and why it works so badly.

Regime change did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 is the latest, though perhaps not the last, example of the dangers inherent in these operations. In Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer tells the stories of the audacious politicians, spies, military commanders, and business executives who took it upon themselves to depose monarchs, presidents, and prime ministers. He also shows that the U.S. government has often pursued these operations without understanding the countries involved; as a result, many of them have had disastrous long-term consequences. In a compelling and provocative history that takes readers to fourteen countries, including Cuba, Iran, South Vietnam, Chile, and Iraq, Kinzer surveys modern American history from a new and often surprising perspective.