Fierce and Fearless
Fierce and Fearless

Author: Judy Tzu-Chun Wu

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2014-09-05

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1479868248

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2023 Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women's and/or Gender History Winner The first biography of trailblazing legislator Patsy Takemoto Mink, best known as the legislative champion of Title IX “Every girl in Little League, every woman playing college sports, and every parent—including Michelle and myself—who watches their daughter on a field or in the classroom is forever grateful to the late Patsy Takemoto Mink.”—President Barack Obama, on posthumously awarding Mink the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014 Patsy Takemoto Mink was the first woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. Fierce and Fearless is the first biography of this remarkable woman, who first won election to Congress in 1964 and went on to serve in the House for twenty-four years, her final term ending with her death in 2002. Mink was an advocate for girls and women, best known for her work shepherding and defending Title IX, the legislation that changed the face of education in America, making it possible for girls and women to participate in school sports, and in education more broadly, at the same level as boys and men. Mink’s life is wonderfully chronicled by eminent historian Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn Mink, Patsy’s daughter, a noted political science scholar and first-hand witness to the many political struggles that her mother had to overcome. Featuring family anecdotes, vignettes, and photographs, Fierce and Fearless offers new insight into who Mink was, and the progressive principles that fueled her mission. Wu and Mink provide readers with an up-close understanding of her life as a third-generation Japanese American from Hawaii—from her childhood on Maui to her decades-long career in the House, working with noted legislators like Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, and Nancy Pelosi. They follow the evolution of her politics, including her advocacy for race, gender, and class equality and her work to promote peace and environmental justice. Fierce and Fearless provides vivid details of how Patsy Takemoto Mink changed the future of American politics. Celebrating the life and legacy of a woman, activist, and politician ahead of her time, this book illuminates the life of a trailblazing icon who made history.

Counterterrorism and the State
Counterterrorism and the State

Author: Dorle Hellmuth

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2015-09-10

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0812291832

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Dorle Hellmuth argues that the nature of state responses to terrorism is shaped by the particular governmental framework and process within which counterterrorism measures are decided. Using four Western democracies as case studies, Hellmuth measures effects of government structures on counterterrorism decision-making processes and outcomes. In doing so, she examines how similar or different the responses have been in four parliamentary and presidential systems, and clears up common misperceptions about domestic counterterrorism efforts on both sides of the Atlantic. Each of Hellmuth's four case studies reviews the official constitutional powers and informal relationships between executive and legislative branches, outlines decision-making processes leading to counterterrorism policies and reforms since 9/11, and summarizes how structural factors influenced those processes. By measuring and comparing structural effects, and by going beyond the common U.S. and British focus to include counterterrorism decision-making in Germany and France, Hellmuth shows that there are important similarities between those governments designed to constrain executive power (Germany and the United States) and those that facilitate executive power (France and Great Britain). Her analysis further demonstrates that in presidential systems executive and legislative branches have incentives to produce a steady stream of reforms, that presidents have more opportunities than leaders of parliamentary systems to expand their unilateral powers during times of crisis, and that choices designed to strengthen presidential positions influence the direction, nature, and scope of institutional reform. Understanding the nature, scope, and trends of national decision-making processes in Western democracies, Hellmuth contends, is imperative to identifying new mechanisms for containing transnational terrorist networks beyond national borders.

Emerging Issues in Homeland Security
Emerging Issues in Homeland Security

Author: William M. Thaler

Publisher: Nova Publishers

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 9781594541391

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For a myriad of reasons, the United States of America created a Department of Defiance whose seemly unshakeable credo is based on the oft-quoted sports slogan that the best defense is a good offense. Thus America was caught with its pants down on September 11. It could attack entire countries with doomsday nuclear weapons at the drop of the hat, but couldn't find or hit the person who dropped the hat. It could rain down 500 pound hole blaster bombs but couldn't find the holes. Who even thought anyone would have the chutzpah to attack the US? A US which had grown so indolent following its firm policy of bombing anyone, anywhere without regards to God's or man's laws or even common sense. The new concept of home security has been belatedly discovered by the mandarins in Washington. These book detail efforts at trying to figure out why the strongest offensive military power on Earth may also be the weakest defensive power.