New Political Fiction

The Rules of the Game / by Leonard Downie
Sarah Page is a Washington Post reporter covering the national politics and the current presidential race. When Page’s investigation of the new Democratic nominee exposes corruption at the highest levels, she finds that some things are more important than the truth (i.e., national security) when it comes to big time politics. (FIC DOWNIE)
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Pursuit of Honor / by Vince Flynn
Washington, D.C. is in physical and political disarray after a terrorist attack on the National Counterterrorism Center (NCC) has killed 185 Americans. In the wake of things, White House officials as well as members of Congress are incensed about the extreme counter-terrorist initiatives taken which have seemingly endangered many lives. But NCC operative Mitch Rapp knows his business just like he knows the immediate measures he and other members of his agency must take in order to ensure National Security. (FIC FLYNN)
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Ultimatum / by Matthew Glass

In the near future, Joe Benton is president of the United States when he learns that the global warming damage and rising seas will mean that over thirty million coastal US residents will need to be relocated. Doing his best to negotiate internationally for help in the process, Benton comes up against his toughest political battle as the US butts heads with China in a high-stakes diplomatic affair. (FIC GLASS)
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The Capitol Game / by Brian Haig

A small independent company makes a miraculous scientific discovery: a metallic polymer which can reinforce any substance with the equivalent of 30 inches of steel. One of the privileged few to catch wind of the invention, Wall Street Banker Jack Wiley intends to enlist one of the country’s most powerful corporations, the Capitol Group, to takeover the small company. But he runs into problems when various Washington officials and members of the Pentagon begin investigating the deal. (FIC HAIG)
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Marine One / by James Huston
When the White House official helicopter, Marine One, crashes during flight killing everyone including the President, an investigation is immediately undertaken. WorldCopter, the parent contractor of Marine One, hires US attorney Mike Nolan to help defend the company against legal allegations and look deeper into the tragedy. Nolan arrives on the scene to discover some non-quite-right things about both the accident and the intended destination of the flight--Camp David--which gets him thinking that there may have been more than one reason for the fatal accident. (FIC HUSTON)
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The Confirmation / by Ralph Reed

There are many, many problems to confront during newly-elected U.S. President Bob Long’s tumultuous first few months in office. But he might catch a break when a chance to appoint a conservative judge to the Supreme Court falls into his lap, an act which would appease the masses of evangelicals and right wing partisans who voted him into office. Of course things are never that easy as Long’s appointee Marco Diaz succumbs to a series of vicious character allegations by the democratic caucus. (FIC REED)

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The Overton Window / by Glenn Beck

Wealthy bachelor Noah Gardner is more interested in living the high life than anything having to do with politics. But when his new girlfriend Molly Ross introduces him to a conspiracy theory called the Overton Window, laying the premise that American public perception could be manipulated en masse, Noah begins to pay a little more attention to the country’s well-being and swiftly takes action when the Overton Window plan is initiated. (FIC BECK)
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Capitol Betrayal: A Novel / by William Bernhardt
Disappointed Washington lawyer Ben Kincaid has just lost his bid for a Senate seat and is at the white house working on legal issues for the new President Roland Kyler when the nation comes under missile attack. Kincaid and the rest of the White House Staff retreat to the underground bunker where amidst all the chaos, Kincaid must help mediate an increasingly tense atmosphere which includes an attempt by the vice-president to seize power. (FIC BERNHARDT)

Jim Crow’s Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision by Peter Irons

Peter Irons, professor emeritus of political science at the University of alifornia at San Diego, wrote this book in 2002. Eight years later, its message still speaks to what we offer as education to our children. Irons traces the beginnings of American slaves seeking equality, noting how any education they acquired helped fuel their efforts to be citizens in their own right. We see Thurgood Marshall, the black lawyer fighting for the right for African-Americans to be educated in white schools from 1936 to 1954, when the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka struck down the idea that separate schools could ever be equal, because of the slur and the indignity such schools inflicted on the hearts and minds of African-American children.

But the battle was not over by any means. Irons goes on to show how school district after school district resisted integration, complaining about federal interference and in many cases insisting that their schools were open to all, explaining segregation as a matter of neighborhoods, where people happened to live. Busing was finally introduced in many areas to facilitate integration, and caused a backlash of anger from many white parents and community leaders, leading to violence in some cases. Irons follows this “winding-down” of integration tactics as equality through bussing became less and less popular, with a majority of Supreme Court justices reflecting these sentiments.

Irons concludes that segregation is alive and well in this country, since most African-American students attend schools that have mostly black students, and that most white students attend schools with only a few minority students. The fact that schools serve their neighborhoods is an indication to many that segregation is a fact, one that people have chosen. Irons, however, cites statistics to show the crushing and debilitating impact that substandard schools have on their students, failing to offer an opportunity for these children to achieve something for themselves or for their communities.