In The Supreme Court and Constitutional Democracy John Agresto traces the development of American judicial power, paying close attention to what he views as the very real threat of judicial supremacy. Agresto examines the role of the judiciary in a democratic society and discusses the proper place of congressional power in constitutional issues. Agresto argues that while the separation of congressional and judicial functions is a fundamental tenet of American government, the present system is not effective in maintaining an appropriate balance of power. He shows that continued judicial expansion, especially into the realm of public policy, might have severe consequences for America's national life and direction, and offers practical recommendations for safeguarding against an increasingly powerful Supreme Court. John Agresto's controversial argument, set in the context of a historical and theoretical inquiry, will be of great interest to scholars and students in political science and law, especially American constitutional law and political theory.

The Supreme Court and Constitutional Democracy

Agresto, John

Rules & Procedures

Cornell University Press

The Humanist As Citizen

Reference

Univ of North Carolina Pr

John Agresto spent nine months in Iraqfrom September 2003 to June 2004working under Ambassador Paul Bremer as senior adviser to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. His daunting task was to assist Iraqis in rebuilding their once distinguished system of colleges, universities, and vocational schools. As he left Iraq, Agresto was asked by the Pentagon to write a few paragraphs about the lessons learned” during his time there. Those paragraphs were never written, but a book was born instead. Mugged by Reality is partly the memoir of an American civilian and educator trying to help a devastated country revive its educational institutions. It is also a compendium of the successes and failures that followed in the wake of Iraq’s liberation. Many books discuss what the United States and its allies did or didn’t do, making our mistakes look simple in hindsight: we disbanded the army, we didn’t have enough troops, we de-Ba’athified too thoroughly. If only we had done things differently, they say. But the sober truth is that we have been thwarted not simply by failures to understand the culture of the Middle East,” but by failures of Americans in Iraq to understand their own culture and what America really stands for. In the end, Mugged by Reality offers lessons learned” not only about Iraq and Middle Eastern culture, but also about American democracy and about our common human nature.

Mugged by Reality: The Liberation of Iraq and the Failure of Good Intentions

History

Middle East

Encounter Books

The liberal arts are dying. They are dying because most Americans don’t see the point of them. Americans don’t understand why anyone would study literature or history or the classics—or, more contemporarily, feminist criticism, whiteness studies, or the literature of postcolonial states—when they can get an engineering or business degree. 
Even more concerning is when they read how “Western civilization” has become a term 
of reproach at so many supposedly thoughtful institutions; or how fanatical political correctness works hard to silence alternative viewpoints; or, more generally, how liberal studies have become scattered, narrow, and small. In this atmosphere, it’s hard to convince parents or their progeny that a liberal education is all that wonderful or that it’s even worthy of respect. 
Over sixty years ago, we were introduced to the idea of “the two cultures” in higher education— that is, the growing rift in the academy between the humanities and the sciences, a rift wherein neither side understood the other, spoke to the other, or cared for the other. But this divide in the academy, real as it may be, is nothing compared to another great divide—the rift today between our common American culture and the culture of the academy itself. 
So, how can we rebuild the notion that a liberal education is truly of value, both to our students and to the nation? Our highest hopes may be not to “restore” the liberal arts to what they looked like fifty or a hundred years ago but to ask ourselves what a true contemporary American liberal education at its best might look like. 
Remedying this situation will involve knowing clearly where we wish to go and then understanding how we might get there. For those objectives, this book is meant to be the beginning.

The Death of Learning: How American Education Has Failed Our Students and What to Do about It

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

"A brilliant analysis of the current political crises we face at home and abroad and how we might extricate ourselves by returning to our Founding principles. All who value freedom and believe in the American Experiment should read this book." - Linda Chavez, Fox News analyst and Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity What has happened to the American ideals of liberty and equality? Has America's image become tarnished at home and abroad? Does democracy itself merely trigger repression instead of fulfilling the promise of freedom? Can individual rights coexist with national security? In Rediscovering America, John Agresto urges a return to the founding principles of our republic in order to revive the great American experiment. Rejecting the simple slogans of both the left and the right, Agresto confronts the challenges that inequality and injustice pose to our ideals of democracy and freedom. From the burgeoning of new "rights" to the growth of entitlements, from clamor in the public square to ideological struggles in the halls of academia, Rediscovering America is a trenchant critique of our contemporary political culture. The art of American statecraft, Agresto argues, is both to free and to restrain, to turn individual liberty into a social good. Our task is to understand, respect, and transmit what the Founding Fathers hoped to accomplish, why they did what they did, and how they hoped to achieve it. Drawing on history, political theory, and current affairs, Rediscovering America is a searching examination of our country's crisis in self-understanding - and a ringing call to restore America's promise to its citizens and to the world. John Agresto, former president of St. John's College in Santa Fe and former Acting Chancellor, Provost, and Academic Dean at the American University of Iraq in Sulaimani, is the author of Mugged by Reality: The Liberation of Iraq and the Failure of Good Intentions and other books. "John Agresto cuts through the fog of present day debates to re-mind Americans that the way forward in the 21st century must be through a renewed commitment to the nation's founding ideals and institutions. This is a book that will inspire and inform every thoughtful American." - James Piereson, President, William E. Simon Foundation "An elegantly written and cogently argued account of how the recovery of America's first principles, rightly understood in the way the Founders themselves understood them, would go a long way toward alleviating the serious problems we face today.... This book should be required reading for all university students and concerned citizens." - Edward J. Erler, Senior Fellow, The Claremont Institute "If you want to understand why we should be patriots, and how to make America lovely and lovable once again, start with this pithy, accessible, instructive book." - Matthew Franck, Director, William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution "Agresto guides the reader to understand that America stands, first and foremost, for the principle of equality, a principle he then admirably defends from contemporary critics on both the right and the left." - Ralph A. Rossum, Salvatori Professor of American Constitutionalism, Claremont McKenna College

Rediscovering America

Americas

Asahina & Wallace

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