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Presidential Decisions Focus of History Book Club

The History Book Club at the Prospect Heights Public Library has been focusing on a current and controversial issue that has captured our country-the presidential election.

The readings selected for the Book Club are intended to help to inform your election considerations by examining decisions of past and current presidents and the impact of these decisions on internal and international affairs.

The book that was discussed at July's meeting, "Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era" by Joseph Nye, examined decisions of the presidents who presided over the most critical phases of America's rise to world primacy in the twentieth century.

The book selected for September, "America in Retreat: the New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder," by Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, Bret Stephens, examines the decisions of the current President, Barack Obama, and the positive and negative consequences of these decisions.

Reviewing this book, Fareed Zakaria writes, "An exceptionally intelligent, well-written book filled with interesting data and analysis that's well worth reading-and I don't even agree with most of it. Stephens [is] fast becoming the most influential conservative writer on foreign policy. So read it to your delight, or to hone your best arguments against it."

The review of the book in "The Weekly Standard" reads, "This book is the Wall Street Journal columnist at his best: substantive, historically informed, and with the kind of cutting style that helped him earn his Pulitzer Prize two years ago."

I would add that America in Retreat: The New Isolation and the Coming Global Disorder is a fascinating read, a great and easy way to understand American foreign policy since WWII.

For information about the club, contact Aldona Salska at asalska@phpl.info or 847-259-3500.

The Library is located at 12 North Elm Street in Prospect Heights.

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