Holiday Gift Guide - 2007

This biennial reference guide containing profiles of each member of Congress as well as each governor. It includes up-to-date political profiles of all 50 states and 435 House districts, providing background on economics, history and politics.

Journalists Michael Barone and Richard E. Cohen also provide information about all special elections in the 109th Congress and the redistricting changes in Georgia and Texas. Also includes maps, census data, campaign expenditures, voting records and interest group ratings. This is a must-have for every political junkie!

Social critic and Columbia University journalism professor Todd Gitlin analyzes the state of partisanship in American today in The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideals. He argues that Republican voters look for "no-nonsense" knights on a white horse (bulldozers); Democrats, "big tent" candidates who apply to different people. And in 2000, "both sides of a polarized politics came to converge on one banal but primal lesson: in a deeply divided country, power accrues to those who successfully organize to get it and hold it." The most intriguing part of the book may be the last section, where he analzyes the growth of blogs and speaks to the issue of framing.

Ted Brader shows us the results of experiments conducted during a Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign, demonstrating (if anyone doubted) that keeping text unchanged while modifying music or imagery can provoke completely different voter response to a TV ad. Brader, an assistant professor of political studies at the University of Michigan, also analyzes more than 1,500 ads from the 2004 campaign to demonstrate the power of fear and enthusiasm on message received.

Andrew Sullivan is an editor of the New Republic and a blogger, The Daily Dish. For 15 years, his has been a major voice in conservative America. In The Conservative Soul: Fundamentalism, Freedom, and the Future of the Right, he contrasts religious fundamentalism with the secular Enlightenment which provided the foundation for our Constitution. Some conservatives might take issue with Sullivan being presented as a voice of conservatism. After all, he's gay, Catholic and British. But like many of the books in this year's gift guide, this is a serious book, destined to become a classic tribute to reason.

Going Dirty author David Mark, former editor-in-chief of Campaigns & Elections, focuses on modern campaigns but provides historical context. Mark argues that negative campaigns are on the rise post 9-11 but that “compare and contrast techniques” are a mainstay of American political campaigns. Like Swint, Mark reviews the Grover Cleveland campaign, when Republicans accused Cleveland of fathering an illegitimate child. Mark's book differs from Swint's because he provides insight into the campaign strategist, including Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.

Humorist and About.com guide to political humor Dan Kurtzman chronicles the absurdities of politics in this series, designed for laughs regardless of political ideology.

A former Washington correspondent-turned political satirist, Kurtzman wrote two irreverent guides: How To Win A Fight With A Conservative just might help you survive Christmas dinner with the family (or in-laws!) and How To Win A Fight With A Liberal includes the 10 Commandments of Partisan Warfare.

Humorist and About.com guide to political humor Dan Kurtzman chronicles the absurdities of politics in this series, designed for laughs regardless of political ideology.

A former Washington correspondent-turned political satirist, Kurtzman wrote two irreverent guides: How To Win A Fight With A Conservative just might help you survive Christmas dinner with the family (or in-laws!) and How To Win A Fight With A Liberal includes the 10 Commandments of Partisan Warfare. Also, be sure to point your conservative or your liberal to Kurtzman's political identity quiz.

Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert sparks laughter with this debut novel, an ode to truthiness. As a cable show (faux) right-wing pundit, Colbert takes satire to a new level. This book may not, however, be as funny to the cable-deprived as to a Colbert Report regular; Colbert's success rests as much on his on facial expressions as his dry wit. The publisher reports that Colbert dictated the book over a three-day weekend.

On a more serious note, the book also contains the text of Colbert's infamous 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner speech.

CNN Headline News personality Glenn Beck turns his attention to pressing issues domestically and abroad. As the title implies, he kicks off the book with a tribute (of sorts) to former Vice President Al Gore and climate change. Other topics include Islam, education, immigration, mimimum wage: basic conservative topics. You'll either love it or hate it -- there is no in-between.

In this classic from Democratic adviser George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, the authors demonstrate how we unconsciously use metaphor in our everyday language and thought. We extend our knowledge of the world around us and our experiences in order to understand new environments and experiences.

They detail the theory of communication as three linked metaphors: an idea is an object; the linguistic expression is a container; to communicate is to "send." And they deconstruct everyday phrases to demonstrate the importance of metaphor to understanding. Although published by an academic press, this is a book for the general public.