Media Law Handbook
What are the privileges and responsibilities of a free press? In Media Law Handbook, Professor Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, explores how free societies answer this question.

U.S.A. History in Brief, Learner English edition (html).
This is the first in a planned series of books to help readers improve their English skills. Each book will teach you something about the United States. This book is about U.S. history. You can read the text or listen as a native-speaker reads it aloud.

Pop Culture versus Real America.
U.S. television and cinema promote images of Americans that are ? well ? wrong! Pop Culture versus Real America will contrast those pop culture images with profiles of real Americans in every walk of life. Look here soon for the entire book. For now, this First Look edition includes the introduction and two chapters: Baywatch / Real Lifeguards and Grey?s Anatomy / Real Doctor.

USA Elections in Brief.
A background guide to the entire U.S. electoral system, from federal, state, local, and primary elections to related topics such as polling and the role of the parties and the media.

Human Rights in Brief.
In all civilized nations, attempts are made to define and buttress human rights. The core of the concept is the same everywhere: Human rights are the rights that one has simply because one is human. They are universal and equal. Human rights are also inalienable. They may be suspended, rightly or wrongly, at various places and times, but the idea of inherent rights cannot be taken away. One can no more lose these rights than one can stop being a human being.

Barack Obama: 44th President of the United States.
Barack Obama, elected the 44th President of the United States, has lived a truly American life, and has opened a new chapter in American politics. This publication tells the story of Obama?s life, describes how he captured the presidency, and portrays his vision for the future. It also introduces readers to the Obama family and to the new Vice President, Joseph Biden.

Justice for All: The Legacy of Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall stands as one of the great American heroes of the 20th century: He was the attorney who ended legal segregation in the United States with his victory in the Brown v. Board of Education case, and the U.S. Supreme Court justice who championed expanded rights for every individual American -- minorities, women, and immigrants, among many others.

Rachel Carson: Pen Against Poison
Rachel Carson was a quiet woman who stirred extraordinary controversy that persists decades after her death. Her 1962 book Silent Spring brought worldwide attention to the harm to human health and the environment wrought by mishandling of a powerful pesticide, fomenting the environmental movement. In the 100th anniversary year of Carson's birth, this publication examines how occasionally in history a book with a powerful idea can bring about peaceful but dramatic change in a democratic society.

USA History in Brief
The first title in the new "In Brief" series, this publication summarizes in a few thousand words the history of how the United States was founded and the forces and events that shaped the dynamic and varied country that it has become today.

USA Literature in Brief
USA Literature in Brief pinpoints and describes the contributions to American literature of some of the best-recognized American poets, novelists, philosophers and dramatists from pre-Colonial days through the present. Major literary figures are discussed in detail, as are their major works. Brief discussions of cultural periods and movements such as romanticism, modernism, and transcendentalism put individuals in context and lend perspective. This condensed version of Outline of American Literature highlights major achievers and important works in the canon.

USA Economy In Brief
This mini-publication discusses the factors that make the U.S. economy the world's most productive, competitive, and influential. It focuses on workers and productivity, small and large business, the service economy, goods and services, the role of government, and the concept of "creative destruction," the process where jobs, companies, entire industries come and go because of their success or failure in the marketplace. USA Economy in Brief includes colorful charts to illustrate, for instance, U.S. annual exports and imports and the U.S. trade deficit.

Principles of Entrepreneurship
Economists and business people differ in their definitions of entrepreneurship. Most, however, agree that entrepreneurship is vital for stimulating economic growth and employment opportunities in all societies. This is particularly true in the developing world, where successful small businesses are the primary engines of job creation and poverty reduction. This series of 21 one-page primers discusses the essentials for building and running a business from the planning stages to marketing a product. Author Jeanne Holden is a free-lance writer with expertise in economic issues. She worked as a writer-editor in the U.S. Information Agency for 17 years.

Democracy in Brief
Democracy in Brief gives a concise account of the intellectual origins, history, and basic values of democratic systems of government. The book touches on topics such as rights and responsibilities of citizens, free and fair elections, the rule of law, the role of a written constitution, separation of powers, a free media, the role of parties and interest groups, military-civilian relations and democratic culture.

Edward R. Murrow: Journalism at Its Best
The career of Edward R. Murrow, the eminent broadcast journalist, is discussed in this publication as an example of the essential role the free press plays in a democratic society. With his reports from London during World War II and his exposé of Senator McCarthy's anti-Communist campaign in the 1950s, Murrow showed how a fearless reporter can use journalistic skills in the public's service in times of crisis.

Handbook of Independent Journalism
This handbook covers the ins and outs of what every professional journalist should know ? from how to research, write, and edit a story to how to write headlines, choose graphics, and select quotes and sound bites. Print, radio, TV, and Web-based or online journalism forms are discussed in detail, as well as the skills required in beat reporting.

Women of Influence
This collection chronicles how 21 notable American women broke new ground, some by championing equal rights for all and others by their accomplishments in fields such as government, literature, and even in war.

About America: How the U.S. is Governed
This joint publication of the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs and Braddock Communications presents a comprehensive yet easy-to-read overview of the various levels of and institutions related to government in the U.S. "How the United States Is Governed" describes how federal, state, and local governments are elected, how they operate, and how the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government relate under the U.S. constitutional system. It also highlights how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other institutions allow Americans to influence and shape government policy. This publication contains a glossary and a list of useful Web sites.

About America : The Constitution of the United States of America with Explanatory Notes
This illustrated publication includes the complete text of the U.S. Constitution (preamble, seven articles, and 27 amendments), as well an updated introduction and explanatory notes by J.W. Peltason, author of Understanding the Constitution and Government by the People. The introduction includes sections explaining how the Constitution set up the U.S. federal system, the background to the Constitutional Convention and how the participants arrived at a final version of the document, its ratification, and sections on the call for a Bill of Rights and the need for additional amendments over the years.

Rights of the People
Rights of the People, is a history of American law and justice, written by Constitutional historian Melvin Urofsky. By focusing on the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution, and the legal interpretations, many of them written by America's finest jurists, that refined and expanded the Bill of Rights, Urofsky presents a history of the United States from the standpoint of individual liberty.

A Responsible Press Office: An Insiders Guide
A how-to publication for government leaders and public information officials who want to create an effective mechanism of communication between the media and the government. This handbook offers practical advice based on the significant professional experience of author Marguerite Hoxie Sullivan and other top-level U.S. government spokespersons.