During the past decade, Democrats and Republicans each have received about fifty percent of the votes and controlled about half of the government, but this has not resulted in policy deadlock. Despite highly partisan political posturing, the policy regime has been largely moderate. Incremental, yet substantial, policy innovations such as welfare reform; deficit reduction; the North American Free Trade Agreement; and the deregulation of telecommunications, banking, and agriculture have been accompanied by such continuities as Social Security and Medicare, the maintenance of earlier immigration reforms, and the persistence of many rights-based policies, including federal affirmative action. In Seeking the Center, twenty-one contributors analyze policy outcomes in light of the frequent alternation in power among evenly divided parties. They show how the triumph of policy moderation and the defeat of more ambitious efforts, such as health care reform, can be explained by mutually supporting economic, intellectual, and political forces. Demonstrating that the determinants of public policy become clear by probing specific issues, rather than in abstract theorizing, they restore the politics of policymaking to the forefront of the political science agenda. A successor to Martin A. Levin and Marc K. Landy’s influential The New Politics of Public Policy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), this book will be vital reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in political science and public policy, as well as a resource for scholars in both fields.

A poignant story of how the author learned about life and leadership through the teachings of the toxophilite master.

Seeking Center, A collection of Poems is a mandala of one writer's consciousness. Informed by a love of art, nature and a vivid dream life, Joan Gelfand's first poetry collection is a deciphering of the mysterious signs encountered on the road of life. The collection is in four sections. In "Museum Pieces" we are taken into a world where the visual arts are read not for technical ability but for overall effect and meaning. "Music/Dream Series" delights the imagination with a series of dreams about music and love. "Heritage" explores family ties and inter-generational connections. In the final section, "In the World," Joan shares real world experiences born of exotic travels and the simple adventures of daily living in a voice that is both accessible and inspiring."Joan Gelfand's poems are simultaneously accessible and complex a rare combination." They are the record of a consciousness which remains alive to its own struggles and contradictions and which seeks to recreate the author's deep Jewish heritage: "a music of Diaspora, a music of wandering, a music of passion and yearning," yet also, "a music of joy." ("The Rider")."That these edgy poems avoid sentimentality is a testimony not only to Ms. Gelfand's 'metronomic irregularity' ("Two Poems for Eva Hesse") her insistence that meaning is primary but to the sharp, jagged, always intelligent quality of her awareness: 'One hand, one fragment, one piece of nothing,/Taking the hand of the other, and leading.' ("Collage Poem.") Jack Foley, poet/author (Books include: "Some Songs by Georges Brassens," "O Powerful Western Star," "New Poetry from California: Dead/Requiem.") Mr. Foley is the host of a weekly radio program, "Cover to Cover/World Literature" aired on KPFA."An amazing collection! A rare opportunity to gaze into the poet's soul through the window of her work."Joan Reinhardt Reiss, Environmental Health Advocate"Exuberance, a true emotional honesty and a light touch with humor kept me reading Ms. Gelfand's poems. The energetic spirit of the poems give swing, and swirl to the form." Zoketsu Norman Fischer, poet/author/teacher, and former Abbott of the San Francisco Zen Center. Mr. Fischer's books include "Jerusalem Moonlight," "Taking our Places," and "the Psalms" founder "Everyday Zen Meditation Center.""Ms. Gelfand's universe is wide, encompassing the parallel worlds of dreams and life lived in a fast-changing world. With a poet's eye and a seeker's intention, Gelfand teases out the sacred, the beauty, and the humor in her experience as a dreamer, an artist, a mother."Dr. Debra Condren, Ph.D., Founder: Women's Business Alliance, President, Manhattan Business Coaching, author, "Naked Ambition."

The desert has a hypnotic presence in Australian culture, simultaneously alluring and repellent. The 'Centre' is distant and unknown to most Australians, yet has become a symbol of the country. This exciting book, highly illustrated in full colour, reveals the singular impact that the desert, both geographical and metaphorical, has had on Australian culture. At the heart of the book is the profound relationship that Aboriginal Australians have with the desert, and the complex ways in which they have been seen by white people in this context.

A detailed view of the last Pueblo communities in the Mesa Verde region, this volume draws from a common database derived from extensive investigations at several sites.

Seeking Eden promotes an awareness of, and appreciation for, Georgia’s rich garden heritage. Updated and expanded here are the stories of nearly thirty designed landscapes first identified in the early twentieth-century publication Garden History of Georgia, 1733–1933. Seeking Eden records each garden’s evolution and history as well as each garden’s current early twenty-first-century appearance, as beautifully documented in photographs. Dating from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, these publicly and privately owned gardens include nineteenth-century parterres, Colonial Revival gardens, Country Place–era landscapes, rock gardens, historic town squares, college campuses, and an urban conservation garden. Seeking Eden explores the significant impact of the women who envisioned and nurtured many of these special places; the role of professional designers, including J. Neel Reid, Philip Trammel Shutze, William C. Pauley, Robert B. Cridland, the Olmsted Brothers, Hubert Bond Owens, and Clermont Lee; and the influence of the garden club movement in Georgia in the early twentieth century. FEATURED GARDENS: Andrew Low House and Garden | Savannah Ashland Farm | Flintstone Barnsley Gardens | Adairsville Barrington Hall and Bulloch Hall | Roswell Battersby-Hartridge Garden | Savannah Beech Haven | Athens Berry College: Oak Hill and House o’ Dreams | Mount Berry Bradley Olmsted Garden | Columbus Cator Woolford Gardens | Atlanta Coffin-Reynolds Mansion | Sapelo Island Dunaway Gardens | Newnan vicinity Governor’s Mansion | Atlanta Hills and Dales Estate | LaGrange Lullwater Conservation Garden | Atlanta Millpond Plantation | Thomasville vicinity Oakton | Marietta Rock City Gardens | Lookout Mountain Salubrity Hall | Augusta Savannah Squares | Savannah Stephenson-Adams-Land Garden | Atlanta Swan House | Atlanta University of Georgia: North Campus, the President’s House and Garden, and the Founders Memorial Garden | Athens Valley View | Cartersville vicinity Wormsloe and Wormsloe State Historic Site | Savannah vicinity Zahner-Slick Garden | Atlanta