About this product: Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this remarkable book about the man who rose from nothing to create the modern presidency. Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson’s election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad. To tell the saga of Jackson’s presidency, acclaimed author Jon Meacham goes inside the Jackson White House. Drawing on newly discovered family letters and papers, he details the human drama–the family, the women, and the inner circle of advisers–that shaped Jackson’s private world through years of storm and victory.
One of our most significant yet dimly recalled presidents, Jackson was a battle-hardened warrior, the founder of the Democratic Party, and the architect of the presidency as we know it. His story is one of violence, sex, courage, and tragedy. With his powerful persona, his evident bravery, and his mystical connection to the people, Jackson moved the White House from the periphery of government to the center of national action, articulating a vision of change that challenged entrenched interests to heed the popular will–or face his formidable wrath. The greatest of the presidents who have followed Jackson in the White House–from Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to FDR to Truman–have found inspiration in his example, and virtue in his vision.
Jackson was the most contradictory of men. The architect of the removal of Indians from their native lands, he was warmly sentimental and risked everything to give more power to ordinary citizens. He was, in short, a lot like his country: alternately kind and vicious, brilliant and blind; and a man who fought a lifelong war to keep the republic safe–no matter what it took.
Jon Meacham in American Lion has delivered the definitive human portrait of a pivotal president who forever changed the American presidency–and America itself.
Exclusive Amazon.com Q&A with Jon Meacham and H.W. Brands
On the eve of the historic 2008 presidential election, we were fortunate to chat with historians Jon Meacham and H.W. Brands (author of Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt) on the similarities of their presidential subjects and how the legacies of FDR and Jackson continue to shape the political world we see today.
Amazon.com: One of Andrew Jackson's childhood friends once remarked that when they wrestled, "I could throw him three times out of four, but he never stayed throwed." How emblematic is this of Jackson's career?
Meacham: Utterly emblematic. Jackson was resilient, tough, and wily, rising from nothing to become the dominant political figure of the age. He was crushed by his loss in 1824, when, despite carrying the popular vote, he was defeated in the House of Representatives. But, tellingly, he began his campaign for 1828 almost immediately, on the way home to Tennessee. And he won the next time.
Amazon.com: What would Jackson think of Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
Meacham: I think they would have gotten along famously. It is difficult to imagine men from more starkly different backgroundsâto take just one example, Jackson lost his mother early, and FDR was long shaped by his motherâbut they both viewed the presidency the same way: they both believed they should be in it, wielding power on behalf of the masses against entrenched interests.
Amazon.com: How important was Jackson's legacy to FDR's Presidency?
Brands: Jackson was FDR’s favorite president, and Jackson’s presidency was the one Roosevelt initially modeled his own after. FDR saw Jackson as the champion of the ordinary people of America; he saw himself the same way. He compared Jackson’s battle with the Bank of the United States to his own battle with entrenched economic interests. And just as Jackson had reveled in the enmity of the rich, so did Roosevelt.
Amazon.com: Although both were regarded as champions of the people, their backgrounds were drastically different. FDR hailed from a wealthy and politically-connected family, while Jackson was an orphaned son of immigrants. How did each manage to endear themselves to the voters of their day?
Meacham: Jackson was in many ways the first great popular candidate. He had “Hickory Clubs,” and there were torchlit parades and barbecuesâlots and lots of barbecues. Jackson helped mastermind the means of campaigning that would become commonplace. He also intuitively understood the power of image, and kept a portrait painter, Ralph Earl, near to hand in the White House.
Brands: FDR combined noblesse oblige with felt concern for the plight of the poor. His polio had something to do with thisâit introduced him to personal suffering, and it also introduced him, in Georgia, where he went for rehabilitation, to poor farmers unlike any he had spent time with before. He came to know them and to feel the problems they faced. He took people in trouble seriously and communicated that seriousness to them.
About this product: Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients By Ina Garten"Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics is the essential Ina Garten cookbook, focusing on the techniques behind her elegant food and easy entertaining style, and offering nea
About this product: Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book By Rachael Ray"In the 10 years since she served up her first 30-minute mealùand thousands of delectable dinners laterù Rachael Ray has learned just about all there is to know about getting a great tasting meal on the table in
About this product: How to use brands to gain and sustain competitive advantage
Companies today face a dilemma in marketing. The tried-and-true formulas to create sales and market share behind brands are becoming irrelevant and losing traction with consumers. In this book, Gerzema and LeBar offer credible evidence--drawn from a detailed analysis of a decade's worth of brand and financial data using Y&R's Brand Asset Valuator (BAV), the largest database of brands in the world--that business is riding on yet another bubble that is ready to burst--a brand bubble. While most managers still see metrics like trust and awareness as the backbone of how brands are built, Gerzema asserts they're dead wrong--these metrics do not add to increased asset value. In fact, by following them, they actually hasten the declining value of their brands.
Using a five-stage model, The Brand Bubble reveals how today's successful brands--and tomorrow's--have an insatiable appetite for creativity and change. These brands offer consumers a palpable sense of movement and direction thanks to a powerful "energized differentiation." Gerzema reveals how brands with energized differentiation achieve better financial performance than traditional brands have. Plus, Gerzema helps readers develop energized differentiation in their own brands, creating consumer-centric and sustainable organizations.
About this product: Prepare for CISA certification and improve your job skills with the training you'll receive in this valuable book. Covering the very latest version of the exam, it's packed with instruction on all exam content areas, including the most up-to-date regulations, IS auditing best practices, and compliances. You'll find practical exercises and plenty of real-world scenariosjust what you need for the CISA exam, and beyond.
About this product: June Walker tackles the most vexing problems facing the self-employed: bad recordkeeping and tax ignorance. Her solutions are simple, quick and audit proof: a recordkeeping method that works and a guide through the tax maze that ends with more money in the indie's pocket and less money going to Uncle Sam.
The self-employed operate under various names -- sole proprietors, freelancers, subcontractors, free agents, independent professionals - but the IRS and other taxing authorities require all of them to follow the same rules. If self-employed people don't understand tax and recordkeeping fundamentals, they will eventually gum up the works, and the remedy will be expensive, time-consuming, worrisome, and possibly fatal to their businesses - no matter how talented, motivated and entrepreneurial they are.
The author creates characters such as wedding photographer Billy Bridesnapper and the clueless CPA Sammy Segar to illustrate situations based on the real experiences of her clients. Through these examples told in clear, crisp and simple prose she explains the complete range of tax and recordkeeping basics - like how to prove to the IRS that the endeavor is a business not a hobby, how start-up costs differ from other deductions, how to go snorkeling and still deduct travel expenses, why a gift to mom can be a legitimate business deduction, why solos needn't worry about the difference between income and a reimbursement, how to make estimated tax payments, the structure and advantages of sole proprietorship, and hundreds of vital details about taxes, finances, and recordkeeping.
Armed with June's unique copyrighted worksheets designed just for the indie, her system takes only a few hours a year to implement, and saves time, anxiety and stress. Even the beginner who has never kept business records can easily learn it. Self Employed Tax Solutions explains how not to miss one single business deduction, how to pay the least tax legitimately possible and how to keep records so that accounting and tax preparer fees are reduced.
Self-Employed Tax Solutions is not written for dummies but for bright, intelligent people who don't understand the business side of their solo ventures. It's the one indispensable book that self-employed people need to survive and to succeed in a business environment where the tax laws and regulations are structured not for them but for corporations and employees.
Wouldn't you love to abolish the IRS ... Keep all the money in your paycheck ... Pay taxes on what you spend, not what you earn ... And eliminate all the fraud, hassle, and waste of our current system?
Then the FairTax is for you. In the face of the outlandish American tax burden, talk-radio firebrand Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder are leading the charge to phase out our current, unfair system and enact the FairTax Plan, replacing the federal income tax and withholding system with a simple 23 percent retail sales tax on new goods and services. This dramatic revision of the current system, which would eliminate the reviled IRS, has already caught fire in the American heartland, with more than six hundred thousand taxpayers signing on in support of the plan.
As Boortz and Linder reveal in this first book on the FairTax, this radical but eminently sensible plan would end the annual national nightmare of filing income tax returns, while at the same time enlarging the federal tax base by collecting sales tax from every retail consumer in the country. The FairTax, they argue, would transform the fearsome bureaucracy of the IRS into a more transparent, accountable, and equitable tax collection system. Among other benefits, it will:
Make America's tax code truly voluntary, without reducing revenue
Replace today's indecipherable tax code with one simple sales tax
Protect lower-income Americans by covering the tax on basic necessities
Eliminate billions of dollars in embedded taxes we don't even know we're paying
Bring offshore corporate dollars back into the U.S. economy
Endorsed by scores of leading economists and supported by a huge and growing grassroots movement, the FairTax Plan could revolutionize the way America pays for itself. In this straight-talking book, Neal Boortz and John Linder show you how it would work—and how you can help make it happen.
About this product: "The best of these books for tax novices." —Worth magazine
Can a fantastic tax-prep guide actually make doing your taxes fun? Probably not, but you'll have a lot more fun doing your taxes with the help of Taxes 2008 For Dummies than you would without it.
This uncommonly friendly tax guide weaves you through the tax-filing maze, walking you line by line through the most common forms for fast, easy filing. Fully updated for 2008, including details on Alternative Minimum Tax relief, enhanced child tax benefits, and deductibility of mortgage insurance premiums, this indispensable handbook also a new list of wise end-of-year moneysaving tax moves. You’ll discover how to:
Organize your records and keep them organized
Choose your filing status
Save time and money filing your taxes
Itemize your deductions with Schedule A
Take full advantage of Schedule C deductions
Determine your capital gains and losses
Negotiate with the IRS
Use tax credits to reduce what you owe
Make tax-wise personal finance decisions
Maximize your tax software and e-filing options
Audit-proof your tax return
Make sure you don't pay for IRS mistakes
Complete with four Top Ten tip lists covering audit avoidance, finding overlooked tax-reduction opportunities, interview questions for tax advisers, and special tax issues for military families, Taxes 2008 For Dummies may not make you laugh while your filling out your tax forms, but you'll smile when your done.
About this product: An ever increasing number of Americans are convinced that our country is no longer the land of safety or opportunity when it comes to their money and investments. These people recommend transferring your money to offshore tax havens in such countries as Dubai, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Panama. In fact, it has recently been estimated that nearly 60 percent of the world s money is located in offshore accounts. Legal Off Shore Tax Havens will show you how to protect your money and remain legal while doing so. Off shore tax havens are sovereign nations that have laws in place that protect people s financial privacy, assets, and cash. In this new, exhaustively researched book, you will find out how to take advantage of this system. You will learn how the system works, how to develop business opportunities, how to avoid excessive taxation and regulation, how to bank and invest off shore, how to find the tax haven that is right for you, and how to avoid scams. In addition, you will learn about the safest, most private nations, the best off shore banks and tax havens, what is and what is not legal, the best haven for your specific purposes, mistakes to avoid, legal issues, and basic off shore entities. You will also learn how sophisticated tax avoiders use countries such as Ireland, Austria, and the Netherlands to avoid suspicion; how to use residential tax havens, including Argentina and Costa Rica; and how to use Greece, the Phillipines, and Jordan as completely tax-free havens. Legal Off Shore Tax Havens will provide you with the strategies, knowledge, and contacts you need to avoid expensive mistakes and make the most of your offshore pursuits. This book is for those who are weary of paying high taxes and who are suspicious of the government. Whether you are seeking to move your business s money or your own personal finance, this book will provide you with all the necessary information to make a smooth, legal transition.