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American Reference Books Annual 2005
Reference Reviews, August 2004
Review from:
American Reference Books
Annual 2005
Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks the
concept of homeland security has assumed greater prominence in U.S. public
policy debate and literature. This growing importance has been reflected
in the creation of a federal Department of Homeland Security, which
involved the largest reorganization of U.S. government agencies since
World War II. It is also reflected in the increasing influence of topics
such as information security, critical infrastructure protection, personal
privacy, and the ability of first responders such as police, fire, and
emergency health personnel to respond to terrorist incidents in planning a
variety of local, state, and federal public policy programs.
This compilation of newspaper and periodical articles is
part of the publishers Reference Shelf series, a set of compilations
featuring divergent viewpoints on public policy issues such as
intellectual property, changing U.S. demographics, urban planning, and the
Muslim world. It begins with an introduction describing U.S. efforts to
achieve homeland security since September 11th.
Homeland Security is then broken into six thematic
areas: overview of homeland security, local security and first responders,
intelligence gathering and civil liberties, immigration and border
patrols, securing airways and ports, and hard and soft targets. These
sections begin with contextual introductions by the editors and include
four or five newspaper or periodical articles analyzing trends and
developments in these fields. These articles are from publications such as
CQ Weekly, Slate, The Detroit News, Scientific
American, and U.S. News & World Report, and present a
variety of viewpoints on topics such as nuclear terrorism, port security,
alleged threats to civil liberties, border controls, and whether state and
local first responders are receiving sufficient federal resources to
fulfill their missions. The work concludes with a bibliography of
pertinent books, Websites, and periodical articles and abstracts.
Overall, article quality varies with some presenting
examples of solid investigative journalism and others reflecting
histrionics. Homeland Security serves as a reasonably effective
introduction to this important public policy topic, although its quality
would be enhanced by referring to Websites of congressional oversight
committees and organizations such as the House Select Committee on
Homeland Security, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and General
Accounting Office, which play significant roles in funding and evaluating
the performance of federal homeland security agencies
Review from:
Reference Reviews, August 2004
"Students will be delighted to have this book when they
begin to prepare to debate issues related to Homeland Security; the issues
surrounding the U.S.A. Patriot Act; and other concerns of the citizens of
the U.S. who found on Sept. 11, 2001, that they were no longer
invulnerable. Students and their parents are faced with the issues
surrounding the Patriot Act that expands the government's powers of
investigation and detention. Is the government going too far? What is the
role of the new Cabinet department, "Homeland Security"? Readers are given
"Overview of Homeland Security," "Local Security and First Responders,"
"Intelligence Gathering and Civil Liberties," "Immigration and Border
Patrols," "Securing Airways and Ports" and "Hard and Soft Targets." Each
chapter begins with an editor's introduction and the selected articles
that follow would take students and librarians many hours to locate were
they not gathered here. A two-page bibliography, two pages of Web sites
and eight pages of annotated periodical articles follow. Highly
recommended." |
