The Healing of America

A New York Times Bestseller, with an updated explanation of the 2010 Health Reform Bill Bringing to bear his talent for explaining complex issues in a clear, engaging way, New York Times bestselling author T. R. Reid visits industrialized democracies around the world--France, Britain, Germany, Japan, and beyond--to provide a revelatory tour of successful, affordable universal health care systems. Now updated with new statistics and a plain-English explanation of the 2010 health care reform bill, The Healing of America is required reading for all those hoping to understand the state of health care in our country, and around the world.

A best-selling author guides a whirlwind tour of successful health-care systems worldwide, disproving American myths of "socialized medicine" to find possible paths toward reform. Reprint.

"New York Times"-bestselling author Reid shows how all the other industrialized democracies have achieved something the U.S. can't seem to do: provide health care for everybody at a reasonable cost.

The author proposes transforming "spiritual activism into a social activism that will in turn transform America into a nation seriously invested in the hope of every child and in the potential of every adult."--Cover.

New York Times bestelling author T. R. Reid travels around the world to solve the urgent problem of America's failing tax code, unravelling a complex topic in plain English - and telling a rollicking story along the way. The U.S. tax code is a total write-off. Crammed with loopholes and special interest provisions, it works for no one except tax lawyers, accountants, and huge corporations. Not for the first time, we have reached a breaking point. That happened in 1922, and again in 1954, and again in 1986. In other words, every thirty-two years. Which means that the next complete overhaul is due in 2018. But what should be in this new tax code? Can we make the U.S. tax system simpler, fairer, and more efficient? Yes, yes, and yes. Can we cut tax rates and still bring in more revenue? Yes. Other rich countries, from Estonia to New Zealand to the UK—advanced, high-tech, free-market democracies—have all devised tax regimes that are equitable, effective, and easy on the taxpayer. But the United States has languished. So byzantine are the current statutes that, by our government’s own estimates, Americans spend six billion hours and $10 billion every year preparing and filing their taxes. In the Netherlands that task takes a mere fifteen minutes! Successful American companies like Apple, Caterpillar, and Google effectively pay no tax at all in some instances because of loopholes that allow them to move profits offshore. Indeed, the dysfunctional tax system has become a major cause of economic inequality. In A Fine Mess, T. R. Reid crisscrosses the globe in search of the exact solutions to these urgent problems. With an uncanny knack for making a complex subject not just accessible but gripping, he investigates what makes good taxation (no, that’s not an oxymoron) and brings that knowledge home where it is needed most. Never talking down or reflexively siding with either wing of politics, T. R. Reid presses the case for sensible root-and-branch reforms with a companionable ebullience. This affects everyone. Doing our taxes will never be America's favorite pastime, but it can and should be so much easier and fairer.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Unaccountable comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it. "A must-read for every American." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of price-gouging, middlemen, and a series of elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a roadmap for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.

"... a book about healing revivalists that takes them seriously and treats them fairly." Journal of Southern History"... will be a definitive work for some years to come." Reviews in American History"Harrell has obviously attended countless rallies, read sheafs of literature, and personally interviewed many of the principals. He... tell[s] the story in a largely biographical format. This makes for lively reading." Harvey G. Cox, New York Times Book Review"... will attract readers interested in the reasons behind the various fat and lean periods among revivalists." Publishers Weekly"All Things Are Possible is the first book to tell the story of the enterprisers who have personal followings. The narrative is full of surprises: of seriousness and scandal strangely blended. Professor Harrell has done a staggering amount of research in hard to discover sources; his scholarship is impressive and he is eminently fair-minded. Here is a missing link in the chain of American religious movements." Martin E. Marty, The University of Chicago Divinity School"Harrells book will doubtless be the definitive work on the subject for a long whilewho else will wade through Healing Waters and Miracle Magazine with such fastidious care?" The Kirkus ReviewsThis is the first objective history of the great revivals that swept the country after World War II. It tells the story of the victories and defeats of such giants of the revival as William Branham, Oral Roberts, Jack Coe, T. L. Osborn, A. A. Allen. It also tells of the powerful present day evangelists who are carrying on the revival, including Robert Schambach and Morris Cerullo. The book includes pictures of Schambach, Allen, Cerullo, Branham, Roberts, Osborn, Coe and many others. Those who lived through the great revival of the 1950s and 1960s will be thrilled to read about those exciting days. Those who do not remember those days need to read this book to see what has led us up to this present moment in time.David Edwin Harrell, Jr. is a professor of history at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He has tried to write this book in an objective way, although you may not agree with all that he says. Dr. Harrell has visited Schambach revivals.

Healing That Reaches Beyond the Self In this landmark work, Marianne Williamson reminds us that there is a point in everyone's spiritual journey where the search for self-awareness can turn into self-preoccupation. All of us are better off when contemplation of holy principles is at the center of our lives. But it is in applying those principles in our lives that we forge the true marriage between heaven and earth. In the compassionate but clear-eyed prose that has won her so many avid readers, Williamson shows us that the principles which apply to our personal healing also apply to the healing of the larger world. Calling on Americans to turn the compassion in our hearts into a powerful force for social good, Williamson shows us how to transform spiritual activism into a social activism that will in turn transform America into a nation seriously invested in the hope of every child and in the potential of every adult.

Now updated with new material by #1 New York Times bestselling author and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, the twentieth anniversary edition of Healing the Soul of America shares her timeless, visionary message of political healing. In the twentieth anniversary edition of Healing the Soul of America, Marianne Williamson reclaims her powerful voice for social conscience in American society. This is a time, according to Williamson, for Americans to return once again to our first principles, both politically and spiritually. Here, Williamson draws plans to transform the American political consciousness and encourage powerful citizen involvement to heal our society. With updated material throughout, Williamson explores the current state of American politics, reminding us of her theory of holistic politics—the convergence of political activists looking toward spiritual wisdom and spiritual contemplatives extending their service into the political landscape. She believes that a morally concerned American must now take an active stand in turning this country away from its current identity as a nation obsessively in love with its money to a nation more seriously invested in all of its children and the potential brilliance of every citizen. “Marianne Williamson…is attempting to…help not only her followers but an entire nation” (People). In the wake of the current political dysphoria, with countless tragedies consistently on the nightly news, America is facing a time of immense division. Political parties that completely polarize friends and family, mass shootings, threats of nuclear war, and a lack of confidence in our governmental leaders show that the country is in desperate need of restoration. We need a new paradigm of political understanding, a moral commitment to express it, and a new kind of activism to bring it forth. Healing the Soul of America is a blueprint for all three and there has never been a more urgent need.

Those who've heard T. R. Reid's weekly commentary on National Public Radio or read his far-flung reporting in National Geographic or The Washington Post know him to be trenchant, funny, and cutting-edge, but also erudite and deeply grounded in whatever subject he's discussing. In Confucius Lives Next Door he brings all these attributes to the fore as he examines why Japan, China, Taiwan, and other East Asian countries enjoy the low crime rates, stable families, excellent education, and civil harmony that remain so elusive in the West. Reid, who has spent twenty-five years studying Asia and was for five years The Washington Post's Tokyo bureau chief, uses his family's experience overseas--including mishaps and misapprehensions--to look at Asia's "social miracle" and its origin in the ethical values outlined by the Chinese sage Confucius 2,500 years ago. When Reid, his wife, and their three children moved from America to Japan, the family quickly became accustomed to the surface differences between the two countries. In Japan, streets don't have names, pizza comes with seaweed sprinkled on top, and businesswomen in designer suits and Ferragamo shoes go home to small concrete houses whose washing machines are outdoors because there's no room inside. But over time Reid came to appreciate the deep cultural differences, helped largely by his courtly white-haired neighbor Mr. Matsuda, who personified ancient Confucian values that are still dominant in Japan. Respect, responsibility, hard work--these and other principles are evident in Reid's witty, perfectly captured portraits, from that of the school his young daughters attend, in which the students maintain order and scrub the floors, to his depiction of the corporate ceremony that welcomes new employees and reinforces group unity. And Reid also examines the drawbacks of living in such a society, such as the ostracism of those who don't fit in and the acceptance of routine political bribery. Much Western ink has been spilled trying to figure out the East, but few journalists approach the subject with T. R. Reid's familiarity and insight. Not until we understand the differences between Eastern and Western perceptions of what constitutes success and personal happiness will we be able to engage successfully, politically and economically, with those whose moral center is governed by Confucian doctrine. Fascinating and immensely readable, Confucius Lives Next Door prods us to think about what lessons we might profitably take from the "Asian Way"--and what parts of it we want to avoid.

Complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, has become mainstream. The question people typically ask about CAM is whether it works. However, an issue of equal or, perhaps, greater significance is why it is supposed to work. Answering this question reveals how CAM may change not only your health, but also your religion. This book explains how and why CAM entered the American biomedical mainstream and won cultural acceptance, even among evangelical and other theologically conservative Christians despite its roots in non-Christian religions and the lack of scientific evidence of its efficacy and safety. Many CAM providers make religious or spiritual assumptions about why CAM works: assumptions informed by religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism forged in Asia, or metaphysical spirituality developed in Europe and North America. Before the 1960s, most of the practices considered in this book - yoga, chiropractic, acupuncture, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, meditation, martial arts, homeopathy, and anti-cancer diets - if encountered at all-were generally dismissed as medically and religiously questionable. What causes practices once classified as illegitimate for medical and religious reasons to be redefined as legitimate routes to physical and spiritual wellness? Promoters of holistic healthcare, or integrative medicine, strategically marketed products to consumers poised to embrace effective, spiritually wholesome therapies. Once-suspect health practices gained approval as they were re-categorized as non-religious (though generically spiritual) healthcare, fitness, or scientific techniques, rather than as religious rituals. Although CAM claims are similar to religious claims, CAM gained cultural legitimacy because people interpret it as science instead of religion. Healthcare consumers, providers, policymakers, and courts need to know not just whether CAM works, but also why it should work. Holistic healthcare raises ethical and legal questions of informed consent, consumer protection, and religious establishment at the heart of biomedical ethics, tort law, and constitutional law. Answering this question gets to the heart of values such as personal autonomy, self-determination, religious equality, and religious voluntarism.

What is radical about providing loving care? The radical concept is that each and every caregiver in today's hospitals should be providing loving care to their patients and to each other. In the same vein, each and every leader in our hospitals should be taking care of those who care for others. This work addresses healthcare leaders through illustrative examples and compelling outcomes that demonstrate the success of the Healing Hospital model in today's hospital. Training tools are also provided to help leaders and employee partners construct and advance a culture of loving care in today's technocratic hospital setting.

Usually, we think of the state of modern Israel, as well as the late nineteenth-century Zionist movement that led to its founding, as a response to anti-Semitism which grew out of cultural and religious Judaism. In What Is Modern Israel?, however, Yakov M. Rabkin turns this understanding on its head, arguing convincingly that Zionism, far from being a natural development of Judaism, in fact has its historical and theological roots in Protestant Christianity. While most Jewish people viewed Zionism as marginal or even heretical, Christian enthusiasm for the Restoration of the Jews to the Promised Land transformed the traditional Judaic yearning for 'Return'--a spiritual concept with a very different meaning--into a political project. Drawing on many overlooked pages of history, and using on a uniquely broad range of sources in English, French, Hebrew, and Russian, Rabkin shows that Zionism was conceived as a sharp break with Judaism and Jewish continuity. Rabkin argues that Israel's past and present must be understood in the context of European ethnic nationalism, colonial expansion, and geopolitical interests rather than--as is all too often the case--an incarnation of Biblical prophecies or a culmination of Jewish history.

Americans have long been aware of the phenomenon loosely known as faith healing. Such practices most often received attention when they came into conflict with biomedical practice. During the 1990s, however, the American cultural landscape changed dramatically and religious healing became acommonplace feature of our society. The essays in this book chart this new reality. Insofar as healing traditions constitute the meeting ground or point of conflict between different groups, argue the authors, they provide a powerful lens through which to examine cultural changes at work. Each ofthe papers offers a particular case study. Many emphasize gender, race, ethnicity, and class as key components of healing experiences.

In our era of mass incarceration, gun violence, and Black Lives Matters, a handbook showing how racial justice and restorative justice can transform the African-American experience in America. This timely work will inform scholars and practitioners on the subjects of pervasive racial inequity and the healing offered by restorative justice practices. Addressing the intersectionality of race and the US criminal justice system, social activist Fania E. Davis explores how restorative justice has the capacity to disrupt patterns of mass incarceration through effective, equitable, and transformative approaches. Eager to break the still-pervasive, centuries-long cycles of racial prejudice and trauma in America, Davis unites the racial justice and restorative justice movements, aspiring to increase awareness of deep-seated problems as well as positive action toward change. Davis highlights real restorative justice initiatives that function from a racial justice perspective; these programs are utilized in schools, justice systems, and communities, intentionally seeking to ameliorate racial disparities and systemic inequities. Chapters include: Chapter 1: The Journey to Racial Justice and Restorative Justice Chapter 2: Ubuntu: The Indigenous Ethos of Restorative Justice Chapter 3: Integrating Racial Justice and Restorative Justice Chapter 4: Race, Restorative Justice, and Schools Chapter 5: Restorative Justice and Transforming Mass Incarceration Chapter 6: Toward a Racial Reckoning: Imagining a Truth Process for Police Violence Chapter 7: A Way Forward She looks at initiatives that strive to address the historical harms against African Americans throughout the nation. This newest addition the Justice and Peacebuilding series is a much needed and long overdue examination of the issue of race in America as well as a beacon of hope as we learn to work together to repair damage, change perspectives, and strive to do better.

Barely fifty years ago a computer was a gargantuan, vastly expensive thing that only a handful of scientists had ever seen. The world’s brightest engineers were stymied in their quest to make these machines small and affordable until the solution finally came from two ingenious young Americans. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce hit upon the stunning discovery that would make possible the silicon microchip, a work that would ultimately earn Kilby the Nobel Prize for physics in 2000. In this completely revised and updated edition of The Chip, T.R. Reid tells the gripping adventure story of their invention and of its growth into a global information industry. This is the story of how the digital age began. From the Trade Paperback edition.

"In Nature's Path- the first comprehensive book to examine the complex history and culture of American naturopathy- Susan E. Cayleff tells the fascinating story of the movement's nineteenth-century roots." --book jacket.

For the Healing of the Nation offers a serious look at the social and political climate in the United States from a biblical perspective, emphasizing race and "otherness," economics and the environment, and institutional violence (war and capital punishment). An autobiographical thread traces the journey of a white male coming of age in the mid-twentieth-century Deep South as his evolving faith leads him to painful breaks with inherited values and standard views on controversial issues. Critical not only of both major political parties but also of centrist compromises between Right and Left, Russell Pregeant seeks a "forward" position, which he terms "ecocommunitarian," based on biblical values. His musings touch on both southern and American identities and on the nature of the biblical writings and the ways they should and should not be used in contemporary debates. Central to the entire work are discussions of how idolatrous commitments to a culture's prevalent ideologies obscure the essential demands of biblical faith.

It was 150 year ago that Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French admirer of the United States, foresaw that eventually Americans would “neglect their chief business, which is to remain their own masters.” What can be done to reverse this dangerous trend? This Constitutional seminar covers the areas in which America needs to be healed and cured, including the money system, the Federal reserve, the national debt, tax reform, the Supreme Court, and labor unions. For those seeking answers and solutions to America’s problems, they can be found here.