What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running the World

December 4, 2006
In her latest, well-informed author and Ohio native Rossi (What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World) might be writing an irreverant "Cliff's Notes" for American geography students who have difficulty finding Europe on a map, were it not for her opinionated voice and her commitment to "European history and culture that we rarely learn in school." Deliberately playing to the Ugly American vantage point, Rossi divides the book into two parts, "Old Europe" and "New Europe," though, in characteristic fashion, she efficiently delineates the real-world differences between "Western Europe and Greece" (the Old) and the largely post-Communist eastern counterparts (the New) without losing her playful attitude. In 28 entries, Rossi has created an engaging travel guide complete with the basics-demographics, history, hot spots and notable natives-as well as numerous digressions, including the significance of Ireland's groundbreaking television comedy Father Ted; Poland's answer to the Olsen twins, actors-turned-moral crusaders the Kaczynski twins; and Sweden's innovative use of booze and manure for fuel. Rossi is most skilled in keeping her guide balanced: sidebar stories on significant events, scandals and achievements add depth and definition to each profile, while the one-line summaries included in the introductions ("France: Most Land, most pushy, biggest food producer") keep things pithy.

April 30, 2007
Narrowing her focus, journalist Rossi follows up 2005's What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running the World with this critical look at the U.S. government. A case of loonies running the nuthouse, Rossi reports that lobbyists and special-interest groups have overtaken Capitol Hill; in chapter after chapter, she offers insightful evidence as to how government representatives make decisions affecting the lives of their constituencies based on the suggestions of special-interest powerbrokers. In this way, she argues, greed and poor judgment have produced any number of ills for America, such as the highest prescription drug prices in the world. Rossi also unearths lesser known schemes, such as who's got the ear of the school boards and which laws America's wealthiest families are working to repeal. Taking readers name-by-name, organization-by-organization and scandal-by-scandal through the American government's recent history, Rossi covers some familiar ground, but the sheer volume of material assures readers will turn up something they had not known or long forgotten. The knowledge she pulls together and shares proves the volume's most useful contribution to the cause of government reform.