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http://www.sagepub.com/Shopping/Detail.asp?id=2021This volume, the result of collaboration by practicing administrators and academics,explores the current anti-government climate and its effect on the work and working livesof public employees and their relationships with citizens. If offers economic, political,historical, and philosophical perspectives on citizen discontent and tells stories of actualworking relationships between public agencies and citizens. The collaborators maintainthat while government workers cannot control the economy or the bureaucracy as awhole, they can take practical steps to improve their interactions with citizens.Keywords: public administration, public affairs, textbookGovernment Works: Why Americans Need the Feds. Esman, Milton J., NY: CornellUniversity Press. 2000.http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/What is the proper role of government in American life? This is the principal controversyin contemporary American politics. Milton J. Esman believes that the United Statessuffers not from too much government but from too little. Most Americans todayproclaim pride in their democracy, but they do not trust Washington. Esman shows howAmerican conservatives have, for the last quarter-century, hammered away at the federalgovernment, attacking its size, its inefficiencies, the limits it places on personal freedom,and its intervention in what conservatives believe should be free and untrammeled markettransactions. Such commentators have effectively seized the initiative, and theirantigovernment viewpoint now dominates the public discourse on politics. "This biasruns contrary to the main thrust of American political experience," Esman writes, "and isdetrimental to the well-being of the nation on the brink of the new millennium."Keywords: textbook, public administration, public affairsIntroducing Public Administration. Shafritz, Jay M., and E.W. Russell, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2000.http://www.awlonline.com/product/0,2627,0321044835,00.htmlProviding students with a solid conceptual foundation in public administration, thesecond edition of Shafritz and Russell's contains the latest information on trends in thediscipline. The text presents unique chapter-opening vignettes and a boxed readingprogram with real-life excerpts and quotes that reinforce the narrative and make the texteven livelier. The authors address the important issues in public administration in a wittywriting style that captivates students and encourages them to think critically about thenature of public administration today.377