This book is an excellent, concise account of Kennedy's policies toward Latin America. Rabe does an exceptional job in presenting the information in a fairhanded manner. The writing is superb and the book is an easy read. It is a must have for those interested in Kennedy, Latin America, or just history in general.

Foster points out that the rate of formation of specialized districts has been rising rapidly. She provides a system for classifying them and notes all of the historic stimuli for their development. She then focuses on the two main reasons for their development: the influence of developers and increasing fiscal pressures on state and local governments.

The strength of the book is in its empirical analytics. One of my favorite parts is where she enumerates specialized districts by geographic scope and property taxing power. Over half of all district have this ability. It is these that may pose potential future problems to the residents and businesses they tax since the districts are not run by elected officials. Hence officials will be able to raise (and lower) taxes and yet are free from significant repraisal.

Although thorough, Foster finds her data often limit the scope of her analysis. But she makes the most of what she has. She finds, for example, that special districts tend to spend more per capita on a specified public service than do general-purpose governments (states, counties, townships, cities, boroughs). She points out that they may provide a different type of service, however, which may justify the extra expense (she points out that they are also more capital-intensive). Because of this upward spending bias, metro areas that rely on them also have a greater share of their public spending concentrated in the typical functions of the districts.

In summary, The Political Economy of Special-Purpose Goverments is a very important book for the field of public economics. It is not the book for the layman, however, since it relies on the application of statistical techniques to the Census of Goverments data.

The first read through this book is an emotional experience; the atrocities perpetrated against the Chinese are recorded humanly and vividly. Re-reading leaves you with a deep and abiding respect for John Rabe and his honesty and abiding respect for people.

Don't overlook the second part of the book, when Mr. Rabe describes the fall of the Reich, and all the difficulties an ordinary citizen encountered.

With this book, John Rabe finally has his brightest moment in history he deserves. I wonder how Japanese can continue to discredit / dispute / deny this horrible truth. What makes this book priceless is the truth Rabe is telling, not his writing style. I put this book next to "Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl" on my book shelf.

This Book is well worth reading, the most absorbing book that I have read about the chinese holocaust in world war two. I think that this book is the ultimite resource to finding info on world war 2. This book is absolutely absorbing and well worth reading and eazily A+ book

This book is a solid choice for anyone who wants to know more about revenue sharing. It's a book that can be read with pleasure by both novices and political scientists.

This book has been award the American Political Science Association's award for Best Book on Urban Politics.