Central / national / federal government policies Books

Book SynopsisExamines immigration as a central strategy of Scottish nation building

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Book SynopsisThe backlash against globalization and the rise of cultural anxiety has led to considerable re-thinking among social scientists. This book provides multiple theoretical, historical, and methodological orientations to examine these issues. While addressing the rise of populism worldwide, the volume provides explanations that cover periods of both cultural turbulence and stability. Issues addressed include populism and cultural anxiety, class, religion, arts and cultural diversity, global environment norms, international trade, and soft power. The interdisciplinary scholarship from well-known scholars questions the oft-made assumption in political economy that holds culture "constant," which in practice means marginalizing it in the explanation. The volume conceptualizes culture as a repertoire of values and alternatives. Locating human interests in underlying cultural values does not make political economy's strategic or instrumental calculations of interests redundant: the instrumental logic follows a social context and a distribution of cultural values, while locating forms of decision-making that may not be rational.Trade Review"This book offers a multifaceted approach to problems of social order, inclusion, difference, value, and values. During a time when there is a tendency to simplify complex problems with reductive recipes, slogans, and tweets, Cultural Values in Political Economy is a timely contribution to reviving and rethinking our collective approach to political economy." -- Paolo Quattrone * Alliance Manchester Business School *"Understanding the ever-changing relationship between culture, economy, and politics is among the herculean tasks of the social sciences. With Cultural Values in Political Economy, J.P. Singh has collected excellent essays by leading scholars that revisit this relationship in the context of 21st-century shifts." -- Helmut K. Anheier, Hertie School * Berlin *"This masterful collection illuminates many of the all-important interfaces between culture and economy. Distinguished authors from diverse fields show how economies order cultural values, and how cultural change can reshape economic policies. These insights have never been more important than in these times when cultures and economies are being challenged." -- W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington * Seattle *"Topics include social class dynamics, religious values, cultural anxiety, the humanities and cultural diversity, the global environment and the green revolution, worldwide trade patterns, and the soft power of persuasion as employed by some countries to influence the policies of other nations.The latter is particularly salient in the conduct of relationships by major powers among developing nations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America, where international education agendas and the development of natural resources are frequently contested... Recommended." -- S. Prisco III * CHOICE *"Understanding the relationship between culture, economy, and politics is an essential future task in the development of the social sciences, and the book edited by J. P. Singh is an important and timely contribution to this challenging research agenda." -- Trine Bille * International Journal of Cultural Policy *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsForeword: Cultural Mediations and Political Economy chapter abstractCulture is often treated as a marginal or residual factor in explanations of economic and political behavior. The foreword argues that to understand the interconnected role of values, interests, and agency in the study of global transactions in political economy, culture needs to be seen as independent, generative, and future oriented. By taking this richer approach to culture, many phenomena that escape the net of rational choice theory become more understandable, especially in a world of new connections, mobilizations, and innovations in the political sphere. 1Introduction: Cultural Values in Political Economy chapter abstractAn intrinsic part of culture is its history. However, at any given time, different cultural values are sifted through this history and mobilized for collective action. This chapter provides a context for understanding the role of cultural values in political economy examined in this book. Conceptually, the book attempts to provide an interdisciplinary and comprehensive understanding of cultural values imbricated in political economy and the way to move from collective to individual interests, and vice versa. These theoretical moorings allow the authors to operationalize culture through a variety of methods including historical, ethnographic, case-study, and quantitative evidence. Part I provides the conceptual foundations that engender the cultural assumptions held implicit or constant in a few analyses and explains the contexts under which cultures transform interests. Part II presents chapters that examine the processes of cultural interactions that flow from underlying values. 2Culture and Preference Formation chapter abstractEconomists take preferences to be comparative evaluations of alternatives that incorporate every factor the agent takes to influence her choices other than beliefs and constraints. Rational choice is determined by rational preferences among the alternatives that agents believe to be feasible and, to a reasonable degree of approximation, the theory of rational choice does double duty as a theory of actual choice. It may seem impossible to employ the economist's model to make sense of the influence of culture or of the mechanisms of cultural change because the economist's model treats norms and ideals as merely different influences on preferences. Yet, as this chapter argues, nothing in the economist's model rules out incorporating additional mechanisms of preference formation and change. Moreover, it argues that doing so is helpful both in understanding the interactions between culture and action and in articulating a more detailed and promising theory of rational choice. 3Value and Values in Economics and Culture chapter abstractIssues of value and valuation are fundamental to any consideration of the relationships between economics and culture. This chapter discusses these relationships at both macro and micro levels. First, we consider the possible connections between the cultural values of different societies and their national economic performance. Then, turning to a functional sense of culture, the chapter argues that in addressing questions of the value of art and culture, it is essential to distinguish between economic value and cultural value, in which the latter refers to aspects of value that are not expressible in monetary terms. Illustrations are drawn from studies of the value of the visual arts, literature, and music. Next, we consider culture in international economic relations, discussing value and valuation in the areas of intercultural dialogue, cultural diversity, and sustainable development. The chapter concludes with a plea for more dialogue at an interdisciplinary level. 4Creating a Culture of Environmental Responsibility chapter abstractThis chapter explores possibilities for creating a new culture of environmental responsibility, drawing mainly on recent work in environmental political theory and philosophy. It begins from the assumption that culture—conceived as a repertoire of shared values—is crucial to understanding the interests that people feel themselves to have and that cultural values can powerfully influence long-term changes in society. If we want to improve environmental outcomes, we will need a new culture of environmental responsibility. Key to establishing this culture is novel ways of thinking about what responsibility means and creating new political and economic practices to support it. 5Cosmopolitans and Parochials: Economy, Culture, and Political Conflict chapter abstractBoth political economy and culture have been marshalled as explanations for parochialism and cosmopolitanism, opposing orientations that influence contemporary politics and foreign policy. Simple models based on international economic position do not adequately explain parochial attitudes on such issues as Brexit or immigration. Cosmopolitan attitudes are linked to a particular, often local, cultural infrastructure (information environment, educational institutions, and transnational experience). In explaining both parochial and cosmopolitan attitudes and action, the effects of globalization on local culture and politics are of central importance. The link from economy to political behavior and outcomes is created by divergent locational effects of globalization and the local cultures they produce: globalized urban environments versus disadvantaged hinterlands that perceive themselves as left behind. International political economy must illuminate this link between economy and culture, which has important public policy implications. 6Crossing Borders: Culture, Identity, and Access to Higher Education chapter abstractThrough the adoption of a semiotic approach to culture, this chapter aims to assist in the development of a cultural explanation of global political culture. A semiotic approach asserts that meaning is assigned by participants to social patterns and behaviors found in society. The experience of boundary spaces offers a laboratory of sorts for revealing the contours of culture and cultural differences, including class differences. It is the experience of stepping out of a comfort zone and into alien space, a place where one does not necessarily know what goes with what, that is most revealing. Habituated roles create the contours of borders and boundaries that come with attendant expectations and customs associated with nation, class, race, gender, and age, among other identities. 7Ideology, Economic Interests, and American Exceptionalism: The Case of Export Credit chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes the sources and implications of American exceptionalism in the area of export credit. For virtually all major economies, export credit is an important industrial policy tool to promote economic growth. Remarkably, however, while its rivals are dramatically increasing their use of export credit, the United States has become a major outlier. An ideologically driven campaign led by the Tea Party sharply constrained the operations of the US Export-Import Bank: the bank was shut down entirely for five months in 2015 and subsequently limited to financing only minor transactions for nearly four years. This chapter argues that American exceptionalism on export credit cannot be understood without reference to culture, specifically the market fundamentalist ideology of the Tea Party, which has led to a conception of national economic interests and preferences that departs radically from other states. 8Strangest of Bedfellows: Why the Religious Right Embraced Trump and What That Means for the Movement chapter abstractThis chapter outlines the connection and disconnection between cultural and material factors in the rise of the religious right in the United States. This social movement comprises socially conservative and politically active born-again and evangelical Christians, as well as some ultraconservative Catholics. This movement comes out of a unique subculture that is suspicious of mainstream political and social institutions and that rejects many of the conventional norms of a democratic society. At once, this subculture claims moral superiority in what it considers a corrupted society while pursuing access to levers of power in order to conform the mainstream culture more to its own idealized image of the United States. Religious conservatives were the key to electing Donald J. Trump as president, and this chapter explores linkages of social and cultural issues to the broader economic factors that played a substantial role in religious conservative support for his election. 9Applying the Soft Power Rubric: How Study Abroad Data Reveals International Cultural Relations chapter abstractA country's ability to attract foreign students to its universities is one common way to understand its soft power in the international community. Applying the Soft Power Rubric to empirical data, this chapter reveals the preferences of students who go abroad and uncovers South Africa's and Malaysia's roles as rising regional hubs and France's slowing growth as a global hub, which complicate our understanding of North-South or core-periphery postcolonial relations. The rubric reconceives soft power as when foreigners transform their thinking from "us" and "them" to a collective "we," emphasizing the perspective of the countries at the periphery rather than at the core, unveiling important networks of cultural relations, offering a path forward to bring cultural data into empirical modeling, and pointing to fruitful areas for future work. The chapter also offers a contrast with others in this book that emphasize a reaction against globalization.

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Book SynopsisFor decades, the US military has been contaminating the Pacific region with toxic substances. Thousands of service members, their families, and local residents have been exposed—but the US has hidden the damage and refused to help victims. This book reveals the enormous extent of contamination and the lengths the Pentagon will go to conceal it.

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Book SynopsisThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is one of the most critical federal agencies. It's also the most criticized-bar none. Those glory days of battling burning rivers and smog-chocked air are behind us, along with appreciation of the agency that made it all possible. Over the past couple of decades, an overall war on science and environmental protections has been steadily gaining ground. The Trump administration is the latest (and most serious) threat.Trade ReviewIf you care about the health of American families and the future of your children, then read this book. It will make you stand up, shout out and take action to defend science and EPA at a time when we are losing the battle against life-threatening pollution. -- Gina McCarthy, former U.S. EPA Administrator (2013-2017)Accessible yet detailed, science-based yet politically-savvy, factual yet gripping, The War on the EPA assembles the government agency's history, the toxic tragedies that prompted its creation, the people who made it work, and, sadly, the people who try to undermine and dismantle this protector of our air, land, and water. It presents a vital account beneath profit and material prosperity. What use are they if our skin breaks out in rashes, our water brings cancer, and our children are born malformed with lower IQs? This book is a timely resource to remedy our situation, more valuable now than ever. -- Joshua Spodek, PhD MBA, host of the Leadership and the Environment podcast and author of "Initiative"

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Book SynopsisIf it seems to you that Barack Obama and Joe Biden have weakened America and emboldened our enemies, you're not alone. But Senator Cotton explains that their failures aren't just incompetence or bad luck-it's decline by design. Only the Strong reveals the untold inside story of how progressive ideologues and Democratic politicians abandoned the American tradition of strength, pride, and honor. From the beginning, early progressives like Woodrow Wilson repudiated our Founding in favor of globalist fantasies abroad and big government at home. By Vietnam, leftists had begun to blame America first for the world's problems-just as Barack Obama did for eight years as he apologized and sought to atone for America's supposed sins. Along the way, Democrats have sold out America's sovereignty and hollowed out our military to restrain American power. Even when Democrats have acted tough, it usually ends in disaster, from John Kennedy's debacle at the Bay of Pigs to Bill Clinton's fiasco in Mogadishu to Joe Biden's humiliating retreat from Afghanistan.While offering a timely warning of the dangers ahead and new stories from Senator Cotton's service in the Senate and the Army, Only the Strong also provides a formidable and urgent roadmap to restore American strength before it's too late. Because only the strong can survive in a dangerous world and only the strong can preserve their freedom.

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Book SynopsisAn acclaimed author and celebrated journalist breaks down the history of electricity and the impact of global energy use on the world and the environment.Global demand for power is doubling every two decades, but electricity remains one of the most difficult forms of energy to supply and do so reliably. Today, some three billion people live in places where per-capita electricity use is less than what's used by an average American refrigerator. How we close the colossal gap between the electricity rich and the electricity poor will determine our success in addressing issues like women's rights, inequality, and climate change.In A Question of Power, veteran journalist Robert Bryce tells the human story of electricity, the world's most important form of energy. Through onsite reporting from India, Iceland, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, New York, and Colorado, he shows how our cities, our money--our very lives--depend on reliable flows of electricity. He highlights the factors needed for successful electrification and explains why so many people are still stuck in the dark.With vivid writing and incisive analysis, he powerfully debunks the notion that our energy needs can be met solely with renewables and demonstrates why--if we are serious about addressing climate change--nuclear energy must play a much bigger role.Electricity has fuelled a new epoch in the history of civilization. A Question of Power explains how that happened and what it means for our future.

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Book SynopsisLeap of Faith is the first comprehensive and objective history of the decision to invade Iraq. Based on nine years of research, over 100 interviews with participants in the drama, and information from hundreds of U.S. and British declassified documents, Mike Mazarr shows how the most impressive and experienced foreign policy team made the greatest strategic folly of the century.Mazarr reveals that a combination of messianic certainty, cultural deference, and administrative infighting and incompetence allowed the decision to be made without any examination of the ways in which it could unravel. So when it did, no one had any answers.Leap of Faith is a parable of how good intentions can go wrong, and a cautionary tale about any international entanglement.

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Book SynopsisIt's easy to be pessimistic about the state of our country these days, but as McCormick explains, if the true test of a great country is its capacity for self-renewal, the United States of America stands apart. Our country has continually defeated grave threats and overcome domestic divisions when the odds have been stacked against us. That's the American story, and we can do it again.Drawing on decades of leadership in business, the military, and government, McCormick issues a call for visionary, servant leadership and outlines a conservative agenda for American renewal that would expand access to the American Dream, ensure U.S. technological supremacy, confront China, and revive the restless, courageous, and indefatigable spirit that dwells within the American heart. This book is a must read for those who care deeply about the future of America. McCormick, a former candidate for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022, argues the path forward is treacherous and uncertain. It will undoubtedly test our resilience and place in the world. But if we commit ourselves to renewal, America's best days are yet to come.

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Book SynopsisDiscover a groundbreaking vision for how to unlock America''s full potential for greatness from one of the country''s foremost conservative leaders: David McCormick, the former CEO of Bridgewater Associates.It''s easy to be pessimistic about the state of our country these days, but as McCormick explains, if the true test of a great country is its capacity for self-renewal, the United States of America stands apart. Our country has continually defeated grave threats and overcome domestic divisions when the odds have been stacked against us. That''s the American story, and we can do it again.Drawing on decades of leadership in business, the military, and government, McCormick issues a call for visionary, servant leadership and outlines a conservative agenda for American renewal that would expand access to the American Dream, ensure U.S. technological supremacy, confront China, and revive the restless, courageous, and indefatigable spirit that dwells within the

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Book SynopsisThis is a story of how a group of largely provincial civil servants and politicians came together in the face of neoliberal hegemony to advance the national child Benefit, national children's, Agenda and Social Union Framework Agreement. This study peers behind the ideology of media-speak to show how Canadian federalism was made to work and where it failed to work. It peers deeply into the Canadian political economy to understand the role of these social programs in the context of globalization. Students of social policy will find it most informative as they contemplate the structures and processes needed for implementing social programs in a federalist system.Table of ContentsSocial Policy Environment * The Social Security Review * The 1995 Budget and the Council of Social Policy Reform and Renewal * Process and Structure for Social Policy Renewal * National Child Benefit * National Children's Agenda * New Approaches to Canada's Social Union * Conclusion

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Book SynopsisCanada is ruled by an organized minority of the 1%, a class of corporate owners, managers and bankers who amass wealth by controlling the large corporations at the core of the economy. But corporate power also reaches into civil society and politics in many ways that greatly constrain democracy.In Organizing the 1%, William K. Carroll and J.P. Sapinski provide a unique, evidence-based perspective on corporate power in Canada and illustrate the various ways it directs and shapes economic, political and cultural life.A highly accessible introduction to Marxist political economy, Carroll and Sapinski delve into the capitalist economic system at the root of corporate wealth and power and analyze the ways the capitalist class dominates over contemporary Canadian society. The authors illustrate how corporate power perpetuates inequality and injustice. They follow the development of corporate power through Canadian history, from its roots in settler-colonialism and the dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their land, to the concentration of capital into giant corporations in the late nineteenth century. More recently, capitalist globalization and the consolidation of a market-driven neoliberal regime have dramatically enhanced corporate power while exacerbating social and economic inequalities. The result is our current oligarchic order, where power is concentrated in a few corporations that are controlled by the super-wealthy and organized into a cohesive corporate elite.Finally, Carroll and Sapinski offer possibilities for placing corporate power where it actually belongs: in the dustbin of history.

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Book SynopsisTo listen to most pundits and political writers, evolution, stem cells, and climate change are the only scientific issues worth mentioning,and the only people who are anti-science are conservatives. Yet those on the left have numerous fallacies of their own. Aversion to clean energy programs, basic biological research, and even life-saving vaccines come naturally to many progressives. These are positions supported by little more than junk-science and paranoid thinking.Now for the first time, science writers Dr. Alex B. Berezow and Hank Campbell have drawn open the curtain on the left's fear of science. As Science Left Behind reveals, vague inclinations about the wholesomeness of all things natural, the unhealthiness of the unnatural, and many other seductive fallacies have led to an epidemic of misinformation. The results: public health crises, damaging and misguided policies, and worst of all, a new culture war over basic scientific facts,in which the left is just as culpable as the right.Trade Review"Science Left Behind challenges the notion that poorly informed anti-science rhetoric is solely the province of the right wing...Berezow and Campbell offer numerous examples of progressives hijacking legitimate programs and research and twisting them to suit a backwards-ass anti-science agenda. In this way, reading Science Left Behind is as infuriating as it is eye-opening. A fundamental lack of familiarity with science is rampant in government as a whole, and Science Left Behind does an impressive job drawing attention to this alarming disparity." Portland Mercury" Nevertheless, Berezow and Campbell's message is jarring and necessary. Science is vilified in American political life. People believe things because they wish to, not because of what is true. This has real-world consequences when it comes to the implementation of beneficial technology. Anti-scientism is everywhere, and acknowledging that much of it comes from our own political tribe is a hard and inconvenient truth." Scienceblogs.com "Anyone who talks for very long with a genuine American leftist -- as opposed to the vastly more numerous moderate liberals -- can quickly see that romantic-nostalgic spite toward science and technology is not the sole province of Fox-watchers." PolicyMic"The people who are skeptical of the benefits of vaccination or think that organic food is healthier will undoubtedly find [Science Left Behind] problematic. And they should. The prominent activists and politicians highlighted in this book are spreading misinformation and causing serious harm in some cases, and it's good to see scientists and science writers making some noise about it. You should read what they have to say. Go buy this book." Wall Street Journal"In Science Left Behind, journalists Alex B. Berezow and Hank Campbell show that conservatives hardly have a monopoly on motivated reasoning, usefully revealing how pervasive scientific misinformation is in progressive arguments on organic and genetically modified foods, clean energy, nuclear waste and other matters." Forbes "There are a lot of hot-button topics here: environmentalism, genetically modified organisms, organic food, product testing on animals, solar power, clean energy, and more. The authors explore the issues in detail, working very hard to give the appearance of political neutrality, and the book does an excellent job of opening readers' minds to the possibility that these issues aren't as cut-and-dried as they might have been led to believe by politicians and the media. Open-minded readers, those who don't mind being asked to reassess their long-held beliefs, should find much here to think about and debate. "This is - as far as I know - the best and first book to tackle many of these anti-science claims, and while it is not the definitive work on any of these subjects, it's worth a read for anyone who is infuriated by claims that republicans are anti-science...[T]he book does an excellent job of bringing together a large survey of different ways that elements of the political left in America fail to heed what science has to say." New Scientist"There is more, and recent, antiscience fare from far-left progressives, documented in the 2012 book Science Left Behind by science journalists Alex B. Berezow and Hank Campbell, who note that "if it is true that conservatives have declared a war on science, then progressives have declared Armageddon...Whereas conservatives obsess over the purity and sanctity of sex, the left's sacred values seem fixated on the environment, leading to an almost religious fervor over the purity and sanctity of air, water and especially food." Scientific American Commentary Magazine"Alex B. Berezow and Hank Campbell are on solid ground in Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left...Their arguments slice quickly and powerfully, supported by the kinds of skillfully chosen facts...Science Left Behind does much-needed work in drawing attention to what the authors call the "feel-good fallacies" that constitute the worldviews of so many on the left-often the very individuals who proudly claim membership in the "reality-based com-munity." More important, Berezow and Campbell articulate a valuable observation that deserves constant reiterating: with great frequency, politics invites us to inhabit an imaginary world populated by fictions that conform to our desires about how things ought to be." San Francisco Book Review Michael Medved, nationally syndicated talk radio host, author of THE 10 BIG LIES ABOUT AMERICA "Entertaining, enlightening and important. This valuable book should shatter the left's smug certainty that science registers as a partisan Democrat. Berezow and Campbell provide persuasive evidence and argument that should reshape conventional wisdom on a wide variety of current controversies." Kirkus "A sophisticatedly vitriolic, somewhat tongue-in-cheek addition to the current election debate." Publishers Weekly "Their nonpartisan message is clear: Washington as a whole is woefully uninformed when it comes to the scientific underpinnings of pertinent topics like stem cell research, green energy, organic food, vaccines, and gender issues." Huntington News "Groundbreaking...If I were teaching journalism, this is a book that I would require my students to read and absorb -- and keep for reference." The Progressive Contrarian"A no-nonsense, sometimes brutal and sometimes funny book that progressives should read." Red, Green, and Blue.org "Alex Berezow and Hank Campbell, co-authors of Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left, make a nuanced and convincing counter argument: Ludditism is not a partisan issue. In fact, on many of the most critical issues of our time, the "progressive" perspective is often rooted in out-dated, anti-empirical, junk science paradigms that threaten innovation-and are beginning to unnerve the most scientifically minded thinkers on the left...This soft conspiracy, promoted by mainstream Democrats, infects a broad array of science issues and highlights the religious-like iconic beliefs of the left (as Kloor has noted): Nature is sacred, big business is dangerous and corrupt, technology can cause more problems than it helps solve, the world is on the verge of an eco-apocalypse, and we need more precaution, regulation and legislation. I call it enviro-romanticism, a criticism documented in distressing detail in Science Left Behind...Read Science Left Behind. It's a clarion call for the empirically minded amongst us regardless of your ideological persuasion." Booklist

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of the sustained attack on reproductive rights in the USA in recent years, and its ramifications.

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Book SynopsisIn late 2006, Saket Soni, a twenty-eight-year-old Indian-born community organizer, received an anonymous phone call from an Indian migrant worker in Mississippi. He was one of five hundred men trapped in squalid Gulf Coast "man camps," surrounded by barbed wire, watched by guards, crammed into cold trailers with putrid toilets, forced to eat mouldy bread and frozen rice. Recruiters had promised them good jobs and green cards. The men had scraped up $20,000 each for this "opportunity" to rebuild hurricane-wrecked oil rigs, leaving their families in impossible debt. During a series of clandestine meetings, Soni and the workers devised a bold plan. In The Great Escape, Soni traces the workers' extraordinary escape, their march on foot to Washington, DC, and their twenty-three-day hunger strike to bring attention to their cause. Along the way, ICE agents try to deport the men, company officials work to discredit them, and politicians avert their eyes. But none of this shakes the workers' determination to win their dignity and keep their promises to their families.Weaving a deeply personal journey with a riveting tale of twenty-first-century forced labour, Soni takes us into the lives of the immigrant workers the United States increasingly relies on to rebuild after climate disasters. The Great Escape is the gripping story of one of the largest human trafficking cases in modern American history-and the workers' heroic journey for justice.

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Book SynopsisAn honest reckoning with the war on terror, masculinity, and the violence of American hegemony abroad, at home, and on the psyche, from a veteran whose convictions came undone When Lyle Jeremy Rubin first arrived at Marine Officer Candidates School, he was convinced that the “war on terror” was necessary to national security. He also subscribed to a strict code of manhood that military service conjured and perpetuated. Then he began to train and his worldview shattered. Honorably discharged five years later, Rubin returned to the United States with none of his beliefs, about himself or his country, intact.  In Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body, Rubin narrates his own undoing, the profound disillusionment that took hold of him on bases in the U.S. and Afghanistan. He both examines his own failings as a participant in a prescribed masculinity and the failings of American empire, examining the racialized and class hierarchies and culture of conquest that constitute the machinery of U.S. imperialism. The result is a searing analysis and the story of one man’s personal and political conversion, told in beautiful prose by an essayist, historian, and veteran transformed. 

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Book SynopsisAs Canada was in the grips of the worst pandemic in a century, Canadian media struggled to tell the story. Newsrooms, already run on threadbare budgets, struggled to make broader connections that could allow their audience to better understand what was really happening, and why. Politicians and public health officials were mostly given the benefit of the doubt that what they said was true and that they acted in good faith.This book documents each month of the first year of the pandemic and examines the issues that emerged, from racialized workers to residential care to policing. It demonstrates how politicians and uncritical media shaped the popular understanding of these issues and helped to justify the maintenance of a status quo that created the worst ravages of the crisis. Spin Doctors argues alternative ways in which Canadians should understand the big themes of the crisis and create the necessary knowledge to demand large-scale change.

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Book SynopsisThe Coalition Government passed into law an unprecedented assault on the NHS. Doctors, unions, the media, even politicians who claimed to be stalwart defenders failed to protect it. Now the effect of those devastating reforms are beginning to be felt by patients – but we can still save our country’s most valued institution if we take lessons from this terrible betrayal and act on them. Contributors to this eye-opening dissection include Dr Jacky Davis, Oliver Huitson, Dr John Lister, Stewart Player, Prof. Allyson Pollock, David Price, Prof. Raymond Tallis, Dr Charled West and Dr David Wrigley. Proceeds from the profits of this book will go to Keep Our NHS Public (www.keepournhspublic.com).Trade Review‘Important and very timely… has the most extensive and specific ‘What You Can Do’ section I’ve ever seen… an essential weapon for activists’ * Peace News *‘Essential reading… These public intellectuals with expert knowledge spell out the systemic weakening by successive Conservative and New Labour governments, culminating in the coalition’s demolition of its very foundations. They are very, very angry; we should be as well – and, what’s more, protesting.’ * Times Higher Education Supplement, Books of the Year *‘When you turn round and notice that the NHS as you have known it no longer exists – its principles rewritten, its ownerships and services alienated – you might wonder exactly who did exactly what to this much-admired institution. NHS SOS presents the lethargy, dishonesty and corruption without which this executive coup would not have come about. It is a cogent, sobering and necessary read.’ -- Julian Barnes‘Across society, there is a realisation that the National Health Service is one of our greatest social achievements and that to keep it is an enormous political challenge. This book is a weapon in that struggle.’ -- Ken Loach‘Buy this book… act.’ -- Observer‘It is in NHS SOS that one finds the soul of a healthcare system that the public is not prepared to see destroyed.’ -- Prospect‘Courageous and persuasive… This book should be read by all those who love the NHS and wish to try at this late hour to protect it.’ -- The Lancet

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Book SynopsisFor many progressives, racial identities are the engine of American history, and by extension, contemporary politics. They, in short, want to separate race from class. While policymakers and pundits find an almost metaphysical racism, or the survival of an ancient and primordial tribalism at the heart of American life, these inequities are better understood when traced to more comprehensible forces: to the contradictions in access to New Deal era welfare programs, to the blinders imposed by the Cold War, to Ronald Reagan's neoliberal assault on the half-century long Keynesian consensus. As Touré Reed argues in this rigorously constructed book, the road to a more just society for African Americans and everyone else, the fate of poor and working-class African Americans is inextricably linked to that of other poor and working-class Americans.Trade ReviewPraise for Not Alms but Opportunity A first-rate treatment of its subject.--Journal of American HistoryReed succeeds in making sense of the ideological and class perspectives that shaped the initiatives of the Urban League. . . . He also makes a compelling argument for a more holistic approach to any project designed to 'uplift the race.'--Journal of American Ethnic History [An] excellent study of the National Urban League. . . . What distinguishes Reed's study from previous scholarship is not his critique of the economic and cultural biases of racial uplift but, rather, his detailed analysis of their effects.--U.S. Intellectual-HistoryNot Alms but Opportunity is at once a solid institutional history of the early decades of the National Urban League as well as a nuanced exploration of the very complicated politics of racial uplift. It is refreshing to see the ways that Reed gives the organization flesh and blood. In his hands the Urban League is seen as a totally human invention--altruistic in its determination to make a better way for black Americans while simultaneously riven by class distinctions and confining notions of 'proper behavior.'--Jonathan Holloway, author of Confronting the Veil: Abram Harris, E. Franklin Frazier, and Ralph Bunche, 1919-1941 * journal of american history *Reed's brilliantly argued and accessible book does not just marshal an impressive array of historicalevidence in building the brief against race reductionism. It offers a most timely analytical intervention that can give us much neededperspective on the Sanders primary debacle of 2020. -- Roger Lancaster * New Labor Forum *A forceful critique of race reductionism -- Preston H. Smith II * Catalyst *An intricate account of the conservative drift in liberal thinking and policy from the Great Depression to the current moment. Throughout, Reed examines how antiracist demands were continuously isolated from broader demands for economic reforms that would coalesce the interests of working-class Americans to endanger capital. -- J.J. Charlesworth * ArtReview *Reed's study provides a compelling explanation for why successive governments have failed to address a durable racial inequality in the late 20th and 21st century. -- Preston H. Smith II * Journal of Urban Affairs *

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Book SynopsisIn early 2019, the Islamic Republic of Iran marked its fortieth anniversary, despite decades of isolation, political pressure, sanctions and war. Observers of its security policies continue to try and make sense of this unlikely endurance. Though there are significant disagreements about the Islamic Republic's thinking and intentions, virtually everyone agrees that its policies are fundamentally different from those pursued by their monarchical predecessors. 'No Conquest, No Defeat' offers a historically grounded overview of Iranian national security. Tabatabai argues that Iranian strategic thinking is perhaps best characterised by its dynamic yet resilient nature, one that is continually evolving and whose foundations were laid out decades ago. To understand Iran's national security thinking and policies today, one must examine them in their historical context. As the Islamic Republic enters its fifth decade, this book sheds new light on Iran's controversial nuclear and missile programmes, and its involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.Trade Review‘No Conquest, No Defeat: Iran’s National Security Strategy argues convincingly that rather than being divorced from pre-revolutionary Iran, the Islamic Republic is no different fundamentally in terms of its strategic thinking; it presents thought-provoking reasons as to why this is so. This helps to explain Iran’s diplomatic posturing and foreign policies for those who hold preconceived notions that it is an irrational and non-pragmatic state.’ -- Middle East Monitor

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Book SynopsisProfessional Risk and Working with People provides advice on assessing and managing risks for all those employed to take risks with or on behalf of other people.The authors explore issues of risk assessment and management that provides readers with a broad knowledge of risk practices that can be applied across a range of disciplines. They detail the benefits of risk as well as the potential harm and explain relevant legislation and concepts of negligence in clear and accessible language. Examples of risk policies, systems and effective judgement in managing complex risk decisions are also included.In the current climate of blame and readiness to pursue legal action against professionals, this book will prove essential reading for all practitioners who come into contact with risk, including doctors and other health and care professionals, probation officers and social workers. Leaders of professional courses and their students will also find this an invaluable guide.Trade ReviewThe style of writing and presentation of complex concepts is a useful model for analysing, monitoring and evaluating any organisation which provides a public service. There are very useful sections on an appendix of shared vocabulary, references, subject index, author index and an index of case law examples used. I would recommend the book for managers of organisations engaged in public service. It may also be useful for anyone involved in working in child protection and requiring a CRB check for their work and also EPs engaged in specialist work such as expert witness, CAMHs and YOT. -- DebateWhat makes this book different to many of the previous books on risk for professionals is that rather than focusing on delivering a series of facts and issues, it encourages readers to think through risk issues for themselves in their own context. It provides a clear structure for how risk issues can be framed and how professionals can consider their own practice, the constraints that are sometimes outside their control and, perhaps most importantly, a way of interpreting how their practice relates to the legal system. -- Mental Health TodayFor many years David Carson has delivered risk traing workshops to a variety of professionals. These have been stimulating and informative. Much of this book reflects these events, with the exercises refined and the teaching reproduce on paper. This enables newcomers to access Carson's arguments, while also offering a welcome refresh of training ideas for those familiar with his work.This book is an excellent resource for any health professional - probation officer, social worker or teacher. -- Professional Social WorkCarson (law and behavioural sciences, U. of Portsmouth, UK) and Bain (criminal and community justice studies, U. of Portsmouth, UK) discuss dealing with risk in health, social care, education, and criminal justice fields, and provide ideas for making decisions, assessment, and management plans. They also describe important legal concepts, methods of communication, thinks that can go wrong in the assessment process, and what should be included in risk policies. -- Book News IncThe authors are both well qualified to analyse the type of risk decisions increasingly encountered by professional individually and within organisations. Their aims in this book include: provision of a range of aids for professional thinking on risk assessments and management plans; detailing both the benefits and potential harm of risk, explaining relevant legislation and concepts of negligence clearly and accessibly highlighting currently poor procedure and practice; together with advice on satisfying legal requirements; practical advice on effective communication about risk and recomendations for pratice and policy. -- The Rospa Occupational Safety & Health JournalThis a book that every occupational therapist in clinical practice should read. Eash point is illustrated with case examples, spanning across areas such as the prison/parole service, mental health, child protection and medical negligence. This book has an easy, conversational style, making it enjoyable and light to read despite the complexity of the subject matter. The book is thought provoking as it raises almost as many questions as it answers. Occupational therapists, especially those working in 'high risk' settings such as community care or psychiatric services, will find this text an invaluable asset. -- British Journal of Occupational TherapyThis book is written in clear language throughout, easily accesible to various professionals or beginning professionals in a range of work situations... I found it not only thought-provoking and enlightening, but also an enjoyable read -- SWAP E-bulletinThe authors fully achieve their aims of targeting the professionals making decisions about other people, and suggesting ways that decision makers ought to approach risk. Also practical tools and applied concepts offered, along with accessible straight forward style of writing offers those new to risk decisions the confidence to embrace their work, and those old hands a timely refresher. -- Prison Service JournalTable of ContentsPreface.1: Risk: Making It Work For and Not Against You. 2: Map and Model. 3: The Law: From Judging to Supporting Decision-making. 4: Risk Assessment. 5: Risk Management. 6: Risk Communication. 7: Risk Procedures. 8: Risk Policies. 9: Risk Strategies. 10: Conclusion. Appendix: Shared Vocabulary of Risk and Risk-taking. References. Subject Index. Author Index. Index of Legislation.

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Book SynopsisWork within the human services is increasingly influenced by rights-based thinking, and this book offers advice for the practitioner on how to translate abstract rights theory into their everyday practice.The book outlines the theory that underpins human rights and outlines the ethical debates and dilemmas that frequently surround them. It also provides a practical model that outlines how to embed human rights theory within practice and the professional decision-making process. Drawing extensively on real-life case examples, the book includes chapters on rights-based work with different client groups including offenders, people with intellectual disabilities, immigrants and refugees, and children and families.This important book will be a useful source of guidance and advice for professionals working across the human services, including those in social care, health and justice settings.Trade ReviewOverall the book provides acknowledgement and thorough analyses of the complexities of human rights issues. In particular there is fair and balanced analysis of situations of competing rights, without giving prescriptive answers to ethical dilemmas... this book will be of interest to social work educators, and probably more advanced students, and practitioners particularly in the areas of child protection and criminal justice. -- Aotearoa New Zealand Social WorkThe book would be useful for students and practitioners looking to explore practice issues from an international perspective and different societal responses and structures to similar problems, such as the use of corporal punishment. The structure and lay out of the chapters is such that it allows the reader to dip in and out depending on their particular interests. It would be a useful addition to any library. -- The Higher Education Academy Social Policy and Social Work Subject CentreThe strength of the book for practitioners and academics involved with the criminal justice system is in how it highlights the risks of populist punitive penal responses becoming vehicles for oppression and the denial of human rights. -- The Howard JournalThis book provides a synthesis of human rights theory and human services practice and offers a rights-based model to aid professional decision-making and practice... This important interdisciplinary resource is an essential tool for professionals working across the human services, including those in social care, health and justice settings. -- childRIGHTAn interesting, persuasive book about the way we ought to think about the ways we treat others. Let me recommend Morals, Rights and Practice in the Human Services to anybody with an interest in inter-personal relations, both in and out of the context of the human services, as well as to anybody attracted to a novel way of approaching these relations. -- Metapsychology OnlineTable of ContentsPart One: Exploring the Territory. 1. Understanding Human Rights. 2. Human Rights and Culture. 3. Values, Rights and the State. Part Two: Navigating Rights and Practice. 4. Navigating Rights across the Life Course. 5. Losing Rights: Offenders on the Margins. 6. Claiming Rights: Disability and Human Rights. 7. Contesting Rights: Cultural Values and Children's Rights. 8. Respecting Rights: Service-User Rights in Child Welfare. Part Three: Integrating Rights-Based Ideas. 9. Rights-Based Values in Practice Frameworks. 10. Embedding Rights-Based Ideas. 11. Concluding Thoughts. References. Index

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Book SynopsisHow is the modern world shaping young people and youth crime? What impact is this having on the latest policies and practice? Are current youth justice services working? With contributions from leading researchers in the field, this book offers an insightful, scholarly and critical analysis of such key issues.Youth Offending and Youth Justice engages constructively with current policy and practice debates, tackling issues such as the criminalisation and penalisation of youth, sentencer decision-making, the incarceration of young people and the role of public opinion. It also features an applied focus on professional practice.Drawing on a wide range of high-quality research, this book will enrich the work of practitioners, managers, policy-makers, students and academics in social work, youth work, criminal justice and youth justice in the UK and beyond.Trade ReviewThis is an excellent text in every possible regard... The editors gave little in the way of guidance as to what they were expecting - a brave (or foolish) course of action that could have led to a unfocused piece (or a great deal of re-writting) but has resulted in an excellent, coherent, insightful addition to the growing body of critical literature surrounding youth offending and youth justice. This slim volume is up there with the best works in this field. -- British Journal of Social WorkThis is an excellent book, which well maintains the high standard we associate with the name of Jessica Kingsley. It succeeds in its aim of being both scholarly and accessible. -- Quakers in Criminal JusticeFor those preferring a more critical analysis and who are ambitious to work in a landscape illuminated by research and what the co-editors might call "ethical principles", this book will be welcomed... More importantly, it is relevant across the range of disciplines and professions involved in youth justice and prevention... The co-editors conclude with an excellent retrospective analysis of the book as a whole, providing commentary on the themes and some useful messages for policy and practice development. All this is crucial reading at a time when youth justice is facing big changes, with few elements of practice, or governance, likely to remain stable. -- Children & Young People NowTable of ContentsPart One: Youth Offending and Youth Justice in Context. Chapter 1. Introduction. Monica Barry and Fergus McNeill, both of the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, UK. Chapter 2. The Changing Landscape of Youth and Youth Crime. Sheila Brown, University of Plymouth, UK. Chapter 3. Criminal Careers and Young People. Susan McVie, University of Edinburgh, UK. Chapter 4. Children and Young People: Criminalisation and Punishment. Rod Morgan, University of Bristol, UK. Chapter 5. Youth Justice Policy and its Influence on Desistance From Crime. Monica Barry. Chapter 6. Youth, Crime and Punitive Public Opinion: Hopes and Fears for the Next Generation. Shadd Maruna, Queens University Belfast, UK and Anna King, Rutgers University, USA. Part Two: Youth Offending and Youth Justice in Practice. Chapter 7. Beyond Risk Assessment: The Return of Repressive Welfarism? Jo Phoenix, University of Durham, UK. Chapter 8. Supervising Young Offenders: What Works and What's Right? Fergus McNeill. Chapter 9. Incarcerating Young People: The Impact of Custodial 'Care'. Mark Halsey, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia and James Armitage, Attorney-General's Department, Australian Government. Chapter 10. Doing Youth Justice: Beyond Boundaries? Anna Souhami, University of Edinburgh, UK. Chapter 11. Conclusions. Monica Barry and Fergus McNeill. The Contributors. Subject index. Author index.

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Book SynopsisThis book analyses Labour's policies of local crime control from 1997 through to 2006. Picking up on the Conservative legacy, it follows the establishment of local crime and disorder reduction partnerships and tracks developments from Labour's attempts to subject them to a centrally-imposed performance management regime, through to the emergence of a strong neighbourhoods agenda, combined with the imposition of a largely enforcement-oriented attack on anti-social behaviour. It also explores Labour's attempts to address the causes of crime through a policy agenda that has crystallised around themes of social exclusion, social capital, community cohesion and civil renewal; and that operates through an architecture that aspires to be joined up centrally and locally, and neighbourhood-based. The main focus of the book is upon the unfolding of Labour's 'third way' political project from the centre downwards, but the limitations of this project are exposed through an exploration of a number of key themes. These include Labour's dependence upon the different translations of local practitioners, with whom it engages in a discursive politics of crime reduction versus community safety, and through whom the conceptual and practical weaknesses of evidence-based practice, performance management and joined-up government are revealed.Trade Review'Daniel Gilling's text provides us with the definitive criminological analysis of New Labour's national project on community safety and crime prevention over the last decade. Written in an authoritative yet accessible style, it will become a classic case study of the contradictions of this UK government's ambitious if flawed governmental experiment in local crime control. Gilling's careful and penetrating diagnosis of government rhetoric and policy is measured, provocative and ultimately profoundly disturbing. 'Must read' for students, teachers, researchers and, you'd hope, practitioners and policy makers in the UK and beyond.' - Professor Gordon Hughes, Cardiff UniversityTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Labour's political project 3. Imposing the crime reduction agenda 4. From crime reduction to community safety? 5. Getting tough: anti-social behaviour and the politics of enforcement 6. Going soft? Tackling the causes of Labour's crime problem 7. Losing control: from politics into practice 8. Leaving its mark: Labour and the new landscape of local crime control

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Book SynopsisWhy has identity become so central to judging art today? Why are some groups reluctant to defend free speech within culture? Has state support made artists poorer not richer? How does the movement for social justice influence cultural production? Why is post-modernism dominant in the art world? Why are consumers of comic books so bitterly divided?In Culture War: Art, Identity Politics and Cultural Entryism Alexander Adams examines a series of pressing issues in today''s culture: censorship, Islamism, Feminism, identity politics, historical reparations and public arts policy. Through a series of linked essays, Culture War exposes connections between seemingly unrelated events and trends in high and popular cultures. From fine art to superhero comics, from political cartoons to museum policy, certain persistent ideas underpin the most contentious issues today. Adams draws on history, philosophy, politics and cultural criticism to explain the reasoning of creators, consumers and critics and to expose some uncomfortable truths.

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Book SynopsisIn this urgent and timely book, Vince Cable explains the causes of the world economic crisis and how we should respond to it. He shows that although the downturn is global, the complacency of the British government towards the huge 'bubble' in property prices and high levels of personal debt, combined with increasingly exotic trading within the financial markets, has left Britain badly exposed. This paperback edition has been fully revised and updated to include Vince Cable's latest assessment of the recession.Trade Review"'The best book you can read to understand what on earth is going on out there.' Independent * 'Anybody with an interest in the causes of the deepest economic crisis since the great depression - and that is most of us these days - can easily digest it in a single sitting, and be much better informed as a result.' Guardian 'No one has a greater right to say: "I told you so" than Vince Cable... The Storm is an urgent admirably clear book which studies each stage of the crisis and asks what it portends.' Observer 'Vince Cable is the only politician to emerge from the credit crunch a star... [The Storm] is a lucid guide to the present mess.' Sunday Times 'Vince Cable is a phenomenon of our troubled times... the most popular politician in Britain... a lone voice in a sea of complacency.' Economist"

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Book SynopsisAgainst the Odds is a Machiavellian study of the machinations of three senior politicians in quite different developing countries who adroitly played the tough political game in ways that reduced poverty. The three - former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and Chief Minister Digvijay Singh in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh - had scarcely heard of one another, and never communicated. And yet they used a broadly similar repertoire of political devices - persuasion, distractions, bargaining, stealth and pressure - to pursue broadly similar goals. They demonstrated two crucial things: poverty reduction is politically feasible, even in the teeth of daunting economic and political constraints; and it is politically beneficial to those who achieve it, since it enhances their popularity, legitimacy and influence. If leaders in other developing countries who are naturally preoccupied with their own political interests recognise these things, then serious efforts to reduce poverty will become more common elsewhere. This book is, unusually, the work of three well-known political scientists from Brazil, Kenya and Britain - each of whom specialises in one of the three countries that are analysed. After extensive field research, they engaged in detailed comparative discussions that impart greater coherence to Against the Odds, especially its conclusions.Trade ReviewThe key message of this uplifting and hugely important book is that 'politics matters; politicians matter'. The authors show that political entrepreneurship in the service of the poor is not only possible, but can be made to work, including for the politician. Institutions matter, and so do path dependencies, but not as much as we are often told. That's another message of this book and it's one that is written into the careers of its main protagonists, Yoweri Musaveni, Digvijay Singh and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. -- Stuart Corbridge, Professor of Development Studies, London School of EconomicsThis is a first-rate exploration of political strategies employed by "reform champions" in the introduction and implementation of policies to combat endemic poverty. It successfully combines analysis of institutions and the agency of reform leaders in finding room to manoeuvre in the promotion of policy change. -- Merilee S. Grindle, Edward S. Mason Professor of International Development, Harvard UniversityWhen we look back we need biographies as well as studies of institutions, politics and economies, but the literature on recent and ongoing development politics and economics typically ignores political leaders, unless to twist them into bogeymen of the liberal imagination, or ossify them as impossible heroes. This book does the rare and hugely needed job of highlighting the role and characters of three remarkable leaders in different continents. -- Christopher Cramer, Professor of the Political Economy of Development, SOAS, and author of Civil War Is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing CountriesThis book makes a strong argument for the potential power of politicians in developing countries to positively influence the poverty reduction agenda, in contrast to the often used "lack of political will" explanation for failures in the struggle against poverty. ... The analysis makes the important argument that pro-poor policies are not only politically feasible, but can also be advantageous for politicians. The authors' conclusion offers an insightful discussion on the conditions under which politicians might pursue poverty reduction agendas, and provide a useful unpacking of the construct of "political will". -- Dr Bina Fernandez, University of Leeds

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Book SynopsisSince the end of the Cold War Yemen's international position is governed by its precarious relations with its powerful neighbour Saudi Arabia and by extension the United States. In this important book based on a wide range of Arab and Western sources, the author analyses contemporary foreign policy issues and security matters - notably that of the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, where Yemen is a significant player. With a wide range of sources including contact with key Yemeni and US policy-makers, Dr Al-Madhagi discusses US interests in Yemen, showing how the area fitted - and did not fit - into US policy-making during the Cold War and its aftermath. He analyses the relationship of a small state and superpower - from the Yemeni revolution in 1962 to unification in 1990 and demonstrates the often tetchy aspects of such relations. He also charts more recent disputes - with the US after the Gulf War and with Saudi Arabia over oil. This book makes an essential contribution to a better understanding of American foreign policy in the Middle East as well as the potential instabilities of the Arabian Peninsula. Ahmed Nomen Al-Madhagi is a Yemeni scholar specializing in contemporary history, politics and international relations, who undertook his research at the LSE, in Washington and Yemen.Table of Contents1. North Yemen - US contacts before 1962; 2. Initial YAR-US contacts; 3. Relations breached and restored, 1962-72; 4. Development of a US interest in the YAR; 5. The US and unified Yemen. Appendices: Main actors; Important dates in Yemen's recent history, 1962-94.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first collection of art therapy work concerned exclusively with offenders. It describes how the use of art therapy has grown in adult prisons, young offender institutions, secure psychiatric and probation centres. Examples of work by women and men of many different backgrounds show how art therapy can contribute to the understanding of offenders, and to their own understanding of themselves. This opens up the possibility of personal change, and of developing a more constructive life style.At a time of great concern about the damaging effects of crime, this book shows a positive way forward. It is illustrated with black and white photographs and many line drawings.The authors are all experienced art therapists who explore different ways of working, both in groups and with individuals. The book will be of interest to all those who work in the criminal justice system, as well as art therapists.Trade ReviewIf the Prison Service is to fulfil its stated duty - to help prisoners lead law-abiding and useful lives in custody and after release, this book must be one of the more important guides on how to achieve it... art therapy with offenders seems both necessary and desirable at this stage of regime development, and each chapter in this book provides fresh ideas for it. -- Judge Stephen TumimIt is an important milestone as prior to its publication recorded debate on Art Therapy forensic work was fairly limited nationally and internationally. The introduction and contributions offer a useful historical overview, literature review, and points for appraisal in establishing first services. Important issues are raised on the need to appraise gender roles, and vulnerabilities for both clients and therapists. Art Therapy with Offenders provides the onus for us to take this body of illustration and use it as a frame for constructing new theoretical foundations for forensic work. It is a helpful stepping stone which I would encourage all to read. -- Inscapethis book contributes to our understanding of the uses and meaning of art through its descriptions of how and why prisoners make art. Art Therapy with Offenders will be useful to anyone attempting to establish an art therapy program in a correctional setting. It will also, I think, prove enlightening to anyone interested in viewing the strange, gloomy world of prison through the eyes of artists and therapists. -- American Journal of Art TherapyEach chapter stands in its own right, and authors set out very clearly what they intend to say. Each work setting is vividly described, giving the reader a sense of what it must feel like to work in such settings. There is a wealth of information on the 'nuts and bolts' of establishing oneself in an institution, inviting referrals, setting up a group sessions, making contact with clients, introducing them to the medium and documenting the process of therapy. I felt these accounts to be as useful to music therapists as art therapists, and relevant to therapists setting up work with any client group, not just offenders. I found so much to stimulate and inspire me, and little to criticise. This book demonstrates the value of art therapy with offenders. -- Journal of British Music TherapyThe foreword by Judge Stephen Tumim sets the scene for a thoroughly good book. It is in essence a practical and pragmatic series of essays offering new horizons about art as a vehicle for the understanding and addressing of offending behaviour. Each contributor whilst adding their own dimension appears to reflect a common thread. A book of reference as well as ideas, those involved in the training of prison and probation staff would do well to find a place for this book on their reading list. What it is not, is a book for the Art Teacher alone. It has much more to offer. -- AMBOV QuarterlySelf and Society readers will find this superb book a valuable contribution to in-depth work in their therapy and with themselves... brilliant and beautiful collection of papers and illustrations. -- Self and Societya valuable insight into how the setting for therapeutic work shapes its form and potential. There are interesting contributions from art therapists working with adolescent sex offenders. -- Assoc for Child Psychology and Psychiatry Review and NewsletterAn extensive reading list adds to the value of this comprehensive book as a resource for work with offenders. -- Readings: A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental HealthThis book is ideal for those who work with offenders and have an interest in art therapy but know very little about it. It gives a good overview of art therapy, the different styles of work and its use with offenders. -- Labour Campaign for Criminal Justice NewsletterThe reader is easily able to understand the material that the authors present a very readable book of interest to health professionals wanting to know more about the value of art therapy with offenders and the impact of the environment on the delivery of therapy. -- Australian Occupational Therapy JournalTexts such as this are beneficial as art therapists expand their areas of practice to forensic settings This book is recommended for therapists working in offender treatment setings and is also highly recommended to those contemplating this kind of work. Through vivid descriptions and extensive case examples, the authors give an excellent feel for working with this difficult, resistant, and at the same time, rewarding group of clients. Quality reproductions of client imagery engage the reader in the clinical vignettes presented an enjoyable and helpful book that provides new information and information on forensic art therapy only previously available in journal articles. This book will be especially useful to those contemplating work with offenders, and it provides a useful perspective to therapists working in any setting where issues of client vulnerabilities, substance abuse and perpetration are present. -- The ArtsTable of ContentsIntroduction, Marian Liebmann. 1. `Mists in the Darkness' Working with long term prisoners in a high security prison - a therapeutic paradox? Julie Murphy. 2. Building up to a Sunset - A story of development through art therapy, Eileen McCourt. 3. Art as therapy with young offenders in a young offenders institution, Celia Baillie. 4. Ways of working: Art therapy with women in Holloway Prison, Pip Cronin. 5. Therapeutic aspects of art teaching in prisons, Colin Riches. 6. Art therapy with `vulnerable' prisoners, Shn Edwards. 7. Art therapy in a forensic psychiatric unit, Barbara Karban. 8. Individual art therapy with adolescent sex offenders: Towards an understanding of fear and loathing, sexuality and gender issues within the therapeutic relationship, Lynn Aulich. 9. The use of art therapy in the treatment of adolescent sex offenders, Maralynn Hagood. 10. Art therapy - alternative to prison, Barry Mackie. 11. Art therapy and changing probation values, Marian Liebmann.

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Book SynopsisThis textbook offers a chronological introduction to the New Deal which incorporates material on events and developments outside as well as within Washington DC and on popular reaction to the policies. Reference is made to President Roosevelt and his role but the main emphasis is upon policy formation and implementation and the context in which the New Deal evolved. Bearing in mind the requirements of students Fiona Venn draws comparisons between American and European responses to the depression and provides explanations of American institutions and traditions as appropriate. Key Features * A student-friendly, chronological introduction to the New Deal * The New Deal is a key aspect of twentieth-century American History and is covered on all undergraduate courses * A detailed chronology helps the student to locate the events in the wider context of American history * Places emphasis on long-term effects of the New Deal, locating it within international context as well as within US historyTrade ReviewThis book will find a wide and willing readership - in my experience students welcome introductory texts which set out the story in plain terms and Dr Venn certainly knows how to write for a student readership. -- Hugh Brogan, University of Essex Fiona Venn does an excellent job here of steering the student through this colourful epoch with a tightly-written and highly readable account. This book will find a wide and willing readership - in my experience students welcome introductory texts which set out the story in plain terms and Dr Venn certainly knows how to write for a student readership. Fiona Venn does an excellent job here of steering the student through this colourful epoch with a tightly-written and highly readable account.

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Book SynopsisThere exists in Europe today a sense of cultural insecurity which economic prosperity alone cannot satisfy. This book discusses the forces that have shaped this sense and argues that cultural problems need cultural solutions.

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Book SynopsisInitiated in 1978, China’s reform and opening up is regarded as the greatest economic transformation in the country’s history. By changing the property ownership system and altering the structure of resource distribution, the Communist Party was able to reform its former planned economy and open up its closed economic system.In the decades that have followed, China has pushed forward the reform of its economic, political, cultural, social and ecological systems. It has also intensified its economic interaction with other nations by relaxing, and even abolishing, many kinds of restrictive policies, in the process stimulating foreign trade and attracting huge amounts of overseas investment.China is now entering a crucial phase that requires even more thorough reform, complete opening up and constant improvement of the socialist market economic system.This book analyses the experiences and achievements of this process. It focuses on how the country enhanced the role of market forces in its economy, advanced opening up and set up a variety of development zones across the country. Lively and packed with case studies, China’s Reform and Opening Up gives a fascinating insight into how a relatively poor and backward country achieved such rapid development, and how it rose from being the world's 10th largest economy in 1978 to the second largest today.

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Book SynopsisThis innovative book provides a new, concise perspective on Basic Income - a regular, unconditional payment to every citizen resident in the country. This book has been rigoursly researched and thus will appeal to academics and policy-makers, as well, as to the general reader who is concerned about the current state of social security in the UK.

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Book SynopsisThe issue of land rights is an ongoing and complex topic of debate for South Africans. Rights to Land comes at a time when land redistribution by the government is underway. This book seeks to understand the issues around land rights and distribution of land in South Africa, and proposes that new policies and processes should be developed and adopted. It further provides an analysis of what went so wrong, and warns that a new phase of restitution may ignite conflicting ethnic claims and facilitate elite capture of land and rural resources. Rights to Land is published in partnership with Good Governance Africa (GGA).

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