Political science and theory Books

Book SynopsisThis book contains the history of China-U.S. Relations (1911–1949), including China-US relations in Early Republican Period, the impact of Versailles Peace Conference and Washington Conference on China-US relations, US support for Northern Warlord Government, the Guangzhou Revolutionary Government, and the Nanjing National Government. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the United States went from neutral to form an alliance with China against Japan. After the end of the War, China and the United States gradually moved toward confrontation. This book also has a brief description of China-US relations from 1784 to 1911.Table of ContentsVol. I , 1911-1949 Introduction. Brief description of China-US relations from 1784 to 1911. Ch I, Early Republican Period Ch II, From Versailles Peace Conference to Washington Conference Ch III, Years of Disturbances Ch IV, From Liutiaohu to Marco Polo Bridge Ch V, From Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor Ch VI , Wartime Allies Ch VII, The Turning Point Ch VIII, Towards Confrontation

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAdvocating equality, meritocracy, and social responsibility in plain language, Thomas Paine galvanized tens of thousands of readers and changed the framework of political discourse with this text. He was tried and convicted for sedition by the British government for publishing Rights of Man, Part Two but his direct style and provocative ideas were hugely influential.This edition situates Rights of Man within the discussion of the French Revolution in Britain and enables readers to understand the broader political debates of the 1790s. Appendices include responses to the French Revolution, Paine’s response to the Proclamation that declared his writing seditious, contemporary political philosophy by Richard Price and Edmund Burke, and cartoons satirizing Paine and his views.Trade Review“Perhaps no political treatise is more important to the development of modern political thought and yet so often misread than Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man. Claire Grogan’s comprehensively annotated edition of this classic text corrects the problem of decontextualized readings by not only reviving the tumultuous political debates with which Paine engaged, but also by distinguishing the unique style, argument, and overall significance of this revolutionary tract. With a critical yet lively introduction, this edition of Rights of Man is indispensable to anyone interested in understanding the development of 1790s radical thought and its relevance today.” — Juan Luís Sánchez, University of California, Los AngelesTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionThomas Paine: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextRights of ManPart OnePart TwoAppendix A: Monarchs of Great BritainAppendix B: Price and Burke From Richard Price, A Discourse on the Love of our Country (1789) From Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) Appendix C: From Thomas Paine, Letter Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation (1792)Appendix D: Five Versions of the Versailles Incident From Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) From Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) From Helen Maria Williams, Letters Written in France (1790) From Correspondance de Madame Élisabeth de France, Soeur de Louis XVI (1868 [1789]) Stanislas Maillard describes the Women’s March to Versailles, 5 October 1789 (1790) Appendix E: Contemporary Reviews From Analytical Review (Jan–Apr 1791) From Analytical Review (Jan–Apr 1792) From The Monthly Review (May 1791) From The English Freeholder (1 June 1791) Appendix F: Published Responses to Paine From Rights of Englishmen, An Antidote To the Poison Now Vending by the Transatlantic Republican Thomas Paine (1791) A Letter from a Magistrate (1791) From A Defence of the Constitution of England (1791) From Letter to Thomas Paine, In answer to his late publicationOn the Rights of Man (1791) From A British Freeholder’s Address to his Countrymen(1791) From A Plain Address to the Common Sense of thePeople of England (1792) From Hannah More, Village Politics (1793) Daniel Isaac Eaton, “A New Song: God Save Great ThomasPaine.” Hog’s Wash, or a Salmagundy for Swine (1794) Appendix G: Cartoons James Gillray, “The Rights of Man; or Tommy Paine, the little American Taylor” (23 May 1791) W. Locke, “Mad Tom, or the Man of Rights” (1 September 1791) James Sayers, “Loyalty against Levelling” (15 December 1792) James Gillray, “Fashion before Ease; or, A good Constitutionsacrificed, for a Fantastick Form” (2 January 1793) Appendix H: The Trial of Thomas Paine (December 1792)Select Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisNow available in three thematic volumes, the second edition of Moral Issues in Global Perspective is a collection of the newest and best articles on current moral issues by moral and political theorists from around the globe. Each volume seeks to challenge the standard approaches to morality and moral issues shaped by Western liberal theory and to extend the inquiry beyond the context of North America. Covering a broad range of issues and arguments, this collection includes critiques of traditional liberal accounts of rights, justice, and moral values, while raising questions about the treatment of disadvantaged groups within and across societies affected by globalization. Providing new perspectives on issues such as war and terrorism, reproduction, euthanasia, censorship, and the environment, each volume of Moral Issues in Global Perspective incorporates work by race, class, feminist, and disability theorists.In Moral Issues, the third of the three volumes, issues such as euthanasia and health care, reproductive issues, pornography and hate speech, animal rights, and environmental ethics are examined in the context of globalization and of differing social contexts and practices. Sixteen essays are new, one of which was written especially for this volume.Moral Issues in Global Perspective is available in three separate volumes―Moral and Political Theory, Human Diversity and Equality, and Moral Issues.Trade Review“This is an immensely impressive and inspiring project. Each volume of Moral Issues in Global Perspective combines serious attention to moral and political theory with substantive treatment of actual moral issues as they arise in very different human contexts across the planet. No credible moral philosopher can ignore the fact that globalization and multiculturalism make a difference to how moral problems are framed and therefore to how those problems might be addressed. And our students deserve nothing less than to be exposed to the rich diversity of human thinking about how to live. Individually and collectively, these volumes provide essential guides to the latest conversation between theorists and practitioners around the world about a host of questions vital to everyday life and to the very future of ethical humankind.” ― Susan Dwyer, University of Maryland, Baltimore“This is a truly magnificent collection. It brings together some of the best writings that have been published in the area of social justice broadly construed, taking up such topics as child labor and terrorism in addition to many of the traditional issues. A most commendable feature is that not only are traditional and non-traditional writings represented, but we also have first-rate work by a particularly wide range of exceptional thinkers. It is not just that there is something for all. Rather, it is that there is much that would intellectually engage anyone.” ― Laurence Thomas, Syracuse University, Maxwell SchoolTable of ContentsPrefaceCHAPTER ONE: REPRODUCTIVE ISSUES Introduction Why Abortion is Immoral Don Marquis Sensationalized Philosophy: A Reply to Marquis’s “Why Abortion is Immoral” Ann E. Cudd The Importance of Ontology for Feminist Policy-Making in the Realm of Reproductive Technology Susan Sherwin In New Tests for Fetal Defects, Agonizing Choices for Parents Amy Harmon A History of Governmentally Coerced Sterilization: The Plight of the Native American Woman Michael Sullivan DeFine Reproductive Health and Research Ethics: Hot Issues in Argentina Florencia Luna Study Questions Suggested Readings CHAPTER TWO: EUTHANASIA, ASSISTED SUICIDE, AND HEALTH CARE Introduction Equality and Efficiency as Basic Social Values Michael Stingl Euthanasia: The Way We Do It, The Way They Do It Margaret Battin The Instability of the Standard Justification for Physician-Assisted Suicide Thomas A. Cavanaugh Unspeakable Conversations Harriet McBryde Johnson Dementia, Critical Interests, and Euthanasia Nathan Brett Study Questions Suggested Readings CHAPTER THREE: PORNOGRAPHY AND HATE SPEECH Introduction Women and Pornography Ronald Dworkin Feminist Anti-Pornography Struggles: Not the Church, But Maybe the State Marvin Glass Morality, Censorship, and Discrimination: Reframing the Pornography Debate in Germany and Europe Heather MacRae A Relational Critique of the Right to Privacy: The Case of Pornography and the Internet Alison Minea and Christine M. Koggel Public Response to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim’s Story Mari J. Matsuda Study Questions Suggested Readings CHAPTER FOUR: ANIMAL RIGHTS Introduction All Animals are Equal ... Peter Singer The Case for Animal Rights Tom Regan Vegetarianism and Virtue: Does Consequentialism Demand too Little? Nathan Nobis Your Daughter or Your Dog? A Feminist Assessment of the Animal Research Issue Deborah Slicer The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic J. Baird Callicott Study Questions Suggested Readings CHAPTER FIVE: THE ENVIRONMENT Introduction Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique Ramachandra Guha Moving Beyond Anthropocentrism: Environmental Ethics, Development, and the Amazon Eric Katz and Lauren Oechsli Development and Environmentalism Robin Attfield Maori Environmental Virtues John Patterson On Environmental Law Michael Traynor Study Questions Suggested Readings Acknowledgements

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis volume is an important contribution to our understanding of global pandemics in general and Covid-19 in particular. It brings together the reflections of leading social and political scientists who are interested in the implications and significance of the current crisis for politics and society. The chapters provide both analysis of the social and political dimensions of the Coronavirus pandemic and historical contextualization as well as perspectives beyond the crisis. The volume seeks to focus on Covid-19 not simply as the terrain of epidemiology or public health, but as raising fundamental questions about the nature of social, economic and political processes. The problems of contemporary societies have become intensified as a result of the pandemic. Understanding the pandemic is as much a sociological question as it is a biological one, since viral infections are transmitted through social interaction. In many ways, the pandemic poses fundamental existential as well as political questions about social life as well as exposing many of the inequalities in contemporary societies. As the chapters in this volume show, epidemiological issues and sociological problems are elucidated in many ways around the themes of power, politics, security, suffering, equality and justice. This is a cutting edge and accessible volume on the Covid-19 pandemic with chapters on topics such as the nature and limits of expertise, democratization, emergency government, digitalization, social justice, globalization, capitalist crisis, and the ecological crisis. Contents Notes on Contributors Preface Gerard Delanty1. Introduction: The Pandemic in Historical and Global Context Part 1 Politics, Experts and the State Claus Offe2. Corona Pandemic Policy: Exploratory Notes on its ‘Epistemic Regime’ Stephen Turner3. The Naked State: What the Breakdown of Normality Reveals Jan Zielonka4. Who Should be in Charge of Pandemics? Scientists or Politicians? Jonathan White5. Emergency Europe after Covid-19 Daniel Innerarity6. Political Decision-Making in a Pandemic Part 2 Globalization, History and the Future Helga Nowotny7. In AI We Trust: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Pushes us Deeper into Digitalization Eva Horn8. Tipping Points: The Anthropocene and COVID-19 Bryan S. Turner9. The Political Theology of Covid-19: a Comparative History of Human Responses to Catastrophes Daniel Chernilo10. Another Globalisation: Covid-19 and the Cosmopolitan Imagination Frédéric Vandenberghe & Jean-Francois Véran11. The Pandemic as a Global Total Social Fact Part 3 The Social and Alternatives Sylvia Walby12. Social Theory and COVID: Including Social Democracy Donatella della Porta13. Progressive Social Movements, Democracy and the Pandemic Sonja Avlijaš14. Security for Whom? Inequality and Human Dignity in Times of the Pandemic Albena Azmanova15. Battlegrounds of Justice: The Pandemic and What Really Grieves the 99% Index Table of ContentsIntroductionGerard Delanty The introduction will set the scene for the volume by discussing the various questions that the pandemic poses for social and political analysis. Battlegrounds of Justice: what really grieves the 99% Albena Azmanova (University of Kent, Brussels) Before the pandemic, progressive forces were mobilising under the banner of fighting inequality. The pandemic, however, has revealed that the scourge of our societies is the generalised precarity — the massive economic and social fragility generated by four decades of cuts to public spending. What policies are necessary for a swift change of direction? Unhinged: Risks and globalisation in a pandemic world Daniel Chernilo (Santiago, Chile) This chapter argues that the current Covid-19 crisis can be understood as a crisis of globalisation itself. From the rapid worldwide expansion of the virus to its unprecedented impact on the global economy, this pandemic is likely to be remembered as the most global event in human history yet, as it has put 70% of the world population under similar restrictions of movement, work and education. As it was first formulated in 1986, Ulrich Beck’s risk society theory played a visionary role in highlighting the global nature of those challenges that come from the decoupling of politics, culture and the economy. I contend that we have now reached a new stage in this process, as this pandemic has led to the realisation that current globalisation has moved beyond a point of ‘decoupling’ and has become ‘unhinged’. The solution to this global crisis requires more rather than less globalisation. But it will have to be a globalisation of a different kind, one that will no longer be a zero-sum game between the global and the national but will require us to rebalance the dynamics global economy, the role of international institutions and the fiscal position of nation-states. Donatella della Porta (Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence) A title and summary is currently not available. The chapter will focus on social movements and democracy in the context of the pandemic. Six Political Philosophies in Search of a Virus: Philosophy and the Pandemic Gerard Delanty (University of Sussex, UK) The Coronavirus (Covid-19) poses interesting questions for social and political thought. These include the nature and limits of the ethical responsibility of the state, personal liberty and collective interests, human dignity, and state surveillance. As many countries throughout the world declared states of emergency, some of the major questions in political philosophy become suddenly highly relevant. Foucault’s writings on biopolitical securitization and Agamben’s notion of the state of exception take on a new reality, as do the classical arguments of utilitarianism and libertarianism. In this chapterr, I discuss six main philosophical responses to the pandemic, including provocative interventions made by Agamben, Badieu, and Žižek, Latour on the governance of life and death as well as the Kantian perspective of Habermas on human dignity and utilitarianism. The chapter includes a short discussion of nudge theory. Tipping Points: The Anthropocene and CoronaEva Horn (University of Vienna) The chapter deals with structural analogies between the complex ecological meta-crisis we have come to call the “Anthropocene” and the acute crisis we are facing with the Corona pandemic. Instead of trying to pinpoint causal relations between the Anthropocene and Corona, the text focuses on the type of event that is common to both crises: the tipping point, i.e. process that links a long, seemingly slow and incremental latency period to a short and very rapid change within a complex system. In the first part, I examine the different propositions for an Anthropocene starting date as attempts to understand the new geological epoch as a threshold, attempts that each bring the focus to different factors and aspects. Secondly, I describe the structure of tipping points as types of events both in natural and social complex systems. The reason why they are highly unpredictable, I argue, lies in their temporal structure, connecting a long and slow, seemingly linear process to a sudden and radical turning point. An understanding of such tipping points in natural processes, e.g. in climate science, can only be founded on a new understanding of nature that sees nature not as a balanced, stable harmony, but as an ever changing, dynamic system in which humans have come to play a major role of a novel, destabilizing factor. A third part tries to understand both the Anthropocene and Corona as types of radical transformation. While the Anthropocene can be dubbed a “catastrophe without an event” (Horn 2018), Corona is a catastrophe as a rapidly evolving event, but which can be understood as a model of the Anthropocene on fast-track. A forth part develops some perspectives for the lessons Corona can teach for a new understanding of sustainability in the future. Political Decision-making in a Pandemic Daniel Innerarity (University of the Basque Country) Crises are moments that put many things into question, especially our decision-making procedures. These decisions can be examined in a temporal order, from the decisions that governments have to take in order to be prepared for a crisis, therefore, before they take place, the decisions that are taken during the crisis and those that are taken as a result of it. The first question posed by a critical situation is whether we were prepared to manage it, that is, how it is decided when there is still, so to speak, nothing to decide. When crises erupt, their outcome is largely conditioned by the preparation and anticipation of our democratic societies to manage them. The second question I ask myself is whether populist systems (or, if you prefer, the populist features of many governments) offer an appropriate decision-making structure to deal with a crisis such as the current health crisis. Thirdly, I examine the drama that inevitably characterizes political decisions taken in the midst of a crisis that stresses the different values and logics of a differentiated society. And fourthly, I wonder about the debates that we must hold on globalization which, from this point of view, are going to require us to review which level of governance is the most appropriate for what kind of risks. Corona Pandemic Policy: Options and ConflictsClaus Offe (Hertie School of Governance, Berlin) The chapter provides an analysis of the contested policy terrain through an exploration of the policy options that follow from the presuppositions that governments have made as regards the demographic and epidemiological models. These modes divide the population into six epidemiological groups. The chapter looks at the policies that follow from these models. This leads to an analysis inspired by classic game theory about how collective action problems emerge. The chapter then discusses some of the dilemmas that result for policy makers. Beyond these problems, the chapter discusses how new patterns of stratification take shape, especially in relation to work. The chapter includes a discussion on the controversy over "right to life" vs. other human and civil rights. Title not yet availableGoran Therborn Tbc Covid-19 and Two TheodiciesBryan S. Turner (Australian Catholic University, Sydney) Plagues in the past called forth elaborate theodicies to explain human misfortune. The most famous, giving rise to the idea of theodicy, was Gottfried Leibniz’s response to devastating Lombardy floods in 1710. In response to the covid-19 pandemic, we might envisage both a religious and a political response, defining the consciousness of a covid-19 generation. However, in our secular European environment, a religious theodicy is unlikely. Religious gatherings have helped to spread covid-19 not to answer it. One critical example is the role of the Shincheonji religious cult of South Korea. By contrast, we have seen the pandemic playing into the hands of the Far Right: close the borders, end to immigration, send migrant workers home, defend national sovereignty, undermine international co-operation, reject multiculturalism and destroy the liberal state and its affluent elites. The political theodicy explains misfortune by identifying a global conspiracy to replace white populations. Far right militants fear the ‘great displacement’ whereby Muslims and other external enemies with high fertility rates will replace white populations now decimated by a ‘Chinese’ virus. The Naked State: What the Breakdown of Normality RevealsStephen P. Turner (University of South Florida) Giorgio Agamben was roundly criticized for a statement which predicted that the state would treat the Covid-19 crisis as a state of exception, and that the continuous invocation of exceptions would undermine the normality of law and politics itself. As the crisis unfolded, he appeared prescient. What was revealed was a triangle of power in which political leaders were dependent on experts, who were their only source of public legitimacy, but whose powers to define the situation and impose extreme, often extra-legal demands, proved to be greater than their power to resist, leaving resistance to “the people.” This exposed representative government, and even the courts, as sham institutions, and revealed expert power that did not merely depend on expert success. Because the crisis was a not a case of successful expertise, where expert power is hidden, but of extreme expert failure, it could not be hidden, and revealed “the new normal.” But it was only the hidden normal that had arrived on cats paws already. The Pandemic in Brazil: Systemic Breakdown under BolsonaroFrédéric Vandenberghe (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) I will analyse the systemic breakdown of Brazil before and during the pandemics of 2020. The chapter contains four parts. I will first present a chronicle of events (the revolts of 2013, the impeachment of President Dilma Roussef in 2015, the election of Jair Bolsonaro in 2015) that have led to systemic turbulence. Next, I will present an analysis of the conjuncture by looking at the events, the scenes, the actors and the correlation of forces that brought President Jair Bolsonaro to power. Then I will analyse how the rise to power has lead to the social and systemic disintegration of society. Finally, updating a radicalizing Habermas’s analysis of legitimation crisis, I will follow the sequence of crises (economic, political, institutional, security, ecology, sanitary, military and existential) that have led to a systemic breakdown of society. If I have the courage, I will work out the concept of a 　‘systemic clusterfuck. Who is charge now? Scientists or politicians?Jan Zielonka (University of Oxford and Venice) Liberals always complained that populist politicians ignore scientists and science. However, since the outbreak of the pandemics our lives seem to be in the hands of scientists more than politicians. Should we rejoice that Trump, Kaczyñski or Johnson seem no longer fully in charge? This chapter will argue that there is no simple answer to this question. Economists suggest different solutions than medical doctors and they all work on the basis of patchy evidence. Some of them have murky relations with either governments or firms or both. And in democracy we want to know that those in charge are elected and accountable. This is the case with politicians, however imperfect - but not with their scientific advisors. 　 Technocracy after Covid-19Jonathan White (LSE, UK) This chapter explores what the current crisis implies for government by expertise, in particular in economic policy.　 It charts shifting ideals of technocracy in the twentieth century, centred on the three figures of the engineer, the scientist and the doctor, and asks what model of expertise is emerging in the present period. Additional chapters:A further chapter is under discussion with Craig Calhoun. There may be scope for 2 or 3 additional chapters, especially on more sociological topics. Potential authors might include Syliva Walby, Will Davies, Rahel Jaeggi,

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this edited volume, an authoritative collective work produced by the intellectual efforts of more than forty scholars gathered at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan in September 2022 for the international conference Dystopian Worlds Beyond Storytelling, the reader will find a comprehensive analysis of dystopian worlds and scenarios. Following a multidisciplinary approach, topics as political orders and techno-dystopias, de-humanized worlds and contaminations, literature and performing arts, transmedia narratives, catastrophic and apocalyptic imaginaries are analyzed in depth.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The Tyranny of Experts, renowned economist William Easterly uncovers our failing efforts to fight global poverty. The expert approved, top-down approach to development has not only made little lasting progress, but has proven a convenient rationale for generations of human rights violations perpetrated by colonialists, post-colonial dictators, and US foreign policymakers. Easterly presents a devastating critique of the blighted record of authoritarian development, demonstrating how traditional anti-poverty tactics have both trampled the freedom of the world's poor and suppressed a vital debate about alternative approaches to solving global poverty. Although relief agencies, such as the World Bank and the Gates Foundation, are still regarded as both well-meaning and effective, they're founded on the mistaken belief that wise technocrats from the West will be the saviors of helpless victims from the Rest. They too often support dictators, hoping that economic development will lead naturally to democracy.In this revised edition, Easterly brings in new research that update his masterful critiques for the present. He reveals the fundamental errors inherent in the long-celebrated top-down approach, and offers a new model for Western relief agencies and developing countries alike: a model that, because it is predicated on respect for the rights of poor people, has the power to end global poverty once and for all.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA rallying call for extending human rights beyond our physical selvesand why we need to reboot rights in our data-intensive world. Winner of the 2024 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy Shortlisted, 2024 Lionel Gelber PrizeOur data-intensive world is here to stay, but does that come at the cost of our humanity in terms of autonomy,community, dignity, and equality? In We, the Data, Wendy H. Wong argues that we cannot allow that to happen. Exploring the pervasiveness of data collection and tracking, Wong reminds us that we are all stakeholders in this digital world, who are currently being left out of the most pressing conversations around technology, ethics, and policy. This book clarifies the nature of datafication and calls for an extension of human rights to recognize how data complicate what it means to safeguard and encourage human potential.As we go about our lives, we are co-creating data through what we do. We must embrace that these data are a part of who we are, Wong explains, even as current policies do not yet reflect the extent to which human experiences have changed. This means we are more than mere subjects or sources of data by-products that can be harvested and used by technology companies and governments. By exploring data rights, facial recognition technology, our posthumous rights, and our need for a right to data literacy, Wong has crafted a compelling case for engaging as stakeholders to hold data collectors accountable. Just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights laid the global groundwork for human rights, We, the Data gives us a foundation upon which we claim human rights in the age of data.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe rise of the platform economy into statelike dominance over the lives of entrepreneurs, users, and workers.The early Internet was a lawless place, populated by scam artists who made buying or selling anything online risky business. Then Amazon, eBay, Upwork, and Apple established secure digital platforms for selling physical goods, crowdsourcing labor, and downloading apps. These tech giants have gone on to rule the Internet like autocrats. How did this happen? How did users and workers become the hapless subjects of online economic empires? The Internet was supposed to liberate us from powerful institutions. In Cloud Empires, digital economy expert Vili Lehdonvirta explores the rise of the platform economy into statelike dominance over our lives and proposes a new way forward.Digital platforms create new marketplaces and prosperity on the Internet, Lehdonvirta explains, but they are ruled by Silicon Valley despots with little or no account

Read more less

Book SynopsisMark C. Thompson is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Socioeconomic Program at King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) in Saudi Arabia. He was previously Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia. He has published Being Young Male and Saudi (2019) and Saudi Arabia and the Path to Political Change (I.B.Tauris, 2014), and is the co-editor of Policy-Making in the GCC (I.B.Tauris, 2017).Neil Quilliam is Managing Director at Azure Strategy Consulting in the UK and an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, London, UK where he headed the programme's Future Dynamics in the Gulf' project. He has served as senior MENA energy adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), senior MENA analyst at Control Risks, London, and senior programme officer at the United Nations University, Jordan.Trade ReviewMark Thompson and Neil Quilliam have put together a masterful volume focused on some of the largest and most relevant issues facing Saudi Arabia today. Ranging from coverage of the Kingdom’s efforts at economic reform to defense capacity, educational reform, and climate change, this timely collection features a number of studies important for students and policymakers alike, as Saudi Arabia emerges under Mohammed bin Salman as a distinct actor on the international and regional scene. * Courtney Freer, London School of Economics, UK *Table of ContentsAbbreviations Contributors Introduction: “Setting the Scene: Domestic Policy Making and Governance in Saudi Arabia”, Dr. Mark C. Thompson & Dr. Neil Quilliam PART 1: MAKING POLICY IN SAUDI ARABIA Chapter 1: “How is evidence used for policymaking in Saudi Arabia? Lessons from Harvard's engagements in human capital development and labour policy”, Dr. Ammar Malik, Director of Evidence for Policy Design Research, Harvard Kennedy School, Boston, USA Chapter 2: “How Can Saudi Arabia Better Coordinate Divergent Economic Reform Agendas?”Faris Al Sulayman & Dr. Makio Yamada, King Faisal Center for Research & Islamic Studies, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Chapter 3: “King-Makers or Knaves? The Role of Consultants in Domestic Policy Making and Governance in Saudi Arabia”, David Jones & Radhika Punshi, Founders, CEO and Managing Director at The Talent Enterprise, Dubai, UAE PART 2: PUTTING POLICIES INTO PRACTICE Chapter 4: “Beyond the Glitter Factor: Building Defense Capacity in Salman’s Saudi Arabia”, Professor David Des Roches, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University, Washington DC, USA Chapter 5: “Vocational Education and Training in Saudi Arabia: How Decisions about TVET Can Help Align Education Policies with Young People’s Aspirations”, Dr. Hanaa Almoaibed, University College London, UK Chapter 6: “In-depth analysis of obesity causes and proposed innovative solutions”, Dr. Wareed Alenaini, University of Westminster, London, UK PART 3: GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES: MANAGING ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES Chapter 7: “Energy Governance: is the new meeting the old in Saudi Arabia's energy industries?”, Jessica Obeid, Energy Consultant, Academy Associate Chatham House, London, UK Chapter 8: “In Search of Legitimation: Environmental Policy making in Saudi Arabia”, Tobias Zumbrägel, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany Chapter 9: “Climate change governance in Saudi Arabia: integrity, politics, challenges and opportunities”, Dr. Aisha Al Sarihi, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Chapter 10: “Last Man Standing: Global Climate Action and Saudi Reaction”, Dr. Jim Kran, Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book will appeal to anyone interested in the complex meanings of the idea of 'freedom', especially as it relates to other fundamental social values. It will be of interest to philosophers and political theorists, legal scholars, feminists, people in disability studies and other social theorists and critics.Trade Review'This is a very rich volume exploring the notion of 'positive freedom' from a variety of angles: historical, conceptual, normative, and related to applied debates. Highly recommended to any reader who wants to know what thinking about 'positive freedom' has to offer us.' Ingrid Robeyns, Utrecht UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Multiple Dimensions of Positive Freedom John Christman; 1. Unity and Disunity in The Positive Tradition Michael Garnett; 2. Positive Liberty as Realizing the Essence of Man Michael Quante; 3. Moral and Personal Positive Freedom Maria Dimova-Cookson; 4. Positive Freedom and Freedom of Contract: Fairness, Fairing Well, and Freedom Avital Simhony; 5. Recognition and Positive Freedom David Ingram; 6. Self-Mastery and the Quality of a Life Steven Wall; 7. Basic Freedom in the Real World John Christman; 8. Reframing Democracy with Positive Freedom: The Power of Liberty Reconsidered Carol C. Gould; 9. Positive Liberty, Feminism and Disability Nancy Hirschmann; 10. Positive Liberty and Paternalism Horacio Spector; 11. Beyond Positive and Negative Liberty: Habermas and Honneth on Freedom in the Political Public Sphere Maeve Cooke; 12. Property and Political Power: Neo-Feudal Entanglements Rutger Claassen; 13. Public Reason, Positive Liberty, and Legitimacy Chad Van Schoelandt.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this laugh-out-loud collection of witty observations from a world that’s falling apart, Eli Grober leads readers into a comical house of horrors. With more than 75 new pieces and many of Grober’s most viral New Yorker and McSweeney’s humour essays, This Won’t Help exposes society’s precarious landscape of hypocritical, illogical, and dangerous leaders and ideals. Finding absurdity and toxic rhetoric everywhere he turns, Grober depicts how damaging certain mindsets and people can be as well as the dire consequences of our letting them persist. Satirising issues of politics, economy, technology, climate change denial, and more, Grober’s biting, Swiftian wit spares no one - from the megalomaniacal billionaire abandoning our deteriorating Earth for a better life on an unlivable Mars to a clueless president begging the people to vote for change. This Won’t Help allows us to reflect upon our crazy world, laugh at its flaws, and recognise the ways we can seek truth, eschew absurdity, and call for change.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis 600-page volume of Luxemburg's Complete Works contains her writings On Revolution from 1906 to 1909 - covering the 1905-06 Russian Revolution, an epoch-making event, and its aftermath. Over 80 per cent of writings on this volume have never before appeared in English. The volume contains numerous writings never before available in English, such as her pathbreaking essay "Lessons of the Three Dumas," which presents a unique perspective on the transition to socialism, her "Notes on the English Revolution" of the 1640s, and numerous writings on of the role of the mass strike in fomenting revolutionary transformation. All of the material in the volume consists of new translations, from German, Polish, and Russian originals.Trade Review“One of the most emotionally intelligent socialists in modern history, a radical of luminous dimensions whose intellect is informed by sensibility, and whose largeness of spirit places her in the company of the truly impressive.”—Vivian Gornick, Nation “Rosa goes on being our source of fresh water in thirsty times.”—Eduardo Galeano “Intrepid, incorruptible, passionate and gentle. Imagine as you read between the lines of what she wrote, the expression of her eyes. She loved workers and birds. She danced with a limp. Everything about her fascinates and rings true. One of the immortals.”—John Berger “One cannot read the writings of Rosa Luxemburg, even at this distance, without an acute yet mournful awareness of what Perry Anderson once termed ‘the history of possibility.’”—Christopher Hitchens, Atlantic

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom Orwell-reading centrists to right-wing extremists, there have been countless attempts in recent decades to reimagine the feudal nation that was once England. But there is a strong case for saying that `England' doesn't exist at all in the twenty-first century. New Model Island examines a disparate range of cultural references-the late Mark Fisher, Dylan Thomas, Alton Towers, Northumbrian activism and Catholic Marxism-as it seeks to reimagine the architecture of the British Isles in the context of the energetic socialist revival of the moment. Part utopian memoir, part elegy for the 2010s, New Model Island is an impassioned call for a new kind of dreaming about post-national identity in a post-capitalist future.Trade Review"Looking for a new England? Alex Niven draws on our diverse identities to forge a radical vision of a once and future land." — Billy Bragg"One of the sharpest, most unusual critics writing today, and with this call for the end of England, he has surpassed himself. Personal, polemical and historical in equal measure, this is a strange, powerful and beautiful book." — Owen Hatherley"An urgent and heartfelt instruction to dig over and reseed the soil of England, so that something more substantial might grow." — Richard King, author of How Soon Is Now?"By reminding us that community is sustained not by rhetoric but by material infrastructure, Niven issues a brave and timely rejoinder to those who would have us believe it can be magicked into being by platitudes and flag-waving." — Times Literary Supplement

Read more less

Book SynopsisPolitics and the English Country House explores the relationship between the country house and the changing British political landscape of the eighteenth century. Essays explore how the country house was a stage for politicking, a vehicle for political advancement, and a symbol of party allegiance and political values.Trade Review“A fascinating, important, and well-crafted volume that explores architecture and collections, and their intersections with ideas, society, and varying levels of politics in new ways.” Stephen Hague, author of The Gentleman’s House in the British Atlantic World, 1680–1780 "Contributors use archival material to examine how objects were intended to be received, which tells us a great deal about how the owners wished to present themselves politically, economically, socially, and aesthetically. Such methodology contributes to the growing trend in scholarship to blend analysis of the built environment and material and visual culture displayed within it to decipher their shared intended meaning. Heritage professionals, curators, dramatists, and novelists should read this book. The discussions will enhance the conjuring of space to the modern reader, viewer, and visitor." H-Environment

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe “Middle East” has long been an indispensable and ubiquitous term in discussing world affairs, yet its history remains curiously underexplored. In Inventing the Middle East Guillemette Crouzet charts the spatial, political, and cultural emergence of the Middle East, not in the twentieth century but in the nineteenth.Trade Review“A welcome reassessment that not only shows how Britain’s empire in the Middle East began and ended in the Persian Gulf but reminds us of the violence and contestation of that colonial relationship. Meticulously researched and rigorously argued – an outstanding book.” Eugene Rogan, University of Oxford and author of The Arabs: A History “Deeply researched and elegantly written, Crouzet’s Inventing the Middle East offers a major intervention in historical analysis of Britain’s conception of the nineteenth-century Persian Gulf. Taking archaeologists, cartographers, colonial bureaucrats, pearl fishers, slave traders, steam technologists, and Wahhabis into her capacious purview, Crouzet expertly anatomizes the emergence of the Gulf.” Margot Finn, University College London“Crouzet re-centres the Gulf in early globalizing flows and provides a welcome antidote to more conventional accounts that treat the region as peripheral to world history prior to the discovery and extraction of oil.” International Affairs“Crouzet provides an “aquatic and amphibious history” of the region, primarily through the prism of British records [and] delivers a highly readable and methodologically sound account of how the British envisioned and shaped the Gulf from the 1780s to the early 20th century. The book carefully deconstructs the hybrid political and legal architecture that resulted from the interactions between the most powerful empire of the late 19th century and local stakeholders.” *International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies *

Read more less

Book SynopsisRevisiting Marx’s seminal conception of capital and production to better critique our diverse global economies.Trade ReviewThis is a landmark study within Marxist thought. Drawing largely on Marx's later works for its conceptual tools and theoretical method, Marx After Marx analyzes how different regions under differing circumstances cast a plurality of developmental forms all under the general code of capitalist accumulation. -- Michael Dutton, author of Policing Chinese Politics: A History Harry Harootunian is singularly qualified to give us a Marxism adequate to the conditions of a genuine 'world' (as against a Hegelian 'universalist') history in a global age. The Marx who emerges from this book is a nuanced, empirical, and genuinely historical thinker instead of the pseudo-scientific 'philosopher of history' met with in textbook accounts of Western Marxism. -- Hayden White, University of California, Santa CruzTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Deprovincializing Marx 1. Marx, Time, History 2. Marxism's Eastward Migration 3. Opening to the Global South 4. Theorizing Late Development and the "Persistence of Feudal Remnants": Wang Yanan, Yamada Moritaro, and Uno Kozo 5. Colonial/Postcolonial Afterword: World History and the Everyday Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book develops a new conception of universality that helps us rethink political thought and action. Through a wide range of examples in contemporary politics, film, and history, Universality and Identity Politics offers an antidote to the impasses of identity and an inspiring vision of twenty-first-century collective struggle.Trade ReviewI used to be among those left-leaning academics who believe that universalism is problematic and that particularism represents a corrective to false universalism. Not anymore. McGowan shows that a genuinely emancipatory politics is intrinsically universalist, and he reveals the various ways in which identity politics inevitably serves the conservative establishment and traps us into a conception of politics as a struggle of one identity against others. Universality and Identity Politics is a groundbreaking book. -- Mari Ruti, author of Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Costs of Everyday LifePassionately yet patiently argued, Universality and Identity Politics looks back at earlier debates surrounding the universal and mounts fresh defenses of it. More than timely, this book writes to the moment. -- Joan Copjec, author of Imagine There’s No Woman: Ethics and SublimationWhat is universality? With his signature exactitude, Todd McGowan radiantly argues that universality is what we lack in common, the absent foundation for a nonetheless necessary sociality. Against the many theories conflating universality with positive content and violent oppression, Universality and Identity Politics illustrates how movements beyond the particular are indispensable for solidarity. Ceaseless catastrophes now rain down; McGowan boldly underwrites new political imaginings of equality and freedom. -- Anna Kornbluh, author of The Order of Forms: Realism, Formalism, and Social SpaceIn calm, level-headed formulations that are as elegant as they are clear, Todd McGowan presents a crucial insight into all emancipatory political efforts. Those who want to liberate themselves without at the same time aiming at liberating all others do not lead an emancipatory struggle. As a result, they do not even liberate themselves. -- Robert Pfaller, author of On the Pleasure Principle in Culture: Illusions Without OwnersHe calls for uniting the process of emancipation for some with the universal project of emancipation for all. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Finding Universality1. Our Particular Age2. The Importance of Being Absent3. Universal Villains4. Capitalism’s Lack and Its Discontents5. This Is Identity Politics6. This Is Not Identity PoliticsConclusion: Avoiding the WorstNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisDworkin argues that equality, freedom, and individual responsibility are not in conflict, but flow from and into one another as facets of the same humanist conception of life and politics. He applies his principles to contemporary controversies such as the distribution of health care, affirmative action, assisted suicide, and genetic engineering.Trade ReviewMany philosophers would not be offended by the charge that philosophy is not a practical pursuit. Dworkin, a professor at New York University and University College in London, is deeply offended. He insists that philosophers can clarify the foundations of law to build a better world...In Sovereign Virtue, Dworkin attempts...first to establish principles and then apply them to today's vexing issues, including health care, campaign finance and affirmative action. -- Mitchell Goodman * Raleigh News & Observer *There is much that is brilliant in Dworkin's development of [his] themes. He reconceptualizes egalitarianism so...it corrects only inequalities for which people are not responsible...[Dworkin] presents an original and comprehensive political theory that claims to unite equality not only with freedom but also with other allegedly competing values, such as democracy, community and the good life. And he repeatedly connects his abstract speculations to specific controversies from contemporary political life. This is what political philosophy should do, and Dworkin does it better than anyone else now writing. -- Thomas Hurka * Toronto Globe and Mail *Dworkin's aim in Sovereign Virtue is to rescue the 'endangered' value of equality and to accommodate it to personal responsibility...[His] position is what he calls an 'ethical individualism' embodying two principles: it is equally important, for each human life, that it be successful; and every person has a special responsibility for the success of his own life. If you take both these ideas seriously, you will be driven, so Dworkin argues, to demand equality of resources. This ideal is the core of the book, and he defends it in impressive detail against its main rivals--equality of welfare and equality of opportunity. * The Economist *This is a work of the first importance, by an outstanding philosopher of politics and law who is the most eloquent, thoughtful and judicious spokesman of the new centre-left-liberal position which in recent years has come to be called 'the third way'--a label conferred and expounded by lesser minds, but here given what is not only the deepest and most compelling statement it has yet received, but a statement which is, in addition, genuinely deep and compelling. -- A.C. Grayling * Financial Times *Dworkin is that rare creature, a public intellectual. He writes with clarity and economy, and while he is not hard to understand, he demands maximum concentration from his readers…He sets out not just to persuade us to think differently, but also to act differently. He wants to change not just our beliefs but our behavior too…Sovereign Virtue is a book rich in arguments. Every objection is debated into submission; every alternative is pondered until its inadequacy becomes clear to the author. -- Anthony Julius * Sunday Telegraph *Sovereign Virtue…is…extraordinarily impressive: supple, suave and enviably deft, like all his work, and in its cumulative effect quite exceptionally illuminating…[Dworkin] has been in many ways the most systematic moral, political and legal thinker of the past three decades in the Anglophone world. He may lack the personal authority or the singularity of mind of John Rawls. But on this evidence he has a substantially broader range of ambition, a set of forceful moral intuitions, a speed and boldness of intellectual manoeuvre, and a combination of energy and sheer pertinacity that are all his own. -- John Dunn * Times Higher Education Supplement *For Dworkin fans, indeed for any analytical political philosopher who rejects the 'new pragmatism' linguistic turn and relishes a complex argumentative structure, this book will provide many hours of intellectual stimulation. Just as we who are not ourselves great chess players or mathematicians can admire the minds of great chess players or mathematicians, so even skeptical readers may admire Dworkin's elegant and complex sense of how philosophers can do their work. -- Lief Carter * Law and Politics Review *For the last two decades, Ronald Dworkin has been developing answers to...questions [of public policy] as part of a powerful and surprising response to the larger question of how we should reconcile liberty with equality. Unlike many partisans of equality, he thinks conservatives are right to hold individuals largely responsible for their own fates. But unlike many partisans of liberty, he nevertheless believes in substantial governmental intervention to bring about more equality. And, unlike both, he argues that, in the deepest sense, equality and liberty are never truly at odds. In Sovereign Virtue, Dworkin has brought together this surprising theory and some of its applications...If we care about having a rational public discourse about the many contests that seem to pit liberty against equality, we owe his book a careful reading. -- K. Anthony Appiah * New York Review of Books *With Sovereign Virtue, Ronald Dworkin finally presents his political theory in a form convenient for the general reader, stripped of the specialized arguments about jurisprudence on which he has built his reputation. The issue in Sovereign Virtue is not how judges should decide cases, but what kind of equality between individuals government should secure and maintain. -- Daniel Choi * Independent Review *[Dworkin] explodes the platitudes that have traditionally been used to determine whether someone's views on equality were "sound" and he manages to map out a terrain on which [an] honest and respectable argument about equality can be conducted. These are major achievements, and the papers collected in Sovereign Virtue must be regarded now as classics in political philosophy. -- Jeremy Waldron * London Review of Books *Dworkin's prolific scholarly and journalistic writings have defined the intellectual agenda for academic liberals in law schools as well as philosophy and political-science departments for a quarter of a century…Ronal Dworkin is a powerful and persuasive advocate of the view that law and politics do indeed at crucial junctures depend on moral philosophy's services. -- Peter Berkowitz * National Review *Dworkin has been a leading contributor to the egalitarian literature for 20 years. This volume collects and develops his most important work in the area and would be of immense interest for this reason alone. In addition, Dworkin labors tirelessly to connect his theoretical analysis to concrete policy prescriptions. The second half of the book provides one of the most impressive extended examples of applied political theory in the egalitarian literature…Dworkin's defense of resourcist theory is quite persuasive on its own terms, and it forces the reader to confront Dworkin's account of responsibility for preferences and the related implications for egalitarian justice. -- Alexander Kaufman * Social Service Review *Dworkin's procedure is bolder, his ambition to build theory stronger, and the range of application of his views much wider…But what is perhaps most philosophically striking about Dworkin is how insistently systematic his vision is. It is not merely that he builds interesting, and sometimes compelling, connections between the book's first seven chapters on theory and the last seven…It is, rather, in his almost platonic argument for a kind of unity of the virtues that the deepest aspirations of his thought can be seen. -- James Lindemann Nelson * Second Opinion *The first half contains a veritable flood of novel and inspired theoretical ideas; the second half applies these exciting ideas in surprisingly conventional ways. -- Will Kymlicka * ISUMA *He offers a powerful defense of the market, along Mesesian lines…Dworkin is not the only writer to raise these issues, but he does so in a particularly effective way: At many points, Dworkin's book proves a valuable quarry for those aiming to defend the market. * The Mises Review *This is an important book whose appearance might very well fuel the "Fourth Great Awakening." Arguably it is far more fundamental than the narrow "morality" that concerns Himmelfarb. * Future Survey *Dworkin argues that equality is the "sovereign virtue" in the sense that it is the "special and indispensable" value that political authority must promote…This work will be frequently cited because of the importance of the papers and the convenience of having them collected in one volume; it is an essential text for academic libraries. -- J. D. Moon * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Does Equality Matter? I. Theory 1. Equality of Welfare 2. Equality of Resources 3. The Place of Liberty 4. Political Equality 5. Liberal Community 6. Equality and the Good Life 7. Equality and Capability II. Practice 8. Justice and the High Cost of Health 9. Justice, Insurance, and Luck 10. Free Speech, Politics, and the Dimensions of Democracy 11. Affirmative Action: Does It Work? 12. Affirmative Action: Is It Fair? 13. Playing God: Genes, Clones, and Luck 14. Sex, Death, and the Courts Sources Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn enduring theme of Western philosophy is that we are all one another’s equals. Yet the principle of basic equality is woefully under-explored in modern moral and political philosophy. What does it mean to say we are all one another’s equals? Jeremy Waldron confronts this question fully and unflinchingly in a major new multifaceted account.Trade Review[An] important new book…[This] insightful book suggest[s] that if we don’t recommit ourselves to political equality, we will become ever more closed, authoritarian societies. Economic elites should understand this…Without equality, the West cannot last. -- Robert B. Reich * New York Times Book Review *If basic human equality is now agreed on, perhaps it would be best just to accept it and not bother about its justification. Yet, as Jeremy Waldron makes clear in One Another’s Equals, his Gifford Lectures, to have a proper debate about what kind of political arrangements equality requires we first need to fix ideas about what it amounts to. -- Michael Rosen * Times Literary Supplement *This highly original and important book provides a thorough and sophisticated treatment of an issue that is of fundamental importance in moral and political philosophy, but which has not received sufficient attention or defense in recent years. The book should set the standard for further discussion of these very difficult issues for years to come. -- Samuel Freeman, Avalon Professor of the Humanities and Graduate Chair of Philosophy, University of PennsylvaniaWaldron writes on the topic of human equality with grace, intelligence, and passion. One Another’s Equals provides an argument intelligible to general readers that also advances the philosophical discussion in ways that will warrant response from philosophers, political theorists, legal scholars, and theologians. -- Jeffrey Stout, Princeton University

Read more less

Book SynopsisOne day they’ll be like us. That was once the West’s complacent assumption about countries emerging from poverty, imperial rule, or communism. But many have hardened into something very different from liberal democracy: what eminent political thinker John Keane describes as a new form of despotism. And one day, he warns, we may be more like them.Trade ReviewKeane insists that only by dissecting the new despotism’s supple, but no less shady, political techniques can we understand how it renders its subjects compliant and seemingly grateful…Rich and insightful…stands out as a major contribution to contemporary debates about democracy’s prospects. He paints an unnerving portrait of a possible global future in which democracy, in any defensible sense of the term, has been demoted and marginalized. -- William E. Scheuerman * Boston Review *A brilliant re-interpretation of tyranny…There’s scarcely a reader anywhere in the Western world who won’t read Keane’s description of this new form of tyranny without a cold chill of recognition and perhaps the fear that all this insight comes too late to help…Stands out at once as a vital book for the times. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Review *Keane…has long been one of the world’s most erudite, original, astute, and passionate students of democratic politics. With this latest offering he injects one hell of a scary book into an already frenzied world…Keane’s core message is clear: we democrats may abhor these new despotisms, but we cannot afford to underestimate them…Demand[s] us to stop and take a good look at what is going on around us. -- Paul ’t Hart * Inside Story *If you ever held the assumption that despotic regimes are old-fashioned, technologically ‘backwards’ countries, where old men rule over poor and uneducated people, you are in for a ride…This book will undoubtedly shift the analytical lens through which we view despotic regimes…The new despotism is less prone to implosions reminiscent of the Soviet Union or breakdowns as witnessed in Latin America. If it is that durable, it constitutes an attractive alternative to liberal democracy. This means that the self-regard, the feeling of invincibility and the arguable complacency of such democracies are misplaced. You have been warned. -- Gergana Dimova * LSE Review of Books *[A] dire and sweeping assessment…Despotism, [Keane] warns, could be the future of democracy if people don’t wake up and confront the threat. -- Colin Woodward * Washington Monthly *Important because it brings an acute understanding of democracy to focus on its potential fate…[Keane] makes a strong case in The New Despotism for the urgent need to understand this global trend…Offers not just a lively argument with numerous examples, and a rich assembly of sources through detailed endnotes, but also a writing style that commands attention. -- Glyn Davis * Australian Book Review *This new political world is brilliantly described…His definition of the changing contours of democracy is so startling…Keane teases out the way despots—although they call themselves leaders—subvert democracy to seize power and then subvert the structures of the state to hold it. They rule not as ruthless autocrats but rather by co-opting ‘the people’ to buttress and strengthen their power. -- Nicholas Stuart * Canberra Times *An original and incisive analysis of the rise of demagogue-style leaders across large parts of the world today. New-style despotism, the author shows, is distinctive to our age—less openly violent than that of the past, but more insidious, posing a threat not just in less-developed parts of the world but to the established democracies. -- Anthony Giddens, Member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom, and Fellow of King’s College, CambridgeKeane’s short book The New Despotism—drily filleting the new threats to liberal democracy—is essential. * Australian Book Review *In these dark times for democracy, the books of John Keane bring new light, refreshing perspectives, and what we need most: hope. -- Enrique Krauze, author of Mexico: Biography of Power and Redeemers: Ideas and Power in Latin AmericaJohn Keane is right to see his book as Machiavelli’s Prince for our times. His thesis that ‘despotisms are top-down pyramids of power that defy political gravity by nurturing the willing subservience and docility of their subjects’ is a caution for all times. -- Patricia Springborg, Centre for British Studies, Humboldt University, BerlinIn his new book, John Keane, one of the world’s prominent political theorists, forcefully argues that what we witness today is not simply a crisis of democracy or the return of authoritarianism but the emergence of a new type of despotism that is more effective, more subtle, and less crazy than the despotic regimes we know—and because of this, more dangerous. -- Ivan Krastev, Permanent Fellow, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), ViennaKeane’s key point is that today’s despotic states aren’t some kind of hybrid regime on the way to democracy, or in transition or fragile. They are a new type of political rule that’s here to stay and may even live on after the collapse of Western democracies. -- Ditte Maria Brasso Sørensen * Dagbladet Information *Explores how populist leaders across the globe are holding sway on their ‘subjects,’ and offers ideas for challenging the new despots…A seminal analysis of the aberrations of democracy and the rise of what he calls ‘the new despotism.’…Drawing on his sustained engagement with democratic institutions, Keane delineates the contours of contemporary changes in a compelling manner…The linchpin of this novel form of despotism, Keane maintains, is voluntary servitude. -- Badrinath Rao * The Wire *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe post–WWI crisis of statelessness induced creative legal thinking, as officials and jurists debated cosmopolitan citizenship beyond the borders of sovereigns. But by midcentury the state won out as the lone site of citizenship. Mira Siegelberg uncovers the ideological roots of this transformation and its impact on the international order.Trade ReviewIlluminating and rich…Over 10 million people are stateless today, and governments seem hell-bent on increasing their numbers…Siegelberg’s account offers a sober corrective to dewy-eyed stories in which the formation of postwar international institutions like the U.N. curtailed state-inflicted cruelties. -- Udi Greenberg * New Republic *Siegelberg’s book is the first to consider the evolution of statelessness as a legal, humanitarian, and philosophical matter. It’s an essential contribution to scholarship on the subject, and it could not appear at a more fitting time. -- Atossa Araxia Abrahamian * New York Review of Books *Drawing on a wide variety of archival sources…she documents how the problem of statelessness informed theories of human rights and sovereignty…A comprehensive overview of international perspectives and experiences concerning statelessness and the modern state’s power to exclude. -- Laura van Waas and Natalie Brinham * Project Syndicate *Demonstrate[s] just how late the conceptual and legal borders of our political world map were drawn…Statelessness concerns the ways in which international lawyers and political scientists have responded to the modern phenomenon of exclusion and displacement that characterized much of the twentieth century and that forced new ways of thinking about the role of borders and boundaries of membership. -- Ruth Balint * Australian Book Review *Compelling…This is an impressive work that shows the impact of legal thought on social reality and the significance of possessing a (legal) identity—both at the beginning of the twentieth century and today…Siegelberg’s text is an important contribution, as she makes the understudied topic of statelessness intelligible and, on top of that, demonstrates how it intertwines with other foundational political concepts, such as sovereignty, citizenship, and human rights. -- Isadora Dullaert * LSE Review of Books *A necessary exploration of the development of statelessness as a Western philosophical and jurisprudential concept in the early and mid-twentieth century…A must-read for scholars and legal professionals studying citizenship and/or working on immigration, political theory, and human rights as it provides a needed engagement with statelessness as a contentious concept…A fascinating and important read. -- Brittany Lehman * EuropeNow *Mira Siegelberg demonstrates that the question of statelessness, now a relatively minor aspect of a larger refugee crisis, in fact lies at the heart of the transformations in legal consciousness that produced the fragile and often ambiguous postwar international rights regime. Statelessness is an important book and a magnificent achievement. -- Mark Mazower, author of Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth CenturyA book equal parts compelling and sobering, Statelessness lives up to the importance of its topic. Siegelberg writes conceptual history for our twenty-first-century world. -- Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, University of California, BerkeleyMira Siegelberg’s relentless and imaginative exploration of statelessness in the twentieth century ranges across several disciplines, languages, and legal traditions. Along the way, she manages to recast core episodes in the history of modern political and legal thought. And, even more, she models an ambitious approach to a critical history of international law. -- Hendrik Hartog, Princeton UniversityThis insightful and well-written work opens up a new perspective on the formation of our present international order and the place of individuals within it. With mass migration caused by wars and, in the future, by climate change, the problem of statelessness is not going to go away. In a moment when we need to think again about the relationship between states and individuals, this book is a good place from which to start. -- Martti Koskenniemi, author of The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law, 1870–1960[An] important study. -- Francis Wade * The Baffler *A fine-grained history of statelessness. -- James H. McDonald * New York Journal of Books *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is commonly believed that international law originated in respectful relations among free and equal European states. But as Jennifer Pitts shows, international law was forged as much through Europeans’ domineering relations with non-European states and empires, leaving a legacy visible in the unequal structures of today’s international order.Trade ReviewIlluminat[es] the ways in which international law was an artifact of empire, a system for organizing the world so as to perpetuate Western dominance. -- G. John Ikenberry * Foreign Affairs *Boundaries of the International adds much nuance to existing literature, and challenges some of the past analytics through which the history of international legal thought has been written. A first-class book by a recognized leader in the field of history of international political and legal thought. -- Martti Koskenniemi, University of HelsinkiAn outstanding history of international law and its entanglement with empire from one of the leading historians of political thought in the world today. -- Andrew Fitzmaurice, University of SydneyIn this masterful study, Jennifer Pitts examines universalist claims about the law of nations alongside rising European global power, uncovering a set of linked contradictions within eighteenth- and nineteenth-century political thought. A tour de force of interpretation and historical analysis, this subtle and persuasive book places the problem of empire at the very center of the history of international law—where it will now surely stay. -- Lauren Benton, Vanderbilt University

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year""A thought-provoking journey through the intricate world of political rumors. . . . Invaluable for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of both misinformation and the complex scholarly conversation surrounding the topic." * Choice *

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Tomaselli’s book moves dexterously between [Wollstonecraft’s] feelings and reasonings, producing a portrait that is both fresh and compelling."---Barbara Taylor, The Guardian"Tomaselli gives us an intimate portrait of the passionate, life-loving woman behind the public moralist. . . . [A] clever and humane book."---Ruth Scurr, The Spectator"As an intellectual biography, Tomaselli’s account is both forensic and fascinating."---Rebecca Abrams, Financial Times"Fortitude is a quality that Tomaselli brings to the fore in her study of Mary Wollstonecraft, sensitively created from an informed overview of her subject’s writings."---Miranda Seymour, New York Review of Books"Rigorously researched and beautifully crafted" * New Humanist *"Sylvana Tomaselli invites us to immerse ourselves into Mary Wollstonecraft’s world, looking at how she regarded family life, politics, current affairs and the roles of men and women in society." * Family Tree Magazine *"Tomaselli has herself written a book which is both inspiring and thought-provoking. In a word, Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics should be compulsory reading for all teachers and students of Wollstonecraft and eighteenth-century political thought."---Max Skjönsberg, Intellectual History Review"This book thoughtfully and thematically walks the reader through Wollstonecraft’s work, developing a coherent philosophy from which we still have much to learn. Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics is brilliant in its combination of ease of reading, academic rigour and captivating writing. Whether the reader is an undergraduate student, seeking to place Wollstonecraft in greater context, an intrigued member of the public or a seasoned professor of political theory, Tomaselli’s work is accessible to all and has something new to reveal to all of us about a remarkable woman that history is just beginning to remember fully."---Isobel Clare, LSE Review of Books"A very engaging and lively study of a remarkable woman."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer"A pleasure to read."---Jennifer Thorn, Eighteenth-Century Studies Review"A readable, meticulously researched, intellectual biography and introduction to Wollstonecraft’s work that underscores her unwavering desire to create a better, more just world for all humans, not just women."---Ashley Cross, European Romantic Review"Luminous"---Stephen Marston, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books"Tomaselli succeeds in a masterly exposition of every facet of Wollstonecraft’s views. She draws out the complexities, contradictions and changes over time in Wollstonecraft’s thought."---Sheila McGregor, Socialist Review"Tomaselli is a good writer and her research is excellent. This is a thoroughly fascinating book, full of enhancing detail."---Alan Dent, Northern Review of Books

Read more less

Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction Vii Politics 1 Economics 226 Constitution Of Athens 260 Index Of Names 327 Subject Index 331

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2020: Politics""One of Kirkus Reviews Best Big-Picture History Books of 2020""A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice""A NRC Book of the Year""A truly magisterial survey of the thought and actions of conservatives in Britain, France, Germany and the United States. . . . It’s a tour de force of intellectual eclecticism, and a vital recognition that the war within conservatism matters."---Andrew Sullivan, New York Times Book Review"A valuable wide-lens perspective on currents that have been at play for decades if not centuries."---Greg Cowles, New York Times Book Review"Invaluable."---Paul Rosenberg, Salon"Enriching and worth reading."---Jacob Soll, New Republic"[An] epic history of conservatism."---John Prideaux, The Economist"This book is a stimulating read, benefiting from the author’s clarity of style, breadth of historical knowledge and decision to place conservative thinkers from each period of history alongside political practitioners."---William Hague, The Spectator"The chief virtue of Fawcett’s rich and wide-ranging account is to demonstrate how conservatism has repeatedly managed to renew itself, politically and intellectually. The conservative tradition is a remarkably fecund one. For both its supporters and opponents, that is a truth worth rescuing."---Nick Pearce, Financial Times"Members of both [liberalism and conservatism] thought-categories will find much to learn from both books, not least from the historical figures Mr. Fawcett brings into view."---William Anthony Hay, Wall Street Journal"[A] magisterial history. . . . Perhaps the most comprehensive view of ‘the conservative mind’ since Russell Kirk’s book (1953) of that title. . . . One of the fairest accounts of the conservative intellectual tradition to be published in recent years."---Gerald J. Russello, National Review"Fawcett, a veteran Economist journalist who describes himself as a left-wing liberal, seeks to understand conservatism as a historical phenomenon. He surveys political practice and political thought in Britain, the US, France and Germany since 1800, with authority and perspective."---Jonathan Parry, London Review of Books"An ambitious book with lucid accounts of a wide range of thinkers and some practitioners."---David Willetts, Prospect"The honest struggle of a thoughtful liberal to understand the enemy gives the book its strength, vitality and structure. . . . [A] compelling, lucid and learned work."---Richard Cockett, The Critic"The author of a much acclaimed history of liberalism turns his attention to another crucial branch of political philosophy."---Gideon Rachman, Financial Times"A sweeping new work of political history."---John Harris, The Guardian"The narrative is absorbing, the pace unflagging. The reader is carried along by the energy of the prose, by sharp insights and nice turns of phrase, and above all by the author’s evident engagement in politics and joy in ideas."---Jesse Norman, Catholic Herald"Readable and comprehensive. . . . An immensely stimulating canter though a major segment of Western political tradition." * Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review *"An astonishingly accomplished survey of the last two centuries of conservative thought."---Andrew Gimson, Conservative Home"Timely."---William Chislett, Real Instituto Elcano"In Fawcett’s analysis, the French Revolution in 1789 was both a founding moment and a false start. Fawcett rightly observes that conservatism was not “founded” with the publication of Burke’s critique of the Revolution, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790): it wasn’t until the 1830s that the term gained currency as a political label."---Emily Jones, New Statesman"A compelling work of history."---John Harris, Guardian

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Anderson explores a striking American contradiction. On the one hand, we are a freedom-obsessed society, wary of government intrusion into our private lives; on the other, we allow ourselves to be tyrannized by our bosses.”—Joshua Rothman, NewYorker.com“Private Government is a welcome and important call to bring workplace governance back into political theory and discourse, and should be taken seriously if we are to promote greater democracy in the workplace.”—David Cowan, Times Literary Supplement“Highlight[s] the dramatic and alarming changes that work has undergone over the past century—insisting that, in often unseen ways, the changing nature of work threatens the fundamental ideals of democracy.”—Miya Tokumitsu, New Republic“The extent of the arbitrary authority of owners and managers over employees is surprisingly neglected by political thinkers, given how much time we spend at work and how little in the polling booth. Elizabeth Anderson provides a much-needed, important, and compelling account of this overlooked subject. Private Government deserves to be widely read and discussed.”—Alan Ryan, professor emeritus, University of Oxford

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Richard E. Neustadt Award, Presidents and Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association""Winner of the Louis Brownlow Book Award, National Academy of Public Administration"

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year""The Party and the People provides a wonderfully clear-eyed look at how the CCP has reinvented itself since 1989."---Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Mekong Review"Dickson’s book gives a useful overview of the various bodies that run China and the party’s involvement in them. He also surveys a series of important questions, such as why the CCP doesn’t like civil society or religious groups. He is especially strong on the issue of nationalism, which many foreign observers assert is growing in China, especially among young people. Dickson gives a sure-footed assessment of public opinion data to show that this is not the case, and that young people are in fact less nationalistic than their parents’ generation."---Ian Johnson, New York Review of Books"The Party and the People ... drafts a helpful balance sheet of the party’s strengths and weaknesses, giving readers a better understanding of how the CCP’s versatility enabled it to become the longest-ruling communist party in history."---Orville Schell, Foreign Affairs"A good treatment of exactly what the title promises."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution"An ideal text for college courses on Chinese politics, and the writing is fully accessible to general readers as well." * Choice *"Bruce J. Dickson offers a comprehensive description of how China’s authoritarian political system operates. ... Dickson observes how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) manag­es to stay in power without the necessary elements of Western liberal democracy, such as individual rights, freedom of speech, and multi­party competitive elections."---Wenfang Tang, American Affairs Journal"Dickson offers a comprehensive primer on how the CCP chooses leaders and makes policy, how it responds to political protests with repression both hard and soft, and how it may use or constrain the forces of nationalism based on what aids its political survival. ... In calm, lucid prose, Dickson traces the evolution of the CCP since 1949, focusing on the recent divergence between local and higher-level leaders."---Nicolas Gattig, Japan Times"An authoritative survey of the major issues confronting China."---Walter C. Clemens, Jr., New York Journal of Books"Very well balanced in evaluating factionalism and party ideology in the decision-making and personnel appointment processes. . . . [and] a good overview of how the CCP runs China, and how the CCP responded to different stakeholders in the country with a Top to Down Approach."---Larry Ngan, Interlib"A tour de force in all its aspects, Dickson’s new book shows his mastery of relevant facts, nuances and scholarship on China, and an enviable power of synthesis marshalled for the benefit of a non-expert audience. The plethora of examples and the photos offered throughout the book recommend it as an engaging reading for the widest possible audience."---Lavinia Stan, European Legacy

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year""[A] stellar and timely contribution. . . . In Liberalism in Dark Times, Cherniss has done us a great service by pointing us toward the examples [Camus, Aron, Niebuhr, and Berlin] set in their times. In our own times, as we continue to wrestle with the liberal predicament, we would do well to follow their lead."---Daniel Stid, American Purpose"Cherniss . . . is to be commended for writing the first book-length study on the historical origins and ethical nature of Cold War liberalism."---Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, The Baffler"[A] fascinating book."---G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs"In this terrifically rich, scholarly, and stimulating book, Cherniss seeks to recover a way of thinking about liberalism as a response to the problem of ruthlessness. . . . Liberalism in Dark Times is a vital book for those who are not willing to give up on [liberalism] quite yet."---Matt Sleat, Perspectives on Politics"Thoughtful and clearly presented." * Choice Reviews *"Liberalism in Dark Times is a historically sensitive presentation of what Cherniss reconstructs as a tempered liberalism within the interwar period, the Second World War and the Cold War as reservoirs for the political thinking of Aron, Berlin, Camus and Niebuhr. . . . the book is not only deep in its detailed readings of Weber, Lukács, Camus, Aron, Niebuhr and Berlin, but also broad- and open-minded in the intellectual engagements with the variety of traditions and positions in contemporary political theory."---Anders Berg-Sørensen, Contemporary Political Theory"A persistent political temptation is to fight fire with fire—to defend liberalism by illiberal means, to become ruthlessly liberal. In Cherniss’s hands, the liberal predicament becomes the challenge of sustaining the moral fortitude to refuse ruthlessness. . . . Ruthlessness corrodes the liberal ethos, eventually transforming us into our foes"---Robert B. Talisse, Review of Politics"Liberalism in Dark Times [is] an important, impressive and well documented book. . . .A much needed study now that the liberal democracies face the rise of autocratic governments around the world as well as the rise of internal autocratic movements."---Joseph C. Bertolini, The European Legacy"Cherniss extracts continuities across his cohort of thinkers with singular rigor and richness; he continually teases out meaningful distinctions between the positions these figures held, the subtle but significant degrees of emphasis on realism or idealism that distinguish their respective characters and conclusions; and he provides an especially enlivening view of the way that each thinker’s personal experiences shaped their liberal temper. . . . As an historical study, peering into the lives and minds of major midcentury thinkers, this book seems to me exemplary. Every text Cherniss engages with yields suggestive nuances through his careful analysis."---Ian Afflerbach, H-Diplo"Important and original. . . .Liberalism in Dark Times remains one of the best studies of its kind."---Iain Stewart, History of European Ideas"Liberalism in Dark Times as a whole is more than its parts, as Cherniss draws perceptive comparisons between his protagonists throughout the book. . . . Those interested in twentieth-century liberal thought have much to learn from his carefully researched work."---Kei Hiruta, Global Intellectual History

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"An invaluable collection."---Thomas Nagel, New Statesman"Thought-provoking. . . . Fiercely argued yet thoroughly empathetic, these political musings are littered with valuable insights and astute analysis." * Publishers Weekly *"If anyone deserves the mantle ‘America’s Orwell,’ it’s Rorty, who combined political activism and sharp observation with a fierce intellectual independence that allowed him to criticize both left-wing and right-wing ambitions. . . . Exemplary political writing by a renowned maverick." * Kirkus Reviews, starred review *

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Financial Times Economics Book of the Year""This is an important book."---Martin Wolf, Financial Times"Ambitious and illuminating."---Niall Ferguson"I recommend strongly. . . the book both for those . . . studying or thinking about international relations but also for those . . . who are currently or may want in the future to engage in . . . policy."---John Bew, Professor of History and Foreign Policy, King’s College London; and Foreign Policy Advisor to the UK Prime Minister"A book full of clever intellectual maneuvers."---Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg"Keynes famously said that policymakers are distilling the frenzy of past academic scribblers. [Paul Tucker is] the rare policymaker who goes on to become an extraordinary scribbler."---Lawrence H. Summers, Bloomberg Television"An extremely important and striking book in many ways. It makes a contribution in terms of political ideas, and so is of interest to students of the history of political thought, but also political economy, international relation, and of course . . . major and important geopolitical policy recommendations and analyses."---Richard Bourke, University of Cambridge"An important new book. . . . Global Discord is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the prospects for 21st-century geopolitics, and possible trade-offs facing the West."---Vic Duggan, Irish Times ​​​​​​"[A] fascinating . . . [and] commanding book."---David Westin, Bloomberg Television"The book has extraordinary sweep and breadth of learning. It straddles the line between academic work and rigorous book for generalists. . . . Invigorating."---Krishna Guha, Financial Times"[Tucker] likens the relationship between America and China to that between Britain and France between 1688 and 1815. . . . The parallel is instructive because it is a reminder that the rivalry is one with which the world is likely to have to live for decades to come."---Simon Nixon, The Times"We need serious strategic thinking about how the situation is changing and what to do about it. One of the few people earnestly engaged in that project is Paul Tucker."---Juliet Samuel, The Telegraph"Wide-ranging and erudite."---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist"A true tour de force."---Jack Snyder, author of Human Rights for Pragmatists"A tremendously rich book. One of the most interesting books in terms of how [it] combines[s] various aspects of international politics that I have read for a very long time."---Arne Westad, Yale Professor"I learned a lot and can only applaud the breadth of vision and ambition. Bravo."---Kevin Gardiner, Society of Professional Economists"The great achievement of this profound and important book is that it offers a way of thinking about international politics that helps us to know what better decisions will look like. It might even assist some of those charged with making such decisions to do a better job. Books like this do not come along very often; when they do, one can only hope they are read as widely as possible."---Paul Sagar, The Critic"This is a lovely book."---Jeff Colgan, Richard Holbrooke Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Climate Solutions Lab at the Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs, Brown University"A must-read for anyone wanting to understand the various possible trade-offs for 21st-century geoeconomics."---T.C.A. Ranganathan, Book Review"Global Discord is one of the most comprehensive and judicious books on [international affairs]. It seamlessly combines political theory, International Relations theory, international law, international political economy and a wealth of experience that Sir Paul Tucker accumulated during a long career as a central and international banker."---Peter Wilson, International Affairs

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Historically dense, intelligently organized, and deeply analytical, You Say You Want a Revolution? offers a great deal to a wide array of audiences. . . . This book’s cheeky title is at once a warning and a lament: those who foment discord as a vehicle for change very often find themselves in a situation more dire than the status quo ante, and the idealism inherent in such movements is exposed as a mirage." * Choice *"This is an essential book."---Steven Simon, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy"For those seeking a quick, sharply written survey of how revolutions have so often brought violence, corruption, and authoritarian rule, Chirot has provided a clear and valuable book."---Jack Goldstone, Social Forces

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Impressive."---Christopher de Bellaigue, New York Review of Books"This book is an authoritative and well-written summary of what we might call the majority view. There is a streak in this book, however, of more radical thinking. . . . It leads him near the end of the book to some startling predictions for Afghanistan's possible futures."---Gerard Russell, Foreign Policy"Thomas Barfield's new book offers a remedy for Americans' pervasive ignorance of Afghanistan. . . . Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History is an invaluable book. Mr. Barfield does not give the United States a way out of Afghanistan, but he does provide the context necessary for good policymaking."---Doug Bandow, Washington Times"A brilliant book to educate all of us about a country we should know and appreciate. . . . Thomas Barfield's book on Afghanistan is likely to become the first source that serious students turn to as a guide to this complicated country. His comprehensive portrait of Afghanistan is a stunning achievement."---Joseph Richard Preville, Saudi Gazette"Barfield, an anthropologist and old Afghanistan hand, has written a history of Afghanistan that weaves in geography, economics, and culture (think tribes, rural-urban dichotomies, value systems) while maintaining a focus throughout on Afghan rulers' relations with their own people and the outside world. . . . [The book] is lightened by many breaks in the narrative to address broad themes or make intriguing comparisons, such as likening patrimonial Afghanistan to medieval Europe." * Foreign Affairs *"In this riveting study, Barfield does a splendid job of informing us why Afghanistan is the way it has always been." * Daily Star *"Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History by Thomas Barfield is a primer for anyone seeking to understand the region, its cultural and political underpinnings."---Raghu Mohan, Businessworld"Barfield shows how Afghan notions of political legitimacy and social organization are eerily timeless. . . . This book may change the way you think about Afghanistan."---Brian Kappler, Montreal Gazette"Despite a plethora of books about Afghanistan in the last few years, a good book on the country has not been published since Louis Dupress's 1973 Afghanistan. Maybe the long wait is over. Barfield's new book . . . comes close to matching Dupree's sweeping sense of Afghanistan's complicated history and culture. An anthropologist, as was Dupree, who personally visited most areas of Afghanistan, Barfield is able to put the bewildering complexity of tribes, ethnic groups, religious sects, warlords, and political feuds that is Afghanistan into a coherent whole that is both readable and informative." * Choice *"Thomas Barfield . . . has provided a rich discussion of the anthropological and historical context for developing such a formula, which is a critical missing piece in the Obama Administration's policy in Afghanistan. . . . Barfield has given us a valuable effort by a Westerner to decode a very foreign society—never an easy task. As a prism through which to understand the current conflict in Afghanistan, this book reminds us that war is about politics and that politics is about who rules and how rule is legitimated."---Marin Strmecki, American Interest"[Barfield's] deep knowledge brings clarity to a frightfully complicated region that has been and will continue to be of extraordinary importance to policy debates. Scholarly experts in search of an exhaustive reference to the region and those seeking an introduction to the ins and outs of Afghan history will find this book of interest."---Malou Innocent, Cato Journal"Impressive. . . . Barfield traces much of what Afghanistan is about to its geography and to developments from thousands of years ago, but he also asserts that the decade of Russian occupation changed Afghanistan permanently."---Harry Eagar, Maui News"Anyone who wishes to comprehend the intricacies of this complex and mysterious country would be wise to consult this exceedingly valuable book."---Raphael Israeli, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs"Overall, Barfield is successful in his attempts to render the history of Afghanistan legible to the trained or casual reader. His clear and approachable writing style, use of narrative, metaphor and personal stories to illustrate his arguments, thoroughness and quickness of pace, and his clear personal joy, investment and fascination with the country make this a highly readable—and more—digestible, historical account. . . . It is, in the end, a fascinating read and a tremendous resource."---Rebecca Gang, Jura Gentium"Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History makes a serious attempt to survey and analyze the changing political, cultural, and social landscapes of the country from the ancient time to the present. It provides meaningful and objective insights into governance, state legitimacy, social and economic development, and foreign interventions, and Afghan responses to them, with an admirable degree of thoughtfulness and fluency."---Amin Saikal, Marine Corps University Journal"Barfield has written a magnificent, learned, provoking book. He knows Afghanistan better than almost anyone writing on the topic today. He matches that knowledge with keen insight into how human societies grow and change. Barfield helps us think well about a complex and distant land, which is no small achievement."---Paul D. Miller, Books and Culture"Barfield offers a critique of U.S. and Western strategy in Afghanistan that will likely generate controversy, but strategists, planners, and those on missions in Afghanistan ignore them at their peril. Highly recommended."---Prisco R. Hernández, Military Review"In his admirable volume on Afghanistan, Thomas Barfield has written a real tour de force. . . . No one should venture today into Afghanistan, in whatever capacity, without first reading this guide for the perplexed."---Raphael Israeli, European Legacy"Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand either the history of Afghanistan or what is happening there now."---Danny Yee, Danny Reviews

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe best introduction to the range of Rosa Luxemburg's thought, including a number of writings never before anthologised.Trade Review'Here, at last, in a single volume is an accessible introduction to one of the most important radical political thinkers of the 20th century with analysis and insight for a new generation of activist' -- Elaine Bernard, Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law SchoolTable of ContentsIntroduction by Helen C. Scott and Paul Le Blanc Sources, Further Reading, Acknowledgements 1. The French Revolution 2. Reform or Revolution 3. Eight Hour Day – How to Win Reforms 4. Stagnation and Progress of Marxism 5. Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy 6. Socialism and the Churches 7. The Mass Strike, the Political Party, and the Trade Unions 8. Blanquism and Social Democracy 9. The National Question 10. Theory and Practice, 11. Women’s Suffrage and Class Struggle 12. Lassalle’s Legacy 13. The Accumulation of Capital –An Anti-Critique 14. The Crisis of German Social Democracy (Junius Pamphlet) 15.Two Prison Letters to Sonya Liebknecht 16. The Russian Revolution 17. Founding Convention of the German Communist Party 18. Order Prevails in Berlin Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA radical exploration of disability praxis from an experienced disability activistTrade Review'A masterful intervention in disability theory and praxis that is particularly pertinent for an age of austerity, pandemic, and rising living costs.' -- Robert Chapman, author of 'Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism''[A] brilliant and much needed contribution to current debates in Disability Politics - offering a timely corrective to the most recent approaches to disability that have taken a neoliberal turn'. -- Ioana Cerasella Chis, social researcher, University of Birmingham'An essential read for the activist and the lay person who is interested in disability. Bob offers a Marxist materialist critique, identifying the limitations of the movement's emphasis on decontextualised legal rights rather than a deeper resistance to wider oppression of disabled people within capitalist society.The book clarified a lot of the main issues for me.' -- Marian Brooks-Sardinha, carer and retired lecturer'Look no further for a comprehensive analysis of the disabled movement which also intelligently looks at how disability can fit into the modern world.' -- Josh Hepple, activist, writer, and Disability Equality TrainerTable of ContentsPart I: Are there four cornerstones of disability politics? 1. The first cornerstone: the fundamental principles of disability 2. The second cornerstone: the self-organisation of disabled people 3. The third cornerstone: self-determination, deinstitutionalisation and promotion of self-directed living 4. The fourth cornerstone: disability culture and identity Part II: Towards a new disability praxis? 6. Impairment and oppression: the battleground reviewed 7. Location of impairment effects within disability politics: interrogating impairment effects and impairment reality 8. Disability praxis: some unanswered questions 9. Developing a radical eco-social approach towards producing and sustaining community-based services 10. From the ashes: a new disability praxis?

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn antidote to political infighting and the culture warsTrade Review‘A searing materialist critique of the historical origins of attacks on Identity Politics from the right, a clarifying text that analyses the strategic purpose of the imagined ‘culture war’ that continues to engulf mainstream politics’ -- Lola Olufemi, author of ‘Feminism, Interrupted’‘Class reductionism sheds little light on our crisis-ridden times. Instead, ’Fractured’ uncovers both the historical entanglements of class and race and the multitude of solidarities that continually rise to oppose oppression. Richmond and Charnley gift us with the analysis, and hope, we need to fight on’ -- Alana Lentin, author of ‘Why Race Still Matters’'Issues a powerfully argued appeal to the left to finally understand that “Prioritising solidarity for those most marginalised or under attack is not about guilt or charity or ‘virtue-signalling’. It is part of what can get everyone free"' -- Sophie Lewis, author of 'Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family' and 'Abolish The Family: A Manifesto For Care and Liberation'‘A sharp and lucid rejoinder to all the political trends that in recent years have imbued "identity politics” with magically divisive powers. ‘Fractured’ is essential to understanding anti-racist politics today’ -- Arun Kundnani, author of 'The Muslims are Coming!''An important and timely analysis rich in historical detail. It challenges crude denunciations of 'identity politics' on both right and left, and reiterates that intersectionality is indeed political economy' -- Alison Phipps, Professor of Sociology at Newcastle University, author of ‘Me, Not You’'This sharp, thoughtful, generous little book helps us see the many roads that lead to better worlds, arguing that to get there we need to abandon those noisy, nasty, noxious debates on “identity politics”. It clears ground, carefully tracing histories of resistance and reaction, reminding us that the working class is and always has been manifold - and therein lies our strength' -- Luke de Noronha, academic and writer at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre, University College London and author of 'Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of Deportation to Jamaica' and co-author, with Gracie Mae Bradley, of 'Against Borders: The Case For Abolition'‘This is a stirring book, full of inspiration, insight, provocation. ‘Fractured’ insists that if we are to grasp the radical possibilities of connection, we must first understand the political legacy of division. Expect to be educated, made to think, or better still, urged to reconsider’ -- Vron Ware, author of ‘Beyond the Pale’Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Whiteness as Historiography 2. Qualities of Testimony 3. Black Feminism and Class Composition 4. Aliens at the Border 5. Storming The Ideal 6. Whiteness Riots 7. The Mad and Hungry Dogs Conclusion

Read more less