Political science and theory Books

Book Synopsis'WITTY, HUMANE, LEARNED' NEW YORK TIMESThe New York Times-bestselling author offers a stirring defence of liberalism against the dogmatisms of our timeNot since the early twentieth century has liberalism, and liberals, been under such relentless attack, from both right and left. The crisis of democracy in our era has produced a crisis of faith in liberal institutions and, even worse, in liberal thought.A Thousand Small Sanities is a manifesto rooted in the lives of people who invented and extended the liberal tradition. Taking us from Montaigne to Mill, and from Middlemarch to the civil rights movement, Adam Gopnik argues that liberalism is not a form of centrism, nor simply another word for free markets, nor merely a term denoting a set of rights. It is something far more ambitious: the search for radical change by humane measures. Gopnik shows us why liberalism is one of the great moral adventures in human history--and why, in an age of autocracy, our lives may depend on its continuation.Trade ReviewWritten with Adam Gopnik's signature wit and charm, A Thousand Small Sanities is also a clarion call at a moment of great danger. This fierce, capacious, and startlingly intelligent defense of a whole political, social, and moral order is essential reading for our time. * Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve *A smart, exhilarating defense of the liberal tradition * Publishers Weekly *Adam Gopnik is one of the greatest thinkers and wordsmiths of our age, and this book may be his most masterful, meaningful, and enjoyable yet. He turns his sweeping intellectual imagination into a conversation with a cross-partisan American longing for a renewal of common life that scarcely knows how to name itself. In an age in which we've connected ourselves with scale but without quality, and fractured communal cohesion in part by forgetting our shared liberal inheritance, this book is essential, redemptive reading * Krista Tippett, host of On Being *Witty, humane, learned . . . By assimilating what was once radical to his variety of liberalism, Gopnik hopes to prove to contemporary progressives that they can champion the woke causes of the 21st century without surrendering the liberal heritage of free speech, rule of law, scientific inquiry and individual conscience. -- David Frum * New York Times *An elegant, impassioned, and rigorously reasoned effort to re-humanize the most humanistic moral and political philosophy our civilization has produced... -- Maria Popova

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Book SynopsisIn a series of 50 accessible essays, Adam Fleming introduces and explains the history, key ideas and tools of democracy developed by some of the world's greatest thinkers - spanning from the ancient Greeks to the present day.From the right to vote to the monarchy, viral politics to Brexit, 50 Democracy Ideas You Really Need to Know is a complete introduction to the most important democracy ideas throughout history.

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Book SynopsisSenator Tim Scott knows adversity. As the son of a single mother from North Charleston, South Carolina, he struggled to get through school and had his dreams of a college football career shattered by a car wreck. But thanks to his mother and a few mentors along the way, he learned that "failure isn't failure unless you quit." He also learned that it's hard work and perseverance, not a government handout, that will get you ahead in life.Today, Senator Scott is the only black Republican in the Senate, and he believes that investment and commerce are the best ways to rebuild our most impoverished communities. This is the idea behind his signature piece of legislation, the "opportunity zones" program, which President Trump has strongly endorsed. The program provides tax incentives for businesses that invest in low-income urban areas, seeking to replace things like welfare and government assistance. In Opportunity Knocks, Senator Scott will tell his life story with a focus on adversity and opportunity. He will teach readers about the principles of hard work and hope while addressing the dangers of veering too far toward socialist policies. The book will also not shy away from discussions of racism and racial inequality in the United States, and will recount some of Senator Scott's own brushes with racism as well as the many discussions he's had with people who want to help, including President Trump.

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Book SynopsisDanielle D'Souza Gill, in a pathbreaking new book, blows the lid off the abortion debate, which is radically different than it was when the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling of Roe v. Wade in 1973. Technology has transformed the landscape and allowed people to see development in the womb. Ultrasound has rendered many old assumptions about abortion obsolete.The Democratic Left has become radicalized on abortion. It is no longer a necessary evil, but a positive good. Consequently, the Left has legitimized a form of mass killing in this country that dwarfs the deaths caused by cancer, smoking, homicide, terrorism, and war.Writing with freshness, intelligence, and insight, Danielle explores the contours of the debate, taking into account new ideas, new technology, and new laws and putting forth a new vision for a life-affirming society.In Socratic style, Danielle builds her case in response to the strongest contentions of the pro-choice camp. She engages their most powerful arguments head-on, carefully examines them, and then dismantles them. The result is a pro-life argument so persuasive that it will reach into the heart of the most hardened opponent.While it is a heartbreaking book, it is in the end inspiring. No matter what you believe about abortion, this book will educate, astonish, and deeply move you. It may move you to a position different from what you now hold.If you read one book about abortion, make it this one, The Choice: The Abortion Divide in America.

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Book SynopsisHow do we explain the strange survival of the forcesresponsible for the 2008 economic crisis, one of the worst since 1929? How do we explain the fact that neoliberalism has emerged from the crisis strengthened? When it broke, a number of the most prominent economists hastened to announce the 'death' of neoliberalism. They regarded the pursuit of neoliberal policy as the fruit of dogmatism.For Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, neoliberalism is no mere dogma. Supported by powerful oligarchies, it is a veritable politico-institutional system that obeys a logic of self-reinforcement. Far from representing a break, crisis has become a formidably effective mode of government.In showing how this system crystallized and solidified, the book explains that the neoliberal straitjacket has succeeded in preventing any course correction by progressively deactivating democracy. Increasing the disarray and demobilization, the so-called 'governmental' Left has actively helped strengthen this oligarchical logic. The latter could lead to a definitive exit from democracy in favour of expertocratic governance, free of any control.However, nothing has been decided yet. The revival of democratic activity, which we see emerging in the political movements and experiments of recent years, is a sign that the political confrontation with the neoliberal system and the oligarchical bloc has already begun.Trade ReviewNever Ending Nightmare: How Neoliberalism Defeats Democracy comprehensively deconstructs the strategies of a global instrumental rationality that seeks to bring about the end of democracy. -- Cynthia Fleury * L’Humanité *This essay has a singular resonance at the contemporary moment; it echoes with urgency and immediacy. -- Céline Mouzon * Alternatives Économiques *For the most maximalist theorists of neoliberalism in thought and practice, look no further. -- Quinn Slobodian, author of Globalists : The End of Empire and the Birth of NeoliberalismDardot and Laval present the post-2008 radicalization of neoliberalism as a nightmare and an opportunity. The nightmare is the stranglehold of a system of norms and treaties that benefit the oligarchy while immiserating the rest of us. The opportunity stems from the complete break between the elites and everybody else; neoliberalism has lost even the veneer of legitimacy. The challenge facing the Left is whether we can develop the political vision - and capacity - that will make this an opportunity for us. -- Jodi Dean, author of The Communist Horizon and Crowds and PartyBuilding on their previous historical analysis of neoliberal rationality, Dardot and Laval now paint a much starker, more terrifying portrait of neoliberalism, that is alert to its violence and unyielding political logic. Never Ending Nightmare presents us with a bleak but compelling account of how neoliberal government has abandoned all pretence of democratic legitimacy. -- William Davies, author of Nervous States: How feeling took over the worldDardot and Laval's provocative study offers important insights with regard to the current state of radicalization of neoliberalism. Although the interpretation of the EU as a quintessential ordoliberal project will surely trigger objections, their emphasis on legal norms as social technology to advance neoliberal transformations is very well taken. Critical examination of forms of neoliberal oligarchy goes beyond staples of post-democracy. Aficionados of both national populism and traditional party organizations will dislike their message for those on the left who are keen to develop an alternative imaginary of the future. -- Dieter Plehwe, co-editor of The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective

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Book SynopsisIn this landmark text, Gilbert Rist provides a comprehensive and compelling overview of what the idea of development has meant throughout history. He traces it from its origins in the Western view of history, through the early stages of the world system, the rise of US hegemony, and the supposed triumph of third-worldism, through to new concerns about the environment and globalization. Assessing possible postdevelopment models and considering the ecological dimensions of development, Rist contemplates the ways forward. Throughout, he argues persuasively that development has been no more than a collective delusion, which in reality has resulted only in widening market relations, whatever the intentions of its advocates. A classic development text written by one of the leaders of postdevelopment theory.Trade ReviewCompelling and exciting reading ... Rist's book, written with deliciously mild irony, is an account of the most crucial moments in which the rites of a belief embraced by millions were elaborated and canonized. * Praise for Previous Editions, European Journal of Development Research *This book does an outstanding job. * Praise for Previous Editions, Journal of Developing Areas *This book is one of the most astute of its genre available today... exact in its scholarship and profound in its clear account of the philosophies and consequences of the Western example. * Praise for Previous Editions, Rapport *If you want to understand the ideological forces that have shaped North-South relations for half a century, you need this remarkable book. * Praise for Previous Editions, Susan George *This is an impressive account of the rise and demise of the belief system that has pushed mankind to the brink of disaster. * Wolfgang Sachs, author of The Development Dictionary and Fair Future *A much needed corrective to the work of the cheerleaders of the newly globalized order?. This book does an outstanding job. * Jan Knippers Black, Journal of Developing Areas *At a time when globalization and humanitarian interventions are taking over from development, this book should help us understand why development has led so many well-intentioned people astray?. It presents complex debates with great clarity, provides an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with the literature and should prove essential reading for students and others interested, or involved, in development. * Marie-Dominique Perrot, IUED *Clear and well-written, there is no comparable book available in English. * Martin O'Connor *Compelling and exciting reading?. Rist's book, written with deliciously mild irony, is an account of the most crucial moments in which the rites of a belief embraced by millions were elaborated and canonized. * Olga Nieuwenhuys, European Journal of Development Research *An excellent and challenging book?. It should be required reading for all interested in development, and particularly the economists among them. * Peter de Valk, International Journal of African Historical Studies *There is no comparable book available in English. * Professor Martin O'Connor, economist *This book is one of the most astute of its genre available today?. [It] is exact in its scholarship and profound in its clear account of the philosophies and consequences of the Western example. * Rapport *If you want to understand the ideological forces that have shaped North-South relations for half a century, you need this remarkable book. * Susan George *If you want to understand the ideological forces that have shaped North-South relations for half a century, you need this remarkable book. * Susan George *Table of ContentsPreface to the Fourth Edition Preface to the Third Edition Preface to the Second Edition Introduction 1. Definitions of Development 2. Metamorphoses of a Western Myth 3. The Making of a World System 4. The Invention of Development 5. The International Doctrine and Institutions Take Root 6. Modernization Poised between History and Prophecy 7. The Periphery and the Understanding of History 8. Self-reliance: The Communal Past as a Model for the Future 9. The Triumph of Third-Worldism 10. The Environment, or the New Nature of 'Development' 11. A Mixture of Realism and Fine Sentiments 12. Globalization as a Simulacrum of 'Development' 13. From the Struggle against Poverty to the Millennium Development Goals 14. The Great Turnaround? 15. Beyond 'Development': From Downscaling to a Change in the Economic Paradigm Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisConservation needs a revolution. This is the only way it can contribute to the drastic transformations needed to come to a truly sustainable model of development. The good news is that conservation is ready for revolution. Heated debates about the rise of the Anthropocene and the current 'sixth extinction' crisis demonstrate an urgent need and desire to move beyond mainstream approaches. Yet the conservation community is deeply divided over where to go from here. Some want to place 'half earth' into protected areas. Others want to move away from parks to focus on unexpected and 'new' natures. Many believe conservation requires full integration into capitalist production processes.Building a razor-sharp critique of current conservation proposals and their contradictions, Büscher and Fletcher argue that the Anthropocene challenge demands something bigger, better and bolder. Something truly revolutionary. They propose convivial conservation as the way forward. This approach goes beyond protected areas and faith in markets to incorporate the needs of humans and nonhumans within integrated and just landscapes. Theoretically astute and practically relevant, The Conservation Revolution offers a manifesto for conservation in the twenty-first century-a clarion call that cannot be ignored.Trade ReviewIn our era of unprecedented conservation needs and challenges, this hard-hitting, clear-sighted book offers a radical and timely way forward. Two eminent and committed political ecologists cut a path through old and new conservation debates and dichotomies - people vs. nature, capitalism vs. post-capitalism - to offer a new paradigm and politics around conviviality. Vital reading, and a vital manifesto for all concerned with how people and non-human natures can live well together -- Professor Melissa Leach, Director, Institute of Development Studies, University of SussexBuscher and Fletcher significantly advance radical alternatives to mainstream conservation, especially by locating them within the need for systemic alternatives to capitalism (and hopefully by implication, though not explicitly stated, patriarchy). Their notion of convivial conservation, building on innovative traditions that have broken away from dominant notions of progress and development, helps envisage an end to the human domination of the earth, so desperately needed. -- Ashish Kothari, co-author with A. Shrivastava of Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India (2012)This book is a remarkable intellectual and political achievement, demonstrating nothing less than how to organize and practice revolutionary conservation beyond the Anthropocene, but within the ruins of uneven socio-ecological capitalist development. A razor-sharp analysis of conservation and how to politicize its futures. -- Erik SwyngedouwThe debate over the conservation of creation is necessarily deep and contentious--this new approach deserves a careful reading from everyone who cares about human and more-than-human nature! -- Bill McKibbenA thoughtful, gentle and comprehensive overview...will become a mandatory read in political ecology, environmental history and conservation courses everywhere. * Journal of Political Ecology *Both a theoretical and practical guide for anyone looking to reevaluate their relationship with capitalism-and the future of life on earth. ... As the world experiences the catastrophic effects of political and economic systems that prioritize profits over people, The Conservation Revolution provides an essential foundation for reconsidering the status quo and prompts us to move toward a more equitable, sustainable future. -- Amelia Rina * BOMB Magazine *Both rigorous and accessible...an important addition to revolutionary thought in political ecology. -- Jordan Teicher * Uneven Earth *Highly recommend reading this book - it forces you to closer think about what is really needed in order to move from treating only symptoms to the much-needed real, efficient, sweeping change towards a sustainable society. -- Tina Heger * Basic and Applied Ecology *The Conservation Revolution was, for me, a refreshing read in bleak times. It struck the right balance between realism and hopeful optimism by putting forward ideas for conserving nature that do not simply imagine ways of being outside of capitalism, but that recognize the need to remedy capitalist conservation's cumulative negative effects -- Y. Ariadne Collins * Antipode *

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Book SynopsisIn austerity Britain, disabled people have been recast as worthless scroungers. From social care to the benefits system, politicians and the media alike have made the case that Britain's 12 million disabled people are nothing but a drain on the public purse. In Crippled, journalist and campaigner Frances Ryan exposes the disturbing reality, telling the stories of those most affected by this devastating regime. It is at once both a damning indictment of a safety net so compromised it strangles many of those it catches and a passionate demand for an end to austerity, which hits hardest those most in need.Trade ReviewEveryone should read this book. * Labour Briefing *Frances Ryan's Crippled powerfully brings into sharp focus the lived experiences of disabled people. -- Sam Smethers * Fawcett Society *A powerful book ... Austerity kills and it is killing disabled people. Ryan does a brilliant job of describing the human costs. * Fabian Society *A blistering polemic, full of telling details. * Guardian *This powerful book by respected journalist, Frances Ryan is the perfect wake-up call for anyone sleep-walking through austerity. -- Simon Duffy * Fabian Review *Comprehensively and competently dissects the spin behind austerity, and its most unpardonable effects. * LeftLion *Crippled is a timely read that could bring anyone out of a Brexit news-induced stupor. * politics.co.uk *In Crippled, Frances Ryan, a fine journalist, broadcaster and campaigner for disability rights, robustly stacks up the evidence that ought to put politicians - especially chancellors - in the dock. -- Yvonne Roberts * Observer *A devastating look at both the policies that impact disabled people and the toxic rhetoric behind them - and what needs to change to make it right. * Vice *A devastatingly on-point critique of austerity politics and the worsening attitudes towards those with disabilities. * Morning Star *Frances and her columns were a constant source of inspiration as we researched and prepared I, Daniel Blake. She never loses sympathy for the human experience, nor lets the personal story undermine the razor sharp analysis of power. Crippled is another stunning piece of investigative journalism. It does make the blood boil, and cuts right through the propaganda. -- Paul Laverty, Screenwriter of I, Daniel BlakeFiercely angry, compulsory, and shocking reading - shining a vital light on the cruelty austerity Britain has meted out to those with disabilities. Do not look away. Read this and fight back. -- Angela ClarkeA brilliant, bitter blend of polemic and reportage that is certainly worthy of Orwell but which, more importantly, is eminently worthy of the betrayed citizens whose lives have been blighted by Tory austerity. It's high time a writer should do our disabled friends, family, colleagues and neighbours justice. It is forensic in its condemnation. It will make you rage. -- Lucy Rhiannon CosslettI wish I could force everyone in the UK to read this book. It's a ferocious, thoroughly substantiated indictment of this government's maltreatment of its disabled children, women and men. It's not a secret that austerity is a choice, but Frances Ryan intimately maps this calculated evil and the cost, in lives, it exacts. -- Rob DelaneyA fascinating insight into the harsh realities of living as a disabled person in the 21st century. A must read for anyone with a conscience -- Lee RidleyThis devastating depiction of the impact of austerity on disabled people should shake our political system to its foundations. Frances Ryan forensically exposes the scandalous politics that have left so many disabled people cold, hungry, living in poverty and pain and often suicidal. It's a cry from the heart but more importantly it's a determined demand for change. -- John McDonnellFrances Ryan reminds us what real investigative journalism looks like - except that this is a book, compelling in the case it makes. Vulnerable, disabled people are treated with conscious cruelty by politicians who have closed their eyes to the despair they have caused. We know that the welfare state has been almost wrecked, but Frances Ryan's impeccable research shows, in detail, what this means in the daily lives of those with disabilities. Keep this book on your shelves, refer to it often, and use the ammunition in its pages to bring back compassion and dignity for all our citizens. -- Ken LoachNo one has done more to shed light on how austerity is harming disabled peoples lives. This book is so important, it should be read at least by every policy maker in the country. -- Jess Phillips, MPRyan is an expert in her field. Furthermore, as a disabled person writing about disabled peopleas rights and issues, her voice is a vital addition to the debate. Essential reading. -- Baroness Tanni Grey-ThompsonThis book should be widely read. Students of disability, those who work with us in any capacity and those who study social policy will particularly benefit from reading Crippled. * Critical Social Policy *should become a classic of disability literature. Every voter in Britain should read it. Every MP should be required to. * Sick Magazine *

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Book SynopsisThe Situationist International, which leaped to the fore during the Paris tumult of 1968, has extended its revolutionary influence right up to the present day. In Leaving the Twentieth Century, the movement is captured for the first time in its full range and diversity.McKenzie Wark traces the group’s development from the bohemian Paris of the ’50s to the explosive days of May ’68. She introduces the group as an ensemble, revealing the work and activities of thinkers previously obscured by the reputation of founding member Guy Debord. Roaming through Europe and exploring the vital lives its members—including Constant, Asger Jorn, Michèle Bernstein, Alexander Trocchi, and Jacqueline de Jong—Wark uncovers a group riven with conflicting passions. She follows the narrative beyond 1968, to the Situationists International’s disintegration and beyond: the ideas of T. J. Clark, the Fourierist utopia of Raoul Vaneigem, René VienetR

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Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking work, Ellen Meiksins Wood rewrites the history of political theory, from Plato to Rousseau. Treating canonical thinkers as passionately engaged human beings, Wood examines their ideas not simply in the context of political languages but as creative responses to the social relations and conflicts of their time and place. She identifies a distinctive relation between property and state in Western history and shows how the canon, while largely the work of members or clients of dominant classes, was shaped by complex interactions among proprietors, labourers and states. Western political theory, Wood argues, owes much of its vigour, and also many ambiguities, to these complex and often contradictory relations.In the first volume, she traces the development of the Western tradition from classical antiquity through to the Middle Ages in the perspective of social history - a significant departure not only from the standard abstract history of ideas but also from other contextual methods. From the Ancient Greek polis of Plato, Aristotle, Aeschylus and Sophocles, through the Roman Republic of Cicero and the Empire of St Paul and St Augustine, to the medieval world of Averroes, Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham, Wood offers a rich, dynamic exploration of thinkers and ideas that have indelibly stamped our modern world.In the second volume, Wood addresses the formation of the modern state, the rise of capitalism, the Renaissance and Reformation, the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, which have all been attributed to the "early modern" period. Nearly everything about its history remains controversial, but one thing is certain: it left a rich and provocative legacy of political ideas unmatched in Western history. The concepts of liberty, equality, property, human rights and revolution born in those turbulent centuries continue to shape, and to limit, political discourse today. Assessing the work and background of figures such as Machiavelli, Luther, Calvin, Spinoza, the Levellers, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, Ellen Wood vividly explores the ideas of the canonical thinkers, not as philosophical abstractions but as passionately engaged responses to the social conflicts of their day.Trade ReviewMeiksins Wood is a rare breed - an academic with the soul of a storyteller. * Morning Star *Few historians of comparative political thought are in the same league as Ellen Wood, who surveys the whole sweep of ancient and medieval thinkers with equal magisterial brilliance of insight. -- Professor Paul Cartledge, University of CambridgeA challenging analysis, which successfully integrates theory with historical changes. The clarity of the writing makes her account readily accessible to any reader ready to engage a fresh approach to the history of political theory. -- Sheldon WolinImmensely impressive, bold and erudite. Meiksins Wood's conclusions are undeniably nuanced, challenging and important. This book ought to be compulsory reading for us all. * Times Higher Education Supplement *This book is clearly written, incisively argued, and immensely informative. * CHOICE *A notable book, wide-ranging and perceptive. Wood addresses the heartland of the historiography of political thought from Machiavelli to Rousseau, the territory of its most successful recent practitioners. -- Jonathan Clark * Times Literary Supplement *The writing is so supple and accessible, and the argument so persuasive, it's like watching a cloudy mixture of ideas being turned into a clear solution. -- Adrienne RichWood was an extraordinarily rigorous and imaginative thinker, someone who breathed life into Marxist political theory and made it speak-not to just to me but to many others-at multiple levels: historical, theoretical, political. -- Corey Robin * Jacobin *

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Book SynopsisWhat is the contemporary legacy of Gramsci's notion of Hegemony? How can universality be reformulated now that its spurious versions have been so thoroughly criticized? In this ground-breaking project, Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Zizek engage in a dialogue on central questions of contemporary philosophy and politics. Their essays, organized as separate contributions that respond to one another, range over the Hegelian legacy in contemporary critical theory, the theoretical dilemmas of multiculturalism, the universalism-versus-particularism debate, the strategies of the Left in a globalized economy, and the relative merits of post-structuralism and Lacanian psychoanalysis for a critical social theory. While the rigor and intelligence with which these writers approach their work is formidable, Contingency, Hegemony, Universality benefits additionally from their clear sense of energy and enjoyment in a revealing and often unpredictable exchange.

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Book SynopsisThe Greatest Crash argues that the financial system which evolved from the early Italian bankers has now reached a roadblock. Evolution is needed. But bureaucratic design, delegated government, and group think, all combine to prevent evolution.

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Book SynopsisMahmood Mamdani’s 1996 Citizen and Subject is a powerful work of analysis that lays bare the sources of the problems that plagued, and often still plague, African governments. Analysis is one of the broadest and most fundamental critical thinking skills, and involves understanding the structure and features of arguments. Mamdani’s strong analytical skills form the basis of an original investigation of the problems faced by the independent African governments in the wake of the collapse of the colonial regimes imposed by European powers such has Great Britain and France. It had long been clear that these newly-independent governments faced many problems – corruption, the imposition of anti-democratic rule, and many basic failures of day-to-day governance. They also tended to replicate many of the racially and ethnically prejudiced structures that were part of colonial rule. Mamdani analyses the many arguments about the sources of these problems, drawing out their hidden implications and assumptions in order to clear the way for his own creative new vision of the way to overcome the obstacles to democratization in Africa. A dense and brilliant analysis of the true nature of colonialism’s legacy in Africa, Mamdani’s book remains influential to this day. Table of ContentsWays in to the Text Who is Mamdani, Mahmood? What does Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism Say? Why does Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism Matter? Section 1: Influences Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context Module 2: Academic Context Module 3: The Problem Module 4: The Author's Contribution Section 2: Ideas Module 5: Main Ideas Module 6: Secondary Ideas Module 7: Achievement Module 8: Place in the Author's Work Section 3: Impact Module 9: The First Responses Module 10: The Evolving Debate Module 11: Impact and Influence Today Module 12: Where Next? Glossary of Terms People Mentioned in the Text Works Cited

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Book SynopsisWhat caused the rise of Chicago, and how did the city's expansion fuel the westward movement of the American frontier – and influence the type of society that evolved as a result? Nature's Metropolis emerged as a result of William Cronon asking and answering those questions, and the work can usefully be seen as an extended example of the critical thinking skill of problem-solving in action. Cronon navigates a path between the followers of Frederick Jackson Turner, author of the thesis that American character was shaped by the experience of the frontier, and revisionists who sought to suggest that the rugged individualism Turner depicted as a creation of life in the West was little but a fiction. For Cronon, the most productive question to ask was not whether or not men forged in the liberty-loving furnace of the Wild West had the sort of impact on America that Turner posited, but the quite different one of how capitalism and political economy had combined to drive the westward expansion of the US. For Cronon, individualism was scarcely even possible in a capitalist machine in which humans were little more than cogs, and the needs and demands of capital, not capitalists, prevailed. Nature's Metropolis, then, is a work in which the rise of Chicago is explained by generating alternative possibilities, and one that uses a rigorous study of the evidence to decide between competing solutions to the problem. It is also a fine work of interpretation, for a large part of Cronon's argument revolves around his attempt to define exactly what is rural, and what is urban, and how the two interact to create a novel economic force.Table of ContentsWays in to the Text Who was William Cronon? What does Nature's Metropolis: Chicago And The Great West Say? Why does What does Nature's Metropolis: Chicago And The Great West Matter? Section 1: Influences Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context Module 2: Academic Context Module 3: The Problem Module 4: The Author's Contribution Section 2: Ideas Module 5: Main Ideas Module 6: Secondary Ideas Module 7: Achievement Module 8: Place in the Author's Work Section 3: Impact Module 9: The First Responses Module 10: The Evolving Debate Module 11: Impact and Influence Today Module 12: Where Next? Glossary of Terms People Mentioned in the Text Works Cited

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Book SynopsisThe 2010s have been a double-edged decade. Socioeconomic factors have led to the widespread and increased disenfranchisement of poorer people from the mainstream media and the institutions shaping it. This has coincided with a growing number of people from low income backgrounds also receiving better educations than ever before, and having the means at their disposal to both name and resent it. Steal as much as you can is the story of how this bright generation came to be, and what effective means are still at their disposal to challenge the establishment and ultimately win. By rejecting the established routines of achieving prosperity, and by stealing what you can from them on the way, this book offers hope to anyone who feels increasingly frustrated by our increasingly unequal society.Trade Review“A book of anger and resistance - we need more working-class voices like hers. A class book about class war.”"A how-to guide for creating things of worth and truth when upper middle-class pop culture has dominated, and affected British politics in a very real way." "What makes Steal As Much As You Can so urgent isn’t just that Olah diagnoses these problems, but that she offers a roadmap out of this stagnation. The book ends with a call to arms for a coarse, unapologetic, creative working class culture, and how to achieve it.""A stirring, spiky book that comes as a pertinent reminder that nothing is inevitable and that things can always get better.""This razor-sharp polemic exploring class, taste and culture, is one of the most insightful analyses of the British class system I’ve read in years."

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Book SynopsisI Could Be So Good For You tackles head-on the pernicious and implicitly racist fiction that London, most especially north London, has no "real" working class in comparison to a more "authentic" working class in a place called "the North". In doing so it offers a history and a portrait of north London's working class from the 1950s to the 21st century, based on a wide and original range of sources including personal memoirs, autobiographies, collected oral histories and new interviews conducted by the author. The result is an important social history and a rich panorama of working-class life — its struggles, work, celebrations, events, triumphs, tragedies and the occasional nice little earner. For good or ill, from the start of post-war affluence in the 1950s to the economic crash of 2008, north London's working class had a life experience like almost no other part of the British working class, one not just of poverty, racism and exploitation, but also of bold new housing schemes in the heart of the city, of great opportunity and diversity and enjoyment. Its about time to tell that story.Trade Review"Fantastic - a much-needed history of a class claimed regularly not to exist, and a compendious, endlessly quotable book of facts, anecdotes and tales of the 'working class bohemia' that existed, and crucially still exists, and changes and grows and thrives, in the lands south of Watford, east of Staines, north of the Thames and west of the Lea'""This is a Dickens for a postwar North London... an intimate letter to the North London working class, written out of a tough love, completely shorn of sentimentality. This is an important book. I know of no other quite like it. I wish I had written it.""It's great to see that ordinary London working class voices, not normally heard, are well represented in this cracking social history.""A vivid and compelling account of North London society from the 1950s to the present... This is grass-roots local history at its best."

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings Dig Where You Stand, Sven Lindqvist's classic text on history, power and politics, to English-speaking audiences for the first time. First published in 1978, Dig Where You Stand is a rallying cry for workers to become researchers, to follow the money, take on the role as experts on their job, and "dig" out its hidden histories in order to take a vital step towards social and economic transformation. A how-to guide that inspired an entire movement, it makes the case that everyone – not just academics – can learn how to critically and rigorously explore history, especially their own history, and in doing so find a blueprint for how to transform society for the better. In a world where the balance of power is overwhelmingly stacked against the working-class, Dig Where You Stand's manifesto for the empowerment of workers through self-education, historical research and political solidarity is as important and relevant today as it was in 1978.Trade Review"This pioneering work is as relevant today as it was on first publication, as capital continues to unceasingly move around the world, desperate to avoid accountability for its disastrous social and environmental consequences.""Sven Lindqvist’s call to Dig Where You Stand has been a lasting inspiration for me, an influence leading me to combine international oral history in parallel with local community projects, revealing the amazing richness of the life stories which – once you learn to listen - you can discover right around you.""This classic book is much more than a historic document. Its precious pages belong to our future. Dig Where You Stand is a practical primer which shows how we can change things for the better.""A sharp reminder that we are in danger of losing the art of research, bamboozled by the sheer immediacy of what passes for information and data today. This book is a gift for new generations of radical activists who grasp exactly how much we have to change.""Do not mistake this for an ordinary handbook or a dated analysis of working-class conditions. Lindqvist’s book shows with vivid clarity how capitalism permeates society, our homes, lungs, and children’s future. And yet, at the end, there is not despair and hopelessness but an empowering sense that things can and will be changed.""Dig Where You Stand has long had mythic status as a self-help manual for oral and community historians. Though forty-four years after its first publication, its appearance today can hardly be more timely or relevant. It should be on every activist's bookshelf.' Dig Where You Stand is a wonderful toolkit - a work of barefoot research - that shows us how to investigate our own jobs, communities and lives with one simple goal: social transformation.Half a century old but still vivid, Dig Where You Stand is to be welcomed as a fearless and ambitious manual on how to live and think as well as research, write and make connections in an apparently disjointed time.Half a century old but still vivid, Dig Where You Stand is to be welcomed as a fearless and ambitious manual on how to live and think as well as research, write and make connections in an apparently disjointed time.

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Book SynopsisChapter 1.OLAF SCHOLZ AND HELMUT SCHMIDT.- Chapter 2.CRIME WITH AN ANNOUNCEMENT.- Chapter 3.THE BRUTALITY OF CHANCE.- Chapter 4.A NIGHT OF LIFE AND DEATH.- Chapter 5.ON THE CATWALK.- Chapter 6.MR VIETOR, WE MAKE YOU CAPTAIN.- Chapter 7.A RED BICYCLE FROM MR FEDERAL CHANCELLOR.- Chapter 8.OUR NEW FRIENDS, THE SHEIKHS.- Chapter 9.TRIUMPH AND DECLINE OF A GENERATION.- Chapter 10.EXPANSION.- Chapter 11.STATE RAISON.

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Book SynopsisThe foundations upon which our democracies stand are inherently flawed, vulnerable to corrosion from within. What is the remedy? A. C. Grayling makes the case for a clear, consistent, principled and written constitution, and sets out the reforms necessary – among them addressing the imbalance of power between government and Parliament, imposing fixed terms for MPs, introducing proportional representation and lowering the voting age to 16 (the age at which you can marry, gamble, join the army and must pay taxes if you work) – to ensure the intentions of such a constitution could not be subverted or ignored. As democracies around the world show signs of decay, the issue of what makes a good state, one that is democratic in the fullest sense of the word, could not be more important. To take just one example: by the simplest of measures, neither Britain nor the United States can claim to be truly democratic. The most basic tenet of democracy is that no voice be louder than any other. Yet in our ‘first past the post’ electoral systems a voter supporting a losing candidate is unrepresented, his or her voice unequal to one supporting a winning candidate, who frequently does not gain a majority of the votes cast. This is just one of a number of problems, all of them showing that democratic reform is a necessity in our contemporary world.Trade Review‘A brilliant exploration of democracy as it is and as it should be.’ * Kirkus *‘...a fierce challenge to the Westminster system.’ * Justin Kempf, Democracy Paradox *

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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,

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Book SynopsisThis book originated as lectures for a course on political philosophy that Rawls taught regularly at Harvard University in the 1980s. In time the lectures became a restatement of his theory of justice as fairness, revised in light of his more recent papers and his treatise Political Liberalism (1993).Trade ReviewJustice as Fairness is a concise, self-contained, and up to date presentation of Rawls' views...While Justice as Fairness does not present any theoretical departures from Political Liberalism, it deals with important topics Rawls never fully addressed before such as Marx's critique of liberalism and the moral short-comings of welfare state capitalism...Rawls' long-time readers will also be pleased to find that Justice as Fairness includes careful replies to Sandel, Sen, Okin and other critics on issues ranging from health care to the legal status of gender differences. -- Robert Briscoe * Boston Book Review *Rawls is one of the two or three most important political thinkers of the 20th century. His accounts of 'justice as fairness' and of 'political liberalism' are among the most widely discussed and cited in the field of political philosophy...[Justice as Fairness] provides an integrated statement of his political theory, drawing together and presenting in a unified way, and for the first time, the major arguments and both strands of his work. Even though it is a challenging volume, it will no doubt be the principal introduction to his thinking...An essential text. -- J. D. Moon * Choice *There have been millions of words written about A Theory of Justice and many articles and several books by Rawls defending and expanding its doctrines. Justice as Fairness will almost certainly be the last of these, and it should take its place as the best and most comprehensive statement of Rawls's eventual position. It is an exemplary work in every way. Rawls's own virtues shine through. He follows the argument where it leads. He listens to his critics and acknowledges his supporters; he gives way when it is necessary, but remains firm where he can take a stand. Anybody convinced that political thought is all about disguised power, or rhetoric, or ideology in the bad sense of the word, should confront this book. -- Simon Blackburn * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsEditor's Foreword Preface Part I Fundamental Ideas 1. Four Roles of Political Philosophy 2. Society as a Fair System of Cooperation 3. The Idea of a Well-Ordered Society 4. The Idea of a Basic Structure 5. Limits to Our Inquiry 6. The Idea of the Original Position 7. The Idea of Free and Equal Persons 8. Relations between the Fundamental Ideas 9. The Idea of Public Justification 10. The Idea of Reflective Equilibrium 11. The Idea of an Overlapping Consensus Part II Principles of Justice 12. Three Basic Points 13. Two Principles of Justice 14. The Problem of Distributive Justice 15. The Basic Structure as Subject: First Kind of Reason 16. The Basic Structure as Subject: Second Kind of Reason 17. Who Are the Least Advantaged? 18. The Difference Principle: Its Meaning 19. Objections via Counterexamples 20. Legitimate Expectations, Entitlement, and Desert 21. On Viewing Native Endowments as a Common Asset 22. Summary Comments on Distributive Justice and Desert Part III The Argument from the Original Position 23. The Original Position: The Set-Up 24. The Circumstances of Justice 25. Formal Constrains and the Veil of Ignorance 26. The Idea of Public Reason 27. First Fundamental Comparison 28. The Structure of the Argument and the Maximum Rule 29. The Argument Stressing the Third Condition 30. The Priority of the Basic Liberties 31. An Objection about Aversion to Uncertainty 32. The Equal Basic Liberties Revisited 33. The Argument Stressing the Second Condition 34. Second Fundamental Comparison: Introduction 35. Grounds Falling under Publicity 36. Grounds Falling under Reciprocity 37. Grounds Falling under Stability 38. Grounds against the Principle of Restricted Utility 39. Comments on Equality 40. Concluding Remarks Part IV Institutions of a Just Basic Structure 41. Property-Owning Democracy: Introductory Remarks 42. Some Basic Contrasts between Regimes 43. Ideas of the Good in Justice as Fairness 44. Constitutional versus Procedural Democracy 45. The Fair Value of the Equal Political Liberties 46. Denial of the Fair Value for Other Basic Liberties 47. Political and Comprehensive Liberalism: A Contrast 48. A Note on Head Taxes and the Priority of Liberty 49. Economic Institutions of a Property-Owning Democracy 50. The Family as a Basic Institution 51. The Flexibility of an Index of Primary Goods 52. Addressing Marx's Critique of Liberalism 53. Brief Comments on Leisure Time Part V The Question of Stability 54. The Domain of the Political 55. The Question of Stability 56. Is Justice as Fairness Political in the Wrong Way? 57. How Is Political Liberalism Possible? 58. An Overlapping Consensus Not Utopian 59. A Reasonable Moral Psychology 60. The Good of Political Society Index

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Book SynopsisA watershed moment in transgender theoryTrade Review'A terrific collection of essays - I couldn't put it down' -- Kathi Weeks, author of 'The Problem with Work' (Duke UP, 2011)'A vibrant and much needed collection - not just for trans people - but the left in general' -- Shon Faye, author of 'The Transgender Issue' (Penguin, 2021)'Stunning ... trans becomes in these pages the vibrant event of a historical materialism from below, intimate and urgent' -- Jules Gill-Peterson, author of 'Histories of the Transgender Child' (University of Minnesota Press, 2018)'Powerful ... with stunning sophistication and insights, 'Transgender Marxism' challenges capitalism's social foundations in gendered patterns of property, work, and entitlement to develop new forms of sociality beyond the family and its dyadic sexual division' -- Petrus Liu, author of 'Queer Marxism in Two Chinas' (Duke University Press, 2015)'Brilliant, thoughtfully researched, and compelling. An immense contribution to the trans liberation struggle and to trans studies scholarship' -- Dean Spade, Associate Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law'Is there a transgender Marxism? This pioneering collection shows that the answer is there are many - inspired by psychoanalysis, union organizing, queer communities, Black struggles and more. Material realities matter, tremendously, in trans lives; and trans experiences can change our thinking about both capitalism and liberation' -- Raewyn Connell, author of 'Gender: In World Perspective' (Polity, 2020)‘A powerful contribution to the legacy of a Marx’ -- ‘Anti-Capitalist Resistance’‘This book provides the stepping-stones towards that much-needed Marxism, finally acknowledging the material realities and best strategies for all working class, oppressed trans people globally’ -- ‘Ebb magazine’Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction - Jules Joanne Gleeson and Elle O'Rourke 1. Social Reproduction and Social Cognition: Theorizing (Trans)gender Identity Development in Community Context - Noah Zazanis (reproductive health research assistant, New York) 2. Trans Work: Employment Trajectories, Labour Discipline and Gender Freedom - Michelle O'Brien (New York University) 3. Judith Butler's Scientific Revolution: Foundations for a Transsexual Marxism - Rosa Lee (editor at Viewpoint Magazine) 4. How Do Gender Transitions Happen? - Jules Joanne Gleeson 5. A Queer Marxist Transfeminism: Queer and Trans Social Reproduction - Nat Raha (University of Sussex) 6. Notes from Brazil - Virginia Guitzel (philosophy student, Federal University of ABC) 7. Queer Workerism Against Work: Strategising Transgender Labourers, Social Reproduction & Class Formation - Kate Doyle Griffiths (lecturer, Brooklyn College and editor of Spectre Journal) 8. The Bridge between Gender and Organizing - Farah Thompson (Black, bisexual trans woman who does tech while living in San Diego) 9. Encounters in Lancaster - JN Hoad (DIY transsexual in the North West of the UK) 10. Transgender and Disabled Bodies - Between Pain and the Imaginary - Zoe Belinsky (independent scholar) 11. A Dialogue on Deleuze and Gender Difference - The Conspiratorial Association for the Advancement of Cultural Degeneracy (Cultural Degeneracy and Sacrilege - a pseudonymous dialogue between friends) 12. Seizing the Means: Towards a Trans Epistemology - Nathaniel Dickson (PhD candidate, University at Bufflalo) 13. 'Why Are We Like This?' The Primacy of Transsexuality - Xandra Metcalfe (psychoanalytic communist and noise artist based in Melbourne) 14. Cosmos Against Nature in the Class Struggle of Proletarian Trans Women - Anja Heisler Weiser Flower (artist living in San Francisco) Afterword: One Utopia, One Dystopia - Jordy Rosenberg (Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst) Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisA pioneering examination of nuclear trauma, the continuing and new nuclear peril, and the subjectivities they generate Amid resurgent calls for widespread nuclear energy and “limited nuclear war,” the populations that must live with the consequences of these decisions are increasingly insecure. The nuclear peril combined with the looming threat of climate change means that we are seeing the formation of a new kind of subjectivity: humans who are in a position of perpetual ontological insecurity. In Radioactive Ghosts, Gabriele Schwab articulates a vision of these “nuclear subjectivities” that we all live with. Focusing on the legacies of the Manhattan Project, Hiroshima, and nuclear energy politics, Radioactive Ghosts takes us on a tour of the little-seen sides of our nuclear world. Examining devastating uranium mining on Native lands, nuclear sacrifice zones, the catastrophic accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, and the formation of a new transspecies ethics, Schwab shows how individuals threatened with extinction are creating new adaptations, defenses, and communal spaces. Ranging from personal accounts of experiences with radiation to in-depth readings of literature, film, art, and scholarly works, Schwab gives us a complex, idiosyncratic, and personal analysis of one of the most overlooked issues of our time.Trade Review"This book, a wake-up call and a tour de force of wide-ranging interdisciplinary scholarship, is beautifully written and accessible; Gabriele Schwab moves nuclear power discourse further by focusing on aspects rarely addressed together, like psychic, racial, gender and class implications. Her short personal interludes add yet another layer of meaning. Radioactive Ghosts should be required reading for everyone hoping the human species can survive."—E. Ann Kaplan, author of Climate Trauma: Foreseeing the Future in Dystopian Film and Literature"The innocent sounding Manhattan project forever put a Damocles sword on human existence. The first uranium that made the Project possible was dug from Africa. Drawing parallels between the extraction of uranium and the extraction of slave labor, Gabriele Schwab shows the prominent role of colonialism and race in the politics of nuclear production and possession. Radioactive Ghosts, with its clarity of prose and thought, reminds us that we humans have only the one planet. Why, oh, why should any nation be proud that they have the capacity to destroy all planetary life? Exorcise these radioactive ghosts by banning and destroying all these weapons of human destruction. End this MADNESS."—Ngugi wa Thiong'o, author of Wrestling with the Devil "Gabrielle Schwab’s thought-provoking book makes a timely contribution to the on-going nuclear debate."—Journal of Peace ResearchTable of ContentsContentsPreface: Of Three-Eyed Fish and Other GhostingsIntroduction: Why Nuclear Necropolitics Today?Part I. Nuclear Subjectivities1. No Apocalypse, Not Now: Derrida and the Nuclear Unconscious2. Nuclear Colonialism3. Critical Nuclear Race Theory4. The Gender of Nuclear SubjectivitiesInterlude: Children of the Nuclear AgeWith Simon J. OrtizPart II. Haunting from the Future5. The Afterlife of Nuclear Catastrophes6. Hiroshima’s Ghostly Shadows7. Postnuclear Madness and Nuclear Crypts8. Transspecies Selves: Intimacies, Extimacies, AnimaciesCoda: Postnuclear Ecologies: Language, Body, and Affect in Beckett’s Happy DaysAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisPrussian General Carl von Clausewitz famously wrote that ‘War is the continuation of politics by other means’. But what does Clausewitz mean to a world where economic, political and cultural conflicts are increasingly framed as wars? Written after the Napoleonic Wars but left unfinished at the author’s death and not published until 1832, On War is one of the most influential and important works on military strategy ever written. This new edition presents this classic text with a new introduction by Graham Harman, who reads Clausewitz’s ideas about war, politics and military strategy through the lens of speculative realism.

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Book SynopsisTheorizes the political agency of things and natural phenomena—such as trash, food, weather, and electricity—to examine how non-human elements exert force on human politics and social relations.Trade Review“Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter is an important work, linking critical movements in recent continental philosophy, namely a vitalist tradition that runs from Bergson to Deleuze and even, on Bennett’s reading, to Bruno Latour, and (on the other hand) a ‘political ecology of things’ that should speak to anyone conscious enough to be aware of the devastating changes underway in the world around us. There is good reason Bennett’s book has, in short order, gained a wide following in disparate areas of political theory and philosophy.” - Peter Gratton, Philosophy in Review“For the sake of assuaging harms already inflicted we have always cobbled together publics that deal with vibrant matters of floods, fires, earthquakes and so on. For the sake of preventing unseen future harms, Bennett’s book argues that we need to take a closer look at how we are embedded in a web of mutual affect that knows no bounds between living and nonliving, human and nonhuman. It is in this refreshingly naïve ‘no-holds-barred’ approach that Bennett’s work has much to offer for a reconsideration of our role as thinking, speaking humans in a cosmos of vibrant matter that we continually depoliticize even in our efforts to ‘protect’ and ‘save’ the earth . . . a highly recommended read.” - Stefan Morales, M/C Reviews“Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter is an admirable book for at least three reasons. First, it is wonderfully written in a comfortable personal style, which is rare enough for academic books. Second, Bennett makes an explicit break with the timeworn dogmas of postmodernist academia. . . . The third pointthat makes this book admirable is Bennett’s professional position: Chair ofPolitical Science at Johns Hopkins University. That someone in a PoliticalScience department at an important university could write as candid a workof metaphysics as Vibrant Matter is an encouraging sign. Perhaps philosophical speculation on fundamental topics is poised for a comeback throughout the humanities. “ - Graham Harman, New Formations“Vibrant Matter is a fascinating, lucid, and powerful book of political theory. By focusing on the ‘thing-side of affect,’ Jane Bennett seeks to broaden and transform our sense of care in relation to the world of humans, non-human life, and things. She calls us to consider a ‘parliament of things’ in ways that provoke our democratic imaginations and interrupt our anthropocentric hubris.”—Romand Coles, author of Beyond Gated Politics: Reflections for the Possibility of Democracy“Vibrant Matter represents the fruits of sustained scholarship of the highest order. As environmental, technological, and biomedical concerns force themselves onto worldly political agendas, the urgency and potency of this analysis must surely inform any rethinking of what political theory is about in the twenty-first century.”—Sarah Whatmore, coeditor of The Stuff of Politics: Technoscience, Democracy, and Public Life“This manifesto for a new materialism is an invigorating breath of fresh air. Jane Bennett’s eloquent tribute to the vitality and volatility of things is just what we need to revive the humanities and to redraw the parameters of political thought.”—Rita Felski, author of Uses of Literature “Bennett’s is one of those books where, on finishing, you want to begin immediately again to experience the excitement and élan vital of eloquent, simple ideas presented in clear, concise and considered prose, wherein the presence of a generous, kind and unpretentious author speaks straight into your understanding. Vibrant Matter is fresh, alert, quiet and potent, a door opening in a stuffy room to let the outside in, which lets it speak so as to embolden us to breathe differently. It will redraw the boundaries of political thought; it’s already doing so. Read it.” -- Mark Jackson * Emotion, Space and Society *“Orienting us to re-encounter both nature and familiar objects as newly strange and pulsing with ‘thing-power,’ Bennett challenges our worn assumptions concerning the hierarchy between humans and things, the workings of causality, and our deep cultural attachment to matter and nature as inanimate. . . . Her book is surprising, refreshing, and troubling.” -- Lori J. Marso * Political Theory *“For the sake of assuaging harms already inflicted we have always cobbled together publics that deal with vibrant matters of floods, fires, earthquakes and so on. For the sake of preventing unseen future harms, Bennett’s book argues that we need to take a closer look at how we are embedded in a web of mutual affect that knows no bounds between living and nonliving, human and nonhuman. It is in this refreshingly naïve ‘no-holds-barred’ approach that Bennett’s work has much to offer for a reconsideration of our role as thinking, speaking humans in a cosmos of vibrant matter that we continually depoliticize even in our efforts to ‘protect’ and ‘save’ the earth . . . a highly recommended read.” -- Stefan Morales * M/C Reviews *“Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter is an admirable book for at least three reasons. First, it is wonderfully written in a comfortable personal style, which is rare enough for academic books. Second, Bennett makes an explicit break with the timeworn dogmas of postmodernist academia. . . . The third pointthat makes this book admirable is Bennett’s professional position: Chair ofPolitical Science at Johns Hopkins University. That someone in a PoliticalScience department at an important university could write as candid a workof metaphysics as Vibrant Matter is an encouraging sign. Perhaps philosophical speculation on fundamental topics is poised for a comeback throughout the humanities. “ -- Graham Harman * New Formations *“Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter is an important work, linking critical movements in recent continental philosophy, namely a vitalist tradition that runs from Bergson to Deleuze and even, on Bennett’s reading, to Bruno Latour, and (on the other hand) a ‘political ecology of things’ that should speak to anyone conscious enough to be aware of the devastating changes underway in the world around us. There is good reason Bennett’s book has, in short order, gained a wide following in disparate areas of political theory and philosophy.” -- Peter Gratton * Philosophy in Review *"Bennett is a philosopher and political theorist. But her intellectual work is not primarily about creating new theories. In her writing, she expertly distills and juxtaposes the ideas of Gilles Deleuze, Immanuel Kant, Martha Nussbaum, and others, but her goal is often to create a mood. She wants readers to adopt and embody an ethos that makes room for the vitality of matter." -- Morgan Meis * The New Yorker *Table of ContentsPreface vii Acknowledgments xxi 1. The Force of Things 1 2. The Agency of Assemblages 20 3. Edible Matter 39 4. A Life of Metal 52 5. Neither Vitalism nor Mechanism 62 6. Stem Cells and the Culture of Life 82 7. Political Ecologies 94 8. Vitality and Self-interest 110 Notes 123 Bibliography 157 Index 171

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Book SynopsisProf. Dr. Christoph Knill is Professor of Politics and Public Administration at the Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany.Prof. Dr. Jale Tosun is Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Political Science at Heidelberg University, Germany, and a co-director of the Heidelberg Center for the Environment.Trade ReviewChristoph Knill and Jale Tosun have provided an excellent update and extension of their textbook on public policy. The first edition provided an excellent introduction to the field for students, and the new edition will be an even more valuable resource for understanding contemporary public policy. * B. Guy Peters, University of Pittsburgh, USA *The first edition of Public Policy rapidly became a modern classic in the field, a must-read for all those working on public policy, whether students or established scholars. The epithets elegant, concise, profound and clear easily attached themselves to the well-written and useful book that stands head and shoulders above all its competitors. It is very welcome indeed to have the second edition that retains all the strengths of the first, but is fully updated to reflect recent thinking and scholarship in public policy as well as taking account of the profound changes in politics and policy that have occurred in recent years. Christoph Knill and Jale Tosun have pulled off a tremendous feat. * Peter John, King’s College, London, UK *This book is an outstanding introduction to studies of public policy. It combines both traditional approaches with innovative perspectives on the design and implementation of public policies. It is the best text book for policy studies in Europe. * Karin Ingold, University of Bern, Switzerland *There is no better policy textbook with a global perspective than Knill and Tosun’s. It combines the leading paradigms with innovative insights in a well-written, comprehensive and state-of-the-art account of the policy process. This volume belongs in the personal library of any student, scholar and practitioner who wants to master the essentials of public policy-making around the world. * Raymond Tatalovich, Loyola University Chicago, USA *The radically updated second edition of Public Policy engages with empirical developments, such as climate change, digitization and the questioning of the global international order, that have a path-changing significance for public policy. The authors successfully integrate theoretical, analytical and methodological advances in the book, which reflects that Jale Tosun and Christopher Knill are leading scholars in the field. I strongly recommend this book to scholars and educators of public policy and related fields. * Caroline de la Porte, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark *In this fresh edition of their Public Policy textbook, Knill and Tosun offer a comprehensive review of the theories that students must master if they want to make a difference in the policy world. This is the go-to resource book for all those who seek to formulate workable solutions to complex societal problems. * Arjen Boin, Leiden University, the Netherlands *Knill and Tosun’s Public Policy has proved to be an excellent text for introducing my students to fundamental ideas in public policy and policy making. It structures theoretical content in a clear and thoughtful way, and uses relevant real world examples to demonstrate the complexities of policy making across national and international contexts. * Alex Mankoo, University of Sussex, UK *Knill and Tosun have written a highly accessible and comprehensive textbook that not only discusses traditional policy theories but also highlights the importance of public-private governance and policy-making beyond the state. This text forms an excellent introduction for students and the new edition’s increased attention to climate change in particular makes this book even more indispensable than before. * Stefan Renckens, University of Toronto, Canada *Public Policy is a highly accessible book introducing public policy through examples drawn from all over the world. The authors survey and present a wide range of theoretical perspectives in a clear and concise fashion. It is a tremendous introduction to public policy and points the reader where to go next for detailed work on each topic. * Martin Hansen, Brunel University London, UK *Public Policy continues to provide an excellent foundation in key theories and debates regarding policy processes. This revised edition not only reflects development in the fields of academic debate but also political changes to provide an excellent introduction for new students. The revised conclusion provides useful practical guidance for students and practitioners alike. * Lee Gregory, University of Birmingham, UK *Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. The Nature of Public Policies 3. The Context for Policy Making: Central Institutions and Actors 4. Theoretical Approaches to Policy Making 5. Problem Definition and Agenda Setting 6. Decision-Making 7. Implementation 8. Evaluation 9. Governance: A Synoptic Perspective on Policy Making 10. Public Policies Beyond the Nation-State 11. Policy Change and Policy Convergence 12. Conclusions: Theoretical Insights and Practical Advice.

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Book SynopsisFrom acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory.Trade Review“Michael Harriot has done it. Written a book that evokes the full range of human emotions. Laughter. Rage. Sadness. Love (of Black resistance). Hate (of anti-Blackness). More laughter. Constant thinking and connecting and discovering. What an experience. But how can this book be anything less when it is Black AF History.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Award-winning author “This is history as it should be told: straight, no chaser; unvarnished and unembossed. Michael Harriot, the Samuel L. Jackson of the written word, strikes again, weaving fascinating facts, scathing humor and pieces of his own life story to detail the stony road we trod.” — Joy Reid, Host of The ReidOut on MSNBC “The story we've been told about America has always been redacted. With Black AF History, Michael Harriot removes the redacted parts and replaces them with griot-level storytelling. This is what everyone wishes their high school courses were actually like. Halfway through, you realize that this is not even a book about Black history, it's about how American history is Black AF.” — Pharrell Williams, Grammy Award-winning producer and musician “Michael Harriot tells the most shocking (not shocking) stories of Black History I've ever heard. Every story is unbelievable yet, unfortunately, completely believable. Black AF History should be taught in every school across America.” — Amber Ruffin, comedian and host of The Amber Ruffin Show “If I ever won an election for political office, I would have them swear me in on a copy of Black AF History. Michael Harriot is too funny to be this smart. Now, I have to go google how to ship a case of these to Ron DeSantis.” — W. Kamau Bell, Award-winning television host and stand-up comedian

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Book SynopsisEver since the Industrial Revolution energy has been a key driver of world politics. From the oil crises of the 1970s to today’s rapid expansion of renewable energy sources, every shift in global energy patterns has important repercussions for international relations. In this new book, Thijs Van de Graaf and Benjamin Sovacool uncover the intricate ways in which our energy systems have shaped global outcomes in four key areas of world politics: security, the economy, the environment and global justice. Moving beyond the narrow geopolitical focus that has dominated much of the discussion on global energy politics, they also deftly trace the connections between energy, environmental politics, and community activism.The authors argue that we are on the cusp of a global energy shift that promises to be no less transformative for the pursuit of wealth and power in world politics than the historical shifts from wood to coal and from coal to oil. This ongoing energy transformation will not only upend the global balance of power; it could also fundamentally transfer political authority away from the nation state, empowering citizens, regions and local communities. Global Energy Politics will be an essential resource for students of the social sciences grappling with the major energy issues of our times.Trade Review"In a complex and rapidly changing energy landscape, this comprehensive overview of the global politics of energy is particularly welcome. It skillfully connects the dots between energy markets, geopolitics, the environment, and local activism across a range of energy technologies and sectors. For anyone who wants to understand the complexities and depth of the global energy challenge, Global Energy Politics is essential reading." —Adnan Z. Amin, Director-General Emeritus of the International Renewable Energy Agency "An important contribution to thinking through the current energy era and the future transition." —Morgan Bazilian, Executive Director of the Payne Institute for Earth Resources and Research Professor of Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines "a well-informed, empirically rich systematic analysis of different parts of the energy sector that builds directly on the latest research." —Gavin Bridge, Durham University "Global Energy Politics is a comprehensive, well-researched, and valuable guide to the energy challenges of our time. Thijs Van de Graaf and Benjamin Sovacool deploy a variety of analytical perspectives: geopolitics, economics, sustainability, and justice, discussing promising technological innovations and the institutional and political challenges to decarbonization." —Robert O. Keohane, Princeton University "We are in the middle of a global energy transformation. Van De Graaf and Sovacool’s comprehensive text provides students with an essential guide to this changing global energy landscape." —Johannes Urpelainen, John Hopkins University "Keeping pace with the changing global energy landscape and its influence on political, economic and social issues has become exponentially more difficult in a world where unprecedented risks and technological advances are upending the norms of the last century. Global Energy Politics is a valuable resource for those seeking to understand and navigate the shifting relationships between energy markets, geopolitics, climate, equity, and emerging technologies at this critical energy crossroad." —Jason Bordoff, Columbia University "[Global Energy Politics] is very welcome… This book provides a wide-ranging panorama of global energy politics … and would be an excellent read for undergraduate and post-graduate students tackling the subject." —Asian Century Institute "The most important contribution of this book comes through employing systems thinking to deal with energy issues. Van De Graaf and Sovacool have opened up a technical and difficult topic to social scientists while at the same time broadening traditional IR approaches." —International Affairs "The book is well-researched, up to date, and it presents complex and interrelated energy topics in an easily accessible and impressively pedagogical way... Their multidisciplinary socio-technical approach offers a deeper understanding than could be attained through the lens of any single discipline in isolation." —International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics "An excellent survey and overview of various elements of global energy politics. The writing is clear and accessible, yet covers impressive ground and accommodates the infinite complexity of the subject at hand. This book serves as a comprehensive introductory text and will be a useful read to students of energy politics across a variety of disciplines, and particularly students attempting to find a point of entry into the rapidly growing subfield of energy geographies." —The American Association of Geographers (AAG) Review of Books "Sovacool and Van de Graaf bring us closer to the broader research agenda we need to map the different pathways of global transformation that may emerge from the transition…Their chapter on “energy justice”, which investigates the detrimental impacts of renewable energy supply chains on communities when social justice concerns are side-lined, is particularly welcome." —Michel J. Albert, AlternativesTable of ContentsForeword by Adnan Z. Amin 1. Introduction: Systems, frames, and transitions 2. The history and functioning of key energy markets Part I: World Politics Through an Energy Prism 3. Energy and security 4. Energy and the economy 5. Energy and the environment 6. Energy and justice Part II: Governing the Energy Transition 7. Energy technologies and innovation 8. National and regional energy policy 9. Global energy governance 10. Conclusions

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewOne of Zocalo's 10 Favorite Books of 2016 "Brennan has a bright, pugilistic style, and he takes a sportsman's pleasure in upsetting pieties and demolishing weak logic. Voting rights may happen to signify human dignity to us, he writes, but corpse-eating once signified respect for the dead among the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea. To him, our faith in the ennobling power of political debate is no more well grounded than the supposition that college fraternities build character."--Caleb Crain,New Yorker "A brash, well-argued diatribe against the democratic system. There is much to mull over in this brazen stab at the American electoral process... [I]n the current toxic partisan climate, Brennan's polemic is as worth weighing as any other."--Kirkus Reviews "A brash, well-argued diatribe against the democratic system. There is much to mull over in this brazen stab at the American electoral process... Sure to cause howls of disagreement, but in the current toxic partisan climate, Brennan's polemic is as worth weighing as any other."--Kirkus "Important."--Ilya Somin, Washington Post Volokh Conspiracy "Against Democracychallenges a basic precept that most people take for granted: the morality of democracy... Brennan presents a variety of strategies by which the quality of the electorate could be improved, while still keeping it large, and demographically representative... [A] powerful challenge to the conventional wisdom about democracy... [W]orth serious consideration."--Ilya Somin, Washington Post "Compelling... This is theory that skips, rather than plods."--Los Angeles Times "The book makes compelling reading for what is typically a dry area of discourse. This is theory that skips, rather than plods."--Molly Sauter, Los Angeles Times "Among the best works in political philosophy in recent memory."--Zachary Woodman, Students for Liberty "Challenging and insightful."--Alexander William Salter, Public Choice "Lucidly written in provocative, sometimes brash tones, it is especially useful for the undergraduate classroom."--Choice "Against Democracy seems scarily prescient today. Writing well before the twin shocks of the Brexit and the U.S. elections, the Georgetown political scientist makes a powerful case that popular democracy can be dangerous--and, provocatively, that irrational and incompetent voters should be excluded from democratic decision-making. The case for elitism in governance never read so well."--Zocalo Public Square "Meticulous [and] crisply written."--Tom Clark, Prospect "Mercilessly well-argued."--Niko Kolodny, Boston Review

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Book SynopsisDrawing on the rich resources of the ten-volume series of The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science, this one-volume distillation provides a comprehensive overview of all the main branches of contemporary political science: political theory; political institutions; political behavior; comparative politics; international relations; political economy; law and politics; public policy; contextual political analysis; and political methodology. Sixty-seven of the top political scientists worldwide survey recent developments in those fields and provide penetrating introductions to exciting new fields of study. Following in the footsteps of the New Handbook of Political Science edited by Robert Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann a decade before, this Oxford Handbook will become an indispensable guide to the scope and methods of political science as a whole. It will serve as the reference book of record for political scientists and for those following their workTrade ReviewReview from previous edition Robert Goodin has put together a superb volume: truly a collection of the very best from the already outstanding chapters in the original ten volumes. The authors -- the most prominent and authoritative experts from all over the world -- provide not only a comprehensive and systematic assessment of what political science has already accomplished but also a guide to where the discipline should be heading in the future. Political scientists in all fields will welcome this immensely valuable effort. * Arend Lijphart, Research Professor Emeritus of Political Science Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego *A concise and solid introduction to political science and its ten sub-disciplines. The assembly of scholars from leading US, European, and Australian universities and research centres provides the reader with diverse perspectives and awareness of current scholarship. Entries are heavily cited and provide a concise roadmap of key scholars, theories, and current developments within each area...Highly recommended * CHOICE *Anyone who wants to know the state of the art in political science and where the discipline is headed, but only consult one volume, need go no further than these authoritative essays by first rate contributors * Carole Pateman, Research Professor School of European Studies, Cardiff University *Table of ContentsPART 1 INTRODUCTION; PART II POLITICAL THEORY; PART III POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS; PART IV LAW & POLITICS; PART V POLITICAL BEHAVIOR; PART VI CONTEXTUAL POLITICAL ANALYSIS; PART VII COMPARATIVE POLITICS; PART VIII INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; PART IX POLITICAL ECONOMY; PART X PUBLIC POLICY; PART XI POLITICAL METHODOLOGY

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Book SynopsisInitially denounced as a collection of sinister maxims and a recommendation of tyranny, this text has more recently been defended as the first scientific treatment of politics, challenging the traditions of ancient and medieval thought and morality.

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Book SynopsisPolitical issues people care about such as racism, climate change, and democracy take on new urgency and meaning in the light of technological developments such as AI. How can we talk about the politics of AI while moving beyond mere warnings and easy accusations? This is the first accessible introduction to the political challenges related to AI. Using political philosophy as a unique lens through which to explore key debates in the area, the book shows how various political issues are already impacted by emerging AI technologies: from justice and discrimination to democracy and surveillance. Revealing the inherently political nature of technology, it offers a rich conceptual toolbox that can guide efforts to deal with the challenges raised by what turns out to be not only artificial intelligence but also artificial power. This timely and original book will appeal to students and scholars in philosophy of technology and political philosophy, as well as tech developers, innovation leaders, policy makers, and anyone interested in the impact of technology on society.​Trade Review“The disciplines of AI ethics and political philosophy focus on many of the same issues, but only rarely do we see the rich history of the latter discipline being used to make sense of the politics of AI. Coeckelbergh provides a welcome exception with this important book.”Henrik Skaug Sætra, Østfold University College “Artificial intelligence is fundamentally political, and this book illuminates why. It spans the debates about inequality, democracy, power, and posthumanism, and shows the importance of social and political theory to understanding AI.”Kate Crawford, author of Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence“Coeckelbergh[‘s] […] real focus is on showing a few thousand years’ worth of philosophical thought will not automatically become obsolete through feats of digital engineering.”Scott McLemee, Inside Higher EdTable of ContentsAcknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Freedom: Manipulation by AI and Robot Slavery3 Equality and Justice: Bias and Discrimination by AI4 Democracy: Echo Chambers and Machine Totalitarianism 5 Power: Surveillance and (Self-)disciplining by Data6 What about Non-Humans? Environmental Politics and Posthumanism 7 Conclusion: Political TechnologiesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisKeith Tribe’s new translation presents Economy and Society as it stood when Max Weber died. One of the world’s leading experts on Weber’s thought, Tribe has produced a clear and faithful translation that will become the definitive English edition of one of the few indisputably great intellectual works of the past 150 years.Trade ReviewMax Weber is out of style…It is about time for a reappraisal, and an excellent opportunity has been provided in the form of Keith Tribe’s new translation of Weber’s masterpiece. -- Nick Burns * New Criterion *A boon to first-time readers of Weber as well as specialist scholars. -- Joshua Derman * Journal of Modern History *Keith Tribe is one of the best Weberians around, and has been for decades. This excellent translation will make Max Weber’s work more readily available to a new generation of scholars. Weber’s major ideas never go stale, and Tribe’s translation will assure reliable access to them. -- Alan Sica, Pennsylvania State UniversityHarvard University Press could not have found a better translator than Keith Tribe for this project, and no Anglophone writer knows Weber better. Tribe has produced a fine translation that will help the non-specialist appreciate the greatness of Weber’s work. -- Peter Baehr, Lingnan University, Hong KongThe great Anglo-American tradition of Max Weber translation has never been more necessary than today, when English is the near-universal language of the academy and the German-language understanding of Weber has recently undergone a revolution. Keith Tribe brings us up to date with a new and appropriately revolutionary re-presentation of Max Weber’s final text of Economy and Society. In the 1960s Economy and Society was said to be the ABC of sociological theory; now we can see it is the Everest. -- Peter Ghosh, University of OxfordGenerations of sociologists have thought they really understood what Max Weber was really doing in writing Economy and Society. Historians have long known this is more mythology than reality. And Keith Tribe has been one of the leading figures in putting back into proper context the emergence of those bits of text we can be certain that Weber was most on top of before he died. Tribe’s introduction to this volume is exemplary, letting us see quite how original and still surprising the first several chapters of Weber’s approach to action, interpretation, meaning and the conceptual construction of the economy are. Furthermore, his new translation, with its greater fidelity to the original texts and clarity in its presentation of Weber’s emphatic and didactic intent, effectively gives English-language readers a completely new text, and thus a new Weber, to grapple with. -- Duncan Kelly, University of Cambridge

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Book SynopsisRethinking Political Thinkers explores a uniquely diverse set of political thinkers, from traditionally canonical theorists such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, and Mill, to marginalized women and thinkers of colour, such as hooks, Du Bois, Butler, Fanon, Firestone, Said, and Goldman. Placing traditional thinkers alongside and in conversation with neglected and unheard voices opens up important debates, and presents political thought in a new light. Each thinker is examined within the contexts of patriarchy, white supremacy, and imperialism, and the relations and structures of race, gender, and class which different theories have reflected, defended, or challenged. The text is organized thematically, rather than simply chronologically, in order to explore central ideas such as social contract theory and its critics, freedom and revolution, the liberal self and black consciousness, colonial domination, and the environment. In each chapter students are encouraged to thinTrade ReviewThis well-conceived and well-executed book offers accessible and thoughtful chapters on theorists (including Gandhi, C.L.R. James, DuBois and Fanon) and themes (including black consciousness and colonial domination) that do not usually find a place in political theory textbooks, and yet have been central to political thinking in modern times. It will be welcomed by teachers and students who want to avoid the seemingly incorrigible Eurocentrism of their discipline. * Sanjay Seth, Professor and Director of the Centre for Postcolonial Theory, Goldsmiths, and author of Beyond Reason: Postcolonial Theory and the Social Sciences (OUP 2020). *The book provides a refreshing overview of key political thinkers, bringing to the fore ideas and authors which have long been unjustly neglected in the discipline and thus offering a richer and more inclusive introduction to the defining questions and debates in political theory. * Dr Davide Schmid, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK *Rethinking Political Thinkers answers a long-felt need of students and faculty alike. Through obviously careful planning, Ramgotra and Choat have pulled together a superb resource to restructure political theory curricula so as to bring critical engagement with questions of race, gender, sexuality, and colonialism into university coursespositioning such questions as integral rather than supplemental to understanding the history, present, and future of political theory. Rethinking political Thinkers will very quickly become an essential text for undergraduate courses. * Dr Samantha Frost, Professor, University of Illinois, USA *This is the dream textbook we have been looking for. It offers a way to rethink the teaching of political theory that does not abandon the canon, but instead expands and interrogates it, situating the thinkers within contemporary concerns. * Dr David Moon, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Bath, UK *An excellent volume which can be used to widen the curriculum of political theory to include more diverse authors and cover important subjects such as colonialism, imperialism, slavery, non-Western philosophy, feminism and poststructuralism critiques. Accessible for students, and a clear resource for lecturers keen to vary their teaching, it is a welcome addition to the field. * Dr Charles Devellennes, Senior Lecturer in Political and Social Thought, University of Kent, UK *This is a ground-breaking introduction to political thought. It offers an indispensable tool for students and teachers and shows how political theory can be taught in a way that respects diversity and shows the radical potential of political thought. * Dr Alasia Nuti, Senior Lecturer, University of York, UK *This timely volume highlights positive possibilities for the future of political theory and philosophy. By refocusing our attentions on many of those intellectual voices who have usually held them the least, the volume's chapters refuse-in theme and method- to narrowly conform to the accepted modes of the discipline. Indeed, the volume excels in making clear that, should it wish to, political theory and philosophy are eminently capable of allowing for innovations in thought and method drawn from as full an epistemic range as the historical and contemporary world offers. As the editors emphasise, the benefit will be to the discipline and, also, to the intellectual understandings of our societies. Certainly, this volume will inspire new and diverse entrants into political thought- who will, as a result, be unafraid to break and cultivate ever more original ground. * Dr Eniola Anuoluwapo Soyemi, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK *Table of ContentsI. Boundaries of the Political 1: Simon Choat and Manjeet Ramgotra: Introduction 2: Patrizia Longo: Plato, Socrates and Sojourner Truth 3: Manjeet Ramgotra: Aristotle and bell hooks 4: Deepshikha Shahi: Kautilya II. Social Contract Theory and its Critics 5: Signy Gutnick-Allen: Thomas Hobbes 6: Caroline Williams: Baruch de Spinoza 7: Hagar Kotef: John Locke 8: Allauren Forbes: Mary Astell 9: Peter Hallward: Jean-Jacques Rousseau 10: Terrell Carver: Carole Pateman and Charles Mills III. Liberal Modernity and Colonial Domination 11: Manjeet Ramgotra: Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu 12: Inder S. Marwah: John Stuart Mill 13: Simon Choat: Karl Marx 14: Willow Verkerk: Friedrich Nietzsche 15: Ayesha Omar: Sayyid Qutb 16: Edward W. Said, Rahul Rao IV. Freedom and Revolution 17: Alan Coffee: Catharine Macaulay and Edmund Burke 18: Robbie Shilliam: C. L. R. James 19: Kei Hiruta: Hannah Arendt 20: Viren Murthy: Zhang Taiyan V. Inclusion and Equality 21: Ashley Dodsworth: Mary Wollstonecraft 22: Neus Torbisco-Casals: Iris Marion Young 23: Varun Uberoi: Bhikhu Parekh 24: Nikita Dhawan: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak VI. Violence, Power, and Resistance 25: Yves Winter: Niccolo Machiavelli 26: Ruth Kinna: Emma Goldman 27: James Casas Klausen: Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi 28: Keally McBride: Frantz Fanon VII. The Liberal Self and Black Consciousness 29: Stella Sandford: Immanuel Kant 30: Kiara Gilbert and Karen Salt: Frederick Douglass 31: Elvira Basevich: W. E. B. Dubois 32: Maeve McKeown: John Rawls VIII. Sex and Sexuality 33: Paul Patton: Michel Foucault 34: Victoria Margree: Shulamith Firestone 35: Manjeet Ramgotra: Angela Davis 36: Clare Woodford: Judith Butler IX. The Environment, Human, and Non-Human 37: Eva-Maria Nag: Dipesh Chakrabarty 38: Claire Colebrook: Donna Haraway 39: Esme G. Murdock: Indigenous ecologies

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Book SynopsisWhen you see your nation’s flag fluttering in the breeze, what do you feel?For thousands of years flags have represented our hopes and dreams. We wave them. Burn them. March under their colours. And still, in the 21st century, we die for them. Flags fly at the UN, on the Arab street, from front porches in Texas. They represent the politics of high power as well as the politics of the mob.From the renewed sense of nationalism in China, to troubled identities in Europe and the USA, to the terrifying rise of Islamic State, the world is a confusing place right now and we need to understand the symbols, old and new, that people are rallying round.In nine chapters (covering the USA, UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, international flags and flags of terror), Tim Marshall draws on more than twenty-five years of global reporting experience to reveal the histories, the power and the politics of the symbols that unite us – and divide us.Trade Review"Full of sharp analysis and a very entertaining read" --Andrew Neil; "A fascinating tour of the world's ensigns, their histories and meanings ... a sobering lesson in just how silly we human beings can be" --Daily Mail; "Timely ... explores how the threads of history and legend are woven into the fabric of a country's banner" - Times Literary Supplement; "This might be the comprehensive flag volume we've all been waiting for - a slick yet detailed and well-researched journey through some of the world's most infamous and interesting flags ... Marshall guides us through this myriad of stories admirably" - Geographical magazine; "Insightful and entertaining ... a truly fascinating book that feels all the more considered and urgent in today's world of Brexit, Trump, China and ISIS"--Dan Lewis, Wanderlust magazine; "Marshall points out that we often forget the aggressive symbolism of established flags ... [they] are a quick, visual way of communicating loyalties, power and ideas"--Robbie Millen, The Times; "An engagingly written, veritable page-turner. Whether the topic is ethnic identity, Japanese imperialism, Panamanian shipping law or the defeat of Nazism, flags speak volumes about our human condition" -- Lawrence Joffe, Jewish Chronicle; "In today's globalised and media savvy environment, the role of state and non-state symbols has become more important and in many cases more dangerous and evocative. This witty book brings to our attention this power, alongside the reality that we must not underestimate or misunderstand how the flags of our world came to be. A must read for anyone wishing to grasp the meanings behind today's international affairs." --Human Security CentreTable of ContentsCONTENTS; Introduction 1; 1 The Stars and the Stripes 9; 2 The Union and the Jack 33; 3 The Cross and the Crusades 57; 4 Colours of Arabia 95; 5 Flags of Fear 121; 6 East of Eden 143; 7 Flags of Freedom 173; 8 Flags of Revolution 195; 9 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 223; Bibliography 253; Acknowledgements 258; Index 259

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Book Synopsis'Presentist democracy is without a people and without nation. Rather than regimes of borders and migration, its borders are sexism and racism, homo- and transphobia, colonialism and extractivism.'In the midst of the crises and threats to liberal democracy, Isabell Lorey develops a democracy in the present tense; one which breaks open political certainties and linear concepts of progress and growth. Her queer feminist political theory formulates a fundamental critique of masculinist concepts of the people, representation, institutions, and the multitude. In doing so, she unfolds an original concept of a presentist democracy based on care and interrelatedness, on the irreducibility of responsibilities-one which cannot be conceived of without social movements' past struggles and current practices.Trade ReviewThis book is an assembly - a collection of voices from Germany and Spain, Italy, England, France and every country - a colourful and strong intersection of proposals in search for a (transnational and non-identitarian) democracy of the multitude and of difference, of truth and the joy of life. -- Antonio Negri, co-author of EmpireWeaving and unweaving the political philosophy of Rousseau, Derrida, Benjamin, Foucault and Negri, Isabell Lorey assembles a constellation of debates around keywords: democracy, time, sovereignty, commune. She does so in order to systematize the discontinuous struggles that inhabit these words, the possible futures that their meanings open up, and to place them at the disposal of a queer-feminist theory that locates the strike as one of its inspirational practices. Thus an "infinitive present" opens up as a time of becoming, defined by the encounter of bodies, which expands the present through processes of indeterminate differentiation. By highlighting the non-democratic foundations of democracy one by one, the definition of a "Presentist Democracy" emerges. This is woven out of care and debt: collective care and the debts of assuming relations of interdependence. This book is a tool for continuing to nourish the desire to change everything -- Verónica GagoWith great clarity and precision, Isabell Lorey offers a series of readings of major political thinkers to delineate the mobile constellation of democratic potentials in our time. Revisiting basic concepts such as the people, the law, and sovereignty, Lorey derives an account of democracy in the present. Less a utopian manifesto than an experimentation with the means and time of politics, this work shows us in persuasive terms how enduring and persistent experimentation constitutes our present struggle. -- Judith ButlerIn careful and imaginative consideration of the brutal tensions of a liberal democratic ideal poised between imminent collapse and infinite adaptability, Isabell Lorey conceives an alternative in the present tense, broadening and deepening the now with fierce urgency. Democracy in the Political Present is feminist political theory of and for our time. -- Fred MotenInsightfully weaving together the best of European political philosophy (from Rousseau to Negri, from Benjamin to Foucault), queer-feminist thinking about care and debt, and the practices of radical democracy that occupy the streets and the squares in recurring waves, Isabell Lorey convokes a democracy in present tense that is up to the challenges of these turbulent times. Not to be missed. -- Marta Malo, member of Precarias a la derivaEngaging ... [Lorey] offers an elaborate sketch of a form of political organisation that has hitherto been neglected as well as a scathing critique of the representationalist paradigm that needs to be taken into account whenever inclusion is spoken of too frivolously. -- Julius Schwarzwälder * LSE Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Democracy in present tense Ch 1 Rousseau: Assembly instead of representation Ch 2 Derrida: Democracy-to-come Ch 3 Benjamin: Leaps of Now-Time Ch 4 Foucault: infinite presence Ch 5 Negri: Democracy and constituting power Ch 6 Presentist Democracy: Practices of care and queer debts

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Book SynopsisIn this poignant and personal tribute, Roger Scruton gives an account of England which is both an illuminating analysis of its institutions and culture, and a celebration of its virtues.Covering all aspects of the English inheritance, and informed by a unique philosophical vision, England: An Elegy shows that England has a distinct personality and endows its residents with a distinct moral ideal.Trade ReviewElegant and moving - a classic elegy. -- Melvyn Bragg * Independent *Lovers of England and the English will find themselves reading this long farewell with constant exclamations of agreement and flashes of new understanding...The most powerful and touching parts of it are snatches of Scruton's own autobiography. -- Peter Hitchens * Express on Sunday *Table of ContentsPreface What on Earth was England? First Glimpses English Character Community as Person The English Religion The English Law English Society English Government English Culture English Countryside Epilogue: The Forbidding of England Acknowledgements Index

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Book SynopsisSince its introduction in 2009, Bitcoin has been widely promoted as a digital currency that will revolutionize everything from online commerce to the nation-state. Yet supporters of Bitcoin and its blockchain technology subscribe to a form of cyberlibertarianism that depends to a surprising extent on far-right political thought. The Politics of Bitcoin exposes how much of the economic and political thought on which this cryptocurrency is based emerges from ideas that travel the gamut, from Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek, and Ludwig von Mises to Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists.Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.Trade Review"Golumbia, in his small but important way, is helping wake us to the falsity of our perceived neutrality."—One Flew East"This book is a very readable and valuable monograph which combines sound historical research with insightful analysis. All concerned citizens should read this book, which is an essential resource for understanding the true stakes of current technological hyperbole."—Newsclick"Golumbia a le mérite de s’attaquer à des idées qui ne sont pas suffisamment remises en question dans les communautés de la cryptomonnaie et des technologies de chaînes concertées. J’en recommande fortement la lecture à quiconque s’interroge sur les impacts de ces technologies sur nos sociétés."—D’un bloc à l’autre

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"It is wonderful to have David Lowenthal's splendid translation of Montesquieu's Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline back in print. This neglected masterpiece deserves attention from all who are concerned with self-government--whether their focus is on history or on its prospects in our own time." --Paul A. Rahe, University of Tulsa

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Book SynopsisTransformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality. This book is a study of leadership and considers the seminal work in the field of leadership studies. It offers an introduction on 'transformational leadership'.Trade Review“A landmark historian.” — Jon Meacham, Newsweek “One of the most influential leadership authorities, James MacGregor Burns advanced the concept of ‘transformational leadership,’ whereby leaders have the ability and obligation to share an overarching vision with their followers.” — Boston Globe “Leadership remains a classic in the field. Burns has spent a lifetime studying presidential leadership.” — Margaret Warner, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer “Leadership had a major impact. ... Burns’s definition of leadership continues to dominate the field. ” — Harvard Business Review “Touches on every aspect of politics that is pertinent to leadership . . . Burns distinguishes true leadership from mere power-holding and domination . . . Valuable . . . Offers suggestions for fostering true leadership.” — New York Times Book Review “James MacGregor Burns’s seminal book on power” — New York Times “Pulitzer prize-winner James MacGregor Burns introduced the concept of transformational leadership in his book Leadership. For him, it characterized the great leaders of history.” — Management Today

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Book SynopsisWith a new foreword by Paul Kelly 'I regard Hayek's work as a new opening of the most fundamental debate in the field of political philosophy' â Sir Karl Popper 'This promises to be the crowning work of a scholar who has devoted a lifetime to thinking about society and its values. The entire work must surely amount to an immense contribution to social and legal philosophy' - Philosophical Studies Law, Legislation and Liberty is Hayek's major statement of political philosophy and one of the most ambitious yet subtle defences of a free market society ever written. A robust defence of individual liberty, it is also crucial for understanding Hayekâs influential views concerning the role of the state: far from being an innocent bystander, he argues that the state has an important role to play in defending the norms and practices of an ordered and free society. His arguments had a profound iTable of ContentsForeword to the Routledge Classics Edition Consolidated Preface Introduction Volume I Rules and Order 1.Reason and Evolution 2. Cosmos and Taxis 3. Principles and Expediency 4. The Changing Concept of Law 5. Nomos: The Law of Liberty 6. Thesis: The Law of Legislation Notes Volume 2 The Mirage of Social Justice 7. General Welfare and Particular Purposes 8. The Quest for Justice 9. 'Social’ or Distributive Justice 10. The Market Order or Catallaxy 11. The Discipline of Abstract Rules and the Emotions of the Tribal Society Notes Volume 3 The Political Order of a Free People 12. Majority Opinion and Contemporary Democracy 13. The Division of Democratic Powers 14. The Public Sector and the Private Sector 15. Government Policy and the Market 16. The Miscarriage of the Democratic Ideal: A Recapitualation 17. A Model Constitution 18. The Containment of Power and the Dethronement of Politics Epilogue: The Three Sources of Human Values Notes Index of Authors cited in Volumes 1-3 Subject index to Volumes 1-3

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Book SynopsisA TIMES POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEARA LONGMAN/HISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEARThe award-winning history of the British Welfare State now fully revised and updated for the 21st Century.A masterpiece' Sunday TimesGiant Want. Giant Disease. Giant Ignorance. Giant Squalor. Giant Idleness.These were the Five Giants that loomed over the post-war reconstruction of Britain. The battle against them was fought by five gargantuan programmes that made up the core of the Welfare State: social security, health, education, housing and a policy of full employment.This book brilliantly captures the high hopes of the period in which the Welfare State was created and the cranky zeal of its inventor, William Beveridge, telling the story of how his vision inspired an entire country. The pages of this modern classic hum with the energies and passions of activists, dreamers and ordinary Britons, and seethe with personal vendettas, forced compromises, awkward contradictions, and the noisy rows of the succeeding seventy years. The Five Giants is a testament to a concept of government that is intertwined with so many of our personal histories, and a stark reminder of what we might stand to lose.Trade Review‘Why make a book that was first published in 1995 one of the political books of the year? Because this third edition of the classic history of the welfare state adds 16 years to the previous account. Anyone who hasn’t read Five Giants will want to start at the beginning, particularly for the excellent account of the founding of the NHS. But those with previous editions will find, for instance, the explanation of how the Lansley health reforms went wrong riveting’ Danny Finkelstein, The Times ‘For years now, old copies of The Five Giants have been changing hands in Westminster for dizzying sums – and for a simple reason. Other books just offer fragments of the story of British government, only this gives you the full picture. I lend my copy to new recruits at The Spectator not as history but as a guide to what they will encounter – and how the same problems keep surfacing again and again. The facts and the figures, the jokes and one-liners, the power and the personality – The Five Giants has it all. It's possible to understand modern Britain without reading this book, but it's just a lot harder (and a lot less fun)’ Fraser Nelson, Spectator ‘Nicholas Timmins has done something extraordinary: he has made a masterpiece of contemporary history even better. Updated, extended and more relevant than ever, this book is quite simply indispensable’ Matthew d'Ancona ‘A tour de force – thoroughly researched and vividly written’ Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisWe think that we live in democracies: in fact, we live in mediarchies. Our political regimes are based less on nations or citizens than on audiences shaped by the media. We assume that our social and political destinies are shaped by the will of the people without realizing that ‘the people’ are always produced, both as individuals and as aggregates, by the media: we are all embedded in mediated publics, ‘intra-structured’ by the apparatuses of communication that govern our interactions. In this major book, Yves Citton maps out the new regime of experience, media and power that he designates by the term ‘mediarchy’. To understand mediarchy, we need to look both at the effects that the media have on us and also at the new forms of being and experience that they induce in us. We can never entirely escape from the effects of the mediarchies that operate through us but by becoming more aware of their conditioning, we can develop the new forms of political analysis and practice which are essential if we are to rise to the unprecedented challenges of our time. This comprehensive and far-reaching book will be essential reading for students and scholars in media and communications, politics and sociology, and it will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the multiple and complex ways that the media – from newspapers and TV to social media and the internet – shape our social, political and personal lives today.Trade Review‘Mediarchy is a magnificent work of synthesis that brings together many different approaches to media. Citton boldly puts the analysis of media at the centre of social thought and shows just how many of the things we observe about our times fall into place through this perspective.’McKenzie Wark, New School for Social Research ‘Grounded and creative, this book proposes a timely synthesis of recent media theory. Citton questions the “transcontinental divide” that has informed Media Studies from its onset and in the process manages to breathe new life into some of the most fundamental questions facing media critics today. Mediarchy is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the complex, multitiered operationality of media in our modern world.’Mark Hansen, Duke University"a rich and thought-provoking book"European Journal of CommunicationTable of ContentsContents Prelude: Democracy or mediarchy? PART ONE: MEDIA Chapter One: Naming mediarchy Interlude One: Heterarchy Chapter Two: Approaching mediarchy Interlude Two: Informational pharmacology Chapter Three: Unfolding mediarchy Interlude Three: Affective meteorologies Chapter Four: Equipping mediarchy PART TWO: MASS MEDIA Chapter Five: Massifying mediarchy Interlude: Populisms Chapter Six: Systematizing mediarchy Interlude Five: Media powers Chapter Seven: Decolonizing mediarchy PART THREE: MEDIUM Chapter Eight: Archaeologizing mediarchy Interlude: Accelerationisms Chapter Nine: Stratifying mediarchy The politics of low frequencies Chapter Ten: Magnetizing mediarchy Interlude: Formative milieus Chapter Eleven: Zombifying mediarchy PART FOUR: META-MEDIA Chapter Twelve: Digitizing mediarchy Interlude: Data commons Chapter Thirteen: Inhabiting mediarchy Interlude: Mediarchic metamorphoses Chapter Fourteen: Surprising mediarchy Postlude: Medianarchism? List of illustrations Notes

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Book SynopsisAn investigation of Jewish identity politics and contemporary Jewish ideology using both popular culture and scholarly texts. Jewish identity is tied up with some of the most difficult and contentious issues of today. The purpose in this book is to open up many of these issues for discussion. Since Israel defines itself as the Jewish State, we should ask what the notions of Judaism, Jewishness, Jewish culture and Jewish ideology stand for. Gilad examines the tribal aspects embedded in Jewish secular discourse, both Zionist and anti Zionist; the holocaust religion; the meaning of history and time within the Jewish political discourse; the anti-Gentile ideologies entangled within different forms of secular Jewish political discourse and even within the Jewish left. He questions what it is that leads Diaspora Jews to identify themselves with Israel and affiliate with its politics. The devastating state of our world affairs raises an immediate demand for a conceptual shift in our intellectual and philosophical attitude towards politics, identity politics and history.Trade ReviewIt is a scholarly and truly monumental work, deeply profound and, of course, controversial. (Alan Hart, British Journalist and covert diplomat in Middle East, ITN's News at 10, BBC's Panorama) A seriously funny writer and the wittiest musician since Ronnie Scott. We're lucky Gilad Atzmon is around. (Robert Wyatt, musician and founding member of Soft Machine)

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