Politics and government Books

Book SynopsisIn 1987, Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind was published; a wildly popular book that drew attention to the shift in American culture away from the tenants that made America—and Americans—unique. Bloom focused on a breakdown in the American curriculum, but many sensed that the issue affected more than education. The very essence of what it meant to be an American was disappearing. That was over twenty years ago. Since then, the United States has experienced unprecedented wealth, more youth enrolling in higher education than ever before, and technology advancements far beyond what many in the 1980s dreamed possible. And yet, the state of the American mind seems to have deteriorated further. Benjamin Franklin’s “self-made man” has become a man dependent on the state. Independence has turned into self-absorption. Liberty has been curtailed in the defense of multiculturalism. In order to fully grasp the underpinnings of this shift away from the self-reliant, well-informed American, editors Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow have brought together a group of cultural and educational experts to discuss the root causes of the decline of the American mind. The writers of these fifteen original essays include E. D. Hirsch, Nicholas Eberstadt, and Dennis Prager, as well as Daniel Dreisbach, Gerald Graff, Richard Arum, Robert Whitaker, David T. Z. Mindich, Maggie Jackson, Jean Twenge, Jonathan Kay, Ilya Somin, Steve Wasserman, Greg Lukianoff, and R. R. Reno. Their essays are compiled into three main categories: States of Mind: Indicators of Intellectual and Cognitive Decline These essays broach specific mental deficiencies among the population, including lagging cultural IQ, low Biblical literacy, poor writing skills, and over-medication. Personal and Cognitive Habits/Interests These essays turn to specific mental behaviors and interests, including avoidance of the news, short attention spans, narcissism, and conspiracy obsessions. National Consequences These essays examine broader trends affecting populations and institutions, including rates of entitlement claims, voting habits, and a low-performing higher education system. The State of the American Mind is both an assessment of our current state as well as a warning, foretelling what we may yet become. For anyone interested in the intellectual fate of America, The State of the American Mind offers an accessible and critical look at life in America and how our collective mind is faring. Trade Review“Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow have edited a superb collection of essays on different aspects of American culture and life that extends, deepens, and updates Hofstadter’s critique of the naïve and feckless naturalism of John Dewey that now pervades and eviscerates our culture.” —M. D. Aeschliman, National Review Online“In their new book titled The State of the American Mind, Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow, through a compendium of essays written by experts, have outlined using empirical detail and ironclad analysis what exactly has happened to the American mind and what the “new anti-intellectualism” has done to put it in such a pitiful state. What does this deconstruction of thought look like at a systematic level? The State of the American Mind, by providing a prismatic analysis of the dereliction of education, psychiatry and public discourse, gives the reader a roadmap to destruction and a trail of breadcrumbs back. . . . . The State of the American Mind, while far from being light enough to read on an airplane or at the beach, is a 2015 summertime must-read for any conservative who finds him or herself at odds with the state of public discourse in the United States. . . . . While we may be intellectually lazy, clouded, unmotivated and driven by unbridled emotion devoid of right reason, Bellow and Bauerlein provide thin spaces of light and hope. From start to finish, the carefully curated selection of experts keeps the reader engaged, informed and constantly stimulated. Finally, and most hopefully, among the flotsam and jetsam of a discarded intellectual tradition, one can discern what steps need to be taken to save us from destruction by our own hand…or perhaps by our own mindset.” —Nate Madden, Conservative Review “This anthology will be a distressing but worthwhile read for those who believe traditional American values are endangered and must be preserved.” —Daniel Dreisbach, Publisher's Weekly “The State of the American Mind, is a ‘must read,’ especially the chapter written by the political economist and Wall Street Journal columnist, Nicholas Eberstadt." —The Motley Monk“Enhanced with the inclusion of an engaging Foreword (America: Are We Losing Our Mind?); an informative Introduction (The Knowledge Requirement: What Every American Needs to Know); and a concluding Afterword by the editorial team of Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow, The State of the American Mind: 16 Leading Critics on the New Anti-Intellectualism is an inherently fascinating read that is exceptionally well organized and presented throughout. Very highly recommended.” —Willis M. Buhle, Midwest Book ReviewTable of ContentsForeword—America: Are We Losing Our Mind? Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow / vii Introduction—The Knowledge Requirement: What Every American Needs to Know E. D. Hirsch Jr. / 1 Part One—States of Mind: Indicators of Intellectual and Cognitive Decline 1 The Troubling Trend of Cultural IQ / 19 Mark Bauerlein 2 Biblical Literacy Matters / 33 Daniel L. Dreisbach 3 Why Johnny and Joanie Can’t Write, Revisited / 49 Gerald Graff 4 College Graduates: Satisfied, but Adrift / 65 Richard Arum 5 Anatomy of an Epidemic / 77 Robert Whitaker Part Two—Personal and Cognitive Habits/Interests 6 A Wired Nation Tunes Out the News / 97 David T. Z. Mindich 7 Catching Our Eye: The Alluring Fallacy of Knowing at a Glance / 111 Maggie Jackson 8 The Rise of the Self and the Decline of Intellectual and Civic Interest / 123 Jean M. Twenge 9 Has Internet-Fueled Conspiracy-Mongering Crested? / 137 Jonathan Kay Part Three—National Consequences 10 Dependency in America: American Exceptionalism and the Entitlement State / 153 Nicholas Eberstadt 11 Political Ignorance in America / 163 Ilya Somin 12 In Defense of Difficulty: How the Decline of the Ideal of Seriousness Has Dulled Democracy in the Name of a Phony Populism ‘ 175 Steve Wasserman 13 We Live in the Age of Feelings / 189 Dennis Prager 14 How Colleges Create the “Expectation of Confirmation” / 205 Greg Lukianoff 15 The New Antinomian Attitude / 217 R. R. Reno Afterword Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow / 231 Contributors / 243 Index / 247

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Book SynopsisOn September 20, 1988, Lauro Cavazos became the first Hispanic in the history of the United States to be appointed to the Cabinet, when then - vice president George H. W. Bush swore him in as secretary of education. Cavazos, born on the legendary King Ranch in South Texas and educated in a two-room ranch schoolhouse, served until December 1990, after which he returned to his career in medical education and academic administration.In this engaging memoir, he recounts not only his years in Washington but also the childhood influences and life experiences that informed his policies in office. Offering glimpses into life on the famous ranch, Cavazos tells of Christmas parties, cattle work, and schooling.Cavazos describes the high educational expectations his parents held. After service in World War II, Cavazos went to college and earned a doctorate from Iowa State University, launching his career in medical education.Cavazos' career is as interesting as it is inspiring. His memoir joins the ranks of emerging success stories by Mexican Americans that will provide models for aspiring young people today.

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of how an official French visual culture normalized France's colonial project and exposed citizens and subjects to racialized ideas of life in the empire. By the end of World War I, having fortified its colonial holdings in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, the Indian Ocean, and Asia, France had expanded its dominion to the four corners of the earth. This volume examines how an official French visual culture normalized the country's colonial project and exposed citizens and subjects alike to racialized ideas of life in the empire. Essays analyze aspects of colonialism through investigations into the art, popular literature, material culture, film, and exhibitions that represented, celebrated, or were created for France's colonies across the seas. These studies draw from the rich documents and media--photographs, albums, postcards, maps, posters, advertisements, and children's games--related to the nineteenth- and twentieth-century French empire that are held in the Getty Research Institute's Association Connaissance de l'histoire de l'Afrique contemporaine (ACHAC) collections. ACHAC is a consortium of scholars and researchers devoted to exploring and promoting discussions of race, iconography, and the colonial and postcolonial periods of Africa and Europe.Trade Review"Visualizing Empire delves deeply into colonial image making and the difficult issues of conquest, race, media, and cultural stereotyping through a peerless collection of visual artifacts of colonial imagery. The authors frame these works within a multidisciplinary context that at once deepens, broadens, and enhances our knowledge of French colonialism and how it worked both in the metropole and in the complex geographical and cultural worlds in which the French were engaged. Through a close examination of these forms—architecture, mapping, dress, caricature, zoos, fairs, games, advertising, and localized sites of encounter, Visualizing Empire provides us a seat at the table to experience up close the ever expanding thirst of empire that shaped the modern world."—Suzanne Preston Blier, Allen Whitehill Professor of Fine Arts and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University;;“Visualizing Empire introduces a stunning archive, now at the Getty Research Institute, that will be a powerful addition to the study of art and visual culture of early twentieth-century French colonialism. Utilizing a diversity of artifacts—from toys to maps—the authors demonstrate the centrality of material culture in the Republic's imperial ambitions to build consensus at home and to justify its racial, political, and economic dominance in the countries that comprised its colonies. This groundbreaking anthology enacts the importance of rigorous collaborative scholarship as itself a subversive corrective to a past that continues to haunt the present.”—Kishwar Rizvi, Professor in the History of Art, Islamic Art and Architecture, Yale University

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Book SynopsisFormer Ohio governor Richard Celeste's remarkable journey from humble beginnings in northeast Ohio to Yale, Oxford, Washington DC, India, the governor's residence, and beyond"Dick, remember this admonition: to whom much is given, much is expected." As the eldest child in his Italian American family, Richard F. Celeste frequently heard his maternal grandmother repeat this aphorism. His paternal grandmother's advice was, "Bresta your cards." This divergent advice reverberated within him for years to come, informing Celeste's approach to what has become a life of serving others.In the Heart of it All recounts Celeste's childhood in Lakewood, Ohio, where his politically ambitious father eventually served as mayor. Awarded a scholarship to attend Yale University, Celeste studied history and later became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford; while living overseas, he met and quickly married his first wife, Dagmar Braun. Upon returning from Oxford, Celeste expected to begin a teaching career but was recruited to serve as a liaison for Peace Corps volunteers in Latin America, and the young couple relocated to Washington, DC, where they became friendly with Chet and Steb Bowles. When President Kennedy appointed Chet Bowles US ambassador to India, he invited Dick to work as his personal assistant. There, under Bowles's tutelage, Dick began to consider a political career of his own.Celeste returned to Ohio and successfully ran for the Ohio House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1970. After serving two terms, he was elected lieutenant governor in 1974 but lost the 1978 governor's race by a slim margin. Celeste worked in DC as director of the Peace Corps while plotting his next move, and in 1982, his gubernatorial campaign resulted in a landslide victory. He served two terms as Ohio's governor, tackling an epic savings and loan crisis along with mental health reform and job creation.Celeste describes candidly why he considered and dismissed a presidential campaign in 1988. He went on to serve as ambassador to India under President Clinton, traveling there with his second wife, Jacqueline Lundquist, and bringing his career full circle. Shortly after that position ended, Celeste became president of Colorado College, serving from 2002 to 2011.In each position, Celeste has used his grandmothers' wisdom to guide his decision making, putting the needs of his various constituents—Ohio citizens, Peace Corps volunteers, diplomatic colleagues, and college students—above his ego and popularity ratings, and, as he poignantly reflects, sometimes even before his family. In the Heart of It All offers a remarkably frank and expansive account of Celeste's personal and professional life, including his disappointing defeats and thrilling victories.Trade Review"Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "In the Heart of It All: An Unvarnished Account of My Life in Public Service" will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in political biographies and memoirs …. [and] will prove a welcome and highly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library American Biography & Memoir collections." —Midwest Book Review

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Book SynopsisA governor embraces patriotism over partisanship in a crucial Union stateBefore his election to the state's executive office in 1862, David Tod was widely regarded as Ohio's most popular Democrat. Tod rose to prominence in the old Western Reserve, rejecting the political influence of his well-known father, a former associate justice of Ohio's Supreme Court, a previous member of the Federalist Party, and a new, devoted Whig. As a fierce Democratic Party lion, the younger Tod thrilled followers with his fearless political attacks on Whig adversaries and was considered an unlikely figure in the battle to keep the Union intact.However, the Civil War and the serious consequences of its potential outcome came to outweigh his loyalty to the Democratic Party. Placing the restoration of the Union above all else, Tod eagerly shed his partisan identity to take up the Union cause. As governor, he quickly pledged Ohio's support to the nation's leader, President Abraham Lincoln. Tod rallied Ohioans to support the war and equipped scores of physicians and nurses with medical supplies to tend to Ohio's wounded soldiers. He also had to protect the state's borders from invasion by developing defenses at home.Despite his patriotic service, partisan politics and political intrigue denied Tod a second term. The Political Transformation of David Tod chronicles Tod's unwavering support for the Union and describes the importance of one man's loyalty to country over partisanship.Trade Review"This engagingly written book is a marvelous addition to the political history of the Civil War. By bringing Ohio's governor David Tod out of obscurity, Lambert showcases Tod's ability to rise to the challenge of putting the Union above party to restore the nation, and he places Tod's inspired leadership and the nation-state alliance at the forefront of the war's tumultuous years of 1862 and 1863."—Stephen D. Engle, author of Gathering to Save a Nation: Lincoln and the Union's War Governors"Modern political biographies of Civil War leaders beyond the national and presidential level have been neglected for too long. Joseph Lambert Jr. provides us a study of one of Ohio's war governors, taking us into the experience of politics during the rebellion at the state level with this insightful look at David Tod, a 'War Democrat' whose tenure reflected the deep divisions and political realities of the war years in the Union heartland."—A. James Fuller, University of Indianapolis, author of Oliver P. Morton and the Politics of the Civil War and Reconstruction "Lambert's detailed and concise biography of David Tod provides a long-overdue study of Ohio's most notable Civil War governor. A lifelong Democrat, Tod became a Lincoln ally, and his leadership during the turbulent years of 1862 and 1863 ensured the Buckeye State would be a steadfast supporter of the Union cause."—Thomas Crowl, author of Opdycke's Tigers in the Civil War: A History of the 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

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Book SynopsisOn July 15, 2016, a faction of the Turkish military attempted to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Turkish government blamed the unsuccessful coup attempt on Gülenists, adherents of an Islamist movement led by Fethullah Gülen. They had helped elect Erdoğan and his AK Party, with the goal of bringing an ostensibly “soft” version of Islam into the secular Turkish government. In alliance with the AK Party, Gülenists steadfastly increased their representation in various government institutions, including the military, the police, and the judiciary. This volume focuses on the historical and sociopolitical contexts of the Gülen Movement’s origins and political ascendancy along with its possible role in the failed coup. Editors Yavuz and Balcı are among the first international scholars to have studied the movement from its nascent stages in Turkey. The volume's contributors include scholars who have researched the movement in Turkey, Central Asia, and the Balkans. The result is a comprehensive, timely assessment of numerous dimensions of Gülenist activities, including its social and political networks and the institutions that supported the movement as it became a major economic and educational force in Turkey and elsewhere. This volume reflects exchanges among scholars who having studied the Gülenists, assembled to discuss how and why the movement became belligerent opponents of Erdoğan’s government, and it addresses questions such as how this major, still continuing disruption in Turkey’s politics will affect not only the future of the movement but also that of Turkey's embattled democracy as well.Trade Review“Turkey’s July 15th Coup is the one indispensable book addressing the still mystifying attempted coup of 2016, including clearly identifying the perpetrators and depicting the dramatic causes and effects in an illuminating, balanced, informed, and judicious manner. Turkey these days is so often distorted by polarized scholarship that the objectivity exhibited by the contributors to this volume is especially welcome and valuable, lending authority to their various interpretations.” —Richard A. Falk, author of Power Shift: On the New Global Order “Here, all in one volume, is the best analysis of the failed coup that has shaken Turkey and transformed the political system. This is the most comprehensive and rigorous study of the clash between the Gulen movement and the AK Party. Yavuz and Balci, who spent two decades in dissecting both the GÜlen movement and Turkish politics, provide a very convincing and in depth interdisciplinary study of the background of the crisis. Absolutely indispensable to understand the present turn of Turkish politics.” —Olivier Roy, Professor, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute “A comprehensive text that critically examines the social genealogy of the GÜlen Movement and its structure and evolution over time and space. Witten by leading specialists on the movement, the book fills an important gap in the literature and provides lessons and warnings about the use and abuse of the sacred in the public sphere.” —Fawaz A. Gerges, Author of ISIS: A History (Princeton University Press, 2017) “A monumentally important work, the first comprehensive treatment in English to unveil the role of Fethullah GÜlen in the orchestration of the attempted coup of July 15th 2016. This well-researched and original book, written by the top scholars in the field, is required reading for anyone seeking to understand the rise of the GÜlenist movement in Turkey.” —Dr. Edward J. Erickson, Scholar-in-Residence, State University of New York at Cortland “Two seasoned scholars brilliantly brought together the selected experts in this first academic book analyzing the role of the GÜlen Movement in the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. It will be good reading not only for students of politics and sociology but also for the politicians who are willing to learn lessons from history.” —Tamer Balcı, associate professor of history, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley “An incisive, well-written study that not only will be the definitive account of the attempted Gulenist coup, but also a heuristic interpretation of its important ramifications for the future of US-Turkish relations and the Turkish government. … This book constitutes a valuable study for government practitioners, academic scholars and the attentive lay public.”—Middle East Policy

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Book SynopsisNew Politics in the Old South is the first scholarly biography of Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings, a key figure in South Carolina and national political developments in the second half of the twentieth century. Throughout his career Hollings was renowned for his willingness to voice unpleasant truths, as when he called for the peaceful acceptance of racial desegregation at Clemson University in 1963 and acknowledged the existence of widespread poverty and malnutrition in South Carolina in 1969. David T. Ballantyne uses Hollings’s career as a lens for examining the upheaval in southern politics and society after World War II.Hollings’s political career began in 1948, when he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. He served as governor from 1959 to 1963 and then as a U.S. senator from 1966 until he retired in 2005. Ballantyne illuminates Hollings’s role in forging a “southern strategy” that helped move southern Democrats away from openly endorsing white supremacy and toward acknowledging the interests of racial minorities, though this approach was halting and reluctant at times. Unlike many southern politicians who emerged as reactionary figures during the civil rights era, Hollings adapted to the changing racial politics of the 1960s while pursuing a clear course—Vietnam War hawk, fiscal conservative, regional economic booster, and free-trade opponent.While Hollings was at times an atypical southern senator, his behavior in the 1960s and 1970s served as a model for survival as a southern Democrat. His approach to voting rights, military spending, and social and cultural issues was mirrored by many southern Democrats between the 1970s and 1990s. Hollings’s career demonstrated an alternative to hard-edged political conservatism, one that was conspicuously successful throughout his Senate tenure.

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Book SynopsisThe collected speeches of Dartmouth's sixteenth president

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Book SynopsisFirst revised edition of interviews with 14 prominent activists whose writings influenced the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution and help us understand present-day Nicaragua Margaret Randall presents a dynamic collection of personal interviews with Nicaragua's most important writer-revolutionaries who played major roles in the 1979 revolution and the subsequent reconstruction. This revised first edition includes a new preface and additional notes that frame the narrative in high relevance to the present day. The featured writer-activists speak of their work and practical tasks in constructing a new society. Among the writers included are Gioconda Belli, Tomás Borge, Omar Cabezas, Ernesto Cardenal, Vidaluz Menéses, Julio Valle-Castillo, and Daisy Zamora. The work also features 50 evocative photographs from the era by Margaret Randall.Trade ReviewThis is a book that encourages and empowers those of us who are poets, those of us who write – and those of us who work to change society to fit the hopes and dreams of the common people. -- Alice WalkerThis new collection of fourteen interviews with Nicaraguan writers is a fascinating testament to basic human possibilities despite the harshly political determinations we have forced upon them. Once again it is Margaret Randall’s unique power as a listener that can make a bridge to this complex place we must finally recognize as our common world. -- Robert CreeleyThe wonder of some of these interviews – I’m thinking of Giocanda Belli and Vidaluz Meneses particularly – the truthfulness as they tell their lives as women and literary workers in a revolutionary time … the happiness, the toll, the sacrifice that’s part of the process. And most interesting to an American woman and writer – the pride of being heard, your next poem waited for – your trade “poet” respected and emulated by the young. -- Grace Paley‘We’re all poor and we’re all poets here,’ said one of the leaders of the Revolution that’s making a nation out of a colony. In Nicaragua, a country under constant attack, a country searching for itself, there isn’t a word worthy of being spoken or written if it hasn’t first been celebrated and suffered. These interviews by Margaret Randall bear witness to that literature standing on its own two feet.” -- Eduardo Galeano

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Book SynopsisFirst revised edition of interviews with 14 prominent activists whose writings influenced the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution and help us understand present-day Nicaragua Margaret Randall presents a dynamic collection of personal interviews with Nicaragua's most important writer-revolutionaries who played major roles in the 1979 revolution and the subsequent reconstruction. This revised first edition includes a new preface and additional notes that frame the narrative in high relevance to the present day. The featured writer-activists speak of their work and practical tasks in constructing a new society. Among the writers included are Gioconda Belli, Tomás Borge, Omar Cabezas, Ernesto Cardenal, Vidaluz Menéses, Julio Valle-Castillo, and Daisy Zamora. The work also features 50 evocative photographs from the era by Margaret Randall.Trade Review"This is a book that encourages and empowers those of us who are poets, those of us who write – and those of us who work to change society to fit the hopes and dreams of the common people." -- Alice Walker"This new collection of fourteen interviews with Nicaraguan writers is a fascinating testament to basic human possibilities despite the harshly political determinations we have forced upon them. Once again it is Margaret Randall’s unique power as a listener that can make a bridge to this complex place we must finally recognize as our common world." -- Robert Creeley"The wonder of some of these interviews – I’m thinking of Giocanda Belli and Vidaluz Meneses particularly – the truthfulness as they tell their lives as women and literary workers in a revolutionary time … the happiness, the toll, the sacrifice that’s part of the process. And most interesting to an American woman and writer – the pride of being heard, your next poem waited for – your trade “poet” respected and emulated by the young." -- Grace Paley"‘We’re all poor and we’re all poets here,’ said one of the leaders of the Revolution that’s making a nation out of a colony. In Nicaragua, a country under constant attack, a country searching for itself, there isn’t a word worthy of being spoken or written if it hasn’t first been celebrated and suffered. These interviews by Margaret Randall bear witness to that literature standing on its own two feet.”" -- Eduardo Galeano

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Book SynopsisTennyson S. D. Joseph builds upon current research on the anticolonial and nationalist experience in the Caribbean. He explores the impact of global transformation upon the independent experience of St. Lucia and argues that the island's formal decolonization roughly coincided with the period of the rise of global neoliberalism hegemony. Consequently, the concept of ""limited sovereignty"" became the defining feature of St. Lucia's understanding of the possibilities of independence. Central to the analysis is the tension between the role of the state as a facilitator of domestic aspirations on one hand and a facilitator of global capital on the other. Joseph examines six critical phases in the St. Lucian experience. The first is 1940 to 1970, when the early nationalist movement gradually occupied state power within a framework of limited self-government. The second period is 1970 to 1982 during which formal independence was attained and an attempt at socialist-oriented radical nationalism was pursued by the St. Lucia Labor Party. The third distinctive period was the period of neoliberal hegemony, 1982-1990. The fourth period (1990-1997) witnessed a heightened process of neoliberal adjustment in global trade which destroyed the banana industry and transformed the domestic political economy. A later period (1997-2006) involved the SLP's return to political power, resulting in tensions between an earlier radicalism and a new and contradictory accommodation to global neoliberalism. The final period (2006-2010) coincides with the onset of a crisis in global neoliberalism during which a series of domestic conflicts reflected the contradictions of the dominant understanding of sovereignty in narrow, materialist terms at the expense of its wider antisystematic, progressive, and emancipator connotations.

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Book SynopsisPatrick Chamoiseau: A Critical Introduction examines the career, oeuvre, and literary theories of one of the most important Caribbean writers living today. Chamoiseau's work sheds light on the dynamic processes of creolization that have shaped Caribbean history and culture. He is the recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the prestigious Prix Goncourt for the epic novel Texaco. The author's diverse body of work, which includes plays, novels, fictionalized memoirs, treatises, and other genres of writing, offers a compelling vision of the postcolonial world from a francophone Caribbean perspective.An important addition to Caribbean literary studies, Patrick Chamoiseau is an indispensable work for scholars interested in francophone, Caribbean, and world literatures as well as cultural studies. Scholars and students with interests in creolization, neocolonialism, and globalization will find this work particularly valuable.Patrick Chamoiseau brings the writer's major works of fiction into dialogue with lesser-known texts, including unpublished theatrical works, screenplays, visual texts, and treatises. This holistic, comprehensive, and largely chronological study of Chamoiseau's oeuvre includes analyses of various authorial strategies, especially the use of narrative masques, cross-cultural storytelling techniques, and creolizing poetics.

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Book SynopsisThe legendary Davy Crockett arose simultaneously with the emergence of the historical Crockett as a public figure, and once established, the man and the myth were forevermore entangled. The present work, his Life and Adventures (1833), ushered in a series of biographical and autobiographical books that thrust Crockett fully onto the national and international scene. This work, quickly retitled Sketches and Eccentricities, was the most outlandish. Its purported author, J. S. French, mixed two nineteenth-century genres of storytelling - the Humor of the Old Southwest and the sketch - all presented within a historical framework to create an early version of the King of the Wild Frontier. The Crockett encountered here is the marksman who can shoot an elk from 140 yards with his beloved rifle, Betsy, grin the bark off a tree knot, and choose bows and arrows as weapons when challenged to a duel by a fellow congressman. Within a year, Crockett disavowed this book, preferring his autobiography - Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, of the State of Tennessee - but this rollicking story, often bouncing along from tall tale, hunting anecdote, faux moral tale, to humorous pratfall, became a major source for the later biographical writings and a later cultural industry that swept up newspapers, books, political propaganda, plays, and films - and almost every way in which a frontier figure could appear in popular culture. And, while Crockett's image was a source of entertainment and humor, it also pointed toward something far more serious: after his death at the Alamo it presented Americans with a fictional Frontier hero who progressively embodied their views on topics as varied as manliness, manifest destiny, and even white supremacy. However, the Crockett of Sketches - canny, adaptable, intelligent but not educated, hilarious - was above all a perfect reflection of the aspirations, interests, and beliefs of Jacksonian-era Americans.

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Book SynopsisOn October 10, 2002, Congressman John J. Duncan Jr. cast a vote in the U.S. House that he thought might end his political career. Going against his own party, he was one of only six House Republicans who voted against the Iraq War resolution. Constituents in his district were shocked, but over time Duncan felt his least popular vote became his most popular one—and probably the most significant in his thirty-year political career.Congressman Duncan served as U.S. Representative for Tennessee’s Second Congressional district from 1988 to 2019. While he could have written a dense political memoir, in From Batboy to Congressman, Duncan employs a journalistic flair to provide just the right insight into a series of anecdotes from his storied life. Duncan’s family, early life, and time as a lawyer and judge all figure into the generous narrative, shared with both warmth and a self-deprecating sense of humor. He details unique experiences meeting celebrities, presidents, and sports stars; and, of course, he shares insights into the decisions that charted his Congressional career on issues such as Iraq, NAFTA, and concern for fiscal responsibility. Over his decades-long career, Duncan was known for his commitment to constituent service—even among constituents who disagreed with his views—so he offers a refreshing perspective on bipartisanship and connections across the aisle; indeed, he names conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike among his closest friends.While this book contains timely reflections on issues of war and poverty, of leadership and the lack of it, of the proper relationship between citizens and government, its intention is to highlight moments in a singular career. “As you will read in this book,” writes Congressman Duncan, “every job gave me strange, funny, unusual stories.”

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Book SynopsisCelia Sandys goes ‘in grandfather’s footsteps’ to retrace young Winston Churchill’s adventures during nine months of the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa – where Churchill served as war correspondent, combatant (at Spion Kop and Ladysmith), prisoner-of-war and escapee. Celia Sandys has uncovered a hitherto neglected part of Churchill’s life using many previously untapped sources and giving many hitherto unknown facts and anecdotes. In 1899, within two weeks of his arrival in South Africa to cover the Boer War as a journalist for London’s Morning Post, the twenty-four-year-old Churchill was taken prisoner when his train was ambushed by a Boer patrol. Churchill first enabled most of his companions to escape to safety before he himself was captured and taken to Pretoria, his daring escape prompting a massive manhunt. Evading recapture by taking refuge in a coalmine, then hiding in a goods wagon, his exploits propelled him overnight on to the international stage. One hundred years after these events Celia Sandys followed in her grandfather’s footsteps, visiting campsites, battlefields, the site of his incarceration in Pretoria, and the route of his escape, uncovering a host of fascinating details about this tumultuous period in his early life. Churchill Wanted Dead or Alive is both a thrilling adventure story and a unique insight into the life of a young man who went on to become one of his country’s greatest leaders.

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Book SynopsisAll Eyes Are Upon Us explores the history of racial struggles in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York from World War II to the present. The Northeast has long basked in its reputation as the home of abolitionism and a refuge for blacks fleeing the Jim Crow South. But its cities have also stood as strongholds of segregation and racism. At times, this region witnessed bold experiments in interracial democracy: the schools of Springfield, Massachusetts, attempted to abolish racial and religious prejudice; white fans in Brooklyn embraced Jackie Robinson; voters repeatedly supported black candidates, including Senator Edward Brooke in Massachusetts and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm in Brooklyn. Yet during these same moments, an opposing narrative unfolded— one highlighted by worsening black poverty, hardening patterns of segregation, and exploding incidents of racial violence. All Eyes Are Upon Us probes the conflict between these two warring traditions.Trade Review“This groundbreaking history shows a civil rights movement beyond Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis. An important new voice in twentieth- century history, Sokol expands the civil rights story to include segregated schools and racial politics in the northeast.”— Daily Beast“Carefully balancing an appreciation of the symbolism of interracial politics with recognition of the forces that remain untouched by it, All Eyes Are Upon Us reminds us— if we need reminding— that the events unfolding in Ferguson, Mo., Staten island, and too many other communities are embedded in a complex and problematic history of both racial advances and obstacles to progress.” — Washington Post“All Eyes Are Upon Us is a prescient book. . . . Ambitious, engrossing, analytically lucid. . . . it is certainly possible that when this decade ends it will have confirmed the relevance of W. E. B. Du Bois’s grim prophecy about America’s everlasting racism. Jason Sokol’s exceptional All Eyes Are Upon Us prepares us for just such a possibility.” — David Levering Lewis, New York Times Book Review

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Book SynopsisWidely known as the “poor man’s lawyer” in antebellum Boston, John Albion Andrew (1818–1867) was involved in nearly every cause and case that advanced social and racial justice in Boston in the years preceding the Civil War. Inspired by the legacies of John Quincy Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and mentored by Charles Sumner, Andrew devoted himself to the battle for equality. By day, he fought to protect those condemned to the death penalty, women seeking divorce, and fugitives ensnared by the Fugitive Slave Law. By night, he coordinated logistics and funding for the Underground Railroad as it ferried enslaved African Americans northward. In this revealing and accessible biography, Stephen D. Engle traces Andrew’s life and legacy, giving this important, but largely forgotten, figure his due. Rising to national prominence during the Civil War years as the governor of Massachusetts, Andrew raised the African American regiment known as the Glorious 54th and rallied thousands of soldiers to the Union cause. Upon his sudden death in 1867, a correspondent for Harper’s Weekly wrote, “Not since the news came of Abraham Lincoln’s death were so many hearts truly smitten.”Trade ReviewStephen D. Engle reintroduces us to one of the nineteenth century’s leading political reformers, abolitionists, and citizens. John Andrew deserves to be more widely known, and this book is the kind of biography he deserves. Through the story Andrew’s life, Engle illuminates the contentious and exhilarating era in which Andrew played such a pivotal role." - Robert Allison, author of The American Revolution: A Very Short Introduction"In an engagingly written book, Stephen Engle traces Andrew’s trajectory from young idealistic student and abolitionist lawyer to his career as Lincoln’s most effective ally among the Civil War governors. A first-class biography, Engle’s book is also a comprehensive history of the one of the most consequential governorships in American history. It will be read by many; it will be essential reading for those working in the political history of the Civil War." - John L. Brooke, author of “There Is a North”: Fugitive Slaves, Political Crisis, and Cultural Transformation in the Coming of the Civil WarTable of Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Windham Origins: 1818–1833 Chapter 2: The Bowdoin College Years: 1834–1837 Chapter 3: The Poor Man’s Lawyer: 1837–1845 Chapter 4: The Emerging Politician: 1846–1849 Chapter 5: On the Right Side of God: 1850–1854 Chapter 6: The Republican Tide: 1855–1856 Chapter 7: The Radical Champion: 1857–1858 Chapter 8: Republican Star Rising: 1858–1859 Chapter 9: The Governorship: 1860 Chapter 10: Man for the Hour: January–April 1861 Chapter 11: “A Grand Era Has Dawned”: April–May 1861 Chapter 12: Communities at War: June–September 1861 Chapter 13: The Politics of Command: October–November 1861 Chapter 14: The Lord Is Marching On: November 1861–January 1862 Chapter 15: The Changing War: January–July 1862 Chapter 16: Emancipation: July–November 1862 Chapter 17: Slaves No More: December 1862–May 1863 Chapter 18: Opening Eyes of North and South: May–December 1863 Chapter 19: The Promise of a New Year: January–June 1864 Chapter 20: This Justice: July–December 1864 Chapter 21: Thirteenth Amendment: January–June 1865 Chapter 22: Last Months in the Statehouse: July–December 1865 Chapter 23: Working for the Ages: January–April 1866 Chapter 24: Postwar Yankee: May 1866–May 1867 Epilogue Children Will Call You Blessed: April 1866–October 1897 Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWidely known as the “poor man’s lawyer” in antebellum Boston, John Albion Andrew (1818–1867) was involved in nearly every cause and case that advanced social and racial justice in Boston in the years preceding the Civil War. Inspired by the legacies of John Quincy Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and mentored by Charles Sumner, Andrew devoted himself to the battle for equality. By day, he fought to protect those condemned to the death penalty, women seeking divorce, and fugitives ensnared by the Fugitive Slave Law. By night, he coordinated logistics and funding for the Underground Railroad as it ferried enslaved African Americans northward. In this revealing and accessible biography, Stephen D. Engle traces Andrew’s life and legacy, giving this important, but largely forgotten, figure his due. Rising to national prominence during the Civil War years as the governor of Massachusetts, Andrew raised the African American regiment known as the Glorious 54th and rallied thousands of soldiers to the Union cause. Upon his sudden death in 1867, a correspondent for Harper’s Weekly wrote, “Not since the news came of Abraham Lincoln’s death were so many hearts truly smitten.Trade ReviewStephen D. Engle reintroduces us to one of the nineteenth century’s leading political reformers, abolitionists, and citizens. John Andrew deserves to be more widely known, and this book is the kind of biography he deserves. Through the story Andrew’s life, Engle illuminates the contentious and exhilarating era in which Andrew played such a pivotal role." - Robert Allison, author of The American Revolution: A Very Short Introduction"In an engagingly written book, Stephen Engle traces Andrew’s trajectory from young idealistic student and abolitionist lawyer to his career as Lincoln’s most effective ally among the Civil War governors. A first-class biography, Engle’s book is also a comprehensive history of the one of the most consequential governorships in American history. It will be read by many; it will be essential reading for those working in the political history of the Civil War." - John L. Brooke, author of “There Is a North”: Fugitive Slaves, Political Crisis, and Cultural Transformation in the Coming of the Civil War

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Book SynopsisIn the 1960s, professors, students, and activists on the political Left viewed college curricula as useful sites for political transformation. They coordinated efforts to alter general education requirements at the college level to foster change in American thought, with greater openness toward people who had previously been excluded, including women, people of color, the poor and working classes, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ community. Their work reshaped American culture and politics, while prompting a significant backlash from conservatives attempting to, in their view, protect classical education from modern encroachment. Elizabeth M. Kalbfleisch details how American universities became a battleground for identity politics from the 1960s through the 1980s. Focusing on two case studies at Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin, Making the Radical University examines how curricular changes led to polarizing discussions nationwide around academic standards and identity politics, including the so-called canon wars. Today, these debates have only become more politically charged, complex, and barbed.Trade ReviewThis origin story of identity politics illustrates how 1960s-era student activism led to the canon wars of the 1980s and illuminates their lingering effects on higher education and contemporary culture today. Kalbfleisch’s careful archival research and clear, crisp writing style make this book a valuable resource for the field." - Jerusha O. Conner, author of The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on College Campuses

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Book SynopsisHailed as one of Boston’s most beloved mayors and its longest serving, Thomas Menino (1942–2014) deftly managed the city’s finances and transformed Boston into the hub of innovation that it is today. During his time in office, Boston embraced modern industrial growth and moved forward with noteworthy developments that altered neighborhoods, while also facing ongoing racial strife, challenges of unaffordable housing, and significant public union negotiations. Mayors in modern American cities occupy unique positions as government leaders who need to remain active parts of their communities in addition to being tasked with fixing neighborhood issues, managing crises, and keeping schools and public infrastructure on course. Situating news coverage alongside interviews with the mayor and his administration, political scientist Wilbur C. Rich chronicles Menino’s time in office while also considering his personal and professional background, his larger-than-life personality, and his ambitions. Menino’s approach to these challenges and opportunities offers enduring lessons to anyone interested in urban government and political leadership.Trade ReviewWith this exceptional scholarship, Rich builds upon his decades of work on American mayors to place Tom Menino’s tenure in context. Rich provides the reader with a deep understanding of Boston’s urban history and how it shaped the political landscape Menino encountered during his five remarkable terms as mayor of one of our most interesting cities." - Stefanie Chambers, author of Mayors and Schools: Minority Voices and Democratic Tensions in Urban EducationTable of Contents List of Illustrations Preface Introduction Contextuality and Boston Uniqueness Chapter 1: On Becoming a Boston Politician Chapter 2: Winning Every Four Years Chapter 3: Menino, City Councilors, Policies, and the Media Chapter 4: Boston’s Day-to-Day and Recurrent Politics Chapter 5: Who Gets Housing, When, and Where? Chapter 6: Crime in the Streets and Elsewhere Chapter 7: Boston’s Racial Diversity Challenge Chapter 8: The Failure of Boston Public School Reform Chapter 9: Moguls and Students in Higher Education Conclusion Drawing Lessons from the Menino Tenure Notes Index

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Book SynopsisHailed as one of Boston’s most beloved mayors and its longest serving, Thomas Menino (1942–2014) deftly managed the city’s finances and transformed Boston into the hub of innovation that it is today. During his time in office, Boston embraced modern industrial growth and moved forward with noteworthy developments that altered neighborhoods, while also facing ongoing racial strife, challenges of unaffordable housing, and significant public union negotiations. Mayors in modern American cities occupy unique positions as government leaders who need to remain active parts of their communities in addition to being tasked with fixing neighborhood issues, managing crises, and keeping schools and public infrastructure on course. Situating news coverage alongside interviews with the mayor and his administration, political scientist Wilbur C. Rich chronicles Menino’s time in office while also considering his personal and professional background, his larger-than-life personality, and his ambitions. Menino’s approach to these challenges and opportunities offers enduring lessons to anyone interested in urban government and political leadership.Trade ReviewWith this exceptional scholarship, Rich builds upon his decades of work on American mayors to place Tom Menino’s tenure in context. Rich provides the reader with a deep understanding of Boston’s urban history and how it shaped the political landscape Menino encountered during his five remarkable terms as mayor of one of our most interesting cities." - Stefanie Chambers, author of Mayors and Schools: Minority Voices and Democratic Tensions in Urban Education

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Book SynopsisThomas Jefferson is still presented today as an enigmatic figure, despite being written about more than any other Founding Father. Lauded as the most articulate voice of American freedom, even as he held people in bondage, Jefferson is variably described as a hypocrite, an atheist and a simple-minded proponent of limited government. Now, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and leading Jefferson scholar team up to present an absorbing and revealing character study that finally clarifies the philosophy of Jefferson. The authors explore what they call the "empire" of Jefferson’s imagination—his expansive state of mind born of the intellectual influences and life experiences that led him into public life as a modern avatar of the enlightenment, who often likened himself to an ancient figure—"the most blessed of the patriarchs".Trade Review"They neither indict nor absolve Jefferson; instead, they aim to make sense of his contradictions for modern sensibilities...A fascinating addition to the Jefferson canon." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Gordon-Reed and Onuf, both highly reputable Jefferson scholars, strive to understand Jefferson's outlooks over his long life...Gordon-Reed and Onuf's keen and fresh approach to Jefferson and his ideas will engage history buffs." -- Booklist (starred review) "With characteristic insight and intellectual rigor, Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter Onuf have produced a powerful and lasting portrait of the mind of Thomas Jefferson. This is an essential and brilliant book by two of the nation's foremost scholars-a book that will, like its protagonist, endure." -- Jon Meacham, author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power "A peerless team, Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter Onuf pierce the mysteries of Jefferson's character and at last offer a compelling explanation of how the republican statesman and plantation patriarch could coexist in a single soul. Jefferson's flaw was not hypocrisy but conviction, his unswerving belief in paternalism as empowering and beneficent." -- Danielle Allen, author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality "This inspired collaboration takes us as close as we're likely to get to the way Thomas Jefferson understood himself and his times. Not content with cliches about a man who made his world anew, Gordon-Reed and Onuf show us the world that made the man... Here is Jefferson as he might have painted his own image, a self-portrait comprised of equal parts sun and shadow." -- Jane Kamensky, author of Copley: A Life in Color

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Book SynopsisAs epitomized in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, women in politics may hit a “glass ceiling” or in the case of former U.K. Prime Minister, Theresa May in 2019, go over a “glass cliff”. Even though women are starting to experience more success gaining offices at state and local levels, women’s participation in the political arena is still disproportionately low. This book explores current research findings, development practices, theory, and the lived experience to deliver provocative thinking that enhances leadership knowledge and improves leadership development of women around the world.Table of Contents Foreword, Judith S. White. Preface PART I: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY FRAMEWORKS. “History isno longer just a chronicle of kings and statesmen, of people who wielded power, but of ordinary women and men engaged inmanifold tasks. Women’s history is an assertion that women have a history.”—Toshiko Kishida, Japanese feminist 1862–1901. Transformational Aspects of Political Leadership, Janet McNellis and Linda Haskins. Barriers and Solutions to Increasing the Participation of Women in Political Decision Making: A Transatlantic Comparison, Lora Berg, Brenda Choresi Carter, CorinnaHörst, Matilda Flemming, Danielle Najjar, and Shubhangi Shukla. Women and Power: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture, Karina Gil and Taniko King-Jordan. The Significance of Health Promotions and Work-Life Balance for Women in Politics, Robin Geiger and Linda Haskins. PART II: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES OF WOMEN POLITICAL LEADERS. “The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”—Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia. Women and Political Leadership in Africa, Nancy Annan. Participation of Women In Politics and Leadership in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects, Mike Ushe. Women and Political Leadership in Mali and Niger, Hassana Alidou and Aminata Maiga. The Pathway to Political Leadership: Experiences of Women in Uganda, Joshua Mugambwa, Bernadette Sibetya Naggayi, and Bridget Namubiru. Women With Disabilities and Political Parties in Southern Africa, Tafadzwa Rugoho, Christine Peta, and France Maphosa. Australian Indigenous Women and Political Leadership, Michelle Deshong and Michelle Evans. Women in Politics in Europe: From Good Intentions to Sustainable Change, Claudia de Castro Caldeirinha and Tania Latici. Media Discourses of Women in Politics in Canada, 2011–2017: The Ecstasy and the Agony, Wendy Cukier, Ruby Latif, and Charity-Ann Hannan. PART III: PERSONAL IS POLITICAL—EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN POLITICAL LEADERS. “Whatever title or office we may be privileged to hold, it is what we do that defines who we are … Each of us must decide what kind of person we want to be—what kind of legacy that we want to pass on.”—Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan. Utah Legislature: Sacrifice, Serendipity, and Service, Rebecca Chavez-Houck. Maryland State Senate: The Oath and the Office, Mary Beth Carozza. Women Mayors in U.S. Cities: Leading Authentically and Ethically, Iris DeLoach Johnson, Melissa Hawthorne, Michael Chikeleze, Melissa Johnsey Seaman, and Emmanuel Clottey. A Mayor’s Tool Box: Berne’s Ego System,Karpman’s Drama Triangle, and Assertiveness Training, Kay Barnes. This Little Piggie Went to Washington: An Analysis ofJoni Ernst’s 2014 Campaign and the Gendered Electoral Process, Kristian Spencer and Joan L. Conners. Angela Merkel: Leadership Hausfrau-Style, Matt Qvortrup. About the Authors.

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Book SynopsisAs epitomized in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, women in politics may hit a “glass ceiling” or in the case of former U.K. Prime Minister, Theresa May in 2019, go over a “glass cliff”. Even though women are starting to experience more success gaining offices at state and local levels, women’s participation in the political arena is still disproportionately low. This book explores current research findings, development practices, theory, and the lived experience to deliver provocative thinking that enhances leadership knowledge and improves leadership development of women around the world.Table of Contents Foreword, Judith S. White. Preface PART I: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY FRAMEWORKS. “History isno longer just a chronicle of kings and statesmen, of people who wielded power, but of ordinary women and men engaged inmanifold tasks. Women’s history is an assertion that women have a history.”—Toshiko Kishida, Japanese feminist 1862–1901. Transformational Aspects of Political Leadership, Janet McNellis and Linda Haskins. Barriers and Solutions to Increasing the Participation of Women in Political Decision Making: A Transatlantic Comparison, Lora Berg, Brenda Choresi Carter, CorinnaHörst, Matilda Flemming, Danielle Najjar, and Shubhangi Shukla. Women and Power: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture, Karina Gil and Taniko King-Jordan. The Significance of Health Promotions and Work-Life Balance for Women in Politics, Robin Geiger and Linda Haskins. PART II: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES OF WOMEN POLITICAL LEADERS. “The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”—Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia. Women and Political Leadership in Africa, Nancy Annan. Participation of Women In Politics and Leadership in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects, Mike Ushe. Women and Political Leadership in Mali and Niger, Hassana Alidou and Aminata Maiga. The Pathway to Political Leadership: Experiences of Women in Uganda, Joshua Mugambwa, Bernadette Sibetya Naggayi, and Bridget Namubiru. Women With Disabilities and Political Parties in Southern Africa, Tafadzwa Rugoho, Christine Peta, and France Maphosa. Australian Indigenous Women and Political Leadership, Michelle Deshong and Michelle Evans. Women in Politics in Europe: From Good Intentions to Sustainable Change, Claudia de Castro Caldeirinha and Tania Latici. Media Discourses of Women in Politics in Canada, 2011–2017: The Ecstasy and the Agony, Wendy Cukier, Ruby Latif, and Charity-Ann Hannan. PART III: PERSONAL IS POLITICAL—EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN POLITICAL LEADERS. “Whatever title or office we may be privileged to hold, it is what we do that defines who we are … Each of us must decide what kind of person we want to be—what kind of legacy that we want to pass on.”—Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan. Utah Legislature: Sacrifice, Serendipity, and Service, Rebecca Chavez-Houck. Maryland State Senate: The Oath and the Office, Mary Beth Carozza. Women Mayors in U.S. Cities: Leading Authentically and Ethically, Iris DeLoach Johnson, Melissa Hawthorne, Michael Chikeleze, Melissa Johnsey Seaman, and Emmanuel Clottey. A Mayor’s Tool Box: Berne’s Ego System,Karpman’s Drama Triangle, and Assertiveness Training, Kay Barnes. This Little Piggie Went to Washington: An Analysis ofJoni Ernst’s 2014 Campaign and the Gendered Electoral Process, Kristian Spencer and Joan L. Conners. Angela Merkel: Leadership Hausfrau-Style, Matt Qvortrup. About the Authors.

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking rhetorical framework for the study of transnational digital activismWhat does it mean when we call a movement "global"? How can we engage with digital activism without being "slacktivists"? In Activist Literacies, Jennifer Nish responds to these questions and a larger problem in contemporary public discourse: many discussions and analyses of digital and transnational activism rely on inaccurate language and inadequate frameworks. Drawing on transnational feminist theory and rhetorical analysis, Nish formulates a robust set of tools for nuanced engagement with activist rhetorics.Nish applies her literacies of positionality, orientation, and circulation to case studies that highlight grassroots activism, well-resourced nonprofits, and a decentralized social media challenge; in so doing, she illustrates the complex power dynamics at work in each scenario and demonstrates how activist literacies can be used to understand and engage with efforts to contribute to social change. Written in an accessible, engaging style, Activist Literacies invites scholars, students, and activists to read activist rhetoric that engages with "global" concerns and circulates transnationally via social media.

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking rhetorical framework for the study of transnational digital activismWhat does it mean when we call a movement "global"? How can we engage with digital activism without being "slacktivists"? In Activist Literacies, Jennifer Nish responds to these questions and a larger problem in contemporary public discourse: many discussions and analyses of digital and transnational activism rely on inaccurate language and inadequate frameworks. Drawing on transnational feminist theory and rhetorical analysis, Nish formulates a robust set of tools for nuanced engagement with activist rhetorics.Nish applies her literacies of positionality, orientation, and circulation to case studies that highlight grassroots activism, well-resourced nonprofits, and a decentralized social media challenge; in so doing, she illustrates the complex power dynamics at work in each scenario and demonstrates how activist literacies can be used to understand and engage with efforts to contribute to social change. Written in an accessible, engaging style, Activist Literacies invites scholars, students, and activists to read activist rhetoric that engages with "global" concerns and circulates transnationally via social media.

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Book SynopsisIn 2013, the journalist Julie Burchill wrote a mischievous newspaper column defending a friend against political extremists. She was pursued by an outraged mob, denounced in Parliament and never published in that paper - or any other - for many years. Welcome To The Woke Trials is part-memoir and part-indictment of what happened to her between then and now, as the regiments of woke took over; an irreverent and entertaining analysis of the key elements of a continuing and disturbing phenomenon. Raised in a communist household and a lifelong Labour voter, Burchill also makes the case for a progressive future politics, a time when we see ourselves as a common humanity with similar hopes and visions - rather than a childish world of villains and victims.

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Book SynopsisThe Perfect Officer focuses on the careers of a group of brilliant officers from the Napoleonic Wars and up to our own times: what they did right, what they did wrong, and what lessons they drew from their experiences. The book's recurring theme is the importance of imagination, and it demonstrates how these men were constantly inspired by each other and borrowed each other's ideas. A number of these lessons are equally applicable in the civilian sphere, with one notable difference: If a business leader errs, he may lose his position or his investment. An officer risks losing his life and the lives of the men entrusted to his command.

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Book SynopsisFrom "I Like Ike" to razor-wire and National Guard troops ringing the U.S. Capitol, from Carl Perkins's "Blue Suede Shoes" to Brotha Lynch Hung's "Meat Cleaver," the United States has changed. Seven decades of material abundance and unprecedented technological advances have entwined with pronounced social and cultural fragmentation. What — and who — can explain this peculiar transformation of the land of the free and home of the brave?In From Elvis to Trump, Eyewitness to the Unraveling: Co-Starring Richard Nixon, Andy Warhol, Bill Clinton, the Supremes, and Barack Obama, Eric Rozenman takes readers on an often wry, but always substantive, journey through the past 65 years of American culture. The author provides first-hand accounts of key players and events. Presidents, prime ministers, dictators, rock stars, movie stars, survivors, protesters, and a Miss America all have their say. An FBI investigation of the author makes clear that those in charge didn't know the half of it. Bob Hope and Shirley Temple Black, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel are among those who paint the era's impressionistic portrait, by turns entertaining and tragic. Through a fast-moving series of vignettes, From Elvis to Trump highlights a nation and a time that concludes – brakes screeching before a STOP sign that was there all along – of unparalleled change and challenge.

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Book SynopsisNick Buckley MBE came to international attention in June 2020 when he was fired by the board of The Mancunian Way, a charity he had founded, for criticizing the far-left policies of Black Lives Matter. He then mounted a successful fightback that resulted in his reinstatement and the resignation of the board who had fired him. Buckley had spent two decades preventing youth crime, homelessness, and antisocial behaviour in the UK's toughest neighborhoods. In 2019 he was awarded the MBE for his work with Mancunian Way, which promotes early intervention and personal responsibility. Buckley was a social campaigner for issues that keep people in poverty feeling victimized. But when he found himself cancelled, he felt his life was destroyed. Slowly becoming poisoned by the toxicity of self-pity, he decided he needed to give himself a good talking to. He was lucky. It had been his career to give people a good talking to, and he was good at it. He took his own medicine and got his life back within weeks.In Lessons in Courage, Buckley argues that in our febrile cultural climate we increasingly need people to be courageous and to do what is right, not what is convenient or acceptable to fashionable ideologues. Buckley sets out a series of lessons learned throughout his life, not having realized that he was in training for a life-defining battle. These are the tough but inspiring lessons he wants to offer the next person to face an angry and intolerant mob and to others who self-censor or hold back for fear of drowning in turbulent waters.

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Book SynopsisIn The Privacy Pirates, former National Security Agency intelligence officer Dr. Leslie Gruis explains the origins of American privacy and its deep connection to freedom and the American dream. She discusses some of the controversial issues, covering everything from attempts to protect privacy rights—many unsuccessful—to abuses of privacy by large companies and accusations of privacy invasion by the government. All of it is explained in plain language, with humor and clarity, and is accompanied at the start of every chapter by the compelling story of 14-year-old Alice and her family as they attempt to negotiate a modern world full of Privacy Pirates."Your rights are under attack from the Privacy Pirates," says Gruis. "Government intrusion is nothing compared to the things companies like Facebook and Google are getting away with every day." Take the journey with Alice, get informed about your privacy rights, and learn how you, too, can defeat the Privacy Pirates.

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Book SynopsisMany Turkish cities have witnessed increasing micro and macro-spatial dimensions in urban social movements, shaping urban space over recent decades. Typical Turkish urban social movements have generally shared the same goals, been based on actors' lower-class backgrounds and locally-rooted associations, and have employed similar types of action and strategies against authority. However, the Gezi Park protests were of a singular and different character. This book aims to explore the Gezi Park protests, and discusses their role in changing the character of urban social movements in Turkey, by asking the following questions: What social, political, and economic forces changed the structure of the protests over the years in Turkey? In turn, how has the Gezi Park movement shaped our understanding of new Turkish urban social movements?

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Book SynopsisOrthodox Christianity is one of the world’s major religions, and the Russian Orthodox Church is by far its largest denomination. Few know its history and spiritual richness, however. Neil Kent’s comprehensive new book fills that gap. The Russian Orthodox Church’s Eastern roots, including its dogma, canons, and practices, are explored, along with the political and military contexts in which it carried out its mission over the centuries. Hemmed in between the Catholic powers of pre-Reformation Europe in the West, the Mongol steppe empires to the East, and the Islamic civilizations to the South, Russia and its Church found themselves in a difficult position during the Middle Ages.The Russian Orthodox Church’s greatest strength was in the spiritual power of its liturgy, prayerfulness, icons, and monastic life. But even as the Church consolidated its authority under its own metropolitan, and later patriarch, it came into conflict with political rulers who sought to undermine it. After defeating foreign challenges, the Church underwent a painful reformation and schism, finally coming under government control. The Church survived this “Babylonian Captivity,” and, in philosophical and spiritual terms, flourished under tsarist rule while still facing rising opposition. The fall of the monarchy in 1917 led to the Church’s brief rejuvenation, but communist rule spelled relentless persecution with little respite at home and a lively émigré church carrying Russian traditions abroad. In post-Soviet times, however, the Church enjoyed an extraordinary resurrection and, benefiting from the spiritual richness and reunion with the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, once again became a spiritual pillar of the Russian people and a beacon of hope and Christian values, not only in Russia but anywhere it is currently practiced.

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Book SynopsisWhen Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and other Western positions in the Asia-Pacific World in December 1941, it was unprepared to go to war with the United States and the Western Democracies generally and even realized it could not win. Its navy and air force were impressive, and its army could battle impressively against China, but Japanese small arms were terrible. Japan’s tanks could not compete with their opposite numbers. The Empire’s logistical base was undeveloped for modern warfare. While the Allies could produce large numbers of trained many pilots, Japan produced very few. When its elite airmen were lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Japan could not replace them. At sea, Japan built battleships when it needed more aircraft carriers. The Japanese military never even attempted to win World War II by a simple and direct plan. Its planners consistently assumed that the enemy would do precisely what they assumed and countenanced no alternative analyses of facts.

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Book SynopsisIn Redefining Eternity: Interfacing Immortality in the Digital Corporate World, Bethany Crawford critically assesses the implications of “digital immortality” for central tenets of the human experience - such as consciousness, death, and time - as a preliminary mapping of the shifting existential paradigms of the digital age. This groundbreaking new book explores the social consequences and provocations of a digitally replicable subject in the current sociopolitical context. It thereby confronts a timeless philosophical question, imbued with ever greater urgency in our digital age: What does it mean to be human?Redefining Eternity establishes the motivations of digital and information technologies in creating “immortalization” through social and modal engagement with these new media. By analyzing various digital services currently promoting immortality, both intentionally and unintentionally, and engaging with texts by transhumanists and technologists such as Ray Kurzweil, Martine Rothblatt, and Max More, this endeavor allows for critical interpretation of the key terminologies, processes, and intentions for an immortal digital being. Crawford’s findings offer a dynamic foundation for conceptual analysis of the ramifications of “living forever” as a digital post-death self.

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Book SynopsisCelebrating the centenary of women legislators’ membership in the Arkansas General Assembly, Stateswomen shines a light on the women who have served as some of the state’s central decision makers. Drawing on documentary research and oral histories, Lindsley Armstrong Smith and Stephen A. Smith present lively, concise biographies for the nearly 150 women legislators who have served in the general assembly to date, chronicling their personal histories, volunteer work and social activism, and legislative victories. In a probing introduction, the authors examine the neglected role of women in Arkansas political history alongside the “long history of resistance to full citizenship rights for women in Arkansas”—demonstrating that political representation is essential for improving opportunities in the wider society. The first comprehensive study dedicated to these trailblazing Arkansas legislators, Stateswomen will surely inspire history buffs, community-minded citizens, and political hopefuls alike.

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Book SynopsisIn The Fight for America’s Schools, Barbara Ferman brings together a diverse group of contributors to investigate how parents, communities, teachers, unions, and students are mobilizing to oppose market-based reforms in education. Drawing on a series of rich case studies, the book illustrates how disparate groups can forge new alliances to work together toward common goals.The Fight for America’s Schools tackles recent changes in the landscape of education policy that have prompted significant alterations in the politics of education. Collectively, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the Common Core State Standards, and now the Every Student Succeeds Act have chipped away at the traditional center of community control—a trend reinforced by the charter movement, school closures, and state takeovers of some urban schools. At the same time, market-based reforms have sparked resistance from teachers, parents, students, and community groups.The book explores grassroots organizing campaigns in mid-Atlantic cities and suburbs, describing the reconfiguration of historical alliances, the mobilization of new organizations, and the potential for new coalitions that provide a countervailing force to establish political configurations and strive to preserve education as a public good.

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Book SynopsisIn Evidence, Politics, and Education Policy, political scientists Lorraine M. McDonnell and M. Stephen Weatherford provide an original analysis of evidence use in education policymaking to help scholars and advocates shape policy more effectively. The book shows how multiple types of evidence are combined as elected officials and their staffs work with researchers, advocates, policy entrepreneurs, and intermediary organizations to develop, create, and implement education policies.Evidence, Politics, and Education Policy offers an in-depth understanding of the political environment in which evidence is solicited and used. Two key case studies inform the book's findings. The primary case - a major, multimethod study - examines the development and early implementation of the Common Core State Standards at the national level and in four states: California, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Tennessee. A comparative case analyzes the evidence used in Congressional hearings over the twenty-year history of the Children's Health Insurance Program. Together, the two cases illustrate the conditions under which different types of evidence are used and, in particular, how federalism, the complexity of the policy problem, and the policy's maturity shape evidence use. McDonnell and Weatherford focus on three leverage points for strengthening the use of research evidence in education policy: integrating research findings with value-based policy ideas; designing policies with incentives for research use built into their rules and organizational structures; and training policy analysts to promote the use of research in policymaking venues.

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Book SynopsisIn this original study, Gabriel Horowitz examines the work of select nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American writers through the lens of contemporary theoretical debates about nature, postcoloniality, and national identity. In the work of José Martí, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Jorge Luis Borges, Augusto Roa Bastos, Cesar Aira, and others, he traces historical constructions of nature in regional intellectual traditions and texts as they inform political culture on the broader global stage. By investigating national literary discourses from Cuba, Argentina, and Paraguay, he identifies a common narrative thread that imagines the utopian wilderness of the New World as a symbolic site of independence from Spain. In these texts, Horowitz argues, an expressed desire to return to the nation’s foundational nature contributed to a movement away from political and social engagement and toward a “biopolitical state,” in which nature, traditionally seen as pre-political, conversely becomes its center.Trade Review“Horowitz challenges conventional approaches, particularly in recent environmental criticism, that see a return to nature as an emancipatory act (from the colonial period to today), when quite to the contrary, it might be a reifying act that further leads to a biopolitical state. Those committed to a rigorous Latin American ecocriticism will need and want to engage with this cross examination.”— Christopher Travis, author of Resisting Alienation: The Literary Work of Enrique Lihn “Gabriel Horowitz’s Nature Fantasies is a ground-breaking book that explores the complex and contradictory construction of ‘nature’ in nineteenth and twentieth century Spanish American cultural production. Horowitz demonstrates how ‘nature’ as it is determined within this history is a figure both of what must be walled off—disciplined or controlled—and of what must be incorporated into the hegemonic sensibility. One of the important implications of Horowitz’s discussion of nature as both the outside and the inside of criollista cultural ideology is that the biopolitical developments of the twentieth century and beyond turn out to have their roots in colonial and post-colonial histories.”— Patrick Dove, author of Literature and “Interregnum”: Globalization, War, and the Crisis of Sovereignty in Latin A “A formidable and provocative examination of the role of nature thinking (and nature writing) in the historical transition from cultural decolonization to the modern biopolitical state in Latin America. A must-read for anyone interested in the ways nature and politics intersect.”— Alejandro Quin, coeditor of Authoritarianism, Cultural History, and Political Resistance in Latin America: Exposing “A study on the discursive history of nature in Latin America, Nature Fantasies is a far-reaching and well-documented intervention that offers fresh new readings of such classics as Gómez de Avellaneda, Martí, and Heredia. The author argues for the nineteenth-century signifier 'nature' in Spanish America as one housing criollo fantasies that aimed at superseding and erasing both indigenous histories of the region and the continent’s own non-human history. A readable theoretical intervention on our own historical uses of the word-concept 'nature,' this book is also a study that challenges, in productive ways, the very tenets of ecocriticism and what we do as ecocritics.”— Felipe Martínez Pinzón, coeditor of Intimate Frontiers: A Literary Geography of the Amazon “In its candid engagement with the modern Latin American literary canon, Nature Fantasies: Decolonization and Biopolitics in Latin America provides a succinctly written assessment of some of the limitations inherent to current paradigms of thought such as decolonial thinking and the environmental humanities. It makes a valuable contribution to contemporary debates on Latin America’s past and present.”— Gareth Williams, author of Infrapolitical Passages: Global Turmoil, Narco-Accumulation, and the Post-Sovereign StateTable of ContentsIntroduction Part I 1 The Natural History of Latin American Independence 2 Renewing Niagara Falls, Burning the Archive in the Cuban Poetic Tradition Part II 3 The Fantasy of the Creole as White Indian 4 The End of History and the Return to Nature 5 The Garden, the Camp, and the Biopolitical State Conclusion Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn this original study, Gabriel Horowitz examines the work of select nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American writers through the lens of contemporary theoretical debates about nature, postcoloniality, and national identity. In the work of José Martí, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Jorge Luis Borges, Augusto Roa Bastos, Cesar Aira, and others, he traces historical constructions of nature in regional intellectual traditions and texts as they inform political culture on the broader global stage. By investigating national literary discourses from Cuba, Argentina, and Paraguay, he identifies a common narrative thread that imagines the utopian wilderness of the New World as a symbolic site of independence from Spain. In these texts, Horowitz argues, an expressed desire to return to the nation’s foundational nature contributed to a movement away from political and social engagement and toward a “biopolitical state,” in which nature, traditionally seen as pre-political, conversely becomes its center.Trade Review“Horowitz challenges conventional approaches, particularly in recent environmental criticism, that see a return to nature as an emancipatory act (from the colonial period to today), when quite to the contrary, it might be a reifying act that further leads to a biopolitical state. Those committed to a rigorous Latin American ecocriticism will need and want to engage with this cross examination.”— Christopher Travis, author of Resisting Alienation: The Literary Work of Enrique Lihn “Gabriel Horowitz’s Nature Fantasies is a ground-breaking book that explores the complex and contradictory construction of ‘nature’ in nineteenth and twentieth century Spanish American cultural production. Horowitz demonstrates how ‘nature’ as it is determined within this history is a figure both of what must be walled off—disciplined or controlled—and of what must be incorporated into the hegemonic sensibility. One of the important implications of Horowitz’s discussion of nature as both the outside and the inside of criollista cultural ideology is that the biopolitical developments of the twentieth century and beyond turn out to have their roots in colonial and post-colonial histories.”— Patrick Dove, author of Literature and “Interregnum”: Globalization, War, and the Crisis of Sovereignty in Latin A “A formidable and provocative examination of the role of nature thinking (and nature writing) in the historical transition from cultural decolonization to the modern biopolitical state in Latin America. A must-read for anyone interested in the ways nature and politics intersect.”— Alejandro Quin, coeditor of Authoritarianism, Cultural History, and Political Resistance in Latin America: Exposing “A study on the discursive history of nature in Latin America, Nature Fantasies is a far-reaching and well-documented intervention that offers fresh new readings of such classics as Gómez de Avellaneda, Martí, and Heredia. The author argues for the nineteenth-century signifier 'nature' in Spanish America as one housing criollo fantasies that aimed at superseding and erasing both indigenous histories of the region and the continent’s own non-human history. A readable theoretical intervention on our own historical uses of the word-concept 'nature,' this book is also a study that challenges, in productive ways, the very tenets of ecocriticism and what we do as ecocritics.”— Felipe Martínez Pinzón, coeditor of Intimate Frontiers: A Literary Geography of the Amazon “In its candid engagement with the modern Latin American literary canon, Nature Fantasies: Decolonization and Biopolitics in Latin America provides a succinctly written assessment of some of the limitations inherent to current paradigms of thought such as decolonial thinking and the environmental humanities. It makes a valuable contribution to contemporary debates on Latin America’s past and present.”— Gareth Williams, author of Infrapolitical Passages: Global Turmoil, Narco-Accumulation, and the Post-Sovereign StateTable of ContentsIntroduction Part I 1 The Natural History of Latin American Independence 2 Renewing Niagara Falls, Burning the Archive in the Cuban Poetic Tradition Part II 3 The Fantasy of the Creole as White Indian 4 The End of History and the Return to Nature 5 The Garden, the Camp, and the Biopolitical State Conclusion Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisZinaida Poliakova (1863–1953) was the eldest daughter of Lazar Solomonovich Poliakov, one of the three brothers known as the Russian Rothschilds. They were moguls who dominated Russian finance and business and built almost a quarter of the railroad lines in Imperial Russia. For more than seventy-five years, Poliakova kept detailed diaries of her world, giving us a rare look into the exclusive world of Jewish elites in Moscow and St. Petersburg. These rare documents reveal how Jews successfully integrated into Russian aristocratic society through their intimate friendships and patronage of the arts and philanthropy. And they did it all without converting—in fact, while staunchly demonstrating their Jewishness. Poliakova’s life was marked by her dual identity as a Russian and a Jew. She cultivated aristocratic sensibilities and lived an extraordinarily lifestyle, and yet she was limited by the confessional laws of the empire and religious laws that governed her household. She brought her Russian tastes, habits, and sociability to France following her marriage to Reuben Gubbay (the grandson of Sir Albert Abdullah Sassoon). And she had to face the loss of almost all her family members and friends during the Holocaust. Women’s voices are often lost in the sweep of history, and so A Jewish Women of Distinction is an exceptional, much-needed collection. These newly discovered primary sources will change the way we understand the full breadth of the Russian Jewish experience.

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