Social and political philosophy Books

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Book SynopsisA bold response to a question everyone asks but few answer: What is utopia?

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Book SynopsisThis vivid selection, compiled and introduced by Tamara Deutscher, written by Lenin and those who knew him, brings us the revolution in his everyday life - the man who lived by politics but not by politics alone.Here, we see the Lenin of leisure as well as work, geared to his life's purpose and yet enjoying to the full all the pleasures of a healthy human existence - neither the humourless, monolithic cult hero of Soviet mythology nor the bogeyman of official anti-communism. What did Lenin read? How did he relax? What did he think and feel? This surprising collection, covering everything from his passionate baritone singing voice to his love of hunting wild game and beyond, reveals the man beyond the myth.

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Book SynopsisThis provocative book offers the first sustained critique of the theory and practice of pacification.

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Book SynopsisThe philosophical and political development that converted Georg Lukács from a distinguished representative of Central European aesthetic vitalism into a major Marxist theorist and Communist militant has long remained an enigma. In this this now classic study, Michael Löwy for the first time traced and explained the extraordinary mutation that occurred in Lukács's thought between 1909 and 1929. Utilizing many as yet unpublished sources, Löwy meticulously reconstructed the complex itinerary of Lukács's thinking as he gradually moved towards his decisive encounter with Bolshevism. The religious convictions of the early Lukács, the peculiar spell exercised on him and on Max Weber by Dostoyevskyan images of pre-revolutionary Russia, the nature of his friendships with Ernst Bloch and Thomas Mann, were amongst the discoveries of the book. Then, in a fascinating case-study in the sociology of ideas, Löwy showed how the same philosophical problematic of Lebensphilosophie dominated the intelligentsias of both Germany and Hungary in the pre-war period, yet how the different configurations of social forces in each country bent its political destiny into opposite directions. The famous works produced by Lukács during and after the Hungarian Commune-Tactics and Ethics, History and Class Consciousness and Lenin-were analysed and assessed. A concluding chapter discussed Lukács's eventual ambiguous settlement with Stalinism in the thirties, and its coda of renewed radicalism in the final years of his life.In this new edition, Löwy has added a substantial new introduction which reassess the nature of Lukacs's thought in the light of newly published texts and debates.Table of ContentsPreface to the New EditionAcknowledgementsIntroductionI Towards a Sociology of the Anti-Capitalist Intelligentsia1 Intellectuals as a Social Category2 The Anti-Capitalist Radicalization of Intellectuals3 The Anti-Capitalism of Intellectuals in Germany4 The Revolutionary Intelligentsia in Hungary II How an Intellectual Becomes a Revolutionary: Lukács 1909-191 Lukács's Anti-Capitalism and Tragic View of the World2 The Passage to CommunismIII Lukács's Leftist Period (1919-21)1 Ethical Ultra-Leftism: 19192 Political Leftism: 19203 Left Bolshevism: 19214 The Problematic of the Reign of FreedomIV 'History and Class Consciousness': 1923V Lukács and StalinismAppendix: Interview with Ernst BlochIndex

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Book SynopsisOld Gods, New Enigmas is the highly-anticipated book by the best-selling author of City of Quartz and Planet of Slums.

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Book SynopsisThe meaning of Bob Dylan’s songs has long been debated by fans, critics and academics. When, in 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the significance of his songs was confirmed. Yet their meaning has never been demonstrably explained. Dylan himself has said that people can learn everything about him through his songs: “if they know where to look.” This book shows his millions of fans exactly where that is. Dylan has written hundreds of songs, many of which are acknowledged masterpieces. “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “Like a Rolling Stone”, “Mr.Tambourine Man”, the list goes on. In the 1960s, he was hailed as a prophet. Since then, he’s generally been considered a genius. One thing he’s always been, though, is an enigma. In Bob Dylan: What the Songs Mean, critic Michael Karwowski analyses the lyrics. In the process, he opens up all sorts of avenues into philosophy, mysticism, religion, literature, art, and, of course, music. This is a “must read” book for anyone who wants to learn more about the meaning behind the songs or anyone interested in understanding how a genius sees the world. It also considers the impact Dylan’s words have had - not only on his fans, but on the worlds of popular music, culture and beyond.

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Book SynopsisCompellingly argued and lyrically charged, A World without Police offers concrete strategies for confronting and breaking police power, as a first step toward building community alternatives that make the police obsolete. Surveying the post-protest landscape in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Oakland, as well as the people who have experimented with policing alternatives at a mass scale in Latin America, Maher details the institutions we can count on to deliver security without the disorganizing interventions of cops: neighborhood response networks, community-based restorative justice practices, democratically organized self-defense projects, and well-resourced social services.Tens of millions of people poured onto the streets for Black Lives Matter, bringing with them a wholly new idea of public safety, common security, and the delivery of justice, communicating that vision in the fiery vernacular of riot, rebellion, and protest. A World without Police transcribes these new ideas-written in slogans and chants, over occupied bridges and hastily assembled barricades-into a compelling, must-read manifesto for police abolition.A World without Police argues that abolition is not a distant dream or an unreachable horizon but an attainable reality. In communities around the world, we are beginning to glimpse a real, lasting justice in which we keep us safe.Trade ReviewCiccariello-Maher's book is a triumph of reporting, narrative, and theoretical analysis. It's a testament to what happens when you keep your eyes open, your ear to the ground, and your head on straight. -- Corey Robin, author of The Enigma of Clarence Thomas, in praise of Building the CommuneFrom the ashes of the Third Precinct, Geo Maher looks for what grows when the deadly shadow of the police is removed. He writes an urgent history of the present. The ingredients of white supremacy, colonialism, and capitalism are baked into the cake called America, especially the institution of the police. You can't unbake that cake. Maher contends creating a world without police is not only possible, but necessary. -- Nick Estes, author of Our History Is the FutureA World Without Police is provocative in the best possible ways: It dares the reader to imagine a future only without policing, but shorn of the capitalism and white supremacy that refashions a public in the image of the police. It situates the carceral and coercive institutions in the US within broader global currents of imperial violence. And it demands that we together build strong, antiracist, and egalitarian communities that can defend themselves here and across national boundaries. -- Laleh Khalili, author of Sinews of War and TradeGeo rips away the band-aid of liberal police reform to expose the open wound of racism, colonialism, and economic exploitation at the heart of capitalism and its police and shows us that healing that wound will require deep global transformations rooted in community empowerment. -- Alex Vitale, author of End of PolicingStunning in conception. Forceful in Argument. Expert in proposing remedies. In sum, this is a book that must not only be read - but studied. -- Gerald Horne, author of Fire This TimeNo reasonable person can read this book and still believe police are good for us. Geo Maher proves on every single page that A World Without Police is no utopia but a concrete necessity if we want to preserve life and make our communities safer. And he shows us precisely how it could be done. Take this book everywhere. Read, share, act; defund, disarm, abolish. -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom DreamsMaher's prose, trenchant and unapologetic, helps us write a poetry of abolition. -- Tyler Wall, author of Police: A Field GuideA thesis sure to stir plenty of controversy but worthy of discussion. * Kirkus Reviews *A clear-sighted and passionate case for abolition that is ultimately an argument for changing the world as we know it. Maher's work is steeped in historical understanding and revolutionary insight, but it is, above all, determinedly hopeful and humane in its vision of another way of living together that is absolutely possible. -- Priyamvada Gopal, author of Insurgent EmpireThanks to the tireless organizing work of the "stubborn agitators, zealots, and fanatics of the best sort" who inspire Geo Maher, police abolition is an increasingly widespread political demand. A World Without Police dismantles every argument cops and their supporters offer to defend our present world with police, incisively detailing their flaws and falsehoods. In our future world without police, Maher's persuasive book will serve as the institution's autopsy report. -- Stuart Schrader, author of Badges Without BordersGeo Maher not only demonstrates definitively that police serve a wealthy white elite and don't protect us, but also illuminates the path toward abolishing policing. By describing concrete local and global experiments in grassroots resistance, he brings clarity to how community organizing works tactically and politically to make policing obsolete. A World without Police offers inspiring assurance that we can achieve the vision embodied in its title. -- Dorothy Roberts, author, Killing the Black Body and Shattered BondsIn A World Without Police, Geo Maher considers modern day abolitionist movements against policing. Through the flames of the 2020 uprisings, he illuminates a long history of abolitionist struggles for freedom, for democracy, and for the radical transformation of the world. An urgent text for our times. -- Christina Heatherton, editor of Policing the PlanetA World without Police analyzes the unfinished business of 'abolition democracy' in the twenty-first century. Amidst a cycle of rebellion, Geo Maher deftly illuminates how policing is a 'racket'. The power to transform society, he argues, lies in the visions of radical democratic movements to abolish the police. -- Jordan Camp, author of Incarcerating the CrisisWhat is the 'thin blue line' if not a border, writes Geo Maher in his terrific new book A World Without Police. In nine beautifully written chapters, he takes us on a terrifying tour of that border, reminding us that cops have never engaged in law enforcement, crime fighting, or public safety. The claim by cops and police reformists that policing secures democracy and civilization against savagery and barbarism is a cruel lie that hides a sadistic police history of white supremacist violence against the poor. We'll never be free as long as cops patrol our streets, and Geo Maher's book helps light our way in our struggle to build a world free from the plague of police. -- David Correia, author of Police: A Field GuideAn essential introduction to the case for abolishing the police. * Publishers Weekly *In A World Without Police, [Maher] advocates for police abolition alongside community safety. * Lit Hub (75 Nonfiction Books You Should Read This Summer) *[A World Without Police] is nothing if not exhaustive. From transit police to the police unions under the Fraternal Order of the Police to a complicit Black elite, Maher implicates the police and its allies in the history of American violence writ large. -- Kamil Ahsan * NPR Books *Both one of the most compelling arguments for police abolition and a complete depiction of the nationwide George Floyd uprisings to date...Sure to be a key abolitionist text for activists and organizers. -- Christian Noakes * Workers World *Compelling ... combin[ing] political theory and history with accessible writing ... [A World Without Police] demonstrate[s] that democratic and egalitarian alternatives already exist. -- Christopher McMichael * New Frame *A World Without Policing lays out a withering takedown of the institution of policing with fiery vim and audacious aplomb. A searing and incisively argued indictment of the edifice of policing and an argument for abolition. -- Brian Bean * Rampant *

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Book SynopsisIs violent self-defense ethical? In the history of colonialism, racism, sexism, capitalism, there has long been a dividing line between bodies "worthy of defending" and those who have been disarmed and rendered defenseless. In 1685, for example, France's infamous "Code Noir" forbade slaves from carrying weapons, under penalty of the whip. In nineteenth-century Algeria, the colonial state outlawed the use of arms by Algerians, but granted French settlers the right to bear arms. Today, some lives are seen to be worth so little that Black teenagers can be shot in the back for appearing "threatening" while their killers are understood, by the state, to be justified. That those subject to the most violence have been forcibly made defenseless raises, for any movement of liberation, the question of using violence in the interest of self-defense.Here, philosopher Elsa Dorlin looks across the global history of the left - from slave revolts to the knitting women of the French Revolution and British suffragists' training in ju-jitsu, from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to the Black Panther Party, from queer neighborhood patrols to Black Lives Matter - to trace the politics, philosophy, and ethics of self defense. In this history she finds a "martial ethics of the self": a practice in which violent self defense is the only means for the oppressed to ensure survival and to build a liveable future. In this sparkling and provocative book, drawing on theorists from Thomas Hobbes to Fred Hampton, Frantz Fanon to Judith Butler, Michel Foucault to June Jordan, Dorlin has reworked the very idea of modern governance and political subjectivity.Translated from the French by Kieran Aarons.

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Book SynopsisWhether class or race is the more important factor in modern politics is a question right at the heart of recent history's most contentious debates. Among groups who should readily find common ground, there is little agreement. To escape this deadlock, Asad Haider turns to the rich legacies of the black freedom struggle. Drawing on the words and deeds of black revolutionary theorists, he argues that identity politics is not synonymous with anti-racism, but instead amounts to the neutralization of its movements. It marks a retreat from the crucial passage of identity to solidarity, and from individual recognition to the collective struggle against an oppressive social structure. Weaving together autobiographical reflection, historical analysis, theoretical exegesis, and protest reportage, Mistaken Identity is a passionate call for a new practice of politics beyond colorblind chauvinism and "the ideology of race."Trade ReviewAsad Haider offers a clarifying and frank assessment of the left's evacuation of class from our identity debates, as well as a powerful defense of political solidarity across hierarchies of race. Drawing on the radical legacy of anti-racist movements-from the Black Panthers to the Combahee River Collective-Mistaken Identity puts forward a powerful vision of collection action, that should offer hope and inspiration to a new generation of activists. -- Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and Feel FreeRiveting. Haider moves deftly over difficult terrain. His prose is precise and propulsive. His Marxism is not a mausoleum but a living, breathing thing. And he writes as both a militant and a theorist, one who believes that theory is integral to political struggle and that theoretical rigour has political stakes. The American left has shown signs of life recently, but it has no shortage of enemies. Defeating them will require, among other things, ideas. Haider's book contributes several. We will need more. -- Ben Tarnoff * Guardian *Essential reading for anyone interested in bringing socialist ideas into movements against racism today. * Socialist Worker *Mistaken Identity will inspire some, piss off others, and compel all of us to reconsider how we fight back. A bold, fresh, and radical critique of so-called "identity politics," this book deserves a wide reading-especially now, when liberal multiculturalism, the "renaturalization" of capitalism, and a resurgent bourgeois black nationalism draped in radical language forecloses the possibility of revolutionary solidarity. Asad Haider proclaims another universality is possible, and it's probably not what you think. -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical ImaginationAsad Haider renews the critique of identity politics for the contemporary Left. Drawing on the work of British cultural studies, black feminism, and theories of the subject (and subjection), Haider writes in an open and persuasive prose to show how identity is always partial and ambivalent, deflecting from the larger racial ideologies while reproducing its terms. This is a fresh and timely book, thoughtful and provocative. -- Judith Butler, author of Gender Trouble and Frames of WarReviving what has become a deeply unfashionable anti-racist standpoint, Asad Haider indicts the complicity of "identity politics" from the left. For him, the dissident mentalities and meticulous historical methods of open-ended, ecumenical commitment to radical social transformation are still valid. This spiky little book shows how opposition might be salvaged from an ocean of pessimism and despair. -- Paul Gilroy, author of The Black Atlantic and There Ain't No Black in the Union JackAsad Haider offers a devastating and constructive critique of what is commonly understood as "identity politics," while still maintaining the centrality race, racism and racist oppression in capitalism. -- Bill Fletcher, Jr., coauthor of Solidarity Divided and former president of TransAfrica ForumPithy, smart and readable, Mistaken Identity is a wonderful book for our time. Notwithstanding his critique of identity, there is a compelling authenticity to Haider's voice, making him someone one wants to think with about shaping a left vision today. -- Wendy Brown, author of States of Injury and Undoing the Demos[Asad Haider] constructs a comprehensive and critical dissection of identity politics in his hard-hitting debut...This book is an important contribution to discourses on American politics, race, and social movements. * Publishers Weekly *Asad Haider has written a brief and informed survey and critique of the inherent flaws in identity politics. It convinces the reader through a measured calm, not polemics, and that's a refreshing change in these troubled times. -- Christian John Stephens * PopMatters *For a slim book, Haider's argument is expansive and philosophically challenging. Although he never overwhelms the reader with unexplained jargon, the range of work he engages with is impressive, including that of Althusser, Judith Butler, Wendy Brown, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall, and more. Moving through this material with skill and acumen, Haider sets out to undercut the material and philosophical foundations of identity politics (and the idea of identity itself). -- Michael Mirer * Public Books *Mistaken Identity is a refreshing and timely answer to the rupturing status quo that flows within the popular movements of our day. Haider's critique of liberal identity politics cuts through the fog that has been raised by opportunists who seek to divide popular movements. His insurgent universality could become a potentially useful way of thinking through the identity politics that seek to divide rather than reconstitute our movements into a larger program with demands for a better world for all of us. -- Brant Roberts * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *Short and readable, the book provides an intellectual genealogy of anti-racism and of the myriad ways in which contemporary anti-racist politics go awry. -- Aidan J. Beatty * Logos: Journal of Modern Society and Culture *Lucid, compact, and fiercely polemical, Asad Haider's book Mistaken Identity identifies a desperate need for greater political solidarities and broader coalitions at a time when left political movements are governed largely by the logic of 'staying in your lane,' which poses a significant barrier to mass organizing in the United States. -- Field Street Collective * Commune Magazine *

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Book SynopsisOur contemporary political condition is obsessed with immunity. The immunity of bodies and the body politic; personal immunity and herd immunity; how to immunize the social system against breakdown. The obsession intensifies with every new crisis and the mobilization of yet more powers of war and police, from quarantine to border closures and from vaccination certificates to immunological surveillance.Engaging four key concepts with enormous cultural weight - Cell, Self, System and Sovereignty - Politics of Immunity moves from philosophical biology to intellectual history and from critical theory to psychoanalysis to expose the politics underpinning the way immunity is imagined. At the heart of this imagination is the way security has come to dominate the whole realm of human experience. From biological cell to political subject, and from physiological system to the social body, immunity folds into security, just as security folds into immunity. The book thus opens into a critique of the violence of security and spells out immunity's tendency towards self-destruction and death: immunity, like security, can turn its aggression inwards, into the autoimmune disorder. Wide-ranging and polemical, Politics of Immunity lays down a major challenge to the ways in which the immunity of the self and the social are imagined.Trade ReviewIt is difficult to do justice to the breadth and depth of this book. The sheer multidisciplinary variety of insights offered here, ranging from neurology and immunology to psychoanalysis and international law, is frequently dazzling. While the title might lead one to expect it to operate primarily as a conjunctural intervention, it is also a valuable archaeology illuminating various aspects of modern political power. -- Richard SeymourNeocleous' provocative interventions into the politics of the present is guaranteed to make readers think anew about the body-material and body-politic, our selves as well as sovereignty. He tells a fascinating (and nervous) story. -- Joanna BourkeA masterful survey of one of the key metaphors of our time: the medical biopicture of the body as a battleground, and the extension of this metaphor to the "body politic." The twin discourses of immunity as a literal feature of organic bodily systems, its counterpart in discussions of sovereignty, warfare, and police power in the terms of the immune system are brought together here in a compelling account grounded in the broader concept of security. The fundamental paradigm of the "Self/Non-Self" as a biopolitical analogy between medical and social bodies is called into question by this incisive critique. -- W. J. T. Mitchell, author of Cloning Terror: The War of Images, 9-11 to the PresentIn this scholarly and wide-ranging engagement with one of the most topical issues of our time, Neocleous provides both an informative history of the idea of immunity and an astute analysis of the concept itself and its interweaving usage in medical, legal and social contexts. But what is most distinctive and revealing in his study is the axis around which it is shown to revolve: the imbrication of immunity and security concerns, and their mutually reinforcing political logics. -- Kate Soper

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Book SynopsisThe unwritten contract of the internet, that a user is what is used, extends from the well-examined issue of data privacy and consent to the very selves women are encouraged to create in order to appear. Invited to self-construct as 'girls online', vloggers, bloggers and influencers sign a devil's bargain: a platform on the condition they commodify themselves, eternally youthful, cute and responsibility-free, hiding offline domestic, professional and emotional labour while paying for their online presence with 'accounts' of personal 'experience'. Can a Girl Online use these platforms not only to escape meatspace oppressions, but as spaces for survival, creativity and resistance?Told via the arresting personal narrative of one woman negotiating the (cyber)space between her identities as girl, mother, writer, and commodified online persona, Girl Online is written in a plethora of the online styles, from programming language to the blog/diary, from tweets to lyric prose, taking in selfies, social media, celebrity and Cyberfeminism.Trade ReviewEsoteric in one breath and widely relatable in another, threaded with sly humour and enlivened with breaths of personal reflection. -- Ruth McKee * Irish Times *Joanna Walsh is fast becoming one of our most important writers -- Deborah LevyWalsh's writing has intellectual rigour and bags of formal bravery... boldly intellectual work -- Financial TimesHer stories reveal a psychological landscape lightly spooked by loneliness, jealousy and alienation -- Heidi Julavits, New York TimesThis is theory as user manual for every girl who has misplaced her body, for all who have ever attempted the looking glass life of writing a self onto screen. Walsh does not betray these early desires of screen life even as she elucidates the stark disappointments of its actualization. -- Anne Boyer, author of The UndyingA brilliant, timely act of feminist resistance. Joanna Walsh wields language as deliberately as a surgeon her knife. She doesn't miss a trick, or an opportunity for (s)wordplay. Here as ever she is "good to think" with, a formidable and original theorist for and beyond our online era. -- Lauren Elkin, author of FlâneuseSkilfully captures the fragmentary nature of online existence, the slippery nature of our online selves and their endless interpretations, and both the connections and the alienation that come with it. This is a deep and yet beautifully light meditation on what the internet is doing to our brains. -- Juliet Jacques, author of TransThe internet is all about girls - and is an impossible place to be one. Girl Online writes its way through that dilemma with critical insight and creative moxie. It's a really good book for anyone who has ever tried to have a gender - especially on the internet. -- McKenzie Wark, author of Capital is DeadNeither a mirror nor a lamp, the screen offers no specular high or illuminating epiphany. Yet, it provides a set of immaterialities for the switch up of identity and personhood, imaginary spaces from which to prompt far-reaching reflection and the timed fantasy of emancipation. Joanna Walsh delivers a new batch of historical screen memories in a constant remix of desire and memory, erasure and fear. The text rotates into literary and theoretical analyses, tech labs and artistic sites, propelled by touching autobiographemes that explode and mutate according to a digital logic that holds subjectivity to a new standard of captivity. Taking off from AI Alice Through the Looking Glass, Walsh calls up crucial works of Derrida, Chantal Ackermann, Luce Irigaray, Kathy Acker, and other innovators of shredded identity, jamming on the theoretical fine print of our internet contracts and reversible selfhood. -- Avital Ronell, author of StupidityIn this profound and moving account of what it's like to be a girl online, Joanna Walsh guides readers through unwritten terms and conditions women face when they're on the internet, how they're forced to commodify themselves, and effectively pay for the space they take up 'with accounts of personal experience.' * Business Insider *In this book of essays in alternative forms, including programming language, tweets, and lyric prose, Joanna Walsh explores what it means to be a woman on this thing called the internet. Expect some philosophizing on tech, identity, selfies, and social media. * Nylon *Joins a growing genre of writing, including fiction and nonfiction, that attempts to articulate the way it feels to be online. -- Eliza Goodpasture * 3:AM Magazine *In a series of meditations and 'thought experiments' exploring motherhood, blogs, women's writing, and the meaning of work both on and off the screen, Walsh examines the relationship between looking and being looked at, watching and being watched, that is inherent to both the internet and femininity. -- Rhian Sasseen * The Paris Review *Any woman who's ever dealt with reply guys gone feral, dogpiling, doxxing, or dick pics in her DMs knows one thing: It's hard to be a woman on the internet. In Girl Online, Joanna Walsh explores our relationship to the web - what we sacrifice to have an internet presence, how our identities change online, and what we receive in return. -- K.W. Colyard * Bustle *Walsh's philosophy is funny and thoughtful, and here, she presents the feminist resistance for the extremely online girls (or should we say gworls?) -- Anna Cafolla * The Face *An explorative work about what it is to be a woman, on and off the internet. -- Sophie Grenham * The Times *Girl Online sits generously, generatively, generically in the questioning, querying, "wondering" modes of the writing it examines. -- Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou * The Arts Desk *A deeply playful romp through the theory and politics of creating an online persona and of logging on...[Walsh offers] a new understanding of how girlhood is performed online. -- Claire Thomson * Lunate *Walsh delivers playful and lived-in observations about the online world. -- Anandi Mishra * ArtReview *Using a variety of styles ranging from programming language to tweets to a blog, [Walsh] brilliantly captures the realities and unrealities of online existence. * Manhattan Book Review *In Girl Online, Walsh dissects a more quotidian experience of being an on-screen woman: that of being female and online, relying on the internet for work and for professional advancement, trying to figure out what kind of image to project for maximal success...Above all else, Girl Online and My Life as a Godard Movie ably, bravely explore yet another kind of split: that between theory and practice when it comes to female self-empowerment. -- Philippa Snow * The New Republic *Experimental on a formal level, mixing registers, styles and source material. Walsh splices life-writing with TV criticism, speculative vignettes, exegeses of algorithmic logic, reconsiderations of recent literary history and many quotations from other writers. -- Megan Marz * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThis volume’s relevance may be explained, first and foremost, during a time of unprecedented loss of life around the world each day. The data, which is oftentimes incomplete and misleading, nonetheless reveals the state as deficient as well as negligent in its response to social healthcare needs. This volume attests to the fact that pressing global public health concerns are ever present as subjects of societal discourse and debate in developed and developing states. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic makes the omission of the ethics of personal data collection analysis in the international relations literature even more salient given the rise of contact tracing and increased uses of mobile phone Apps to track citizens by states and firms across the globe, as this volume’s chapters analyzing the responses to COVID-19 in Iran and Taiwan explain. Trade Review"The Ethics of Personal Data Collection in International Relations is a timely contribution to a most urgent governance challenge of our time. The uses and misuses of data collection are amplified by the globalscale of public policy making in the era of COVID-19. As commercial and political interests assert their agendas, counter-veiling normative duties and restraints remain to be defined and empowered. Mazzucelli, Keith and Hollifield set a new agenda in this wide-ranging and thorough volume, particularly with their focus on the essential issue of inclusionism. This book is sure to guide the field of international relations in a fruitful new direction."– Joel H. Rosenthal, President, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs“This volume represents a tremendously innovative, timely and cutting-edge treatment of one of the most compelling challenges of our day and age: the focus on personal data collection, including geopolitical and cultural contexts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taken as a whole, its content is very impressive both in scope and depth. Presenting primarily a non-Western perspective, the volume provides the reader with an important overview framing these challenges cogently and providing an international relations theory foundation that recognizes, synthesizes and amplifies newer approaches in our field. Such approaches bridge a gap between older international relations paradigms and newer concepts that recognize non-state actor as well as non-Western nation roles.” —Nanette Levinson, Co-Director, Internet Governance Lab, School of International Service, American University, USA“Few scholarly collaborations can genuinely work at the intersection of IR and international and human rights law, with the ability to engage the IR literature so robustly. Few volumes can be so thoroughly creative theoretically and yet so grounded in field studies and cases, bringing the details of analysis and context to life. At its core, this volume practices what it preaches—the abject need to shift from a Eurocentric and state-centric default in IR inquiry into a holistic approach to inclusionism. Its content does this on an indisputably urgent topic—the fate of private data collection in a time of COVID-19, a period some fear is a dress rehearsal for increasing government intrusion into long standing human rights and freedoms via emergent technologies. Without the prima facie inclusion of such lenses as gender, geopolitics, culture, concern for nature and climate, and ethnic and religious pluralism into our standard IR theories, it is unlikely that scholars will be able to help decision makers come to the right policies for dealing with personal privacy.” —Corri Zoli, Director of Research, Institute for Security Policy & Law, Syracuse University College of Law / Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public AffairsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments; Foreword by Prof. Dr. Azza Karam — Secretary-General, Religions for Peace; Word Clouds by Leslie Elizabeth Prosy, New York University; Introduction: Non-Western versus Western Reflections on the Ethics of Personal Data Collection in a Variegated “Chessboard- Web” Ecosystem, Colette Mazzucelli, James Felton Keith, and Andrea Adams; Part I; Chapter 1. Information Technology: National Security Savior or Civil Rights Disaster, Celeste Brevard; Chapter 2. Is This Chapter “Fake News”?: Exploring the Possibilities of Regulating Online Disinformation while Preserving the Right to Freedom of Expression in Europe, Sophia Ehmke; Chapter 3. Geopolitics, Personal Data Collection, and Globalization: Iran’s Response to COVID-19, Megan Cameron; Part II; Chapter 4. Taiwan’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Social Constructivist Analysis of Identity Differentiation with the People’s Republic of China, Jasmine C. Lee; Chapter 5. Reeducation Camps in Xinjiang, China: An Intersectional Constructivist Approach, Mary Davis; Part III; Chapter 6. Smartphones and Data Privacy Ethics: International Regulations in a “Chessboard-Web” Environment, Andrea Adams; Chapter 7. Ethical Considerations around Crowdsourcing Stories of Sexual Abuse and Harassment in Public Spaces: The Safecity India Story, Suzanne Goodney Lea and Elsa Marie D’Silva; Chapter 8. Protecting Privacy in a Sexual Assault Prevention Program, Lynne Chandler-Garcia and John C. Riley; Conclusion, Colette Mazzucelli, James Felton Keith, and Andrea Adams; Afterword by Dean Joshua Cooper; List of Contributors; Index.

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Book SynopsisPostmodern Geographies stands as the cardinal broadcast and defence of theory's "spatial turn." From the suppression of space in modern social science and the disciplinary aloofness of geography to the spatial returns of Foucault and Lefebvre and the construction of Marxist geographies alert to urbanization and global development, renowned geographer Edward W. Soja details the trajectory of this turn and lays out its key debates. An expanded critique of historicism and a refined grasp of materialist dialectics bolster Soja's attempt to introduce geography to postmodernity, animating a series of engagements with Heidegger, Giddens, Castells, and others. Two exploratory essays on the postfordist landscapes of Los Angeles complete the book, offering a glimpse of Soja's new geography carried into its highest register.Trade ReviewA significant theoretical contribution both to the social science in general and to human geography in particular . This literary achievement establishes Soja as one of the foremost thinkers in this difficult interdisciplinary field. * Choice *One of the most challenging and stimulating books ever written on the thorny issue of how and why societies use space for social purposes in the ways they do. -- David Harvey

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Book SynopsisThe beginnings of the anti-colonial struggle in Jamaica coincided with the childhood and early adolescence of Sylvia Wynter, providing the motivation for this, the first phase of her important body of work. The essays and articles collected here go beyond making an argument against colonialism, but set out to decolonize the nature of the discourse that legitimated the imperial order. At the time of their writing, Wynter was a practicing novelist, an innovative playwright, a scholar of Spanish Caribbean history, and an incisive literary critic with a gift for the liveliest kind of polemics. This intellectual virtuosity is evident in these wide-ranging essays that include an exploration of C.L.R. James's writings on cricket, Bob Marley and the counter-cosmogony of the Rastafari, and the Spanish epoch of Jamaican history (including a pioneering examination of Bernado de Balbuena, epic poet and Abbot of Jamaica 1562-1627).Across this varied range of topics, a coherent thread of argument emerges. In the vein of C. L. R. James, the imperative of her work has always been to reconceptualize the history of the region, and therefore of the modern world, from a world-systemic perspective; that is, no longer from the normative European perspective, but rather more inclusively, from the "gaze from below" of the neo-serf (i.e. Indian) and the ex-slave (i.e. Negro), which is "the ultimate underside of modernity."Strongly influenced by Marx, together with Black thinkers such as Aimé Césaire, Jean Price-Mars, W. E. B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon, and with an appreciation of the insights brought by the New Studies of the Sixties (including that of Black feminism), Wynter's work has sought, from its beginnings, to find a comprehensive explanatory system able to integrate these knowledges born of struggle.

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Book SynopsisWhat if we have lost the ability to think straight? And what if this is why the shocking injustices of contemporary life go unchallenged in spite of being widely acknowledged? And what if the university, the institution that is supposed to help us to think, is in on the act? In this polemical account of how universities are failing both their students and society, Sinead Murphy shows how the Zombie University of the twenty-first century is keeping us down rather than raising us up, and asks whether, in spite of everything, it could be brought back to life, and whether we could dare to think again.

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Book SynopsisIn Drinking Up the Revolution, James Wilt shows us why alcohol policy should be at the heart of any socialist movement. Many people are drinking more now than ever before, as already massive multinationals are consolidating and new online delivery services are booming in an increasingly deregulated market. At the same time, public health experts are sounding the alarm about the catastrophic health and social impacts of rising alcohol use, with over three million people dying ever year due to alcohol-related harms. Exposing the links between the alcohol industry and capitalism, colonialism and environmental destruction, Wilt demonstrates the failure of both prohibition and deregulation, and instead focuses on those who profit from alcohol’s sale and downplay its impacts: producers, retailers, and governments. Rejecting both the alcohol industry’s moralizing against individual “problem drinkers” and the sober politics of “straight-edge” and wellness lifestyle trends, Drinking Up the Revolution is not another call for prohibition or more governmental control, but is instead a cry to take back alcohol for the people, and make it safe and enjoyable for all those who want to use it.Trade Review"Drinking Up the Revolution offers both an incisive expose of the extensive harm perpetrated by a cynical globalised alcohol industry in its naked pursuit of profit, and a lower-risk, alternative way for the world to enjoy alcohol – or not.""Drinking Up the Revolution is not only persuasive in its calls for an end to the oligopoly of Big Alcohol, its manifesto envisions a set of compelling alternatives that could very well help break up alcohol’s near-monopoly on culturally-sanctioned means of celebration and connection.”"You might feel a general anxiety about society’s worsening relationship with alcohol, and Drinking Up the Revolution explains why.""James Wilt fills a much needed gap in left thinking about alcohol. With care, passion, and rigour Wilt is able to not only map out the capitalist problems of big alcohol plaguing society but also present promising solutions, and an abolitionist hope of dreaming bigger.""A fascinating and informative read."

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Book Synopsis"Beautifully written and bursting with spirit, How to Read Like a Parasite is destined to be vital reading." - Matthew McManus, author of Nietzsche and the Politics of Reaction How to Read Like a Parasite overturns the whitewashed and defanged version of Nietzsche that has been made popular by generations of translators and academic philosophers who have presented his work as apolitical and without a core reactionary agenda. The central argument of the book is that Nietzsche’s philosophy does have a center, and that the left learns a great deal from Nietzsche when we read him as driven by a highly sophisticated reactionary political vision that informs all his major concepts and ideas. The most important Nietzschean concepts — from perspectivism, ressentiment, eternal return to the pathos of distance — are analyzed in the historical context in which Nietzsche lived and wrote, and several case-studies of prominent left-Nietzscheans from Jack London, Gilles Deleuze, Wendy Brown to Huey Newton are discussed. How to Read Like a Parasite makes a persuasive case for how we can overcome Nietzsche’s damaging influence on the left, showing us how to read and understand his work without becoming victims of it.Trade Review“A compelling picture of the ways that Nietzscheanism hijacks the left.”"Beautifully written and bursting with spirit, How to Read Like a Parasite is destined to be vital reading.""Written with clarity and force, sensitive to historical context and covering an extensive array of the Nietzsche literature, this book animates a new standard in reading Nietzsche.”"Exemplary... Tutt’s evaluation of the consequences of Nietzschean politics is more lucid than Left Nietzscheans might wish.""Today, in our age of quick new Right or new Left dismissals, such a stance is needed more than ever.""Tutt’s book sets a new standard for understanding how to read Nietzsche from the political left.""The conclusion of How to Read Like a Parasite is that a ruthless, even “parasitical” critique of Nietzsche, who cannot be ignored but must be constantly confronted head on, is the key to overcoming the destruction of reason in our time."

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Book SynopsisAnti-Oculus is a work of conceptual espionage: an assemblage of polemical tracts complete with a gallery of graphic illustrations inspired by postmodern and pulp classics from Anti-Oedipus to Ways of Seeing. Through the concept of "Ocularity", the Acid Horizon crew trace the political, medical, and historical ways power sees us through its categories of control and counter-insurgency. From the thermodynamics of policing in the cyberpunk present, to the psychiatric colonization of the image, to bodies that "go astray" in an increasingly reactionary society; Anti-Oculus maps out the ways we are captured under the eyes of cyber-capital, and provokes us to find each other in pursuit of emancipation, community, and new forms of life.Trade Review"Conspire, panic, boil over, go astray — Anti-Oculus is an urgent manifesto on the chaos of life and the ecstasy of escape.""Anti-Oculus is a text that, despite its brevity, is so rich with insight and provocation that those who give themselves over to it will be mining it for years. It is the perfect extension of the Acid Horizon project, already a treasure trove for those interested in culture, philosophy and politics online."

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Book SynopsisA memoir of the infamous “last Surrealist,” Marianne Ivsic. Alain Segura documents their initial meeting in 1967, amid the heady militancy of May ’68.Alain Segura was a teenage anarchist in Paris during the mid-to-late 1960s when he hung around with members of the Enragés and the Situationist International. He was particularly captivated by Yugoslavian militant, poet, and painter Marianne Ivsic, a member of André Breton’s Surrealist group. It was Guy Debord who approvingly called her “the last surrealist.” Segura wrote this book so that Ivsic’s life and creative legacy are not forgotten.A Season with Marianne details the heady days of friendship, rebellion, and creative militancy surrounding May ’68, against the backdrop of a colossal split between the Anarchist International and the Situationists in 1967, and the impossible demands of a revolution briefly glimpsed by the author through an encounter with the last surrealist.

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Book SynopsisThis edited volume takes a close look at Nicos Poulantzas’s thought as a means of understanding the dynamics of the capitalist, neoliberal state in the 21st century. Nicos Poulantzas has left us with one of the most sophisticated theories of the state in the second half of the 20th century. Poulantzas’s influential theory draws inspiration from Marx, Lenin, Weber, and Foucault, among other thinkers, conceiving of the relationship between capitalism and the state as particularly original. This book aims to use Poulantzas’s theory of the capitalist state in order to understand important political and economic trends that have taken place since Poulantzas’s death in 1979. By entering into a dialogue with current Marxist and critical research in diverse fields such as political science, philosophy, sociology, history, and geography, this volume purports to evaluate the actuality of Poulantzas’s thought.Table of ContentsPreface: The End of the Democratic State Jean-Numa Ducange and Razmig Keucheyan Part I. State and Strategies. 1. The State and the Democratic Road to Socialism Álvaro Garcia Linera 2. Nicos Poulantzas’s Strategic Reflection, between Economics and Politics Isabelle Garo 3. The Capitalist State, Hegemony and the Democratic Transformation toward Socialism Alex Demirovich 4. Specters of ‘Totalitarianism’. Poulantzas Faced with Fascism and the State of Exception Stathis Kouvelakis Part II. Histories and Communisms 1. The Comintern’s Uncertain Heritage Serge Wolikow 2. The Eurocommunism of the intellectuals: Poulantzas and the Third Way to Socialism Marco di Maggio 3. The Ligue communiste révolutionnaire, Nicos Poulantzas, and the reception and discussion of his theory Ludivine Bantigny Part III. Theories 1. Poulantzas: from Law to the State James Martin 2. Geographies of the state: Nicos Poulantzas and contemporary approaches to state/space Costis Hadjimichalis 3. A European Capitalism? Revisiting the Mandel-Poulantzas Debate Tristan Auvray and Cédric Durand

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a Marx that is in many ways different from the one popularized by the dominant currents of twentieth-century Marxism. The dual aim of this edited volume is to contribute to a new critical discussion of some of the classical themes of Marx’s thought and to develop a deeper analysis of certain questions to which relatively little attention has been paid until recently.Contributions of globally renowned scholars, from nine countries and multiple academic disciplines, offer diverse and innovative perspectives on Marx’s points of view about ecology, migration, gender, the capitalist mode of production, the labour movement, globalization, social relations, and the contours of a possible socialist alternative. The result is a collection that will prove indispensable for all specialists in the field and which suggests that Marx’s analyses are arguably resonating even more strongly today than they did in his own time.Table of Contents1. The Factory and the Family as Spaces of Capital (Himani Bannerji).- 2. Marx on Gender, Race, and Social Reproduction: A Feminist Perspective (Silvia Federici).- 3. Capital as a Social Relation: Form Analysis and Class Struggle (Bob Jessop).- 4. Commodity and the Postmodern Spectacle (Alfonso Maurizio Iacono).- 5. Primitive Accumulation as the Cause of Economic and Ecological Disaster (Kohei Saito).- 6. Marx and Environmental Catastrophe (Gregory Claeys).- 7. Finding a Way Out of the Anthropocene: The Theory of ‘Radical Needs’ and the Ecological Transition (Razmig Keucheyan).- 8. Accumulation and Its Discontents: Migration and Nativism in Marx’s Capital and Late Manuscripts (David Norman Smith).- 9. Marx on Migration and Industrial Reserve Army: Not to Be Misused! (Pietro Basso).- 10. Globalisation, Migrant Labour, and Capitalism: Past and Present (Ranabir Samaddar).- 11. The Experience of the Paris Commune and Marx’s Reflections on Communism (Marcello Musto).- 12. Communism as Probability and Contingency (Álvaro García Linera).- 13. Uniting Communism and Liberalism: An Unsolvable Task or a Most Urgent Necessity? (Michael Brie).

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Book SynopsisThis Pivot book provides a wide-ranging and diverse commentary on issues of legibility (and illegibility) around poetry, antifascist pacifist activism, environmentalism and the language of protest. A timely meditation from poet John Kinsella, the book focuses on participation in protest, demonstration and intervention on behalf of human rights activism, and writing and acting peacefully but persistently against tyranny. The book also examines how we make records and what we do with them, how we might use poetry to act or enact and/or to discuss such necessities and events. A book about community, human and animal rights and the way poetry can be used as a peaceful and decisive means of intervention in moment of public social and environmental crisis. Ultimately, it is a poetics against fascism with a focus on the well-being of the biosphere and all it contains. Table of Contents1. A Pacifist Antifa Poetics.- 2. Handwriting Protest.- 3. Marks.- 4. Privilege, Property, Opprobrium.- 5. Modes of Protest.- 6. Legibility of Journal Extracts January 2020 — followed by extracts from handwritten journal.- 7. Micro and Macro Aggressions and Social Contracts.- 8. Versions of Mallarmé.- 9. Against Competition/Against Winning... and Consequence Theory.- 10. Note in Journal Extracts 2017-2020 — followed by extracts from handwritten journals.- 11. Palestine and Israel.- 12. On Injustice. On peace. On Justice. On Peace....- 13. Pandemic/s.- 14. Choice and Whose Rights We Are Talking About? Cruelty and Animal Rights... Justice, Genetics and Consensus.- 15. Empathy, Not ‘Property’.- 16. ‘Conclusion’.

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This book offers students a philosophical introduction to the ethical foundations of business management. It combines lessons from Kant with virtue ethics and also touches upon additional approaches such as utilitarianism. At the core of the book lies the concept of the nexus of imperfect managerial duty: building and reinforcing the virtuous managerial team, engaging in reasoned discourse among all stakeholders, and diligently pursuing business responsibilities, including the creative efforts necessary for modern organizations.Case illustrations of these applications are presented throughout the book, including chapter appendices. Ancillary videos, test and answer banks and sample syllabi are available online via the author’s website.

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Book Synopsis1. Mark Balaguer, Why the Market Value of Free Will is $99.99.- 2. David Baker, Many-worlds and Free Will.- 3. Kiki Berk, Death, God, and Meaning in Ted Chiang's Stories.- 4. Bradley Rettler, The Presence of Evil and the Absence of God.- 5. Gabe Rabin, Mysterious Ways: Making Sense of God's Actions in Hell Is the Absence of God.

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Book SynopsisChapter 01: Introduction.- Chapter 02: Metaphysics of War.- Chapter 03: War and (Peace)…War. Philosophical Reflection on Moral Questions.- Chapter 04: Time for Peace in Times of War: Cinema as Existential Hope in Frantz (2016).- Chapter 05: Is War Needed to Live in Peace?.- Chapter 06: Militarizing International Relations.- Chapter 07: Toward a Rational Foundation for the Idea of Peace. Arendt’s Philosophical Considerations of Kantian Ethical Philosophy.- Chapter 08: Thinking Hope in Times of War. Peace as a Realistic Utopia.- Chapter 09: Spiritual Activism: Imagine Peace and Social Transformation from New Perspectives.

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Book SynopsisDie politische Kultur der westlichen Welt in einer breit angelegten Gesamtschau. Von den Griechen und ihrer Entdeckung von Politik und Demokratie, über die Römer und die christliche Welt bis zur Gegenwart, die vom Kampf um Menschenrechte und dem Totalitarismus zugleich gezeichnet ist, wird das ganze Spektrum des Politischen Denkens vorgestellt. Band 3/2: Politisches Denken in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Welche Denker, Philosophen, Historiker und Literaten prägten diese Epoche? Von der Amerikanischen und Französischen Revolution über Napoleon bis zum Ende der klassischen Epoche gibt der Band einen kompakten und gut verständlichen Überblick. Die politische Philosophie des Deutschen Idealismus und das politische Denken der Klassiker werden eingehend erläutert. Inklusive Kurzbiografien und ausführlichen Bibliografien.

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Book SynopsisDie politische Kultur der westlichen Welt in einer breit angelegten Gesamtschau. Von den Griechen und ihrer Entdeckung von Politik und Demokratie, über die Römer und die christliche Welt bis zur Gegenwart, die vom Kampf um Menschenrechte und dem Totalitarismus zugleich gezeichnet ist, wird das ganze Spektrum des Politischen Denkens vorgestellt. Band 3/3: Von Konservatismus und Liberalismus bis Nietzsche. Die Entstehung und Ausformung aller zentralen politischen Strömungen des 19. Jahrhunderts sind Thema des Bandes. Konservatismus und Liberalismus, Sozialismus und Kommunismus (der utopische und der wissenschaftliche), individualistischer und kollektivistischer Anarchismus alle politischen Denkrichtungen und ihre jeweiligen Vertreter werden dargestellt. Mit Kurzbiografien und ausführlichen Bibliografien.

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Book SynopsisWhat comes after biopolitics in the age of global catastrophes?

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Book Synopsis

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

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

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

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

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Book Synopsis The seventeenth century was England's century of revolution, an era in which the nation witnessed protracted civil wars, the execution of a king, and the declaration of a short-lived republic. During this period of revolutionary crisis, political writers of all persuasions hoped to shape the outcome of events by the force of their arguments. To read the major political theorists of Stuart England is to be plunged into a world in which many of our modern conceptions of political rights and social change are first formulated. David Wootton''s masterly compilation of speeches, essays, and fiercely polemical pamphlets--organized into chapters focusing on the main debates of the century--represents the first attempt to present in one volume a broad collection of Stuart political thought. In bringing together abstract theorizing and impassioned calls to arms, anonymous tract writers and King James I, Wootton has produced a much-needed collection; in combination with the editor's thoughtful running commentary and invaluable Introduction, its texts bring to life a crucial period in the formation of our modern liberal and conservative theories.

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Book SynopsisA translation into modern English of Aquinas unfinished commentary on Aristotle's Politics, this title follows the Leonine text of Aquinas and reproduces in English those passages of William of Moerbeke's famously accurate yet elliptical translation of the "Politics" from which Aquinas worked.

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Book SynopsisWhat is work that’s worth doing in a life worth living? A revealing exploration of the questions we ask and the stories we tell about our work. According to recent studies, barely a third of American workers feel “engaged” at work, and for many people around the world, happiness is lowest when earning power is highest. After a global pandemic that changed why, how, and what people do for a living, many workers find themselves wondering what makes their daily routine worthwhile. In Is Your Work Worth It?, two professors – a philosopher and organizational psychologist – investigate the purpose of work and its value in our lives. The book explores vital questions, such as:  Should you work for love or money? When and how much should you work? What would make life worth living in a world without work? What kind of mark will your work leave on the world?

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Book SynopsisIn 1848 and again in 1849, Henry David Thoreau delivered a lecture in Concord, Massachusetts on “the relationship of the individual to the state.” The essay now known as Civil Disobedience is a significant and widely admired contribution to abolitionist literature, as well as an anti-war tract, but Thoreau’s focus is less on political organization and solidarity than it is on personal choice and individual responsibility. Cultivating personal integrity in the face of political injustice is the project Thoreau defends in Civil Disobedience; this focus has made the work highly influential to 20th- and 21st-century political movements.Robert Pepperman Taylor’s new Introduction explains the work’s specific political context, helping readers to understand the text as Thoreau wrote it. The edition also offers a number of historical documents on Thoreau’s abolitionism; the United States’ war with Mexico; and Thoreau’s philosophical development in relation to other thinkers.Trade Review“In this season of political unrest, the arrival of Bob Pepperman Taylor’s teaching edition of Henry David Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience’ couldn’t be better timed … it should be required reading for every person who opines on Thoreau’s essay, whether student, scholar or activist” — Laura Dassow Walls, Early American Literature“This volume greatly contributes to our ability to understand Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience as a product of a specific historical context. It is a valuable piece of scholarship on the history of political thought regarding Thoreau’s essay. The introduction is pitched at a level that is appropriate to undergraduates and is written in a very interesting, engaging, and readable style. But given the historically situated analysis of Thoreau’s writing of Civil Disobedience, this volume will also be a valuable resource for established scholars as well. The additional primary texts are thoughtfully selected and relevant, and they help give us a more complete portrait of Thoreau in his time: with these additional readings, we can better grasp the historical context of many of the enigmatic references Thoreau makes in Civil Disobedience.” — Shannon Mariotti, Southwestern University“A masterful historical contextualization. Bob Pepperman Taylor’s introduction is a model of scholarship and his annotations are consistently illuminating. The supplementary voices, ranging from William Paley to Henry Highland Garnet to Daniel Webster to Ralph Waldo Emerson to Abraham Lincoln, help bring Thoreau to life by setting him in his place and time.” — Jack Turner, University of Washington, editor of A Political Companion to Henry David ThoreauTable of ContentsIntroductionCivil DisobedienceAppendix A: Thoreau’s Abolitionism DevelopedFrom Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown (1860) Appendix B: Abolitionism Henry Highland Garnet, Address to the Slaves of the United States (1865) Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, Tea-Table Talk (1836) William Lloyd Garrison, Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1852) From William Lloyd Garrison, Declaration of Sentiments Adopted by the Peace Convention, The Liberator (28 Sept. 1838) William Lloyd Garrison, The American Union (1845) Appendix C: Sectionalism and the Constitution Samuel Hoar, Report on His Mission to Charleston, South Carolina (1845) From Daniel Webster, Speech in Senate, 12 August 1848 From Daniel Webster, Speech at Capon Springs, Virginia, 28 June 1851 Appendix D: War with MexicoFrom Abraham Lincoln, Speech in U.S. House of Representatives on War with Mexico (1848)Appendix E: Moral and Philosophical Context From William Paley, The Duty of Submission to Civil Government Explained (1822) Ralph Waldo Emerson, Politics (1844)

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Book SynopsisPinpoints how dogwhistles and figleaves, two kinds of linguistic trick, distort political discourse and normalize racismIt is widely accepted that political discourse in recent years has become more openly racist and more accepting of wildly implausible conspiracy theories. Dogwhistles and Figleaves explores ways in which such changes--both of which defied previously settled norms of political speech--have been brought about. Jennifer Saul shows that two linguistic devices, dogwhistles and figleaves, have played a crucial role. Some dogwhistles (such as 88, used by Nazis online to mean Heil Hitler) serve to disguise messages that would otherwise be rejected as unacceptable, allowing them to be transmitted surreptitiously. Other dogwhistles (like the 1988 Willie Horton ad) work by influencing people in ways that they are not aware of, and which they would likely reject were they aware. Figleaves (such as just asking questions) take messages that could easily be recognized as unacceptablTrade ReviewIt's a scrupulous look at a damaging linguistic phenomenon that often hides in plain sight. * Publishers Weekly *What is interesting about Saul's study is the instability of meaning it reveals, the layers of deception employed not only by speakers, but by listeners, who are occasionally deluding themselves ... clear, engaging and very readable. * Roisin Kiberd, Irish Independent *There is no doubt that our current political climate is posing a threat to democracy. It is not only that we are polarized, but polarization is fueled by an onslaught of (often thinly veiled) manipulative speech and falsehoods. Media consumers absorb distorting messages without even being aware of it, and speakers are not held responsible. Dogwhistles and Figleaves provides an essential tool for seeing how our ability to communicate and to coordinate is being undermined. This theoretically rich and highly readable book is essential for those who value democracy, and the kind of public discourse that makes it possible. * Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Genders Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Racism 1: White Racism, White Folk Racial Theory, and White Racial Discourse 2: Racist Dogwhistles 3: Figleaves for Racism Part 2: Falsehood 4: The Rise of Blatant Falsehood and Wild Conspiracism 5: Figleaves, Dogwhistles, and Falsehood 6: Obvious Falsehoods Without Deniability 7: Dogwhistles, Figleaves, and the Fight Against Racism and Blatant Falsehood

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Book SynopsisA prominent German thinker argues that—contrary to “Twitter Revolution” cheerleading—digital communication is destroying political discourse and political action.The shitstorm represents an authentic phenomenon of digital communication.—from In the SwarmDigital communication and social media have taken over our lives. In this contrarian reflection on digitized life, Byung-Chul Han counters the cheerleaders for Twitter revolutions and Facebook activism by arguing that digital communication is in fact responsible for the disintegration of community and public space and is slowly eroding any possibility for real political action and meaningful political discourse. In the predigital, analog era, by the time an angry letter to the editor had been composed, mailed, and received, the immediate agitation had passed. Today, digital communication enables instantaneous, impulsive reaction, meant to express and stir up outrage on the spot.

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Book SynopsisWe turn to Machiavelli at every tumultuous period in history - he is the one who knows how to philosophize in dark times. In fact, since his death in 1527, we have never stopped reading him, always to pull ourselves out of a torpor. But what do we really know about this man? Is there more to his work than that term for political evil, Machiavellianism? It was Machiavelli's luck to be disappointed by every statesman he encountered - that was why he had to create his paper Prince. Today, the question that remains is not why he wrote, but for whom - for princes or for those who want to resist them? What is the art of governing? Is it to take power, or to keep it? In this timely book, Patrick Boucheron undoes many of our assumptions about Machiavelli, showing how his rich, complex thought is key to understanding his time, and may be crucial to interrogating our own.

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