Search results for ""Commons""
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC On Hellenism, Judaism, Individualism, and Early Christian Theories of the Subject
This first of a two-volume work provides a new understanding of Western subjectivity as theorized in the Augustinian Rule. A theopolitical synthesis of Antiquity, the Rule is a humble, yet extremely influential example of subjectivity production. In these volumes, Jodra argues that the Classical and Late-Ancient communitarian practices along the Mediterranean provide historical proof of a worldview in which the self and the other are not disjunctive components, but mutually inclusive forces. The Augustinian Rule is a culmination of this process and also the beginning of something new: the paradigm of the monastic self as protagonist of the new, medieval worldview. In this volume, Jodra takes one of the most influential and pervasive commons experiments—Augustine’s Rule—and gives us its Mediterranean backstory, with an eye to solving at last the riddle of socialism. In volume two, he will present his solution in full, as a kind of Augustinian communitarianism for today. These volumes therefore restore the unity of the Hellenistic and Judaic world as found by the first Christians, proving that the self and the other are two essential pieces in the construction of our world.
£33.76
Palgrave Macmillan A History of British Prime Ministers (Omnibus Edition): Walpole to Cameron
Fifty-two men and one woman have held the post of Prime Minister during the past three centuries - from Sir Robert Walpole to David Cameron. In this omnibus edition, which includes Eighteenth-Century British Premiers, Nineteenth-Century British Premiers, A Century of Premiers, plus new and updated chapters on Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, Dick Leonard recounts the circumstances which took them to the top of the ‘greasy pole’, probes their political and personal strengths and weaknesses, assesses their performance in office and asks what lasting influence they have had. The author also recounts fascinating and often littleknown facts about the private lives of each of the Prime Ministers, for example who was suspected of being the illegitimate half-brother of George III, who was assassinated in the House of Commons, who spent his evenings prowling the streets of London, trying to ‘reform’ prostitutes, which two premiers, one Tory one Labour, were taught by the same governess as a child, and who was described by his own son as ‘probably the greatest natural Don Juan in the history of British politics’?
£161.99
Watkins Media Limited Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It
Over the last decade, blockchains and crypto have opened up a new terrain for political action. It is not surprising, however, that the crypto space has also become overrun by unscrupulous marketing, theft and scams. The problem is real, but it isn't a new one. Capitalism has ruined crypto, but that shouldn't be the end of it. Blockchain Radicals shows us how this has happened, and how to fix crypto in a way that is understandable for those who have never owned a cryptocurrency as well as those who are building their own decentralised applications. Covering everything from how Bitcoin saved WikiLeaks to decentralised finance, worker cooperatives, the environmental impact of Bitcoin and NFTs, and the crypto commons, it shows how these new tools can be used to challenge capitalism and build a better world for all of us. While crypto is often thought of as being synonymous with unbridled capitalism, Blockchain Radicals shows instead how the technology can and has been used for more radical purposes, beyond individual profit and towards collective autonomy.
£13.60
Taylor & Francis Ltd The Syriac World
This volume surveys the 'Syriac world', the culture that grew up among the Syriac-speaking communities from the second century CE and which continues to exist and flourish today, both in its original homeland of Syria and Mesopotamia, and in the worldwide diaspora of Syriac-speaking communities. The five sections examine the religion; the material, visual, and literary cultures; the history and social structures of this diverse community; and Syriac interactions with their neighbours ancient and modern. There are also detailed appendices detailing the patriarchs of the different Syriac denominations, and another appendix listing useful online resources for students.The Syriac Worldoffers the first complete survey of Syriac culture and fills a significant gap in modern scholarship. This volume will be an invaluable resource to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Syriac and Middle Eastern culture from antiquity to the modern era.Chapter 26 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
£205.00
Taylor & Francis Ltd Designs for Experimentation and Inquiry: Approaching Learning and Knowing in Digital Transformation
Designs for Experimentation and Inquiry examines how digital media is reconfiguring the established worlds of research, education and professional practice. It reflects on the theoretical, methodological and ethical issues shaping contemporary engagements with digital learning and offers insights for both analysing and intervening in digital learning practices.This insightful volume fills a gap in the current literature by bringing together experiences from Sociocultural Studies of Learning, Science and Technology Studies, and Design Studies. Each chapter is an innovative case study, examining a different aspect of digital media’s role in research, education and professional practice by exploring topics such as:Learning practices and digitalized dialogueDigital design experimentsDigitally mediated collaborationsEthical digital inquiry and designExpertly researched and written, this book is a unique resource for scholars, researchers and professionals working in the fields of digital design, applied technology and the learning sciences.The Preface, and Introduction, as well as Chapters 3 and 5 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
£33.29
Cornerstone The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990
The Benn Diaries, embracing the years 1940-1990, are already established as a uniquely authoritative, fascinating and readable record of political life. The selected highlights that form this single-volume edition include the most notable events, arguments and personal reflections throughout Benn's long and remarkable career as a leading politician.The narrative starts with Benn as a schoolboy and takes the reader through his youthful wartime experiences as a trainee pilot, his nervous excitement as a new MP during Clement Atlee's premiership and the tribulations of Labour in the 1950s, when the Conservatives were in firm control. It ends with the Tories again in power, but on the eve of Margaret Thatcher's fall, while Tony Benn is on a mission to Baghdad before the impending Gulf War.Over the span of fifty years, the public and private turmoil in British and world politics is recorded as Benn himself moves from wartime service to become the baby of the House, Cabinet Minister, and finally the Commons' most senior Labour Member.
£16.99
John Wiley and Sons Ltd China Goes Green: Coercive Environmentalism for a Troubled Planet
What does it mean for the future of the planet when one of the world’s most durable authoritarian governance systems pursues “ecological civilization”? Despite its staggering pollution and colossal appetite for resources, China exemplifies a model of state-led environmentalism which concentrates decisive political, economic, and epistemic power under centralized leadership. On the face of it, China seems to embody hope for a radical new approach to environmental governance. In this thought-provoking book, Yifei Li and Judith Shapiro probe the concrete mechanisms of China’s coercive environmentalism to show how ‘going green’ helps the state to further other agendas such as citizen surveillance and geopolitical influence. Through top-down initiatives, regulations, and campaigns to mitigate pollution and environmental degradation, the Chinese authorities also promote control over the behavior of individuals and enterprises, pacification of borderlands, and expansion of Chinese power and influence along the Belt and Road and even into the global commons. Given the limited time that remains to mitigate climate change and protect millions of species from extinction, we need to consider whether a green authoritarianism can show us the way. This book explores both its promises and risks.
£16.82
Biteback Publishing The Honourable Ladies: Profiles of Women MPS 1918-1996: Volume I
FOREWORD BY PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY When Constance Markievicz stood for election as MP for Dublin St Patrick's in 1918, few people believed she could win the seat - yet she did. A breakthrough in the bitter struggle for female enfranchisement had come earlier that year, followed by a second landmark piece of legislation allowing women to be elected to Parliament - and Markievicz duly became the first female MP. A member of Sinn Fein, she refused to take her seat. She did, however, pave the way for future generations, and only eleven months later, Nancy Astor entered the Commons. A century on from that historic event, 491 women have now passed through the hallowed doors of Parliament. Each one of these pioneers has fought tenaciously to introduce enduring reform, and in doing so has helped revolutionise Britain's political landscape, ensuring that women's contributions are not consigned to the history books. Containing profiles of every woman MP from 1918 to 1996, and with female contributors from Mary Beard to Caroline Lucas, Ruth Davidson to Yvette Cooper and Margaret Beckett to Ann Widdecombe, The Honourable Ladies is an indispensable and illuminating testament to the stories and achievements of these remarkable women.
£27.00
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens
This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Guy Standing's immensely influential 2011 book introduced the Precariat as an emerging mass class, characterized by inequality and insecurity. Standing outlined the increasingly global nature of the Precariat as a social phenomenon, especially in the light of the social unrest characterized by the Occupy movements. He outlined the political risks they might pose, and at what might be done to diminish inequality and allow such workers to find a more stable labour identity. His concept and his conclusions have been widely taken up by thinkers from Noam Chomsky to Zygmunt Bauman, by political activists and by policy-makers. This new book takes the debate a stage further, looking in more detail at the kind of progressive politics that might form the vision of a Good Society in which such inequality, and the instability it produces, is reduced. A Precariat Charter discusses how rights - political, civil, social and economic - have been denied to the Precariat, and argues for the importance of redefining our social contract around notions of associational freedom, agency and the commons.
£26.05
Springer Nature Switzerland AG Implementation Science 3.0
This textbook presents a much-needed overview of the recent developments in implementation science — a discipline that is young, has gained increasing attention in recent years, and has experienced substantial and rapid growth in knowledgeproduction and debate. It captures the latest developments in research and pushes the reader toward the next phase for implementation science: bridging the science-to-practice divide. Drawing from multidisciplinary, international research by top scholars in the field, this book provides a critical but friendly approach to understanding what implementation science is, what it isn’t, and where it’s going.Topics include:• Factors associated with effective implementation• Organizational context and readiness for change• Implementation theories, models, and frameworks• Enhancing implementation measurement• Bringing interventions to scale• Closing the science-practice gap in implementationImplementation Science 3.0 is a timely, important resource for researchers, students, and others with an interest in implementation working across the fields of social welfare,public health, education, and psychology.The chapter “Making sense of implementation theories, models and frameworks”,in which some modifications to the text were made, is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License in Nilsen, P. (2015). Implementation Science, 10(53), via link.springer.com.
£74.99
Waterside Press The Jewish Contribution to English Law: Through 1858 to Modern Times
The story of Jewish emancipation is not well-known, nor how Jews came to make such a significant contribution to the law and democracy in England. This book recounts how Jews first came to England, were expelled, returned, and eventually assumed their place in Parliament and on the bench in court. It tells of the first Jewish politicians, lawyers and judges who later occupied prominent roles as President of the Supreme Court, Lord Chief Justice, Master of the Rolls and Attorney-General. The turning point was an 1858 Act of Parliament which allowed Jews and others to take an oath compatible with their own religious beliefs (extending comparable benefits conferred on Catholics almost 70 years before). This opened the doors for the first unconverted Jewish MP, Lionel de Rothschild who won a seat in the House of Commons four times without until then being able to occupy it. The book surveys Jewish tradition from ancient times to the days when modern governments turned to Jewish lawyers in troubling moments - and it lists lawyers famous and less well-known: judges, politicians, the innovators, the experts, and the mavericks who helped build the system we have today.
£25.00
Transworld Publishers Ltd Bryant & May - Oranges and Lemons
'The most consistently brilliant, entertaining and educational voice in contemporary British crime fiction, the utterly fabulous Christopher Fowler.' Cathi Unsworth, CRIMESQUADIt's a Sunday morning, and the outspoken Speaker of the House of Commons has just been crushed under a mountain of citrus fruit . . .Bizarre accident or something more sinister? The government needs to know because here's a man who knows a thing or two that could compromise its future.Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit should be on the case, however it seems the PCU is no more with one detective is in hospital, the other gone AWOL with the rest of the team having been dismissed. But events escalate, and soon a series of brutal yet undeniably clever killings linked to an old English nursery rhyme threaten society's very foundations and out-of-the-blue the PCU is (temporarily) back in business.And if the two detectives - 'old men in a woke world' - can set aside their differences and discover why some of London's most influential figures are being threatened, they might not only save the unit but also prevent the city from descending into chaos . . .
£9.99
Biteback Publishing Unmasking Our Leaders: Confessions of a Political Documentary-Maker
A Daily Mail Political Book of the Year Our political leaders spend their careers spinning their images and polishing their achievements; Michael Cockerell has spent his professional life stripping off the gloss. Over fifty years, he has gained unrivalled access to the secret chambers of Westminster and Whitehall. Here, he reveals in illuminating and often hilarious stories what our top politicians are really like behind the mask. Drawing on his unique experience of having filmed all the past ten Prime Ministers, Cockerell tells how he manages to lull some of the wariest people in the land into candour, and shows how questions of sex are never far from the surface in Westminster. Amongst much else, he recounts: how Margaret Thatcher flirted with him on screen but attacked him by name in the Commons; how Tony Blair said he would willingly 'pay the blood price' in Iraq; how David Cameron learned from Enoch Powell always to make a big speech on a full bladder - and how Boris Johnson admitted to doubts about his ability to be Prime Minister. Funny, riveting and above all revealing, Unmasking Our Leaders is an absorbing insight into half a century of British politics.
£11.69
Biteback Publishing Outside In
Peter Hain has lived an extraordinary life. Formerly an 'outsider' he became an 'insider', one of the last Labour government's most effective ministers. He held an array of glittering posts in the British political establishment, from key roles in the Foreign Office and the Department of Trade and Industry, to the leadership of the Commons and the brokering of the 2007 devolution settlement in Northern Ireland. But his journey to become a British Cabinet Minister started on a different continent. Growing up in Pretoria, South Africa, life changed irrevocably when a close family friend was hanged by the apartheid government. Before that, the security police had taken his activist parents away in the middle of the night. The political values he holds today spring from the injustices he witnessed growing up and which drew him into politics in the first place. As the eldest child, Hain was left to look after his younger brother and two small sisters. Thus began his career as a militant antiapartheid protester. Far from the bloated memoirs of a former government insider, this is the story of a courageous, campaigning life that is intrinsically bound up with the destiny of South Africa.
£12.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Qualitative Interviewing: Research Methods
First published Open Access under a Creative Commons license as What is Qualitative Interviewing?, this title is now also available as part of the Bloomsbury Research Methods series. This book is a step-by-step guide for new and experienced social science researchers looking to use interviews in their projects. Rosalind Edwards and Janet Holland explain a range of interview types and practices, providing real research examples as informative illustrations of qualitative interviewing in practice, and the use of a range of creative interview tools. This new and expanded edition includes: - recent developments in the radical critique of interviews debate focusing on form and content of interviews; - the strategic shift to online interviewing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic; - discussion of the decolonization of methodology and research, and the growing attention to indigenous methodologies for generating data; - an assessment of the changing landscape for qualitative interviewing. The authors explore the use of new technologies as well as issues around asking and listening, and power dynamics in research. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book concludes with an updated annotated bibliography of key texts and journals in the field.
£18.61
Cranthorpe Millner Publishers Still Alive (Surprisingly)
A laugh-out-loud memoir by Parachute Regiment and 22 SAS veteran John Wick – the man who helped break the story of the 2009 MPs’ Expenses Scandal. Have you ever wondered how to conduct a ransom negotiation? Would you know what to do if you accidentally found yourself in a room full of Columbian drug barons? How would you feel if you were hurtling towards the ground beneath a partially-inflated parachute? Would you panic if you were threatened with imprisonment by the Speaker of the House of Commons? These are only a few of the dilemmas faced by John during 60 years of adventures, in both Army and civilian life, which at times left him perilously close to having a rendezvous with the Grim Reaper. This is a book about family, friendship, travel and, above all, John’s enduring resilience in the face of adversity. It ends in 2009 with the MPs’ Expenses Scandal, which rocked the nation and destroyed the careers of many Members of Parliament. Who can forget the revelations of wrongdoing that filled the pages of The Daily Telegraph newspaper that Spring? Without John Wick’s courage and determination to do the right thing, at a risk to his own safety, the truth might have remained hidden from public scrutiny forever.
£12.99
Pluto Press Elinor Ostrom's Rules for Radicals: Cooperative Alternatives beyond Markets and States
Elinor Ostrom was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics. Her theorising of the commons has been celebrated as groundbreaking and opening the way for non-capitalist economic alternatives, yet, many radicals know little about her. This book redresses this, revealing the indispensability of her work for green politics, left economics and radical democracy. Ostrom has often been viewed as a conservative or managerial thinker; but Derek Wall’s analysis of her work reveals a how it is invaluable for developing a left political programme in the twenty-first century. Central to Ostrom’s work was the move ‘beyond panaceas’; transforming institutions to widen participation, promote diversity and favour cooperation over competition. She regularly challenged academia as individualist, narrow and elitist and promoted a radical take on education, based on participation. Her investigations into how we share finite resources has radical implications for the Green movement and her rubric for a functioning collective ownership is highly relevant in order in achieving radical social change. As activists continue to reject traditional models of centralised power, Ostrom’s work will become even more vital, offering a guide to creating economics that exists beyond markets and states.
£18.99
SPCK Publishing Faithful Witness: The Confidential Diaries of Alan Don, Chaplain to the King, the Archbishop and the Speaker, 1931-1946
In May 1931, Alan Don travelled from Dundee to Lambeth Palace to become Chaplain to Archbishop Cosmo Lang. During that journey he began a diary. He kept it faithfully for the next fifteen years, during which he also became Chaplain to the King and to the Speaker of the House of Commons. These positions afforded him a ringside view of some of the most momentous events in both British and world history - including the abdication of Edward VIII, the coronation of George VI, the rise of Hitler and the trauma of the Second World War. Now, for the first time, these fascinating diaries are laid open. They offer a wealth of detailed insight into the ecclesiastical, royal and parliamentary affairs of Britain and her elite during two historically significant decades. They also open a window on the history of the Church of England and its role in the social, political and military upheavals of the 1930s and 40s. Anyone who wants to know more about how Great Britain survived those turbulent times, will be amply rewarded by this engaging, perceptive and revealing eye-witness account.
£27.90
Harvard University Press The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding
Winner of the Society of the Cincinnati History Prize, Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New JerseyFinalist, George Washington PrizeA Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2015Generations of students have been taught that the American Revolution was a revolt against royal tyranny. In this revisionist account, Eric Nelson argues that a great many of our “founding fathers” saw themselves as rebels against the British Parliament, not the Crown. The Royalist Revolution interprets the patriot campaign of the 1770s as an insurrection in favor of royal power—driven by the conviction that the Lords and Commons had usurped the just prerogatives of the monarch.“The Royalist Revolution is a thought-provoking book, and Nelson is to be commended for reviving discussion of the complex ideology of the American Revolution. He reminds us that there was a spectrum of opinion even among the most ardent patriots and a deep British influence on the political institutions of the new country.”—Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Wall Street Journal“A scrupulous archaeology of American revolutionary thought.”—Thomas Meaney, The Nation“A powerful double-barrelled challenge to historiographical orthodoxy.”—Colin Kidd, London Review of Books“[A] brilliant and provocative analysis of the American Revolution.”—John Brewer, New York Review of Books
£21.95
University of Wales Press Gentility in Early Modern Wales: The Salesbury Family, 1450–1720
OPEN ACCESS To read the PDF of Gentility in Early Modern Wales: The Salesbury Family, 1450–1720 for free, follow the link below Gentility in Early Modern Wales: The Salesbury Family, 1450–1720 (uwp.co.uk) This book is freely available on a Creative Commons licence thanks to the kind sponsorship of the libraries participating in the Jisc Open Access Community Framework OpenUP initiative. Early modern Wales was a place of opportunity for the gentry. The Acts of Union with England granted them powers to govern their local communities, the Reformation enabled them to add former monastic lands to their estates, and burgeoning global expansion encouraged them to seek fortunes abroad. Early modern Wales was also a place in transition. The gentry navigated a complex relationship with their English neighbours and found themselves cultivating a new identity as Cambro-Britons. This book is an exciting new study of how one Welsh gentry family, the Salesburys of Rhug and Bachymbyd, negotiated the changing expectations of gentility in early modern Wales. From this in-depth analysis, the book finds that the Welsh gentry were status-conscious and opportunistic, but Welshness remained fundamental to their sense of self. This is further enhanced by considering the early modern Welsh gentry within a wider global context for the first time.
£24.99
Quercus Publishing Foundryside
'The exciting beginning of a promising new epic fantasy series. Prepare for ancient mysteries, innovative magic, and heart-pounding heists' Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of OathbringerShe thought it was just another job. But her discovery could bring the city to its knees . . .In the city of Tevanne, you either have everything, or nothing. For escaped slave Sancia Grado, eking out a precarious living in the hellhole known as the Commons, nothing is just one misstep away. So when she is offered a lucrative job to steal an ancient artefact from a heavily guarded warehouse, she leaps at the chance. But instead of a way out of Tevanne, she finds herself the target of a murderous conspiracy. Someone powerful wants the artefact, and Sancia dead. To survive, Sancia will need every ally and every ounce of wits at her disposal - because if her unknown enemy unlocks the artefact's secrets, the world - and reality - will never be the same.'Robert Jackson Bennett deserves a huge audience' Brent Weeks'An altogether terrific read' Sebastien de Castell'Intricate worldbuilding, fascinating magic, and engaging characters. More please!' Felicia Day'Inventive, immersive, and thrilling . . . Do yourself a favor and pick this up!' Kevin Hearne
£10.99
University College Dublin Press Justin McCarthy
Justin McCarthy (1830-1912) is the forgotten leader of the Irish Home Rule Movement. Overshadowed by Parnell before him and the 1916 leaders shortly after his death, McCarthy's considerable contribution to the national cause has been largely overlooked. Without his conciliatory chairmanship (1890-6), the Irish Party would have subdivided further after the Parnell split; the critical Liberal alliance would have ended; and the House of Commons would not have passed Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill in 1893. Born in Cork but living in London, McCarthy was not a career politician, but rather a respected and financially successful writer, who championed many liberal causes long before becoming actively involved in politics. He was elected a Home Rule Party MP in 1879, and the party's vice-chairman the following year. His subsequent time as chairman, beginning with the 1890 split, spanned a period of intense struggle over the second Home Rule Bill. During these demanding years he sacrificed his health and income for the national cause - 'the religion of my life'. This biography restores its subject to his rightful place in the front rank of Irish leaders - Parnell, McCarthy, Redmond - who led the Irish Party into parliamentary battle in pursuit of Home Rule.
£14.39
Biteback Publishing Max Beaverbrook: Not Quite A Gentleman
Financial magician, flamboyant politician, minister in both world wars, press baron, serial philanderer, Winston Churchill's boon companion in the dark days of 1940-41 and in his later years, Max Beaverbrook was without a doubt one of the most colourful characters of the first half of the twentieth century. Born and brought up in the Scottish Presbyterian fastness of northeast Canada, he escaped to make his fortune in Canadian financial markets. By 1910, when he migrated to Britain at the age of thirty-one, he was already a multimillionaire. With a seat in the House of Commons and then a peerage, he came to know all the senior figures in both British and Canadian politics. In acquiring the Daily Express, he not only built it into a news empire but used its considerable influence to campaign for his own pet causes. As Charles Williams's sweeping biography shows, Beaverbrook was loved and loathed in equal measure. Nevertheless, Williams brings to life a rounded character, with all its flaws and virtues. Above all, it is a story of eighty years of entrepreneurism, political dogfights, wars, sex and grand living, all set in the rich tapestry of the dramatic years of the twentieth century.
£22.50
Springer Nature Switzerland AG Trauma, Experience and Narrative in Europe after World War II
This book promotes a historically and culturally sensitive understanding of trauma during and after World War II. Focusing especially on Eastern and Central Europe, its contributors take a fresh look at the experiences of violence and loss in 1939–45 and their long-term effects in different cultures and societies. The chapters analyze traumatic experiences among soldiers and civilians alike and expand the study of traumatic violence beyond psychiatric discourses and treatments. While acknowledging the problems of applying a present-day medical concept to the past, this book makes a case for a cultural, social and historical study of trauma. Moving the focus of historical trauma studies from World War I to World War II and from Western Europe to the east, it breaks new ground and helps to explain the troublesome politics of memory and trauma in post-1945 Europe all the way to the present day. This book is an outcome of a workshop project ‘Historical Trauma Studies,’ funded by the Joint Committee for the Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) in 2018–20.Chapters 4, 5 and 6 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
£44.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Stretching the Constitution: The Brexit Shock in Historic Perspective
How far did the European Union (EU) referendum result of 23 June 2016 really justify and necessitate the policies executed in response to it? What are the implications of that vote and its prolonged aftermath for the United Kingdom (UK) constitution? What other challenges does our political system face? This book seeks to answer these questions. It considers from a constitutional perspective the way in which the decision to leave the EU was taken and then implemented, discussing in particular the role of Parliament. It includes a close analysis of the referendum legislation, and relevant Commons debates. Adapting methods from applied history, the author considers the wider implications of Brexit by assessing a series of proposals for constitutional reform produced in the UK since 1900. He addresses features of the UK system including referendums, representative democracy, Parliament, devolution, and the executive, from both an historic and contemporary point of view. The book assesses other issues that do not arise directly from Brexit but that have constitutional implications and a global aspect to them. They include political applications of the Internet and climate change. Finally, the author makes a series of proposals for reforms that will help the democratic system of the UK to adapt to its changing environment.
£95.87
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Common: On Revolution in the 21st Century
Around the globe, contemporary protest movements are contesting the oligarchic appropriation of natural resources, public services, and shared networks of knowledge and communication. These struggles raise the same fundamental demand and rest on the same irreducible principle: the common. In this exhaustive account, Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval show how the common has become the defining principle of alternative political movements in the 21st century. In societies deeply shaped by neoliberal rationality, the common is increasingly invoked as the operative concept of practical struggles creating new forms of democratic governance. In a feat of analytic clarity, Dardot and Laval dissect and synthesize a vast repository on the concept of the commons, from the fields of philosophy, political theory, economics, legal theory, history, theology, and sociology. Instead of conceptualizing the common as an essence of man or as inherent in nature, the thread developed by Dardot and Laval traces the active lives of human beings: only a practical activity of commoning can decide what will be shared in common and what rules will govern the common’s citizen-subjects. This re-articulation of the common calls for nothing less than the institutional transformation of society by society: it calls for a revolution.
£28.99
Elliott & Thompson Limited Politics, But Better: An A – Z Guide to Creating a More Hopeful Future
From the founder of Simple Politics comes a guide to rediscovering the heart of our democracy, reshaping our political system and making the UK a better place for all. Strikes across the country. A prime minister resigning after just forty-four days. Accusations of bullying in the House of Commons. Our politics and our democracy appear to be fundamentally broken. But that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. Things can get better. There are solutions out there to the complex web of failure in which we’re currently entangled. Politics, But Better will look at the very fabric of our system and what improvements can be made. Exploring twenty-six issues in UK politics, from A to Z – including censorship, elections, insults and U-turns – it clearly lays out the problems and challenges we face, and puts forward possible solutions. Looking at a variety of ideas and real-world examples, it will encourage us to rethink the fundamental ways we do things, to question the status quo, and to chart a path towards a more hopeful future. Respect and understanding are at the heart of this book, promoting open debate, tolerance and compassion as the cornerstones of a reformed political landscape. Politics is about improving the world – and we can do better.
£13.49
The History Press Ltd The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis
‘An extraordinary history’ PETER ACKROYD, The Times‘A lively account of (Bazalgette’s) magnificent achievements. . . graphically illustrated’ HERMIONE HOBHOUSE‘Halliday is good on sanitary engineering and even better on cloaca, crud and putrefaction . . . (he) writes with the relish of one who savours his subject and has deeply researched it. . . splendidly illustrated’ RUTH RENDELLIn the sweltering summer of 1858, sewage generated by over two million Londoners was pouring into the Thames, producing a stink so offensive that it drove Members of Parliament from the chamber of the House of Commons.The Times called the crisis ‘The Great Stink’. Parliament had to act – drastic measures were required to clean the Thames and to improve London’s primitive system of sanitation. The great engineer entrusted with this enormous task was Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who rose to the challenge and built the system of intercepting sewers, pumping stations and treatment works that serves London to this day. In the process, he cleansed the Thames and helped banish cholera.The Great Stink of London offers a vivid insight into Bazalgette’s achievements and the era in which he worked and lived, including his heroic battles with politicians and bureaucrats that would transform the face and health of the world’s then largest city.
£16.99
Emerald Publishing Limited Strategic Corporate Responsibility and Green Management: Perspectives and Issues in Emerging Economies
Corporate social responsibility has increased exponentially throughout the past decades and is of growing importance to the success of businesses internationally. Green management especially is at the forefront of new developments and initiatives in the face of the climate crisis, aiming to mitigate fundamental institutional misalignments in controlling drastic expansion and its adverse consequences on the environment. Strategic Corporate Responsibility and Green Management turns the focus to emerging economies, in particular India and Mexico. Offering both criticism and examples of effective projects, the chapter authors consider the technological solutions for women’s empowerment in India, waste management for combating COVID-19, a case study of Coca Cola in India and the tragedy of the commons, corporate responsibility in MSMEs, a study of Mexican companies and corporate social responsibilities impact on the sustainable development goals, and errors in corporate social responsibility. This volume of Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability harnesses corporate responsibility and green management to integrate social and environmental concerns into productive business operations, paving the way for future successes in emerging economies. The series facilitates idea exchanges and research collaborations between developed and developing countries, and between the West and the East. It promotes best ideas, values, practices and innovations in corporate governance, corporate responsibility and sustainability in the world and encourages holistic thinking, cross-disciplinary research, multiple perspectives and the use of various research approaches and methods.
£80.00
Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics,U.S. Computational Mathematics with SageMath
SageMath, or Sage for short, is an open-source mathematical software system based on the Python language and developed by an international community comprising hundreds of teachers and researchers, whose aim is to provide an alternative to the commercial products Magma, Maple, Mathematica, and MATLAB®. To achieve this, Sage relies on many open-source programs, including GAP, Maxima, PARI, and various scientific libraries for Python, to which thousands of new functions have been added. Sage is freely available and is supported by all modern operating systems.Sage provides a wonderful scientific and graphical calculator for high school students, and it efficiently supports undergraduates in their computations in analysis, linear algebra, calculus, etc. For graduate students, researchers, and engineers in various mathematical specialties, Sage provides the most recent algorithms and tools, which is why several universities around the world already use Sage at the undergraduate level. Computational Mathematics with SageMath, written by researchers and by teachers at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, focuses on the underlying mathematics necessary to use Sage efficiently and is illustrated with concrete examples. Part I is accessible to high school and undergraduate students and Parts II, III, and IV are suitable for graduate students, teachers, and researchers.This book is available under a Creative Commons license at sagebook.gforge.inria.fr.
£77.19
Little, Brown Book Group The Great Betrayal
'Very funny' Spectator Book of the Year'Robust and entertaining' Sunday Times Book of the Year'Betcha we don't leave.' I wrote that on the evening of 24 June 2016, once the euphoria had passed. A lot of us leavers, despite being elderly and thick, knew. The establishment wouldn't let it happen.Quite how the establishment stopped us from leaving the European Union, though, we could never have guessed. A mandate which became a process and resulted in the UK being the laughing stock of the world. We might have guessed at the relentless howls of outrage from that extreme block of transgressed remainers, the hostility of the House of Commons, the civil service and the BBC. That was a given, and it all played its part. But beyond our imagination was the readiness of politicians to ignore or subvert the vote, the sheer ineptitude of those charged with negotiating our withdrawal, the spite of the EU and the intercession of that usual thing, events. The Great Betrayal tells the story of a failed Brexit and a betrayal of the British people, drawn from interviews with those at the very centre of what became, in the end, a surreal charade.
£13.49
University of Minnesota Press Making Sense in Common: A Reading of Whitehead in Times of Collapse
A leading philosopher seeks to recover “common sense” as a meeting place to reconcile science and philosophy With her previous books on Alfred North Whitehead, Isabelle Stengers not only secured a reputation as one of the premier philosophers of our times but also inspired a rethinking of critical theory, political thought, and radical philosophy across a range of disciplines. Here, Stengers unveils what might well be seen as her definitive reading of Whitehead.Making Sense in Common will be greeted eagerly by the growing group of scholars who use Stengers’s work on Whitehead as a model for how to think with conceptual precision through diverse domains of inquiry: environmentalism and ecology, animal studies, media and technology studies, the history and philosophy of science, feminism, and capitalism. On the other hand, the significance of this new book extends beyond Whitehead. Instead, it lies in Stengers’s recovery of the idea of “common sense” as a meeting place—a commons—where opposed ideas of science and humanistic inquiry can engage one another and help to move society forward. Her reconciliation of science and philosophy is especially urgent today—when climate disaster looms all around us, when the values of what we thought of as civilization and modernity are discredited, and when expertise of any kind is under attack.
£22.99
Countryside Books The Surrey Hills A Dog Walker's Guide (20 Dog Walks)
This collection of 20 tried-and-tested circular walks has been written specifically for dogs and their owners, allowing for maximum off-lead time. These routes, covering every corner of the Surrey Hills, will allow you to explore somewhere new, safe in the knowledge that the surroundings will be suitable for your dog. The hills stretch from the county border with Kent almost to Hampshire and were officially designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1958. Explore Leith Hill, Box Hill and the Devil's Punch Bowl as well as the extensive footpaths and tracks including the famous North Downs Way, Greensand Way and the ancient Pilgrims Way. There are many open commons and rolling hillsides, dotted with rural pubs, market towns and villages, rich in wildlife and woodland, making the Surrey Hills an ideal place to walk your dog. All the walks include details of: * Distance and terrain * Details of livestock and stiles * Recommended dog-friendly pubs and cafes * Numbered route directions * Points of interest along the way * Contact details for the nearest vets David and Hilary Staines are the authors of many popular dog walking guides, including Kent: A Dog Walker's Guide and East Sussex: A Dog Walker's Guide.
£10.45
Verso Books Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest
In an age of protest, culture and museums have come under fire. Protests of museum funding (for example, the Metropolitan Museum accepting Sackler family money) and boards (for example, the Whitney appointing tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders)--to say nothing of demonstrations over exhibitions and artworks--have roiled cultural institutions across the world, from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to the Akron Art Museum. At the same time, never have there been more calls for museums to work for social change, calls for the emergence of a new role for culture.As director of the Queens Museum, Laura Raicovich helped turn that New York municipal institution into a public commons for art and activism, organizing high-powered exhibitions that were also political protests. Then in January, 2018, she resigned, after a dispute with the Queens Museum board and city officials became a public controversy--she had objected to the Israeli government using the museum for an event featuring vice president Mike Pence.In this book, Raicovich explains some of the key museum flashpoints, and she also provides historical context for the current controversies. She shows how art museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of neutrality that masks their role in upholding capitalist values. And she suggests how museums can be reinvented to serve better, public ends.
£12.02
Biteback Publishing Unmasking Our Leaders
Our political leaders spend their careers spinning their images and polishing their achievements; Michael Cockerell has spent his professional life stripping off the gloss. Over fifty years, he has gained unrivalled access to the secret chambers of Westminster and Whitehall. Here, he reveals in illuminating and often hilarious stories what our top politicians are really like behind the mask. Drawing on his unique experience of having filmed all the past ten Prime Ministers, Cockerell tells how he manages to lull some of the most wary people in the land into candour, and shows how questions of sex are never far from the surface in Westminster. Amongst much else, he recounts: how Margaret Thatcher flirted with him on screen but attacked him by name in the Commons; how Tony Blair said he would willingly 'pay the blood price' in Iraq; how David Cameron learned from Enoch Powell always to make a big speech on a full bladder - and how Boris Johnson admitted to doubts about his ability to be Prime Minister. Revealing how our politicians have reacted during some of the most pivotal events in our recent history, Unmasking Our Leaders also provides a compelling insight into a career working in political television and foreign reporting, where tensions, rivalries and life-threatening danger are all part of the package.
£18.00
University of California Press Unbottled: The Fight against Plastic Water and for Water Justice
"An essential book for everyone who seeks to reclaim the commons and build a just and equitable society."—John Nichols, The NationAn exploration of bottled water's impact on social justice and sustainability, and how diverse movements are fighting back. In just four decades, bottled water has transformed from a luxury niche item into a ubiquitous consumer product, representing a $300 billion market dominated by global corporations. It sits at the convergence of a mounting ecological crisis of single-use plastic waste and climate change, a social crisis of affordable access to safe drinking water, and a struggle over the fate of public water systems. Unbottled examines the vibrant movements that have emerged to question the need for bottled water and challenge its growth in North America and worldwide. Drawing on extensive interviews with activists, residents, public officials, and other participants in controversies ranging from bottled water's role in unsafe tap water crises to groundwater extraction for bottling in rural communities, Daniel Jaffee asks what this commodity's meteoric growth means for social inequality, sustainability, and the human right to water. Unbottled profiles campaigns to reclaim the tap and addresses the challenges of ending dependence on packaged water in places where safe water is not widely accessible. Clear and compelling, it assesses the prospects for the movements fighting plastic water and working to ensure water justice for all.
£21.60
Verso Books Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest
In an age of protest, culture and museums have come under fire. Protests of museum funding (for example, the Metropolitan Museum accepting Sackler family money) and boards (for example, the Whitney appointing tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders)--to say nothing of demonstrations over exhibitions and artworks--have roiled cultural institutions across the world, from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to the Akron Art Museum. At the same time, never have there been more calls for museums to work for social change, calls for the emergence of a new role for culture.As director of the Queens Museum, Laura Raicovich helped turn that New York municipal institution into a public commons for art and activism, organizing high-powered exhibitions that were also political protests. Then in January, 2018, she resigned, after a dispute with the Queens Museum board and city officials became a public controversy--she had objected to the Israeli government using the museum for an event featuring vice president Mike Pence.In this book, Raicovich explains some of the key museum flashpoints, and she also provides historical context for the current controversies. She shows how art museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of neutrality that masks their role in upholding capitalist values. And she suggests how museums can be reinvented to serve better, public ends.
£18.05
Little, Brown Book Group Bad Data: How Governments, Politicians and the Rest of Us Get Misled by Numbers
'Essential reading ... An incisive and urgently needed book' Tim Harford'[An] entertaining introduction to the uses (and misuses) of data ... a penetrating analysis of why statistical literacy matters to our politics and our daily lives' Professor Jonathan Portes Our politicians make vital decisions and declarations every day that rely on official data. But should all statistics be trusted?In BAD DATA, House of Commons Library statistician Georgina Sturge draws back the curtain on how governments of the past and present have been led astray by figures littered with inconsistency, guesswork and uncertainty.Discover how a Hungarian businessman's bright idea caused half a million people to go missing from UK migration statistics. Find out why it's possible for two politicians to disagree over whether poverty has gone up or down, using the same official numbers, and for both to be right at the same time. And hear about how policies like ID cards, super-casinos and stopping ex-convicts from reoffending failed to live up to their promise because they were based on shaky data.With stories that range from the troubling to the empowering to the downright absurd, BAD DATA reveals secrets from the usually closed-off world of policy-making. It also suggests how - once we understand the human story behind the numbers - we can make more informed choices about who to trust, and when.
£12.99
Little, Brown Book Group Bad Data: How Governments, Politicians and the Rest of Us Get Misled by Numbers
'Essential reading ... An incisive and urgently needed book' Tim Harford'[An] entertaining introduction to the uses (and misuses) of data ... a penetrating analysis of why statistical literacy matters to our politics and our daily lives' Professor Jonathan Portes Our politicians make vital decisions and declarations every day that rely on official data. But should all statistics be trusted?In BAD DATA, House of Commons Library statistician Georgina Sturge draws back the curtain on how governments of the past and present have been led astray by figures littered with inconsistency, guesswork and uncertainty.Discover how a Hungarian businessman's bright idea caused half a million people to go missing from UK migration statistics. Find out why it's possible for two politicians to disagree over whether poverty has gone up or down, using the same official numbers, and for both to be right at the same time. And hear about how policies like ID cards, super-casinos and stopping ex-convicts from reoffending failed to live up to their promise because they were based on shaky data.With stories that range from the troubling to the empowering to the downright absurd, BAD DATA reveals secrets from the usually closed-off world of policy-making. It also suggests how - once we understand the human story behind the numbers - we can make more informed choices about who to trust, and when.
£18.00
Springer International Publishing AG Privacy at Sea: Practices, Spaces, and Communication in Maritime History
This book explores the idea of privacy at sea, from early sixteenth-century maritime expansions to nineteenth-century naval developments. In this period, the sea became a focal point of political and economic ambition as technological and cultural shifts enabled a more extensive exploration of maritime spaces and global coexistence at sea. The exploration of the sea and the conflicts arising from establishing control over maritime routes demanded a more nuanced distinction and negotiation between State and private efforts. Privateering, for example, became a bridge between the private enterprises and the State’s warfares or trade struggles, demonstrating that the sea required public control at the same time as it enabled private endeavours. Although this tension between private and public interests has been explored in military and economic studies, questions of how the private appeared in maritime history have been discussed only through a particularly merchantile lens. This volume adds a new dimension to this discussion by focusing on how privacy and the private were perceived and created by the historical agents at sea. We aim to move beyond the mercantile “private” as a direct opposite to the “public” or the State, thereby opening the discussion of privacy at sea as a multiplicity of lived experiences.Chapters 1, 8 and 14 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
£109.99
Dived Up Publications The Forgotten Shipwreck: Solving the Mystery of the Darlwyne
The Forgotten Shipwreck is the tragic true story of a Cornish pleasure boat which sank without trace or sensation, relegated in news columns by England's football World Cup triumph the day before. It spans so many facets, from a village numbed with whole families wiped out, to angry exchanges in the House of Commons and law courts. There is intrigue, chicanery, deceit, incompetence and greed. It had far-reaching ramifications and yet, for all that, the Darlwyne tragedy lacked an ending. On Thursday 4 August 1966 the sea began to give up its dead. The relatives of twelve of the thirty-one people who had set out on a pleasure trip on 31 July could at least temper their grief to some small extent with the fact that their remains had been found. The loved ones of the other nineteen would have no such solace. Some fifty years later a team of divers, archaeologists, filmmakers, photographers and wreck researchers set about to change that. By piecing together eyewitness accounts, news stories, court proceedings, weather reports and archive material, and by applying modern methods and underwater search techniques would they be able to succeed where the original search mission had been unable? Could they unravel the mystery of complicated waters and pinpoint the final resting place of the Darlwyne?
£19.95
Quercus Publishing Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World
The true, unvarnished history of the town at the heart of Silicon Valley.Palo Alto is nice. The weather is temperate, the people are educated, rich, healthy, enterprising. Remnants of a hippie counterculture have synthesized with high technology and big finance to produce the spiritually and materially ambitious heart of Silicon Valley, whose products are changing how we do everything from driving around to eating food. It is also a haunted toxic waste dump built on stolen Indian burial grounds, and an integral part of the capitalist world system. In Palo Alto, the first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, Malcolm Harris examines how and why Northern California evolved in the particular, consequential way it did, tracing the ideologies, technologies, and policies that have been engineered there over the course of 150 years of Anglo settler colonialism, from IQ tests to the "tragedy of the commons," racial genetics, and "broken windows" theory. The Internet and computers, too. It's a story about how a small American suburb became a powerful engine for economic growth and war, and how it came to lead the world into a surprisingly disastrous 21st century.Palo Alto is an urgent and visionary history of the way we live now, one that ends with a clear-eyed, radical proposition for how we might begin to change course.
£27.00
Springer Nature Switzerland AG Artificial Intelligence Versus Natural Intelligence
This book centers around a dialogue between Roger Penrose and Emanuele Severino about one of most intriguing topics of our times, the comparison of artificial intelligence and natural intelligence, as well as its extension to the notions of human and machine consciousness.Additional insightful essays by Mauro D'Ariano, Federico Faggin, Ines Testoni, Giuseppe Vitiello and an introduction of Fabio Scardigli complete the book and illuminate different aspects of the debate. Although from completely different points of view, all the authors seem to converge on the idea that it is almost impossible to have real "intelligence" without a form of "consciousness". In fact, consciousness, often conceived as an enigmatic "mirror" of reality (but is it really a mirror?), is a phenomenon under intense investigation by science and technology, particularly in recent decades. Where does this phenomenon originate from (in humans, and perhaps also in animals)? Is it reproducible on some "device"? Do we have a theory of consciousness today? Will we arrive to build thinking or conscious machines, as machine learning, or cognitive computing, seem to promise? These questions and other related issues are discussed in the pages of this work, which provides stimulating reading to both specialists and general readers.The Chapter "Hard Problem and Free Will: An Information-Theoretical Approach" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
£79.99
Princeton University Press Pioneers of Capitalism: The Netherlands 1000–1800
How medieval Dutch society laid the foundations for modern capitalismThe Netherlands was one of the pioneers of capitalism in the Middle Ages, giving rise to the spectacular Dutch Golden Age while ushering in an era of unprecedented, long-term economic growth. Pioneers of Capitalism examines the formal and informal institutions in the Netherlands that made this economic miracle possible, providing a groundbreaking new history of the emergence and early development of capitalism.Drawing on the latest quantitative theories in economic research, Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden show how Dutch cities, corporations, guilds, commons, and other private and semipublic organizations provided safeguards for market transactions in the state’s absence. Informal institutions developed in the Netherlands long before the state created public safeguards for economic activity. Prak and van Zanden argue that, in the Netherlands itself, capitalism emerged within a robust civil society that constrained and counterbalanced its centrifugal forces, but that an unrestrained capitalism ruled in the overseas territories. Rather than collapsing under unrestricted greed, the Dutch economy flourished, but prosperity at home came at the price of slavery and other dire consequences for people outside Europe.Pioneers of Capitalism offers a panoramic account of the early history of capitalism, revealing how a small region of medieval Europe transformed itself into a powerhouse of sustained economic growth, and changed the world in the process.
£31.50
Orion Publishing Co How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERBritish politics is broken.Anyone sitting down to watch the news will get the sense that something has gone terribly wrong. We have prime ministers who detonate the economy, secretaries of state who are intellectually incapable of doing the job and MPs who seem temperamentally unsuited to the role. Expertise is denigrated. Lies are rewarded. And deep-seated, long-lasting national problems go permanently unresolved. Most of us have a sense that the system doesn't work, but we struggle to articulate exactly why. Our political and financial system is cloaked in secrecy, archaic terminology, ancient custom and impenetrable technical jargon.Lifting the lid on British politics, How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't exposes every aspect of the system in a way that can be understood and challenged, from the heights of Downing Street to the depths of the nation's newsrooms, from the hallways of the civil service to the green benches of the Commons.Based on interviews with some of the leading voices in politics, from former occupants of No.10 to key figures in Whitehall, Westminster and Fleet Street, Ian Dunt provides exactly what people in power have always tried to avoid: a full description of the mechanisms of British government. And a vision of how we can fix it.
£18.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd A Purposeful Life: What I’ve Learned About Breaking Barriers and Inspiring Change
'Dawn Butler is a history-making, game-changing, ceiling-smashing politician.This powerful book offers a fascinating insight into both the personal and political sides of her journey.'Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London'When I was younger my parents taught me to be resilient and my brothers told me to be resistant, and now I think it's time for a revolution. Let's complete the power of three.'As the third Black woman ever to be elected as an MP, and the first elected African-Caribbean woman to become a Government Minister, Dawn Butler is a true pioneer. Famously ejected from the House of Commons for calling Boris Johnson a liar, her tireless campaigning to eradicate injustice - from the NHS to the Metropolitan Police - has changed lives. Until now, she's never talked openly about what has inspired and motivated her to persevere in the face of oppression.Drawing on lessons from her own life, Dawn shows how traditional routes to power are outdated and reveals that it's easier than we think to disrupt a broken system. From her early life to the Palace of Westminster, she shares the values, people, places and beliefs that have helped her to forge her own authentic path to power.Now she is on a mission to give others the courage and conviction to dream big and make positive change, even when everything feels broken around us.
£17.09
John Murray Press Honourable Misfits: A Brief History of Britain's Weirdest, Unluckiest and Most Outrageous MPs
Politicians are weird - we can all agree on that. But do you know how much weirder they used to be? If not, Honourable Misfits is the book for you. Spanning from the past seven hundred years, this is a celebration of the oddest and most eccentric MPs the House of Commons has ever seen. From mad inventors and fearless adventurers to machiavellian villains and mavericks with more money than sense, it offers sixty-five pen portraits of the unique, the mysterious and the downright deranged.There is the one who built a complex network of tunnels and underground rooms underneath his estate; the one who liked to go hunting naked; the one who set himself on fire to cure his hiccups, and the one who invented a very small gun with which to kill flies.Still, they weren't all useless; there was also the MP who invented weather forecasts, and the one who documented more animal species than nearly everyone else. They weren't all good either; between the fascist turned Buddhist monk and the spy who faked his death, there are more than enough villains to go around. They also weren't all lucky; included in Honourable Misfits are tributes to MPs with tragic deaths, from falling on a turnip to getting in a car accident the day after getting elected. This is a book to celebrate human nature in all its odd, compelling complexity.
£10.99
University of Minnesota Press Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad
How the “bad feelings” of trans experience inform trans survival and flourishing Some days—or weeks, or months, or even years—being trans feels bad. Yet as Hil Malatino points out, there is little space for trans people to think through, let alone speak of, these bad feelings. Negative emotions are suspect because they unsettle narratives of acceptance or reinforce virulently phobic framings of trans as inauthentic and threatening. In Side Affects, Malatino opens a new conversation about trans experience that acknowledges the reality of feeling fatigue, envy, burnout, numbness, and rage amid the ongoing onslaught of casual and structural transphobia in order to map the intricate emotional terrain of trans survival. Trans structures of feeling are frequently coded as negative on both sides of transition. Before transition, narratives are framed in terms of childhood trauma and being in the “wrong body.” Posttransition, trans individuals—especially trans people of color—are subject to unrelenting transantagonism. Yet trans individuals are discouraged from displaying or admitting to despondency or despair. By moving these unloved feelings to the center of trans experience, Side Affects proposes an affective trans commons that exists outside political debates about inclusion. Acknowledging such powerful and elided feelings as anger and exhaustion, Malatino contends, is critical to motivating justice-oriented advocacy and organizing—and recalibrating new possibilities for survival and well-being.
£71.10