Search results for ""debate""
Verso Books Crashing the Party: From the Bernie Sanders Campaign to a Progressive Movement
Senator Bernie Sanders won 13 million votes and a majority of young voters in the 2016 Democratic primary, giving a consensus unbeatable party favorite, Hillary Clinton, a shockingly close challenge. He emerged from the presidential election as the most popular politician in the US, despite being a 75-year-old self-professed "democratic socialist." What lessons can be drawn from this surprising but-in the end-losing campaign, and what to make of the direction the Sanders movement has gone since the election?Vermont native Heather Gautney is a senior policy advisor to Bernie Sanders in his Washington, DC office and was a senior researcher on his presidential campaign. The author and editor of several books on social movements and American politics, she brings her scholarly expertise and left politics to bear on the scenes and conflicts she witnessed from inside the campaign and inside the Beltway. This is both an insider's sympathetic view of the Sanders phenomenon and a skeptical left scholar's view of its limitations. In reviewing what enabled Sanders to reach out to an unprecedented number of people with a socialist message, she draws lessons about the prospects and perils of building a leftist movement in the United States. Gautney's reflections on the role that race and class played in this election cycle and analysis of the prospects and perils of the Democratic Party will advance the passionate debate over how to build a progressive opposition to Trump and a lasting left movement in America.
£13.32
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Bosworth 1485: The Downfall of Richard III
The battle of Bosworth was the culmination of the War of the Roses, the dynastic struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster that dominated England in the second half of the 15th century. Edward IV had secured the throne for the house of York, but his early death in 1483, followed by the death of his sons and the taking of the throne by his brother, Richard of York, saw a renewed outbreak of fighting. His reign began with a major rebellion and was dogged by rumours of his involvement in murder, with Richard facing threats not only from the lords he alienated but also the Lancastrian faction waiting in the wings. Henry Tudor eventually decided to take the huge risk of attempting to seize the throne and Richard’s army marched to meet him, finally clashing near Market Bosworth. Guiding the reader from the campaign's origins to its aftermath, and covering the commanders and forces of King Richard III and Henry Tudor, this is a complete treatment of one of the most important events in English history. The story of Bosworth has been transformed in the 20th century as an extensive survey between 2005 and 2009 by the Battlefields Trust has pinpointed the location of the battlefield, for many years a source of debate and controversy, and this new history is based on that interpretation. It will also highlight the incredible discovery of Richard III's remains in Leicester, the study of the bones and relate this to what was previously thought to have happened to him at the end of the battle.
£16.99
Duke University Press No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive
In this searing polemic, Lee Edelman outlines a radically uncompromising new ethics of queer theory. His main target is the all-pervasive figure of the child, which he reads as the linchpin of our universal politics of “reproductive futurism.” Edelman argues that the child, understood as innocence in need of protection, represents the possibility of the future against which the queer is positioned as the embodiment of a relentlessly narcissistic, antisocial, and future-negating drive. He boldly insists that the efficacy of queerness lies in its very willingness to embrace this refusal of the social and political order. In No Future, Edelman urges queers to abandon the stance of accommodation and accede to their status as figures for the force of a negativity that he links with irony, jouissance, and, ultimately, the death drive itself.Closely engaging with literary texts, Edelman makes a compelling case for imagining Scrooge without Tiny Tim and Silas Marner without little Eppie. Looking to Alfred Hitchcock’s films, he embraces two of the director’s most notorious creations: the sadistic Leonard of North by Northwest, who steps on the hand that holds the couple precariously above the abyss, and the terrifying title figures of The Birds, with their predilection for children. Edelman enlarges the reach of contemporary psychoanalytic theory as he brings it to bear not only on works of literature and film but also on such current political flashpoints as gay marriage and gay parenting. Throwing down the theoretical gauntlet, No Future reimagines queerness with a passion certain to spark an equally impassioned debate among its readers.
£19.99
Princeton University Press The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes
Money in the history of political thought, from ancient Greece to the Great Inflation of the 1970sIn the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, critical attention has shifted from the economy to the most fundamental feature of all market economies—money. Yet despite the centrality of political struggles over money, it remains difficult to articulate its democratic possibilities and limits. The Currency of Politics takes readers from ancient Greece to today to provide an intellectual history of money, drawing on the insights of key political philosophers to show how money is not just a medium of exchange but also a central institution of political rule.Money appears to be beyond the reach of democratic politics, but this appearance—like so much about money—is deceptive. Even when the politics of money is impossible to ignore, its proper democratic role can be difficult to discern. Stefan Eich examines six crucial episodes of monetary crisis, recovering the neglected political theories of money in the thought of such figures as Aristotle, John Locke, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. He shows how these layers of crisis have come to define the way we look at money, and argues that informed public debate about money requires a better appreciation of the diverse political struggles over its meaning.Recovering foundational ideas at the intersection of monetary rule and democratic politics, The Currency of Politics explains why only through greater awareness of the historical limits of monetary politics can we begin to articulate more democratic conceptions of money.
£18.99
Harvard University Press Measurement
For seven years, Paul Lockhart’s A Mathematician’s Lament enjoyed a samizdat-style popularity in the mathematics underground, before demand prompted its 2009 publication to even wider applause and debate. An impassioned critique of K–12 mathematics education, it outlined how we shortchange students by introducing them to math the wrong way. Here Lockhart offers the positive side of the math education story by showing us how math should be done. Measurement offers a permanent solution to math phobia by introducing us to mathematics as an artful way of thinking and living.In conversational prose that conveys his passion for the subject, Lockhart makes mathematics accessible without oversimplifying. He makes no more attempt to hide the challenge of mathematics than he does to shield us from its beautiful intensity. Favoring plain English and pictures over jargon and formulas, he succeeds in making complex ideas about the mathematics of shape and motion intuitive and graspable. His elegant discussion of mathematical reasoning and themes in classical geometry offers proof of his conviction that mathematics illuminates art as much as science.Lockhart leads us into a universe where beautiful designs and patterns float through our minds and do surprising, miraculous things. As we turn our thoughts to symmetry, circles, cylinders, and cones, we begin to see that almost anyone can “do the math” in a way that brings emotional and aesthetic rewards. Measurement is an invitation to summon curiosity, courage, and creativity in order to experience firsthand the playful excitement of mathematical work.
£20.95
The University of Chicago Press Beauty and the Brain: The Science of Human Nature in Early America
Examining the history of phrenology and physiognomy, Beauty and the Brain proposes a bold new way of understanding the connection between science, politics, and popular culture in early America. Between the 1770s and the 1860s, people all across the globe relied on physiognomy and phrenology to evaluate human worth. These once-popular but now discredited disciplines were based on a deceptively simple premise: that facial features or skull shape could reveal a person’s intelligence, character, and personality. In the United States, these were culturally ubiquitous sciences that both elite thinkers and ordinary people used to understand human nature. While the modern world dismisses phrenology and physiognomy as silly and debunked disciplines, Beauty and the Brain shows why they must be taken seriously: they were the intellectual tools that a diverse group of Americans used to debate questions of race, gender, and social justice. While prominent intellectuals and political thinkers invoked these sciences to justify hierarchy, marginalized people and progressive activists deployed them for their own political aims, creatively interpreting human minds and bodies as they fought for racial justice and gender equality. Ultimately, though, physiognomy and phrenology were as dangerous as they were popular. In addition to validating the idea that external beauty was a sign of internal worth, these disciplines often appealed to the very people who were damaged by their prejudicial doctrines. In taking physiognomy and phrenology seriously, Beauty and the Brain recovers a vibrant—if largely forgotten—cultural and intellectual universe, showing how popular sciences shaped some of the greatest political debates of the American past.
£36.00
HarperCollins Publishers Extra Time: 10 Lessons for Living Longer Better
‘An inspirational call to arms’ DAILY MAIL ‘This book is so sensible, so substantially researched, so briskly written, so clear in its arguments, that one wishes Baroness Cavendish was still whispering into the prime ministerial ear’ THE TIMES ‘A thoughtful handbook to help societies age gracefully’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘This bold, visionary book is a wake-up call to governments. It is a wake-up call to us all’ SUNDAY TIMES From award-winning journalist, Camilla Cavendish, comes a profound analysis of one of the biggest challenges facing the human population today. The world is undergoing a dramatic demographic shift. By 2020, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 65 and over will outnumber children aged five and under. But our systems are lagging woefully behind this new reality. In Extra Time, Camilla Cavendish embarks on a journey to understand how different countries are responding to these unprecedented challenges. Travelling across the world in a carefully researched and deeply human investigation, Cavendish contests many of the taboos around ageing. Interviewing leading scientists about breakthroughs that could soon transform the quality and extent of life, she sparks a debate about how governments, businesses, doctors, the media and each one of us should handle the second half of life. She argues that if we take a more positive approach, we should be able to reap the benefits of a prolonged life. But that will mean changing our attitudes andusing technology, community, even anti-ageing pills, to bring about a revolution.
£10.99
Macat International Limited An Analysis of Plato's The Republic
The Republic is Plato's most complete and incisive work – a detailed study of the problem of how best to ensure that justice exists in a real society, rather than as merely the product of an idealized philosophical construct. The work considers several competing definitions of justice, and looks closely not only at what exactly a "just life" should be, but also at the ways in which society can organise itself in ways that maximise the opportunities for every member to live justly. Much of the discussion is via imagined dialogues, giving Plato the opportunity to deploy the tools of Socratic debate to remarkable effect; nowhere else, it can be argued, is the Socratic dialectic better exemplified than in The Republic. In large measure, Plato's success is the product of the acute analytical ability that he demonstrates throughout his surviving oeuvre. No one is better at understanding the relationships between the various parts of a successful argument than Plato, and The Republic also demonstrates the Greek philosopher has few peers when it comes to looking for and highlighting the core assumptions that underlie an argument. The demolition of competing views that Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates is based on a series of relentless interventions and counter-examples that this mastery makes possible. Combining analytical skills with great powers of reasoning to produce a well-structured solution that deals emphatically with counter-arguments, Plato crafts one of the most enduring works of philosophy in the entire western canon.
£8.70
Verso Books Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protest, and the Pursuit of Freedom
In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter the call for the abolition of the police became a central demand for the movement. In this extraordinary, revelatory memoir, Derecka Purnell recounts her own path towards abolitionism. Her story starts in St. Louis, where she was often unhoused and experienced food insecurity, and where calling 911 was often the only option in a crisis. She describes her political awakening and activism through watching the aftermaths of events including Hurricane Katrina, the murder of Trayvon Martin and the uprising in her hometown of Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown. Through Harvard Law School she comes to see that that solution can be found not just in the debate on better policing but the end of the policing itself. Through her own story she makes a powerful, passionate argument for rethinking a fair, equal society where there is no place for state violence and racial repression. Purnell confronts the history of police as a means to capture runaway slaves and uphold white supremacy, to the over-policing and murder of Black people in today's cities. She argues that the police are doing exactly what they were created to do and, in response, imagines new systems that work to address the root causes of violence instead. A revolutionary book about the hope for freedom, Becoming Abolitionists will inspire readers to imagine and create new communities that can guarantee safety, equality, and real justice for all.
£16.99
Liverpool University Press The Abyss of Time
Geologists are among that group of scientists who must factor the passage of time into their investigations and they thus have a perspective on time that sets them apart from many other researchers. The proposition that geological time is vast, encompassing thousands of millions of years, is relatively recent. It is a concept that remains controversial and unacceptable to many people today who still consider the Earth to have been made to a timetable covering no more than ten thousand years.Paul Lyle examines how our fascination with time has developed from our earliest ancestors' recognition of the cycles of the sun and the moon. It considers the passage of time as a series of non-repeatable events, Time's Arrow, in contrast to time as a series of repeated processes, Time's Cycle, both of which can be used to explain geological features on the Earth's surface.The author argues for a greater understanding of geological or ‘deep time’ as society becomes more aware of the vulnerability of the Earth's resources to over-exploitation by an expanding consumer society. This debate and the controversy surrounding global warming emphasises the importance of geological time to the process of economic and political decision-making. It is a book for those interested in the intellectual challenge presented by the extent of geological time. It is written for environmentalists and policy-makers who wish to better place their concerns and decisions in proper context but, above all, it is a book that offers to share a geologist’s appreciation of time with the widest possible audience.
£45.71
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Dieppe Raid: The Combined Operations Assault on Hitler's European Fortress, August 1942
Winston Churchill was under pressure. The Soviets felt that they were fighting the Germans by themselves. Stalin demanded that Britain should open a second front to draw German forces away from the east. Though the advice Churchill received from his staff was that an invasion of France would not be possible for at least another year, the British Prime Minister knew he had to do something to help the Russians. The result was a large-scale raid upon the port of Dieppe. It would not be the second front that Stalin wanted, but at least it would demonstrate Britain's intent to support the Soviets and it would be a useful rehearsal for the eventual invasion. Dieppe was chosen as it was thought that the success of any invasion would depend on the capture of a major port to enable heavy weapons, vehicles and reinforcements to be landed in support of the landing forces. After an earlier postponement, the raid upon Dieppe, Operation _Jubilee_, was eventually scheduled for 19 August 1942\. The assault was the most ambitious Allied attack against the German Channel defences of the war so far. Some 6,000 infantry, 237 naval vessels and seventy-four squadrons of aircraft were involved. Though the debate surrounding Jubilee's purpose and cost has raged in the years since the war, many vital and important lessons were learnt. All of these factors are covered in this official battle summary, a detailed and descriptive account of the Dieppe Raid, which was written shortly after the war and is based on the recollections of those who were involved.
£22.50
Little, Brown Book Group Breaker Morant: The epic story of the Boer War and Harry 'Breaker' Morant: drover, horseman, bush poet, murderer or hero?
The epic story of the Boer War and Harry 'Breaker' Morant: drover, horseman, bush poet - murderer or hero?Most people have heard of the Boer War and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. But Morant was a complicated man. Born in England and immigrating to Queensland in 1883, he established a reputation as a rider, polo player and poet who submitted ballads to The Bulletin and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend. Travelling on his wits and the goodwill of others, Morant was quick to act when appeals were made for horsemen to serve in the war in South Africa. He joined up, first with the South Australian Mounted Rifles and then with a South African irregular unit, the Bushveldt Carbineers.The adventure would not go as Breaker planned. In October 1901 Lieutenant Harry Morant and two other Australians, Lieutenants Peter Handcock and George Witton, were arrested for the murder of Boer prisoners. Morant and Handcock were court-martialled and executed in February 1902 as the Boer War was in its closing stages, but the debate over their convictions continues to this day.With his masterful command of story, Peter FitzSimons takes us to the harsh landscape of southern Africa and into the bloody action of war against an unpredictable force using modern commando tactics. The truths FitzSimons uncovers about 'the Breaker' and the part he played in the Boer War are astonishing - and finally we will know if the Breaker was a hero, a cad, a scapegoat or a criminal.
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Rorke's Drift Commanders: Gonville Bromhead and John Chard
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead and Lieutenant John Chard had fame thrust upon them, as did the place known as Rorke's Drift, which before 1879 was an unknown homestead situated in the middle of the South African veld. Although both men came from families whose various members were highly distinguished for their military service and for their service to the church, they became reluctant heroes after being awarded Britain's highest decoration for valour, the Victoria Cross. During the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, a British invasion force was massacred at iSandlwana, after which a wing of the Zulu army about 3,000 strong attacked the outpost at Rorke's Drift. Lieutenants Bromhead and Chard commanded the post, and after supervising the construction of barricades they led their men in defensive actions throughout the night until the Zulus lost heart and returned to their kraals. For their gallantry under most trying circumstances', both Bromhead and Chard, along with nine of their comrades, were subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross. In 1964 the defence of Rorke's Drift was brought back to public attention with the producing of the epic motion picture Zulu! In this film, Chard was portrayed by Sir Stanley Baker, whilst Bromhead provided Sir Michael Caine with his first starring role. Bromhead and Chard epitomised the way of life of Victorian officers, with the exception that fate put them at Rorke's Drift. They became major players in a battle which continues to excite interest and cause debate, and is unlikely ever to be forgotten.
£20.00
Princeton University Press Global Bargaining: UNCTAD and the Quest for a New International Economic Order
Negotiations on an international commodity policy have been the central issue on the North-South agenda for the past three years. They also can be seen as the first major effort to give substantive meaning to the Third World's desire not only for a new regime for the world's raw commodity trade but also for a New International Economic Order. Yet various obstacles have impeded successful North-South bargaining, and the negotiations remain at a stalemate. Focusing on the bargaining process between developed and developing countries in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Robert Rothstein analyzes the factors that have inhibited successful negotiation and suggests ways in which these obstacles might be removed. The first part of the book focuses on the specifics of the commodity debate, while in the second part the author attempts to explain the causes of delay, misunderstanding, and mistrust within the negotiating process. Assessing the possibility of devising an effective bargaining policy among unequal parties with conflicting values and interests, Professor Rothstein suggests a number of structural, institutional, and conceptual reforms. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
£109.00
Little, Brown Book Group The Awakening of Miss Prim
'A beautifully written novel. Its characters are brought to life so eloquently, and the blossoming of Miss Prim is so complete: she learns the value in life and love that has been lost in our modern-day hustle. An exquisite book and a joy to read' Deborah Rodriguez, New York Times bestselling author of The Little Coffee Shop of KabulIn this #1 international bestseller, a young woman leaves everything behind to work as a librarian in a remote French village: a delightful tale of love, literature, philosophy and the search for happiness. Prudencia Prim is a young woman of intelligence and achievement, with a deep knowledge of literature and several letters after her name. But when she accepts the post of private librarian in the village of San Ireneo de Arnois, she is unprepared for what she encounters there. Her employer, a book-loving intellectual, is dashing yet contrarian, always ready with a critique of her cherished Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott. The neighbours, too, are capable of charm and eccentricity in equal measure, determined as they are to preserve their singular little community from the modern world outside. Prudencia hoped for friendship in San Ireneo but she didn't suspect that she might find love - nor that the course of her new life would run quite so rocky, would offer challenge and heartache as well as joy, discovery and fireside debate. The Awakening of Miss Prim is a distinctive and delightfully entertaining tale of literature, philosophy and the search for happiness.
£9.99
HarperCollins Publishers Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire
WINNER OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE FOR GLOBAL CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN-HESSEL TILTMAN PRIZE 2021 LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2021 ‘Helps re-centre how we look at the world’ PETER FRANKOPAN ‘Global history at its finest’ SUNIL AMRITH ‘A master class’ OLIVETTE OTELE 'Fascinating' FINANCIAL TIMES Starting from the ocean and from the forgotten histories of ocean-facing communities, this is a new history of the making of our world. After revolutions in America and France, a wave of tumult coursed the globe from 1790 to 1850. It was a moment of unprecedented change and violence especially for indigenous peoples. By 1850 vibrant public debate between colonised communities had exploded in port cities. Yet in the midst of all of this, Britain struck out by sea and established its supremacy over the Indian and Pacific Oceans, overtaking the French and Dutch as well as other rivals. Cambridge historian Sujit Sivasundaram brings together his work in far-flung archives across the world and the best new academic research in this remarkably creative book. Too often, history is told from the northern hemisphere, with modernity, knowledge, selfhood and politics moving from Europe to influence the rest of the world. This book traces the origins of our times from the perspective of indigenous and non-European people in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This is a compulsive story full of cultural depth and range, a world history that speaks to urgent concerns today. The book weaves a bracingly fresh account of the origins of the British empire.
£10.99
John Murray Press How Evolution Explains Everything About Life: From Darwin's brilliant idea to today's epic theory
How did we get here? All cultures have a creation story, but a little over 150 years ago Charles Darwin introduced a revolutionary new one. We, and all living things, exist because of the action of evolution on the first simple life form and its descendants.We now know that it has taken 3.8 billions of years of work by the forces of evolution to turn what was once a lump of barren rock into the rich diversity of into plants, animals and microbes that surround us. In the process, evolution has created all manner of useful adaptions, from biological computers (brains) to a system to capture energy from the sun (photosynthesis). But how does evolution actually work? In Evolution, leading biologists and New Scientist take you on a journey of a lifetime, exploring the question of whether life is inevitable or a one-off fluke, and how it got kick-started. Does evolution have a purpose or direction? Are selfish genes really the driving force of evolution? And is evolution itself evolving?ABOUT THE SERIESNew Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive and accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science; subjects that challenge, attract debate, invite controversy and engage the most enquiring minds. Designed for curious readers who want to know how things work and why, the Instant Expert series explores the topics that really matter and their impact on individuals, society, and the planet, translating the scientific complexities around us into language that's open to everyone, and putting new ideas and discoveries into perspective and context.
£9.89
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co KG How Prophecy Works
There is a longstanding scholarly debate on the nature of prophecy in ancient Israel. Until now, no study has based itself on the semantics of the Hebrew lexeme for "prophet". This investigation by William L. Kelly discusses the nature and function of prophecy in the corpus of the Hebrew book of Jeremiah. It analyses all occurrences of the lexeme in Jeremiah and performs a close reading of three primary texts, Jeremiah 1.4-19, 23.9-40 and 27.1-28.17. The result is a detailed explanation of how prophecy works, and what it meant to call someone by that name in ancient Israel. Combining the results of the semantic analysis and close readings, the study reaches conclusions for six main areas of study: (1) the function and nature of prophecy; (2) dreams and visions; (3) being sent; (4) prophets, priests and cult; (5) salvation and doom; and (6) legitimacy and authority. I then situate these findings in two current debates, one on the definition of the lexeme; and one on cultic prophecy. This study contributes to critical scholarship on prophecy in the ancient world, on the book of Jeremiah, and on prophets in ancient Israel. It is the first major study to analyse the lexeme; based on its semantic associations. It adds to a growing consensus which understands prophecy as a form of divination. Contrary to some trends in Jeremiah scholarship, this work demonstrates the importance of a close reading of the Masoretic (Hebrew) text. This study uses a method of a general nature which can be applied to other texts. Thus there are significant implications for further research on prophecy and prophetic literature.
£101.04
Johns Hopkins University Press Civil-Military Relations and Shared Responsibility: A Four-Nation Study
Dale R. Herspring considers the factors that allow some civilian and military organizations to operate more productively in a political context than others, bringing into comparative study for the first time the military organizations of the U.S., Russia, Germany, and Canada. Refuting the work of scholars such as Samuel P. Huntington and Michael C. Desch, Civil-Military Relations and Shared Responsibility approaches civil-military relations from a new angle, military culture, arguing that the optimal form of civil-military relations is one of shared responsibility between the two groups. Herspring outlines eight factors that contribute to conditions that promote and support shared responsibility among civilian officials and the military, including such prerequisites as civilian leaders not interfering in the military's promotion process and civilian respect for military symbols and traditions. He uses these indicators in his comparative treatment of the U.S., Russian, German, and Canadian militaries. Civilian authorities are always in charge and the decision on how to treat the military is a civilian decision. However, Herspring argues, failure by civilians to respect military culture will antagonize senior military officials, who will feel less free to express their views, thus depriving senior civilian officials, most of whom have no military experience, of the expert advice of those most capable of assessing the far-reaching forms of violence. This issue of civilian respect for military culture and operations plays out in Herspring's country case studies. Scholars of civil-military relations will find much to debate in Herspring's framework, while students of civil-military and defense policy will appreciate Herspring's brief historical tour of each countries' post-World War II political and policy landscapes.
£64.55
The University Press of Kentucky In Defense of the Bush Doctrine
Noted historian Robert G. Kaufman contends that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, shattered the optimism so prevalent in the United States during the tranquil and prosperous 1990s. President George W. Bush's controversial grand strategy for waging a preemptive Global War on Terror has ignited passionate debate about the purposes of American power and the nation's proper role in the world. In Defense of the Bush Doctrine offers a vigorous argument for the principles of moral democratic realism that inspired the Bush administration's policy of regime change in Iraq. Kaufman connects the Bush Doctrine and current issues in American foreign policy to the deeper tradition of American diplomacy, drawing from positive lessons as well as cautionary tales from the past. Two key premises shape Kaufman's case for the Bush Doctrine's conformity with moral democratic realism. The first premise is the fundamental purpose of American foreign policy since its inception: to ensure the integrity and vitality of a free society "founded upon the dignity and worth of the individual." The second premise is that the cardinal virtue of prudence (the right reason about things to be done) must be the standard for determining the best practicable American grand strategy. In Defense of the Bush Doctrine provides both scholars and lay readers a broader historical context for the post-September 11 American foreign policy that will transform world politics well into the future.In Defense of the Bush Doctrine provides both scholars and lay readers a broader historical context for the post-September 11 American foreign policy that will transform world politics well into the future.
£26.95
Johns Hopkins University Press Democratization by Elections: A New Mode of Transition
Contested, multiparty elections are conventionally viewed as either an indicator of the start of democracy or a measure of its quality. In practice, the role that elections play in the transition from authoritarian rule is much more significant. Using as a starting point Guillermo O'Donnell and Phillipe C. Schmitter's 1986 classic, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, and Robert Dahl's original formulation of democratization as the outcome of increasing the costs of repression while decreasing the costs of toleration, this volume subjects to critical empirical tests the thesis that repeated elections positively affect democratic rights and processes. The first section uses global and quantitative regional studies based on new and unique data sets to present and rigorously evaluate the debate on the democratizing power of elections. The second section looks closely at specific electoral mechanisms and types of elections in Africa, post-Communist Europe and Eurasia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa to uncover those that support the long-term institutionalization of a democratic transition. The concluding section develops and formalizes a theory of democratization by elections. Each chapter includes in-depth discussions of policy implications and a wealth of statistical information. Featuring contributions by leading scholars of democracy, original research, and worldwide and country-specific data on elections and democracy, this collaborative exploration of the effect of elections on democratic transitions represents the cutting edge of comparative democratization studies. Contributors: Jason Brownlee, Valerie J. Bunce, Larry Diamond, Axel Hadenius, Jonathan Hartlyn, Marc M. Howard, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jennifer L. McCoy, Bryon Moraski, Pippa Norris, Ellen Lust-Okar, Lise Rakner, Philip G. Roessler, Andreas Schedler, Jan Teorell, Nicolas van de Walle, Sharon L. Wolchik
£65.60
University Press of Kansas The Idea of Presidential Representation: An Intellectual and Political History
Does the president represent the entire nation? Or does he speak for core partisans and narrow constituencies? The Federalist Papers, the electoral college, history and circumstance from the founders’ time to our own: all factor in theories of presidential representation, again and again lending themselves to different interpretations. This back-and-forth, Jeremy D. Bailey contends, is a critical feature, not a flaw, in American politics. Arriving at a moment of great debate over the nature and exercise of executive power, Bailey’s history offers an invaluable, remarkably relevant analysis of the intellectual underpinnings, political usefulness, and practical merits of contending ideas of presidential representation over time.Among scholars, a common reading of political history holds that the founders, aware of the dangers of demagogy, created a singularly powerful presidency that would serve as a check on the people’s representatives in Congress; then, this theory goes, the Progressives, impatient with such a counter-majoritarian approach, reformed the presidency to better reflect the people’s will—and, they reasoned, advance the public good. The Idea of Presidential Representation challenges this consensus, offering a more nuanced view of the shifting relationship between the president and the American people. Implicit in this pattern, Bailey tells us, is another equivocal relationship—that between law and public opinion as the basis for executive power in republican constitutionalism. Tracing these contending ideas from the framers time to our own, his book provides both a history and a much-needed context for our understanding of presidential representation in light of the modern presidency. In The Idea of Presidential Representation Bailey gives us a new and useful sense of an enduring and necessary feature of our politics.
£53.19
WW Norton & Co Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night
Independence Day weekend, 1960: a young police officer is murdered, shocking his close-knit community in Stamford, Connecticut. The killer remains at large, his identity still unknown. But on a beach not far away, a young Army doctor, on leave from his post at a research lab in a maximum-security prison, faces a chilling realisation. He knows who the shooter is. In fact, the man—a prisoner out on parole—had called him only days before. By helping his former charge and trainee, the doctor, a believer in second chances, may have inadvertently helped set the murder into motion. And with that one phone call, may have sealed a policeman’s fate. Alvin Tarlov, David Troy and Joseph DeSalvo were all born of the Great Depression, all with grandparents who’d left different homelands for the same American Dream. How did one become a doctor, one a police officer and one a convict? In Genealogy of a Murder, journalist Lisa Belkin traces the paths of each of these three men—one of them her stepfather. Her canvas is large, spanning the first half of the 20th century: immigration, the struggles of the working class, prison reform, medical experiments, politics and war, the nature/nurture debate, epigenetics, the infamous Leopold and Loeb case and the history of motorcycle racing. It is also intimate: a look into the workings of the mind and heart. Following these threads to their tragic outcome in July 1960, and beyond, Belkin examines the coincidences and choices that led to one fateful night. The result is a brilliantly researched, narratively ingenious story, which illuminates how we shape history even as we are shaped by it.
£25.00
Transworld Publishers Ltd Healing and the Mind
At last, the paperback edition of the monumental best-seller (almost half a million copies in print!) that has changed the way Americans think about sickness and health -- the companion volume to the landmark PBS series of the same name. In a remarkably short period of time, Bill Moyers's Healing And The Mind has become a touchstone, shaping the debate over alternative medical treatments and the role of the mind in illness and recovery in a way that few books have in recent memory. With almost half a million copies in print, it is already a classic -- the most widely read and influential book of its kind. In a series of fascinating interviews with world-renowned experts and laypeople alike, Bill Moyers explores the new mind/body medicine. Healing And The Mind shows how it is being practiced in the treatment of stress, chronic disease, and neonatal problems in several American hospitals; examines the chemical basis of emotions, and their potential for making us sick (and making us well); explores the fusion of traditional Chinese medicine with modern Western practices in contemporary China; and takes an up-close, personal look at alternative healing therapies, including a Massachusetts center that combines Eastern meditation and Western group therapy, and a California retreat for cancer patients who help each other even when a cure is impossible. Combining the incisive yet personal interview approach that made A World Of Ideas a feast for the mind and the provocative interplay of text and art that made The Power Of Myth a feast for the imagination, Healing And The Mind is a landmark work.
£22.50
Oxford University Press Inc The Value of the World and of Oneself: Philosophical Optimism and Pessimism from Aristotle to Modernity
Philosophical optimists maintain that the world is optimally arranged and is accordingly valuable, and that the existence of human beings is preferable to their nonexistence. Philosophical pessimists, by contrast, would prefer human nonexistence, considering the world to be in a woeful condition and ultimately valueless. The Value of the World and of Oneself examines the longstanding debate between philosophical optimism and pessimism in the history of philosophy, focusing on Aristotle, Maimonides, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus. Author Mor Segev examines how Schopenhauer criticizes the optimism he locates in the Hebrew Bible and in Spinoza for being unable to square the presumed perfection of the world and its parts, including human life, with the suffering and misfortunes observable in them, and for leading to egoism and thereby to cruelty. Nietzsche, in turn, criticizes Schopenhauer's overtly pessimistic view for furtively positing a perfect state for one to aspire to, thus being latently optimistic. Similarly, Camus charges Nietzsche, who announces his rejection of both optimism and pessimism, with deifying the world and oneself, thereby reverting to optimism. Aristotle countenances an optimistic theory, later adopted and developed by Maimonides, that is arguably capable of facing Schopenhauer's challenge. Aristotelian optimism, Segev argues, accounts for the perfection of the world in terms of a hierarchy of value between its parts, with human beings ranked relatively low, and recommends an attitude congruent with that ranking. A wide-ranging survey of the major theorists of optimism and pessimism, The Value of the World and of Oneself reorients our interpretations of crucial thinkers via Segev's remarkable grasp of the philosophical canon's multi-millennial history.
£91.60
Oxford University Press Inc War and Justice in the 21st Century: A Case Study on the International Criminal Court and its Interaction with the War on Terror
This is the inside story of the International Criminal Court, one of the most innovative international institutions, from the unique perspective of its first Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo. Moreno Ocampo received the unprecedented mandate to trigger the International Criminal Court's investigation into sovereign states in June 2003, just three months after the Iraq invasion. At the time, there were serious doubts about the ICC's viability. By 2012, the end of his tenure, the future of the ICC was no longer at risk. However, as Moreno Ocampo's experiences have shown, what was and still is up for debate is the Rome Statute's ability to "contribute to the prevention" of future crimes. The implementation of the Rome Statute has coincided with the War on Terror. The international criminal justice system that protects the rights of victims and suspects clashes with the US policy authorizing the killing abroad of individuals considered enemy combatants. Legal designs are literally a matter of life or death. This book examines a consequential blind spot: The War on Terror obstructed justice and promoted terrorism. The Iraq intervention produced the 'Islamic State', and after twenty years of occupation, the Taliban returned to power. The Afghanistan occupation has ended, but not so the War on Terror. Using drones and proxy forces to eliminate enemies in foreign countries has become the "new normal." Arguing that there is no chaos, just complexity, Moreno Ocampo produces an interdisciplinary analysis of his decisions, describing a "fragmented" international legal system's operation and the relationships between legal and political decisions. This book aims to help new generations to manage violence with new ways of legal and political thinking.
£47.82
Oxford University Press Inc Satiric TV in the Americas: Critical Metatainment as Negotiated Dissent
In a time of global infotainment, the crisis of modern journalism, the omnipresence of celebrity culture and reality TV, and the colonization of public discourse by media spectacle and entertainment, postmodern satiric media have emerged as prominent critical voices playing an unprecedented role at the heart of public debate. Indeed, satiric media has filled gaps left not only by traditional media but also by weak social institutions and discredited political elites. In Satiric TV in the Americas, Paul Alonso analyzes the most influential satiric TV shows in the Americas--focusing on shows in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Chile and the United States--in order to understand their critical role in challenging the status quo, traditional journalism, and the prevalent local media culture. Alonso illuminates the phenomenon of satire as resistance and negotiation in public discourse, the role of entertainment media as a site where socio-political tensions are played out, and the changing notions of journalism in today's democratic societies. Introducing the notion of "critical metatainment" -- a transgressive, self-referential reaction to the process of tabloidization and the cult of celebrity in the media spectacle era -- Satiric TV in the Americas is the first book to map, contextualize, and analyze relevant cases to understand the relation between political information, social and cultural dissent, critical humor, and entertainment in the region. Evaluating contemporary satiric media as a consequence of the collapse of modernity and its arbitrary dichotomies, Satiric TV in the Americas also shows that, as satiric formats travel to a particular national context, they are appropriated in different ways and adapted to local circumstances, with distinct consequences.
£34.01
Whittles Publishing Crucible of Conflict: Three Centuries of Border War
The borderers - people forged and hardened by endemic warfare over generations, whether by raids and skirmishes or set piece battles - are marked even today as a distinct group. For three savage centuries England and Scotland, both dynamic races, slogged it out upon this arena of nations. Scott might have reinvented the border as a sweep of chivalric romance, but the reality was very different. John Sadler knows this ground and its people; he is one of them. For half a century he has traversed the borderland, and has taught, enacted and written about them. In this book he offers a uniquely personal but highly informed view. He neither praises nor condemns them, but seeks to understand and, perverse as it may seem, admires them. History leaves its imprint and like the proverbial stone cast into still waters, it sends out ripples through time that never quite abate. The feuds were pursued with increasing savagery and even when not in outright conflict, the names on both sides continued their 'feids' or vendettas in crazy bloodletting for decades, with cycles of escalating violence creating a dizzying maze of interlocking enmities that was beyond all reason. The late, great George Macdonald Fraser once remarked that the borderers were free in a way we can never imagine. And they were. Here is a book that weighs the evidence from a plethora of sources to provide a compelling history of this border conflict. In the modern political scene, with the issue of a second referendum pending, the theme of a cultural identity, forged in the fury of those Border wars, forms a pivotal theme in the debate.
£18.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd Constructive Conversations About Health: Pt. 2, Perspectives on Policy and Practice
Current health policy is required to respond to a constantly changing social and political environment characterised, particularly in Europe, by ageing populations, increased migration, and growing inequalities in health and services. With health systems under increasing strain there is a sense that we need to seek new means of determining health policy. Much political debate focuses on managerial issues such as the levels of health funding and the setting and missing of targets. Meanwhile our moral imperatives, our values and principles, go relatively unexamined. What are these values? Can we agree their validity and salience? How do we manage the paradox of competing goods? Can we find new ways of talking about, and resolving, our conflicting values and competing priorities in order to create sound, appropriate, and just health policies for the 21st Century? Written by leading health policy makers and academics from many countries, "Constructive Conversations about Health" examines in depth the underlying values and principles of health policy, and posits a more enlightened public and political discourse. The book will be invaluable for those involved in health policy making and governance, politicians, healthcare managers, researchers, ethicists, health and social affairs media, health rights and patient participation groups. 'The literature on health policy is vast. On offer are models of health services, economic theory, management theory, disquisitions on ethical principles, social analyses, literally thousands of publications. In a globalised and electronically networked world, this literature has already generated its own particular language, a policy jargon replete with terms that look deceptively familiar, terms that will be much in evidence in what now follows, terms whose meanings require our closest attention.' - Marshall Marinker.
£44.99
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Meet Innovation Systems: Synergies, Policy Lessons and Overlooked Dimensions
This book presents multidisciplinary research that expands our understanding of the innovation system (IS) and the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) perspectives on regional economic development. It critically reviews the two concepts and explores the promise and the limits of bridging IS and EE, particularly as applied outside of the bubbling global hubs or to the types of entrepreneurship different from the high-growth variety. Building on these insights, it delves deeper into the links between the academic knowledge and its practical applications in a variety of contexts - from a vibrant London suburb to Latin American countries - with the goal of offering place-specific policy implications. Additionally, the authors advance the inquiry by examining some of the overlooked dimensions of the systemic approaches to economic development such as informal and social entrepreneurship and offers a comprehensive view of the current research at the intersection of the IS and the EE frameworks from the practical perspective. Entrepreneurship and innovation - and relatively new ways to study and understand those within the systems framework - are at the forefront of scholarly and policy debate on economic growth at the moment, making this an important and timely work for academics and policy makers. Contributors include: V. Andonova, M. Belitski, J.E. Cassiolato, A.P. da Costa e Silva Lima, C. De Fuentes, G. de Oliveira Santos, M. del Carmen Roman Roig, N.A. Dentchev, A. Diaz Gonzalez, J. Federico, A. Godley, M. Gonzalo, A. Guerrero Alvarado, S. Ibarra Garcia, H. Kantis, R. Lèbre La Rovere, M.C.J. Lustosa, H.M. Martins Lastres, F. Modrego, J.A. Peerally, J. A. Perez-Lopez, M.G. Pessoa de Matos, M.G. Pezzi, R. Pugh, M.G.v. B. Podcameni, J. Schmutzler, V. Servantie, A. Tsvetkova, J.M. Zabala-Iturriagagoitia
£109.00
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Resilience, Crisis and Innovation Dynamics
Resilience has lately emerged as a recurrent notion to explain how territorial socio-economic systems adapt successfully (or not) to negative events. Resilience, Crisis and Innovation Dynamics uses resilience as a bridging notion to connect different types of theoretical and empirical approaches, helping improve understanding of the impacts of economic turbulence at both system and actor levels. Providing a unique overview of the recent financial crisis, as well as assessing the importance of innovation dynamics for regional resilience, the international array of contributors offers an engaging and thought-provoking debate as to how regional resilience can be improved as well as exploring the social aspects of vulnerability, resilience and innovation. In offering a set of challenges from different regional and structural perspectives, the book helps to consolidate the research surrounding resilience in regional science. Essentially, the contributions consider the relevance of innovation systems, knowledge networks and the role innovation actors play to create new possibilities for preparing for, and adapting to, both present shocks and future problems that may arise. Offering a wealth of refreshing studies with great value for academia, industry and government, this book will be relevant for students and researchers of economics, urban and regional studies, and innovation as well as regional scientists and planners.Contributors include: P. Bary, T. Baycan, M.B. Baypinar, M. Benke, A.B.S. Bravo, R. Comunian, P. Cooke, K. Czimre, A.S. Dogruel, F. Dogruel, L. England, A. Faggian, M.E. Ferreira, K.R. Forray, T. Heinonen, D. Kallioras, T. Kozma, B. Martini, S. Márton, F.J. Ortega-Colomer, B.S. Özen, Y. Özerkek, P. Pantazis, E. Pekkola, T.S. Pereira, H. Pinto, Y. Psycharis, M.M. Ridhwan, M. Sipikal, M. Siserova, R.R. Stough, V. Szitasiova, K. Teperics, B.J. Valencia
£126.00
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Handbook on East Asian Social Policy
Dramatic socio-economic transformations over the last two decades have brought social policy and social welfare issues to prominence in many East Asian societies. Since the 1990s and in response to national as well as global pressure, there have been substantial developments and reforms in social policy in the region but the development paths have been uneven. Until recently, comparative analysis of East Asian social policy tends to have focused on the established welfare state of Japan and the emerging welfare regimes of four 'Tiger Economies'. Much of the recent debate indeed preceded China's re-emergence onto the world economy. In this context, this Handbook brings China more fully into the contemporary social policy debates in East Asia. Organized around five themes from welfare state developments, to theories and methodologies, to current social policy issues, the Handbook presents original research from leading specialists in the fields, and provides a fresh and updated perspective to the study of social policy.Providing a comparative international approach, this Handbook will appeal to academics, researchers and students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels working in the fields of social policy, as well as policy makers and practitioners who are interested in social policy lessons from other societies.Contributors: K. Caraher, H.M. Chan, K.W. Chan, R.K.H. Chan, Y.-f. Chang, Y.J. Choi, R. Forrest, J. Hudson, G.-J. Hwang, M. Iwata, M. Izuhara, D. Jung, P. Kennett, Y.-w. Ku, M. Lau, S. Liu, W.Y.W. Lo, T.-l. Lui, K.K. Mehta, K.H. Mok, L.L.-S. Ngan, K. Ngok, C.-u. Park, R. Ronald, N. Soma, S. Sung, S. Takegawa, A. Walker, C.-k. Wong, L. Wong, J. Yamashita
£52.95
St Augustine's Press Christian Philosophy and Free Will
Following an ardent debate in the 1930s on the question over whether something like a “Christian philosophy” exists, as Etienne Gilson, Jacques Maritain, and others held, the term was used by many thinkers and rejected by many others, not only by Heidegger who called it a contradiction in terms, an “iron wood,” but also by Thomists who wanted to see philosophy and Christian faith strictly separated. Seifert analyses five understandings of the term “Christian philosophy” which have never been expounded with such clarity and which he rejects for different, partly for opposite, reasons. He presents these senses of Christian philosophy, and his reasons for rejecting them, in clear, straight-forward language. He presents for the first time a series of eleven wholly different and thoroughly positive and fruitful ways of understanding the (rather misleading) term “Christian philosophy.” Identifying and distinguishing these legitimate ways to speak of “Christian philosophy” shed light on the manifold fruitful relations between reason and faith. In a second part of the book, Seifert gives an example of Christian philosophy in the sense of a philosophy of religion that shows the absolute presupposedness and necessity of the existence of human, divine, and angelic free will to make any sense of divine revelation and of Christian (but also of Muslim and Jewish) religion. In a third part, he presents a penetrating analysis of seven indubitable evidences that demonstrate the nature and real existence of human free will (in a so-called “libertarian” sense that rejects the thesis of the compatibility between free will and determinism). The book is introduced by the eminent Thomist philosopher, John Finnis.
£21.53
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Who Is This Schiller Now?: Essays on His Reception and Significance
New essays by top international Schiller scholars on the reception of the great German writer and dramatist, emphasizing his realist aspects. The works of Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) -- an innovative and resonant tragedian and an important poet, essayist, historian, and aesthetic theorist -- are among the best known of German and world literature. Schiller's explosive original artistry and feel for timely and enduring personal tragedy embedded in timeless sociohistorical conflicts remain the topic of lively academic debate. The essays in this volume address the many flashpoints and canonicalshifts in the cyclically polarized reception of Schiller and his works, in pursuit of historical and contemporary answers to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's expression of frightened admiration in 1794: "Who is this Schiller?" The responses demonstrate pronounced shifts from widespread twentieth-century understandings of Schiller: the overwhelming emphasis here is on Schiller the cosmopolitan realist, and little or no trace is left of the ultimately untenable view of Schiller as an abstract idealist who turned his back on politics. Contributors: Ehrhard Bahr, Matthew Bell, Frederick Burwick, Jennifer Driscoll Colosimo, Bernd Fischer, Gail K. Hart, Fritz Heuer, Hans H. Hiebel, Jeffrey L. High, Walter Hinderer, Paul E. Kerry, Erik B. Knoedler, Elisabeth Krimmer, Maria del Rosario Acosta López, Laura Anna Macor, Dennis F. Mahoney, Nicholas Martin, John A. McCarthy, Yvonne Nilges, Norbert Oellers, Peter Pabisch, David Pugh, T. J. Reed, Wolfgang Riedel, Jörg Robert, Ritchie Robertson, Jeffrey L. Sammons, Henrik Sponsel. Jeffrey L. High is Associate Professor of German Studies at California State University Long Beach, Nicholas Martin is Reader in European Intellectual History at the University of Birmingham, and Norbert Oellers is Professor Emeritus of German Literature at the University of Bonn.
£120.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Nature of Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories seem to be proliferating today. Long relegated to a niche existence, conspiracy theories are now pervasive, and older conspiracy theories have been joined by a constant stream of new ones – that the USA carried out the 9/11 attacks itself, that the Ukrainian crisis was orchestrated by NATO, that we are being secretly controlled by a New World Order that keep us docile via chemtrails and vaccinations. Not to mention the moon landing that never happened. But what are conspiracy theories and why do people believe them? Have they always existed or are they something new, a feature of our modern world? In this book Michael Butter provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the nature and development of conspiracy theories. Contrary to popular belief, he shows that conspiracy theories are less popular and influential today than they were in the past. Up to the 1950s, the Western world regarded conspiracy theories as a legitimate form of knowledge and it was therefore normal to believe in them. It was only after the Second World War that this knowledge was delegitimized, causing conspiracy theories to be banished from public discourse and relegated to subcultures. The recent renaissance of conspiracy theories is linked to internet which gives them wider exposure and contributes to the fragmentation of the public sphere. Conspiracy theories are still stigmatized today in many sections of mainstream culture but are being accepted once again as legitimate knowledge in others. It is the clash between these domains and their different conceptions of truth that is fuelling the current debate over conspiracy theories.
£17.99
New York University Press Drawdown: The American Way of Postwar
Analyzes the cultural attitudes, political decisions, and institutions surrounding the maintenance of armed forces throughout American history While traditionally, Americans view expensive military structure as a poor investment and a threat to liberty, they also require a guarantee of that very freedom, necessitating the employment of armed forces. Beginning with the seventeenth-century wars of the English colonies, Americans typically increased their military capabilities at the beginning of conflicts only to decrease them at the apparent conclusion of hostilities. In Drawdown: The American Way of Postwar, a stellar team of military historians argue that the United States sometimes managed effective drawdowns, sowing the seeds of future victory that Americans eventually reaped. Yet at other times, the drawing down of military capabilities undermined our readiness and flexibility, leading to more costly wars and perhaps defeat. The political choice to reduce military capabilities is influenced by Anglo-American pecuniary decisions and traditional fears of government oppression, and it has been haphazard at best throughout American history. These two factors form the basic American “liberty dilemma,” the vexed relationship between the nation and its military apparatuses from the founding of the first colonies through to present times. With the termination of large-scale operations in Iraq and the winnowing of forces in Afghanistan, the United States military once again faces a significant drawdown in standing force structure and capabilities. The political and military debate currently raging around how best to affect this force reduction continues to lack a proper historical perspective. This volume aspires to inform this dialogue. Not a traditional military history, Drawdown analyzes cultural attitudes, political decisions, and institutions surrounding the maintenance of armed forces.
£24.99
University of Texas Press Mexico and the Spanish Cortes, 1810–1822: Eight Essays
Few developments in the history of the Spanish colonial system in Mexico have been more carelessly treated or more often misinterpreted than the attempt to establish constitutional government in New Spain under the Spanish monarchy during the 1809–1814 and 1820–1822 periods. Yet the broad outlines of the Mexican constitutional system were laid then, largely through the insistent efforts of the Mexican deputies to the Cortes, the Spanish legislative body. Some of the delegates also grasped this opportunity to inform their countrymen and train them in the effectiveness of parliamentary debate and resolution as a more intelligent road to democratic and representative government.The 70 Mexican deputies (of the 160 elected) who actively participated in the sessions of the Cortes either helped draw up the Constitution of 1812, which initiated provisions for many needed reforms relating to military, religious, economic, educational, judicial, and governmental affairs in Mexico, or contributed to the enabling acts consequent to these provisions. The prime reason for calling the Cortes, however, and especially for inviting the participation of the Mexicans, was to attempt to maintain New Spain’s loyalty to the mother country, an unrealized objective in the long run, although much constructive discussion of this goal was offered by the Mexican delegates.These eight essays trace the establishment and implementation of the Mexican electoral system, both national and municipal, and of reforms in the economic, journalistic, religious, and military systems. They serve as an informative introduction to the revolutionary role the Cortes of Spain played in Mexican history and as a record of the contribution of Mexican delegates to the beginning of liberal reform in their country.
£19.99
Johns Hopkins University Press Making Liberalism New: American Intellectuals, Modern Literature, and the Rewriting of a Political Tradition
A revisionist history of American liberalism, from the Great Depression to the Cold War.Finalist of the MSA First Book Prize by The Modernist Studies AssociationIn Making Liberalism New, Ian Afflerbach traces the rise, revision, and fall of a modern liberalism in the United States, establishing this intellectual culture as distinct from classical predecessors as well as the neoliberalism that came to power by century's end. Drawing on a diverse archive that includes political philosophy, legal texts, studies of moral psychology, government propaganda, and presidential campaign materials, Afflerbach also delves into works by Tess Slesinger, Richard Wright, James Agee, John Dewey, Lionel Trilling, and Vladimir Nabokov. Throughout the book, he shows how a reciprocal pattern of influence between modernist literature and liberal intellectuals helped drive the remarkable writing and rewriting of this keyword in American political life. From the 1930s into the 1960s, Afflerbach writes, modern American fiction exposed and interrogated central concerns in liberal culture, such as corporate ownership, reproductive rights, color-blind law, the tragic limits of social documentary, and the dangerous allure of a heroic style in political leaders. In response, liberal intellectuals borrowed key values from modernist culture—irony, tragedy, style—to reimagine the meaning and ambitions of American liberalism. Drawing together political theory and literary history, Making Liberalism New argues that the rise of American liberal culture helped direct the priorities of modern literature. At the same time, it explains how the ironies of narrative form offer an ideal medium for readers to examine conceptual problems in liberal thought. These problems—from the abortion debate to the scope of executive power—remain an indelible feature of American politics.
£76.05
Taylor & Francis Ltd Uncertain Images: Museums and the Work of Photographs
Almost all museums hold photographs in their collections, and museum professionals and their audiences engage with photographs in a myriad of ways. Yet despite some three decades of critical museology and photographic theory, and an extensive debate on the politics of representation, outside art museums, almost no critical attention has been given specifically to the roles, purposes and lives of these photographs within museums. This book brings into focus the ubiquitous yet entirely unconsidered work that photographs are put to in museums. The authors' argument is that there is an economy of photographs in museums which is integral to the processes of the museum, and integral to the understanding of museums. The international contributors, drawn from curators and academics, reflect a range of visual and museological expertise. After an introduction setting out the range of questions and problems, the first part addresses broad curatorial strategies and ways of thinking about photographs in museums. Shifting the emphasis from curatorial practices and anxieties to the space of the gallery, this is followed by a series of case studies of exhibitionary practices and the museum strategies that support them. The third section focuses on the role of photographs in the museum articulation of ’difficult histories’. A final section addresses photograph collections in a digital environment. New technologies and new media have transformed the management, address and purposing in photographs in museums, from cataloguing practices to streaming on social media. These growing practices challenge both traditional hierarchies of knowledge in museums and the location of authority about photographs. The volume emerges from PhotoCLEC, a HERA funded project on museums and the photographic legacy of the colonial past in a postcolonial and multicultural Europe.
£135.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Making Competitive Cities
The book investigates the impact on the competitiveness of cities developing creative industries (arts, media, entertainment, creative business services, architects, publishers, designers) and knowledge-intensive industries (ICT, R&D, finance, law). It provides significant new knowledge to the theoretical and practical understanding of the conditions necessary to stimulate "creative knowledge" cities. The editors compare the socio-economic developments, experiences and strategies in 13 urban regions across Europe: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Birmingham, Budapest, Dublin, Helsinki, Leipzig, Milan, Munich, Poznan, Riga, Sofia and Toulouse. These have different histories and roles; include capital and non-capital cities of different sizes; represent cities with different economic structures; and different cultural, political and welfare state traditions. Through this wide set of examples, Making Competitive Cities informs the debate about creative and knowledge-intensive industries, economic development, and competitiveness policies. It focuses on which metropolitan regions have a better chance to develop as "creative knowledge regions" and which do not, as well as investigating why this is so and what can policy do to influence change. Chapter authors from thirteen European institutions rigorously evaluate, reformulate and empirically test assumptions about cities and their potential for attracting creative and knowledge-intensive industries. As well as a systematic empirical comparison of developments related to these industries, the book examines the pathways that cities have followed and surveys both the negative and positive impacts of different prevailing conditions. Special Features: Analyses link between knowledge-intensive sectors and urban competitiveness Offers evidence from 13 European urban regions drawn from a major research project Establishes a new benchmark for academic and policy debates in a fast-moving field
£105.95
WW Norton & Co Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent
So often, Africa has been depicted simplistically as a uniform land of famines and safaris, poverty and strife, stripped of all nuance. In this bold and insightful book, Dipo Faloyin offers a much-needed corrective, weaving a vibrant tapestry of stories that bring to life Africa’s rich diversity, communities, and histories. Starting with an immersive description of the lively and complex urban life of Lagos, Faloyin unearths surprising truths about many African countries’ colonial heritage and tells the story of the continent’s struggles with democracy through seven dictatorships. With biting wit, he takes on the phenomenon of the white savior complex and brings to light the damage caused by charity campaigns of the past decades, revisiting such cultural touchstones as the KONY 2012 film. Entering into the rivalries that energize the continent, Faloyin engages in the heated debate over which West African country makes the best jollof rice and describes the strange, incongruent beauty of the African Cup of Nations. With an eye toward the future promise of the continent, he explores the youth-led cultural and political movements that are defining and reimagining Africa on their own terms. The stories Faloyin shares are by turns joyful and enraging; proud and optimistic for the future even while they unequivocally confront the obstacles systematically set in place by former colonial powers. Brimming with humor and wit, filled with political insights, and, above all, infused with a deep love for the region, Africa Is Not a Country celebrates the energy and particularity of the continent’s different cultures and communities, treating Africa with the respect it deserves.
£15.30
John Wiley & Sons Inc Basic English Grammar For Dummies - UK
Get good guidance on using English well English is a hard language to get right. It's all too easy to make simple mistakes, whether writing or speaking—which can land you in embarrassing social situations or even cost you a job. Luckily, Basic English Grammar For Dummies UK Edition is here to help you get to grips with English. Without the complexity of formal grammar and through plenty of examples and brief exercises, it gets you up and running on common spelling errors, how to structure sentences to make yourself easily understood, and find the right tone and style for any situation, whether you're talking on the phone or writing a letter, email, or text. Is it good or well? There, their or they're? Some people don't have to think twice about using proper English grammar, but for the rest of us it can become tricky and confusing. Easy to understand and free of jargon, this friendly and accessible guide sticks to the basics and makes it easy to build your English grammar skills. In no time, you'll leave the ‘me or I?' debate at the door and speak and write confidently and correctly. Includes quizzes and self-tests Provides guidance on composing letters, emails, and texts Uses easy vocabulary to make the content accessible to all Serves as a great guidebook to English grammar for overseas learners If English is your second language or you simply missed or have forgotten the nuances that were taught in school, Basic English Grammar For Dummies UK Edition is the fast and easy way to brush up on your skills and make a good impression.
£17.09
John Wiley and Sons Ltd A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture
A COMPANION TO LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE “The work contains a wealth of information that must surely provide the basic material for a number of study modules. It should find a place on the library shelves of all institutions where Latin American studies form part of the curriculum.” Reference Review “In short, this is a fascinating panoply that goes from a reevaluation of pre-Columbian America to an intriguing consideration of recent developments in the debate on the modem and postmodern. Summing Up: Recommended.” CHOICE A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture reflects the changes that have taken place in cultural theory and literary criticism since the latter part of the twentieth century. Written by more than thirty experts in cultural theory, literary history, and literary criticism, this authoritative and up-to-date reference places major authors in the complex cultural and historical contexts that have compelled their distinctive fiction, essays, and poetry. This allows the reader to more accurately interpret the esteemed but demanding literature of authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa, Octavio Paz, and Diamela Eltit. Key authors whose work has defined a period, or defied borders, as in the cases of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, César Vallejo, and Gabriel García Márquez, are also discussed in historical and theoretical context. Additional essays engage the reader with in-depth discussions of forms and genres, and discussions of architecture, music, and film This text provides the historical background to help the reader understand the people and culture that have defined Latin American literature and its reception. Each chapter also includes short selected bibliographic guides and recommendations for further reading.
£38.95
Museum of Modern Art Design and Violence
Design has a history of violence. It can be an act of creative destruction and a double-edged sword, and yet professional discourse around design has been dominated by voices that only trumpet its commercial and aesthetic successes. Violence, defined here as the power to alter circumstances against the will of others and to their detriment, is ubiquitous in history and in contemporary society. In recent years, moreover, technology has introduced new threats and added dramatically to the many manifestations of violence. Design and Violence is an exploration of the relationship between the two that sheds light on the complex impact of design on the built environment and on everyday life, as well as on the manifestations of violence in contemporary society. Published to accompany an online experiment launched by The Museum of Modern Art in Autumn 2013, it brings together controversial, provocative, and compelling design projects with leading voices from a variety of fields. Each invited author responds to one object chosen by the curators – ranging from an AK-47 to a Euthanasia Rollercoaster, from plastic handcuffs to the Stuxnet digital virus – and invites dialogue, comments, reflection, and active, occasionally fierce, debate. Examples of questions posed include: Can we design a violent act to be more humane? How far can the state go to ‘protect’ its borders from immigration before it becomes an act of violence? Is violence ‘male’? These experimental and wide-ranging conversations bring together voices from the fields of art and design, science, law, criminal justice, ethics, finance, journalism, and social justice, making Design and Violence an invaluable resource for lively discussions and classroom curricula.
£22.50
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Central Banking and Monetary Policy in Muslim-Majority Countries
This book is a major contribution to the fledgling literature on Islamic banking and financial institutions. It offers a comprehensive and novel analysis of the interplay of Islamic and conventional banking based on new evidence pieced together from nine Muslim-majority countries. The analysis is well informed by the relevant theory and the ongoing policy debate. The book will not only be of interest to researchers and students, but also to analysts in the policy making community.'- Prema-chandra Athukorala, Australian National UniversityThe introduction of Islamic banking and finance across the globe strengthens the argument for low and stable inflation and rule-based monetary policy for sustained economic growth. Although Islamic banking and finance may have created some complexities in financial transactions it remains consistent with Classical monetary theory and has created opportunities for improving the infrastructure of central banks and monetary policy to maintain both price and economic stability. This book reviews key aspects of central banking and monetary policy in selected Muslim-majority countries which have introduced Islamic banking and finance alongside conventional banking since the 1980s. The selected countries are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.While reviewing country-specific experiences and issues in inflation and monetary policy, and analysing them from an historical context, emphasis is given to the evolution of Islamic banking and finance and the consequent institutional developments for maintaining price stability. Macroeconomic problems under these regimes are also highlighted and their policy implications drawn.This volume will be of great value to students and researchers interested in Islamic banking and finance, and macroeconomic and monetary policy issues in Muslim-majority countries.
£122.00
Duke University Press The New Pluralism: William Connolly and the Contemporary Global Condition
William Connolly, one of the best-known and most important political theorists writing today, is a principal architect of the “new pluralism.” In this volume, leading thinkers in contemporary political theory and international relations provide a comprehensive investigation of the new pluralism, Connolly’s contributions to it, and its influence on the fields of political theory and international relations. Together they trace the evolution of Connolly’s ideas, illuminating his challenges to the “old,” conventional pluralist theory that dominated American and British political science and sociology in the second half of the twentieth century. The contributors show how Connolly has continually revised his ideas about pluralism to take into account radical changes in global politics, incorporate new theories of cognition, and reflect on the centrality of religion in political conflict. They engage his arguments for an agonistic democracy in which all fundamentalisms become the objects of politicization, so that differences are not just tolerated but are productive of debate and the creative source of a politics of becoming. They also explore the implications of his work, often challenging his views to widen the reach of even his most recently developed theories. Connolly’s new pluralism will provoke all citizens who refuse to subordinate their thinking to the regimes in which they reside, to religious authorities tied to the state, or to corporate interests tied to either. The New Pluralism concludes with an interview with Connolly in which he reflects on the evolution of his ideas and expands on his current work.Contributors: Roland Bleiker, Wendy Brown, David Campbell, William Connolly, James Der Derian, Thomas L. Dumm, Kathy E. Ferguson, Bonnie Honig, George Kateb, Morton SchoolmanMichael J. Shapiro, Stephen K. White
£31.00
Duke University Press Critical Passions: Selected Essays
Jean Franco’s work as a pathbreaking theorist, cultural critic, and scholar has helped to define Latin American studies over the last three decades. In the process, Franco has played a crucial role in developing cultural studies in both the English- and Spanish-speaking worlds. Critical Passions is the first volume to gather a wide-ranging selection of Franco’s influential essays.A key participant in the major debates in Latin American studies—beginning with the “boom” period of the 1960s and continuing through debates on ideology and discourse, Marxism, mass culture, and postmodernism—Franco is recognized for her feminist critique of Latin American writing. While her principal books are all readily available, Franco’s several dozen articles are dispersed in a variety of periodicals in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. Although many of these essays are considered pioneering and classic, they have never before been collected in a single work. In this volume, Mary Louise Pratt and Kathleen Newman have organized the essays into four interrelated sections: feminism and the critique of authoritarianism, mass and popular culture, Latin American literature from the “boom” onward, and the cultural history of Mexico. As a group, these writings demonstrate Franco’s ability to reflect on and judge with equal seriousness all spheres of expression, whether subway graffiti, a fashion manual, or an avant-garde haiku. A bona fide fan of popular and mass media, Franco never allows her critiques to dissolve into the puritanical or reductive; instead, she finds ways to present and debate complex theoretical questions in direct and accessible language. This volume will draw an extensive readership in Latin American, cultural, and women’s studies.
£26.99
University of Minnesota Press Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics
The Black Power movement represented a key turning point in American politics. Disenchanted by the hollow progress of federal desegregation during the 1960s, many black citizens and leaders across the United States demanded meaningful self-determination. The popular movement they created was marked by a vigorous artistic renaissance, militant political action, and fierce ideological debate. Exploring the major political and intellectual currents from the Black Power era to the present, Cedric Johnson reveals how black political life gradually conformed to liberal democratic capitalism and how the movement’s most radical aims—the rejection of white aesthetic standards, redefinition of black identity, solidarity with the Third World, and anticapitalist revolution—were gradually eclipsed by more moderate aspirations. Although Black Power activists transformed the face of American government, Johnson contends that the evolution of the movement as a form of ethnic politics restricted the struggle for social justice to the world of formal politics. Johnson offers a compelling and theoretically sophisticated critique of the rhetoric and strategies that emerged in this period. Drawing on extensive archival research, he reinterprets the place of key intellectual figures, such as Harold Cruse and Amiri Baraka, and influential organizations, including the African Liberation Support Committee, the National Black Political Assembly, and the National Black Independent Political Party in postsegregation black politics, while at the same time identifying the contradictions of Black Power radicalism itself. Documenting the historical retreat from radical, democratic struggle, Revolutionaries to Race Leaders ultimately calls for the renewal of popular struggle and class-conscious politics. Cedric Johnson is assistant professor of political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
£17.99