Search results for ""Debate""

The first work to lay out Roman strategic thinking from its start under Augustus until its final demise in 476 CE From Octavian's victory at Actium (31 bc) to its traditional endpoint in the West (476), the Roman Empire lasted a solid 500 years—an impressive number by any standard, and fully one-fifth of all recorded history. In fact, the decline and final collapse of the Roman Empire took longer than most other empires even existed. Any historian trying to unearth the grand strategy of the Roman Empire must, therefore, always remain cognizant of the time scale, in which she is dealing. Although the pace of change in the Roman era never approached that of the modern era, it was not an empire in stasis. While the visible trappings may have changed little, the challenges Rome faced at its end were vastly different than those faced by Augustus and the Julio-Claudians. Over the centuries, the Empire's underlying economy, political arrangements, military affairs, and, most importantly, the myriad of external threats it faced were in constant flux, making adaptability to changing circumstances as important to Roman strategists as it is to strategists of the modern era. Yet the very idea of Rome having a grand strategy, or what it might be, had not concerned historians until Edward Luttwak's The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire appeared forty years ago. Although this pioneering work generated much debate, it failed to win over many ancient historians, in part because of its heavy emphasis on military force and its neglect of considerations of diplomacy, economics, politics, culture, and the changing nature of the threats that confronted Rome. By employing an expansive definition of strategy and by focusing much of the narrative on crucial historical moments and the personalities involved, James Lacey provides a comprehensive, persuasive, and engaging account of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. It assimilates the most recent work of classical historians and archaeologists to correct the flaws and omissions of previous accounts, thus presenting the most complete and nuanced narrative of Roman strategic thinking and execution ever published.

Read more less

The essential new book from the authors of the international bestseller The Spirit Level'Why are people, particularly young people, experiencing increasing levels of mental illness and distress? Highly readable and authoritative, The Inner Level shows clearly how social anxieties and the problems they lead to rise steadily in richer, more unequal societies' Clare Short, The Tablet, Books of the YearWhy is the incidence of mental illness in the UK twice that in Germany? Why are Americans three times more likely than the Dutch to develop gambling problems? Why is child well-being so much worse in New Zealand than Japan? As this groundbreaking study demonstrates, the answer to all these hinges on inequality.In The Spirit Level Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett put inequality at the centre of public debateby showing conclusively that less-equal societies fare worse than more equal ones across everythingfrom education to life expectancy. The Inner Level now explains how inequality affects us individually,how it alters how we think, feel and behave. It sets out the overwhelming evidence that materialinequalities have powerful psychological effects: when the gap between rich and poor increases, so does the tendency to defi ne and value ourselves and others in terms of superiority and inferiority. A deep well of data and analysis is drawn upon to empirically show, for example, that low social status is associated with elevated levels of stress, and how rates of anxiety and depression are intimately related to the inequality which makes that status paramount.Wilkinson and Pickett describe how these responses to hierarchies evolved, and why the impacts ofinequality on us are so severe. In doing so, they challenge the conception that humans are innatelycompetitive and self-interested. They undermine, too, the idea that inequality is the product of 'natural' differences in individual ability. This book sheds new light on many of the most urgent problems facing societies today, but it is not just an index of our ills. It demonstrates that societies based on fundamental equalities, sharing and reciprocity generate much higher levels of well-being, and lays out the path towards them.

Read more less

John Brown is a common name, but the John Brown who masterminded the failed raid at Harpers Ferry was anything but common. His failed efforts have left an imprint upon our history, and his story still swirls in controversy. Was he a madman who felt his violent solution to slavery was ordained by Providence or a heroic freedom fighter who tried to liberate the downtrodden slave? These polar opposite characterisations of the violent abolitionist have captivated Americans. The prevailing view from the time of the raid to well into the twentieth century – that his actions were the product of an unbalanced mind – has shifted to the idea that he committed courageous acts to undo a terrible injustice.The debate still rages, but not as much about his ultimate goal as the method he used in attempting to right what he considered an intolerable wrong. Are citizens justified in bypassing the normal legal or governmental processes in a violent way when they fail, in the eyes of the dissenter, to correct a wrong that touched so many? Brown's use of violence was to strike terror in the heart of slave owners, terror that Brown hoped would intimidate them to free their slaves to ensure their families' safety.Despite the differences between modern terrorist acts and Brown's own violent acts, when Brown's characteristics are compared to the definition of terrorism as set forth by scholars of terrorism, he fits the profile. Nevertheless, today Brown is a martyred hero who gave his life attempting to terminate the evil institution of human bondage. Brown's violent method of using terrorism to accomplish this is downplayed or ignored, despite being labeled by historians as America's first terrorist. The modern view of Brown has unintentionally made him a good terrorist, despite the repugnance of terrorism that makes the thought of a benevolent or good terrorist an oxymoron.This new biography covers Brown's background and the context to his decision to carry out the raid, a detailed narrative of the raid and its consequences for both those involved and America; and an exploration of the changing characterisation of Brown since his death.

Read more less

A Wall Street Journal bestseller! Alan Dershowitz, one of America’s most respected legal scholars and a New York Times bestselling author proves—with incontrovertible evidence—that he is entirely innocent of the sexual misconduct accusations against him, while suggesting a roadmap for how such allegations should be handled in a just society. “Maybe the question isn’t what happened to Alan Dershowitz. Maybe it’s what happened to everyone else.”—Politico Alan Dershowitz has been called “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America” by Politico and “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights” by Newsweek. Yet he has come under intense criticism for applying those same principles, and his famed “shoe‑on‑the‑other‑foot test,” to those accused of sexual misconduct. In Guilt by Accusation, Dershowitz provides an in‑depth analysis of the false accusations against him, alongside a full presentation of the exculpatory evidence that proves his account, including emails from his accuser and an admission of his innocence from her lawyer, David Boies. Additionally, he examines current attitudes toward accusations of sexual misconduct, which are today, in the age of #MeToo, accepted as implicit truth without giving the accused a fair chance to defend themselves and their innocence, and suggests possible pathways back to a society and legal system in which due process is respected above public opinion and the whims of social media mobs. This book is Alan Dershowitz’s plea for fairness for both accuser and accused, his principled stand for due process no matter the allegation, and his compelling assertion of his own innocence. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to know the inside story behind the accusations against him or who cares about the current societal debate over how we should handle accusations of sexual misconduct. The #MeToo movement has generally been a force for good, but as with many good movements, it is being exploited by some bad people for personal profit. Supporters of the #MeToo movement must not allow false accusers to hurt real victims by hiding behind its virtuous shield, turning it into an exploitive sword against innocent people.

Read more less

Griselda Gambaro is arguably one of Argentina’s most important dramatists, as well as a playwright of international significance, whose poetics not only interpret Argentine reality but transcend cultural and geographical borders. Despite international recognition, her plays remain little performed in the UK, an absence which makes this anthology of new translations a welcome contribution to British theatre culture, and to the English-speaking stage. Prolific since the 1960s, Gambaro’s plays are radical, subversive, and endlessly inventive in the use of form and theatricality. This is a theatre of resistance which has the potential to make searing comments on our own domestic and political contexts, an experience which may not be comfortable but is always vital. Dazzling, original, incisive and poetic, this anthology shows Griselda Gambaro at the height of her creative powers. Siamese Twins (1967) In this charged and forceful play, two brothers (one weak, one strong) play out a primal scene of envy, cruelty and torture as one exerts his power and aggression over the other. Mother by Trade (1999) In a stark process of truth and reconciliation, a daughter meets her estranged mother forty years after she abandoned her as an infant. As the Dream Dictates (2002) How can we look to the future if there is great trauma in our past? In this play, only the untethered thinking that comes with dreaming allows us the freedom to imagine. Asking Too Much (2004) In this enigmatic two-hander, the roles played by a man and a woman in the game of human attachment are renegotiated. Persistence (2007) Inspired by the real life event of the 2004 Beslan massacre in Russia, Persistence is a poetic play which goes to the heart of human tragedy. Dear Ibsen, I Am Nora (2013) Nora, the character created by Henrik Ibsen in A Doll’s House, decides to confront her creator and to debate with him her own words and actions. The Gift (2015) Márgara is a woman with the gift of prophecy… but people do not believe her, even though she predicts hope for the world. Will humanity be able to hear her?

Read more less

There have been many books over the past decade, including outstanding collections of essays, on the topic of the ethical virtues and virtue-theoretic approaches in ethics. But the professional journals of philosophy have only recently seen a strong and growing interest in the intellectual virtues and in the development of virtue-theoretic approaches in epistemology. There have been four single-authored book length treatments of issues of virtue epistemology over the last seven years, beginning with Ernest Sosa's Knowledge in Perspective (Cambridge, 1991), and extending to Linda Zabzebski's Virtue of the Mind (Cambridge, 1996). Weighing in with Jonathan Kvanvig's The Intellectual Virtues and the Life of the Mind (1992), and James Montmarquet's Epistemic Virtue and Doxastic Responsibility (1993), Rowman & Littlefield has had a particularly strong interest in the direction and growth of the field. To date, there has been no collection of articles directly devoted to the growing debate over the possibility and potential of a virtue epistemology. This volume exists in the belief that there is now a timely opportunity to gather together the best contributions of the influential authors working in this growing area of epistemological research, and to create a collection of essays as a useful course text and research source. Several of the articles included in the volume are previously unpublished. Several essays discuss the range and general approach of virtue theory in comparison with other general accounts. What advantages are supposed to accrue from a virtue-based account in epistemology, in handling well-known problems such as 'Gettier,' and 'Evil-Genie'-type problems? Can reliabilist virtue epistemology handle skeptical challenges more satisfactorily than non-virtue-centered forms of epistemic reliabilism? Others provide a needed discussion of relevant analogies and disanalogies between ethical and epistemic evaluation. The readings all contribute to our understanding of the relative importance, for a theory of justified belief, of the reliability of our cognitive faculties and of the individual's responsibility in gathering and weighing evidence. Highlights of the readings include direct exchanges between leading exponents of this approach and their critics. In addition, the volume includes contributions from feminist writers who offer a reassessment of the intellectual virtues from witin their own research paradigm.

Read more less

In the depths of the Great Depression, when foreclosure rates skyrocketed across the United States, more than two dozen states passed mortgage-extension or -adjustment laws to help farmers and homeowners keep their properties. One such statute in Minnesota led to the most important property law case of its time and still casts a long shadow upon constitutional debates and our own era’s severe economic downturn. Fighting Foreclosure marks the first book-length study of the landmark 1934 Supreme Court decision in Home Building and Loan Association v. Blaisdell, which, by a 5–4 vote, upheld the Minnesota Mortgage Moratorium Act. Blaisdell validated efforts by states to offer legislative relief to citizens struggling to keep their farms and homes. But it caused an outcry among banking interests and conservative legal theorists, who argued that these laws violated the Contract Clause of the Constitution and interfered with our free market system. In his majority opinion, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes argued that the reasonable and limited nature of the law and the unusual severity of the emergency it addressed placed it firmly within the “police powers” of the states to protect the health and safety of the people. In a strongly worded dissent, Justice George Sutherland argued for a consistent and strict interpretation of the Contract Clause regardless of economic exigency. John Fliter and Derek Hoff provide a concise history and analysis of not only this landmark case and the reasoning behind its sharply divided decision but also of the entire history of the Contract Clause. They trace closely the agricultural crisis, political pressures, and farmer-protest movement that produced the Minnesota law. And their study contributes to scholarly debate about the origins of the Constitutional Revolution of 1937, by which the Supreme Court accepted the New Deal, as well as to public debates about constitutional interpretation and the role that government should play in providing relief to distressed citizens. In the midst of our nation’s ongoing suffering from massive foreclosures and bankruptcies, Fighting Foreclosure also offers a potent reminder that the High Court’s decisions often revolve around lives at risk as much as abstract legal debates.

Read more less

A behind-the-scenes exposure why our electricity system is headed for a state of emergency-and what can be done to head it off Most people don't realize that skyrocketing global energy demand and economic growth severely affect the supply of electricity. Between production (power plants) and delivery is an antiquated, "third-world" transmission grid that is in desperate need of hardening against breakdowns, terrorist attacks, inadequate carrying capacity, and operational obsolescence. And while electricity doesn't hold the headlines or dramatic power of oil, the ability to ensure its uninterrupted supply at a reasonable price is even more essential to global survival and prosperity. Lights Out is today's most detailed, in-depth examination of this largely unreported looming energy crisis. Written by one of the world's top electricity industry experts, this powerful book covers numerous hot button economic and political issues-free markets versus regulation; energy independence versus foreign imports; nuclear power, global warming, and other environmental issues; and much more. Beyond just uncovering and illuminating the problems, however, it proposes a comprehensive road map of technical solutions and regulatory reform from both the production and demand sides of the equation-a framework for rethinking, rebuilding, and enhancing the entire electricity production and delivery infrastructure. Prescriptive and provocative, Lights Out will redefine the simmering debate on how the world can-and must-act now to head off a global catastrophe, one that could eventually wreak even more havoc than the ongoing oil crisis. Jason Makansi is the President of Pearl Street, Inc., a consulting firm; Principal of PS Liquidity Advisors, an advisory service for energy technology companies raising capital; and Executive Director of the Energy Storage Council, a public-policy advocacy organization. A prolific author, respected industry thought leader, and seasoned communicator, Mr. Makansi has been analyzing the technological, business, and regulatory issues in electricity production and delivery for over twenty-five years. He earned a BS in chemical engineering from Columbia University. His earlier books include An Investor’s Guide to the Electricity Economy, also published by John Wiley & Sons, and Managing Steam: An Engineering Guide to Commercial, Industrial, and Utility Systems.

Read more less

The population of the world continues to increase at an alarming rate. The trouble linked with overpopulation ranges from food and water scarcity to inadequacy of space for organisms. Overpopulation is also linked with several other demographic hazards, for instance, population blooming will not only result in exhaustion of natural repositories, but it will also induce intense pressure on the world economy. Today nanotechnology is often discussed as a key discipline of research but it has positive and negative aspects. Also, due to industrialization and ever-increasing population, nano-pollution has been an emerging topic among scientists for investigation and debate. Nanotechnology measures any substance on a macromolecular scale, molecular scale, and even atomic scale. More importantly, nanotechnology deals with the manipulation and control of any matter at the dimension of a single nanometer. Nanotechnology and nanoparticles (NPs) play important roles in sustainable development and environmental challenges as well. NPs possess both harmful and beneficial effects on the environment and its harboring components, such as microbes, plants, and humans. There are many beneficial impacts exerted by nanoparticles, however, including their role in the management of waste water and soil treatment, cosmetics, food packaging, agriculture, biomedicines, pharmaceuticals, renewable energies, and environmental remedies. Conversely, NPs also show some toxic effects on microbes, plants, as well as human beings. It has been reported that use of nanotechnological products leads to the more accumulation of NPs in soil and aquatic ecosystems, which may be detrimental for living organisms. Further, toxic effects of NPs on microbes, invertebrates, and aquatic organisms including algae, has been measured. Scientists have also reported on the negative impact of NPs on plants by discussing the delivery of NPs in plants. Additionally, scientists have also showed that NPs interact with plant cells, which results in alterations in growth, biological function, gene expression, and development. Thus, there has been much investigated and reported on NPs and plant interactions in the last decade. This book discusses the most recent work on NPs and plant interaction, which should be useful for scientists working in nanotechnology across a wide variety of disciplines.

Read more less

'This book overturns the old paradigm ideas about natural-resource-based activities. It sheds light on the new opportunities for technological dynamism and catching-up by using science to open novel directions in traditional sectors. It should become a classic in what I expect will be a very important academic debate and a new trend in development policy.'- Carlota Perez, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, Cambridge University and University of Sussex, UK'This excellent book provides a deep understanding of why and how emerging countries are able to catch-up and enter international markets in an industry that once was considered as traditional, but which has now become a relatively articulated and science-based sectoral system.'- Franco Malerba, KITeS, Bocconi University, Italy'This excellent book demonstrates better than any other I know the strengths and limits of the concept of a national system of innovation for understanding economic development today. Any careful student of innovation or development will want to read it.' - Charles Sabel, Columbia Law School, US'In the New World, viticulture and wine production has had to develop with verve and enthusiasm, to be able to survive and to flourish. In countries like Chile and Argentina, the continuing decline of domestic wine consumption has forced technicians and entrepreneurs to conquer the world with innovation and technology, to produce wines of international taste and to attract potential buyers to these markets. This book is a very professional account of these phenomena, which have profoundly changed the marketing of wines in the past 20 years.' - Aurelio Montes, President of Vina Montes, ChileSince the beginning of the 1990s, the supremacy of 'Old World' countries (France and Italy) in the international wine market has been challenged by new players, such as Australia, Argentina, Chile and South Africa, which are recording stunning performances in terms both of export volume and value. This book demonstrates that such a spectacular example of catch-up goes beyond simply copying new technologies; it entails creative adaptation and innovation, and introduces a new growth trajectory in which consistent investments in research and science play a key role. Contributors: K. Anderson, L. Cassi, R.A. Corredoira, L. Cusmano, E. Giuliani, M. Kunc, J. Lorenzten, G.A. McDermott, A. Morrison, R. Rabellotti, S. Tiffin

Read more less

Keynes, the Keynesians and Monetarism is a major contribution to the continuing debate on macroeconomic policy-making. Tim Congdon has been a strong supporter of monetarist economic principles for over 30 years. His writings - in the newspapers and for parliamentary committees, as well as in academic journals - played an influential role in the transformation of British macroeconomic policy in the 1980s and 1990s. This book brings together the main papers written by the author since his 1992 collection, Reflections on Monetarism. It challenges several 'conventional wisdoms' about UK macroeconomic policy (and thinking about policy), arguing - for example - that the Keynesians' advocacy of incomes policy and fiscal activism in the immediate post-war decades did not have a clear basis in Keynes's own writings. The book denies that the UK had a 'Keynesian revolution', in the sense of a deliberately pursued fiscal activism to promote 'full employment'. Implicit throughout the volume is a distinctive view of how the economy works, with an account of the transmission mechanism (from money to the economy) in which movements in asset prices and aggregate demand are strongly influenced by the quantity of money. Congdon uses this approach to demonstrate that monetary policy has had more powerful effects on macroeconomic activity in the post-war period than fiscal policy. He also suggests that the now fashionable 'New Keynesian' view of policy-making acknowledges the primacy of monetary policy and would be better termed 'output gap monetarism'. In short, Keynes, the Keynesians and Monetarism contends that monetarism defeated Keynesianism in the battle of ideas in the 1970s and 1980s. The achievement of greater macroeconomic stability in the last 15 years is largely due to the impact of monetarist thinking on policy-making.The book is clearly and attractively written, and covers topics that are fundamental to macroeconomic thinking and policy-making. It will be a provocative and appealing read for scholars at all levels of economics, macroeconomics and monetary theory. It will also find an audience among policymakers in central banks and finance ministries, business economists working in companies, and financial economists in the City of London and other centres.

Read more less

'China threat or China opportunity, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. Western imaginations of China come under close scrutiny in this book, in a new, philosophical depth seldom attempted before. Dr Pan displays in full force his analytical skills and his mastery of knowledge, both East and West. Contrary to conventional approaches, he takes a step back to exercise a powerful reflective process to watch the China watchers, with illuminating results. Dr Pan's book deserves wide and careful reading.'- Professor Gerald Chan, University of Auckland, New Zealand'The rise of China is largely seen as either a threat or an opportunity. Chengxin Pan exposes both of these representations as expressions of Western fears and desires for certainty and predictability. His call for a more reflective and culturally sensitive understanding of China offers an important contribution to one of the big political debates of our time.'- Professor Roland Bleiker, University of Queensland, AustraliaHow is the rise of China perceived in the West? Why is it often labelled as 'threat' and/or 'opportunity'? What are the implications of these China imageries for global politics?Taking up these important questions, this groundbreaking book argues that the dominant Western perceptions of China's rise tell us less about China and more about Western self-imagination and its desire for certainty. Chengxin Pan expertly illustrates how this desire, masked as China 'knowledge', is bound up with the political economy of fears and fantasies, thereby both informing and complicating foreign policy practice in Sino-Western relations. Insofar as this vital relationship is shaped not only by China's rise, but also by the way we conceptualize its rise, this book makes a compelling case for critical reflection on China watching.Knowledge, Desire and Power in Global Politics is the first systematic and deconstructive analysis of contemporary Western representation of China's rise. Setting itself apart from the mainstream empiricist literature, its critical interpretative approach and unconventional and innovative perspective will not only strongly appeal to academics, students and the broader reading public, but also likely spark debate in the field of Chinese international relations.

Read more less

Professor Mervyn Morris, Jamaica’s Poet Laureate writes: 'Ralph Thompson’s luminous autobiography is a fascinating portrait. A witty businessman and poet who studied in the United States and served as an Air Force lawyer in Japan, he writes vividly about family and his Jamaican formation, changes in racial climate, vicissitudes in business and public service; about painting, poetry, love and betrayals. Critical and self-critical, he is a man of conscience trying to understand.'Take My Word For It offers rich insights into the long and full life of one of one of Jamaica's finest poets who has also been at the heart of the island's economic and commercial development. There are moving and sometimes comic chapters of a pre-war boyhood in colonial Jamaica in a far from prosperous white and Catholic Jamaican family, the years spent at the Jesuit college of Fordham in the USA, and postwar service in the United States Airforce, serving in Japan. Thereafter Ralph Thompson tells the story of a life at the heart of Jamaica's development of tourism, capitalist modernity and the leadership of Seprod, one of the island's largest companies. There are fascinating glimpses of involvement with Jamaica's sharply divided political life -- between Michael Manley and Edward Seaga. But along with the businessman who can convey something of the excitement of commercial strategy and take-over bids, there is also the artist and poet who has explored the inner life, not least the position of a white man in a Jamaica whose decolonisation has been in part about discovering its black identity. Ralph Thompson has long had a passionate concern with the quality of the education on offer to all Jamaicans, and he writes with feeling about his contribution to the debate around educational issues and practical attempts to make improvements. There is also the loyal supporter of Derek Walcott's Trinidad Theatre Workshop who did much to bring that theatre to wider Caribbean and American notice, who writes about his friendship with Walcott with warmth and insight.Amply illustrated with photographs, images of Thompson's paintings and extracts from his poetry, Take My Word For It is a beautifully and frankly written record of a significant Jamaican life.Contains 19 illustrations/photographs, 12 in full colour.

Read more less

Democratizing Technology provides a much-needed fresh perspective on the regulation of chemicals, and an important contribution to green thinking about technology.Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP. This book is an excellent critique of the current risk-based approach to technology. By exploring the philosophical underpinnings and the practical applications of current policy on science and technology, Chapman exposes the serious flaws in allowing economic considerations to dominate the agenda in this area. Her proposals for reform are expertly constructed and deserve urgent and serious consideration by policy-makers.Dr Stuart Parkinson, Executive Director, Scientists for Global Responsibility. In this important book Anne Chapman argues that decisions about technology should answer a republican question: what kind of public world should we create through technology? Democratizing Technology deserves to be read widely. John ONeill, Professor of Political Economy, University of Manchester, UK A welcome addition to the new, more empirical and applied literature in philosophy of technology. This book will be essential reading for a variety of scholars and for the general reader intent on understanding, and criticizing, our chemically made world.Andrew Light, Interim Director, Program on the Environment, University of Washington, US What is technology? How do humans use it to build and modify the world? What are the relationships between technology, science, economics and democratic governance? What, if any, are our ethical and political responsibilities and choices in how we develop, deploy and control technology in democratic states? Democratizing Technology sets out to answer these questions. Focusing on the most widespread and pervasive technology - chemicals - this groundbreaking volume peels apart the critical technology debate to look at the relationship between humans, technology and the biological world. Attention is given to the immensely important new regulations, REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of Chemicals), the EUs largest ever legal framework, discussing the problems that are likely to occur in REACHs reliance on risk assessment methods and suggesting an alternative way forward for the regulation of chemicals. Providing much-needed clarity and insight into the heart of key debates in science and technology, risk analysis and mitigation, and domestic and international law, this volume arrives as a breath of fresh air.

Read more less

The geography of innovation is changing. Firstly, it is increasingly understood that innovative firms and organizations exhibit a wide variety of strategies, each differently attuned to diverse geographic contexts. Secondly, and concomitantly, the idea that cities, clusters and physical proximity are essential for innovation is evolving under the weight of new theorizing and empirical evidence. The aim of this handbook is to break with the many ideas and concepts that emerged during the course of the 1980s and 1990s, and to fully take into account the new reality of the internet, mobile communication technologies, personal mobility and globalization. The handbook gathers a new generation of ideas and authors to contribute to the debate, providing an empirically grounded critical appraisal of the prevailing knowledge on the geography of innovation. The 28 original chapters, written by a diverse range of scholars with widely differing views, present fresh empirical evidence and new perspectives relating to how innovation plays out across space in an age where mobility has increased, information is ubiquitous and globalisation has been realised. Overall, the dialogue between existing theory and new possibilities provides a unique and challenging appraisal of the connection between innovation, agglomeration and space. Offering cutting edge ideas in an accessible format, this will be an ideal resource for students and scholars of economic geography and innovation studies. The empirical evidence and analysis will also be of great value for policymakers and government officials.Contributors include: B.T. Asheim, H.W. Aslesen, A. Bain, P.-A. Balland, N. Bradford, A. Bramwell, C. Brennan-Horley, S. Breschi, C. Carraincazeaux, C. Chaminade, R. Comunian, C. De Fuentes, D. Doloreux, D. Eckert, A. Faggian, M. Ferru, R.D. Fitjar, K. Flanagan, C. Gibson, M. Grillitsch, M. Grossetti, G. Harirchi, F. Huber, A. Isaksen, S. Jewel, J. Karlsen, N. Komninos, J.-L. Klein, N. Lee, F. Lissoni, M. Maisonobe, J. Mattes, P. McCann, C.T. Noumedem, R. Ortega-Argilés, M. Plechero, A. Rallet, A. Rodriguez-Pose, R. Shearmur, H.L. Smith, B. Spigel, J. Tallec, E. Tranos, D.-G. Tremblay, F. Tödtling, M. Trippl, E. Uyarra, C. Yang, C. Wilkie, D.A. Wolfe

Read more less

In this volume, Victor Goldberg reassesses a collection of key contract law doctrines, largely through original economic analyses of well-known cases involving sophisticated parties. The results are thoughtful and provocative. They leave the impression that the law might produce more efficient consequences if contractual liability were more restrictive. Contracts teachers may well teach these and other cases differently after reading Goldberg's chapters.'- Steven J. Burton, The University of Iowa, US'This book offers valuable insights and new perspectives on the often thorny problems of contract law as it can - and does - affect 'sophisticated parties'. Lawyers as well as academics on both sides of the Atlantic will welcome the important contribution made here to the ongoing debates which rage continually within this core area of the law.'- Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor, The Barrister MagazineContract law allows parties to set their own rules within constraints. It provides a set of default rules and if the parties do not like them, they can change them. Rethinking Contract Law and Contract Design explores various long-standing contract doctrines, casting them in a new and compelling light by focusing on the economics of contractual relations.Building upon and extending the arguments set forth in his acclaimed book Framing Contract Law, Goldberg revisits many of the seminal contract cases and places those decisions under close scrutiny, challenging readers, by means of forensic exploration of records, briefs, and other materials, to reconsider their conclusions. Split into four parts, the author examines direct damages, consequential damages, the excuses doctrines (including impossibility, impracticability and frustration), and offer and acceptance.Asking the questions that often go unasked, and challenging the assumptions silently accepted by the majority, one of Goldberg's many insightful observations, and an underlying thread to the book, is that achieving an economic understanding of contract design will illuminate both contract doctrine and contract interpretation.Written with clarity and poise, Rethinking Contract Law and Contract Design is set to ignite plenty of debate amongst contract scholars and contract drafters, and provides the anvil upon which future generations of contract thinking can be forged. Contract scholars and students interested in exploring new perspectives on the topic will find this to be an essential read, as will contract lawyers and judges.

Read more less

The Research Handbook on Export Marketing provides a wealth of vital knowledge from scholars who are experts in their fields from around the world. The book emphasizes the most topical issues in international marketing today - small and medium enterprises, exporting performance, the services sector, new products, and dynamic capabilities. The articles are well written and informative. The volume makes an excellent contribution to this important literature.'- Gary Knight, Willamette University, USThere has been a proliferation of research published in the area of export marketing in the last four decades. As research output has grown, some previous research has noted that poor conceptualization of performance measures can produce weak theoretical foundations that may eventually become irrelevant in practice. This Handbook aims to inject rigor into this debate and will act as a starting point for future research on export marketing.The Research Handbook on Export Marketing profiles the following main theoretical frameworks used in export marketing: contingency theory; the eclectic paradigm; industrial organization theory; resource-based theories; relational exchange theory; internationalization process theory; network theory; agency theory and transaction cost economics. The different measures of export marketing performance cited in the literature, together with the nature of the relationships between antecedent variables and dependent variables of export marketing performance, are also examined. With expert contributions, this book outlines the development of export marketing theory from its inception to the current day and explores the utility of export marketing theory in assessing export marketing performance.Giving prominence to theoretical approaches in export marketing, this book will provide a necessary reference point for academics and students alike researching export marketing. Practitioners engaged in the pursuit of export management will also benefit from this insight.Contributors include: Y. Ali, M. Amin, S. Arora, Y. Asseraf, B. Aykol, V. Bamiatzi, D.L. Dean, F. Durrieu, I. Ferreira, J. Heyl, A. Hinterhuber, C.C. Julian, E.T. Kahiya, I. Kardes, O.T. Koc, L.C. Leonidou, L.-Y. Li, S.M. Liozu, J. Liu, T.K. Madsen, G.O. Ogunmokun, J.C. Pinho, S. Rezaei, Md. A. Saleh, S. Samiee, A. K. Shamsuddoha, A. Shoham, C.A. Solberg, A.A. C. Teixeira

Read more less

In this volume, Victor Goldberg reassesses a collection of key contract law doctrines, largely through original economic analyses of well-known cases involving sophisticated parties. The results are thoughtful and provocative. They leave the impression that the law might produce more efficient consequences if contractual liability were more restrictive. Contracts teachers may well teach these and other cases differently after reading Goldberg's chapters.'- Steven J. Burton, The University of Iowa, US'This book offers valuable insights and new perspectives on the often thorny problems of contract law as it can - and does - affect 'sophisticated parties'. Lawyers as well as academics on both sides of the Atlantic will welcome the important contribution made here to the ongoing debates which rage continually within this core area of the law.'- Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor, The Barrister MagazineContract law allows parties to set their own rules within constraints. It provides a set of default rules and if the parties do not like them, they can change them. Rethinking Contract Law and Contract Design explores various long-standing contract doctrines, casting them in a new and compelling light by focusing on the economics of contractual relations.Building upon and extending the arguments set forth in his acclaimed book Framing Contract Law, Goldberg revisits many of the seminal contract cases and places those decisions under close scrutiny, challenging readers, by means of forensic exploration of records, briefs, and other materials, to reconsider their conclusions. Split into four parts, the author examines direct damages, consequential damages, the excuses doctrines (including impossibility, impracticability and frustration), and offer and acceptance.Asking the questions that often go unasked, and challenging the assumptions silently accepted by the majority, one of Goldberg's many insightful observations, and an underlying thread to the book, is that achieving an economic understanding of contract design will illuminate both contract doctrine and contract interpretation.Written with clarity and poise, Rethinking Contract Law and Contract Design is set to ignite plenty of debate amongst contract scholars and contract drafters, and provides the anvil upon which future generations of contract thinking can be forged. Contract scholars and students interested in exploring new perspectives on the topic will find this to be an essential read, as will contract lawyers and judges.

Read more less

Foreword by Tony Press and Foreword by Bernie Funston'As climate change thrusts the Arctic and Antarctic towards the top of the global political agenda, this timely collection provides a broad overview of the issues, the options, and the rules and institutions that are already in place.'- Michael Byers, University of British Columbia, Canada and author of International Law and the Arctic'While at opposite ends of the earth, the shared characteristics of the Arctic and Antarctic are identified by this multidisciplinary collection of essays. Both regions need effective, flexible governance - whether through the Antarctic Treaty System or the Arctic Council - if they are to respond to the challenges of commercialization of hydrocarbons, climate change and the marine environment. Internationally recognized scholars grapple with the global politics of the polar regions, the perspectives of the Inuit people and the role of joint development. This invaluable, well-researched and stimulating collection clarifies the geopolitical and socio-economic dynamics of some of the world's most fragile and vulnerable environments.'- Gillian Triggs, Australian Human Rights CommissionThis timely book provides a cutting-edge assessment of how the dynamic ocean regions at the highest latitudes on Earth are being managed in an era of unprecedented environmental change. The Arctic and Southern Oceans are experiencing transformative environmental change as a result of climate change and ocean acidification. As areas of unparalleled environmental, cultural and scientific value, they are crucibles for testing how integrated, eco-systemic governance frameworks can be developed to meet and address volatile environmental, political and economic challenges.Drawing especially on Australian and Canadian experiences in polar oceans management through multilateral global and regional institutions, the book identifies policy options for improving the governance of the Arctic and Southern Oceans. In offering a pioneering 'bipolar' assessment of environmental management at both polar regions, this important book will be an essential resource for policy-makers, scholars and students actively engaged in discussion and debate on the future of polar oceans governance in the Anthropocene.Contributors: R. Davis, M. Doelle, M. Haward, R. Huebert, J. Jabour, R. Abdul Kadir, L. Kriwoken, S. Lalonde, D. Leary, T.L. McDorman, R. Rayfuse, D.R. Rothwell, T. Stephens, D.L. VanderZwaag, M. Weber, S. Wright

Read more less

The Research Handbook on Export Marketing provides a wealth of vital knowledge from scholars who are experts in their fields from around the world. The book emphasizes the most topical issues in international marketing today - small and medium enterprises, exporting performance, the services sector, new products, and dynamic capabilities. The articles are well written and informative. The volume makes an excellent contribution to this important literature.'- Gary Knight, Willamette University, USThere has been a proliferation of research published in the area of export marketing in the last four decades. As research output has grown, some previous research has noted that poor conceptualization of performance measures can produce weak theoretical foundations that may eventually become irrelevant in practice. This Handbook aims to inject rigor into this debate and will act as a starting point for future research on export marketing.The Research Handbook on Export Marketing profiles the following main theoretical frameworks used in export marketing: contingency theory; the eclectic paradigm; industrial organization theory; resource-based theories; relational exchange theory; internationalization process theory; network theory; agency theory and transaction cost economics. The different measures of export marketing performance cited in the literature, together with the nature of the relationships between antecedent variables and dependent variables of export marketing performance, are also examined. With expert contributions, this book outlines the development of export marketing theory from its inception to the current day and explores the utility of export marketing theory in assessing export marketing performance.Giving prominence to theoretical approaches in export marketing, this book will provide a necessary reference point for academics and students alike researching export marketing. Practitioners engaged in the pursuit of export management will also benefit from this insight.Contributors include: Y. Ali, M. Amin, S. Arora, Y. Asseraf, B. Aykol, V. Bamiatzi, D.L. Dean, F. Durrieu, I. Ferreira, J. Heyl, A. Hinterhuber, C.C. Julian, E.T. Kahiya, I. Kardes, O.T. Koc, L.C. Leonidou, L.-Y. Li, S.M. Liozu, J. Liu, T.K. Madsen, G.O. Ogunmokun, J.C. Pinho, S. Rezaei, Md. A. Saleh, S. Samiee, A. K. Shamsuddoha, A. Shoham, C.A. Solberg, A.A. C. Teixeira

Read more less

Finalist, 2021 Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ Studies Offers a way to undo the inextricable American knot of sex, politics, religion, and power American politics are obsessed with sex. Before the first televised presidential debate, John F. Kennedy trailed Richard Nixon in the polls. As Americans tuned in, however, they found Kennedy a younger, more vivacious, and more attractive choice than Nixon. Sexier. The political significance of Kennedy’s telegenic sex appeal is now widely accepted – but taking sexual politics seriously is not. Janet R. Jakobsen examines how, for the last several decades, gender and sexuality have reappeared time and again at the center of political life, marked by a series of widely recognized issues and movements – women’s liberation and gay liberation in the 1960s and ’70s, the AIDS crisis and ACT UP in the ‘80s and ’90s, welfare and immigration “reform” in the ‘90s, wars claiming to “save women” in the 2000s, and battles over health care in the 2010s, to recent demands for reproductive justice, trans liberation, and the explosive exposures of #MeToo. Religion has been wound up in these political struggles, and blamed for not a little of the resistance to meaningful change in America political life. Jakobsen acknowledges that religion is a force to be reckoned with, but decisively breaks with the common sense that religion and sex are the fixed binary of American political life. She instead follows the kaleidoscopic ways in which sexual politics are embedded in social relations of all kinds – not only the intimate relations of love and family with which gender and sex are routinely associated, but also secularism, freedom, race, disability, capitalism, nation and state, housing and the environment. In the midst of these obsessions, Jakobsen’s promiscuous ethical imagination guides us forward. Drawing on examples from collaborative projects among activists, academics and artists, Jakobsen shows that sexual politics can contribute to building justice from the ground up. Gender and sexual relations are practices through which values emerge and communities are made. Sex and desire, gender and embodiment emerge as bases of ethical possibility, breaking political stalemate and opening new possibility.

Read more less

Few issues defined the period between American independence and the Mexican War more sharply than westward settlement and the role of the federal government in that expansion. In Securing the West, John R. Van Atta examines the visions of the founding generation and the increasing influence of ideological differences in the years after the peace of 1815. Americans expected the country to grow westward, but on the details of that growth they held strongly different opinions. What part should Congress play in this development? How much should public land cost? What of the families and businesses left behind, and how would society's institutions be established in the West? What of the premature settlers, the "squatters" who challenged the rule of law while epitomizing democratic daring? Taking a broad approach, Van Atta addresses three interrelated queries: First, how did competing economic beliefs and divergent cultural mandates influence the various outcomes of this broad debate over the means, timing, and purposes of settling the trans-Appalachian West? Second, what alternative visions of western society lay behind the battles among policy makers within the government and the interested parties who would sway them? Third, why did settlement of the West take such a different course in the end from that which the earliest leaders of the republic intended? This story explores dimensions of the federal lands question that other historians have minimized or left out entirely. Van Atta draws upon a range of sources known to have influenced the public discourse, including congressional debates, committee reports, and correspondence; editorial writings by the famous and unknown; and news coverage in various widely circulated newspapers and magazines of the period. Much of the attention focuses on Congress-the elected leaders who advocated divergent plans about western lands. In Congress, more than any other place, public leaders articulated basic concerns about the character, structure, direction, and destiny of society in the early United States. By 1830, many other important national concerns had become critically entangled with land disposition, creating points of ideological tension among rival regions, parties, and interests in the early years of the republic - particularly in Jacksonian America.

Read more less

"The book not only gives a clear picture of the policy and strategic framework of PFI/PPP projects, the governance and knowledge management issues through different phases from planning, design development to operation and service delivery and the processes associated with each phase, but practical tools, methodologies and capabilities needed to deliver PFI/PPP projects in a range of sectors are also explained. It clearly demonstrates the key imperatives that are the hallmark of successful programmes and projects no matter what there method of funding or delivery. I have no doubt that, in undertaking the programmes and projects that I am responsible for delivering and in undertaking OGC Gateway Reviews, to support clients delivering their own programmes and projects, I will draw on the material contained in this book." —From the Foreword by Rob Smith, Director of Gateway Reviews and Estates & Facilities, Department of Health There is a growing demand worldwide for transport, healthcare, education, energy and water infrastructure. However, government resources are often insufficient to meet the needs of new projects and to upgrade existing infrastructure. Private participation in public infrastructure is therefore increasing but the respective roles of the public and private sectors are the subject of intense debate. This has led to renewed interest in public-private partnerships in developed and developing countries. Governance and Knowledge Management for Public-Private Partnerships shows how effective governance and knowledge management can improve the performance of PFI/PPP projects. It provides an in-depth understanding of different dimensions of governance and how they affect project management structure, processes, and decision-making ability of actors and teams involved in PFI/PPP projects. The role of knowledge management strategy, the need for benchmarking knowledge management efforts, specific tools and methodologies for capturing, sharing and applying knowledge to accelerate learning and capacity building are also examined. The book is essential reading for all those involved in PFI/PPP projects, including policy makers, industry practitioners, academics and students. The practical tools for governance and knowledge management it offers make this book particularly useful for consultants, contractors and client organisations.

Read more less

A COMPANION TO KIERKEGAARD “‘Companions’ to important thinkers help readers focus on the main drift of their texts with the help of a dig into their origin and some account of their reception. This one digs deeper, and over a wider terrain, than most. But it does more. Besides guiding us to the staples of theology and philosophy in Kierkegaard’s background, it also looks forward to a future, as if Kierkegaard, too, might be taken by the arm and told that here was something that should interest him (about politics, social life, psychology, education, literary theory, deconstruction, theatre). It is as much a sign of the extraordinary richness of Kierkegaard’s literary palette as of the now wide currency of his thought that its elements can become topics in their own right, with Kierkegaard their inspiration. Jon Stewart and his authors are to be congratulated for bringing this unique thinker into our living presence on such a scale and with so many things to talk about.” Alastair Hannay, Professor Emeritus, University of Oslo Born in Copenhagen in 1813, Søren Kierkegaard produced a remarkable amount of work during his fairly short life. When he died in 1855 he left behind a complex and interdisciplinary legacy that continues to spark academic debate. Edited by one of the world’s leading Kierkegaard scholars, A Companion to Kierkegaard provides the most comprehensive single-volume overview of Kierkegaard studies currently available. Featuring contributions from an international array of scholars, the collection covers all the major topics within the broad field of Kierkegaard research, including philosophy, theology, aesthetics, art, literary theory, social sciences, and politics. Kierkegaard’s contribution to each of these disciplines is illustrated through examination of the sources he drew upon, the reception of his ideas, and the unique conceptual insights he brought to each topic. A Companion to Kierkegaard demystifies the complex field of Kierkegaard studies providing the ideal entry-point into his writing for readers at all levels. This collection will be an essential tool for students and scholars from across the disciplines who are interested in learning more about this important and influential thinker.

Read more less

Machiavelli's ambiguous treatment of religion has fuelled a contentious and long-standing debate among scholars. Whereas some insist that Machiavelli is a Christian, others maintain he is a pagan. Sullivan mediates between these divergent views by arguing that he is neither but that he utilizes elements of both understandings arrayed in a wholly new way. She develops her argument by distinguishing among the three Romes that can be understood as existing in Machiavelli's political thought: the first is the Rome of the Christian era, dominated by the pope; the second is the republican Rome of pagan times, which Machiavelli praises; and the third is an idealized Rome that is neither entirely pagan nor entirely Christian. In part 1, Sullivan examines Machiavelli's treatment of Christian Rome to find that in his view the Church and the beliefs of Christianity have fostered grave political problems. Indeed, he contends that Christianity exercises a type of tyrannical rule over human beings. His recognition motivates his seemingly enthusiastic turn to the pagan Rome of the "Discourses". Examining his treatment of pagan Rome in part 2, Sullivan finds that Machiavelli is critical of this apparent alternative to Christian Rome. In particular, Machiavelli demonstrates that republican Rome proved inept at handling its ambitious men who vied for power. Sullivan also shows how Machiavelli infuses his discussions of republican Rome with terms evocative of Christianity in a way that suggests Christian governance ultimately derived from pagan Rome. The ancient city is an insufficient model for the people of his times, and thus he proposes an idealized Rome that will transcend the problems both of Christian and of pagan Rome. The character of Machiavelli's new Rome provides the focus of Part 3. Sullivan argues here that Machiavelli's new Rome will embody certain elements of the two other Romes yet will overcome the failings of each. She shows Machiavelli's thought to be a highly original response to what he understood to be the crisis of his times. Sullivan draws primarily from the "Florentine Histories", "The Prince" and the "Discourses" to offer a unique study of Machiavelli's political thought. Her examination of Machiavelli's three Romes will interest scholars of political science and political philosophy.

Read more less

Why is it that so many aspects of organizations are now spoken of as practices? How can organizations be studied within a practice-based approach? How can workable knowledge about them be produced? The authors answer these questions theoretically and through empirical examples. They provide an overview on practice-based studies illustrating their main topics, research methods, and the theoretical reflections that support a non-rationalist and non-cognitivist view of organizations. The book addresses the principal features of practice-based theorizing and its key concepts, then concludes with methodological reflections on the practice-based approach.Written for a university public already in possession of basic notions in organizational studies and intending to conduct analysis of organizing as a social practice, it will also prove essential for master and PhD students as well as organizational scholars designing research within Practice-Based Studies. Including a lively and wide-ranging debate conducted at international level, the book will be of interest to practitioners curious about a view of work as a practical activity that develops within ecology of social, economic and material relationships.Contents: Introduction Part I: Practice-based Theorizing 1. Practice-Based Theorizing on Learning and Knowing in Organizations: An Introduction' 2. Knowing in Practice: Aesthetic Understanding and Tacit Knowledge 3. Knowing as Desiring. Mythic Knowledge and the Knowledge Journey in Communities of Practitioners 4. Situated Knowledge and Situated Action: What do Practice-Based Studies Promise? 5. Through the Practice Lens: Where Is the Bandwagon of Practice-Based Studies Heading? Part II: Key Concepts 6. Sensible Knowledge and Practice-Based Learning 7. Knowing in a System of Fragmented Knowledge 8. Learning in a Constellation of Interconnected Practices: Canon or Dissonance? 9. Aesthetics in the Study of Organizational Life 10. The Passion for Knowing 11. Practice? It's a Matter of Taste! Part III: Methodological Insights for a Practice-based Approach 12. When Will He Say: 'Today the Plates are Soft'?: Management of Ambiguity and Situated Decision-Making 13. Do You Do Beautiful Things?: Aesthetics and Art in Qualitative Methods of Organization Studies 14. Organizational Artifacts and the Aesthetic Approach 15. The Critical Power of the Practice Lens

Read more less

The term “subalternity” refers to a condition of subordination brought about by colonization or other forms of economic, social, racial, linguistic, and/or cultural dominance. Subaltern studies is, therefore, a study of power. Who has it and who does not. Who is gaining it and who is losing it. Power is intimately related to questions of representation—to which representations have cognitive authority and can secure hegemony and which do not and cannot. In this book John Beverley examines the relationship between subalternity and representation by analyzing the ways in which that relationship has been played out in the domain of Latin American studies. Dismissed by some as simply another new fashion in the critique of culture and by others as a postmarxist heresy, subaltern studies began with the work of Ranajit Guha and the South Asian Subaltern Studies collective in the 1980s. Beverley’s focus on Latin America, however, is evidence of the growing province of this field. In assessing subaltern studies’ purposes and methods, the potential dangers it presents, and its interactions with deconstruction, poststructuralism, cultural studies, Marxism, and political theory, Beverley builds his discussion around a single, provocative question: How can academic knowledge seek to represent the subaltern when that knowledge is itself implicated in the practices that construct the subaltern as such? In his search for answers, he grapples with a number of issues, notably the 1998 debate between David Stoll and Rigoberta Menchú over her award-winning testimonial narrative, I, Rigoberta Menchú. Other topics explored include the concept of civil society, Florencia Mallon’s influential Peasant and Nation, the relationship between the Latin American “lettered city” and the Túpac Amaru rebellion of 1780–1783, the ideas of transculturation and hybridity in postcolonial studies and Latin American cultural studies, multiculturalism, and the relationship between populism, popular culture, and the “national-popular” in conditions of globalization.This critique and defense of subaltern studies offers a compendium of insights into a new form of knowledge and knowledge production. It will interest those studying postcolonialism, political science, cultural studies, and Latin American culture, history, and literature.

Read more less

A provocative volume of the controversial radical thinker Christopher Hitchens—political journalist, cultural critic, public intellectual and self-described contrarian—is one of the most controversial and prolific writers of his generation. His most recent book, God Is Not Great, was on the New York Times bestseller list in 2007 for months. Like his hero, George Orwell, Hitchens is a tireless opponent of all forms of cruelty, ideological dogma, religious superstition and intellectual obfuscation. Once a socialist, he now refers to himself as an unaffiliated radical. As a thinker, Hitchens is perhaps best viewed as post-ideological, in that his intellectual sources and solidarities are strikingly various (he is an admirer of both Leon Trotsky and Kingsley Amis) and cannot be located easily at any one point on the ideological spectrum. Since leaving Britain for the United States in 1981, Hitchens's thinking has moved in what some see as contradictory directions, but he remains an unapologetic and passionate defender of the Enlightenment values of secularism, democracy, free expression, and scientific inquiry. The global turmoil of the recent past has provoked intense dispute and division among intellectuals, academics, and other commentators. Hitchens's writing during this time, particularly after 9/11, is an essential reference point for understanding the genesis and meaning of that turmoil—and the challenges that accompany it. This volume brings together Hitchens's most incisive reflections on the war on terror, the war in Iraq, and the state of the contemporary Left. It also includes a selection of critical commentaries on his work from his former leftist comrades, a set of exchanges between Hitchens and various left-leaning interlocutors (such as Studs Terkel, Norman Finkelstein, and Michael Kazin), and an introductory essay by the editors on the nature and significance of Hitchens's contribution to the world of ideas and public debate. In response, Hitchens provides an original afterword, written for this collection. Whatever readers might think about Hitchens, he remains an intellectual force to be reckoned with. And there is no better place to encounter his current thinking than in this provocative volume.

Read more less

An easy-to-understand guide to often-confusing computer/Internet jargon! Internet and Personal Computing Fads is an A-to-Z reference book written in a straightforward style that’s informative enough for library use but informal enough for general reading. This essential guide takes a practical look at the most often-seen computer and Internet terms and describes them in easy-to-understand language. From Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) to Hypertext to Y2K, more than 100 entries are included, featuring historical backgrounds, popular and practical uses, interesting fun facts, and bibliographies. Detailed enough for reference use by academics, the book has a natural tone that will appeal to students, casual computer users, and those who are intrigued by the chaotic, fascinating, but often frustrating and daunting morass of information known today as the World Wide Web. A perfect introduction to the world of computers and the Internet, this book presents brief, jargon-free explanations of terms representing a variety of fields of interest, including general computer use, business, entertainment, multimedia development, and education. You'll learn about: artificial intelligence the history of computer hardware the Mac vs. PC debate Internet domains such as .com, .edu, .gov, and others the meanings of commonly used e-mail abbreviations, including BTW, FYI, LOL, and more distance learning the origin and meaning of the word cyberspace and a great deal more! In clear and concise entries, Internet and Personal Computing Fads will help you understand the meaning of terms including: bandwidth biometrics bookmarks CAD (computer-assisted design) chat rooms clip art cookies cybercafé digital audio, video, imaging, and cameras dot com e-mail, e-books and e-zines electronic publishing emoticons filtering freeware (shareware) gaming Global Positioning Systems (GPS) instant messaging Internet advertising Linux MIDI mp3 Spam (Internet junk mail) URL usenet and many, many more! An everyday guide for enthusiasts and a perfect place to start for newcomers, Internet and Personal Computing Fads is an easy-to-use handbook with wide-ranging appeal. It combines the comprehensive information you’d expect from a reference book with a casual and colorful look at the histories and backgrounds of popular computer/Internet terms and concepts. As a vital resource or an occasional reference, this book is an exceptional value.

Read more less

Democracy is overrated. Capitalism, on the other hand, doesn't get enough credit. In this provocative and engaging book, John Mueller argues that these mismatches between image and reality create significant political and economic problems--inspiring instability, inefficiency, and widespread cynicism. We would be far better off, he writes, if we recognized that neither system is ideal or disastrous and accepted instead the humdrum truth that both are "pretty good." And, to Mueller, that means good enough. He declares that what is true of Garrison Keillor's fictional store "Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery" is also true of democracy and capitalism: if you can't get what you want there, "you can probably get along without it." Mueller begins by noting that capitalism is commonly thought to celebrate greed and to require discourtesy, deceit, and callousness. However, with examples that range from car dealerships and corporate boardrooms to the shop of an eighteenth-century silk merchant, Mueller shows that capitalism in fact tends to reward behavior that is honest, fair, civil, and compassionate. He argues that this gap between image and reality hampers economic development by encouraging people to behave dishonestly, unfairly, and discourteously to try to get ahead and to neglect the virtuous behavior that is an important source of efficiency and gain. The problem with democracy's image, by contrast, is that our expectations are too high. We are too often led by theorists, reformers, and romantics to believe that democracy should consist of egalitarianism and avid civic participation. In fact, democracy will always be chaotic, unequal, and marked by apathy. It offers reasonable freedom and security, but not political paradise. To idealize democracy, Mueller writes, is to undermine it, since the inevitable contrast with reality creates public cynicism and can hamper democracy's growth and development. Mueller presents these arguments with sophistication, wit, and erudition. He combines mastery of current political and economic literature with references to figures ranging from Plato to P. T. Barnum, from Immanuel Kant to Ronald Reagan, from Shakespeare to Frank Capra. Broad in scope and rich in detail, the book will provoke debate among economists, political scientists, and anyone interested in the problems (or non-problems) of modern democracy and capitalism.

Read more less

"Who owns the modern company? And how should owners behave? Rolf H. Carlsson brings a fresh eye and historical depth to the issue of ownership, management and value creation that every firm and its owners must consider." Frances Cairncross, Management Editor, The Economist "Rolf H. Carlsson gives a valuable historical review and illustrates with cases how active ownership has played an important role in company development...gives...interesting views on where corporate governance is heading and...advice on how to make it work well." Percy Barnevik, Chairman of ABB, AstraZeneca, Investor, and Sandvik; Director (non-exec.) of GM "The nuanced and rich analysis of ownership competence which can be found in Rolf H. Carlsson's book goes far beyond the traditional debate and provides truly interesting and valuable insights for investors, industrialists, entrepreneurs, and owners both in the private and the public sectors." Richard Normann, Professor, Chairman of SMG "Rolf H. Carlsson (analyses the) process...of (creating) long-term shareholder value...in which our model for corporate governance is key, and provides valuable insights into our approach to business." Marcus Wallenberg, CEO, Investor AB "Rolf H. Carlsson's...book on ownership (has been) eagerly awaited by the governance community. Carlsson is uniquely able to illumine those areas in which Swedish corporate structuring has been ahead of the world. It is a book that we all look forward to reading." Robert A. G. Monks, Principal, Lens Investment Management "Carlsson...outlines a powerful frame of reference and analytical tools to address issues of value creation and the role of active owners. This book is a significant contribution to the all-important issues of corporate governance. I was intrigued and pleased to read it." Richard H. Koppes, Jones Day and Stanford Law School; former General Counsel, CalPERS "...adds new perspectives by highlighting the demanding challenges of globalisation. A remarkable new book on the crucial issues of ownership and corporate governance." Dr R. Marsch-Barner, Senior Counsel, Deutsche Bank AG "This innovative book puts the spotlight on those who have the ultimate responsibility for corporate governance, the owners. It provides useful insight into the ways of effective ownership." Professor Jay W. Lorsch, Harvard Business School

Read more less

The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. explores the development of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s understanding of the relationship between religion, morality, law, and politics. This fascinating work is part of a broader effort by scholars in various fields to examine unexplored areas in the life, thought, and activism of Martin Luther King, Jr., and it represents the first book length treatment of how King united moral-religious convictions and political activity. This timely study is also the first in-depth analysis of King’s views on the roles that religion and morality ought to play, not only in public debate concerning political choices and law, but also in efforts to create political and legal structures that are just and to perpetuate participatory democracy. Beginning with the social, political, and economic implications of King’s vision of the “New South” and his prophetic critique of southern civil religion, this pathbreaking study casts King in the role of “political liberal,” “consummate politician,” and “political theologian.” The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. focuses considerable attention on King’s refusal to separate religious faith and moral considerations from politics, legal matters, and social reformism. In so doing, it demonstrates King’s remarkable ability to transcend church-state boundaries and to formulate an alliance that permeated every facet of American life. Featuring four chapters by Lewis V. Baldwin—a leading authority on King—as well as a chapter by Rufus Burrow, Jr., and one co-authored by Barbara Holmes and the Honorable Susan Holmes Winfield, this volume reveals how King moved beyond southern particularism to create a more democratic America and a more inclusive world. Among the topics covered are King’s relationship to various American political traditions and figures, King’s theories of civil disobedience and his understanding of the Constitution, and the influence of moral law and personal idealism on King’s teachings. As debates over faith-based initiatives rage in America’s modern political arena, Baldwin’s lucid analysis of King’s writings on the boundaries that exist between church and state, politics and religion, offers a valuable resource to those engaged in public and private discussions of this important topic.

Read more less

How do we resolve conflicts when fundamental sources of knowledge and belief—such as science and theology—are involved? In God’s Two Books, Kenneth Howell offers a historical analysis of how sixteenth- and seventeenth-century astronomers and theologians in Northern Protestant Europe used science and religion to challenge and support one another. Howell reveals that the cosmological schemes developed during this era remain monumental solutions to the enduring problem of how theological interpretation and empirical investigation interact with one another. “Writing history requires a constant shedding of our misconceptions about the past,” says Howell. God’s Two Books reshapes our understanding of the interaction of cosmological thought and biblical interpretation in the emerging astronomy of the Scientific Revolution by analyzing new texts and offering interpretations that cast old materials in a new light. The central argument of this compelling book is that the use of the Bible in early modern cosmology is considerably more complex and subtle than has previously been recognized. Drawing on the writings of Lutheran and Calvinist astronomers, natural philosophers, and theologians, Howell analyzes several underlying patterns of interpretation which affected how these historical figures viewed the mutual interaction of the books of nature and Scripture. He argues that while they differed on how the disciplines of astronomy, physics, and theology should relate to one another, most thinkers shared the common goal of finding and explaining the true system of the universe. Howell introduces the notion of a convergent realism to describe Protestant intellectuals’ approach to incorporating empirical and theological perspectives into a holistic version of the universe. They believed the sacred page was relevant to cosmology but denied that the Bible had scientific content. At the same time, these thinkers argued that the theological truths expressed in the Bible were interwoven into nature in subtle, yet revealing, ways. Their resulting interpretations show continuity with Catholic thinkers and discard oversimplifications such as literal versus figurative hermeneutics or Copernican versus anti-Copernican cosmologies. Among Howell’s many original contributions in this cogent study is a distinctive approach to Kepler’s exegesis of nature and an introduction to the debate of many Calvinist thinkers who have previously received little attention.

Read more less

Virginians dominate the early history of the United States, with Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Patrick Henry, George Mason, George Wythe, and John Marshall figuring prominently in that narrative. Fellow Virginian Spencer Roane (1762-1822), an influential jurist and political thinker, was in many ways their equal. Roane is nonetheless mostly absent in accounts of early America. The lack of interest in Roane is remarkable since he was the philosophical leader of the Jeffersonians, architect of states' rights doctrine, a legislator, essayist, and, for twenty-seven years, justice of the Virginia Supreme Court. He was the son-in-law of Henry, a confidant of Jefferson, founder of the influential Richmond Enquirer, and head of the ""Richmond Junto."" Roane's opinions established judicial review of legislative acts ten years before Supreme Court Chief Justice Marshall did the same in Marbury v. Madison. Roane also brought down Virginia's state-sponsored church. His descent into historical twilight is even more curious given his fierce criticism-both from the bench and in the Richmond Enquirer-of Marshall's nationalistic decisions. Indeed, the debate between these two judges is perhaps the most comprehensive discussion of federalism outside of the arguments that raged over the ratification of the United States Constitution. In Irreconcilable Founders, David Johnson uses Roane's long-lasting conflict with Marshall as ballast for the first-ever biography of this highly influential but largely forgotten justice and political theorist. Because Roane's legal opinions gave way to those of Marshall, historians have tended to either dismiss him or cast him as little more than an annoying gadfly. Equally to blame for his obscurity is the comparative inaccessibility of Roane's life: no single archive houses his papers, no scholars have systematically reviewed his legal opinions, and no one has methodically examined his essays. Bringing these and other disparate sources together for the first time, Johnson precisely limns Roane's career, personality, and philosophy. He also synthesizes the judge's wide-ranging jurisprudence and analyzes his predictions about the dangers of unchecked federal power and an activist Supreme Court. Although contemporary jurists and politicians disregarded Roane's opinions, many in today's political and legal arenas are unknowingly echoing his views with increasing frequency, making this reappraisal of his life and reassessment of his opinions timely and relevant.

Read more less

Dr Thomas Plume, born in Maldon in Essex in 1630, is remembered today for the many bequests he left which established important scientific, religious and cultural charities. Still operational today are the Plumian Professorship of Astronomy at Cambridge University, the Plume Library at Maldon and the Plume Trust for poor clergy in the Diocese of Rochester. This volume provides the first comprehensive account of the life, work and philanthropy of Plume. Educated at Chelmsford Grammar School and Christ's College, Cambridge, Plume was vicar of Greenwich from 1658 and archdeacon of Rochester from 1679, holding both posts until his death in 1704. At Greenwich he was noted favourably for his preaching by Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn on more than one occasion. He died a wealthy man and his will contained 79 bequests. Plume's famous library at Maldon still houses some 8000 books and pamphlets as well as his pictures and manuscripts. The book collection, forming one of the largest private libraries of the period, is an important resource for understanding the Enlightenment, whilst the manuscript collection reveals Plume's intellectual roots in the religious, philosophical and political debates of the mid-seventeenth century. The landmark building itself, a partly converted and rebuilt medieval church, is an important example of a late-seventeenth-century purpose-built library. As vicar of Greenwich, archdeacon of Rochester and prebendary of Rochester cathedral, Plume had equally strong links with Kent, owning an estate at Stone Castle, Dartford. In Cambridge the chair he endowed for 'a learned and studious Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Phylosophy' has been held by many notable scientists including Fred Hoyle and Martin Rees. In contextualising Plume's bequests within the intellectual world of the late seventeenth century, the book reveals the connections between his philanthropy and his family background and education, his wealth, career and patrons, his churchmanship and his character. Having lived in a significant period of religious tumult and intellectual debate, Plume's legacy is both to have influenced the accretion of knowledge for over three hundred years and also to have illuminated his own times.

Read more less

In the 21st century, digital tools enable information to be generated faster and in greater profusion than ever before, to the point where its extent and value are literally beyond imagining. Such quantities can only be meaningfully addressed using more digital tools, and thus our relationship to information is fundamentally changed. This situation presents a particular challenge to processes of learning and teaching, and demands a response from both information professionals and educators. Enabling education in a digital environment means not only changing the form in which learning opportunities are offered, but also enabling students to survive and prosper in digitally based learning environments. This collection brings together a global community of educators, educational researchers, librarians and IT strategists, to consider how learners need to be equipped in an educational environment that is increasingly suffused with digital technology. Traditional notions of literacy need to be challenged, and new literacies, including information literacy and IT literacy, need to be considered as foundation elements for digitally involved learners. Leading international experts from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico and throughout Europe contribute to the debate, and Hannelore Rader, Librarian and Dean of the University Libraries, University of Louisville, Kentucky, provides the foreword. The book is in two parts: In Part 1, Literacies in the Digital Age, the contributors analyse how digital technologies have enabled transformative change in the ways in which learning can be constructed, and discuss the nature of the new literacies that have emerged in this new virtual and e-learning environment. In Part 2, Enabling and Supporting Digital Literacies, the contributors go on to consider the ways in which digital literacies can be made available to learners, and how these literacies are being relocated in a more student-centred environment within the broader perspective of learning. Readership: This book takes the issues raised in the successful Information and IT Literacy, also co-edited by Allan Martin, into a broader context. It is essential reading for all information professionals and educators involved in developing strategies and practices for learning in a digital age.

Read more less

Leading political innovation activist Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter bring fresh perspective, deep scholarship, and a real and actionable solution, Final Five Voting, to the grand challenge of our broken political and democratic system. Final Five Voting has already been adopted in Alaska and is being advanced in states across the country.The truth is, the American political system is working exactly how it is designed to work, and it isn't designed or optimized today to work for us—for ordinary citizens.Most people believe that our political system is a public institution with high-minded principles and impartial rules derived from the Constitution. In reality, it has become a private industry dominated by a textbook duopoly—the Democrats and the Republicans—and plagued and perverted by unhealthy competition between the players. Tragically, it has therefore become incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. In fact, there's virtually no connection between our political leaders solving problems and getting reelected.In The Politics Industry, business leader and path-breaking political innovator Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter take a radical new approach. They ingeniously apply the tools of business analysis—and Porter's distinctive Five Forces framework—to show how the political system functions just as every other competitive industry does, and how the duopoly has led to the devastating outcomes we see today.Using this competition lens, Gehl and Porter identify the most powerful lever for change—a strategy comprised of a clear set of choices in two key areas: how our elections work and how we make our laws. Their bracing assessment and practical recommendations cut through the endless debate about various proposed fixes, such as term limits and campaign finance reform. The result: true political innovation.The Politics Industry is an original and completely nonpartisan guide that will open your eyes to the true dynamics and profound challenges of the American political system and provide real solutions for reshaping the system for the benefit of all.THE INSTITUTE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATIONThe authors will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Institute for Political Innovation.

Read more less

Praise for Carbon Finance "A timely, objective, and informative analysis of the financial opportunities and challenges presented by climate change, including a thorough description of adaptive measures and insurance products for managing risk in a carbon constrained economy." —James R. Evans, M. Eng. P. Geo., Senior Manager, Environmental Risk Management, RBC Financial Group "Climate change will have enormous financial implications in the years to come. How businesses and investors respond to the risks and opportunities from this issue will have an enormous rippling effect in the global economy. Sonia Labatt and Rodney White's insights and thoughtful analysis should be read by all who want to successfully navigate this global business issue." —Andrea Moffat, Director, Corporate Programs, Ceres "In Carbon Finance, Labatt and White present a clear and accessible description of the climate change debate and the carbon market that is developing. Climate change is becoming an important factor for many financial sector participants. The authors illustrate how challenges and opportunities will arise within the carbon market for banking, insurance, and investment activities as well as for the regulated and energy sector of the economy." —Charles E. Kennedy, Director and Portfolio Manager, MacDougall, MacDougall & MacTier Inc. "Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge of our generation. Its impact on the energy sector has implications for productivity and competitiveness. At the same time, environmental risk has emerged as a major challenge for corporations in the age of full disclosure. Carbon Finance explains how these disparate forces have spawned a range of financial products designed to help manage the inherent risk. It is necessary reading for corporate executives facing challenges that are unique in their business experience." —Skip Willis, Managing Director Canadian Operations, ICF International "In this timely publication, Labatt and White succeed in communicating the workings of carbon markets, providing simple examples and invaluable context to the new and changing mechanisms that underpin our transformation to a carbon-constrained world. Carbon Finance will be the definitive guide to this field for years to come." —Susan McGeachie, Director, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, Graduate Faculty Member, University of Toronto; and Jane Ambachtsheer, Principal, Mercer Investment Consulting, Graduate Faculty Member, University of Toronto

Read more less

These Potatoes Look Like Humans offers a unique understanding of the intersection between land, labour, dispossession and violence experienced by Black South Africans from the apartheid period to the present. In this ground-breaking book, Mbuso Nkosi criticises the historical framing of this debate within narrow materialist and legalistic arguments. His assertion is that, for most Black South Africans, the meaning of land cannot be separated from one’s spiritual and ancestral connection to it, and this results in him seeing the dispossession of land in South Africa with a perspective not yet explored.Nkosi takes as his starting point the historic 1959 potato boycott in South Africa, which came about as a result of startling rumours that potatoes dug out of the soil from the farms in the Bethal district of Mpumalanga were in fact human heads. Journalists such as Ruth First and Henry Nxumalo went to Bethal to uncover these stories and revealed horrific accounts of abuse and routine killings of farmworkers by white Afrikaners. The workers were disenfranchised Black people who were forced to work on these farms for alleged ‘crimes’ against National Party state laws, such as the failure to carry passbooks. In reading this violence from the perspectives of both the Black worker and the white farmer, Nkosi deploys the device of the eye to look at his research subjects and make sense of how the past informs the present. His argument is that the violence against Black farmworkers was not only on the exploitation of cheap labour, but also an anxiety white farmers felt about their settler-colonial appropriation of land. This anxiety, Nkosi argues, is pervasive in current heated public debates on the land question and calls for ‘land expropriation without compensation’. Furthermore, the dispossession of Black people from their land cannot be overcome until there is a recognition of the dead and restless spirits of the land, and a spiritual return to home for Black people’s ancestors. Until such time, the cycles of violence will persist.This book will be of interest to academics and scholars working in the area of land and workers’ struggles but also to the general reader who wants to gain a deeper understanding of redress and social justice on multiple levels.

Read more less

John Brown is a common name, but the John Brown who masterminded the failed raid at Harpers Ferry was anything but common. His failed efforts have left an imprint upon our history, and his story still swirls in controversy. Was he a madman who felt his violent solution to slavery was ordained by Providence or a heroic freedom fighter who tried to liberate the downtrodden slave? These bipolar characterizations of the violent abolitionist have captivated Americans. The view that prevailed from the time of the raid to well into the twentieth century - that his actions were the product of an unbalanced mind - has since shifted to the idea that he committed courageous acts to undo a terrible injustice.The debate still rages, but not as much about his ultimate goal as the method he used in attempting to right what he considered an intolerable wrong. Are citizens justified in bypassing the normal legal or governmental processes in a violent way when they fail, in the eyes of the dissenter, to correct a wrong that touched so many? Brown’s use of violence was to strike terror in the heart of slave owners, terror that Brown hoped would intimidate them to free their slaves to ensure their families’ safety.Despite the differences between modern terrorist acts and Brown’s own violent acts, when Brown’s characteristics are compared to the definition of terrorism as set forth by scholars of terrorism, he fits the profile. Nevertheless, today Brown is a martyred hero who gave his life attempting to terminate the evil institution of human bondage. Brown’s violent method of using terrorism to accomplish this is downplayed or ignored, despite labeled by historians as America’s first terrorist. The modern view of Brown has unintentionally made him a "good terrorist," despite the repugnance of terrorism that makes the thought of a benevolent or good terrorist an oxymoron.This new biography covers Brown's background and the context to his decision to carry out the raid, a detailed narrative of the raid and its consequences for both those involved and America; and an exploration of the changing characterisation of Brown since his death.

Read more less

Roddy MacKenzie's father served in Bomber Command during the Second World War, but like so many brave veterans who had survived the war, he spoke little of his exploits. So, when Roddy started on his personal journey to discover something of what his father had achieved, he uncovered a great deal about the devastating effectiveness of Bomber Command and the vital role it played in the defeat of Third Reich. He realised that the true story of Bomber Command's achievements has never been told nor fully acknowledged. Roddy became a man on a mission, and this startlingly revealing, and often personal study, is the result. Bomber Command: Churchill's Greatest Triumph takes the reader through the early days of the Second World War and introduces all the key individuals who turned the Command into the war-winning weapon it eventually became, as well as detailing the men and machines which flew night after night into the heart of Hitler's Germany. The main focus of his book is the destruction and dislocation wrought by the bombing to reduce, and ultimately destroy, Germany's ability to make war. In his analysis, Roddy dug deep into German archival material to uncover facts rarely presented to either German or English language readers. These demonstrate that Bomber Command's continual efforts, at appalling cost in aircrew casualties and aircraft losses, did far more damage to the Reich than the Allies knew. Roddy's father served with the Royal Canadian Air Force and Roddy naturally highlights its contribution to Bomber Command's successes, another aspect of this fascinating story which the author believes has not been duly recognised. Bomber Command: Churchill's Greatest Triumph will certainly raise the debate on the controversial strategy adopted by Bomber' Harris and how he was perceived by many to have over-stepped his remit. But most of all, this book will revise people's understanding of just how important the endeavours of those men who flew through the dark and through the searchlights, the flak, and the enemy night fighters, to bring the Second World War in Europe to its crushing conclusion.

Read more less

With its vibrant, student-focused approach and authoritative yet accessible coverage of all key topics, The Oxford Textbook on Criminology is the essential companion to exploring, explaining, and responding to crime. While other books simply impart information The Oxford Textbook on Criminology goes further, equipping readers with the confidence and skills to form their own views and treating them as fellow knowledge-generating criminologists. This highly engaging introduction supports undergraduates throughout their criminological journey, from their first encounter with the discipline to conducting independent research and considering career options. Its fresh, contemporary account of the subject includes chapters dedicated to the hot topics of global criminology, social harm, and green criminology, as well as 'New frontiers' boxes which highlight recent and emerging developments in each area. At every turn, concepts and theories are set into a real world context and readers are encouraged to unpick the issues. 'What do you think?' boxes challenge students to question their assumptions and critically reflect on their personal viewpoints, while 'Controversy and debate' and 'Conversations' boxes help students apply the knowledge they've gained. The authors' explanations are brought to life by the voices and experiences of a wide variety of people connected to criminology and the criminal justice system, from students and academics to police officers and crime victims. Digital formats and resources The second edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and is supported by online resources. - The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with self-assessment activities, answers to the review questions, and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks - These study tools that enhance the e-book are also available as stand-alone online resources for use alongside the print book. Online resources for students: - Over 300 multiple choice questions - Suggested answers to the end of chapter questions - Additional chapters on the criminal justice systems of the UK's devolved jurisdictions - Checklists, templates, and resources on academic writing; research ethics; and employability For lecturers: - Exam and essay questions for each chapter - Customizable PowerPoint slides for each chapter - A teaching pack for each chapter, containing ideas on how to use the book material in lectures and smaller groups - Downloadable versions of all figures in the book

Read more less

After seven decades of existence has the UN become obsolete? Is it ripe for retirement? As Jussi Hanhimäki proves in the second edition of this Very Short Introduction, the answer is no. In the second decade of the twenty-first century the UN remains an indispensable organization that continues to save lives and improve the world as its founders hoped. Since its original publication in 2008, this 2nd edition includes more recent examples of the UN Security Council in action and peacekeeping efforts while exploring its most recent successes and failures. After a brief history of the United Nations and its predecessor, the League of Nations, Hanhimäki examines the UN's successes and failures as a guardian of international peace and security, as a promoter of human rights, as a protector of international law, and as an engineer of socio-economic development. This updated edition highlights what continues to make the UN a complicated organization today, and the ongoing challenges between its ambitions and capabilities. Hanhimäki also provides a clear account of the UN and its various arms and organizations (such as UNESCO and UNICEF), and offers a critical overview of the UN Security Council's involvement in recent crises in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Libya, and Syria, and how likely it is to meet its overall goals in the future. Regardless of its obstacles, the UN is likely to survive for the foreseeable future. That alone makes trying to understand the UN in all its manifold - magnificent and frustrating - complexity a worthy task. With this much-needed updated introduction to the UN, Jussi Hanhimäki engages the current debate over the organizations effectiveness as he provides a clear understanding of how it was originally conceived, how it has come to its present form, and how it must confront new challenges in a rapidly changing world. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Read more less

After the Great War, there was much debate in the USA whether the country should isolate itself from old world' conflicts or follow an imperialist path and become the world's only super-power. If the USA was to become a super-power, then conflict with Great Britain might result. Consequently, the US drew up War Plan Red. This was a scheme for the USA to invade Canada and the Caribbean which would draw the Royal Navy into North American waters where it would be destroyed. Without the Royal Navy, the rest of the British Empire would be vulnerable to American attacks. It became clear, however, as the decade wore on, that the Imperialists were not going to gain a clear-cut victory, so other means of achieving their aims would be needed. In 1939 the American military establishment created an intelligence-gathering machine within their Embassy in London under the Ambassadorship of Joseph Patrick Kennedy. Then in spring 1941, a small group of US Army officers travelled to Britain to plan for Anglo-American cooperation should the United States became involved in the Second World War. This was the US Army Special Observer Group, or SPOBS as it was commonly known. It is questionable whether the Military Attach s and SPOBS activities were spying', for they were operating - at least in the early days - with the full permission and knowledge of the British Government. Their intelligence-gathering activities spread out as far as the Middle East, Africa, South America, Russia and Asia - far beyond the terms of the original brief. It did not cease with the outbreak of peace - the advent of the Cold War between East and West brought forth a whole new range of subterfuge and behind-the-scenes activities by the CIA. So, were the Americans allies or spies? Certainly, the SPOBS bled Great Britain white of data and information, sending it all back to the War Department in Washington under the guise of helping. It was also a blueprint that America used in one form or another to encourage' regime change around the world through the seventy years or so after the Second World War and which continues to this day.

Read more less

Internationally renowned medical scientist, frequent media contributor, and autism dad Dr. Peter J. Hotez explains why vaccines do not cause autism.In 1994, Peter J. Hotez's nineteen-month-old daughter, Rachel, was diagnosed with autism. Dr. Hotez, a pediatrician-scientist who develops vaccines for neglected tropical diseases affecting the world's poorest people, became troubled by the decades-long rise of the influential anti-vaccine community and its inescapable narrative around childhood vaccines and autism. In Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism, Hotez draws on his experiences as a pediatrician, vaccine scientist, and father of an autistic child. Outlining the arguments on both sides of the debate, he examines the science that refutes the concerns of the anti-vaccine movement, debunks current conspiracy theories alleging a cover-up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and critiques the scientific community's failure to effectively communicate the facts about vaccines and autism to the general public, all while sharing his very personal story of raising a now-adult daughter with autism.A uniquely authoritative account, this important book persuasively provides evidence for the genetic basis of autism and illustrates how the neurodevelopmental pathways of autism are under way before birth. Dr. Hotez reminds readers of the many victories of vaccines over disease while warning about the growing dangers of the anti-vaccine movement, especially in the United States and Europe. Now, with the anti-vaccine movement reenergized in our COVID-19 era, this book is especially timely. Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism is a must-read for parent groups, child advocates, teachers, health-care providers, government policymakers, health and science policy experts, and anyone caring for a family member or friend with autism."When Peter Hotez—an erudite, highly trained scientist who is a true hero for his work in saving the world's poor and downtrodden—shares his knowledge and clinical insights along with his parental experience, when his beliefs in the value of what he does are put to the test of a life guiding his own child's challenges, then you must pay attention. You should. This book brings to an end the link between autism and vaccination."—from the foreword by Arthur L. Caplan, NYU School of Medicine

Read more less

The Roman emperor Commodus wanted to kill a rhinoceros with a bow and arrow, and he wanted to do it in the Colosseum. Commodus' passion for hunting animals was so fervent that he dreamt of shooting a tiger, an elephant, and a hippopotamus; his prowess was such that people claimed he never missed when hurling his javelin or firing arrows from his bow. For fourteen days near the end of AD 192, the emperor mounted one of the most lavish and spectacular gladiatorial games Rome had ever seen. Commodus himself was the star attraction, and people rushed from all over Italy to witness the spectacle. But this slaughter was simply the warm-up act to the main event: the emperor was also planning to fight as a gladiator. Why did Roman rulers spend vast resources on such over-the-top displays - and why did some emperors appear in them as combatants? Why did the Roman rabble enjoy watching the slaughter of animals and the sight of men fighting to the death? And how best can we in the modern world understand what was truly at stake in the circus and the arena? In The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino, Jerry Toner set out to answer these questions by vividly describing what it would have been like to attend Commodus' fantastic shows and watch one of his many appearances as both hunter and fighter. Highlighting the massive logistical effort needed to supply the games with animals, performers, and criminals for execution, the book reveals how blood and gore were actually incidental to what really mattered. Gladiatorial games played a key role in establishing a forum for political debate between the rulers and the ruled. Roman crowds were not passive: they were made up of sophisticated consumers with their own political aims, which they used the games to secure. In addition, the games also served as a pure expression of what it meant to be a true Roman. Drawing on notions of personal honor, manly vigor, and sophisticated craftsmanship, the games were a story that the Romans loved to tell themselves about themselves.

Read more less

On the eve of a major treaty conference between Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 1722, two white fur traders attacked an Indigenous hunter and left him for dead near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, this act of brutality set into motion a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations that challenged the definition of justice in early America. In Covered with Night , leading historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the crime and its aftermath, bringing us into the overlapping worlds of white colonists and Indigenous peoples in this formative period. As she shows, the murder of the Indigenous man set the entire mid-Atlantic on edge, with many believing war was imminent. Isolated killings often flared into colonial wars in North America and colonists now anticipated a vengeful Indigenous uprising. Frantic efforts to resolve the case ignited a dramatic, far-reaching debate between Native American forms of justice—centred on community, forgiveness and reparations—and an ideology of harsh reprisal, unique to the colonies and based on British law, which called for the killers’ swift execution. In charting the far-reaching ramifications of the murder, Covered with Night —a phrase from Iroquois mourning practices—overturns persistent assumptions about “civilised” Europeans and “savage” Native Americans. As Eustace powerfully contends, the colonial obsession with “civility” belied the reality that the Iroquois, far from being the barbarians of the white imagination, acted under a mantle of sophistication and humanity as they tried to make the land- and power-hungry colonials understand their ways. In truth, Eustace reveals, the Iroquois—the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee, as they are known today—saw the killing as an opportunity to forge stronger bonds with the colonists. They argued for restorative justice and for reconciliation between the two sides, even as they mourned the deceased. An absorbing chronicle built around an extraordinary group of characters—from the slain man’s resilient widow to the Indigenous diplomat known as “Captain Civility” to the scheming governor of Pennsylvania—Covered with Night transforms a single event into an unforgettable portrait of early America. A necessary work of historical reclamation, it ultimately revives a lost vision of crime and punishment that reverberates down into our time.

Read more less

On May 11, 1911, the New York Public Library opened its “marble palace for book lovers” on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. This was the city’s first public library in the modern sense, a tax-supported, circulating collection free to every citizen. Since before the Revolution, however, New York’s reading publics had access to a range of “public libraries” as the term was understood by contemporaries. In its most basic sense a public library in the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries simply meant a shared collection of books that was available to the general public and promoted the public good. From the founding in 1754 of the New York Society Library up to 1911, public libraries took a variety of forms. Some of them were free, charitable institutions, while others required a membership or an annual subscription. Some, such as the Biblical Library of the American Bible Society, were highly specialized; others, like the Astor Library, developed extensive, inclusive collections. What all the public libraries of this period had in common, at least ostensibly, was the conviction that good books helped ensure a productive, virtuous, orderly republic—that good reading promoted the public good. Tom Glynn’s vivid, deeply researched history of New York City’s public libraries over the course of more than a century and a half illuminates how the public and private functions of reading changed over time and how shared collections of books could serve both public and private ends. Reading Publics examines how books and reading helped construct social identities and how print functioned within and across groups, including but not limited to socioeconomic classes. The author offers an accessible while scholarly exploration of how republican and liberal values, shifting understandings of “public” and “private,” and the debate over fiction influenced the development and character of New York City’s public libraries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Reading Publics is an important contribution to the social and cultural history of New York City that firmly places the city’s early public libraries within the history of reading and print culture in the United States.

Read more less