Other books that might interest you

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  Try Common Sense - Replacing the...

  Philip K. Howard

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  Award-winning author Philip K. Howard lays out the blueprint for a new American society.In this brief and powerful book, Philip K. Howard attacks the failed ideologies of both parties and proposes a radical simplification of government to re-empower Americans in their daily choices. Nothing will make sense until people are free to roll up their sleeves and make things work. The first steps are to abandon the philosophy of correctness and our devotion to mindless compliance.Americans are a practical people. They want government to be practical. Washington can't do anything practically. Worse, its bureaucracy prevents Americans from doing what's sensible. Conservative bluster won't fix this problem. Liberal hand-wringing won't work either. Frustrated voters reach for extremist leaders, but they too get bogged down in the bureaucracy that has accumulated over the past century. Howard shows how America can push the reset button and create simpler frameworks focused on public goals where officials—prepare for the shock—are actually accountable for getting the job done.

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  Private Censorship

  J.P. Messina

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  Concerns about censorship have once again reached a fever pitch across the liberal West. With a few notable exceptions, complaints about censorship in the twenty-first century West are complaints about the behavior of private parties: employers, media conglomerates, social media platforms, and search engines.To better understand the concerns surrounding nonstate interference with speech, Private Censorship offers an account of censorship, as well as an assessment of the ethical and political issues it raises across contexts. J. P. Messina asks and variously answers questions like: what should we think when employees get fired for things they say and how might patterns of such firings create a climate of fear inimical to free inquiry? When is it appropriate for social media firms to deplatform users, and what does it mean for our democracy that those in charge of such decisions are often wealthy Silicon Valley executives? Do search engines act as massive gatekeepers to information in troubling ways, and how might they be constrained, if they do? Along the way, Messina casts a critical eye on many popular proposals for responding to these complaints. Unlike these popular approaches, Private Censorship foregrounds the importance of rights to property, association, and free expression for thinking well about twenty-first century censorship concerns.

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  Guns across America -...

  Robert J. Spitzer

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  In vast swathes of America, the sacredness of the Second Amendment has become a political third rail, never to be questioned. Gun rights supporters wear tri-cornered hats, wave the stars and stripes, and ask what would have happened if the revolutionaries had been unarmed when the British were coming. They have had great success in conflating unfettered gun ownership with the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, and all things American, even in an era of repeated mass shootings. Yet the all-too-familiar narrative of America's gun past, echoed in the Supreme Court's Heller gun rights decision, is not only mythologized, but historically wrong. 
  As Robert J. Spitzer demonstrates in Guns across America, gun ownership is as old as the nation, but so is gun regulation. Drawing on a vast new dataset of early gun laws reflecting every imaginable type of regulation, Spitzer reveals that firearms were actually more strictly regulated in the country's first three centuries than in recent years. The first "gun grabbers" were not 1960's Chablis-drinking liberals, but seventeenth century rum-guzzling pioneers, and their legacy continued through strict gun regulations in the 1920s and beyond. Spitzer examines interpretations of the Second Amendment, the assault weapons controversy, modern "stand your ground" laws, and the so-called "right of rebellion" to show that they play out in America's contemporary political landscape in ways that bear little resemblance to our imagined past. And as gun rights proponents seek to roll back gun laws and press as many guns into as many hands as possible, warning that gun rights are endangered, they sidestep the central question: are stricter gun laws incompatible with robust gun rights? Spitzer answers this question by examining New York State's tough gun laws, where his political analysis is complemented by his own quest for a concealed carry handgun permit and construction of a legal AR-15 assault weapon. 
  Not only can gun rights and rules coexist, but they have throughout American history. Guns across America reveals the long-hidden truth: that gun regulations are in fact as American as apple pie.

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  Confronting Injustice - Social...

  Umair Muhammad

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  “Written by an activist for activists . . . a powerful call for collective action against the social causes of poverty and climate change.” —Climate & Capitalism 
   
  A new generation of activists working for economic and environmental justice, and against war and poverty, confronts critical questions. Why is the world so unjust and crisis-prone? What kind of world should we fight for? How can we win? In this panoramic yet accessible book, Umair Muhammad engages with these and other urgent debates. He argues that individual solutions like “buying green” are dead ends and that hope for the future lies in a radical expansion of democracy and the transformation of the economy from one based on profit to one that can meet human needs. 
   
  “A highly recommended read for those who are interested in working together to transform society.” —Chelsey Rhodes, founder of DelusionsofDevelopment.com 
   
  “This book will force activists to check their intentions. I wasn’t even halfway done before I wanted to share it with everyone I knew.” —Maryama Ahmed, Toronto-based community organizer 
   
  “A wide-ranging and unflinching look at the global nature of the challenges contemporary activists seek to address. Its blend of environmental and anti-imperialist analysis, grounded in direct organizing experience, makes this a powerful and important resource.” —Dru Oja Jay, coauthor of Paved with Good Intentions 
   
  “What [Umair] provides is an opening statement in an important discussion that activists must have . . . A must-read book for today’s activists.” —Ian Angus, author of A Redder Shade of Green

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  Invisible Countries - Journeys...

  Joshua Keating

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  A journalist explores how our world’s borders came to be and how self-proclaimed countries across the globe could change the map.   What is a country? While certain basic criteria—borders, a government, and recognition from other countries—seem obvious, journalist Joshua Keating investigates what happens in areas of the world that exist as exceptions to these rules. Invisible Countries looks at semiautonomous countries such as Abkhazia, Kurdistan, and Somaliland, as well as a Mohawk reservation straddling the U.S.-Canada border, and an island nation whose very existence is threatened by climate change.   Through stories about these would-be countries’ efforts at self-determination, Keating shows that there is no universal legal authority determining what a country is. He also argues that economic, cultural, and environmental forces could soon bring an end to our long period of cartographical stasis. Keating combines history with incisive observations drawn from his travels and interviews with residents, political leaders, and scholars in each of these “invisible countries.”  

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  Democracy or Else - How to Save...

  Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy...

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  From your friends at Pod Save America comes a useful and illustrated guide to saving American democracy just in time for the 2024 election and 2025 insurrection If you’re looking to navigate the chaotic, dunce-infested waters of American politics, Democracy or Else is here to help you tackle what might be the greatest question of our time: How do you get involved in the political process and make a real difference without giving in to the sense of impending dread that hangs over our society like a nameless stench? Each chapter will take readers step-by-step through the perilous journey of - Getting informed when you don’t know which influencer to trust (all of them!) - Donating and volunteering where you can have the biggest impact - Organizing, protesting, and even running for office yourself - Staying engaged in politics without losing hope or your mind or all of your friends Democracy or Else is a resource for everyone—from political junkies following every turn of the news cycle to young people getting ready to vote for the first time. And it's filled with practical advice from some of the smartest experts and least annoying politicians around. The stakes and average global temperatures have never been higher—but there have also never been so many opportunities to join the fight. It’s an age of contradictions!

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