Other books that might interest you

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  Bad Faith - Teachers Liberalism...

  Andrew Feffer

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  This history of an anticommunist hysteria that swept the 1940s New York City school system “captures the mania of the time, and will shock readers” (The Times Union). 
   
  In summer 1940, as war spread across Europe and America pulled itself out of the Great Depression, New York City was suddenly convulsed. Targeting the city’s municipal colleges and public schools, the state legislature’s Rapp-Coudert investigation dragged hundreds of suspects before public and private tribunals to root out a perceived communist conspiracy to hijack the city’s teachers’ unions, subvert public education, and indoctrinate the nation’s youth. 
   
  Drawing on the vast archive of Rapp-Coudert records, Bad Faith provides the first full history of this witch-hunt, which lasted from August 1940 to March 1942. Anticipating McCarthyism and making it possible, the episode would have repercussions for decades to come. 
   
  In recapturing this moment in the history of prewar anticommunism, Bad Faith challenges assumptions about the origins of McCarthyism, the liberal political tradition, and the role of anticommunism in modern American life. With roots in the city’s political culture, Rapp-Coudert enjoyed the support of not only conservatives but also key liberal reformers and intellectuals who, well before the Cold War raised threats to national security, joined in accusing communists of “bad faith” and branded them enemies of American democracy. This study of the Rapp-Coudert inquisition raises difficult questions about the good faith of the many liberals willing to aid and endorse the emerging Red scare, as they sacrificed principles of open debate and academic freedom in the interest of achieving what they believed would be effective modern government based on bipartisanship and a new and seemingly permanent economic prosperity.

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  Stand Up! - How to Get Involved...

  Gordon Whitman

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  "Grassroots organizing is our best hope. If you're serious about making change from the bottom up, read Stand Up! and pass it on." - Congressman Keith Ellison 
   
  Each of us faces a moment of truth - at a time of crisis, do we stand up and speak out or retreat into our private lives? This audiobook is for those frustrated by what they see happening in the world but are not sure what they can do about it. 
   
  Veteran organizer Gordon Whitman shows that we have the power we need to create a racially and economically just society. But it won't happen if we stay on the sidelines sharing social media posts and signing online petitions. We win only if we're willing to join other people in the kind of face-to-face organizing that has powered every successful social movement in history.  
   
  Whitman describes five types of conversations that enable people to build organizations that can solve local problems and confront the greatest challenges facing our country - from gun violence to climate change. The audiobook is a road map for standing up to the bullies who've hijacked our democracy and divided us against each other. 
   
  Find your voice, make it heard, create lasting change, and live your purpose in the world!

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  The people we could be - Or how...

  Alexander Bell

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  We live in a time of crises in a state with no moral purpose. This generation could become great by tackling Scotland's domestic problems, and the wider issues facing the world. That is only possible if we take charge, set the goal of equality and give ourselves twenty years to transform our society. We can lead ourselves to a better world. ALEX BELL Former Head of Policy to First Minister Alex Salmond, Alex Bell puts Scotland's future in a global context and sets out a way for Scotland and the UK to reform. This is a manifesto for the future free of party lines or the usual orthodoxies - if you read only one book on the referendum, make it this one. The sort of original thinking that has been so sorely missing in the debate. BEN THOMSON, Reform Scotland Badly needed as a guide for the general reader to the issues facing the Scottish people. KENNETH ROY, Scottish Review A rare work - a stimulating read that you would hope party manifestos would aspire to but rarely do. JOHN McLAREN, Centre for Public Policy for Regions A manifesto for the future. ANDY WIGHTMAN, author of The Poor Had No Lawyers… an eloquent and alarmingly persuasive book. THE SCOTSMAN, on Peak Water

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  Secession Winter - When the...

  Robert J Cook, Elizabeth R....

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  Three historians examine what drove southern secession in the winter of 1860-1861 and why it culminated in the American Civil War. 
   
  Politicians and opinion leaders on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line struggled to formulate coherent responses to the secession of the deep South states. The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861 triggered civil war and the loss of four upper South states from the Union. The essays by three senior historians in Secession Winter explore the robust debates that preceded these events. 
   
  For five months in the winter of 1860–1861, Americans did not know for certain that civil war was upon them. Some hoped for a compromise; others wanted a fight. Many struggled to understand what was happening to their country. Robert J. Cook, William L. Barney, and Elizabeth R. Varon take approaches to this period that combine political, economic, and social-cultural lines of analysis. Rather than focus on whether civil war was inevitable, they look at the political process of secession and find multiple internal divisions—political parties, whites and nonwhites, elites and masses, men and women. Even individual northerners and southerners suffered inner conflicts. 
   
  The authors include the voices of Unionists and Whig party moderates who had much to lose and upcountry folk who owned no slaves and did not particularly like those who did. Barney contends that white southerners were driven to secede by anxiety and guilt over slavery. Varon takes a new look at Robert E. Lee’s decision to join the Confederacy. Cook argues that both northern and southern politicians claimed the rightness of their cause by constructing selective narratives of historical grievances.

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  What Makes a Terrorist? -...

  Alan B. Kreuger

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  Why we need to think more like economists to successfully combat terrorism 
  If we are to correctly assess the root causes of terrorism and successfully address the threat, we must think more like economists do. This is the argument of Alan Krueger's What Makes a Terrorist, a book that explains why our tactics in the fight against terrorism must be based on more than anecdote, intuition, and speculation. 
  Many popular ideas about terrorists and why they seek to harm us are fueled by falsehoods, misinformation, and fearmongering. Many believe that poverty and lack of education breed terrorism, despite the wealth of evidence showing that most terrorists come from middle-class, and often college-educated, backgrounds. Krueger closely examines the factors that motivate individuals to participate in terrorism, drawing inferences from terrorists' own backgrounds and the economic, social, religious, and political environments in the societies from which they come. 
  He describes which countries are the most likely breeding grounds for terrorists, and which ones are most likely to be their targets. Krueger addresses the economic and psychological consequences of terrorism and puts the threat squarely into perspective, revealing how our nation's sizable economy is diverse and resilient enough to withstand the comparatively limited effects of most terrorist strikes. He also calls on the media to be more responsible in reporting on terrorism. 
  Bringing needed clarity to one of the greatest challenges of our generation, this 10th anniversary edition of What Makes a Terrorist features a new introduction by the author that discusses the lessons learned in the past decade from the rise of ISIS and events like the 2016 Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida.

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  Digital Orthodoxy in the...

  Mikhail Suslov

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  This volume explores the relationship between new media and religion, focusing on the WWW’s impact on the Russian Orthodox Church. 
  
  Eastern Christianity has travelled a long way through the centuries, amassing the intellectual riches of many generations of theologians and shaping the cultures as well as histories of many countries, Russia included, before the arrival of the digital era. New media pose questions that, when answered, fundamentally change various aspects of religious practice and thinking as well as challenge numerous traditional dogmata of Orthodox theology. For example, an Orthodox believer may now enter a virtual chapel, light a candle by drag-and-drop operations, send an online prayer request, or worship virtual icons and relics. In recent years, however, Church leaders and public figures have become increasingly skeptical about new media. The internet, some of them argue, breaches Russia’s 'spiritual sovereignty' and implants values and ideas alien to the Russian culture. 
  
  This collection addresses such questions as: How is the Orthodox ecclesiology influenced by its new digital environment? What is the role of clerics in the Russian WWW? How is the specifically Orthodox notion of sobornost’ (catholicity) being transformed here? Can Orthodox activity in the internet be counted as authentic religious practice? How does the virtual religious life intersect with religious experience in the 'real' church?

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