Other books that might interest you

• 

  My America - Langston Hughes on...

  Randal Maurice Jelks

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Best known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance, the celebrated poet and writer Langston Hughes believed in the power of art as resistance. What can we learn from his works today? 
  Randal M. Jelks delivers this revelatory portrait of the celebrated poet, essayist, playwright, and American artist Langston Hughes. My America traces Hughes's journey from a child captivated by the wonder of Kansas City to cosmopolitan witness in Paris, New York, Mexico City, and Madrid. We encounter Hughes as a young man discovering the pulse of modern life in a world on the verge of exploding metaphorically and literally. His experiences informed his work and his thinking on art, democracy, and activism. 
  Langston Hughes is one of the few American writers who consistently wrote about democracy from a joyous perspective, and My America explores how his works speak to the political anxieties and crises we face today. Jelks deftly examines the themes in Hughes's work, including creative expression, communal dignity, class struggle, and human suffering and what they mean for our inner well-being as democratic persons and political participants. 
  With care and no-holds-barred insight, My America removes the veneer of respectability often placed on Hughes's work and life to reveal his political adeptness. In a world threatened by fascism, Hughes's writing wasn't afforded the luxury of subtlety. He made a spiritual and political decision to stand on the side of the oppressed. He believed art should be practiced for the sake of justice. And democracy can be practiced with joy.

  Show book

• 

  Max Hastings On War

  Max Hastings

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  From Max Hastings comes a collection of talks and lectures exploring the wars of the 20th century with the verve, insight and originality that has made him a number one bestselling historian. 
  What is war like to live through, for civilian victims, especially women, as well as soldiers, sailors and fliers? Hastings has been a life-long student of warfare, a ‘chronicler of conflict’, working first as a foreign correspondent on battlefields, then as a prolific prize-winning historian of the 20th century’s greatest struggles. He has now been studying warfare for over fifty years, published thirty books, and given hundreds of talks and lectures. Here are thirteen of the best. 
  Addressing questions of truth versus myth and revisiting many last-generation narratives, Hastings leads us through the most important conflicts in recent times. Listen as he explores D-Day, the Dambusters raid, Churchill’s character and achievement as war leader, Vietnam, and – in his most recent book, published in 2022, the Cuban missile crisis – 13 days when we came closest to annihilation and which stands as a mirror to the grave threats the world faces today. 
  Max Hastings, the Sunday Times bestselling author, delves into the modern history of warfare, shedding light on the political relations that have shaped the world. His international acclaim is a testament to his top-notch storytelling and deep understanding of geopolitics. 
  For fans of Antony Beevor (Arnhem), Damien Lewis (SAS Daggers Drawn), Al Murray (Watching War Films With My Dad), Peter Caddick-Adams (Monte Cassino), and Jonathan Trigg (D-Day Through German Eyes). 
  HarperCollins 2022

  Show book

• 

  The Trafficker Next Door - How...

  Rhacel Salazar Parreñas

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "Kaya mo ba?" Can you take it? An instructor asks a group of migrant workers in the Philippines, as they prepare for domestic work in wealthier countries. Can you take the grueling work? "Kaya," the women say. "We can." 
   
   
   
  The phrase "human trafficking" often conjures nightmarish images of sexual exploitation, but Rhacel Salazar Parreñas reveals that the vast majority of trafficking victims are domestic workers who suffer abuse not at the hands of crime lords but rather "ordinary" family employers. 
   
   
   
  Drawing on twenty years of groundbreaking research across three continents, Parreñas exposes the grim realities faced by migrant workers ensnared in forced labor due to poverty and debt bondage. She uncovers how entrenched social and legal norms, coupled with a patronizing "employer savior complex," foster a troubling sense of ownership among employers over "their" domestic workers. 
   
   
   
  Through powerful firsthand accounts, Parreñas illustrates the migrants' desperation, and the power dynamics that lead to a global network of exploitation. Parreñas's narrative challenges listeners to confront uncomfortable truths about everyday household arrangements and calls for justice and fair treatment for all workers.

  Show book

• 

  Wage-Labour and Capital and...

  Karl Marx

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  **Wage-Labour and Capital & Value, Price, and Profit** by Karl Marx is a compelling introduction to Marxist economic theory, combining two of his most influential works. In *Wage-Labour and Capital*, Marx explores the relationship between labor and capital, illuminating how the commodification of labor under capitalism generates profit for capitalists at the expense of workers. In *Value, Price, and Profit*, Marx delves deeper into the mechanisms of capitalist economies, discussing the labor theory of value, the creation of surplus value, and the inherent exploitation of wage labor. Together, these texts offer a powerful critique of capitalism's structure and dynamics, providing readers with foundational insights into Marxist economics and the social implications of labor exploitation. This edition is an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand the theories that have shaped modern political and economic thought.

  Show book

• 

  Dictating the Agenda - The...

  alexander cooley, Alexander...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Following the end of the Cold War, the world experienced a remarkable wave of democratization. Over the next two decades, numerous authoritarian regimes transitioned to democracies, and it seemed that authoritarianism as a political model was fading. But as recent events have shown, things have clearly changed. 
   
   
   
  In Dictating the Agenda, authors Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis reveal how today's authoritarian states are actively countering liberal ideas and advocacy surrounding human rights and democracy across various global governance domains. The transformed global context has unlocked for authoritarian states the possibility to contend with Western liberal soft power in new, traditionally "non-political" ways. Cooley and Dukalskis ultimately advance a theory of authoritarian snapback, the process in which non-democratic states limit the transnational resonance of liberal ideas at home and advance anti-liberal norms and ideas into the global public sphere. 
   
   
   
  Drawing from a range of evidence, this book doesn't just reveal the limits of the liberal influence taken for granted across the world. It offers a novel theory of how authoritarian governments figured out how to exploit and repurpose the same actors, tools, and norms that once exclusively promoted and sustained US-backed liberalism.

  Show book

• 

  The Dogs of Mariupol - Russia's...

  Tom Mutch

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Kateryna hung up her dresses, Oksana and Stanislav put down their lawyers' briefs and Oksen slammed shut his philosophy textbooks. Alongside thousands of their fellow citizens, they strapped on armour, picked up weapons and chose to risk their lives for the freedom and independence of their homeland. Many would never return.
  Journalist Tom Mutch woke up in Kyiv on 24 February to a world changed for ever. Making a fateful choice to stay and cover the invasion, he witnessed the forging of an 'iron generation' of young Ukrainians. With first-hand reporting from all the major battlegrounds and front lines, The Dogs of Mariupol recounts the war's notorious encounters, such as the Battle of Kyiv and the Siege of Mariupol, but also uncovers untold stories, like the 1st Tank Brigade's desperate defence of Chernihiv and the civilian guerrilla army fighting overwhelming odds in Sumy.
  This is not a triumphalist account of Ukraine's fight, however. It painstakingly documents the immense human catastrophe wrought on Ukrainian society and the divisions between those who fought and those who fled. It also delves deeper into events to answer important historical questions: could the Russian plan to capture Kyiv have succeeded? Did Ukraine make a fatal error by committing for so long to the defence of Bakhmut? And with more western support, could Ukraine have won this terrible war outright?

  Show book