Other books that might interest you

• 

  Politics without Vision -...

  Tracy B. Strong

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “Magisterial…a frequently surprising treatment of major political thinkers.”—Perspectives on Politics    From Plato through the nineteenth century, the West could draw on comprehensive political visions to guide government and society. Now, for the first time in more than two thousand years, Tracy B. Strong contends, we have lost our foundational supports. In the words of Hannah Arendt, the state of political thought in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has left us effectively thinking without a banister.  Politics without Vision takes up the thought of seven influential thinkers, each of whom attempted to construct a political solution to this problem: Nietzsche, Weber, Freud, Lenin, Schmitt, Heidegger, and Arendt. None of these theorists were liberals; nor, excepting possibly Arendt, were they democrats—and some might even be said to have served as handmaidens to totalitarianism. And all, to a greater or lesser extent, shared the common conviction that the institutions and practices of liberalism are inadequate to the demands and stresses of the present times. In examining their thought, Strong acknowledges the political evil that some of their ideas served to foster but argues that these were not necessarily the only paths their explorations could have taken. By uncovering the turning points in their thought—and the paths not taken—Strong strives to develop a political theory that can avoid, and perhaps help explain, the mistakes of the past while furthering the democratic impulse.   Confronting the widespread belief that political thought is on the decline, Strong puts forth a brilliant and provocative counterargument that in fact it has endured—without the benefit of outside support. A compelling rendering of contemporary political theory, Politics without Vision is sure to provoke discussion among scholars in many fields.

  Show book

• 

  Unequal - How extreme inequality...

  David Buckham, Robyn Wilkinson,...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  ‘Twenty-first-century capitalism and the democracies that enabled it are self-destructing... a sobering ― and impeccably researched ― warning of what is likely to come next’ Bruce Whitfield  
  The leading lights of the tech revolution – Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk – have been hailed as savants and saviours of the modern age. And yet they are at the forefront of wealth inequality not seen since the heyday of the robber barons in the late 19th century, part of the slide to the First World War. Today, rampant inequality is inciting social unrest and undermining faith in the institutions of the democratic state. Citizens have been left at the mercy of unfettered capitalism – mere data subjects, endlessly surveilled, marshalled and increasingly angry and polarised. 
  The decoupling of capitalism from democracy has fostered an economic system seemingly powered by greed alone, with the marginalisation of democratic principles facilitating the rise of authoritarians and populists like Putin, Xi Jinping, Trump and Boris Johnson. 
  How has it come to this? And does the unanticipated fightback in Ukraine, with support from the West, show us the way to reclaiming the lost spirit of freedom inherent in liberal democracy?

  Show book

• 

  The Place Beyond Words

  Ram Dass

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Ram Dass, much beloved spiritual pilgrim, talks candidly about his own journey and  the wisdom he has gained from being at the heart of the consciousness movement.  He compares life in New York to life in India, being a psychology professor at Harvard to being shunned by many institutions, consciousness in the 1960s to consciousness the 1990s, and how he dropped out of Western society to explore Eastern mysticism, only to return to a life of social action and service.

  Show book

• 

  Trumponomics - Inside the...

  Stephen Moore, Arthur B. Laffer

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Donald Trump promised the American people a transformative change in economic policy after eight years of stagnation under Obama. But he didn't adopt a conventional left or right economic agenda. His is a new economic populism that combines some conventional Republican ideas—tax cuts, deregulation, more power to the states—with more traditional Democratic issues such as trade protectionism and infrastructure spending. It also mixes in important populist issues such as immigration reform, pressuring the Europeans to pay for more of their own defense, and keeping America first.  
  In Trumponomics, conservative economists Stephen Moore and Arthur B. Laffer offer a well-informed defense of the president's approach to trade, taxes, employment, infrastructure, and other economic policies. Moore and Laffer worked as senior economic advisors to Donald Trump in 2016. They traveled with him, frequently met with his political and economic teams, worked on his speeches, and represented him as surrogates. They are currently members of the Trump Advisory Council and still meet with him regularly. In Trumponomics, they offer an insider's view on how Trump operates in public and behind closed doors, his priorities and passions, and his greatest attributes and liabilities. 
  Trump is betting his presidency that he can create an economic revival in America's industrial heartland. Can he really bring jobs back to the rust belt? Can he cut taxes and bring the debt down? Above all, does he have the personal discipline, the vision, the right team, and the right strategy to pull off his ambitious economic goals? Moore and Laffer believe that he can pull it off and that Trumponomics will usher in a new era of prosperity for all Americans.Foreword by Larry Kulow.

  Show book

• 

  John Wilkes - The Scandalous...

  Arthur H. Cash

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Pulitzer Prize Finalist: A biography of the wildly colorful eighteenth-century British politician who became “the toast of American revolutionaries” (Booklist).   One of the most colorful figures in English political history, John Wilkes (1726–97) is remembered as the father of the British free press, a defender of civil and political liberties—and a hero to American colonists. Wilkes’s political career was rancorous, involving duels, imprisonments in the Tower of London, and the Massacre of St. George’s Fields, in which seven of his supporters were shot to death by government troops. He was equally famous for his “private” life—as a confessed libertine, a member of the notorious Hellfire Club, and the author of what has been called the dirtiest poem in the English language.   This lively biography draws a full portrait of John Wilkes from his childhood days through his heyday as a journalist and agitator, his defiance of government prosecutions for libel and obscenity, his fight against exclusion from Parliament, and his service as lord mayor of London on the eve of the American Revolution. Told here with the force and immediacy of a firsthand newspaper account, Wilkes’s own remarkable story is inseparable from the larger story of modern civil liberties and how they came to fruition.   “[Does] justice to Wilkes both as a fiery proponent of individual rights and as . . . a libertine par excellence in an age with no shortage of memorable rakes.” —The New York Times   “It is difficult to believe that John Wilkes, a notorious womanizer and scandal-monger, was a genuine hero of civil liberties and political democracy on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 18th century, but hero he was and in this engaging book Arthur Cash gives Wilkes the serious treatment he has long deserved.” —Eric Foner, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History and New York Times–bestselling author of Reconstruction

  Show book

• 

  White Torture - Interviews with...

  Narges Mohammadi

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Written by the winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize 
   
  Female prisoners of conscience and activists speak out against torture in Iranian prisons 
   
  With a foreword by Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner 
   
  Extended solitary confinement has been condemned as a severe violation of human rights. Yet it is still widely used in Iranian prisons. In White Torture, thirteen women, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, share their experiences of imprisonment: harassment and beatings by guards, total blindfolding and denial of medical treatment. Angry interrogators threaten their families and lie about their whereabouts. One prisoner is even told she is dead. 
   
  None of the women have committed crimes – they are prisoners of conscience or held hostage as bargaining chips. Through psychological torture, the Iranian state hopes to remake their souls. These interviews, carried out while each woman was in prison or facing charges, are astounding documents of resistance and integrity. White Torture unveils the rot at the heart of the Iranian legal system and calls on us to act for change.

  Show book