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Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences
by Kevin B. Smith John R. Alford John R. HibbingBuried in many people and operating largely outside the realm of conscious thought are forces inclining us toward liberal or conservative political convictions. Our biology predisposes us to see and understand the world in different ways, not always reason and the careful consideration of facts. These predispositions are in turn responsible for a significant portion of the political and ideological conflict that marks human history. With verve and wit, renowned social scientists John Hibbing, Kevin Smith, and John Alford—pioneers in the field of biopolitics—present overwhelming evidence that people differ politically not just because they grew up in different cultures or were presented with different information. Despite the oft-heard longing for consensus, unity, and peace, the universal rift between conservatives and liberals endures because people have diverse psychological, physiological, and genetic traits. These biological differences influence much of what makes people who they are, including their orientations to politics. Political disputes typically spring from the assumption that those who do not agree with us are shallow, misguided, uninformed, and ignorant. Predisposed suggests instead that political opponents simply experience, process, and respond to the world differently. It follows, then, that the key to getting along politically is not the ability of one side to persuade the other side to see the error of its ways but rather the ability of each side to see that the other is different, not just politically, but physically. Predisposed will change the way you think about politics and partisan conflict. As a bonus, the book includes a "Left/Right 20 Questions" game to test whether your predispositions lean liberal or conservative.
Predisposed: The Left, The Right, and the Biology of Political Differences
by Kevin B. Smith John R. Alford John R. HibbingThis thoughtfully updated revision of a classic text sheds new light on the potential sociological and biological differences that result in deep, seemingly unbridgeable political divisions.Renowned social scientists and experts in biopolitics, John R. Hibbing, Kevin B. Smith, and John R. Alford present overwhelming evidence that political opinion is shaped not just by cultural background or information bias but is rather the result of diverse psychological, physiological, and genetic traits. This new edition shifts the emphasis from differences between the political left and the right (liberals and conservatives) as they have traditionally been understood and explores specific brands of liberalism and conservatism such as ardent supporters of politicians such as Donald Trump.An essential read for students and scholars of political psychology and party politics, this book invites the reader to reconsider their perspectives on public opinion and partisan conflict.
Preemption, Prevention and Proliferation: The Threat and Use of Weapons in History
by George H. QuesterHow do international systems deal with the threat and use of weapons of war? In this sophisticated yet accessible analysis, a leading strategic analyst takes readers deep into twentieth century history to answer this question. Weapons of mass destruction, and the counter threat of retaliation, have been central concerns in strategic decision- making in World War I, the legacy of World War II, and the Cold War era.Few people can traverse issues of global confl ict with more historical insight than George Quester. His writing is lucid, and his information either new or imperfectly understood in the past. Quester details the ways weapons of war have infl uenced the forging of policies in the twenty-fi rst century. He argues for the retention of appropriate weapons systems, but also for care in when they are used. Priorities exist, but they depend on whether a state is dealing with major powers or rogue states. And off ensive weapons may well become an option in response to non-state terrorist groups or for that matter state-sponsored terrorist acts.When aggression has already occurred, the world is less likely to regard military response as a violation of the peace. Quester cites Clausewitz's adage that the aggressor is always willing to exploit the world's preference for peace. The rise of the human rights movement adds more complexities to preemptive war and prevention, since the line between civilian and military casualties becomes increasingly blurred. The risks may be great, the choices are few--but the needs of military policy making remain high on the agenda. As a result, the concerns discussed here will be on the global political agenda for years to come.
Preface to Action (Routledge Revivals)
by George E. CatlinFirst published in 1934, Preface to Action was written to provoke thought on society and its structure and to enable readers to make a considered judgement at election, particularly those with less time to make their decision. The book discusses the conflict between wanting to make an informed political decision, and not having the time or all the information to do so. In light of this, Catlin brings together what he considers useful points to help guide readers towards a decision. He outlines his personal opinions and explains his reasons for them. Divided into three parts, the book first explores psychology and considers what institutional forms would best satisfy what he identifies as the major human instincts or impulses. The second part considers the community, whether it is state or nation, and what the best form of it is. The third part is a detailed exploration of the religions of Catholicism, Toryism, Fascism, and Communism. Preface to Action will be of great appeal to those with an interest in twentieth century British and European history, the history of politics, the history of political thought, and political psychology.
Prefects and Governors in Nineteenth-century Europe: Towards a Comparative History of Provincial Senior Officials (Palgrave Studies in Political History)
by Pierre Karila-CohenThis edited collection presents a pan-European history of intermediary government and administration in nineteenth-century Europe. Taking a closer look at senior government officials who represented the sovereign or state far away from the capital, the book highlights the intermediary nature of their roles, which fell somewhere between the municipality and central bureaucracy. Against the backdrop of revolution and upheaval brought about by the Enlightenment and the First World War, the nineteenth century was a crucial period for reform and political change. Taking a transnational approach, the contributors examine the similarities between the challenges that faced government officials in different European states, focusing on their common role as mediators: firstly, between the ‘centre’ and the ‘peripheries’; and secondly, between the population and hierarchies of power. The status and prerogative of these officials are discussed, providing insights into the lives of French Préfets, Prussian Oberpräsidenten, Austrian Statthalter, Italian Prefetti, dutch Commissarissen des Konings and governors in Russia and Spain. The special case of the United Kingdom, where there were neither prefects nor governors, serves as a mirror. Dismantling the barriers between different national histories, this book represents a comprehensive and comparative investigation into the roles of nineteenth-century provincial administrators in Europe, an important read for anyone researching European political history or the history of the state.
Prefects, Governors and Commissioners: Territorial Representatives of the State in Europe (Governance and Public Management)
by Jean-Michel Eymeri-Douzans Gildas TanguyIs the Prefect an exception, surviving only in France and some countries influenced by Napoleon? No! This book tells the varied stories of the resilience, in most European States and under different names, of the prefectoral institution. It is the first comparative book in English studying these territorial administrators who have a go-between role in centre-periphery relations and a nodal role in territorial governance. Gathering a multidisciplinary team of scholars under the auspices of the European Group for Public Administration, this volume offers a fine-grained analysis of 17 national cases, examines cross-country data, and proposes a theoretical frame made of a Weberian ideal-type with three variants, to better comprehend and explain the permanence and changes of the prefectoral figure.
Preference Data for Environmental Valuation: Combining Revealed and Stated Approaches (Routledge Explorations In Environmental Economics Ser. #31)
by John Whitehead Tim Haab Ju-Chin HuangThe monetary valuation of environmental goods and services has evolved from a fringe field of study in the late 1970s and early 1980s to a primary focus of environmental economists over the past decade. Despite its rapid growth, practitioners of valuation techniques often find themselves defending their practices to both users of the results of applied studies and, perhaps more troubling, to other practitioners. One of the more heated threads of this internal debate over valuation techniques revolves around the types of data to use in performing a valuation study. In the infant years of the development of valuation techniques, two schools of thought emerged: the revealed preference school and the stated preference school, the latter of which is perhaps most associated with the contingent valuation method. In the midst of this debate an exciting new approach to non-market valuation was developed in the 1990s: a combination and joint estimation of revealed preference and stated preference data. There are two primary objectives for this book. One objective is to fill a gap in the nonmarket valuation "primer" literature. A number of books have appeared over the past decade that develop the theory and methods of nonmarket valuation but each takes an individual nonmarket valuation method approach. This book considers each of these valuation methods in combination with another method. These relationships can be exploited econometrically to obtain more valid and reliable estimates of willingness-to-pay relative to the individual methods. The second objective is to showcase recent and novel applications of data combination and joint estimation via a set of original, state-of-the-art studies that are contributed by leading researchers in the field. This book will be accessible to economists and consultants working in business or government, as well as an invaluable resource for researchers and students alike.
Preferential Education Policies in Multi-ethnic China: National Rhetoric, Local Realities (Education and Society in China)
by Naomi C.F. YamadaPreferential Education Policies in Multi-ethnic China: National Rhetoric, Local Realities explores the cultural logic of China’s preferential policy measures. Similar in premise but different in practice and philosophy to American affirmative action, the preferential policies evoke controversy on all sides: from those who see the measures as insufficient to address problems of educational disparities between ethnic groups, and from those who see the measures as "reverse discrimination." Yamada shows how the policy measures attempt to manage ethnic-based contradictions and appease both majority and minority populations.
Preferential Trade Agreements
by Kyle W. Bagwell Petros C. MavroidisThis volume assembles a stellar group of scholars and experts to examine preferential trade agreements (PTAs), a topic that has time and again attracted the interest of analysts. It presents a discussion of the evolving economic analysis regarding PTAs and the various dysfunctions that continually place them among the priority items for (re)negotiation by the WTO. The book explores recent empirical research that casts doubt on the old 'trade diversion' school and debates why the WTO should deal with PTAs and if PTAs belong under the mandate of the WTO as we now know it.
Preferential Voting Systems: Influence on Intra-Party Competition and Voting Behaviour
by Gianluca PassarelliThis book examines the effects of preferential voting on intraparty electoral competition and voting behavior. Using data covering 19 countries and over 200 elections, this study sheds light on a somewhat neglected aspect of electoral systems. The author demonstrates that the ability of voters to influence the selection and deselection of MPs under preferential voting systems is not as important as is often assumed. Instead, their ability to shape the election of a given candidate depends heavily on the balance between party power and voter power. In this way, this book advances the understanding of the effect of preferential voting on intra-party dynamics, parliamentary turnover, and voter behavior. Based on a rigorous, data-led methodological approach, the book contributes to both the theory and practice of the study of electoral systems, and should be read by scholars, students and practitioners interested in preferential voting systems.
Prefigurative Politics: Building Tomorrow Today
by Paul Raekstad Sofa Saio GradinMany of us wonder what we could possibly do to end oppression, exploitation, and injustice. People have studied revolutions and protest movements for centuries, but few have focused on prefigurative politics, the idea of 'building the new society within the shell of the old'. Fed up with capitalism? Get organised and build the institutions of the future in radical unions and local communities. Tired of politicians stalling on climate change? Set up an alternative energy collective. Ready to smash racism and the patriarchy? Root them out in all areas of our lives, not just in 'high politics'. This is the first book dedicated to prefigurative politics, explaining its history and examining the various debates surrounding it. How can collective decision-making be inclusive? In what ways are movements intersectional? Can prefigurative organisations scale up? It is a must-read for students of radical politics, anarchism, and social movements, as well as activists and concerned citizens everywhere.
Prefiguring Utopia: The Auroville Experiment
by Suryamayi Aswini Clarence-SmithAuroville in Tamil Nadu, South India, is an internationally recognized endeavour in prefiguring an alternative society: the largest, most diverse, dynamic and enduring of intentional communities worldwide. This book is a critical and insightful analysis of the utopian practice of this unique spiritual township, by a native scholar. The author explores how Auroville’s founding spiritual and societal ideals are engaged in its communal political and economic organization, as well as various cultural practices and what enables and sustains this prefiguratively utopian practice. This in-depth, autoethnographic case study is an important resource for understanding prefigurative and utopian experiments – their challenges, potentialities and significance for the advancement of human society.
Prefiguring the Idea of the University for a Post-Capitalist Society (Marxism and Education)
by Gary SaundersUsing an Open Marxist theoretical framework, this book provides a critique of the neoliberal reforms made to higher education since the late 1970s and the impact this has had on the sector. Rather than arguing for a return to the idea of the public university, the book argues that public and private models of higher education are both forms of capitalist accumulation and have historically perpetuated forms of oppression, exploitation and discrimination; thus, a more radical solution that addresses both the current crisis of higher education and the contradictory and exploitative nature of late capitalism is required. This book critically examines the autonomous learning spaces that emerged out of the UK student protests (2009-2010) and documents what can be learned from them to prefigure the idea of the university for a post-capitalist society.
Pregnant at Work: Low-Wage Workers, Power, and Temporal Injustice (Anthropologies of American Medicine: Culture, Power, and Practice #11)
by Elise AndayaWinner of the 2024 Senior Book Prize from the Association of Feminist AnthropologyA compelling analysis of social inequality through the perspective of pregnant, low-wage service workersThe low-wage service industry is one of the fastest-growing employment sectors in the US economy. Its workers disproportionately tend to be low-income and minority women. Service sector work entails rigid forms of temporal discipline manifested in work requirements for flexible, last-minute, and round-the-clock availability, as well as limited to no eligibility for sick and parental leaves, all of which impact workers’ ability to care for themselves and their dependents.Pregnant at Work examines the experiences of pregnant service sector workers in New York City as they try to navigate the time conflicts between precarious low-wage service labor and safety net prenatal care. Through interviews and fieldwork in a prenatal clinic of a public hospital, Elise Andaya vividly describes workers’ struggles to maintain expected tempos of labor as their pregnancies progress as well as their efforts to schedule and attend prenatal care, where waiting is a constant factor—a reflection of the pervasive belief that poor people’s time is less valuable than that of other people.Pregnant at Work is a compelling examination of the ways in which power and inequalities of race, class, gender, and immigration status are produced and reproduced in the US, including in individual pregnant bodies. The stories of the pregnant workers featured in this book underscore the urgency of movements towards temporal justice and a new politics of care in the twenty-first century.
Pregnant with the Stars
by Renée Cramer"Check out that baby bump!" Online and print magazines, television shows, and personal blogs are awash with gossip and speculation about pregnant celebrities. What drives our cultural obsession with celebrity baby bumps? Pregnant with the Stars examines the American fascination with, and judgment of, celebrity pregnancy, and exposes how our seemingly innocent interest in "baby bumps" actually reinforces troubling standards about femininity, race, and class, while increasing the surveillance and regulation of all women in our society. This book charts how the American understanding of pregnancy has evolved by examining pop culture coverage of the pregnant celebrity body. Investigating and comparing the media coverage of pregnant celebrities, including Jennifer Garner, Angelina Jolie, Beyoncé Knowles, Kristen Bell, M.I.A., Jodie Foster, and Mila Kunis, Renée Cramer shows us how women are categorized and defined by their pregnancies. Their stories provide a paparazzi-sized lens through which we can interpret a complex set of social and legal regulations of pregnant women. Cramer exposes how cultural ideas like the "rockin' post-baby body" are not only unattainable; they are a means of social control. Combining cultural and legal analysis, Pregnant with the Stars uncovers a world where pregnant celebrities are governed and controlled alongside the recent, and troubling, proliferation of restrictive laws aimed at women in the realm of reproductive justice and freedom. Cramer asks each reader and cultural consumer to recognize that the seeing, judging, and discussion of the "baby bump" isn't merely frivolous celebrity gossip--it is an act of surveillance, commodification, and control.
Prehistories of the War on Terror: A Critical Genealogy (Power, Politics, and the World)
by A. J. Yumi Lee and Karen R. MillerReveals fundamental continuities between the contemporary War on Terror and earlier U.S. imperial conflictsPrehistories of the War on Terror examines the longstanding American project of classifying enemies who challenge U.S. power abroad as terrorists. To do so, the volume brings disparate episodes of U.S. military empire-building into dialogue across time and space. From settler colonial wars in the nineteenth-century American West to twentieth-century wars of conquest in Asia and the Pacific, the collection’s essays argue that the United States has drawn both materially and ideologically on older systems of empire in the conflicts through which it has waged the present-day War on Terror.Attending to the local histories from which these conflicts emerged and examining the effects of U.S. intervention in these sites, contributors analyze the cultural frameworks for understanding and remembering past conflicts that confirm, challenge, or refigure the logics of the War on Terror. This volume reveals how contestations over sovereignty, extraction, and inequality must be suppressed and flattened in public discourse to maintain a coherent vision of a totalizing War on Terror. Together, the contributors illustrate that there was no single road that led to 9/11 or the War on Terror. Rather, they argue that we must follow multiple paths into the past to fully understand our present and to fight for a more just future.Contributors: Moustafa Bayoumi, Joo Ok Kim, Janne Lahti, A. J. Yumi Lee, Naveed Mansoori, Karen R. Miller, Kalyan Nadiminti, Tim Roberts, Colleen Woods.
Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents (Sunlight Editions)
by Margaret Kimberley&“This book is an effort to shed light on the truth. . . . To the extent that our leaders embody aspects of who we are as a people, studying how each president has participated in our nation&’s complicated and often shameful treatment of black people is as good a place as any to start.&” — Margaret Kimberley from the Preface"Margaret Kimberley gives us an intellectual gem of prophetic fire about all the U.S. presidents and their deep roots in the vicious legacy of white supremacy and predatory capitalism. Such truths seem more than most Americans can bear, though we ignore her words at our own peril!" — Cornel West, author of Race MattersPREJUDENTIAL is a concise, authoritative exploration of America&’s relationship with race and black Americans through the lens of the presidents who have been elected to represent all of its people. Throughout the history of the United States, numerous presidents have left their legacies as slaveholders, bigots, and inciters of racial violence, but were the ones generally regarded as more sympathetic to the plight and interests of black Americans—such as Lincoln, FDR, and Clinton—really much better? And what of all the presidents whose relationship with black America is not even considered in the pages of most history books? Over the course of 45 chapters—one for each president—Margaret Kimberley enlightens and informs readers about the attitudes and actions of the highest elected official in the country. By casting sunlight on an aspect of American history that is largely overlooked, Prejudential aims to increase awareness in a manner that will facilitate discussion and understanding.
Prejudice in Politics: Group Position, Public Opinion, and the Wisconsin Treaty Rights Dispute
by Mia Tuan Lawrence D. BoboThis book presents a sociological study of how and why racial prejudice against members of a minority group comes to shape what happens to important political claims and aspirations of the group. Lawrence Bobo and Mia Tuan explore a lengthy controversy surrounding the fishing, hunting, and gathering rights of the Chippewa Indians in Wisconsin. The controversy started in 1974, when two Chippewa Indians were arrested for off-reservation fishing, and persisted into the 1990s. It involved the efforts of the Chippewa to assert their traditional spearfishing rights, which met with angry, racially charged responses from whites. <P><P> Bobo and Tuan develop a "group position" perspective on racial attitudes that takes account of the complex interplay of racial stereotypes and negative group feelings as well as the vested interests, collective privileges, and political threats that form the basis of racialized political disputes. They explore whether theories that explain race politics in the case of black-white relations are applicable to understanding Indian-white relations. The book uses a carefully designed survey of public opinion to explore the dynamics of prejudice and political contestation, and to further our understanding of how and why racial prejudice enters into politics in the United States.
Prelude to Civil War: 1816-1836
by William W. FreehlingFrom the preface: "My reasons for presenting a re-examination of the Nullification Controversy go beyond a desire to clarify its causes. The crisis of 1832-3 is one of the more dramatic events in United States history, and has, I think, never been chronicled fully or accurately. Furthermore, the Nullification Crisis has usually been presented as an isolated event. Viewed in proper perspective, the confrontation between Andrew Jackson and the Carolina nullifiers was the central occurrence in the broader transition of South Carolina from the enthusiastic nationalism of 1816 to the extreme sectionalism of 1836. And I hope the following analysis of the acute anxieties surrounding the mere discussion of slavery during these years of transition will help to explain why South Carolina led the South in a suicidal assault on the federal Union a generation later."
Prelude to Political Economy: A Study of the Social and Political Foundations of Economics
by Kaushik BasuMainstream economics was founded on many strong assumptions. Institutions and politics were treated as irrelevant, government as exogenous, and social norms as epiphenomena. As an initial gambit this was fine. But as the horizons of economic inquiry have broadened, these assumptions have become hindrances rather than aids. If we want to understand why some economies succeed and some fail, why some governments are effective and others not, why some communities prosper while others stagnate, it is essential to view economics as embedded in politics and society. <p><p>Prelude to Political Economy is a study of this embeddedness; it argues for an 'inclusive' approach to institutions and the state. Modern economics recognizes that individuals' pursuit of their own selfish ends can result in socially suboptimal outcomes -- the Prisoner's Dilemma being the stark example. It has been suggested that what we need in such an eventuality is 'third-party' intervention, which can take the form of imposing punishment on players. Kaushik Basu objects to this method of wishing third parties out of thin air. He argues that if a third party that could impose its will on others were available, then it should have been modeled as a player to start with. <p><p>The adoption of such an inclusive approach has implications for our conception of the state and the law. It means that the law cannot be construed as a factor that changes the game that citizens play. It is instead simply a set of beliefs of citizens; and, as such, it is similar to social norms. What the law does for an economy, so can social norms. The book discusses how the nature of policy advice and our conception of state power are affected by this altered view of the state and the law. As corollaries, the book addresses a variety of important social and philosophical questions, such as whether the state should guarantee freedom of speech, whether determinism is compatible with free will, and whether the free market can lead to coercion.
Prelude to the Easter Rising: Sir Roger Casement in Imperial Germany (Women In Irish History Ser.)
by Reinhard R. DoerriesPrelude to the Easter Rising casts light upon the clandestine activities of Sir Roger Casement in Imperial Germany from 1914 to 1916.German military intelligence and the Imperial Foreign Office had far-reaching plans to use the Irish in the war against Britain. Radical Irish-American leaders were behind Casement's mission to Berlin. It took some time for the highly sensitive and idealistic Casement to realize that neither the German General Staff nor the Imperial Chancellor was able or willing to lend full military support to the Irish. When Casement began to see that the rising would be a bloody massacre, he left for Ireland to halt the fatal development and, if necessary, sacrifice his own honour and life.The carefully edited documents contained in this volume, mostly from the German Foreign Office archives in Bonn, present a full record of Casement's activities prior to Easter 1916. Over 80 years later, these papers have lost none of their emotional intimacy.
Prelude to the Enlightenment: French Literature 1690-1740 (Routledge Revivals)
by Geoffroy Atkinson Abraham C. KellerFirst published in 1971, Prelude to the Enlightenment is a study of the attitudes of French writers during the transition from the Classical Age to the Enlightenment. Professors Atkinson and Keller investigate the increasing vogue for emotionalism, weeping, and confession and attitudes towards love and morality. On a more intellectual plane, the approaches of authors of the time to literary questions and their treatment of the world of reality. This book presents wide range of quotations from many writers of the period 1690 to 1740 – among them Mativaux; l’Abbé Prévost; Saint-Evremond; the novelists Robert Chasles, Mme Aubin, Mme de Tencin and la Comtesse d’Aulnoy; the remarkable and little-known writer Jean Buvat, who worked as a copyist in the Royal Library and wrote the Journal de la Régence; and l’Abbé Pluche, author of Le Spectacle de la Nature. Some of these are well known, some virtually unheard of, but all provide clues to the character of the age. By combining their own comments with contemporary quotations, Professors Atkinson and Keller give modern readers a feeling for the atmosphere of the period that followed the Golden Age and a deeper appreciation of the literature of the Enlightenment itself.
Premier's State
by Ellen Whinnett Steve Bracks'In May 1994, while I was going through pre-selection for the seat of Williamstown, I sat down at my desk at home and I wrote a note. I was thirty-nine years old and in that note I mapped out what I hoped would happen in my life.'By the time he was forty-eight, Steve Bracks had achieved the goal he'd set himself nine years earlier. He was premier of Victoria. In A Premier's State he reflects on his ambition to make a difference, and how he reached his goal. He talks about his early childhood growing up in a conservative but impassioned family that supported the Democratic Labor Party, and about his gradual evolution from left-wing university radical to pragmatic centre-left premier. He reveals for the first time the background to his decision to take the party's leadership from his friend John Brumby in 1999—then to hand it back to John in 2007 when he sensationally resigned from office. He gives insights into how to run a successful government and how to manage the factions, and talks about everything from the impact of public life on his family, to forming minority government with independents.
Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey
by Mikiso HaneJapanese historian Louis Perez brings Mikiso Hane's rich and beloved account of early Japanese history up-to-date in this thoroughly revised Second Edition of Premodern Japan. The text traces the key developments of Japanese history in the premodern period, including the establishment of the imperial dynasty, early influences from China and Korea, the rise of the samurai class and the establishment of feudalism, the culture and society of the long Tokugawa period, the rise of Confucianism and Shinto nationalism, and finally, the end of Tokugawa rule. While the text provides many political developments through the early modern period, it also integrates the social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of Japanese history as well. Perez's updates to the text provide a comprehensive overview of the major social, political, and religious trends in premodern Japan as well as offering the most current scholarship.
Prensa Inmunda: Brevario de engaños, crimen y propaganda
by Édgar MorinEn estas páginas se asoman las profundas divisiones dentro del gremio periodístico, la servidumbre voluntaria, el espionaje o la vigilancia a la que ha sido sometido, su precariedad laboral y no pocas dificultades o conflictos para obtener información. Prensa inmunda es también un repaso por la compleja historia de la prensa mexicana, desde aquellos años de control total de la información hasta nuestros días, con una relación tirante como la que AMLO ha establecido con los medios. Engañar, manipular y controlar no es nada nuevo. A lo largo de la historia abundan ejemplos en los que se miente, se provocan emociones, se tergiversan cosas o se incita de modo más o menos sutil a modificar la conducta a través de la persuasión. La prensa no ha estado exenta de esto. Muchos medios han servido más como vehículo de propagación de las verdades de los gobiernos -un conducto de mensajes entre los poderosos-, que comovía de contacto entre los ciudadanos para la conformación de una mejor sociedad. En este atrevido ensayo, el autor nos conduce por el intrincado y muchas veces inmundo camino de la prensa, de los grandes medios y sus cotos de poder. A través de 13 capítulos nos entrega una suerte de manual con pistas para descifrar distintos trucos o mañas del poder político, económico, criminal y mediático que han complicado el que hacer de los periodistas.