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The Great Polarization: How Ideas, Power, and Policies Drive Inequality (Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia: Challenges in Development and Globalization)
by von Arnim, Rudiger L.; Stiglitz, Joseph E.Inequality of income and wealth has skyrocketed since the 1970s. As the super-rich have grasped the vast majority of the gains from economic growth, labor’s share of income has declined. The middle class has stagnated, and those at the bottom have become even worse off. Persistent structural discrimination on the basis of race and gender exacerbates these economic disparities.The Great Polarization brings together scholars from disparate fields to examine the causes and consequences of this dramatic rise in inequality. Contributors demonstrate that institutions, norms, policy, and political power—not the “natural” operation of the market—determine the distribution of wealth and income. The book underscores the role of ideas and ideologies, showing how neoclassical economics and related beliefs have functioned in public debates to justify inequality. Together, these essays bear out an inescapable conclusion: inequality is a choice. The rules of the economy have been rewritten to favor those at the top, entrenching the imbalances of power that widen the gap between the very rich and everyone else.Contributors reconsider the data on inequality, examine the policies that have led to this predicament, and outline potential ways forward. Using both theoretical and empirical analysis and drawing on the knowledge of experts in policy, political economy, economics, and other disciplines, The Great Polarization offers a kaleidoscopic view of the processes that have shaped today’s stark hierarchies.
The Great Powers in the Middle East 1941-1947: The Road to the Cold War
by Barry RubinFirst Published in 1981. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
The Great Powers: Essays in Twentieth Century Politics (Routledge Revivals)
by Max BeloffThis re-issued work, first published in 1959, is a collection of essays by British historian Max Beloff, designed to help us to understand and interpret the political problems of the twentieth century. The essays are divided into three key areas: the challenges and limitations of interpretation from a historian's perspective, the appropriate scale for political activity and organisation in the modern world, and the emergence of the United States of America as the most powerful nation on the planet.
The Great Psychic Outdoors: Adventures in Low Fidelity
by Enrico MonacelliExplores the weird world of lo-fi music to investigate its revolutionary potential and its ability to subvert what we think music can do.Homemade records, tape-hiss worship and a taste for a very peculiar kind of psychedelia have carved themselves a weird niche in the contemporary musical landscape under the name of lo-fi.This genreless genre, characterized by poor recordings and rough sounds, spanning from the most extreme heavy metal to the sweetest ear-candies pop can offer, has become a solid presence in our collective sensibility. And yet, it has largely been neglected: this staunch refusal of anything hi-fi and hi-tech has fallen under the radar of the categories we use to analyse ourselves and our times.The Great Psychic Outdoors, dedicated to the most interesting and controversial artists in this movement, will rectify this injustice and vindicate the revolutionary potential of lo-fi music, engaging with this weird genre on its own terms and facing head on the contradictions and possibilities of this multi-faceted phenomenon. Confronting the aesthetic and conceptual stakes of this sonic craft, The Great Psychic Outdoors shows what lo-fi says about us, our lives under capitalism and the strange ways we cope with pain, madness and beauty.
The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet
by Henry FountainIn the bestselling tradition of Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm, The Great Quake is a riveting narrative about the biggest earthquake in North American recorded history -- the 1964 Alaska earthquake that demolished the city of Valdez and swept away the island village of Chenega -- and the geologist who hunted for clues to explain how and why it took place. At 5:36 p.m. on March 27, 1964, a magnitude 9.2. earthquake – the second most powerful in world history – struck the young state of Alaska. The violent shaking, followed by massive tsunamis, devastated the southern half of the state and killed more than 130 people. A day later, George Plafker, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, arrived to investigate. His fascinating scientific detective work in the months that followed helped confirm the then-controversial theory of plate tectonics.In a compelling tale about the almost unimaginable brute force of nature, New York Times science journalist Henry Fountain combines history and science to bring the quake and its aftermath to life in vivid detail. With deep, on-the-ground reporting from Alaska, often in the company of George Plafker, Fountain shows how the earthquake left its mark on the land and its people -- and on science.
The Great Questions of Tomorrow: The Ideas That Will Remake The World (TED 2)
by David RothkopfGovernment, war, the economy, human identity, philosophy and the way we work. All of these, among others, are soon to be transformed. As technological advancements usher in a time where each and every human being on the planet will be connected by more than 50 billion manmade devices, our global society is going through a major and rapid change. CEO and editor of the FP Group (who publish Foreign Policy Magazine) David J. Rothkopf is a revered and cutting-edge commentator on global trends; the writer of a weekly column for his magazine, and the author of numerous widely-acclaimed titles. In this newest work, released on the back of his highly successful TED talk, Rothkopf aims to delve beneath these changes, and explore not only the ideas that will help usher in this new era, but also the people behind them. Like Da Vinci and Jefferson, Darwin and Marx, there are thinkers working now who, over time, will be viewed as massively influential in this era of upheaval. But who are they? And what are their stories? What unlikely places do they come from? Rothkopf is determined to uncover those on the cusp of scientific research, giving never-before-heard, world-changing ideas their debut platform. These are the debates that are happening right now, those that are poised to produce incredible breakthroughs in the coming years, but are yet to be publicly revealed. And with a wide-range of areas covered, including education, health and money, there is sure to be something compelling and relevant for everyone.
The Great Questions of Tomorrow: The Ideas That Will Remake The World (TED Books)
by David RothkopfA unique tour around the world in search of the great thinkers of our time and their next big ideas.We are on the cusp of a sweeping revolution—one that will change every facet of our lives. The changes ahead will challenge and alter fundamental concepts such as national identity, human rights, money, and markets. In this pivotal, complicated moment, what are the great questions we need to ask to navigate our way forward? David Rothkopf believes in the power of questions. When sweeping changes have occurred in history—the religious awakenings of the Reformation; the scientific advances of the Age of Exploration; the technological developments of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution—they have brought with them, not just new knowledge, but provoked great questions about how we must live. With the world at the threshold of profound change, Rothkopf seeks the important questions of our time—ones that will remake the world and our understanding of it. From the foundational questions: "Why do we live within a society?" and "What is war?" to modern concerns such as "Is access to the internet a basic human right?" The Great Questions of Tomorrow confronts our approach to the future and forces us to reimagine fundamental aspects of our lives—identity, economics, technology, government, war, and peace.
The Great Rebellion of 1857 in India: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities (Routledge Studies in South Asian History)
by Biswamoy PatiThe Great Rebellion of 1857 in India was much more than a ‘sepoy mutiny’. It was a major event in South Asian and British colonial history that significantly challenged imperialism in India. This fascinating collection explores hitherto ignored diversities of the Great Rebellion such as gender and colonial fiction, courtesans, white ‘marginals’, penal laws and colonial anxieties about the Mughals, even in exile. Also studied are popular struggles involving tribals and outcastes, and the way outcastes in the south of India locate the Rebellion. Interdisciplinary in focus and based on a range of untapped source materials and rare, printed tracts, this book questions conventional wisdom. The comprehensive introduction traces the different historiographical approaches to the Great Rebellion, including the imperialist, nationalist, marxist and subaltern scholarship. While questioning typical assumptions associated with the Great Rebellion, it argues that the Rebellion neither began nor ended in 1857-58. Clearly informed by the ‘Subaltern Studies’ scholarship, this book is post-subalternist as it moves far beyond narrow subalternist concerns. It will be of interest to students of Colonial and South Asian History, Social History, Cultural and Political Studies.
The Great Reset: And the War for the World
by Alex JonesIn The Great Reset: And the War for the World, the most controversial man on earth Alex Jones gives you a full analysis of The Great Reset, the global elite's international conspiracy to enslave humanity and all life on the planet. If you really want to know what&’s happening in the world, this is the one book you must read now. Alex Jones is the most censored man on the planet and you should ask yourself why that is. There is a powerful authoritarian takeover in process that is seeking to capture the entire human system and turn it into an artificial factory farm controlled system. We are in a war for the future of the world. In this book, you will hear from the world&’s elites, from their own mouths, what they are planning for you and your families and you will learn what you can do to fight it.From central bankers, corporate billionaires, and corrupted government officials, global elites have been organizing a historic war on humanity under a trans-humanist, scientific dictatorship. Alex Jones was the first major figure to expose the World Economic Forum&’s agenda. He has dedicated the last 30 years of his life to studying The Great Reset, conducting tens of thousands of interviews with top-level scientists, politicians, and military officials in order to reverse engineer their secrets and help awaken humanity. The Great Reset: And the War for the World chronicles the history of the global elites' rise to power and reveals how they&’ve captured the governments of the world and financed The Great Reset to pave the way for The New World Order. Once dubbed a conspiracy theory, but now openly promoted by the most powerful corporations and governments, The Great Reset is a planned attempt to redistribute all the world&’s wealth and power into the hands of banks, corporations, billionaires, and The World Economic Forum. If you read one book in a lifetime, this is it. In The Great Reset: And the War for the World, you will discover from the self-appointed controllers of the planet in their own words, their plan for what they call the final revolution, or The Great Reset. The only way this corporate fascist conspiracy can succeed is if the people of the world are not aware of it. And this book lays out their sinister blueprint and how to stop it. While many great books have been written to help awaken people to this sinister agenda, no author has ever spent as much time and research on The Great Reset as Alex Jones. The Great Reset: And the War for the World is the undisputed trailblazer for understanding what&’s happening and how to stop it.
The Great Seljuqs: A History (Routledge Studies in the History of Iran and Turkey)
by Osman Aziz BasanThis book provides a broad history of the Seljuq Turks from their origins and early conquests in the 10th century, through the rise of empire, until its dissolution at the end of the 12th. Where the history of the Seljuqs is usually studied in the context of medieval Persian, Arabic or Islamic history, this book considers the topic from the perspective of Turkish history. Examining the corpus of academic work on the period and how Turkish historiography has interpreted and understood the Seljuqs, the author demonstrates how the Great Seljuq Empire can be considered not only in a historical context, but as the instigator of Turko-Islamic civilization. Rejecting traditional Turkish scholarship, which places Iranian culture and Islam as the civilising elements in the Great Seljuq Empire, the author shows how the nature of nomadic pastoral empires have come under fresh scrutiny, reassessing Seljuq history and the framework within which it has been treated. This book provides a unique insight into the adoption to an urban environment of Turkic expectations that were forged on the Eurasian steppes, showing how the outcome put its stamp on the second millennium throughout the Middle East and Balkans. It will be an important addition to the literature on Medieval Islamic, Turkish and Middle Eastern history.
The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
by Hunter S. ThompsonThe first volume in Hunter S. Thompson&’s bestselling Gonzo Papers offers brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, featuring a new introduction from award-winning author and editor John Jeremiah Sullivan.Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the bestselling &“Gonzo Papers&” is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson&’s largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style. Ranging in date from the National Observer days to the era of Rolling Stone, The Great Shark Hunt offers myriad, highly charged entries, including the first Hunter S. Thompson piece to be dubbed &“gonzo&”—&“The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,&” which appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in 1970. From this essay, a new journalistic movement sprang which would change the shape of American letters. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful &‘60s and &‘70s.
The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age
by Juliet NicolsonThis account of British life in the wake of World War I is &“social history at its very best . . . insightful and utterly absorbing&” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). As the euphoria of Armistice Day in 1918 quickly subsided, there was no denying the carnage that the Great War had left in its wake. Grief and shock overwhelmed the psyche of the British people—but from their despair, new life would slowly emerge. For veterans with faces demolished in the trenches, surgeon Harold Gillies brings hope with his miraculous skin-grafting procedure. Women win the vote, skirt hems leap, and Brits forget their troubles at packed dance halls. And two years later, the remains of a nameless combatant would be laid to rest in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Westminster Abbey, as &“The Great Silence,&” observed in memory of the countless dead, halted citizens in silent reverence. This history of two transformative years in the life of a nation features countless characters, from an aging butler to a pair of newlyweds, from the Prince of Wales to T. E. Lawrence, the real-life Lawrence of Arabia. The Great Silence depicts a nation fighting the forces that threaten to tear it apart and discovering the common bonds that hold it together. &“A pearl of anecdotal history, The Great Silence is a satisfying companion to major studies of World War I and its aftermath . . . as Nicolson proceeds through the familiar stages of grief—denial, anger and acceptance—she gives you a deeper understanding of not only this brief period, but also how war&’s sacrifices don&’t end after the fighting stops.&” —The Seattle Times &“It may make you cry.&” —The Boston Globe
The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism
by Julie Roy JeffreyBy focusing on male leaders of the abolitionist movement, historians have often overlooked the great grassroots army of women who also fought to eliminate slavery. Here, Julie Roy Jeffrey explores the involvement of ordinary women--black and white--in the most significant reform movement prior to the Civil War. She offers a complex and compelling portrait of antebellum women's activism, tracing its changing contours over time. For more than three decades, women raised money, carried petitions, created propaganda, sponsored lecture series, circulated newspapers, supported third-party movements, became public lecturers, and assisted fugitive slaves. Indeed, Jeffrey says, theirs was the day-to-day work that helped to keep abolitionism alive. Drawing from letters, diaries, and institutional records, she uses the words of ordinary women to illuminate the meaning of abolitionism in their lives, the rewards and challenges that their commitment provided, and the anguished personal and public steps that abolitionism sometimes demanded they take. Whatever their position on women's rights, argues Jeffrey, their abolitionist activism was a radical step--one that challenged the political and social status quo as well as conventional gender norms.
The Great Sioux Nation: Sitting in Judgment on America
by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz&“If the moral issues raised by the Sioux people in the federal courtroom that cold month of December 1974 spark a recognition among the readers of a common destiny of humanity over and above the rules and regulations, the codes and statutes, and the power of the establishment to enforce its will, then the sacrifice of the Sioux people will not have been in vain.&”—Vine Deloria Jr.The Great Sioux Nation: Sitting in Judgment on America is the story of the Sioux Nation&’s fight to regain its land and sovereignty, highlighting the events of 1973–74, including the protest at Wounded Knee. It features pieces by some of the most prominent scholars and Indian activists of the twentieth century, including Vine Deloria Jr., Simon Ortiz, Dennis Banks, Father Peter J. Powell, Russell Means, Raymond DeMallie, and Henry Crow Dog. It also features primary documents and firsthand accounts of the activists&’ work and of the trial.New to this Bison Books edition is a foreword by Philip J. Deloria and an introduction by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz.
The Great Sioux Uprising
by C. M. OehlerIn August 1862 the Sioux of Minnesota rose up against their white neighbors in the bloodiest massacre in the history of the West, with four times the fatalities of the Battle of Little Big Horn. The Sioux had been viewed by white settlers as a friendly tribe, but in reality they were deeply resentful over the loss of lands, the disappearance of the buffalo, broken treaties, the government's delayed annuity payments, and the refusal of traders to release food to starving Indians. During their week-long rampage the Sioux killed some 800 settlers, took scores of women and children captive, sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing eastward, and marked the outbreak of a series of wars between whites and Indians over the Great Plains that did not end until nearly thirty years later at a place called Wounded Knee. This book is a gripping but even-handed reconstruction of the lives and deaths of settlers, Indians, traders, agents, and soldiers as they unknowingly created an epic chapter of frontier history.
The Great Smog of China: A Short Event History of Air Pollution (Asia Shorts)
by Anna L. Ahlers Mette Halskov Hansen Rune SvarverudThe Great Smog of China traces Chinese air pollution events dating back to more than 2,000 years ago. Based on the authors’ fieldwork, interviews and text studies, the book offers a short and concise history of selected air pollution incidents that for varying reasons prompted different kinds of responses and forms of engagement in Chinese society. The three authors, from the disciplines of anthropology, China studies and political science, identify traceable incidents of smog and air pollution that have been communicated in different media and came to impact society in various ways. This also informs a discussion of what it takes to transform people’s experiences of health and environmentally related risks of pollution into broader forms of socio-political agency.
The Great Social Laboratory
by Omnia El ShakryEl Shakry (history, U. of California at Davis) provides an account of the engagement of the Egyptian nationalist intellegentsia with European social thought in the late-19th and 20th century. She argues that, in contrast to colonial social-scientific projects that took "natives" as passive objects of observation and embedded them within a racially hierarchical and Euro-centric discourse of civilizational progress, the nationalist elite constructed the collective national subject as unique and educable, both perceived as preconditions for the Egyptian national project. Their social science projects were linked to the land through geography and agriculture and to labor through human geography and demography and were focused on promoting the social welfare of the demographic masses, with "social welfare" meaning the promotion of particularly desired social relations in order to ensure the successful reproduction of labor power and to minimize class antagonisms. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet
by Nell McShane WulfhartThe empowering true story of a group of spirited stewardesses who &“stood up to huge corporations and won, creating momentous change for all working women.&” (Gloria Steinem, co-founder of Ms. magazine)It was the Golden Age of Travel, and everyone wanted in. As flying boomed in the 1960s, women from across the United States applied for jobs as stewardesses. They were drawn to the promise of glamorous jet-setting, the chance to see the world, and an alternative to traditional occupations like homemaking, nursing, and teaching. But as the number of &“stews&” grew, so did their suspicion that the job was not as picture-perfect as the ads would have them believe. &“Sky girls&” had to adhere to strict weight limits at all times; gain a few extra pounds and they&’d be suspended from work. They couldn&’t marry or have children; their makeup, hair, and teeth had to be just so. Girdles were mandatory while stewardesses were on the clock. And, most important, stewardesses had to resign at 32. Eventually the stewardesses began to push back and it&’s thanks to their trailblazing efforts in part that working women have gotten closer to workplace equality today. Nell McShane Wulfhart crafts a rousing narrative of female empowerment, the paradigm-shifting &’60s and &’70s, the labor movement, and the cadre of gutsy women who fought for their rights—and won.
The Great Stink of Paris and the Nineteenth-Century Struggle against Filth and Germs
by David S. BarnesThe scientific and social history surrounding the 1880 incident of a foul odor in Paris and the development of public health culture that followed.Late in the summer of 1880, a wave of odors enveloped large portions of Paris. As the stench lingered, outraged residents feared that the foul air would breed an epidemic. Fifteen years later—when the City of Light was in the grips of another Great Stink—the public conversation about health and disease had changed dramatically. Parisians held their noses and protested, but this time few feared that the odors would spread disease.Historian David S. Barnes examines the birth of a new microbe-centered science of public health during the 1880s and 1890s, when the germ theory of disease burst into public consciousness. Tracing a series of developments in French science, medicine, politics, and culture, Barnes reveals how the science and practice of public health changed during the heyday of the Bacteriological Revolution.Despite its many innovations, however, the new science of germs did not entirely sweep away the older “sanitarian” view of public health. The longstanding conviction that disease could be traced to filthy people, places, and substances remained strong, even as it was translated into the language of bacteriology. Ultimately, the attitudes of physicians and the French public were shaped by political struggles between republicans and the clergy, by aggressive efforts to educate and “civilize” the peasantry, and by long-term shifts in the public’s ability to tolerate the odor of bodily substances.“A well-developed study in medically related social history, it tells an intriguing tale and prompts us to ask how our own cultural contexts affect our views and actions regarding environmental and infectious scourges here and now.” —New England Journal of Medicine“Both a captivating story and a sophisticated historical study. Kudos to Barnes for this valuable and insightful book that both physicians and historians will enjoy.” —Journal of the American Medical Association
The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists
by Khaled Abou El Fadl“Those looking for an understanding of the Muslim world and its relationship to the West . . . will find this book invaluable” (Dallas Morning News).The Great Theft is an impassioned defense of Islam against the encroaching power of extremists. Khaled Abou El Fadl, one of the world’s preeminent Islamic scholars and an accomplished Islamic jurist, roots his arguments in long-standing historical legal debates, delineating point by point beliefs and practices of moderate Muslims and distinguishing these texts from the corrupting influences of extremists. From the role of women in Islam to the nature of jihad, and from democracy and human rights to terrorism and warfare, Abou El Fadl builds a vital vision for a moderate Islam. At long last, all who oppose extremism have a desperately needed voice to help reclaim Islam’s great moral tradition.
The Great Train Robbery: The Untold Story from the Closed Investigation Files
by Andrew CookThe Great Train Robbery of 1963 is one of the most infamous crimes in British history. The bulk of the money stolen (equivalent to over £40 million today) has never been recovered, and there has not been a single year since 1963 when one aspect of the crime or its participants has not been featured in the media. Despite the wealth and extent of this coverage, a host of questions have remained unanswered: Who was behind the robbery? Was it an inside job? And who got away with the crime of the century? Fifty years of selective falsehood and fantasy has obscured the reality of the story behind the robbery. The fact that a considerable number of the original investigation and prosecution files on those involved and alleged to have been involved were closed, in many cases until 2045, has only served to muddy the waters still further. Now, through Freedom of Information requests and the exclusive opening of many of these files, Andrew Cook reveals a new picture of the crime and its investigation that, at last, provides answers to many of these questions.
The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)
by S J.A.A. StockwinIn the 1980s the performance of Japan’s economy was an international success story, and led many economists to suggest that the 1990s would be a Japanese decade. Today, however, the dominant view is that Japan is inescapably on a downward slope. Rather than focusing on the evolution of the performance of Japanese capitalism, this book reflects on the changes that it has experienced over the past 30 years, and presents a comprehensive analysis of the great transformation of Japanese capitalism from the heights of the 1980s, through the lost decades of the 1990s, and well into the 21st century. This book posits an alternative analysis of the Japanese economic trajectory since the early 1980s, and argues that whereas policies inspired by neo-liberalism have been presented as a solution to the Japanese crisis, these policies have in fact been one of the causes of the problems that Japan has faced over the past 30 years. Crucially, this book seeks to understand the institutional and organisational changes that have characterised Japanese capitalism since the 1980s, and to highlight in comparative perspective, with reference to the ‘neo-liberal moment’, the nature of the transformation of Japanese capitalism. Indeed, the arguments presented in this book go well beyond Japan itself, and examine the diversity of capitalism, notably in continental Europe, which has experienced problems that in many ways are also comparable to those of Japan. The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism will appeal to students and scholars of both Japanese politics and economics, as well as those interested in comparative political economy.