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An honest confrontation of systemic racism in faculty hiring-and what to do about itWhile colleges and universities have been lauded for increasing student diversity, these same institutions have failed to achieve any comparable diversity among their faculty. In 2017, of the nation's full-time, tenure-track and tenured faculty, only 3 percent each were Black men, Black women, Hispanic men, and Hispanic women. Only 6 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander men, 5 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander women, and 1 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native. Why are the numbers so abysmal? In Doing the Right Thing, Marybeth Gasman takes a hard, insightful look at the issues surrounding the recruitment and hiring of faculty of color. Relying on national data and interviews with provosts, deans, and department chairs from sixty major universities, Gasman documents the institutional forces stymieing faculty diversification, and she makes the case for how such deficiencies can and should be rectified.Even as institutions publicly champion inclusive excellence and the number of doctoral students of color increases, Gasman reveals the entrenched constraints contributing to the faculty status quo. Impediments to progress include the alleged trade-off between quality and diversity, the power of pedigree, the rigidity of academic pipelines, failures of administrative leadership, lack of accountability among administration and faculty, and the opacity and arbitrariness of the recruitment and hiring process. Gasman contends that leaders must acknowledge institutional failures of inclusion, pervasive systemic racism, and biases that restrict people of color from pursuing faculty careers.Recognizing that individuals from all backgrounds are essential to the creation and teaching of knowledge, Doing the Right Thing puts forth a concrete call for colleges and universities to take action and do better.
A comprehensive and illuminating account of the history of credit in America-and how it continues to divide the haves from the have-notsThe Economy of Promises is a far-reaching study of credit in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Synthesizing and surveying economic and social history, Bruce Carruthers examines how issues of trust stitch together the modern U.S. economy. In the case of credit, that trust involves a commitment by debtors to repay money they have borrowed from lenders. Each promise poses a fundamental question: why does the lender trust the borrower?The book tracks the dramatic shift from personal qualitative judgments to the impersonal quantitative measurements of credit scores and ratings, which make lending on a much greater scale possible. It discusses how lending is shaped by the shadow of failure, and the possibility that borrowers will break their promises and fail to repay their debts. It reveals how credit markets have been shaped by public policy, regulatory changes, and various political factors. And, crucially, it explains how credit interacts with economic inequality, contributing to vast and enduring racial and gender differences-which are only exacerbated by the widespread use of credit scores and ratings for "big data" and algorithmic decision-making.Bringing to life the complicated and abstract terrain of human interaction we call the economy, The Economy of Promises is an important study of the tangle of indebtedness that, for better or worse, shapes and defines American lives.
An original, unified reconstruction of Mill's moral and political philosophy-one that finally reveals its consistency and full powerFew thinkers have been as influential as John Stuart Mill, whose philosophy has arguably defined Utilitarian ethics and modern liberalism. But fewer still have been subject to as much criticism for perceived ambiguities and inconsistencies. In Completely Free, John Peter DiIulio offers an ambitious and comprehensive new reading that explains how Mill's ethical, moral, and political ideas are all part of a unified, coherent, and powerful philosophy.Almost every aspect of Mill's practical philosophy has been charged with contradictions, illogic, or incoherence. Most notoriously, Mill claims an absolute commitment both to promoting societal happiness and to defending individual liberty-a commitment that many critics believe must ultimately devolve into an either/or. DiIulio resolves these and other problems by reconsidering and reconstructing the key components of Mill's practical thought: his theories of happiness, morality, liberty, and freedom. Casting new light on old texts, DiIulio argues that Mill's Utilitarianism and liberalism are not only compatible but philosophically wedded, that his theories naturally emanate from one another, and that the vast majority of interpretive mysteries surrounding Mill can be readily demystified. In a manner at once sympathetic and critical, DiIulio seeks to present Mill in his most lucid and potent form.From the higher pleasures and moral impartiality to free speech and nondomination, Completely Free provides an unmatched account of the unity and power of Mill's enduring moral and political thought.
"In this book Meir Bar-Asher shines light on the deeply ambivalent views toward Jews and Judaism in the Qur'an and in post-Qur'anic Islamic writing. On the one hand, these texts clearly recognize the Jews as a people chosen by God - a "people of the Book" deserving of respect and communal protection for their contribution. On the other hand, an undeniably darker view is also on offer and is found, for example, in passages that accuse Jews of falsifying their own Torah to suppress all pronouncements of the advent of Muhammad, the final Prophet whose message is the culmination of the good news brought by all the prophets from Moses to Jesus. Bar-Asher's view is that one must concede the existence of such polemical anti-Jewish passages while keeping in mind that they do not constitute the final word of the Qur'an or Islam on the Jews. Bar-Asher argues that passages concerning Jews and Judaism in the Qur'an need to be examined alongside the post-Qur'anic Islamic literature rather than read in isolation. His book thus concerns not only Islam's holy scripture but also Hadith, the authoritative oral tradition of sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, along with other Islamic commentaries on Jews and Judaism. The book begins with a historical overview of the Jewish presence in the Arab peninsula before the time of Muhammad and covers what scholars have uncovered to date about the relationship between Muhammad, his followers, and the Jews of Medina in particular. Then the book turns to the Qur'an and the aforementioned post-Qur'anic traditional materials"--
Why some of Asia's authoritarian regimes have democratized as they have grown richer-and why others haven'tOver the past century, Asia has been transformed by rapid economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization-a spectacular record of development that has turned one of the world's poorest regions into one of its richest. Yet Asia's record of democratization has been much more uneven, despite the global correlation between development and democracy. Why have some Asian countries become more democratic as they have grown richer, while others-most notably China-haven't? In From Development to Democracy, Dan Slater and Joseph Wong offer a sweeping and original answer to this crucial question.Slater and Wong demonstrate that Asia defies the conventional expectation that authoritarian regimes concede democratization only as a last resort, during times of weakness. Instead, Asian dictators have pursued democratic reforms as a proactive strategy to revitalize their power from a position of strength. Of central importance is whether authoritarians are confident of victory and stability. In Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan these factors fostered democracy through strength, while democratic experiments in Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar were less successful and more reversible. At the same time, resistance to democratic reforms has proven intractable in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Reconsidering China's 1989 crackdown, Slater and Wong argue that it was the action of a regime too weak to concede, not too strong to fail, and they explain why China can allow democracy without inviting instability.The result is a comprehensive regional history that offers important new insights about when and how democratic transitions happen-and what the future of Asia might be.
One of today's most accomplished biologists and gifted storytellers reveals the rules that regulate all lifeHow does life work? How does nature produce the right numbers of zebras and lions on the African savanna, or fish in the ocean? How do our bodies produce the right numbers of cells in our organs and bloodstream? In The Serengeti Rules, award-winning biologist and author Sean Carroll tells the stories of the pioneering scientists who sought the answers to such simple yet profoundly important questions, and shows how their discoveries matter for our health and the health of the planet we depend upon.One of the most important revelations about the natural world is that everything is regulated—there are rules that regulate the amount of every molecule in our bodies and rules that govern the numbers of every animal and plant in the wild. And the most surprising revelation about the rules that regulate life at such different scales is that they are remarkably similar—there is a common underlying logic of life. Carroll recounts how our deep knowledge of the rules and logic of the human body has spurred the advent of revolutionary life-saving medicines, and makes the compelling case that it is now time to use the Serengeti Rules to heal our ailing planet.Bold and inspiring, The Serengeti Rules illuminates how life works at vastly different scales. Read it and you will never look at the world the same way again.
"An in-depth look at the ways in which an emboldened effort to ungovern threatens to undermine the effective working of the administrative state. In this book, political theorists Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead, aim to identify and name a growing effort to undermine the workings of effective government. They call this "ungoverning." It is an unfamiliar name for an unfamiliar phenomenon, but one which has become increasingly strident in recent years. It is a root and branch attack on the functions and legitimacy of the administrative state, that unloved element of modern government that is necessary for everything people expect a modern state to do. The administrative state consists of the vast array of government agencies that shape, implement, adjudicate, and enforce public policies of every kind. It encompasses all those who carry on the day-to day business of government: the ordinary and routine, the wars and emergencies, and even the most basic function of a democracy: the oversight of free and fair elections. Ungoverning is the effort to reverse, by various methods, the already highly developed capacity of state to provide for its citizenry. It is different from state failure because it is a path deliberately chosen by politicians and agency heads who have a specific aim in mind. Ungoverning in the U.S., went from thinly veiled policy to open warfare, during the Trump presidency. Although efforts to ungovern were underway before his term in office, Trump clarified ungoverning as no one else could by forming the first presidential administration that was anti-administration. Rosenblum and Muirehead point to the incapacitation of a range of agencies from the Departments of State and Justice to Housing and Urban Development. Ungoverning did not come out of nowhere. The President brought decades of cultivated hostility toward government to a crescendo. Prior to that, even though over its history hostility toward the administrative state was expressed by both the Left and Right, there had been nothing like errant destruction of government capacity. But this is not just a story of the Trump administration. The damage ungoverning has done and can do remains a grave threat. Despite the Biden's admistration's efforts, reversing the corrosive effects of ungoverning cannot happen at a stroke. The capacity of a public agency takes many years to build. Replacing demoralized civil servants can take decades. The retail consequences of disdain for governing endure: As hard to reverse, and perhaps most serious for democracies, is public belief that neither the ability nor the will to govern exists. Ungoverning is, the authors argues, part of the constellation of actions that make up illiberal, anti-democratic politics with the end result being democratic erosion"--
"The most authoritative account we have on the Shi'a of Iraq. . . . Nakash's book provides a powerful corrective to earlier books on Iraq which have been battered by recent events. No reader who goes through Nakash's work will fail to be moved by the historical vistas he opens up."--Fouad Ajami, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
A landmark history of early radio in Germany and the quest for broadcast fidelityWhen we turn on a radio or stream a playlist, we can usually recognize the instrument we hear, whether it's a cello, a guitar, or an operatic voice. Such fidelity was not always true of radio. Broadcasting Fidelity shows how the problem of broadcast fidelity pushed German scientists beyond the traditional bounds of their disciplines and led to the creation of one of the most important electronic instruments of the twentieth century. In the early days of radio, acoustical distortions made it hard for even the most discerning musical ears to differentiate instruments and voices. The physicists and engineers of interwar Germany, with the assistance of leading composers and musicians, tackled this daunting technical challenge. Research led to the invention in 1930 of the trautonium, an early electronic instrument capable of imitating the timbres of numerous acoustical instruments and generating novel sounds for many musical genres. Myles Jackson charts the broader political and artistic trajectories of this instrument, tracing how it was embraced by the Nazis and subsequently used to subvert Nazi aesthetics after the war and describing how Alfred Hitchcock commissioned a later version of the trautonium to provide the sounds of birds squawking and flapping their wings in his 1963 thriller The Birds. A splendid work of scholarship by an acclaimed historian of science, Broadcasting Fidelity reveals how the interplay of science, technology, politics, and culture gave rise to new aesthetic concepts, innovative musical genres, and the modern discipline of electroacoustics.
A spectacularly illustrated field guide to the amphibians and reptiles of California California is home to more than 200 species of reptiles and amphibians that can be found in an extraordinary array of habitats, from coastal temperate rainforests with giant redwoods to southeastern deserts offering dazzling wildflower displays each spring. California Amphibians and Reptiles covers every species and subspecies in this biodiverse region of the United States, with outstanding color photography and in-depth species accounts that draw on the latest findings on taxonomy and distribution. Setting a new standard for regional field guides, this state-of-the-art field guide will serve as the definitive reference for California's amphibian and reptile fauna for many years to come.Covers all 209 species of amphibians and reptiles found in CaliforniaFeatures hundreds of stunning photos that illustrate geographic and within-species variation as well as differences between males, females, and youngIncludes first-ever color images and species accounts for newly discovered speciesShows every species and subspecies in full color on a white backgroundDepicts all amphibian larvae in breathtaking color illustrationsDetailed species accounts describe key identification features, similar species, habitat, range and elevation, activity and behavior, diet, reproduction, and conservationProvides updated status of all threatened, endangered, nonnative, and special concern speciesAccurate range maps reflect contemporary and, where applicable, historical distributions in light of significant habitat loss across the stateAn invaluable resource for amateur naturalists, resource managers, and professional herpetologists
Class Dismissed reveals the entrenched inequities that harm our most vulnerable students and what colleges can do to help them excel Elite colleges are boasting unprecedented numbers with respect to diversity, with some schools admitting their first majority-minority classes. But when the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racial unrest gripped the world, schools scrambled to figure out what to do with the diversity they so fervently recruited. And disadvantaged students suffered. Class Dismissed exposes how woefully unprepared colleges were to support these students and shares their stories of how they were left to weather the storm alone and unprotected. Drawing on the firsthand experiences of students from all walks of life at elite colleges, Anthony Abraham Jack reveals the out-of-sight and unequal worlds students navigated before and during the pandemic closures and upon their return to campus. He shows how COVID-19 exacerbated the very inequalities that universities ignored or failed to address long before campus closures. Jack examines how students dealt with the disruptions caused by the pandemic, how they navigated social unrest, and how they grappled with problems of race both on campus and off. A provocative and much-needed book, Class Dismissed paints an intimate and unflinchingly candid portrait of the challenges of undergraduate life for disadvantaged students even in the elite schools that invest millions to diversify their student body. Moreover, Jack offers guidance on how to make students' path to graduation less treacherous--guidance colleges would be wise to follow.
How, over the course of five centuries, one particular god and one particular Christianity came to dominate late Roman imperial politics and piety The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity--or rather, of early Christianities--through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople. It is a story with a sprawling cast of characters: not only theologians, bishops, and emperors, but also gods and demons, angels and magicians, astrologers and ascetics, saints and heretics, aristocratic patrons and millenarian enthusiasts. All played their part in the development of what became and always remained an energetically diverse biblical religion. The New Testament, as we know it, represents only a small selection of the many gospels, letters, acts of apostles, and revelations that circulated before the establishment of the imperial church. It tells how the gospel passed from Jesus, to the apostles, thence to Paul. But by using our peripheral vision, by looking to noncanonical and paracanonical texts, by availing ourselves of information derived from papyri, inscriptions, and archaeology, we can see a different, richer, much less linear story emerging. Fredriksen brings together these many sources to reconstruct the lively interactions of pagans, Jews, and Christians, tracing the conversions of Christianity from an energetic form of Jewish messianism to an arm of the late Roman state.
In the summer of 1964, the turmoil of the civil rights movement reached its peak in Mississippi, with activists across the political spectrum claiming that God was on their side in the struggle over racial justice. This work takes us back to this place and time.
Ethnography and Virtual Worlds is the only book of its kind--a concise, comprehensive, and practical guide for students, teachers, designers, and scholars interested in using ethnographic methods to study online virtual worlds, including both game and nongame environments. Written by leading ethnographers of virtual worlds, and focusing on the key method of participant observation, the book provides invaluable advice, tips, guidelines, and principles to aid researchers through every stage of a project, from choosing an online fieldsite to writing and publishing the results. Provides practical and detailed techniques for ethnographic research customized to reflect the specific issues of online virtual worlds, both game and nongame Draws on research in a range of virtual worlds, including Everquest, Second Life, There.com, and World of Warcraft Provides suggestions for dealing with institutional review boards, human subjects protocols, and ethical issues Guides the reader through the full trajectory of ethnographic research, from research design to data collection, data analysis, and writing up and publishing research results Addresses myths and misunderstandings about ethnographic research, and argues for the scientific value of ethnography
A unified framework for understanding monetary policy, including recent unprecedented interventions by central banks Over the past two decades, monetary policy has been deployed in unprecedented ways, as central banks attempted to mitigate the adverse consequences of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 global lockdown, and recent inflationary surges. In Monetary Economics and Policy, Pierpaolo Benigno offers a new way to understand the potency and effectiveness of monetary policy, presenting a unified modeling framework to analyze policy challenges posed by both paper and digital currency systems. He investigates current theoretical and policy controversies, drawing connections with historical themes in monetary economics. Benigno examines how central banks control the value of their currency amid competition from cryptocurrencies and private money-like securities; discusses the desirability of inflation targeting for macroeconomic stabilization; and explores theoretical grounds for the unconventional monetary policies seen in the recent period of zero nominal interest rates, including forward guidance, quantitative and credit easing, and helicopter money. He accompanies his analysis with an innovative visual representation of the New Keynesian model and inflation-targeting policies. Benigno's novel framework also allows the study of monetary policy normalization through quantitative tightening toward what has become the "new normal." He discusses the optimal provision of liquidity and the different roles of the government and financial intermediaries. Finally, he recounts historical controversies regarding the inflation-unemployment trade-off to understand the 2020s inflationary surge and delves into the causes and dynamics of hyperinflations, tracing them to the subtle, ambiguous linkages between monetary and fiscal policy and weak balance-sheet conditions for the central bank.
Why leaders, not citizens, are the driving force in Europe's crisis of democracyA seeming explosion of support for right-wing populist parties has triggered widespread fears that liberal democracy is facing its worst crisis since the 1930s. Democracy Erodes from the Top reveals that the real crisis stems not from an increasingly populist public but from political leaders who exploit or mismanage the chronic vulnerabilities of democracy.In this provocative book, Larry Bartels dismantles the pervasive myth of a populist wave in contemporary European public opinion. While there has always been a substantial reservoir of populist sentiment, Europeans are no less trusting of their politicians and parliaments than they were two decades ago, no less enthusiastic about European integration, and no less satisfied with the workings of democracy. Anti-immigrant sentiment has waned. Electoral support for right-wing populist parties has increased only modestly, reflecting the idiosyncratic successes of populist entrepreneurs, the failures of mainstream parties, and media hype. Europe's most sobering examples of democratic backsliding-in Hungary and Poland-occurred not because voters wanted authoritarianism but because conventional conservative parties, once elected, seized opportunities to entrench themselves in power.By demonstrating the inadequacy of conventional bottom-up interpretations of Europe's political crisis, Democracy Erodes from the Top turns our understanding of democratic politics upside down.
How Robespierre's career and legacy embody the dangerous contradictions of democracyMaximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) is arguably the most controversial and contradictory figure of the French Revolution, inspiring passionate debate like no other protagonist of those dramatic and violent events. The fervor of those who defend Robespierre the "e;Incorruptible,"e; who championed the rights of the people, is met with revulsion by those who condemn him as the bloodthirsty tyrant who sent people to the guillotine. Marcel Gauchet argues that he was both, embodying the glorious achievement of liberty as well as the excesses that culminated in the Terror.In much the same way that 1789 and 1793 symbolize the two opposing faces of the French Revolution, Robespierre's contradictions were the contradictions of the revolution itself. Robespierre was its purest incarnation, neither the defender of liberty who fell victim to the corrupting influence of power nor the tyrant who betrayed the principles of the revolution. Gauchet shows how Robespierre's personal transition from opposition to governance was itself an expression of the tragedy inherent in a revolution whose own prophetic ideals were impossible to implement.This panoramic book tells the story of how the man most associated with the founding of modern French democracy was also the first tyrant of that democracy, and it offers vital lessons for all democracies about the perpetual danger of tyranny.
How campus communities of every kind can transform themselves from good to greatBecoming Great Universities highlights ten core challenges that all colleges and universities face and offers practical steps that everyone on campus-from presidents to first-year undergraduates-can take to enhance student life and learning.This incisive book, written in a friendly and engaging style, draws on conversations with presidents, deans, and staff at hundreds of campuses across the country as well as scores of in-depth interviews with students and faculty. Providing suggestions that all members of a campus community can implement, Richard Light and Allison Jegla cover topics such as how to build a culture of innovation on campus, how to improve learning outcomes through experimentation, how to help students from under-resourced high schools succeed in college, and how to attract students from rural areas who may not be considering colleges far from their communities. They offer concrete ways to facilitate constructive interactions among students from different backgrounds, create opportunities for lifelong learning and engagement, and inspire students to think globally. And most of the ideas presented in this book can be implemented at little to no cost.Featuring a wealth of evidence-based examples, Becoming Great Universities offers actionable suggestions for everyone to have a positive impact on college life regardless of whether their campus is urban or rural, private or public, large or small, wealthy or not.
The importance of collective behavior in early medieval EuropeBy the fifth and sixth centuries, the bread and circuses and triumphal processions of the Roman Empire had given way to a quieter world. And yet, as Shane Bobrycki argues, the influence and importance of the crowd did not disappear in early medieval Europe. In The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages, Bobrycki shows that although demographic change may have dispersed the urban multitudes of Greco-Roman civilization, collective behavior retained its social importance even when crowds were scarce. Most historians have seen early medieval Europe as a world without crowds. In fact, Bobrycki argues, early medieval European sources are full of crowds-although perhaps not the sort historians have trained themselves to look for. Harvests, markets, festivals, religious rites, and political assemblies were among the gatherings used to regulate resources and demonstrate legitimacy. Indeed, the refusal to assemble and other forms of "slantwise" assembly, became a weapon of the powerless. Bobrycki investigates what happened when demographic realities shifted, but culture, religion, and politics remained bound by the past. The history of crowds during the five hundred years between the age of circuses and the age of crusades, Bobrycki shows, tells an important story-one of systemic and scalar change in economic and social life and of reorganization in the world of ideas and norms.
An essential primer on impeachment for today's divided public squareWe are witnessing an unprecedented moment in American politics in which impeachments are increasingly common. In today's partisan environment, it is more vital than ever that government officials, scholars, and ordinary citizens understand what an impeachment can reasonably be expected to accomplish. In this incisive and accessible book, Keith Whittington provides needed clarity on the constitutional power of impeachment, explaining why it exists and how it should be used to preserve American democracy. Drawing insights from American and British history, congressional practice, and the language of the Constitution itself, Whittington shows how impeachment is a tool for checking abuses of elective office and defending constitutional norms. While we have come to associate impeachment today with the presidency, it can be used to remedy gross misconduct in any of an array of officers of the federal government. Whittington cautions against abusing this immense and consequential power to settle political scores, demonstrating how it undermines the independence of the branches and makes Congress the seat of political power. Required reading for the informed citizen, The Impeachment Power argues that impeachment is ultimately a political instrument and gives us the perspective we need to recognize when an impeachment might be useful and when we are better served by looking for alternative ways to solve our political problems.
"The two world wars were undoubtedly two of the most catastrophic events in human history, not just for those who actually fought in them, but for untold millions of civilians. And even though the wars' superlativeness is unquestioned, our understanding of exactly how bad the civilian costs were is limited. Although the numbers are better for the two wars than for most earlier wars, gaps and uncertainties remain. States went to great lengths to record military casualties, but civilian fatalities often went uncounted, and figures were often deliberately obscured. In this book, renowned economic historian Cormac O Grada aims to set the record straight, establishing a figure for civilian fatalities that reveals much about the nature of modern war. The book builds on earlier estimates of casualties from a range of causes, some reliable, some approximate at best, and warns against spurious precision when approximations are impossible. For example, while the human toll of the Jewish Holocaust is generally agreed to have been about 6 million, the tolls of two other war genocides, those of the Armenian community in Turkey during World War I and of the European Roma community during World War II, cannot be determined with any precision. (Scholarly estimates of these range from 0.6 to 1.2 million, and from "at least 130,000" to "between 250,000 and 500,000.") During World War II Chinese civilians faced both a civil war and Japanese occupation, and no estimate of the resulting civilian deaths, which range from an implausibly low 2.5 million to 20 million, is reliable. The book shows that the single biggest cause of civilian deaths during the two wars were famines, some of which are familiar and well-documented, while others have attracted research only recently, and a few await systematic analysis. The book covers these as well as genocides, particularly the Jewish Holocaust, and deaths from aerial bombing, and shows how in each of these categories the numbers have been controversial and contested. Most of the book deals with death, but it contains accounts too of the tens of millions of displaced persons and refugees and forced labourers, of civilian trauma, and of sexual violence and other atrocities. In the end O Grada argues that the two world wars cost at least 45 to 50 million civilian lives, almost double the cost in military lives. Addressing the uncertainties and inaccuracies in civilian casualties, the book shows the failings of international law and gives a vital and harrowing understanding of the true cost of war"--
How social and intellectual changes undermine our justifications for the welfare state The welfare state has come under severe pressure internationally, partly for the well-known reasons of slowing economic growth and declining confidence in the public sector. According to the influential social theorist Pierre Rosanvallon, however, there is also a deeper and less familiar reason for the crisis of the welfare state. He shows here that a fundamental practical and philosophical justification for traditional welfare policies—that all citizens share equal risks—has been undermined by social and intellectual change. If we wish to achieve the goals of social solidarity and civic equality for which the welfare state was founded, Rosanvallon argues, we must radically rethink social programs.Rosanvallon begins by tracing the history of the welfare state and its founding premise that risks, especially the risks of illness and unemployment, are equally distributed and unpredictable. He shows that this idea has become untenable because of economic diversification and advances in statistical and risk analysis. It is truer than ever before—and far more susceptible to analysis—that some individuals will face much greater risks than others because of their jobs and lifestyle choices. Rosanvallon argues that social policies must be more narrowly targeted. And he draws on evidence from around the world, in particular France and the United States, to show that such programs as unemployment insurance and workfare could better reflect individual needs by, for example, making more explicit use of contracts between the providers and receivers of benefits. His arguments have broad implications for welfare programs everywhere and for our understanding of citizenship in modern democracies and economies.
A marvelously illustrated guide to the world’s mothsWith more than 160,000 named species, moths are a familiar sight to most of us, flickering around lights, pollinating wildflowers about meadows and gardens, and as unwelcome visitors to our woolens. They come in a variety of colors, from earthy greens and browns to gorgeous patterns of infinite variety, and range in size from enormous atlas moths to tiny leafmining moths. Moths of the World is an essential guide to this astonishing group of insects, highlighting their remarkable diversity, miraculous metamorphoses, marvelous caterpillars, and much more.Features hundreds of breathtaking color photos of moths from around the worldCovers anatomy, evolution, life cycle, behavior, ecology, and conservationProfiles species from every major family, showcasing their endless variety of sizes, colors, shapes, and fascinating life historiesDiscusses habitats, distribution, and hostplant associationsWritten by a world-renowned expert
"For the first time in one volume, the most elegant and accessible translation of Dante's enduring masterpieceCharles Singleton's English-language translation of The Divine Comedy is widely considered to be one of the finest renderings of Dante's great masterpiece. Singleton's prose is both faithful and scholarly, and sensitive to the subtle nuances of meaning and richness of reference in Dante's epic poem. Here for the first time is the single-volume edition of Singleton's celebrated translation.This beautifully illustrated book brings together all three volumes of Dante's poem, describing his travels down to the circles of Hell, up over the mountain of Purgatory, and his ultimate ascension through the celestial spheres of Paradise. Dante's divine tour provides a timeless allegory for the journey of one's soul toward union with God.Featuring an incisive introduction by Simone Marchesi, a glossary, and stunning illustrations by acclaimed artist Roberto Abbiati, this handsome edition of The Divine Comedy introduces a new generation of readers to what is perhaps the preeminent achievement of Italian literature"--
The new path for economic development that India must create The whole world has a stake in India's future, and that future hinges on whether India can develop its economy and deliver for its population--now the world's largest--while staying democratic. India's economy has overtaken the United Kingdom's to become the fifth-largest in the world, but it is still only one-fifth the size of China's, and India's economic growth is too slow to provide jobs for millions of its ambitious youth. Blocking India's current path are intense global competition in low-skilled manufacturing, increasing protectionism and automation, and the country's majoritarian streak in politics. In Breaking the Mold, Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba show why and how India needs to blaze a new path if it's to succeed. India diverged long ago from the standard development model, the one followed by China--from agriculture to low-skilled manufacturing, then high-skilled manufacturing and, finally, services--by leapfrogging intermediate steps. India must not turn back now. Rajan and Lamba explain how India can accelerate growth by prioritizing human capital, expanding opportunities in high-skilled services, encouraging entrepreneurship, and strengthening rather than weakening its democratic traditions. It can chart a path based on ideas and creativity even at its early stage of development. Filled with vivid examples and written with incisive candor, Breaking the Mold shows how India can break free of the stumbling blocks of the past and embrace the enormous possibilities of the future.
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