How should we respond to the inhumanity that suffused the 20th Century and continues in the present one? Has there been an adequate treatment of this issue by the political left? Questions such as these are treated in this, the first scholarly book to combine academic and blogging approaches to some of the major political issues of the day.
A beautifully written introduction to the making, and message, of a book that was central to the foundation of the United States - the world's most powerful republic: 'Christopher Hitchens... at his characteristically incisive best.' (The Times)
Originally published in 1866, Civil Disobedience asks when - and in what circumstances - an individual should actively oppose government and its justice system. Thoreau's argument is that opposition is legitimate whenever government actions or institutions are unacceptable to an individual's conscience.
Exploring how the Enlightenment continues to operate as a guiding principle in Western politics, this title reveals how the pressing threats to free inquiry reside within the enlightened institutions of state and corporation. It demonstrates its importance to a democratic politics, rather than a political performance in which we remain spectators.
Musician and activist Bragg diagnoses the crisis of accountability in Western democracies in this new series of political pamphlets. He argues that accountability is the antidote to authoritarianism, and that without it, people can never truly be free.
In the 1980s, Brazil emerged from two decades of military dictatorship and embarked on a bold experiment in democracy. This book explores that tumultuous time.
In the twenty-first century, Britain faces new challenges from disruptive technology, an ever more competitive world and an ageing population. Structured around a radical manifesto for free enterprise, A Time for Choosing offers a significant contribution to the public debate about the future direction of Britain's government.
We now enjoy the highest living standard in history yet spend more of our income on pointless luxury. Instead, we should tax more in order to invest much more in societal needs, which will in turn reinvigorate the economy and reduce economic inequality and environmental degradation.
Takes the reader from the late nineteenth century to the aftermath of Abu Ghraib, from slavery and the electric chair to electrotorture in American inner cities, and from French and British colonial prison cells and the Spanish-American War to the fields of Vietnam, the wars of the Middle East, and the democracies of Latin America and Europe.
Originally a chapter in the "Handbook of Political Science", this analysis develops the fundamental destinction between totalitarian and authoritarian systems. It emphasizes the personalistic, lawless, non-ideological type of authoritarian rule the author calls the "sultanistic regime".
Transatlantic traumas surveys the landscape of external and internal threats to Western values and interests, including Russian and Islamist assaults on the West, illiberal radical right populist challenges, Turkey's undemocratic tendencies, Brexit and the Trump Tsunami. -- .
Sovereign nation states, which were formed in the context of major war, have been deeply exclusionary in their dealings with minority cultures and alien outsiders. In this book, Andrew Linklater claims that globalization, the pacification of core areas of the world economy and ethnic revolt challenge these traditional practices.
"A major and challenging work... Provocative, and certain to be controversial... Will add important new dimension to the continuing debate on the decline of liberalism." -William Julius Wilson, New York Times Book Review
From the multi-award-winning and million-copy bestselling author of This is Going to Hurt comes Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas, a brand new gift book that alternates between the hilarious and the heartbreaking, in a love letter to all those who spend their festive season on the front line.