Politics

Critical look at the new wave of right-wing populist movements that are using religion to mobilise people

This extended essay by one of the world's leading historians seeks, in its first part, to excavate and to vindicate, the neo-Roman theory of free citizens and free states as it developed in early modern Britain. This analysis leads on to a powerful defence of the nature, purposes and goals of intellectual history and the history of ideas. As Quentin Skinner says, 'the intellectual historian can help us to appreciate how far the values embodied in our present way of life, and our present ways of thinking about those values, reflect a series of choices made at different times between different possible worlds'. This essay provides one of the most substantial statements yet made about the importance, relevance and potential excitement of this form of historical enquiry. Liberty before Liberalism is based on Quentin Skinner's Inaugural Lecture as Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge, delivered in 1997.

"Nye is a master of his field at the height of his powers."--Washington Post

Hailed as "the most dramatic and comprehensive account" of the early years of Russian capitalism New York Times Book Review

Billionaire Warren Buffet, currently the third wealthiest man in the world, paid the lowest rate of tax among his office staff, including his receptionist. Tax havens are the most important single reason why poor people and poor countries stay poor. The author shows how this happened, and what this means for you.

A brilliantly illuminating and darkly comic tale of the ongoing financial and political crisis in America. The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn't past but prologue. The grifter class-made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding-has been growing in power, and the crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they've hijacked America's political and economic life.Matt Taibbi has combined deep sources, trailblazing reportage, and provocative analysis to create the most lucid, emotionally galvanizing account yet written of this ongoing American crisis. He offers fresh reporting on the backroom deals of the bailout; tells the story of Goldman Sachs, the "vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity"; and uncovers the hidden commodities bubble that transferred billions of dollars to Wall Street while creating food shortages around the world.This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the labyrinthine inner workings of this country, and the profound consequences for us all.

Mexico making a bid for global supremacy? Poland becoming America's closest ally? World War III taking place in space? It might sound fantastic but all these things can happen. This title offers a readable forecast of the changes we can expect around the world during the 21st century. It predicts where and why future wars will erupt.

The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science are the essential guide to the state of political science today. With engaging contributions from major international scholars The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology provides the key point of reference for anyone working throughout the discipline.

This Oxford Handbook assembles the world's leading scholars in International Relations to present diverse perspectives about purposes, questions, theories, and methods. It will become the first point of reference for scholars and students interested in these key issues.

Alan Sokal, best-known for his role in the 'Sokal Hoax', here turns his attention to a new set of targets - pseudo-science, religion, and misinformation in public life. He argues that clear thinking, combined with a respect for evidence, are of the utmost importance to the survival of the human race in the twenty-first century.

This volume presents five of Cicero's most famous defence speeches: of Roscius, accused of murder; of Murena, accused of bribery; of Archias, on a citizenship charge; of Caelius, accused of violence; and of Milo, accused of murdering Cicero's hated enemy Clodius. These new translations achieve new standards of accuracy and introductions and notes guide the reader through the speeches.

Following the enormous success of HITLER: HUBRIS this book triumphantly completes one of the great modern biographies. No figure in twentieth century history more clearly demands a close biographical understanding than Adolf Hitler; and no period is more important than the Second World War. Beginning with Hitler's startling European successes in the aftermath of the Rhinelland occupation and ending nine years later with the suicide in the Berlin bunker, Kershaw allows us as never before to understand the motivation and the impact of this bizarre misfit. He addresses the crucial questions about the unique nature of Nazi radicalism, about the Holocaust and about the poisoned European world that allowed Hitler to operate so effectively.

'Frances Stonor Saunders has almost single-handedly started off a branch of sub-history; the cultural cold war. Who Paid The Piper? is an extraordinarily good book and I do recommend it to anyone who's remotely interested in the period'- Ian McEwan author of Sweet Tooth

Faced with cancer and financial ruin, the Civil War's greatest general and former president, Ulysses S Grant wrote his personal memoirs to secure his family's future. In doing so, he won himself a unique place in American letters. This title deals with his life as a soldier.

Here is a pioneering account of everyday life under Stalin, written by one of the foremost authorities on modern Russian history. Focusing on urban areas, the book is an eye-opening account of day-to-day life in the blighted urban landscape of 1930's Russia

In what remains after more than a century the greatest study of American political life, Tocqueville describes American society and accounts for its nature and its conflicts in an historical analysis of the nation's origins among different parties of European settlers.

Guerin is a prolific writer whose '30's work on fascism is something of a Marxist classic. This emphatically pro-anarchist essay fails to define key polemical terms like "the state": it lacks the informality, and philosophical sensitivity of first-rate French political writing. Noam Chomsky's introduction echoes the view of anarchism as a "libertarian" brand of socialism. Guerin's thematic presentation of nineteenth-century anarchist theory expounds and abundantly excerpts from Proudhon and Bakunin, with ancillary reference to Kropotkin, Stirner, et al. The section on "practice" portrays the Bolsheviks as evil dictators and the Russian anarchists as unsung heroes of 1917, glances at the Italian left of Gramsci's day, and deals richly deserved blows to Stalinist policy in the Spanish Civil War without pursuing the significance of the Spanish anarchists' vacillation between anti-political purity and political opportunism. Guerin concludes with a call for unadulterated postrevolutionary workers' control, quite indifferent to the question of how or why to make a revolution. The habit of "forcing history" which Sartre noted in Guerin's work is here, but not enough of the "enriching" quality, especially with respect to the social roots of anarchism. Yet the subject has enough intrinsic and topical importance to draw a political-intellectual audience. (Kirkus Reviews)

This volume contains astrological and historical data relating to the formation of countries and governments.

Noam Chomsky's backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control begins by asserting two models of democracy-one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled. According to Chomsky, "propaganda is to democracy as the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state," and the mass media is the primary vehicle for delivering propaganda in the United States. From an examination of how Woodrow Wilson's Creel Commission "succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population," to Bush Sr.'s war on Iraq, Chomsky examines how the mass media and public relations industries have been used as propaganda to generate public support for going to war. Chomsky further touches on how the modern public relations industry has been influenced by Walter Lippmann's theory of "spectator democracy," in which the public is seen as a "bewildered herd" that needs to be directed, not empowered; and how the public relations industry in the United States focuses on "controlling the public mind," and not on informing it. Media Control is an invaluable primer on the secret workings of disinformation in democratic societies.

We are experiencing a clash between two competing visions of the world. Examining geopolitics as a struggle between global powers over these different visions, Bruno Maçães argues that this struggle is likely to be determined more by technological dominance than control of physical territory.

KIM JONG FUN: Party Hard the North Korean Way is a political parody that pretends to be written by none other than the North Korean leader and promises to lead all LOYAL COMRADES to PUT THE 'PARTY' IN 'WORKERS' PARTY OF KOREA'!

A sweeping yet penetrating collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky, exploring the most pressing global concerns of our time.In these illuminating interviews conductedby C.J. Polychroniou, Noam Chomsky yet again shares his brilliant insights on an array of struggles and challenges facing humanity. A Livable Future Is Possible addresses artificial intelligence and the potential for such programs to surpass humans in cognitive awareness; what lies ahead for a world engulfed in a deadly climate crisis; the rise of neo-fascism internationally, and why we should organize across borders to confront it; the striking similarities between Trump and Biden's foreign policies; and a number of other critical issues gripping the planet.Noam Chomsky has been an incomparable model of moral clarity and intellectual courage during his many decades as a scholar and critic. He is the most cited living scholar. One would be hard-pressed to find a more influential voice than Chomsky's in the West. A Livable Future Is Possible is not only an urgent and informative resource, it is a call-to-action for those hoping to help carry the torch of one of history's greatest minds.

Palestine is a microcosm of the world: wretched, raging, fraught, and fragmented. On fire. Stubborn. Ineligible. Dignified. The lens we lend the Palestinian reveals how we see each other; how we see everything else. The world continues to witness perverse violence unfolding on our screens; broken limbs, homes and futures permeate our dreams. In this context of numbing horror, Mohammed El-Kurd writes a defiant elegy, an ode to the indelible existence of his nation, to the Palestinian condition of resistance and refusal.With lyrical precision, El-Kurd dissects ‘humanization’ as a deeply misguided tactic of the marginalized, revealing the perplexing logic at its heart: the desire to make humans out of humans. Rather than shrinking the scope of Palestinian humanity to victimhood, El-Kurd demands that friends and foes look Palestinians in the eye, forgoing condemnation and deference. Instead, solidarity with Palestine requires recognizing it as a universal cause, irreverently mocking the delusions of its oppressors, and building movements rooted in dignity.Perfect Victims plunges into the depths of heartbreak to sculpt language for the brutality of genocide, resurfacing as a steady, inextinguishable flame.

The Book That Launched MAGA Nation The media scoffed at Trump’s vision and the people who supported him; they were blinded by the Clinton machine. But their eyes were opened after Trump won sixty-two million votes and the Oval Office in 2016. Even Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said, “Donald Trump heard a voice in this country that no one else heard.” He still does. Donald Trump puts “America’s interests first—and that means doing what’s right for our economy, our national security, and our public safety.” He made the biggest deals of his life as President of the United States, but there are more deals to be made. From ending the border crisis to enacting policies to eliminate regulations that restrict small businesses, Donald Trump understands that America “doesn’t need cowardice, it needs courage.” It is Time to Get Tough

This book spells out a new framework for humanitarian aid in the long emergency of climate change. Looking ahead to the massive needs of the late 2020s and the 2030s, Hugo Slim shows how current ethics and action in the sector are necessary, but not sufficient, for the new moral and operational challenges of our planetary crisis. Humanitarianism 2.0 offers a series of practical ethical pathways for aid workers and organisations to reimagine and redesign their purpose in the increasing number of climate-related disasters around the world. Slim expands the fundamental principle of humanity to include the protection of nature in humanitarian ethics, and also faces up to the hard challenge of impartiality and prioritisation in a universal emergency. He then recognises anticipation, adaptation, mitigation and locally led aid as humanitarian obligations in climate-related disasters. Like everything else in the climate and nature crisis, humanitarian ethics need adaptation. Slim's bold, smart and much-needed proposals show the way.