The real story behind El Salvador's MS-13 gang and how they have perpetuated three generations of conflict and led to scores of migrants seeking a new life in the United States.
"A decade after The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns, journalist Sasha Issenberg again goes behind the scenes of political campaigns. This time, the most urgent research and strategizing are being conducted on how to deal with disinformation"--
"A permanent class of political consultants has emerged, replacing the ward-heeling party hacks of yesteryear with teams of pollsters, message gurus, and field operatives. Taken together, all this amounts to a silent revolution that has transformed politics across much of the globe"--
"Since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, some one million Russians have fled the country and gone into exile. Motivated by opposition to the war, by guilt for their country's deeds, by personal hatred for the Czar-like Putin, and by a vision of a better Russia, shorn of autocracy, the exiles have mounted an organized resistance to Putin's rule. The resistance includes followers of the imprisoned Putin opponent Alexi Navalny, dissident Russian Orthodox priests, and journalists feeding Russians back home the kind of coverage that Kremlin-controlled media censors. Most aggressively, some exiles are actively aiding the Ukrainian fight against Russia's armed forces in hopes of hastening Russia's defeat and Putin's demise"--
Why are the airlines always in a crisis?Everyone has a horror story about air travel-cancellations, delays, lost baggage, tiny seats, poor service. In this day and age, there is no reason that flying should be this bad. In Why Flying Is Miserable, Ganesh Sitaraman, a law professor and policy expert, explains how this happened: It was a conscious choice made by Washington in the 1970s to roll back many forms of regulation that began during the New Deal, in the name of unimpeded capitalism and more competition. Today, the industry is an oligopoly, with only four too-big-to-fail airlines that have received billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts and still can't offer reliable service. Miserable air travel is the perfect symbol of the type of unregulated capitalism that America has unleashed. But there are ways to fix airlines-and, by extension, many other sectors of industry-because, after a half-century run, people are sick and tired of the turbulence that deregulation has brought to our economy.
The forces behind an economic and political crisis in the makingA "problem of twelve" arises when a small number of institutions acquire the means to exert outsized influence over the politics and economy of a nation. The Big Four index funds of Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity, and BlackRock control more than twenty percent of the votes of S&P 500 companies-a concentration of power that's unprecedented in America. Then there's the rise of private equity funds such as the Big Four of Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR, which has amassed $2.7 trillion of assets, and are eroding the legitimacy and accountability of American capitalism, not by controlling public companies, but by taking them over entirely, and removing them from public discourse and public scrutiny. This quiet accumulation in the last few decades represents a dramatic transformation in how the American economy operates-a sea change that few of us have noticed and all of us need to consider. Harvard law professor John Coates forcefully calls our attention to what is sure to be one of the major political and economic issues of our time.
If you can't join them, beat them. Marigold Cartwell has only one goal: to defeat her long-time rival on the archery field. She knows she can outshoot irritating, cynical Tristan Gates, but the local bowmen's society-the one he belongs to-refuses to allow women to compete. Spurred on by their rejection, Marigold decides to start a new society. Naturally, it has only one rule: no men. Tristan Gates is used to Marigold Cartwell always getting her way, so he is far from surprised when she forms her own society. He knows how relentless she can be, something he learned firsthand facing her at the targets. But Tristan has enough worries of his own, what with his bachelor uncle falling in love with a fortune hunter. He has no time to entertain Marigold's ambitions. However, after a visit to the seashore ends in disaster-and scandal-Marigold and Tristan soon realize how little they know about each other. The strained tension between them quickly turns to simmering attraction, but an important archery competition looms ahead. Lines are drawn all around them, with Marigold and Tristan on opposite sides, and neither can afford to lose. Yet winning might be the very thing to tear them apart. Book one in The Cartwells series, A Game of Hearts is a sweet and clean Regency romance.
What can hip-hop tell us about Egypt today?A decade ago, millions of Egyptians took to the streets in a people-led revolution that captivated the world's attention and sent ripples across the Middle East. But the so-called "Arab Spring" quickly faded, and a return to the status quo-of authoritarian rule-was cemented. What happened to the energy and desire for change?In Egypt, the answer lies in its youth, who comprise the bulk of the country's fast-growing 106 million citizens. Sixty percent of the population is under the age of twenty-five, and their world views are very much influenced by social media: TikTok is their primary language and medium of choice. Music is their means of expression-in particular, a thriving hip-hop scene known as mahraganat. This music has given voice to deep dissatisfaction with the Egyptian state and the overall conditions of Egyptian society and culture. Could this be the start of a force for change? Laughter in the Dark is a riveting portrait of a country that is being transformed, for good or bad, by the rise of a fresh youth culture.
"A new generation of travelers are eager to see innovation that will alleviate their guilt about flying, and they want to know where the industry is, how seriously they're taking climate change, and what the future looks like. This is the story of the search for a way to fly green"--
What will a conservative Supreme Court do with its power? From 2011, when Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives, until the present, Congress enacted hardly any major legislation outside of the tax law President Trump signed in 2017. In the same period, the Supreme Court dismantled much of America's campaign finance law, severely weakened the Voting Rights Act, permitted states to opt-out of the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, weakened laws protecting against age discimination and sexual and racial harassment, and held that every state must permit same-sex couples to marry. This powerful unelected body, now controlled by six very conservative Republicans, has and will become the locus of policymaking in the United States.Ian Millhiser, Vox's Supreme Court correspondent, tells the story of what those six justices are likely to do with their power. It is true that the right to abortion is in its final days, as is affirmative action. But Millhiser shows that it is in the most arcane decisions that the Court will fundamentally reshape America, transforming it into something far less democratic, by attacking voting rights, dismantling and vetoing the federal administrative state, ignoring the separation of church and state, and putting corporations above the law. The Agenda exposes a radically altered Supreme Court whose powers extend far beyond transforming any individual right¿its agenda is to shape the very nature of America's government, redefining who gets to have legal rights, who is beyond the reach of the law, and who chooses the people who make our laws. "Ian Millhiser offers a perfect short read for a key moment in U.S. constitutional history." ¿The Guardian"A cogent, timely warning about the fragility of American democracy." ¿Kirkus Reviews
"From Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural communes to academic philosophy departments, a seemingly inconceivable idea is being seriously discussed: that the end of humanity's reign on earth is imminent, and that we should welcome it"--
Most Americans think their right to give or withhold medical consent is protected by law. However, Harriet Washington, an acclaimed science writer and ethicist, shows that medical studies are often carried on without the patients' consent, particularly among African American communities and other ethnic groups. This is an especially urgent concern as the world races to find treatments and vaccines for Covid-19.
What happens inside our prisons?Whats Prison For? examines the incarceration part of mass incarceration. What happens inside prisons and jails, where nearly two million Americans are held? Bill Keller, one of Americas most accomplished journalists, has spent years immersed in the subject. He argues that the most important role of prisons is preparing incarcerated people to be good neighbors and good citizens when they return to society, as the overwhelming majority will.Keller takes us inside the walls of our prisons, where we meet men and women who have found purpose while in state custody; American corrections officials who have set out to learn from Europes state-of-the-art prison campuses; a rehab unit within a Pennsylvania prison, dubbed Little Scandinavia, where lifers serve as mentors; a college behind bars in San Quentin; a womens prison that helps imprisoned mothers bond with their children; and Kellers own classroom at Sing Sing.Surprising in its optimism, Whats Prison For? is an indispensable guide on how to improve our prison system, and a powerful argument that the status quo is a shameful waste of human potential.
Why some of the most interesting artists of our time committed themselves to some of the most devastating conflicts on EarthWhy are some of the most interesting artists of our time committed to engaging with conflict and exploitation around the world? Beautiful, Gruesome, and True tells the stories of three of them: Amar Kanwar makes riveting films about the destruction of rural India in the drive to extract natural resources. Teresa Margolles creates haunting installations from the traces of crime scenes and drug-related violence in Mexico. The anonymous collective Abounaddara has produced more than four hundred short films chronicling the uprising and civil war in Syria. Drawing on years of research and extensive reporting, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie vividly recounts how a group of political artists found ways to produce remarkable works of art that demand deliberate and methodical ways of thinkingworks that are contemplative, thoughtful, even redemptive.A gifted critic and a compelling journalist, Wilson-Goldie offers many important insights into the challenges these artists face in their confrontation with authority, repressive regimes, death, and violence. The story she tells could not be more timely.Glenn D. Lowry, David Rockefeller Director, Museum of Modern Art
Do the Fed’s efforts to stabilize the economy worsen inequality?The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, was built for a monetary system composed primarily of investor-owned, government-chartered banks. But over the years, the erosion of banking law and the rise of alternative forms of money created outside of the banking system have pushed the Fed to take on more and more responsibilities to keep the economy out of recession, as it did during the 2008 crisis, and again during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it created $3 trillion to stop another financial panic.Legal scholar and former Treasury official Lev Menand explains how the Fed did this, and argues that it is time to cure the disease that has plagued the American economy for decades, and not just rely on the Fed to treat its symptoms. The Fed Unbound is an urgent appeal to Congress to reform the U.S. economic and financial infrastructure.
How censorship turned a terrible disease into an assault on rightsAs COVID-19 spread around the world, so did government censorship. The Infodemic lays bare not just old-fashioned censorship, but also the mechanisms of a modern brand of âcensorship through noise,â? which moves beyond traditional means of state controlâ¿such as the jailing of critics and restricting the flow of informationâ¿to open the floodgates of misinformation, overwhelming the public with lies and half-truths. Joel Simon and Robert Mahoney, who have traveled the world for many years defending press freedom and journalistsâ¿ rights as the directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists, chart the onslaught of COVID censorship beginning in China, through Iran, Russia, India, Egypt, Brazil, and inside the Trump White House. Increased surveillance in the name of public health, the collapse of public trust in institutions, and the demise of local news reporting all contributed to help governments hijack the flow of information and usurp power. Full of vivid characters and behind the scenes accounts, The Infodemic shows how under the cover of a global pandemic, governments have undermined freedom and taken controlâ¿this new political order may be the legacy of the disease.
This book is for readers who want to understand what it's like to live in China todayWalsh explores a whole world of literature that has exploded in China over the last 20 yearsProvides a comprehensive introduction to Chinese online fiction, which has become the largest publishing platform in the world
A celebrated revolution brought freedom to a group of enslaved people in northern India. Or did it?Millions of people today are still enslaved; nearly eight million of them live in India, more than anywhere else. This book is the story of a small group of enslaved villagers in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh who founded their own town of Azad NagarFreedomvilleafter staging a rebellion against their slaveholders. International organizations championed it as a non-violent silent revolution that inspired other villagers to fight for their own freedom. But Laura T. Murphy, a leading scholar of contemporary global slavery who spent years researching and teaching about Freedomville, found that there was something troubling about Azad Nagar's success.Murphy embarks on a Rashomon-like retellinga complex, constantly changing narrative of a murder that captures better than any sanitized account just why it is that slavery continues to exist in the twenty-first century. Freedomville's enormous struggle to gain and maintain liberty shows us how realistic it is to expect radical change without violent protestand how a global construction boom is deepening and broadening the alienation of impoverished people around the world.
A one-volume history of the most consequential political movements of our timepopulism, nationalism, socialismand how they are influencing the twenty-first centuryThe distinguished political analyst John Judis has brought out a book with Columbia Global Reports during each of the last three national political seasons: The Populist Explosion in 2016, The Nationalist Revival in 2018, and The Socialist Awakening in 2020. Together, these books chart the rise during the second decade of the twenty-first century of new and unexpected political movements in the United States and Europe that arose in the wake of the Great Recession, the conflict with al-Qaeda and ISIS, and encroaching climate change.Judis has revised and updated these three books, and written a new introductory essay that seeks to explain the tumultuous last decademost notably, Donald Trump's presidency and the response to a global pandemic and recession. This volume is an indispensable guide to understanding the deeply rooted disenchantment that gave rise to populist parties and politicians on the right and leftand to the global changes that have transformed the politics of our time.Essential reading. E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post
Local journalism is on the verge of extinction and this is bad for democracy. This book explains why.
Follows the money to reveal how Saudi Arabia has spread their particular brand of ultraconservative Islam beyond the Middle East.
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