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Author: Christopher McKnight Nichols
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2011-08-11
Total Pages: 463
ISBN-13: 0674061187
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSpreading democracy abroad or protecting business at home: this book offers a new look at the history of the contest between isolationalism and internationalism that is as current as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and as old as America itself, with profiles of the people, policies, and events that shaped the debate.
Author: Francesca Trivellato
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2021-06-08
Total Pages: 424
ISBN-13: 0691217386
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHow an antisemitic legend gave voice to widespread fears surrounding the expansion of private credit in Western capitalism The Promise and Peril of Credit takes an incisive look at pivotal episodes in the West’s centuries-long struggle to define the place of private finance in the social and political order. It does so through the lens of a persistent legend about Jews and money that reflected the anxieties surrounding the rise of impersonal credit markets. By the close of the Middle Ages, new and sophisticated credit instruments made it easier for European merchants to move funds across the globe. Bills of exchange were by far the most arcane of these financial innovations. Intangible and written in a cryptic language, they fueled world trade but also lured naive investors into risky businesses. Francesca Trivellato recounts how the invention of these abstruse credit contracts was falsely attributed to Jews, and how this story gave voice to deep-seated fears about the unseen perils of the new paper economy. She locates the legend’s earliest version in a seventeenth-century handbook on maritime law and traces its legacy all the way to the work of the founders of modern social theory—from Marx to Weber and Sombart. Deftly weaving together economic, legal, social, cultural, and intellectual history, Trivellato vividly describes how Christian writers drew on the story to define and redefine what constituted the proper boundaries of credit in a modern world increasingly dominated by finance.
Author: Wai-yee Li
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2022-05-17
Total Pages: 213
ISBN-13: 0231553897
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWinner, 2023 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Our relationship with things abounds with paradoxes. People assign value to objects in ways that are often deeply personal or idiosyncratic yet at the same time rooted in specific cultural and historical contexts. How do things become meaningful? How do our connections with the world of things define us? In Ming and Qing China, inquiry into things and their contradictions flourished, and its depth and complexity belie the notion that material culture simply reflects status anxiety or class conflict. Wai-yee Li traces notions of the pleasures and dangers of things in the literature and thought of late imperial China. She explores how aesthetic claims and political power intersect, probes the objective and subjective dimensions of value, and questions what determines authenticity and aesthetic appeal. Li considers core oppositions—people and things, elegance and vulgarity, real and fake, lost and found—to tease out the ambiguities of material culture. With examples spanning the late sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries, she shows how relations with things can both encode and resist social change, political crisis, and personal loss. The Promise and Peril of Things reconsiders major works such as The Plum in the Golden Vase, The Story of the Stone, Li Yu’s writings, and Wu Weiye’s poetry and drama, as well as a host of less familiar texts. It offers new insights into Ming and Qing literary and aesthetic sensibilities, as well as the intersections of material culture with literature, intellectual history, and art history.
Author: Aaron Wherry
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-08-20
Total Pages: 447
ISBN-13: 1443458287
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn inside, in-depth look at the leadership of Justin Trudeau, by a veteran political journalist A must-read for all Canadians before the next federal election Justin Trudeau came to power on the promise of “hope and hard work” and a pledge to seek a common good for all Canadians. From the outset, his critics called him naive, inexperienced and a danger to the economy. His proponents have touted his intentions for the middle class, the environment and refugees, which they argue have moved forward real change despite challenges and criticism. Veteran political journalist Aaron Wherry has extensively interviewed decision-makers, influencers and political insiders, from the prime minister’s closest advisors to cabinet ministers to the prime minister himself, to provide the most in-depth, inside examination—beyond the headlines and the tweets—of how Justin Trudeau has performed on his promises for Canada. Promise and Peril: Justin Trudeau in Power explores how the Trudeau government has succeeded or failed in its biggest commitments—resource development, immigration, climate change, trade, reconciliation—against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, global political tumult and the roar of populist revolt. It reveals what was happening behind the scenes during the government’s most crucial and public moments, including: · the NAFTA negotiations · the infamous Trump tweets at the G7 summit · that island vacation · the SNC-Lavalin affair Promise and Peril is a must-read for all voters before the next election. It examines whether a politician who came to office with immense potential has measured up to expectations—and what is at stake for Canada’s future at home and abroad.
Author: J. Martin Rochester
Publisher: CQ Press
Published: 2011-11-08
Total Pages: 385
ISBN-13: 1483301613
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this concise introduction to international law, students gain a clear appreciation for how politics shapes the development of international law, and how international law shapes political relations between states. Throughout the book, Rochester takes this complex subject and makes it accessible with his vibrant, easy-to-read prose.
Author: Linda L. McCabe
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2008-03-04
Total Pages: 357
ISBN-13: 0520933931
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe genetic revolution has provided incredibly valuable information about our DNA, information that can be used to benefit and inform—but also to judge, discriminate, and abuse. An essential reference for living in today's world, this book gives the background information critical to understanding how genetics is now affecting our everyday lives. Written in clear, lively language, it gives a comprehensive view of exciting recent discoveries and explores the ethical, legal, and social issues that have arisen with each new development.
Author: Brad Smith
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2019-09-10
Total Pages: 370
ISBN-13: 1984877712
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe instant New York Times bestseller. From Microsoft's president and one of the tech industry's broadest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates. “A colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how technology is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.” —Walter Isaacson Microsoft President Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: When your technology changes the world, you bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create. This might seem uncontroversial, but it flies in the face of a tech sector long obsessed with rapid growth and sometimes on disruption as an end in itself. While sweeping digital transformation holds great promise, we have reached an inflection point. The world has turned information technology into both a powerful tool and a formidable weapon, and new approaches are needed to manage an era defined by even more powerful inventions like artificial intelligence. Companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the future, and governments will need to regulate technology by moving faster and catching up with the pace of innovation. In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne bring us a captivating narrative from the cockpit of one of the world's largest and most powerful tech companies as it finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These are challenges that come with no preexisting playbook, including privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of artificial intelligence, big tech's relationship to inequality, and the challenges for democracy, far and near. While in no way a self-glorifying "Microsoft memoir," the book pulls back the curtain remarkably wide onto some of the company's most crucial recent decision points as it strives to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats it also presents. There are huge ramifications for communities and countries, and Brad Smith provides a thoughtful and urgent contribution to that effort.
Author: Vikram Rao
Publisher: RTI Press
Published: 2015-08-09
Total Pages: 184
ISBN-13: 1934831077
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Promise and the Peril
Author: Christopher H. Foreman
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Published: 1998
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780815728788
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAre we environmentally victimizing, perhaps even poisoning, our minority and low-income citizens? Proponents of environmental justice assert that environmental decisionmaking pays insufficient heed to the interests of those citizens, disproportionately burdens their neighborhoods with hazardous toxins, and perpetuates an insidious environmental racism. In this critique of environmental justice advocacy, Foreman argues that it has cleared significant political hurdles but displays substantial limitations and drawbacks. Activism has yielded a presidential executive order, management reforms at the Environmental Protection Agency, and numerous local political victories. Yet the environmental justice movement is structurally and ideologically unable to generate a focused policy agenda. Ironically, environmental justice advocacy may also threaten the very constituencies it aspires to serve distracting attention from the many significant health hazards challenging minority and disadvantaged populations. Foreman recommends specific institutional reforms intended to recast the national dialogue about the stakes of these populations in environmental protection.
Author: Ashley Dawson
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 2017-10-17
Total Pages: 385
ISBN-13: 1784780375
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA cutting exploration of how cities drive climate change while being on the frontlines of the coming climate crisis How will climate change affect our lives? Where will its impacts be most deeply felt? Are we doing enough to protect ourselves from the coming chaos? In Extreme Cities, Ashley Dawson argues that cities are ground zero for climate change, contributing the lion’s share of carbon to the atmosphere, while also lying on the frontlines of rising sea levels. Today, the majority of the world’s megacities are located in coastal zones, yet few of them are adequately prepared for the floods that will increasingly menace their shores. Instead, most continue to develop luxury waterfront condos for the elite and industrial facilities for corporations. These not only intensify carbon emissions, but also place coastal residents at greater risk when water levels rise. In Extreme Cities, Dawson offers an alarming portrait of the future of our cities, describing the efforts of Staten Island, New York, and Shishmareff, Alaska residents to relocate; Holland’s models for defending against the seas; and the development of New York City before and after Hurricane Sandy. Our best hope lies not with fortified sea walls, he argues. Rather, it lies with urban movements already fighting to remake our cities in a more just and equitable way. As much a harrowing study as a call to arms Extreme Cities is a necessary read for anyone concerned with the threat of global warming, and of the cities of the world.
