Collection: Politics

A renowned journalist for London's The Times and the author of People Who Eat Darkness, Richard Lloyd Parry delivers the definitive account of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, and the stories of the survivors.

Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Guardian, NPR, GQ, The Economist, Bookforum, and LitHub

On March 11, 2011, a powerful earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of northeast Japan. By the time the sea retreated, more than eighteen thousand people had been crushed, burned to death, or drowned.

It was Japan's greatest single loss of life since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It set off a national crisis and the meltdown of Fukushima's nuclearpower plant. And even after the immediate emergency had abated, the trauma of the disaster continued to express itself in bizarre and mysterious ways.

Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, lived through the earthquake in Tokyo and spent six years reporting from the disaster zone. There he encountered stories of ghosts and hauntings, and met a priest who exorcised the spirits of the dead. And he found himself drawn back again and again to a village that had suffered the greatest loss of all, a community tormented by unbearable mysteries of its own.

Ghosts of the Tsunami is an intimate and timeless account of an epic tragedy, told through the stories of those who lived through it. It tells of how a nation faced a catastrophe, and its struggle to find consolation in the ruins.

Women working in the sciences face obstacles at virtually every step along their career paths. From subtle slights to blatant biases, deep systemic problems block women from advancing or push them out of science and technology entirely.

Women in Science Now examines solutions to this persistent gender gap, offering new perspectives on how to make science more equitable and inclusive for all. This book shares stories and insights of women from a range of backgrounds working in various disciplines, illustrating the journeys that brought them to the sciences, the challenges they faced along the way, and the important contributions they have made to their fields. Lisa M. P. Munoz combines these narratives with a wealth of data to illuminate the size and scope of the challenges women scientists face, while highlighting research-based solutions to help overcome these obstacles. She presents groundbreaking studies in social psychology and organizational behavior that are informing novel approaches for combating historic and ongoing inequities.

Through a combined focus on personal experiences and social-science research, this timely book provides both a path toward greater gender equity and an inspiring vision of science and scientists.

Though the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1788, its impact on our lives is as recent as today's news. Claims and counterclaims about the constitutionality of governmental actions are a habit of American politics. This document, which its framers designed to limit power, often has made political conflict inevitable. It also has accommodated and legitimized the political and social changes of a vibrant, powerful democratic nation. A product of history's first modern revolution, the Constitution embraced a new formula for government: it restrained power on behalf of liberty, but it also granted power to promote and protect liberty.

The U.S. Constitution: A Very Short Introduction explores the major themes that have shaped American constitutional history: federalism, the balance of powers, property, representation, equality, rights, and security. Informed by the latest scholarship, this book places constitutional history within the context of American political and social history. As our nation's circumstances have changed, so has our Constitution.

Today we face serious challenges to the nation's constitutional legacy. Endless wars, a sharply divided electorate, economic inequality, and immigration, along with a host of other issues, have placed demands on government and on society that test our constitutional values. Understanding how the Constitution has evolved will help us adapt its principles to the challenges of our age.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A powerful collection of the most essential speeches from famed social activist and key civil rights figure Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This companion volume to A Knock At Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. includes the text of his most well-known oration, "I Have a Dream", his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, and Beyond Vietnam, a powerful plea to end the ongoing conflict. Includes contributions from Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, the Dalai Lama, and many others.

The second edition of Skills and Techniques for Human Service Professionals: Counseling Environment, Helping Skills, Treatment Issues provides readers with valuable information about how the counseling environment impacts the helping relationship, ways of delivering critical helping skills, and the necessity of understanding important treatment issues when working with clients and consumers.

Section I focuses on the counseling environment. Whereas Chapter 1 highlights eight important characteristics of the effective helper, Chapter 2 examines how the client experiences the agency when first entering it. This chapter focuses on such things as agency atmosphere, physical space, and nonverbal behaviors of the helper.

In Section II, chapters move from the most basic foundational skills to more advanced skills and specialized training. Coverage includes honoring and respecting the client, being curious, delimiting power and developing an equal relationship, non-pathologizing, listening, reflections, paraphrasing, and basic empathy. Readers also learn about affirmation giving, encouragement, and support; offering alternatives; information and advice giving; modeling; self-disclosure; collaboration; advocacy; information gathering and solution-focused questions; advanced empathy; confrontation; assessing for suicidality and homicidality; crisis, disaster, and trauma helping; token economies; positive helping; and coaching.

Section III focuses on important treatment issues in human services including case management, culturally competent counseling, guidelines for working with diverse populations, and ethical decision-making when working with all clients.

Dr. Edward Neukrug is a professor of counseling and human services at Old Dominion University. A licensed professional counselor and licensed psychologist, he has experience in outpatient therapy, crisis counseling, substance abuse counseling, couples and family counseling, private practice, and as a school counselor. Dr. Neukrug is a nationally known author, presenter, and researcher. He was granted ACA Fellow status by the American Counseling Association in 2019. Dr. Neukrug is the author of eleven books: The Dictionary of Counseling and Human Services; Skills and Techniques for Human Service Professionals; Counseling Theory and Practice (2nd ed.); The World of the Counselor (5th ed.); Experiencing the World of the Counselor: A Workbook for Counselor Educators and Students (4th ed.); Theory, Practice and Trends in Human Services: An Introduction to An Emerging Profession (6th ed.); Essentials of Testing and Assessment for Counselors, Social Workers, and Psychologists (3rd ed.); A Brief Orientation to Counseling: Professional Identity, History, and Standards (2nd ed.); Skills and Tools for Today's Counselors and Psychotherapists; Counseling and Helping Skills: Critical Techniques for Becoming a Counselor; and Sage Encyclopedia of Theory in Counseling and Psychotherapy (editor).

How do policy and politics influence the social conditions that generate health outcomes?

Reduced life expectancy, worsening health outcomes, health inequity, and declining health care options--these are now realities for most Americans. However, in a country of more than 325 million people, addressing everyone's issues is challenging. How can we effect beneficial change for everyone so we all can thrive? What is the great equalizer?

In this book, Daniel E. Dawes argues that political determinants of health create the social drivers--including poor environmental conditions, inadequate transportation, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of healthy food options--that affect all other dynamics of health. By understanding these determinants, their origins, and their impact on the equitable distribution of opportunities and resources, we will be better equipped to develop and implement actionable solutions to close the health gap.

Dawes draws on his firsthand experience helping to shape major federal policies, including the Affordable Care Act, to describe the history of efforts to address the political determinants that have resulted in health inequities. Taking us further upstream to the underlying source of the causes of inequities, Dawes examines the political decisions that lead to our social conditions, makes the social determinants of health more accessible, and provides a playbook for how we can address them effectively. A thought-provoking and evocative account that considers both the policies we think of as "health policy" and those that we don't, The Political Determinants of Health provides a novel, multidisciplinary framework for addressing the systemic barriers preventing the United States from becoming the healthiest nation in the world.

"The most damning critique of Hillbilly Elegy."―The New York Review of Books

"A spiky polemic."--Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker

In recent years and in countless ways, Appalachia has been portrayed as ground zero for America's "forgotten tribe" of white, working-class people--in short, it's "Trump Country." And during the Trump Era, demystifying the region to explain its roots of dysfunction became a national industry, made most popular by J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy. But these assessments have only given us a skewed portrait of a region that is actually marked by racial diversity, a storied labor history, and people who fall on all sides of the political spectrum. In What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Elizabeth Catte offers her clear-eyed and uncompromising assessment of America's historical tendency to stereotype Appalachia's people and problems. It's a frank and ferocious insider's perspective that will complicate and illuminate your ideas about one of America's most misunderstood regions.

From award-winning Palestinian author Ibtisam Barakat comes a touching account of coming of age against a backdrop of political turmoil in the Middle East.

Picking up where Ibtisam Barakat's first memoir, Tasting the Sky, left off, Balcony on the Moon follows her through her childhood and adolescence in Palestine from 1972-1981 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War.

This memoir about pursuing dreams in the face of adversity chronicles Ibitsam's desire to be a writer and shows how she finds inspiration through writing letters to pen pals and from an adult who encourages her to keep at it. But the most surprising turn of all for Ibtisam happens when her mother decides that she would like to seek out an education, too.

Enlightening and at times funny, Balcony on the Moon is a not often depicted look at daily life in a politically tumultuous region.

A Margaret Ferguson Book

Praise for Balcony on the Moon:

"This is a compelling personal history, brimming with humor, wisdom, and empathy." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"This intense memoir paints a dark picture of growing up in Israeli-occupied Palestine, where 'we are made to live with no land, no country, no rights, no safety, and no respect for our dignity.' . . . A poetic, deeply felt coming-of-age story." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"[A] memoir and winner of the Arab American Book Award, Barakat moves beyond her early school years during the Six-Day War and its uprooting aftermath. She focuses on the years 1971-81, when she--a feisty protofeminist--and her family shifted about in the occupied West Bank, trying to find a place that felt safe and like home. . . The beauty of the writing is its clear-eyed matter-of-fact-ness." --Booklist

"Highly recommended for upper middle school and high school libraries." --School Library Journal

2020 American Book Award winner, Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award
Weatherford Award winner, nonfiction

With hundreds of thousands of copies sold, a Ron Howard movie in the works, and the rise of its author as a media personality, J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis has defined Appalachia for much of the nation. What about Hillbilly Elegy accounts for this explosion of interest during this period of political turmoil? Why have its ideas raised so much controversy? And how can debates about the book catalyze new, more inclusive political agendas for the region's future?

Appalachian Reckoning is a retort, at turns rigorous, critical, angry, and hopeful, to the long shadow Hillbilly Elegy has cast over the region and its imagining. But it also moves beyond Hillbilly Elegy to allow Appalachians from varied backgrounds to tell their own diverse and complex stories through an imaginative blend of scholarship, prose, poetry, and photography. The essays and creative work collected in Appalachian Reckoning provide a deeply personal portrait of a place that is at once culturally rich and economically distressed, unique and typically American. Complicating simplistic visions that associate the region almost exclusively with death and decay, Appalachian Reckoning makes clear Appalachia's intellectual vitality, spiritual richness, and progressive possibilities.

In this Tenth Anniversary Edition of The Life You Can Save, Peter Singer brings his landmark book up to date. In addition to restating his compelling arguments about how we should respond to extreme poverty, he examines the progress we are making and recounts how the first edition transformed the lives both of readers and the people they helped. Learn how you can be part of the solution, doing good for others while adding fulfillment to your own life.

Welcome to the Stupidpocalypse--where common sense has become the rarest element on Earth and rage is all the rage.

Think of this collection of short comedic essays on politics, life, and more as a field guide for life.

Social media darling Brittlestar brings readers a book of essays similar to his online presence. In these essays, he provides a "voice of reason" by approaching some of the folly and absurdity in the world of social media and politics--not to mention the just plain dumbness of humanity--with a dose of common sense and modern reasoning.

Celebrate Black History Month with The Story Of Series!

Discover the life of Martin Luther King Jr.--a story about standing up for civil rights for kids ages 6 to 9

Martin Luther King Jr. became one of the most important civil rights leaders in America by fighting for equality for Black people. Before he made history with his powerful speeches and peaceful protests, Martin was a dedicated, smart kid who loved to learn. He challenged racism and overcame hardships to follow his passion and do the right thing. Explore how Martin went from being a kid with a dream to an outstanding leader who made America a better place for everyone.

• Independent reading--This Martin Luther King Jr. biography is broken down into short chapters and simple language so kids 6 to 9 can read and learn on their own.
• Critical thinking--Kids will learn the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of Martin's life, find definitions of new words, discussion questions, and more.
• A lasting legacy--Find out how Martin made the world a more equal place for future generations in this African American history book for kids.

How will Martin Luther King Jr.'s life inspire you?

Discover activists, artists, athletes, and more from across history with the rest of The Story Of series, including famous figures like Ella Fitzgerald, Simone Biles, Sojourner Truth, Barack Obama, and John Lewis.

This striking edition contains the foundational document of the United State's governance.

This durable and portable book will help you navigate the latest conversations about the supreme law of the land. With a sleek and dignified design, its features make it the perfect keepsake: