Collection: Politics

A terrifying attack!

On December 7, 1941, Japanese war planes appeared out of nowhere to bomb the American base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. It was a highly secretive and devastating attack: four battleships sunk, more than two thousand servicemen died, and the United States was propelled into World War II. In a compelling, easy-to-read narrative, children will learn all about a pivotal moment in American history.

Named one of The Progressive magazine's Favorite Books of the Year

An inside look at the organizers and artists on the front lines of political mobilization and social change

"Ken [Grossinger] is one of the smartest strategists I know." --John Sweeney, AFL-CIO president, 1995-2009

An artist's mural of George Floyd becomes an emblem of a renewed movement for racial equality. A documentary film injects fuel into a popular mobilization to oust a Central American dictator. Freedom songs course through the American civil rights movement.

When artists and organizers combine forces, new forms of political mobilization follow--which shape lasting social change. And yet few people appreciate how much deliberate strategy often propels this vital social change work. Behind the scenes, artists, organizers, political activists, and philanthropists have worked together to hone powerful strategies for achieving the world we want and the world we need.

In Art Works, noted movement leader Ken Grossinger chronicles these efforts for the first time, distilling lessons and insights from grassroots leaders and luminaries such as Ai Weiwei, Courtland Cox, Jackson Browne, Shepard Fairey, Jane Fonda, Elizabeth Alexander, Bill McKibben, JR, Jose Antonio Vargas, and more. Drawing from historical and present-day examples--including Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, the Hip Hop Caucus, the Legacy Museum, and the Art for Justice Fund--Grossinger offers a rich tapestry of tactics and successes that speak directly to the challenges and needs of today's activists and of these political times.

A 2021 Sydney Taylor Notable Book

"The new manifesto for how we as queer people could and should navigate the world. It's the holding hand I never had--but wish I did."--Troye Sivan, Golden Globe nominated-singer, songwriter, and actor

"With the persistence of queerphobia all around the world, this book is absolutely necessary, even vital."--Édouard Louis, internationally bestselling author of History of Violence

"To Eli's credit, all of the rules are rooted in considerations of conscience and kindness and, if observed, will make a
better world--as will this book."--Booklist, starred review

"A must-read that highlights the importance of radical empathy, community building, and solidarity."--School Library Journal, starred review

In The New Queer Conscience, LGBTQIA+ activist Adam Eli argues the urgent need for queer responsibility -- that queers anywhere are responsible for queers everywhere.

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, The New Queer Conscience, Voices4 Founder and LGBTQIA+ activist Adam Eli offers a candid and compassionate introduction to queer responsibility. Eli calls on his Jewish faith to underline how kindness and support within the queer community can lead to a stronger global consciousness. More importantly, he reassures us that we're not alone. In fact, we never were. Because if you mess with one queer, you mess with us all.

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian: a searing study of the British Empire that probes the country's pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century and traces how these practices were exported, modified, and institutionalized in colonies around the globe

Sprawling across a quarter of the world's land mass and claiming nearly seven hundred million people, Britain's twentieth-century empire was the largest empire in human history. For many Britons, it epitomized their nation's cultural superiority. But what legacy did the island nation deliver to the world? Covering more than two hundred years of history, Caroline Elkins reveals an evolutionary and racialized doctrine that espoused an unrelenting deployment of violence to secure and preserve the nation's imperial interests. She outlines how ideological foundations of violence were rooted in the Victorian era calls for punishing recalcitrant "natives," and how over time, its forms became increasingly systematized. And she makes clear that when Britain could no longer maintain control over the violence it provoked and enacted, it retreated from empire, destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policies and practices.

Drawing on more than a decade of research on four continents, Legacy of Violence implicates all sides of Britain's political divide in the creation, execution, and cover-up of imperial violence. By demonstrating how and why violence was the most salient factor underwriting Britain's empire and the nation's imperial identity at home, Elkins upends long-held myths and sheds new light on empire's role in shaping the world today.

Updated with the latest evidence, the essential, acclaimed account of President Kennedy's assassination by Pulitzer Prize finalist Anthony Summers
"He was holding out his hand . . . He looked puzzled . . . Then he slumped in my lap . . . I kept bending over him saying, 'Jack, Jack, can you hear me? I love you, Jack . . .' The seat was full of blood and red roses . . . ." --Jacqueline Kennedy, recalling the fatal moment in Dallas. Fifty years on, most Americans still feel they have not been told the truth about President Kennedy's death. Chief Justice Warren, who chaired the first inquiry, said "some things" that "involve security" might not be released in our lifetime. Millions of pages of assassination records were finally made public in the late 1990s. Yet the CIA is withholding more than a thousand documents under "national security"--until 2017. Why? Why hold these records back if--as we were told half a century ago--Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone assassin? Anthony Summers set out to write a reliable account of the murder mystery that haunts America. Not in Your Lifetime, in this fresh edition, is one of the finest books written on the assassination.

By The People: Debating American Government, Sixth Edition, presents essential content in a compelling story geared for today's students. Through each edition, this text has built on this successful approach to engage students in the rich and important debates of our times. Now powered by an enhanced e-book and additional digitals learning tools, this book helps students to become thoughtful and informed citizens

The acclaimed chronicle of the regeneration of one family's traditional English farm

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Winner of the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing * Named "Nature Book of the Year" by the Sunday Times * New York Times Editors' Choice * Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize * A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Sunday Times, Financial Times, New Statesman, Independent, Telegraph, Observer, and Daily Mail

"Superbly written and deeply insightful, the book captivates the reader until the journey's end." -- Wall Street Journal

The New York Times bestselling author of The Shepherd's Life profiles his family's farm across three generations, revealing through this intimate lens the profound global transformation of agriculture and of the human relationship to the land.

As a boy, James Rebanks's grandfather taught him to work the land the old way. Their family farm in England's Lake District hills was part of an ancient agricultural landscape: a patchwork of crops and meadows, of pastures grazed with livestock, and hedgerows teeming with wildlife. And yet, by the time James inherited the farm, it was barely recognizable. The men and women had vanished from the fields; the old stone barns had crumbled; the skies had emptied of birds and their wind-blown song.

Hailed as "a brilliant, beautiful book" by the Sunday Times (London), Pastoral Song (published in the United Kingdom under the title English Pastoral) is the story of an inheritance: one that affects us all. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world were brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were lost. And yet this elegy from the northern fells is also a song of hope: of how, guided by the past, one farmer began to salvage a tiny corner of England that was now his, doing his best to restore the life that had vanished and to leave a legacy for the future.

This is a book about what it means to have love and pride in a place, and how, against all the odds, it may still be possible to build a new pastoral: not a utopia, but somewhere decent for us all.

[Published in the United Kingdom as English Pastoral.]

A spirited, deeply researched exploration of why capitalism is bad for women and how, when done right, socialism leads to economic independence, better labor conditions, better work-life balance and, yes, even better sex.

In a witty, irreverent op-ed piece that went viral, Kristen Ghodsee argued that women had better sex under socialism. The response was tremendous -- clearly she articulated something many women had sensed for years: the problem is with capitalism, not with us.

Ghodsee, an acclaimed ethnographer and professor of Russian and East European Studies, spent years researching what happened to women in countries that transitioned from state socialism to capitalism. She argues here that unregulated capitalism disproportionately harms women, and that we should learn from the past. By rejecting the bad and salvaging the good, we can adapt some socialist ideas to the 21st century and improve our lives.

She tackles all aspects of a woman's life - work, parenting, sex and relationships, citizenship, and leadership. In a chapter called "Women: Like Men, But Cheaper," she talks about women in the workplace, discussing everything from the wage gap to harassment and discrimination. In "What To Expect When You're Expecting Exploitation," she addresses motherhood and how "having it all" is impossible under capitalism.

Women are standing up for themselves like never before, from the increase in the number of women running for office to the women's march to the long-overdue public outcry against sexual harassment. Interest in socialism is also on the rise -- whether it's the popularity of Bernie Sanders or the skyrocketing membership numbers of the Democratic Socialists of America. It's become increasingly clear to women that capitalism isn't working for us, and Ghodsee is the informed, lively guide who can show us the way forward.

Land and the policies that govern it hold an incredible but largely forgotten power over our lives. When land is wasted and squandered, we get sky-high rents, oppressed workers, ruined businesses, depleted natural resources, a polluted earth, and an impoverished society. Poor land policy is the chief culprit behind sky-high urban rents, homelessness, and endless suburban sprawl. Meanwhile, real estate has become the world's number one asset class, comprising an ever-growing share of bank loans worldwide. Land is a Big Deal draws on the insights of legendary American economist Henry George to explain how things got this way, as well as what we can do to fix it.

As we enter the "Asian century," China demands our attention for being an economic powerhouse, a beacon of rapid modernization, and an assertive geopolitical player. To understand the nation behind the headlines, we must take in its vibrant, tumultuous past--a story of "larger-than-life characters, philosophical arguments and political intrigues, military conflicts and social upheavals, artistic invention and technological innovation."

The Shortest History of China charts a path from China's tribal origins through its storied imperial era and up to the modern Communist Party under Xi Jinping--including the rarely told story of women in China and the specters of corruption and disunity that continue to haunt the People's Republic today. A master storyteller and exacting historian, Linda Jaivin distills this vast history into a short, riveting account that today's globally minded readers will find indispensable.

"A damning investigation of dark money by a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee" (Kirkus Reviews) with a new preface on recent disclosures about efforts to influence the Court

"There's no senator I can think of who's done more sleuthing to figure out the money trail in American politics, particularly as it affects the courts."--Jane Mayer, author of the national bestseller Dark Money

As the story of Supreme Court malfeasance and ethics violations repeatedly makes front-page news, the paperback version of The Scheme comes at a time of crisis for the American judiciary.

Following his book Captured on corporate capture of regulatory and government agencies, and his years of experience as a prosecutor, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, whom Senator Elizabeth Warren calls a "a powerful voice in defending our American democracy against the relentless, pervasive--and often hidden--power of corporate special interests," here turns his attention to the right-wing scheme to capture the United States Supreme Court. Whitehouse chronicles a hidden-money campaign using an armada of front groups, helped by the infamous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, employing the Federalist Society as an appointments turnstile, and with the same small handful of right-wing billionaires and corporations enticing the Senate to break rules, norms, and precedents to confirm wildly inappropriate nominees who would advance their anti-government agenda.

Now available in an affordable paperback edition with a new preface addressing the Reverend Schenck disclosures about politicking the justices and Justice Thomas's recently disclosed conflicts of interest, The Scheme offers what Kirkus Reviews calls "a maddening indictment of a corrupt and corrupted judiciary."

The West Wing premiered in 1999. That's a long time ago. Back then, we were worrying about the Millennium Bug, paying $700 for DVD players, and using pagers. 1999: a century ago.

And yet, the show continues to have an impact that is arguably unique. If you live or work in DC, references to it are inescapable. People have walked down the aisle to the theme music. Or they've named children, pets, GPS systems, and even an iPhone app after the characters. Or they've started Twitter accounts as the characters to continue the storyline and comment on current political events. Or they credit it for closer relationships with their family members or a way out of depression.

In this anthology of quotes and essays, contributors from six countries, ranging in age from twenty to seventy years old, tell their West Wing stories.

The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. Both state control and privatization of resources have been advocated, but neither the state nor the market have been uniformly successful in solving common pool resource problems. After critiquing the foundations of policy analysis as applied to natural resources, Elinor Ostrom here provides a unique body of empirical data to explore conditions under which common pool resource problems have been satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily solved. Dr Ostrom uses institutional analysis to explore different ways - both successful and unsuccessful - of governing the commons. In contrast to the proposition of the 'tragedy of the commons' argument, common pool problems sometimes are solved by voluntary organizations rather than by a coercive state. Among the cases considered are communal tenure in meadows and forests, irrigation communities and other water rights, and fisheries.

In this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillion-copy best-selling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the life of Michelle Obama, the iconic first lady, advocate, lawyer, and author.

Young Michelle grew up on the South Side of Chicago in a close-knit family. She loved school, achieving A's, and worked hard to blaze trails at the universities of Princeton and Harvard. Then, at the beginning of her legal career, she met Barack Obama. As first lady, she used her platform to advocate for women and girls and continues to inspire many with her powerful voice, and best-selling books. This empowering book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the inspiring woman's life.

Little People, BIG DREAMS is a best-selling biography series for kids that explores the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to scientists and activists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life as a child with a dream.

This empowering series of books offers inspiring messages to children of all ages, in a range of formats. The board books are told in simple sentences, perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. The hardcover and paperback versions present expanded stories for beginning readers. With rewritten text for older children, the treasuries each bring together a multitude of dreamers in a single volume. You can also collect a selection of the books by theme in boxed gift sets. Activity books and a journal provide even more ways to make the lives of these role models accessible to children.

Inspire the next generation of outstanding people who will change the world with Little People, BIG DREAMS!

A powerful account, by Israeli peace activist Miko Peled, of his transformation from a young man who'd grown up in the heart of Israel's elite and served proudly in its military into a fearless advocate of nonviolent struggle and equal rights for all Palestinians and Israelis. His journey is mirrored in many ways the transformation his father, a much-decorated Israeli general, had undergone three decades earlier. Alice Walker contributed a foreword to the first edition in which she wrote, "There are few books on the Israel/Palestine issue that seem as hopeful to me as this one." In an Epilogue Peled takes readers to South Africa, East Asia, many European countries, and the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel itself. And in the new Preface to the 10th Anniversary Edition, he reflects on the growth of the Palestinian-rights movement since he published the first edition of this work, in 2012.

In this defiant and urgent collection, Noor Hindi navigates Arab womanhood, migration, queerness, and Palestinian identity with striking and evocative lyricism.