The first book-length study to examine the re-writing of school textbooks by the Japanese Education Ministry in an attempt to play down atrocities in China during World War II. The famous textbook crisis in 1982 was at the centre of a diplomatic storm extending through the 1980s as Sino-Japanese relations were beset by a series of political controversies. This fascinating account of the period reveals that Chinese and Japanese policy-makers were more concerned with changes taking place in international and domestic politics than with adopting a correct view of history.

'Clear, helpful and very readable...This book breaks new ground and does indeed 'expand the debate' .' - Mortality

'This substantial academic volume, which seeks to expand the debate on physician-assisted suicide, is a significant addition to the growing number of edited works on one of the most important issues in contemporary bioethics ... an interesting, readable and topical collection of essays' - Journal of Medical Ethics

'The summaries in this review cannot convey the subtelties of argument and refreshing lack of cant in these essays. This excellent collection ... succeeds in expanding the debate ... well beyond its current narrow framework.' - New England Journal of Medicine

Presents the personal experiences of sex workers in Asia, Australia, the Americas, the Caribbean, West Africa and Western Europe. In exploring the individual narratives of people involved in the sex trade around the world, this book seeks to undermine the crude stereotypes often employed to characterize those involved in this expanding industry. It documents national and international sex workers' movements organized to uphold their legal and human rights as they struggle to resist marginalization and exploitative working conditions around the world.

Series Information:
Religion in the First Christian Centuries

This guide presents and compares the various different approaches that have been adopted in studies of moral panics and integrates concepts such as "risk" which have been developed in related fields. With the increasing number of moral panics in recent years triggered by incidents such as the Bulger case and the spread of AIDS, this book examines their wider significance particularly in terms of the functioning of the mass media. In this book, Kenneth Thompson traces the developments in moral panic studies and also re-introduces some of the initial broader relevance of this field by treating moral panics not simply as separate episodes but in relation to systems of representation and regulation, and as symptoms of wider social and cultural tensions.

It is widely acknowledged that this is the age of the moral panic. Newspaper headlines continually warn of some new danger resulting from moral laxity, and television programmes echo the theme with sensational documentaries. This concise guide presents and compares the various different approaches that have been adopted in studies of moral panics and integrates concepts such as 'risk' which have been developed in related fields. With the increasing number of moral panics in recent years triggered by incidents such as the Bulger case and the spread of AIDS, this book examines their wider significance particularly in terms of the functioning of the mass media.
In this book, Kenneth Thompson traces the developments in moral panic studies and also re-introduces some of the initial broader relevance of this field by treating moral panics not simply as separate episodes but in relation to systems of representation and regulation, and as symptoms of wider social and cultural tensions.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415915546

Edited volume of contributions from Bolivian, American, and British political scientists, development sociologists, anthropologists, and historians examines impacts of the coca/cocaine economy on Bolivian society and politics, and on the US, in recent years. Together these works constitute the most complete, updated collection of analyses about this controversial public policy issue affecting US/Bolivian relations"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.

In the past several years, hundreds of challenges a year to books used in public schools have been reported across the nation. Most of these have come from the Religious Right. This book confronts the attacks on public education and commonly used literature books by challenging the religious assumptions, the biblical interpretations, and the intimidation tactics of the Religious Right. Part I counters the claims of these censors by presenting opposing views on democracy, secular humanism, religion, the Bible, morality, and the purposes of literature. In Part II, six books frequently taught in high school classes are analyzed. Edwards shows why they have been challenged by the Religious Right, and presents a case for their moral and religious virtues as well as their literary worth. The book differs from other anti-censorship works because it deals primarily and directly with the religious and moral aspects that educators often tend to avoid. This book offers teachers and school administrators scholarly conterarguments that can help confront with literature challenges from the Religious Right.

First published in 1998. No other issue has divided the feminist movement in the past two decades quite like pornography. By providing the first book to engage in an empirical investigation of the pornography industry itself, the authors--each grounded in the radical feminist anti-pornography movement--move beyond the rhetorical bomb-tossing of an often polarized debate. The authors engage in a systematic examination of the politics, production, content, and consumption of contemporary mass-market heterosexual pornography, thereby contributing to a fuller understanding of pornography's role in the cultural construction of gender, racial and sexual identities, and relations. They begin with an overview of the social and political history of the feminist anti-pornography movement and the debate over pornography within feminism. Then they address the various rhetorical dodges--definitional, legal, and causal--used to distort the fact that institutionalized pornography helps maintain the sexual and social oppression of women within a patriarchal system. Exploring the beginnings of the commercial pornography industry, the book focuses in part on the history of Playboy magazine. It also analyzes the content of contemporary mass-market videos. Dines, Jensen, and Russo argue that the sexual ideology of patriarchy eroticizes domination and submission, with pornography playing a significant role in how these values are mediated and normalized in American society. They discuss the effects of pornography on the lives of those who use it and those against whom it is used. In so doing, the authors hope to contribute to creating a world in which sex is not a site of oppression but of liberation.

A geneticist tells the stories of men, women, and children whose genes have shaped their lives in unexpected ways.

It was while listening to a colleague tell the parents of a newborn girl that their daughter was going to die that a lifelong interest in genetic medicine was sparked in Dr Edwin Kirk. Warmth and gentleness tempered a direct, sure manner - this was the medicine he wanted to practise, where the most advanced science and the most deeply human meet. Twenty-five years later, Dr Kirk works both with patients and in the lab, and he spearheads a campaign that will change the way we think about having babies. His experience is without parallel, but it is his humour and insight that make all the difference.

Find out why Dr Kirk found himself among hundreds of people, each with a glass of poison in front of them - and how you might perform the same experiment yourself (without the poison). Learn how the realisation that a young boy wasn't short ended up saving the life of his mother - and how Angelina Jolie has saved the lives of many more. Sit in the room with Dr Kirk and his patients as they navigate the world of heartbreaking uncertainties, tantalising possibilities, and thorny questions of morality. In genetics, it is the particularities of an individual's history that matter, and here, in clear and considerate writing, those individual stories are given voice.

One of the most widely known and seemingly well-established aspects of the Nazi Holocaust is that the Allies did little or nothing to rescue Europe's Jews, allegedly denying refuge to those fleeing Hitler's death machine, turning their backs on pleas for help, and refusing to bomb Auschwitz and other concentration camps. In The Myth of Rescue William D Rubinstein presents the highly controversial argument that all the schemes for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust were incapable of succeeding.

If you've had an abortion and are feeling isolated and vulnerable, Experiencing Abortion will remind you that you are not alone and that you must feel your emotions in order to accept your choice and heal. Each woman responds to abortion in her own way, yet, as this sensitive, insightful book shows, there are many similarities among women's post-abortion emotions. Sharing in the firsthand, personal experiences of other women who speak for themselves in this book will help you come to terms with anguish, stress, grief, anger, or any other overwhelming emotions you might be feeling. Don't go on ignoring or blocking out your feelings. Learn to incorporate your experience into your sense of self in a healthy way.By reading Experiencing Abortion, you will learn about the multiple feelings and reactions abortion can trigger, the process of accepting an abortion, and the struggle to control fertility without treating your body as an enemy. Offering you a safe, honest, and supportive environment in which to explore your feelings about your abortion, this book discusses many important topics, including: the way moods can overtake you after abortion how avoiding your experience can defer acceptance, which in turn leads to denial and guilt how pregnancy, abortion, and subsequent bleeding can affect your perception of your body the struggle to enjoy sex after your abortion your heightened awareness of gender after an abortion how your intimate relationships may change after an abortion the psychological reasons you may sometimes forgo birth control accepting yourself after a second abortionExperiencing Abortion will help women who have had an abortion understand that it is a complex physical and emotional experience that doesn't necessarily end after a week or a month or a year. It will also help professionals in abortion facilities and therapists who offer pre- and post-abortion counseling understand how abortion affects each individual differently and how they might help women work through their feelings both before and after abortion. Partners, friends, and families will find this book helpful and informative as they try to help their loved one get through this sometimes difficult, even traumatic, experience.

This is a dynamic book that successfully combines global and local thinking with regard to an emerging technology that will contribute to the expansion of proteomics and pharmacogenomics, the science of tailored healthcare and treatments. Genetic testing and screening will change the way people understand health, diagnostic knowledge, illness but also crime, databases and private information, paternity, and self-knowledge. In addition to giving individuals the opportunity to think differently about their well-being, it installs a new taxonomy in terms of illness, because its probabilistic effects will introduce a new narrative in the health discourse of 21st century society. While in the past people could be classified as being healthy or sick, now, through genetic testing and screening, adults can be classified as being healthy, predisposed to an illness, probably at risk, at risk, or carriers of certain risks.

Essays reflecting on our understanding and moral judgement of violence. The essays argue that even serious violence is not a simple fact, but a category of thought and practice rooted in history, culture and society.

The Right to Life in Japan is a study that brings new perspectives to bear on an extremely important topic for all those facing the moral dilemmas of such issues as abortion and the death penalty. It also helps to fill a gap in life, in social science and law studies of contemporary Japan.
Noel Williams approaches the right to life in Japan from a legal viewpoint via a broad range of issues such as abortion, suicide, capital punishment and death from overwork. Following a discussion of law and rights in Japan from an historical perspective, the author examines the question of what life is in contemporary Japan and focuses on problematic areas which have arisen in life issues, including infringements of the right to life within the modern company organization, and by the state, as well as the question of the equality of the right to life.

Essays reflecting on our understanding and moral judgement of violence. The essays argue that even serious violence is not a simple fact, but a category of thought and practice rooted in history, culture and society.

Why do we think ourselves superior to all other animals? Are we right to think so? In this book, Michael Ruse explores these questions in religion, science and philosophy. Some people think that the world is an organism - and that humans, as its highest part, have a natural value (this view appeals particularly to people of religion). Others think that the world is a machine - and that we therefore have responsibility for making our own value judgements (including judgements about ourselves). Ruse provides a compelling analysis of these two rival views and the age-old conflict between them. In a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion, he draws on Darwinism and existentialism to argue that only the view that the world is a machine does justice to our humanity. This new series offers short and personal perspectives by expert thinkers on topics that we all encounter in our everyday lives.

A cross-cultural analysis of the abortion issue in the United States and Canada. The book focuses on: the judicial, legislative and executive branches; public opinion and interest groups; federal agencies; and the roles of subnational authorities and the health care sectors.

A cross-cultural analysis of the abortion issue in the United States and Canada. The book focuses on: the judicial, legislative and executive branches; public opinion and interest groups; federal agencies; and the roles of subnational authorities and the health care sectors.

Contributors ranging from researchers, activists and sex workers re-examine prostitution. The book covers male and female sex workers; their status in law; drugs; health; changing nature of sex work ; pimps and redefining prostitution.

The growth of AIDS has focused renewed attention on the institution of prostitution. In contrast to the moral panic reaction of some sectors of society, very different initiatives are being displayed by other groups in relation to the need to scrutinize the social, moral and legal status of prostitution and to reflect on the arguments in support of or against legalising brothels, paying particular concern to prostitutes' own health. Rethinking Prostitution covers male as well as female sex workers and considers in detail their status in law; drugs; issues of health and health care; the changing nature of sex work; partners, boyfriends and pimps; and the potential for redefining prostitution. By drawing on the expertise of researchers across all aspects of the industry, this up-to-date text focuses on an institution and industry ripe for re-assessment. Rethinking Prostitution will be of considerable interest to students, lecturers and researchers in medical sociology and women's studies, social workers in training and practice as well as the general reader as an area of topical interest and concern.

"Abortion Politics: Public Policy in Cross Cultural Perspective" focuses on current abortion policy and practice in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan and aims to provide a comprehensive and balanced picture of current abortion policy in a cross-cultural perspective. The contributers deal with comparative abortion policy including recent developments in Ireland, Germany and Eastern Europe. Topics covered include struggles over the law, availability of and access to abortion services, the implications of the policy environment and new reproductive technologies.