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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > General
Nearly four decades after a revolution, experiencing one of the
longest wars in contemporary history, facing political and
ideological threats by regional radicals such as ISIS and the
Taliban, and having succeeded in negotiations with six world powers
over her nuclear program, Iran appears as an experienced Muslim
country seeking to build bridges with its Sunni neighbours as well
as with the West. Ethics of War and Peace in Iran and Shi'i Islam
explores the wide spectrum of theoretical approaches and practical
attitudes concerning the justifications, causes and conduct of war
in Iranian-Shi'i culture. By examining primary and secondary
sources, and investigating longer lasting factors and questions
over circumstantial ones, Mohammed Jafar Amir Mahallati seeks to
understand modern Iranian responses to war and peace. His work is
the first in its field to look into the ethics of war and peace in
Iran and Shi'i Islam. It provides a prism through which the binary
source of the Iranian national and religious identity informs
Iranian response to modernity. By doing so, the author reveals that
a syncretic and civilization-conscious soul in modern Iran is
re-emerging.
In the past few years, one of the most misunderstood concepts is
income disparity. Income inequality issues are now a concern for
the public. However, it was heightened by the recession in 2008-09,
resulting in consequences for the corporate sector, the Occupy Wall
Street movement, Covid-19 pandemic and a myriad of other events.
This book analyzed how income disparity is rising with higher
income distribution margins witnessed among the highest earners.
This book has thirteen chapters, eliminating the introductory
overview chapter, on income disparity, poverty, and economic
well-being. These chapters were authored by academics who publish
articles on these issues on a regular basis. The literature on
these issues is substantial, and research interest in these topics
has a long history. Furthermore, it is fairly unusual for
academics' viewpoints on these subjects to disagree. In light of
this, the subjects of the articles may best be regarded as
representing the contributors' different viewpoints. Graduate
students and professional researchers will also find these guides
an excellent contribution to supplemental teaching in economic
fields, especially labor economics, macroeconomics, and economic
policies.
Mark Amstutz offers a groundbreaking exploration of the rise,
evolution, and crucial impact of Evangelicals on American foreign
affairs. In the nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries
spearheaded global engagement by serving throughout the world. They
gained fluency in foreign languages, developed knowledge about
distant societies, and increased cross-cultural awareness. They
also played a vital role in advancing human dignity by teaching and
modeling values, building schools and clinics, and creating
institutions that nurtured civil society. In view of their
important role in global affairs, Amstutz argues, Evangelicals can
be regarded as America's first internationalists. When modernists
gained control of Protestant denominations at the turn of the
twentieth century, traditional Protestants responded by creating a
Fundamentalist movement that gave precedence to spiritual life but
neglected social and political concerns. Four decades later,
orthodox believers sought to restore the spiritual-temporal balance
that had characterized traditional Protestantism. To a significant
degree, contemporary Evangelicalism is the result of this movement.
Amstutz illuminates the influence of the political theology of this
group of believers on Evangelicals' thought and action on global
affairs. Although the New Evangelicals have not established a body
of teachings comparable to Catholics', they have developed a
framework that has shaped members' social thought and political
action. After highlighting distinctive features of Evangelicals'
political ethics, Amstutz illustrates how such thinking has
influenced the analysis of global poverty, U.S. foreign policy
towards Israel, and a variety of foreign policy initiatives. In
view of the increasing political advocacy of Evangelical groups,
Amstutz concludes with a number of recommendations on how to
strengthen Evangelicals' global engagement.
Why and how has the Business Corporation come to exert such a
powerful influence on American Society? The essays here take up
this question, offering a fresh perspective on the ways in which
the business corporation has assumed as enduring place in the
modern capitalist economy, and how it has affected American
society, culture and politics over the past two centuries. The
authors challenge standard assumptions about the business
corporation's emergence and performance in the United States over
the past two centuries. Reviewing in depth the different
theoretical and historiographical traditions that have treated the
corporation, the volume seeks a new departure that can more fully
explain this crucial institution of capitalism. Rejecting
assertions that the corporation is dead, the essays show that in
fact it has survived and even thrived down to the present in part
because of the ways in which it has related to its social,
political and cultural environment. In doing so, the book breaks
with older explanations ground in technology and economics, and
treats the corporation for the first time as a fully social
institution. Drawing on a variety of social theories and
approaches, the essays help to point the way toward future studies
of this powerful and enduring institution, offering a new
periodization and a new set of questions for scholars to explore.
The range of essays engages the legal and political position of the
corporation, the ways in which the corporation has been shaped by
and shaped American culture, the controversies over corporate
regulation and corporate power, and the efforts of minority and
disadvantaged groups to gain access to the resources and
opportunities that corporations control.
The American people and small mailers are being hoodwinked,
bamboozled, fleeced and taken to the cleaners by a bunch of
self-serving ingrates. The Forever Stamp should be free!
A collection of extraordinary essays written by Advanced Placement
(AP) US Government students at West Potomac High School in Fairfax,
County, Virginia, "White House Under Fire" delves into the
political consequences facing the President of the United States as
he makes fateful decisions affecting, at least, the map of the US
and, in some cases, the future of the world. The students explore
such challenging topics as Jefferson's controversial purchase of
the Louisiana Territory, Woodrow Wilson's reluctance to embrace the
Women's Suffrage movement, the reactions of Herbert Hoover and
Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the Great Depression, Harry Truman's
decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, Nixon's opening to China
and his downfall from the Watergate scandal, sand George W. Bush's
response to the attack on New York and Washington, September 11,
2001. This work highlights some of the most dangerous and
controversial periods in American history, from the confrontation
with the Soviet Union over access to Berlin and missiles in Cuba to
war with Spain. On the domestic front, the students tackle Andrew
Jackson's "Bank War," Lincoln's response to the South's secession
and Ronald Reagan's decision to fire the Air Traffic Controllers.
Harry Truman, who served as president before these students'
parents were born, turns out to be their favorite - with seven
essays devoted to his presidency, including the creation of the
nation of Israel, his authorization of the Berlin Airlift, the
Communist invasion of South Korea, his firing of the popular
General Douglas Mac Arthur and his desegregation order to the US
military. These students take a fresh, young approach to the
American presidency and how it has evolved over the life of the
Republic, providing the reader with not only an insight into
American history from the perspective of today's youth, but also a
sense that today's young people are keenly aware of our nation's
history and will soon be ready to accept the mantel of leadership
in a world at least as dangerous to them as it has been to every
earlier generation since its inception.
Brazil, occupying nearly 50 percent of the South American
continent, has the largest economy and is a major political power
in Latin America. In this updated and expanded fifth edition of his
text, Roett provides a thorough introduction to the dynamics
shaping Brazilian politics, economics, and society, the difficult
transition from military to civilian government in the 1980s, and
the social issues facing Brazilian leaders as the country enters
the 21st century. As Roett makes clear, despite years of economic
growth and industrialization, by the late 1990s, Brazil still faces
continued and growing challenges to its social cohesiveness and
stability. Without greater attention to the basic needs of the
Brazilian poor, the fabric of democracy in the New Republic faces
formidable challenges. A thorough and engaging resource for all
students and scholars of contemporary Latin America and, more
specifically, Brazil.
Roger Ewing was ONE of America's first international inspectors of
weapons systems and disarmament as he participated in the First
International Disarmament Exercise as a Division Inspector. Roger
learned the ability to analyze a country's capability to wage war.
He also predicted the fall of the Soviet Union from within 16 years
before it happened. Now he is trying to wake up Americans to the
reality that the DOWNFALL OF THE USA is a real possibility unless
the Congress of the USA wakes up to reality and understands the
survival of our country is at stake. Roger explains how the USA is
on a collision course with the JIHAD and Communist China. He
explains how politics have trumped reality and the consequence has
been that our military has not kept up to the events of this
dangerous world. In 1994 the Communist Chinese leaders initiated a
15 year program to upgrade their military technology and those 15
years are up in 2009. Their military technology today is almost at
the level with the USA. Beginning in 2010 Communist China will be
ready to attack the USA with a much larger military than ours. We
are in imminent danger Remember China is controlled by a Communist
Party that wants to rule the world. It is well known by many
scholars that the GREAT PYRAMID was inspired by GOD as to the
layout and construction. It is a STONE CALENDAR which has predicted
every major event in the world and it ends in 2012 Also, the Mayan
calendar ends in 2012 The Aztecs also predicted the world would end
in 2012 Folks, Jerusalem is the key. If Jerusalem is destroyed the
world as we know it will be destroyed and half of the world's
population including the USA.
Collaborators of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet took over
Chile's news media as part of an endeavor to promote the ideology
of the dictatorship during times of democracy. To support this
claim, Leon-Dermota offers a complete examination of Chile's media
and political and economic bases that no political science,
economic, or media studies work has done. Finding that much of
Chile's power-brokering occurs outside of the political playing
field, Leon-Dermota shows why left-of-center governments elected
since 1990 have been powerless to advance programs or policies not
approved by Chile's power elite, which comprises most industry, the
rightmost Roman Catholic service organizations, and the media--with
the goal of imposing an ideology descended from fascist Spain under
Francisco Franco.
Written in a clear, accessible style, the author reconstructs a political world and culture very different from the images of stability with which the mid eighteenth century has often been associated.
"Who am I? Where do I belong? Should I hide or reveal my identity?
What if we have another Holocaust? How can I continue to live
clandestinely?" Anguish, hardship, and the courage to survive flow
through Joseph Kutrzeba's veins as he grows up under Nazi
occupation in Poland. From a prominent Polish-Jewish family, Joseph
is barely fifteen years old and yet is driven to participate in the
resistance movement of World War II's Warsaw Ghetto. During one of
the Nazi's numerous raids, Joseph is packed into a cattle car bound
for the Treblinka gas chambers, but he manages a hair-raising
escape from the moving train. Following his turbulent and dangerous
wonderings, an idealistic young priest introduces him to the
Catholic vernacular; ostensibly to help him disguise his true
identity. Following escape after miraculous escape, Joseph is
finally liberated by U.S. troops in Germany. Just weeks after
coming to America, he is drafted and ends up in the battle zone of
the Korean War. On his discharge, Joseph graduates from Yale and
later from NYU. Still, his entire life he's tormented by the
gnawing, unremitting question: Who am I? This beautifully lyrical
memoir describes Joseph's persistence and bravery as he struggles
to understand his true self.
Ignorant Armies: Tales and Morals of an Alien Empire combines
startling stories from the life of an American diplomat with
equally startling opinions about the country he represented abroad
for over three decades. Charles Sam Courtney chose his book's title
to convey bizarreness, the bizarreness of some of the things that
happened to him as well as the bizarreness of contemporary
America's behavior toward the rest of the world.
In his Forward and in Chapters II, IV and VI he expresses his
dismay at what has become of the United States in the post-Cold War
era. He depicts the decline of the country from its former status
as the world's model nation to its current one as global pariah. He
attributes this decline, not to mischievous foreign powers or even
to wicked politics at home, but rather to the Americans themselves.
He describes how the pervasive culture of consumerism and
overweening ignorance of Americans have left them incapable of
engaging in the kind of enlightened public discourse a genuine
democracy demands. He considers the decline irreparable, and he has
come to believe that he has lost his country. After a lifetime of
service to America, his loss is personal and painful.
In Chapters I, III and V he recounts some personal episodes in his
life as a diplomat. He was a hostage to terrorists twice, once in
the Near East and once in the United States Senate. On an earlier
occasion, as a brand new junior diplomat, he was fired for slugging
a journalist. JFK saved his career, but in a heart-rending way. Not
long after that Courtney helped his Turkish secretary in Istanbul
pursue an illicit affair, with the result that interlocking sexual
and political betrayals disruptedthe Soviet Union's espionage
operations throughout the Near East. A few years later in Calcutta
he was encouraged by the CIA, no less, to fall into a Soviet sex
trap. He concludes his personal reminiscences by describing his
friendship with a man who probably was the KGB station chief in
London but who, in 1992, was seeing his world turn upside down.
This poignant tale and those preceding it capture the Cold-War
world that was. They also foreshadow the world that was to come.
This book of elementary principles of politics is written in two
(2) parts. Part One is entitled: The Campaign is all About The
Candidate." It is primarily concerned with matters to be considered
by a person involved in a campaign. Part is entitled: Thoughts of
an Elected Official." It is primarily concerned with a reflection
of what happened during a term in office when the campaigning ends
and the work of representing the people begins. This book is a
primer on practical politics before and after the election and it
provides a guide for any person who wants to be a Candidate and a
Public Official.
A cultural history of fundamentalism's formative decades;
Protestant fundamentalists have always allied themselves with
conservative politics and stood against liberal theology and
evolution From the start, however, their relationship with mass
culture has been complex and ambivalent Selling the Old-Time
Religion tells how the first generation of fundamentalists embraced
the modern business and entertainment techniques of marketing
advertising, drama, film, radio, and publishing to spread the
gospel Selectively, and with more sophistlcation than has been
accorded to them, fundamentalists adapted to the consumer society
and popular culture with the accompanying values of materialism and
immediate gratification. Selling the Old-Time Religion is written
by a fundamentalist who is based at the country's foremost
fundamentalist institution of higher education. It is a candid and
remarkable piece of self-scrutiny that reveals the movement's first
encounters with some of the media methods it now wields with
well-documented virtuosity. Douglas Carl Abrams draws extensively
on sermons, popular journals, and educational archives to reveal
the attitudes and actions of the fundamental leadership and the
laity. Abrams discusses how fundamentalists' outlook toward
contemporary trends and events shifted from aloofiness to
engagement as they moved inward from the margins of American
culture and began to weigh in on the day's issues - from jazz to
""flappers"" - in large numbers. Fundamentalists in the 1920s and
1930s ""were willing to compromise certain traditions that defined
the movement, such as premillennialism, holiness, and defense of
the faith,"" Abrams concludes, ""but their flexibility with forms
of consumption and pleasure strengthened their evangelistic
emphasis, perhaps the movement's core."" Contrary to the myth of
fundamentalism's demise after the Scopes Trial, the movement's uses
of mass culture help explain their success in the decades following
it. In the end fundamentalists imitated mass culture not to be like
the world but to evangelize it.
The Perfect Officer focuses on the careers of a group of brilliant
officers from the Napoleonic Wars and up to our own times: what
they did right, what they did wrong, and what lessons they drew
from their experiences. The book's recurring theme is the
importance of imagination, and it demonstrates how these men were
constantly inspired by each other and borrowed each other's ideas.
A number of these lessons are equally applicable in the civilian
sphere, with one notable difference: If a business leader errs, he
may lose his position or his investment. An officer risks losing
his life and the lives of the men entrusted to his command.
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