Hilaire Belloc's landmark study Characters of the Reformation argues that Western Europe's break from the Catholic Church was driven by a land-grab and looting of Church property by European noblemen. Belloc has little admiration for the so-called leaders of the time and credits the Reformation to behind-the-scenes players.

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.

Highlighting the connections between climate change and human security, this book elucidates what might happen when a mere 10-degree drop in average temperature results in a sudden inability to produce enough food, when rapidly advancing desertification produces water scarcities where none existed before, and when newly frozen landscapes lead to more power plants for energy, resulting in increased air pollution. The destabilizing effects of these possibilities create many potential challenges for U.S. national security in a globalized world in which we may have to intervene militarily to safeguard our interests around the globe. In February 2004, a Pentagon report on climate change and its implication for national security received extraordinary attention and publicity. Public attention, however, focused almost exclusively on portents of inevitable doom and disaster—most particularly on a scenario outlining a possible future similar to a climate event of 8,200 years ago and its impact on the availability of food, energy, and water. This book offers a broad examination of the meaning of climate change and global warming while maintaining a strategic perspective on the implications of environmental effects on all forms of security—national, international, and human (transcending borders and having more to do with basic resources). Given the uncertainty surrounding climate change as a specific event, the authors argue for recognizing the profound social, political, and human impact that could take place in the coming years. While recognizing the inherent dangers of prediction, Liotta and Shearer effectively present the case that the time to not only recognize—but deal with—potentially profound outcomes is now.

The prison population is a social group with a high level of digital divide. These individuals need to acquire digital skills for their future integration into society. As such, there is need for studies that can contribute with knowledge and intervention models to promote digital integration of prisoners in a system with very strict rules. Infocommunication Skills as a Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Tool for Inmates provides innovative insights into the ways to promote digital literacy in a prison context to promote better social integration of inmates facing the end of their sentences. It also explores the work of intervention tools, social inclusion of female inmates, and policies of information literacy. It is designed for academicians, professionals, and graduate-level students seeking research centered on the promotion of digital literacy in prison systems.

Southeast Asian Affairs is the only one of its kind: a comprehensive annual review devoted to the international relations, politics, and economies of the region and its nation-states. The collected volumes of Southeast Asian Affairs have become a compendium documenting the dynamic evolution of regional and national developments in Southeast Asia from the end of the 'second' Vietnam War to the alarms and struggles of today. Over the years, the editors have drawn on the talents and expertise not only of ISEAS' own professional research staff and visiting fellows, but have also reached out to tap leading scholars and analysts elsewhere in Southeast and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, North America, and Europe. A full list of contributors over forty years reads like a kind of who's who in Southeast Asian Studies.