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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism
Deeply influenced by Enlightenment writers from Naples and France, Vincenzo Cuoco (1770-1823) was forced into exile for his involvement in the failed Neapolitan revolution of 1799. Living in Milan, he wrote what became one of the nineteenth century's most important treatises on political revolution. In his Historical Essay on the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799, Cuoco synthesized the work of Machiavelli, Vico, and Enlightenment philosophers to offer an explanation for why and how revolutions succeed or fail. A major influence on political thought during the unification of Italy, the Historical Essay was also an inspiration to twentieth-century thinkers such as Benedetto Croce and Antonio Gramsci. This critical edition, featuring an authoritative translation, introduction, and annotations, finally makes Cuoco's work fully accessible to an English-speaking audience.
Confident in the knowledge that the U.S.was the dominant world economic power, state leaders paid little attention to economic development after World War II. Then, with increasing competition from Asia, Germany, and South America, the recession of the 1980s, and the Reagan cutbacks in assistance to states, they began to place more emphasis on state economic development, finding that earlier policies did little to help their states develop economically. Today, the pursuit of state economic development is so intense it pushes other issues to the back burner. Examining the impact of interest groups on state economic development policies, this book helps to account for some of the forces that have molded development policy during this crucial time. With the reemergence of economic development as a policy issue, state policy makers have developed over 300 distinct policies. What causes state officials to adopt or modify specific policies is open to debate. Investigating a series of variables believed to influence variations in state economic policies, the author finds that contemporary theories do not adequately explain the relationship between the lobbying efforts of interest groups and differences in economic development policies.
To ensure its protection from enemies both foreign and domestic, a government must invest resources and personnel toward the goal of homeland security. It is through these endeavors that citizens are able to live out their lives in peace. Cases on Research and Knowledge Discovery: Homeland Security Centers of Excellence presents a series of studies and descriptive examples on the US Department of Homeland Security and related research. Through its investigation of interesting challenges and thought-provoking ideas, this volume offers professionals, researchers, and academics in the fields of security science, engineering, technology, and mathematics an in-depth discussion of some of the issues that directly affect the safety, security, and prosperity of the nation.
This comprehensive and up-to-date review of learning and educational quality in developing countries, written by 16 highly knowledgeable specialists from around the world, provides policymakers and researchers accessible perspectives with the Millennium Development Goals in mind.
Dispelling the myth that women became involved in partisan politics only after they obtained the vote, this study uses contemporary newspaper sources to show that women were active in the party struggle long before 1920. Although their role was initially limited to attending rallies and hosting picnics, they gradually began to use their pens and voices to support party tickets. By the late 19th century, women spoke at party functions and organized all-female groups to help canvass neighborhoods and get out the vote. In the early suffrage states of the West, they voted in increasing numbers and even held a few offices. Women were particularly active, this book shows, in the minor reformist parties--Populist, Prohibitionist, Socialist, and Progressive--but eventually came to play a role in the major parties as well. Prominent suffrage leaders, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, entered the partisan arena in order to promote their cause. By the time the suffrage amendment was ratified, women were deeply involved in the mainstream political process.
Read the Preface Read a Sample Chapter "Contributes[s] interesting new dimensions to the literature on
Jews and blacks in the United States." "A fascinating text which adds to our understanding of recent
Jewish Left and feminist politics and activism" "Blending together 15 oral histories and archival research,
Schultz shows how northern Jewish women's commitment to social
justice - informed in part by living in the shadow of the Holocaust
- played out in a time of enormous political, social, and personal
upheaval...Sharply observant of her informants' lives, Schultz
opens a new window not only into the civil rights movement but also
into the sociology of mid-century Jewish-American culture. Her
analysis is most impressive at the book's end, when she
perceptively describes the protean nature of Jewish identities in
the U.S. Such insightful cultural readings and criticism make this
a fine contribution to both the literature of the civil rights
movement and the field of Jewish studies." "Schultz's book makes a substantial contribution to feminist
scholarship, but in the end it is also a call to renewed action -
to never forget the sacrifices of previous generations." "A well-written, serious, and important book. I learned a great
deal from this interesting and rich study." ""Going South" is a heartfelt plea for incorporating women's
activism into social movement history." "Going South is aremarkable book, reflecting the experiences of
fifteen women who joined the 1960s civil rights movement showing
how and why they got there, what role, if any religion played in
their lives, and what happened to them afterwards." "The strength of the book is that it is based on interviews; the reader is introduced to each women, her family, the work she performed in the South, the people she met and the difficulties she overcame while there."--"Jewish Observer" Many people today know that the 1964 murder in Mississippi of two Jewish men--Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman--and their Black colleague, James Chaney, marked one of the most wrenching episodes of the civil rights movement. Yet very few realize that Andrew Goodman had been in Mississippi for one day when he was killed; Rita Schwerner, Mickey's wife, had been organizing in Mississippi for six difficult months. Organized around a rich blend of oral histories, Going South followsa group of Jewish women--come of age in the shadow of the Holocaust and deeply committed to social justice--who put their bodies and lives on the line to fight racism. Actively rejecting the post-war idyll of suburban, Jewish, middle-class life, these women were deeply influenced by Jewish notions of morality and social justice. Many thus perceived the call of the movement as positively irresistible. Representing a link between the sensibilities of the early civil rights era and contemporary efforts to move beyond the limits of identity politics, the book provides a resource for all who are interested in anti-racism, the civil rights movement, social justice, Jewish activism and radical women's traditions.
Student Politics in Communist Poland tackles the topic of student political activity under a communist regime during the Cold War. It discusses both the communist student organizations as well as oppositional, independent, and apolitical student activism during the forty-five-year period of Poland's existence as a Soviet satellite state. The book focuses on consecutive generations of students who felt compelled to act on behalf of their milieu or for what they saw as the greater national good. The dynamics between moderates and radicals, between conformists and non-conformists are analyzed from the points of view of the protagonists themselves. The book traces ideological evolutions, but also counter-cultural trends and transnational influences in Poland's student community as they emerged, developed, and disappeared over more than four decades. It elaborates on the importance of the Catholic Church and its role in politicizing students. The regime's higher education policies are discussed in relation to its attempts to control the student body, which in effect constituted an ever growing group of young people who were destined to become the regime's future elite in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres and thus provide it with the necessary legitimacy for its survival. The pivotal crises in the history of Communist Poland, those of 1956, 1968, 1980-1981, are treated with a special emphasis on the students and their respective role in these upheavals. The book shows that student activism played its part in the political trajectory of the country, at times challenging the legitimacy of the regime, and contributed in no small degree to the demise of communism in Poland in 1989. Student Politics in Communist Poland not only presents a chronological narrative of student activism, but it sheds light on lesser known aspects of modern Polish history while telling part of the life stories of prominent figures in Poland's communist establishment as well as its dissident and opposition milieux. Ultimately, it also provides insights into modern-day Poland and its elite, many of whose members laid the groundwork for their later careers as student activists during the communist period.
This book traces the mobilization process leading up to the January 25 Uprising, and furthers our understanding of the largely unexpected diffusion of protest during this Egyptian Revolution. Focusing on the role of the so-called "Cairo-based political opposition," this study strongly suggests a need to pay closer attention to the complexity and contingent nature of such large-scale protest episodes. Building on interviews with activists, employees of NGOs in the human rights advocacy sector, and journalists, this in-depth single case study reveals how different movement organizations in the Egyptian prodemocracy movement had long, and largely unsuccessfully, tried to mobilize support for socio-political change in the country. Against this backdrop, the book illustrates how a coalition of activists sought to organize a protest event against police brutality in early 2011. The resulting protests on January 25 surprised not only the regime of Hosni Mubarak, but also the organizers.
This study explores the idea voiced by journalist Henry McDonald that the Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist tribes of Ulster are '...the least fashionable community in Western Europe'. A cast of contributors including prominent politicians, academics, journalists and artists explore the reasons informing public perceptions attached to this community.
'It's fascinating and moving to discover and identify those LGBT people in less happy times, who fought for the freedoms LGBT people now enjoy in the UK. This book will make you look back with gratitude and astonishment for what has been achieved.' Sir Ian McKellen LGBT activist and civil rights history from the 1960s to the 2000s has had a huge impact on our social and political landscape in the UK, yet much of this history remains hidden. Prejudice and Pride: LGBT Activist Stories from Manchester and Beyond explores aspects of LGBT activist history. It covers educational activism, youth work activism and the history of the LGBT Centre in Manchester. Through personal stories of activists, heard and recorded by young people from LGBT Youth North West, the book explores the 'wibbly wobbly' nature of people's histories. It reveals how they interlink in surprising and creative ways to form the current landscape of both prejudice and pride. Also contains exercises for interpreting and ideas for collecting activist histories within youth work.
This is a study that examines United Nations' efforts against terrorism in the 1970s and how West Germany came to influence and lead them. It is also an account of several hostage and hijacking crises as well as a look at German domestic terrorism.
This book examines how the perception of terrorism threat erodes civil liberties, sows doubt about the loyalties of immigrants, and heightens the left-right ideological divide. The book presents original analysis of survey data and experiments conducted in Australia, Europe and the United States. Research in the book posits questions that others have largely avoided: How does the threat of terrorist violence undermine multicultural democracies? What are the psychological and social mechanisms that explain how the threat of terrorism can change political attitudes? What is the relationship between terrorism and death threats? What is the role of media in shaping the perception of terrorism threat? And what are the ethical responsibilities of journalists? This book will help readers distinguish between groundless speculation and solid scientific knowledge of the topic. Moreover, it provides concrete recommendations on how to prevent the most negative consequences of the polarization of political attitudes, such as social divisions, exclusivism and conflict. Given the broad geographical scope of the research presented in the book, specifically North America, Europe and Australia, this book will appeal to broad scope of readers.
As shocking as the attacks of 9/11 were, we have been too quick to view the post-9/11 struggle against terrorism as entirely new and unprecedented. Without denying certain novel aspects of Al Qaeda and its affiliates, the "newness" of its purpose and methods has been overemphasized. Many aspects of contemporary terrorism bear a striking resemblance to past movements. Others represent the culmination of trends evolving over decades. Even seemingly novel characteristics of terrorist methods may be more the outcome of earlier developments than a truly new phenomenon. The increased lethality of terrorist attacks is a case in point. Usually attributed to lack of restraint brought on by religious extremism, the emphasis on body count may owe as much to a kind of threshold phenomenon. Numbed by decades of violence, people do not shock as easily as they once did. It now takes thousands of deaths to produce the same effect once caused by a relative handful. This book examines the nature of the contemporary threat within a historical context to discern continuities and change in terrorist behavior. It challenges the idea of a global war on terrorism and suggests that the United States, or any threatened country, would be better served by a policy aimed at reducing the risk of terrorist attack to an acceptable level at a reasonable cost. The book concludes by proposing a workable strategy for achieving this reasonable level of security.
In recent years, the field of psychology has seen an increasing interest in the aftereffects of psychological trauma. Work has been published that examines the psychological sequelae of rape, incest, combat, natural disaster, fire, and, in a few cases, hostage-taking. This is the first book that takes a long-term perspective, by asking questions such as: How did survivors view their experience through the lens of time? Were there any positive effects associated with the experience? The author examines how hostage victims perceive their victimization, and how they go about the task of rebuilding their assumptive world. In sharing the intimate details of this process, the hostage survivors have allowed us to be close observers in their efforts to redefine their world and themselves. They have served to expose the internal and external forces that have helped or hindered their efforts. It is important for those in human services, as well as management in higher-risk professions, to understand the trauma from the survivors' perspective. They need to know what is helpful to survivors and what is not. Common sense assumptions of those in authority are often wrong. Moreover, the initial post-release shock and the overwhelming press of emotions and events make it difficult for survivors to discern and express their genuine needs. The passage of time can help to distill and organize thoughts and feelings. In deepening our understanding of the needs of victims, this study has enhanced our ability to be of service.
The recent European Council Directive 114/08 requested the EU Member States to perform an assessment aimed at the identification and designation of the so-called European Critical Infrastructures (ECI). Every analysis of the results of the "first round" of identifications and designations has only taken into account the numbers of ECIs effectively designated, consequently leaving aside all of the other elements related to this important path towards a harmonized vision of the "European Security." This work, with its unprecedented approach, focuses on the elements that have maximized or frustrated the ambitious European objectives and on the issues that might have prevented the directive reaching its full potential. Furthermore, the study offers an in-depth perspective on the lessons learned - including those that can be learned from the US pre-post 9/11 CIP policies - as well as an assessment of the state of play of the Member States after the implementation of the directive, together with predictions for future challenges.
In this hard-hitting polemic, one of America's best-known political commentators explains why racial tensions are now approaching critical mass - and points to what we must do to defuse the situation. Carl T. Rowan has spent his entire life fighting for racial justice. The Coming Race War in America names and pinpoints the issues that are tearing this country apart. Rowan blows the whistle on America's "gatekeepers" - in academia, media, and government - who fan the flames of racial hatred, whether intentionally or accidentally. He tears into demagogues who promote racial tensions, from Rush Limbaugh to Louis Farrakhan. And above all, he lambastes politicians who blame welfare mothers, immigrants, affirmative action, and the urban underclass for all of America's social ills - and reinforce a "hate-the-poor" mind-set that can only lead to disaster. Rowan explores the rising tensions in every stratum of society, from upper-class white-males protesting reverse discrimination to young black men desperate for a piece of the pie. He takes a hard look at how and why two African Americans - O. J. Simpson and Colin Powell - could inspire such disparate and emotionally charged reactions, and sees an omen of things to come. What's simmering now, he says, could soon boil over. The signs of the coming race war are everywhere, says Rowan, and there is no easy path to peace. But there is hope. By recognizing the full dimensions of the problem, well-intentioned Americans of all races can push for courses of action - from increased community involvement to greater support for education - that will help relieve tensions and build trust.
SlutWalk explores representations of the global anti-rape movement of the same name, in mainstream news and feminist blogs around the world. It reveals strategies and practices used to adapt the movement to suit local cultures and contexts and explores how social media organized, theorized and publicized this contemporary feminist campaign.
Contemporary protest, often presented in media forms as a dramatic ritual played out in an iconic public space has provided a potent symbol of the widespread economic and social discontent that is a feature of European life under the rule of "austerity." Yet, beneath this surface activity, which provides the headlines and images familiar from mainstream news coverage, lies a whole array of deeper structures, modes of behavior, and forms of human affiliation. Contemporary Protest and the Legacy of Dissent offers a vibrant and insightful overview of modern protest movements, ideologies, and events. Written by academics and activists familiar with the strategies, values, and arguments of those groups and individuals responsible for shaping the modern landscape of protest, it reveals the inside story of a number of campaigns and events. It analyzes the various manifestations of dissent-on and offline, visible and obscure, progressive and reactionary-through the work of a number of commentators and dedicated "academic activists," while reassessing the standard explanatory frameworks supplied by contemporary theorists. In doing so, it offers a coherent account of the range of academic and theoretical approaches to the study of protest and social movements. Contributions by: David Bates, Mark Bergfeld, Vincent Campbell, Claire English, Ingrid M. Hoofd, Soeren Keil, Matthew Ogilvie, Stuart Price, Anandi Ramamurthy, Ruth Sanz Sabido, Lee Salter, Cassian Sparkes-Vian, and Thomas Swann.
Interest groups influence every government around the world, but what exactly are they, and how do they go about their work? This compilation of the major research, literature, and possible future directions of the study of interest groups is an excellent introductory resource for scholars and students in political science and related fields. Thoroughly cross-referenced and thematically organized, more than 200 entries detail the main topics of interest group activity in the United States and around the world. Following an introductory chapter that explains the format and content of the book, and a review of the development of interest group research, the entries are organized into 14 distinct chapters, each of which focuses on an area of significant research on various facets of group activity. A number of chapters deal with how interest groups form, dissolve, and work. More theoretically oriented chapters provide a wealth of information about the greater role interest groups play in society, and the various stances on whether those roles benefit or harm political life. Uniquely, special attention is paid to interest group activity in other countries, and to group activity that crosses international boundaries and political systems. A comprehensive bibliography concludes this useful volume.
This book investigates the role of society groups in the making of the Arab Spring and under which conditions they attained their goals. Democracy and recognition of human rights and fundamental freedoms seem to be the main drives of the people organized in form of civil groups or grassroots movements in the Arab Spring countries; but it is essential to identify when they find it suitable to take such extreme action as taking the streets in an attempt to take down the repressive regimes. It is also important to investigate what methods they relied on in their action and how they challenged the state and the government. A review of the cases in this volume shows that civil society has certain limitations in its action. Analysis of the cases also challenges a commonly held assumption that the Arab world does not have strong and rich civil society tradition. However, for a lasting success and consolidation of democracy, something more than civil society action is obviously needed. A strong organized opposition and a democratic culture seems to be indispensable elements for the evolution of a democratic order and tradition.
In the wake of the French Revolution, history was no longer imagined as a cyclical process in which the succession of ruling dynasties was as predictable as the change in the seasons. Contemporaries wrestled with the meaning of this historical rupture, which represented both the progress of the Enlightenment and the darkness of the Terreur. French authors discussed the political events in their country, but they were not the only ones to do so. As the effects of the French Revolution became more palpable across the border, German authors pondered their implications in newspapers, political pamphlets, and historiographical treatises. German women also participated in these debates, but they often embedded their political commentary in literary texts because they were discouraged, and sometimes even barred, from publishing in explicitly political and public venues. As such, literature, in the sense of belles lettres, had a compensatory function for women: it allowed them to engage in political discussion without explicitly encroaching on certain domains that were perceived as a male preserve. As women writers explored the uses of literature for political commentary they adapted major literary genres in order to consolidate their position in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century literary sphere. Those genres included domestic fiction, the historical novel, historical tragedy, autobiography, the Robinsonade, and the Bildungsroman. Women writers challenged the images of women traditionally portrayed in these genres: dutiful daughter, submissive wife, caring mother, tantalizing mistress, angelic figure, and passive victim. Gender and Genre discusses six women writers who replaced these traditional female types with women warriors and emigrants as protagonists in texts published between 1795 and 1821: Therese Huber, Caroline de la Motte Fouque, Christine Westphalen, Regula Engel, Sophie von La Roche, and Henriette Froelich. These authors' protagonists question traditional images of passive femininity, yet their battered bodies also depict the precarious position of women in general, and women writers in particular, during this period. Because women writers were attacked by their male counterparts who attempted to halt their foray into the literary marketplace, these texts are as much about power dynamics in the German literary establishment as they are about French politics.
This book is the businessperson's guide to influencing government decisions without incurring the cost of a professional lobbyist, at a time when those decisions are, increasingly, a key to survival. When big corporations want to influence the government, they hire pricey lobbyists. But little guys have been on their own—until now. Equally useful to entrepreneurs and established owner/managers, Be Your Own Lobbyist: How to Give Your Small Business Big Clout with State and Local Government is a businessperson's guide to getting heard by government decision-makers by using the same tactics professionals employ. Readers will learn how to lobby in a compelling, sophisticated way through a comprehensive approach that will work at any level, but the book is especially suited to state and local government where routine decisions can mean life or death for small- and medium-sized businesses. The book not only explains the building blocks of advocacy—targeting, tools, and tactics—but also applies them to specific, common challenges like seeking a variance or fighting an ordinance. Packed with examples and easily adaptable models, Be Your Own Lobbyist shows how even a small business can get a fair shake in the halls of government.
During the momentous events that shook Italy in 1860 as the nation was unified, there was a murderous riot in the Sicilian town of Bronte on the slopes of Mount Etna. Thereafter, Bronte became a symbol - of the limits of the liberal Risorgimento and of the persistence of foreign domination: descendants of Admiral Horatio Nelson had the largest landholding in the town and the British were said to have put pressure on Garibaldi to crush the uprising, which his lieutenant did with brutality. Lucy Riall has used the discovery of a new archive to transform brilliantly this episode into an ambitious exploration of much larger themes. Relaying an often brutal tale of poverty, injustice, and mismanagement, her powerful and engaging narrative also opens windows onto the true meaning of the British presence. Bronte's story becomes one that is also about Britain's policy towards Italy and Europe in the nineteenth century, and about colonial rule overseas in the age of Empire. It shows what happened when these two different aspects of British power bumped into each other in one Sicilian town.
Drawing upon insights from the natural and social sciences, this book puts forth a provocative new argument that the violent Islamist threat in Indonesia today derives its stubborn resilience from being in essence a complex, adaptive and self-organizing system - or what some specialists might even call a super-organism. The book challenges the popular assumption that ideology is the root cause that explains why Indonesian Islamists radicalize into violent extremism. In addition it addresses why despite years of intense security force pressure, seemingly disparate militant cells keep 'popping up' like the proverbial hydra - and in the apparent absence of a centralized coordinating body, nevertheless appear to display an organic interconnectivity with one another. Going beyond standard ideological mantras the book argues that fresh inter-disciplinary thinking is needed to cope with the constantly mutating violent Islamist challenge in Indonesia, and puts forth a comprehensive strategy for doing so. It will be of interest to academics and students of terrorism, religion and violence in the Southeast Asian region. |
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