This book is a contribution to the contemporary debate about how Americans can take an active part in shaping their lives and communities. In it the authors show some possibilities for meaningful social action at a time when many Americans seem disillusioned about their prospects for influencing events and policies. The authors produce a work that reveals what it is like to think seriously in collaboration with others, inviting readers into the work as partners. Contents: INTRODUCTION: Taking Parts in a Conversation About Leadership. INGREDIENTS FOR LEADERSHIP. Leadership as Practical Wisdom: The Parable of Lincoln, Michael A. Leiserson; Rating the Presidents for Greatness: What Role Does Crisis Play?, Frank B. Costello, S.J.; Ignatius: Wisdom Through Discernment, Patrick B. O'Leary, S.J.; Perceval: From Naivete to Wisdom, Peter B. Ely, S.J. INGREDIENTS FOR PARTICIPATION. 'But Trusted Servants: ' A Meditation on the A.A. Conception of Leadership, Thomas M. Jeannot; A Democratic Model of Leadership: Politics in an All Female Community, Eloise A. Buker; Italian/American Women Writers: Family Shapes Community, Mary Jo Bona; Learning To Lead, Jane A. Rinehart. INGREDIENTS FOR EMPOWERMENT. Making School Real: Leadership in the Classroom, Julie Tammivaara; Careful Mutuality: Leadership and Friendship in the Workplace, Rose Mary Volbrecht; We Need Not Be Ruled By Leaders: The Early Town Meetings, Robert Waterman; A Lesson for Citizens, Blaine Garvin

"Ardent Spirit" covers the full range of the temperance idea in America, beginning in the early seventeenth century and continuing through the prohibition years, 1919-1933. Using a wide variety of sources, Kobler quotes the amusing and often startling comments relating to the efforts of prohibitionists and lawmakers, so that the speakeasies, the rum-running, the bootleggers, and the gang wars all come vividly to life. Here too are portraits of eccentrics, instant millionaires, law enforcement officers, and murderers--all part of the Noble Experiment which proved to be one of the most tragicomic sagas in American history.

Throughout the history of the USSR, groups of like-minded people have gathered, without official permission, to discuss issues of common interest. They had their predecessors in prerevolutionary voluntary associations and political parties. During the 1960s it became easier and less dangerous than in the previous period of Stalin's rule to engage in activities outside government control. Indeed, since the de-Stalinization campaign in the 1950s, Soviet society has been slowly asserting its independence, at least in areas nominally nonpolitical. Nevertheless, until Gorbachev's drive for liberalization achieved some momentum, the creation of unsanctioned groups often continued to provoke persecution of their members. In this book, Vera Tolz studies these unsanctioned groups and reveals the effect they are having on the Soviet political system. In 1990, primarily because of pressure from these unofficial movements, the Communist party was forced to relinquish its constitutionally guaranteed monopoly on power. In other words, a multiparty system had emerged in the USSR by the end of the period under observation in this book. From the time that voluntary associations of Soviet people were permitted to emerge from the underground and openly participate in official public life (1987), their role in the political and social life of the country has been rapidly expanding. By 1989, new sociopolitical groups, especially in the Baltic republics and Transcaucasia, started to pose not only a challenge but also a threat to the power of the Communist party. The emergence of a multiparty system in the Soviet Union, with various political groups pursuing different--and at times opposing--goals, is coinciding with a period during which the central authorities are being inconsistent in implementing democratic reforms. Representatives of new movements are often politically inexperienced, and the Communist party is facing a serious crisis, which makes the political situation in the Soviet Union highly unpredictable and highlights the difficulties that the country faces in moving toward a more democratic system

Many communities in the United States have been abandoned by the state. What happens when natural disasters add to their misery? This book looks at the broken relationship between the federal government and civil society in times of crises. Mutual aid has gained renewed importance in providing relief when hurricanes, floods and pandemics hit, as cuts to state spending put significant strain on communities struggling to survive. Harking back to the self-organised welfare programmes of the Black Panther Party, radical social movements from Occupy to Black Lives Matter are building autonomous aid networks within and against the state. However, as the federal responsibility for relief is lifted, mutual aid faces a profound dilemma: do ordinary people become complicit in their own exploitation? Reframing disaster relief through the lens of social reproduction, Peer Illner tracks the shifts in American emergency aid, from the economic crises of the 1970s to the Covid-19 pandemic, raising difficult questions about mutual aid's double-edged role in cuts to social spending. As sea levels rise, climate change worsens and new pandemics sweep the globe, Illner's analysis of the interrelations between the state, the market and grassroots initiatives will prove indispensable.

American democracy was never supposed to give the nation a president like Donald Trump. We have never had a president who gave rise to such widespread alarm about his lack of commitment to the institutions of self-government, to the norms democracy requires, and to the need for basic knowledge about how government works. We have never had a president who raises profound questions about his basic competence and his psychological capacity to take on the most challenging political office in the world. Yet if Trump is both a threat to our democracy and a product of its weaknesses, the citizen activism he has inspired is the antidote. The reaction to the crisis created by Trump's presidency can provide the foundation for an era of democratic renewal and vindicate our long experiment in self-rule. The award-winning authors of One Nation After Trump explain Trump's rise and the danger his administration poses to our free institutions. They also offer encouragement to the millions of Americans now experiencing a new sense of citizenship and engagement and argue that our nation needs a unifying alternative to Trump's dark and divisive brand of politics - an alternative rooted in a New Economy, a New Patriotism, a New Civil Society, and a New Democracy. One Nation After Trump is the essential book for our era, an unsparing assessment of the perils facing the United States and an inspiring roadmap for how we can reclaim the future.

Q. What's worth GBP2,000,000,000, answers to no-one and operates out of public sight? A. Britain's influence industry The corporate takeover of democracy is no conspiracy theory - it's happening, and it affects every aspect of our lives: the food we eat, the places we live, the temperature of our planet, how we spend our money and how our money is spent for us. And much more. A Quiet Word shows just how effectively the voice of public interest is being drowned out by the word in the ear from the professional persuaders of the lobbying industry. And if you've never heard about them, that's because the most effective lobbying goes unnoticed. A Quiet Word shines the brightest of lights into one of the darkest and least-understood corners of our political culture. It is essential, urgent, authoritative reading for anyone interested in our democracy and where this country is heading. And by showing how influence is constructed, it puts power back in your hands.

The gripping story of Private Bradley Manning, the soldier who is alleged to have leaked nearly half a million classified documents.

Bradley Manning was arrested, imprisoned in solitary confinement for nine months, and court-martialled for leaking nearly half a million classified government documents, including the infamous “Collateral Murder” gunsight video. He was an intelligence analyst in the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division, is twenty-four, and comes from Crescent, Oklahoma.

But who is Private First Class Bradley Manning? Why did he commit the largest security breach in American history—and why was it so easy? In this book, the astonishing leaks attributed to Bradley Manning are viewed from many angles, from Tunisia to Guantánamo Bay, from Foggy Bottom to Baghdad to small-town Oklahoma. Around the world, the eloquent act of one young man obliges citizens to ask themselves if they have the right to know what their government is doing.

With Congress more partisan than ever, the White House eager to mobilize group support, the appropriations process in flux, and important interest group litigation in the courts, this volume confirms that navigating the complex world of inside-the-beltway politics is especially tricky. For interest groups, the name of the game is access. The Interest Group Connection's twenty chapters show how organized interests gain that access in Washington. Brief and accessible readings explore the connections between lobbyists' influence and American policymaking institutions and processes, as well as the crucial role interest groups play in organizing constituencies, protecting their rights, and giving them entree into the political process. Given the current environment-new campaign finance laws, the prevalence of "527" committees, and a near-even electoral environment-the second edition provides an inside look at a changed political world.

This book considers the ways in which working people in the nineteenth century sought justice through the Chartist movement. Richard Brown poses fundamental questions about the movement and considers them through the interpretations of both contemporary and later historians. Central themes and episodes covered include a study of the emergence of Chartism, the Chartists and their leaders and an account of the three phases of Chartism from 1836 to 1848.

As the life expectancy of the average American continues to increase and the baby-boom generation moves toward retirement, the near future will see ever larger numbers of older citizens whose welfare and guarantees of equity and social justice are the subjects of heated debate in Washington. In recent years Medicare, Social Security, and other federal programs that aid older Americans have come under attack by political conservatives who claim that such programs drain the budget at the expense of people under age 65. At this critical period in the history of the senior rights movement, Lawrence Alfred Powell, John B. Williamson, and Kenneth J. Branco provide a comprehensive and enlightening analysis of the dynamics of aging-policy reform and its development over the past two centuries. Using examples of political rhetoric and media images dating from colonial days to the present, they trace the conflict between progressive senior-rights advocates and conservative opponents of reform in order to frame the debate over societal definitions of fairness and social justice in old age, emphasizing the role played by symbolic politics in these struggles. Their account underscores the importance of the symbolic gestures and countergestures that have been used by both senior-rights advocates and their opponents to influence the direction of events and to sway public opinion on aging issues.