The information age has revolutionized nearly every facet of human communication-from the ways in which people purchase products to how they meet and fall in love. These exciting new communication technologies can both unite and divide us. People who are separated by great distances can now communicate with each other in real time, whereas parents often find themselves competing with smartphones and tablets for their children's attention. This book explores the many ways that digital communication media, such as online forums, social networking sites, and mobile applications, enhance and constrain social support in health-related contexts. We already know a great deal about how the Internet has altered how people search for health information, but less about how people seek and receive social support in this new age of information, which is critical for maintaining our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.

The question of ignorance occupies a central place in anthropological theory and practice. This volume argues that the concept of ignorance has largely been pursued as the opposite of knowledge or even its obverse. Though they cover wide empirical ground - from clients of a fertility treatment center in New York to families grappling with suicide in Greenland - contributors share a commitment to understanding the concept as a productive, social practice. Ultimately, The Anthropology of Ignorance asks whether an academic commitment to knowledge can be squared with lived significance of ignorance and how taking it seriously might alter anthropological research practices.

The question of ignorance occupies a central place in anthropological theory and practice. This volume argues that the concept of ignorance has largely been pursued as the opposite of knowledge or even its obverse. Though they cover wide empirical ground - from clients of a fertility treatment center in New York to families grappling with suicide in Greenland - contributors share a commitment to understanding the concept as a productive, social practice. Ultimately, The Anthropology of Ignorance asks whether an academic commitment to knowledge can be squared with lived significance of ignorance and how taking it seriously might alter anthropological research practices.

Spearheaded by Harvey Washington Wiley, the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 launched the federal regulation of food and drugs in the United States. Wiley is often lauded as a champion of public interest for bringing about a law that required healthful ingredients and honest labeling. Clayton Coppin and Jack High demonstrate, however, that Wiley was in fact surreptitiously allied with business firms that would benefit from regulation and moreover, that the law would help him build his government agency, the Federal Bureau of Chemistry.
Coppin and High discuss such issues as Wiley's efforts to assign the law's enforcement to his own bureau. They go on to expose the selectivity of Wiley's enforcement of the law, in which he manipulated commercial competition in order to reward firms that supported him and penalize those that opposed him. By examining the history of the law's movement, the authors show that, rather than acting in the public interest, Wiley used the Pure Food and Drugs Act to further his own power and success. Finally, they analyze government regulation itself as the outcome of two distinct competitive processes, one that takes place in the market, the other in the polity.
The book will interest scholars concerned with government regulation, including those in economics, political science, history, and business.
Clayton Coppin is a management consultant and historian, Koch Industries, Wichita. Jack High is Professor of Economics, George Mason University.

Is government regulation of industry undertaken in the interest of the public, or is it controlled by big business for big business? In "Regulation," Jack High draws together six original essays on the theory and history of regulatory activity in the United States in a highly readable book that explores who benefits from regulation---and how.

"Regulation" makes the case for an interdisciplinary dialogue between economists and historians of regulation. The contributing scholars examine some of the most economically important industries in the country---airlines, utilities, telecommunications, sports, and food---and offer suggestive insights about intraindustry conflict, the interdependence of regulation and technology, the relationship of regulation to industry structure, and the "bureaucratic entrepreneurship" of regulators themselves. Since it is applied to real-world regulatory episodes, the economic theory presented is relevant and concrete; and the history, guided by the logic of theory, has direction and focus.

High introduces the volume with a broad survey of ideas about regulation since the turn of this century, marshalling the thoughts not only of academicians but of industry leaders such as William Randolph Hearst and journalists such as Joseph Pulitzer and H. L. Mencken. He traces parallel developments in the work of economists and historians of regulation throughout the twentieth century and points toward areas that need further interdisciplinary exploration.

"Regulation"'s avoidance of discipline-specific jargon will make it accessible and appealing to a wide audience, from government and academic specialists in regulation to more general readers. All will be treated to a more complete and informed understanding of trends and forces in American regulatory policy.