This wide-ranging set of papers deals with crucial questions in economic theory, economic policy and economic history. The papers help explain why economic performance deteriorated dramatically in the West over the past three decades as the ''Golden Age'' of capitalism after World War II was replaced by global neoliberal capitalism. They show that theoretical frameworks rooted in the radical and heterodox traditions can explain this evolution and the current global economic and financial crisis, something mainstream theories cannot do. Topics include but are not limited to: methodology: a critique of ''positivism'' is used to explain why mainstream reliance on fairy-tale assumptions should be replaced by realistic assumption sets as argued by Marx and Keynes Marx, Keynes and Minsky on financial market instability versus mainstream theories of ''efficient'' financial markets how Keynes's assumption that the future is unknowable revolutionized not only macro theory but the micro theory of agent choice as well structural causes of the current global financial crisis how innovative theories of competition, globalization, capital investment and financialization inspired by Marx, Keynes and Schumpeter can be used to explain the crisis tendencies of neoliberal capitalism the influence of class conflict on economic policy, including in the current ''austerity'' regimes. The papers in this book should be of interest to most economists and can be used in both graduate and upper level undergraduate courses. Many of these papers are accessible to anyone who reads the business press.

This wide-ranging set of papers deals with crucial questions in economic theory, economic policy and economic history. The papers help explain why economic performance deteriorated dramatically in the West over the past three decades as the ''Golden Age'' of capitalism after World War II was replaced by global neoliberal capitalism. They show that theoretical frameworks rooted in the radical and heterodox traditions can explain this evolution and the current global economic and financial crisis, something mainstream theories cannot do. Topics include but are not limited to: methodology: a critique of ''positivism'' is used to explain why mainstream reliance on fairy-tale assumptions should be replaced by realistic assumption sets as argued by Marx and Keynes Marx, Keynes and Minsky on financial market instability versus mainstream theories of ''efficient'' financial markets how Keynes's assumption that the future is unknowable revolutionized not only macro theory but the micro theory of agent choice as well structural causes of the current global financial crisis how innovative theories of competition, globalization, capital investment and financialization inspired by Marx, Keynes and Schumpeter can be used to explain the crisis tendencies of neoliberal capitalism the influence of class conflict on economic policy, including in the current ''austerity'' regimes. The papers in this book should be of interest to most economists and can be used in both graduate and upper level undergraduate courses. Many of these papers are accessible to anyone who reads the business press.

Socrates famously claimed that he knew nothing, and that wisdom consisted in awareness of one's ignorance. In Ignorance, Irony and Knowledge in Plato, Kevin Crotty makes the case for the centrality and fruitfulness of Socratic ignorance throughout Plato's philosophical career. Knowing that you don't know is more than a maxim of intellectual humility; Plato shows how it lies at the basis of all the virtues, and inspires dialogue, the best and most characteristic activity of the philosophical life. Far from being simply a lack or deficit, ignorance is a necessary constituent of genuine knowledge. Crotty explores the intricate ironies involved in the paradoxical relationship of ignorance and knowledge. He argues, further, that Plato never abandoned the historical Socrates to pursue his own philosophical agenda. Rather, his philosophical career can be largely understood as a progressive deepening of his appreciation of Socratic ignorance. Crotty presents Plato as a forerunner of the scholarly interest in ignorance that has gathered force in a wide variety of disciplines over the last 20 years.

This volume addresses a recurring and seemingly intractable problem of the U.S. political system: the nonparticipation of significant numbers of citizens in the political process. Specifically, the contributors explore the reasons why half of our eligible voters fail to exercise this most basic right, even in presidential elections. Among the questions the contributors explore are: Is there a fundamental and systematic basis in participation patterns? Does social condition, class status, and social identity relate to the likelihood of voting? Does political knowledge and information relate to participation? Do patterns of participation vary among minority and politically under-represented groups? By analyzing these and other topics related to political participation, the contributors shed new light on an issue that, until now, has received only modest attention in the social scientific literature. The volume is comprised of eight chapters, each examining a particular aspect of voter participation. Following an introduction that compares turnout rates in the United States with other countries, the contributors discuss how registration practices have served to depress participation, analyze the reasons for weak participation by under-represented groups, and present a theoretical and empirical evaluation of the factors that contribute to the decision to vote or not to vote. They go on to assess the Supreme Court's role in electoral participation patterns, whether the timing of elections influences participation, and the impact of electoral arrangements on participation. The concluding chapter evaluates the policy consequences of nonvoting and the potential effects of significantly higher voter turnout in future elections. An ideal set of readings for courses in American politics, this volume offers the most comprehensive treatment yet available of the issues surrounding voter participation in the United States.

In this illuminating examination of the Obama presidency, the contributors describe the policy directions followed, and the administration s level of success in achieving its objectives. Throughout the Obama administration, efforts were intended to alleviate the worst of the economic stress facing the nation, move the president closer to the center of the American political spectrum, and prepare for the upcoming reelection campaign, to be fought primarily on the same issues as the earlier one. The contributors present an analysis of the motivations and political thinking underlying the administration s action along with assessments of the policy consequences of the issue agenda favored and the public s reaction. The Obama Presidency is an in-depth account of one of the most intriguing and important presidencies at a time of economic crisis that goes a long way in explaining the policy decisions made and their political consequences, as well as the choices facing a nation in transition.

In this first scholarly reflection on the 2012 elections, a distinguished cast of contributors enlightens students, scholars, and serious political readers about the issues involved in one of the most polarised presidential elections in history. The book includes groundbreaking research on e-politics and online fund-raising, the role of race, class, and gender, and the influence of the Tea Party, Occupy, the economic crisis, and other actors and factors in the election. Characterised by diversity, liveliness, and data-informed analysis, Winning the Presidency 2012 captures the highlights as well as looking ahead.

The book puts the current interest in historical Jesus research into a proper historical context, highlighting Gnosticism's lasting influence on early Christianity and making the provocative claim that nearly all Christian Churches are in some way descended from Roman Christianity. Breaking with the accepted wisdom of Christianity's origins, the revised history it puts forward challenges the assumptions of Church and secular historians, biblical critics and general readers alike, with profound repercussions for scholarship, belief and practice.

The Presidential Election of 2020: Donald Trump and the Crisis of Democracy places the election of 2020 within the context of the Trump presidency, a chaotic and tense time in American politics and a dangerous one. The election is analyzed in depth and its meaning for the state of American society is made clear. A major theme in the book is a critique of Donald Trump's leadership, his incompetence in office, his appeal to followers and the danger this has proven to represent. Among other things, he was accused of mental instability during his presidency. Yet he received the second highest vote total in American history, exceeded only by winning candidate Joe Biden's. Trump was impeached twice for his actions in office but both times not held responsible for what he had done by a Republican-controlled Senate. The election is placed in an on-going context. It was followed by strenuous attempts by Trump and associates to have states reverse their results and declare him the winner and by the Trump-organized seditious assault on the Capitol in which five people died. The objective was to force Vice President Mike Pence, who was chairing a Joint Session of Congress, normally a formality, to instead reject the Electoral College vote outcome. Pence would not do it. His life and that of Speaker Nancy Pelosi were threatened by the rioters. The threat of a coup, a new development in American politics, and one led by Trump and others who share his views, remains. Meanwhile President Joe Biden in his efforts to reconstruct America has introduced the most ambitious policy agenda since the New Deal.

Written with personal insight, Sometimes We Drift: Poems of Regret, Ruination and Renewal, is a collection of poems in three parts, thematically different in their thrust and emphasis, suggesting a progression from pain to positivity on the bridge between near death of self, and the resurrection of the soul.

Introspection into the heart and mind, in an effort to become whole, exposes the vulnerability of even the strongest among us. As we question ourselves in love and in living, we validate the conflicts many of us face over and over again in our daily lives, including relationships and traumatic natural events over which we have no control.

Douglas Crotty allows us to see through the eyeglass of the human condition, examining the very heart of emotions in our struggle for redemption, in our choices, and in relationships with ourselves and others.

Through his conversational, emotional style, marked by sensitivity and clear imagery, he leads us to a realization of the unquestionable significance of positivity and mindfulness in one's triumph over hopelessness and the damaging realities of life.

The City-State of the Soul: Self-Constitution in Plato's Republic explores Plato's idea that the moral life consists in the founding of one's own soul. This insight is central to the long argument of the Republic and, in particular, to the complex relation between the city and the human soul. This fruitful picture of the moral life, however, has not received the attention it deserves. As Kevin M. Crotty argues, Plato's distinctive insight is that justice is above all a creative force. Plato presents justice not as a relation amongst fully formed individuals, but rather as the quality that galvanizes a diverse welter of disparate parts into a coherent entity (above all, a soul or a city). Justice, then, is the virtue most closely associated with being-the source of its philosophical stature. Plato presents a conception of justice meant to impress the young, bright and ambitious as a noble pursuit, and a task worthy of their best talents. The City-State of the Soul is written for anyone interested in the Republic, including but not limited to students and scholars of ancient philosophy, political philosophy, ethics, and ancient Greek literature.

In this illuminating examination of the Obama presidency, the contributors describe the policy directions followed, and the administration's level of success in achieving its objectives. Throughout the Obama administration, efforts were intended to alleviate the worst of the economic stress facing the nation, move the president closer to the center of the American political spectrum, and prepare for the upcoming reelection campaign, to be fought primarily on the same issues as the earlier one. The contributors present an analysis of the motivations and political thinking underlying the administration's action along with assessments of the policy consequences of the issue agenda favored and the public's reaction. The Obama Presidency is an in-depth account of one of the most intriguing and important presidencies at a time of economic crisis that goes a long way in explaining the policy decisions made and their political consequences, as well as the choices facing a nation in transition.

America's Choice 2000 attempts to make sense of the longest running, most fiercely contested and, ultimately, closest race in the history of presidential elections. What had been an earnest if predictable general election campaign morphed into a post-election day series of controversies that tested the nation's electoral processes, its courts, and its democratic culture. Eventually, of course, a winner was declared and the nation went about its business, however not before fundamental questions were raised as to the nature of the vote and voter intent and both the standards and processes used to decide elections. These issues will be with us for years to come. By any standard, it was a historic election whose full consequences are yet to be appreciated.America's Choice 2000 carefully sifts through the competing claims and strategies, reviews what occurred and offers some assessments as to the quality of the campaign, the nature of the final decision and the meaning this has to the nation. Crotty includes chapters devoted to the Courts' unprecedented role in Election 2000, an examination of the public opinion during the key events of the general campaign, as well as a chapter detailing the results of key state and local elections as well as the congressional races.

Sport and war have been closely linked in Australian and New Zealand society since the nineteenth century. Sport has, variously, been advocated as appropriate training for war, lambasted as a distraction from the war effort, and resorted to as an escape from wartime trials and tribulations. War has limited the fortunes of some sporting codes - and some individuals - while others have blossomed in the changed circumstances. The chapters in this book range widely over the broad subject of Australian and New Zealand sport and their relation to the cataclysmic world wars of the first half of the twentieth century. They examine the mythology of the links between sport and war, sporting codes, groups of sporting individuals, and individual sportspeople. Revealing complex and often unpredictable effects of total wars upon individuals and social groups which as always, created chaos, and the sporting field offered no exception. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

This report defines a set of strategy options, each with associated capabilities, gleaned from other leading think tank reports as well as the study team's analysis. The report identifies capability priorities for the 2021 and beyond security environment and recommends a force structure for a 2021 affordable military.

This report focuses on the ways that a federated defense approach can strengthen strategic partnerships and deliver more innovative defense technologies at a lower cost-by better harnessing global supply chain networks to expand the military supplier base and increase the net capability available to the network of partners and allies.

Understanding and measuring the different dimensions of soil health is key to achieving regenerative agriculture. There has been a wealth of research on developing better analytical techniques to measure the biological, physical and chemical properties of soils. Advances in measuring soil health reviews these developments and their implications for better management of farm soils. The volume begins by reviewing advances in measuring soil biological activity such as earthworms and fungi as indicators of soil health. The collection also surveys developments in measuring soil physical properties through advances in visual, imaging and geophysical techniques, as well as the methods used to measure chemical properties such as soil organic carbon. It concludes by looking at how measurement can be translated into farming practice through soil health indicators and decision support systems. With its distinguished editor and expert authors, Advances in measuring soil health will be a standard reference for university and other researchers in soil and crop science, government and other agencies responsible for the health of agricultural soils, companies providing soil monitoring services, and farmers wishing to know more about the latest developments in soil monitoring.

The late economic historian, Raymond Crotty, a specialist on economic development in Ireland, left a challenging work that addresses the processes of world history from the neolithic revoution up to the end of the 20th century. On the way, Crotty tried to explain phenomena as diverse as the role of pastoral migrations, India's holy cows, the decline of the Roman empire, feudalism, slavery, Britain's early modern development, the patterns of Western colonization, the lack of socio-economic development in the contemporary third world, and the developmental success of Japan and China. Crotty's interdisciplinary framework combines elements agricultural economics, nutritional science, development studies, and demography into a comprehensive theory of history that will challenge and intrigue historians, social scientists, and their students.

Construction projects involve a complex set of relationships, between parties with different professional backgrounds trying to achieve a very complex goal. Under these difficult circumstances, the quality of information on which projects are based should be of the highest possible standard. The line-based, two dimensional drawings on which conventional construction is based render this all but impossible. This is the source of some major shortcomings in the construction industry, and this book focuses on the two most fundamental of these: the failure to deliver projects predictably: to the required quality, on time and within budget; and the failure of most firms in the industry to make a survivable level of profit. By transforming the quality of information used in building, BIM aims to transform construction completely. After describing and explaining these problems, the way in which BIM promises to provide solutions is examined in detail. A discussion of the theory and practice of BIM is also provided, followed by a review of various recent surveys of BIM usage in the US, UK and selected European economies. The way in which other industries, including retail and manufacturing, have been transformed by information are explored and compared with current developments in the deployment of BIM in construction. Five case studies from the UK show how BIM is being implemented, and the effects it is having on architects and contractors. This book is perfect for any construction professional interested in improving the efficiency of their business, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students wishing to understand the importance of BIM.