In "American Labor and American Democracy," William English Walling drew on his close association with Samuel Gompers and other leaders of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to write the authoritative history of the labor movement in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Walling's position was that twentieth-century American democracy was not stagnant. It was a living, developing trend in society, with the AFL as its most progressive force. There could be no passive acceptance of American institutions as they stood: government in the twentieth century would need to develop into a medium for attaining social ideals and needs beyond individual realization. The aim of American labor was a pluralistic economic democracy in which government and industry would be guided by economic organizations representing not only labor, but every essential social group. Richard Schneirov, in his introduction to this new edition of a classic book, paints a rich and detailed picture of Walling's political and intellectual journey, and of his many contributions to the synthesis of democratic and socialist principles. "American Labor and American Democracy" is an important work that will help reevaluate our understanding of labor and working-class history, establish a new perspective on today's labor movement, and shed light on the relationship of labor to socialism, capitalism, democracy, and social movements; the nature of the large business corporation; and the relationship of special interest groups to democracy. William English Walling (1877-1936) was a social reform activist who helped found the National Women's Trade Union League in 1903 and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909. He authored several influential works, including "Socialism as it Is: A Survey of the World-Wide Revolutionary Movement," "The Larger Aspects of Socialism," "Progessivism and After," and "The Socialists and the War." Richard Schneirov is professor of history at Indiana State University, and has also taught at The Ohio State University and the Institut f3r England und Amerikastudien at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. He is the author of "Labor and Urban Politics: Class Conflict and the Origins of Modern Liberalism in Chicago, 1864-97," which was awarded the Urban History Association's prize for best urban history in North America for 1998 and co-edited "The Pullman Strike and the Crisis of the 1890s."

A startling and gripping novel, Suzy, Suzy follows a teenage girl trying to understand the chaos of her family life. Suzy lives in a dysfunctional household. She can't stand her mother; her father is keeping secrets; and her brother only seems to egg on their parents' erratic and unpredictable behaviour. Alongside her friends, Suzy finds herself drawn into the downward spiral of her parents' relationship, and as a result is drawn into the centre of a mystery surrounding a murder. Forced to make impossible choices, Suzy must navigate the increasingly disturbing antics of her family and the oddities of the mystery she finds herself involved in, while also trying to survive the horrors of secondary school. Narrated by a troubled young woman, the novel weaves a tale of secrets, lies and betrayal in the pressure cooker of her formative years. William Wall is an underrated Irish master with a powerful, distinctive writing style, and an uncanny ability to create astonishingly complex and well-realised female protagonists.

Seven years in the making, the themes of this book - politics, desire, terror, love, loss, and flight - have powerful resonance today, after Ireland's disastrous economic crash. It takes its title from the vast developments of surplus houses all over Ireland, built in the glory of the Celtic Tiger, and now eerily empty. William Wall is the author of two previous collections of poetry, four novels, and a volume of short fiction. He has won numerous prizes including the Patrick Kavanagh Award and the Listowel Writers' Week prize, and been nominated for many more, including the Man Booker Prize.

In this collection of interconnected stories, the beautiful and ravaging forces of sea and land collide with the forces of human nature, through isolation and family, love and loss, madness and revelation. The stories follow the lives of two sisters and the people who come and go in their lives, much like the tides. Dominated by the tragic loss of a third sister at a young age, their family spirals out of control. We witness three stages of the sisters' lives, each taking place on an island - in southwest Ireland, southern England, and the Bay of Naples. Beautifully and sparsely written, the stories deeply evoke landscape and character, and are suffused with a keen eye for detail and metaphor.