Books & eBooks
Dangerously Divided by ISBN: 9781108487009Publication Date: 2020As America has become more racially diverse and economic inequality has increased, American politics has also become more clearly divided by race and less clearly divided by class. In this landmark book, Zoltan L. Hajnal draws on sweeping data to assess the political impact of the two most significant demographic trends of last fifty years. Examining federal and local elections over many decades, as well as policy, Hajnal shows that race more than class or any other demographic factor shapes not only how Americans vote but also who wins and who loses when the votes are counted and policies are enacted. America has become a racial democracy, with non-Whites and especially African Americans regularly on the losing side. A close look at trends over time shows that these divisions are worsening, yet also reveals that electing Democrats to office can make democracy more even and ultimately reduce inequality in well-being.
The Great Broadening by ISBN: 9780226625805Publication Date: 2019Beginning in the late 1950s and continuing through the 1970s, the United States experienced a vast expansion in national policy making. During this period, the federal government extended its scope into policy arenas previously left to civil society or state and local governments. With The Great Broadening, Bryan D. Jones, Sean M. Theriault, and Michelle Whyman examine in detail the causes, internal dynamics, and consequences of this extended burst of activity. They argue that the broadening of government responsibilities into new policy areas such as health care, civil rights, and gender issues and the increasing depth of existing government programs explain many of the changes in America politics since the 1970s. Increasing government attention to particular issues was motivated by activist groups. In turn, the beneficiaries of the government policies that resulted became supporters of the government's activity, leading to the broad acceptance of its role. This broadening and deepening of government, however, produced a reaction as groups critical of its activities organized to resist and roll back its growth.
John F. Kennedy and the Liberal Persuasion by ISBN: 9781611863048Publication Date: 2019The first serious study of his discourse in nearly a quarter century, John F. Kennedy and the Liberal Persuasion examines the major speeches of Kennedy's presidency, from his famed but controversial inaugural address to his belated but powerful demand for civil rights. It argues that his eloquence flowed from his capacity to imagine anew the American liberal tradition--Kennedy insisted on the intrinsic moral worth of each person, and his language sought to make that ideal real in public life. This book focuses on that language and argues that presidential words matter. Kennedy's legacy rests in no small part on his rhetoric, and here Murphy maintains that Kennedy's words made him a most consequential president. By grounding the study of these speeches both in the texts themselves and in their broader linguistic and historical contexts, the book draws a new portrait of President Kennedy, one that not only recognizes his rhetorical artistry but also places him in the midst of public debates with antagonists and allies, including Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, Richard Russell, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy. Ultimately this book demonstrates how Kennedy's liberal persuasion defined the era in which he lived and offers a powerful model for Americans today.
When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People by ISBN: 9780226700335Publication Date: 2023-07-06A deep and thought-provoking examination of crisis politics and their implications for power and marginalization in the United States. From the climate crisis to the opioid crisis to the Coronavirus crisis, the language of crisis is everywhere around us and ubiquitous in contemporary American politics and policymaking. But for every problem that political actors describe as a crisis, there are myriad other equally serious ones that are not described in this way. Why has the term crisis been associated with some problems but not others? What has crisis come to mean, and what work does it do? In When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People, Dara Z. Strolovitch brings a critical eye to the taken-for-granted political vernacular of crisis. Using systematic analyses to trace the evolution of the use of the term crisis by both political elites and outsiders, Strolovitch unpacks the idea of "crisis" in contemporary politics and demonstrates that crisis is itself an operation of politics. She shows that racial justice activists innovated the language of crisis in an effort to transform racism from something understood as natural and intractable and to cast it instead as a policy problem that could be remedied. Dominant political actors later seized on the language of crisis to compel the use of state power, but often in ways that compounded rather than alleviated inequality and injustice. In this eye-opening and important book, Strolovitch demonstrates that understanding crisis politics is key to understanding the politics of racial, gender, and class inequalities in the early twenty-first century.
A Promised Land by ISBN: 9781524763183Publication Date: 2020In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency--a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune's Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective--the story of one man's bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of "hope and change," and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making.
Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics by ISBN: 1438141874Publication Date: 2014Praise for the previous edition:Honor Book, 2008 (Social Studies, Grades 7-12 category)--Society of School Librarians InternationalBest of Reference, 2009--The New York Public Library...a solid reference...Highly recommended especially for high school, college and public library shelves.--Midwest Book Review ...comprehensive, easy-to-use, and clearly written...An excellent resource.--School Library Journal...an excellent overview...recommended for high-school, academic, and public libraries and will be very useful for the casual reader as well as the scholar.--Booklist ...fascinating...Ease of use and the phenomenal breadth of this resource make it a great choice for middle and high school students.--SLJ Curriculum Connections...essential for any women's studies collection...indispensable...Highly Recommended.--Library Media Connection, starred reviewRecommended.--ChoiceEncyclopedia of Women and American Politics, Second Edition contains all the material a reader needs to understand the role of women throughout America's political history. This informative A-to-Z volume contains hundreds of entries covering the people, events, and terms involved in the history of women and politics.Entries include:AbortionJane AddamsThe birth control movementHillary Rodham ClintonDomestic violenceEqual Rights Amendment (ERA)Gabrielle GiffordsGlass ceilingLeague of Women VotersMichelle ObamaJacqueline Kennedy OnassisSonia SotomayorElizabeth Warrenand many more.
Encyclopedia of American Government and Civics, Second Edition by ISBN: 1438141858Publication Date: 2017Articles herein address not only basic subjects covered in the study of American government -- from the Bill of Rights through voting processes--but also a wide range of contemporary issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and Social Security.
American Government by ISBN: 9781071816899Publication Date: 2021Carefully condensed from the full version by Scott Abernathy, American Government, Brief Edition, gives your students all the information they need--and the stories they relate to--in a more concise, value-oriented package.
Divided We Stand by ISBN: 9781538141533Publication Date: 2021Continuing a R&L tradition now entering its fourth decade, this book provides the most comprehensive and authoritative account of the national 2020 election, including the presidential nomination process and general election, and congressional and state elections. Andrew E. Busch and John J. Pitney Jr. revisit the campaigns and results through the short lens of politics today and the long lens of American political history. With its keen insights into the issues and events that drove the 2020 elections, Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics will be an invaluable resource for students and all political observers seeking to understand a historic election that will continue to resonate throughout American politics for many years to come.
How to Survive America by ISBN: 9780063072756Publication Date: 2021Legendary comedian D.L. Hughley uses his "hilarious yet soul-shaking" (Black Enterprise) humor to confront racism's unjust impact on the health and wellbeing of Blacks and minorities White people love survival guides. But have you noticed they're always about ridiculous activities in locations far from home, with chapters like "How to Survive an Avalanche" or "How to Live on Bugs in the Jungle." Huh?! You know who really needs a survival guide? Black and brown Americans. For surviving their own damn country! Minority populations wake up every day in a battle for their health and safety. Thankfully, legendary activist-comedian D.L. Hughley offers How to Survive America, a fearless satire that exposes racism's unjust toll on our bodies and minds. Even before COVID-19 disproportionately impacted minority communities, life expectancy for Blacks was a full three years less than for white Americans. The very air we breathe is more polluted, our water is more contaminated, our local food options are toxic, and our jobs are underpaid. Despite the obvious need, the quality of our health care is tragically inadequate. Our communities are statistically less safe than the average, and yet we're terrorized by the law-enforcement and criminal-justice systems that are supposed to protect us, sending Blacks to prison at five times the rate of whites. Not least, our means of addressing these injustices--voting--is perennially under assault. It's enough to drive you crazy. Well, guess what? According to Cigna, Blacks are 20 percent more likely to report "psychological distress" yet "50 percent less likely to receive counseling or mental health treatment." It's almost like the entire country has been structured with no regard for our welfare. Hmmm. Whether you're Black, white, brown, or Asian, don't leave home without arming yourself with How to Survive America!
After the Fall by ISBN: 9781984856050Publication Date: 2021NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Why is democracy so threatened in America and around the world? And what can we do about it? A former White House aide and close confidant to President Barack Obama--and the author of The World as It Is--travels the globe in a deeply personal, beautifully observed quest for answers. In 2017, as Ben Rhodes was helping Barack Obama begin his next chapter, the legacy they had worked to build for eight years was being taken apart. To understand what was happening in America, Rhodes decided to look outward. Over the next three years, he traveled to dozens of countries, meeting with politicians, activists, and dissidents confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that was tearing America apart. Along the way, a Russian opposition leader he spoke with was poisoned, the Hong Kong protesters he came to know saw their movement snuffed out, and America itself reached the precipice of losing democracy before giving itself a second chance. Part memoir and part reportage, After the Fall is a hugely ambitious and essential work of discovery. In his travels, Rhodes comes to realize how much America's fingerprints are on a world we helped to shape, through our post-Cold War embrace of unbridled capitalism and our post-9/11 nationalism and militarism; our mania for technology and social media; and the racism that fueled the backlash to America's first Black president. At the same time, Rhodes learns from the stories of a diverse set of characters--from Barack Obama himself to Cuban rebels to a rising generation of international leaders--that looking squarely at where America has gone wrong makes clear how essential it is to fight for what America is supposed to be, for our own country and the entire world.
A Time of Fear by ISBN: 9780525644293Publication Date: 2021From National Book Award Finalist and Sibert Honor Author Albert Marrin, a timely examination of Red Scares in the United States, including the Rosenbergs, the Hollywood Ten and the McCarthy era. From National Book Award Finalist and Sibert Honor Author Albert Marrin, a timely examination of Red Scares in the United States, including the Rosenbergs, the Hollywood Ten and the McCarthy era. In twentieth century America, no power--and no threat--loomed larger than the communist superpower of the Soviet Union. America saw in the dreams of the Soviet Union the overthrow of the US government, and the end of democracy and freedom. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the United States attempted to use deep economic and racial disparities in American culture to win over members and sympathizers. From the miscarriage of justice in the Scotsboro Boys case, to the tragedy of the Rosenbergs to the theatrics of the Hollywood Ten to the menace of the Joseph McCarthy and his war hearings, Albert Marrin examines a unique time in American history...and explores both how some Americans were lured by the ideals of communism without understanding its reality and how fear of communist infiltration at times caused us to undermine our most deeply held values. The questions he raises ask- What is worth fighting for? And what are you willing to sacrifice to keep it? Filled with black and white photographs throughout, this timely book from an award-author brings to life an important and dramatic era in American history with lessons that are deeply relevant today.
