Wednesday, August 31, 2011

6,000 Years of Housing, Revised and Expanded Edition

6,000 Years of Housing, Revised and Expanded Edition Review



The fascinating evolution of house forms from the Stone Age to the present.

[T]his fascinating survey...any designer or builder who deals with housing would find a use for this book.' —Fine Homebuilding

'This is as essential reference to anyone in the field of housing, beautifully illustrated in the hand of the author.' —Moshe Safdie and Associates, Inc.

Part architecture, part history, and part anthropology, this encyclopedic book limns the story of housing around the world from the pre-urban dwellings of nomadic, semi-nomadic, and sedentary agricultural societies to the present. Ancient urban dwellings were inward-looking, ranged around a courtyard. Until fairly recently, these dwelling types survived in indigenous urban house forms in the Islamic world, India, China, and the Iberian peninsula and Latin America. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, however, outward-looking house forms replaced the ancient form in most of Europe and the New World.

In the Middle Ages houses served both as homes and as places of work, but gradually the domestic and business lives of the inhabitants became separate. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, profound changes in the residential development of the western world occurred: housing became segregated along socioeconomic lines and dwelling types polarized, with low-density, single-family houses at one extreme, and tall, high-density, multifamily tenements and apartments at the other. Side effects of America’s automobile-intensive suburban dream housing include inefficient land use, pollution, and urban decay. 6,000 Years of Housing chronicles how this came about, and suggests solutions based on a rich variety of historical precedents.


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War

Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War Review



Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War Feature

  • ISBN13: 9780812240665
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

In an age of new threats to international security, the old rules of war are rapidly being discarded. The great powers are moving toward norms less restrictive of intervention, preemption, and preventive war. This evolution is taking place not only in the United States but also in many of the world's most powerful nations, including Russia, France, and Japan, among others. As centuries of tradition and law are overturned, will preventive warfare push the world into chaos?

Eve of Destruction is a provocative contribution to a growing international debate over the acceptance of preventive military action. In the first work to identify the trends that have led to a coming age of preventive war, Thomas M. Nichols uses historical analysis as well as interviews with military officials from around the world to trace the anticipatory use of force from the early 1990s—when the international community responded to a string of humanitarian crises in Somalia, Bosnia, and Kosovo—to today's current and potential actions against rogue states and terrorists. He makes a case for a bold reform of U.S. foreign policy, and of the United Nations Security Council itself, in order to avert outright anarchy.


Sunday, August 28, 2011

Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth: A Manual for Participation

Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth: A Manual for Participation Review



Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth is a practical manual on how to conceptualize, structure and facilitate the participation of young people in the community development process. It is an important tool for urban planners, municipal officials, community development staff, non-governmental organizations, educators, youth-serving agencies, youth advocates, and others who are involved in the community development process. It offers inspiration to all who believe in the value of community education and empowerment as a fundamental building block of a vibrant and resilient civil society, and those who feel concern for young people and the quality of their lives. The manual's core ideas and methods have been field-tested in a wide range of urban settings in both developing and industrialized cities through the work of the UNESCO Growing Up in Cities project. Case studies from project sites help to demonstrate the methods in action and show how they can be customized to meet local needs. They provide lessons and insights to help ensure a successful project, and highlight the universal applicability and value of young people's participation.


Saturday, August 27, 2011

Astropolitik: Classical Geopolitics in the Space Age (Strategy and History)

Astropolitik: Classical Geopolitics in the Space Age (Strategy and History) Review



This volume identifies and evaluates the relationship between outer-space geography and geographic position (astrogeography), and the evolution of current and future military space strategy. In doing so, it explores five primary propositions.


Thursday, August 25, 2011

System Effects

System Effects Review



Based on more than three decades of observation, Robert Jervis concludes in this provocative book that the very foundations of many social science theories--especially those in political science--are faulty. Taking insights from complexity theory as his point of departure, the author observes that we live in a world where things are interconnected, where unintended consequences of our actions are unavoidable and unpredictable, and where the total effect of behavior is not equal to the sum of individual actions. Jervis draws on a wide range of human endeavors to illustrate the nature of these system effects. He shows how increasing airport security might actually cost lives, not save them, and how removing dead trees (ostensibly to give living trees more room) may damage the health of an entire forest. Similarly, he highlights the interconnectedness of the political world as he describes how the Cold War played out and as he narrates the series of events--with their unintended consequences--that escalated into World War I.

The ramifications of developing a rigorous understanding of politics are immense, as Jervis demonstrates in his critique of current systemic theories of international politics--especially the influential work done by Kenneth Waltz. Jervis goes on to examine various types of negative and positive feedback, bargaining in different types of relationships, and the polarizing effects of alignments to begin building a foundation for a more realistic, more nuanced, theory of international politics. System Effects concludes by examining what it means to act in a system. It shows how political actors might modify their behavior in anticipation of system effects, and it explores how systemic theories of political behavior might account for the role of anticipation and strategy in political action. This work introduces powerful new concepts that will reward not only international relations theorists, but also all social scientists with interests in comparative politics and political theory.


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

New Century, New Deal: How to Turn Your Wages into Wealth Through Social Security Choice

New Century, New Deal: How to Turn Your Wages into Wealth Through Social Security Choice Review



When it comes to your retirement, do you want an I.O.U. from Washington, or a secure investment account that you own and control?

For you to retire with a nest egg worth million or more, you don't need to be a quiz show genius. You don't need to win a lottery jackpot. And you don't need to get lucky in Las Vegas. What you do need is a far better return on your money than Social Security provides today.

You need the freedom to invest part of your Social Security taxes in the

real American economy through your own personal retirement account.

It's your money - shouldn't it be your choice?

This is the bold, provocative premise offered by Wade Dokken, CEO of a billion financial services company. With two decades of experience helping people save and invest for retirement, Dokken explains your enormous personal stake in saving Social Security.

"Short of war, no issue government can affect will touch the lives of more Americans than reforming Social Security," writes Dokken, a Baby Boomer. "It is the single most important personal finance issue of our time, and the time for change has come."

Dokken articulates the power of personal retirement accounts and why such accounts are fair and effective and are already improving the quality of life for workers around the world.

A lifelong Democrat, Dokken also writes the first book of its kind - one that sharply criticizes his own party's resistance to Social Security Choice and warns the Democratic leadership to embrace change or risk being swept out of power. Refreshingly idealistic and remarkably realistic, New Century, New Deal is a clarion call to build upon FDR's 20th century institution with a 21st century sense of innovation and imagination.

If you pay Social Security taxes, this is your handbook for the future.


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements

Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements Review



Emotions are back. Once at the center of the study of politics, emotions have receded into the shadows during the past three decades, with no place in the rationalistic, structural, and organizational models that dominate academic political analysis.

With this new collection of essays, Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, and Francesca Polletta reverse this trend, reincorporating emotions such as anger, indignation, fear, disgust, joy, and love into research on politics and social protest. The tools of cultural analysis are especially useful for probing the role of emotions in politics, the editors and contributors to Passionate Politics argue. Moral outrage, the shame of spoiled collective identities, or the joy of imagining a new and better society, are not automatic responses to events. Rather, they are related to moral institutions, felt obligations and rights, and information about expected effects, all of which are culturally and historically variable.

With its look at the history of emotions in social thought, examination of the internal dynamics of protest groups, and exploration of the emotional dynamics that arise from interactions and conflicts among political factions and individuals, Passionate Politics will lead the way toward an overdue reconsideration of the role of emotions in social movements and politics generally.

Contributors:
Rebecca Anne Allahyari
Edwin Amenta
Collin Barker
Mabel Berezin
Craig Calhoun
Randall Collins
Frank Dobbin
Jeff Goodwin
Deborah B. Gould
Julian McAllister Groves
James M. Jasper
Anne Kane
Theodore D. Kemper
Sharon Erickson Nepstad
Steven Pfaff
Francesca Polletta
Christian Smith
Arlene Stein
Nancy Whittier
Elisabeth Jean Wood
Michael P. Young


Monday, August 22, 2011

Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico

Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Mexico Review



Through lively, engaging narrative, Understories demonstrates how volatile politics of race, class, and nation animate the notoriously violent struggles over forests in the southwestern United States. Rather than reproduce traditional understandings of nature and environment, Jake Kosek shifts the focus toward material and symbolic “natures,” seemingly unchangeable essences central to formations of race, class, and nation that are being remade not just through conflicts over resources but also through everyday practices by Chicano activists, white environmentalists, and state officials as well as nuclear scientists, heroin addicts, and health workers. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork and extensive archival research, he shows how these contentious natures are integral both to environmental politics and the formation of racialized citizens, politicized landscapes, and modern regimes of rule.

Kosek traces the histories of forest extraction and labor exploitation in northern New Mexico, where Hispano residents have forged passionate attachments to place. He describes how their sentiments of dispossession emerged through land tenure systems and federal management programs that remade forest landscapes as exclusionary sites of national and racial purity. Fusing fine-grained ethnography with insights gleaned from cultural studies and science studies, Kosek shows how the nationally beloved Smokey the Bear became a symbol of white racist colonialism for many Hispanos in the region, while Los Alamos National Laboratory, at once revered and reviled, remade regional ecologies and economies. Understories offers an innovative vision of environmental politics, one that challenges scholars as well as activists to radically rework their understandings of relations between nature, justice, and identity.


Sunday, August 21, 2011

Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age

Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age Review



"The most belated of nations," Theodore Roosevelt called his country during the workmen's compensation fight in 1907. Earlier reformers, progressives of his day, and later New Dealers lamented the nation's resistance to models abroad for correctives to the backwardness of American social politics. Atlantic Crossings is the first major account of the vibrant international network that they constructed--so often obscured by notions of American exceptionalism--and of its profound impact on the United States from the 1870s through 1945.

On a narrative canvas that sweeps across Europe and the United States, Daniel Rodgers retells the story of the classic era of efforts to repair the damages of unbridled capitalism. He reveals the forgotten international roots of such innovations as city planning, rural cooperatives, modernist architecture for public housing, and social insurance, among other reforms. From small beginnings to reconstructions of the new great cities and rural life, and to the wide-ranging mechanics of social security for working people, Rodgers finds the interconnections, adaptations, exchanges, and even rivalries in the Atlantic region's social planning. He uncovers the immense diffusion of talent, ideas, and action that were breathtaking in their range and impact.

The scope of Atlantic Crossings is vast and peopled with the reformers, university men and women, new experts, bureaucrats, politicians, and gifted amateurs. This long durée of contemporary social policy encompassed fierce debate, new conceptions of the role of the state, an acceptance of the importance of expertise in making government policy, and a recognition of a shared destiny in a newly created world.


Friday, August 19, 2011

Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government (Cambridge Studies in the Theory of Democracy)

Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government (Cambridge Studies in the Theory of Democracy) Review



The political institutions under which we live today evolved from a revolutionary idea that shook the world in the second part of the eighteenth century: that a people should govern itself. Yet if we judge contemporary democracies by the ideals of self-government, equality, and liberty, we find that democracy is not what it was dreamt to be. This book addresses central issues in democratic theory by analyzing the sources of widespread dissatisfaction with democracies around the world. With attention throughout to historical and cross-national variations, the focus is on the generic limits of democracy in promoting equality, effective participation, control of governments by citizens, and liberty. The conclusion is that although some of this dissatisfaction has good reasons, some is based on an erroneous understanding of how democracy functions. Hence, although the analysis identifies the limits of democracy, it also points to directions for feasible reforms.


Thursday, August 18, 2011

Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World

Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World Review



Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World Feature

  • ISBN13: 9780691140995
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Democracy-building efforts from the early 1990s on have funneled billions of dollars into nongovernmental organizations across the developing world, with the U.S. administration of George W. Bush leading the charge since 2001. But are many such "civil society" initiatives fatally flawed? Focusing on the Palestinian West Bank and the Arab world, Barriers to Democracy mounts a powerful challenge to the core tenet of civil society initiatives: namely, that public participation in private associations necessarily yields the sort of civic engagement that, in turn, sustains effective democratic institutions. Such assertions tend to rely on evidence from states that are democratic to begin with. Here, Amaney Jamal investigates the role of civic associations in promoting democratic attitudes and behavioral patterns in contexts that are less than democratic.

Jamal argues that, in state-centralized environments, associations can just as easily promote civic qualities vital to authoritarian citizenship--such as support for the regime in power. Thus, any assessment of the influence of associational life on civic life must take into account political contexts, including the relationships among associations, their leaders, and political institutions.

Barriers to Democracy both builds on and critiques the multifaceted literature that has emerged since the mid-1990s on associational life and civil society. By critically examining associational life in the West Bank during the height of the Oslo Peace Process (1993-99), and extending her findings to Morocco, Egypt, and Jordan, Jamal provides vital new insights into a timely issue.


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Microeconomics of Public Policy Analysis

The Microeconomics of Public Policy Analysis Review



This book shows, from start to finish, how microeconomics can and should be used in the analysis of public policy problems. It is an exciting new way to learn microeconomics, motivated by its application to important, real-world issues. Lee Friedman's modern replacement for his influential 1984 work not only brings the issues addressed into the present but develops all intermediate microeconomic theory to make this book accessible to a much wider audience.

Friedman offers the microeconomic tools necessary to understand policy analysis of a wide range of matters of public concern--including the recent California electricity crisis, welfare reform, public school finance, global warming, health insurance, day care, tax policies, college loans, and mass transit pricing. These issues are scrutinized through microeconomic models that identify policy strengths, weaknesses, and ideas for improvements. Each chapter begins with explanations of several fundamental microeconomic principles and then develops models that use and probe them in analyzing specific public policies.

The book has two primary and complementary goals. One is to develop skills of economic policy analysis: to design, predict the effects of, and evaluate public policies. The other is to develop a deep understanding of microeconomics as an analytic tool for application--its strengths and extensions into such advanced techniques as general equilibrium models and pricing methods for natural monopolies and its weaknesses, such as behavioral inconsistencies with utility-maximization models and its limits in comparing institutional alternatives. The result is an invaluable professional and academic reference, one whose clear explanation of principles and analytic techniques, and wealth of constructive applications, will ensure it a prominent place not only on the bookshelves but also on the desks of students and professionals alike.


Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Winning at Collective Bargaining: Strategies Everyone Can Live With

Winning at Collective Bargaining: Strategies Everyone Can Live With Review



Whether you are a novice or a seasoned pro, the information and strategies outlined in this collective bargaining guide will enable you to come to the table and negotiate successfully. Comprehensive in scope, the text begins with an historical overview and discussion of state bargaining laws. Other chapters are devoted to describing the roles of the negotiators, the negotiation process and procedures, and creating win-win situations. Strikes and contract management are also addressed. End of chapter discussion questions along with helpful summaries and lists of resources for future reference contribute to the book's value as a text for graduate students enrolled in a course in Collective Bargaining or Personnel in Educational Administration. Practitioners, especially board members, superintendents, school attorneys, negotiators, and other school administrators will find the chapters containing practical and specific suggestions for successful negotiations to be beneficial.


Monday, August 15, 2011

At Risk in America: The Health and Health Care Needs of Vulnerable Populations in the United States

At Risk in America: The Health and Health Care Needs of Vulnerable Populations in the United States Review



This updated second edition of At Risk in America provides a detailed analysis of those key population groups most vulnerable to disease and injury in the United States today-including homeless persons, refugees and immigrants, people living with AIDS, alcohol and substance abusers, high-risk mothers and infants, victims of family or other violence, and the chronically or mentally ill. Lu Ann Aday reviews the major theories and knowledge concerning these at-risk groups and offers new approaches and methodologies for tracing the social determinants and societal influences on health. She examines the specific health needs and risks faced by these groups, their experience in the health care system, the current policies and programs that serve them, and the research and policy initiatives that might be undertaken to help reduce their vulnerability.


Saturday, August 13, 2011

Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2008

Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2008 Review



Proudly presenting the latest edition of one of the all-time bestselling books on the C++ language, successful author Ivor Horton repeats the formula that has made each previous edition so popular by teaching you both the standard C++ language and C++/CLI as well as Visual C++ 2008. Thoroughly updated for the 2008 release, this book shows you how to build real-world applications using Visual C++ and guides you through the ins and outs of C++ development. With this book by your side, you are well on your way to becoming a successful C++ programmer.


Friday, August 12, 2011

Education in a Free Society: An American History (8th Edition)

Education in a Free Society: An American History (8th Edition) Review



This text provides a comprehensive, chronological history of American educational ideas and practices in their social context. The text focuses on major events and figures - including John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Howard Gardner - from the colonial period to the present.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Reputation and Civil War: Why Separatist Conflicts Are So Violent

Reputation and Civil War: Why Separatist Conflicts Are So Violent Review



Of all the different types of civil war, disputes over self-determination are the most likely to escalate into war and resist compromise settlement. Reputation and Civil War argues that this low rate of negotiation is the result of reputation building, in which governments refuse to negotiate with early challengers in order to discourage others from making more costly demands in the future. Jakarta's wars against East Timor and Aceh, for example, were not designed to maintain sovereignty but to signal to Indonesia's other minorities that secession would be costly. Employing data from three different sources - laboratory experiments on undergraduates, statistical analysis of data on self-determination movements, and qualitative analyses of recent history in Indonesia and the Philippines - Barbara F. Walter provides some of the first systematic evidence that reputation strongly influences behavior, particularly between governments and ethnic minorities fighting over territory.