In the shadow of the general

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Édouard Glissant

In Poetics of Relation, French-Caribbean writer and philosopher Edouard Glissant turns the concrete particulars of Caribbean reality into a complex, energetic vision of a world in transformation. He sees the islands of the Antilles as enduring an "invalid" suffering imposed by history, yet also as a place whose unique interactions will one day produce an emerging global consensus. Arguing that the writer alone can tap the unconscious of a people and apprehend its multiform culture in order to provide forms of memory and intent capable of transcending "nonhistory," Glissant therefore defines his "poetics of relation" - both aesthetic and political - as a transformative mode of history, capable of enunciating and making concrete a French-Caribbean reality with a self-defined past and future. In Poetics of Relation, we come to see that relation in all its senses - telling, listening, connecting, and the parallel consciousness of self and surroundings - is the key to transforming mentalities and reshaping societies. The issues raised about identity as built in relation and not in isolation are central to current discussions not only of Caribbean creolization but of U.S. multiculturalism as well.

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James Kirchick

"Once the world's bastion of liberal, democratic values, Europe is now having to confront demons it thought it had laid to rest. The old pathologies of anti-Semitism, populist nationalism, and territorial aggression are threatening to tear the European postwar consensus apart. In riveting dispatches from this unfolding tragedy, James Kirchick shows us the shallow disingenuousness of the leaders who pushed for 'Brexit' examines how a vast migrant wave is exacerbating tensions between Europeans and their Muslim minorities; explores the rising anti-Semitism that causes Jewish schools and synagogues in France and Germany to resemble armed bunkers; and describes how Russian imperial ambitions are destabilizing nations from Estonia to Ukraine. With a new American president threatening to abandon his country's traditional role as upholder of the liberal world order and guarantor of the continent's security, Europe may be alone in dealing with these unprecedented challenges. Based on extensive firsthand reporting, this book is a provocative, disturbing look at a continent in unexpected crisis"--Jacket.

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Edward Luce

Luce diagnoses factors behind the country's waning global leadership such as the shrinking middle class; an ineffective and flawed educational system; the stagnation of innovation in business and technology; a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy; the virulent polarization of national politics; and the damage caused by the influence of money in politics, along with endless campaigning. In the end, he assesses the prospects for change and offers a bleak outlook.

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Carlos de la Torre

"For anyone wishing a succinct and theoretically sophisticated concept-building analysis of populist rhetoric and leadership style ... this book should be one your shelf."--Latin American Research Review. "In this substantially expanded edition, Carolos de la Torre extends his insightful analysis of Latin American populism in general, and Ecuadorian populism in particular, to the current government of Rafael Correa. He skillfully demonstrates the ambiguities of populist experience, which combine political mass involvement and top-down control, and hover between authoriatarianism and democracy. An excellent book!"--Kurt Weyland, author of the Politics of Market Reform in Fragile Democracies. Is Latin America experiencing a resurgence of left-wing governments, or are we seeing a rebirth of national radical populism? Are the governments of Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, and Rafael Correa becoming institutionalized as these leaders claim novel models of participatory and direct democracy? Or are they reenacting older tratditions that have favored plebiscitary acclamation and clientelist distribution of resources to loyal followers? Are we seeing authentic forms of expression of the popular will by leaders who have empowered those previously disenfranchised? Or are these governments as charismatic, authoritarian and messtanic as their populist prederessors? This new and expanded edition of Populist Seduction in Latin America explores the ambiguous relationships between democracy and populism and brings de la Torre's earlier work up to date, comparing classical nationalist populist regimes of the 1940s, as those of Juan Peron and Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra, whith their contemporary noeoliberal and radical successors, De la Torre explores their similarities and differences, focusing on their discourses and uses of political symbols and myths. --Book Jacket.