Literary and Combat Articles, Thoughts, and Revolutionary ChroniclesI am Action

Sample

Gabriela Polit Dueñłas and Maria Helena Rueda

"This volume includes contributions of scholars from various fields--the social sciences, journalism, the humanities and the arts--whose work offers insightful and innovative ways to understand the devastating and unprecedented forms of violence currently experienced in Latin America. As an interdisciplinary endeavor, it offers an array of perspectives that contribute to ongoing debates in the study of violence in the region"-- "This volume addresses a situation now perceived among the most pressing issues faced by Latin America in our times: the proliferation of increasingly complex forms of violence, a reality with multiple ramifications, marking the socio-political landscape of the region in decisive ways. With contributions by scholars from various fields (the social sciences, journalism, and the humanities), this book examines not only the manifestations and the effects of violence but also the social acts that surround it and make it meaningful. Violence appears here as a natural yet dramatic manifestation of how individuals organize themselves in contemporary Latin America"--

Sample

Courtney Brown

For decades, social scientists have worked with models that have sought to quantify and explain human behavior. The common foundation for nearly all of these mathematical applications is the assumption of linear progression, equilibrium, and stability. Serpents in the Sand: Essays on the Nonlinear Nature of Politics and Human Destiny not only argues that in fact political life is fundamentally nonlinear but investigates, estimates, and thoroughly analyzes specific instances of extreme nonlinearity in politics. By so doing, Courtney Brown offers a guide to the reader on how to apply nonlinearity, including chaos theory, to real-world situations. . The author develops his argument by in-depth analysis of four examples covering a broad spectrum of political life. He considers, first, the relationship between individual rationality and the influence of a voter's political milieu. He then turns to look at the dynamics behind the Johnson vs. Goldwater landslide presidential election of 1964. The fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi Germany provide a third case study, followed, fourth, by an analysis of the relationship between democratic electoral politics and the ecological environment. Throughout, Courtney Brown employs the evidence of these cases to demonstrate the essentially nonlinear nature of human political behavior.

Sample

Alan Brinkley

How did liberalism, the great political tradition that from the New Deal to the 1960s seemed to dominate American politics, fall from favor so far and so fast? In this history of liberalism since the 1930s, a distinguished historian offers an eloquent account of post-war liberalism, where it came from, where it has gone, and why. The book supplies a crucial chapter in the history of twentieth-century American politics as well as valuable and clear perspective on the state of our nation's politics today.

Sample

Andrei Lankov

"Andrei Lankov has gone where few outsiders have ever been. A native of the former Soviet Union, he lived as an exchange student in North Korea in the 1980s. He has studied it for his entire career, using his fluency in Korean and personal contacts to build a rich, nuanced understanding. In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque police state. After providing an accessible history of the nation, he turns his focus to what North Korea is, what its leadership thinks, and how its people cope with living in such an oppressive and poor place. He argues that North Korea is not irrational, and nothing shows this better than its continuing survival against all odds. A living political fossil, it clings to existence in the face of limited resources and a zombie economy, manipulating great powers despite its weakness. Its leaders are not ideological zealots or madmen, but perhaps the best practitioners of Machiavellian politics that can be found in the modern world. Even though they preside over a failed state, they have successfully used diplomacy-including nuclear threats-to extract support from other nations. But while the people in charge have been ruthless and successful in holding on to power, Lankov goes on to argue that this cannot continue forever, since the old system is slowly falling apart. In the long run, with or without reform, the regime is unsustainable. Lankov contends that reforms, if attempted, will trigger a dramatic implosion of the regime. They will not prolong its existence. Based on vast expertise, this book reveals how average North Koreans live, how their leaders rule, and how both survive"--