The past few decades have brought a shift in the nature of American democracy--an alarming shift that threatens such liberal democratic values as respect for pluralism, acceptance of the separation of powers, and recognition of the rights of opposition parties. In this insightful book, political scientist Alan Wolfe identifies the current political conditions that endanger the quality of our democracy. He describes how politics has changed, and he calls for a democracy protection movement designed to preserve our political traditions not unlike the environmental protection movement’s efforts to safeguard the natural world. Voters who know little about issues, leaders who bend rules with little fear of reprisal, and political parties that are losing the ability to mobilize citizens have all contributed to a worrisome new politics of democracy, Wolfe argues. He offers a brilliant analysis of how religion and morality have replaced political and economic self-interest as guiding principles, and how a dangerous populism promotes a radical form of elitism. Without laying blame on one party or ideology and without claiming that matters will improve with one party or the other in office, Wolfe instead suggests that Americans need to understand the danger their own indifference poses and take political matters more seriously.

This is the first comprehensive survey of the critical connections between religion, nature and the environment. It includes writings from sacred texts and a broad spectrum of new eco-theological selections. Historical and contemporary selections from key authors and a multicultural range of sources make This Sacred Earth an invaluable teaching resource and a unique introduction to the theory and practice of religious environmentalism.

The debate over nature versus nurture in relation to intelligence is not as clearly drawn as it was ten years ago, when geneticists claimed that intelligence is innate, while environmentalists claimed that culture is the major determining factor. Although the debate has not been resolved, it has been significantly refined. Robert Sternberg and Elena Grigorenko address the roles and interaction of nature and nurture in Intelligence, Heredity and Environment. This book provides a comprehensive, balanced, current survey of theory and research on the origins and transmission of human intelligence. The book is unique in the diversity of viewpoints it presents, and its inclusion of the very most recent theories and findings. It highlights the search for genes associated with specific cognitive abilities, interactionist theories, cultural relativism, educational strategies, developmental perspectives, and fallacies of previous intelligence research.

America's first truly twenty-first-century metropolis, Los Angeles is often depicted as diverse, fragmented, polarized, and ungovernable, a city without a unifying geographic center or civic culture. The sprawling evolution of the city and its infamous problems-traffic, pollution, growing inequality-are usually attributed to a Wild West version of capitalism-the triumph of an unregulated free market over comprehensive urban planning. But market choices and lack of planning did not set the terrain of Southern California: Los Angeles has been profoundly shaped by a wide range of local, state, and federal public policies and programs. Up against the Sprawl details how governmental policies and public agencies have dictated many aspects of the region's growth: infrastructure, transportation, housing, immigration, finances, civic and regional administration, the environment. The authors also argue that since public policy set the landscape, it can help forge the future. They explore countermovements by progressive activists to use innovative policies-from smart growth initiatives to the actions of living wage advocates-for greater social, economic, and environmental justice. This book is a major contribution to our understanding of past and present urban processes and policy, and highlights practical lessons for urban and regional policy makers and activists in Los Angeles and beyond. Contributors: Carolyn B. Aldana, California State U, San Bernadino; Carol S. Armstrong; Michael Dear, U of Southern California; Gary Dymski, U of California Riverside; Steven P. Erie, USC; Gregory Freeman; William Fulton; Elizabeth Gearin, USC; Genevieve Giuliano, USC; Pascale Joassart-Marcelli, U ofMassachusetts, Boston; Enrico A. Marcelli; Myra A. Marks, Loyola Marymount U; Juliet Musso, USC; Stephanie Pincetl, USC; Laura Pulido; Christine M. Ryan; John P. Wilson. Jennifer Wolch is professor of geography and director of the Center for Sustainable Cities at the University of Southern California. Manuel Pastor Jr. is professor of Latino and Latin American studies and director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Peter Dreier is Clapp Distinguished Professor and director of the Urban and Environmental Policy Program at Occidental College.

Out of the Ghetto is an account of the developing interrelationship between the Jews and their Gentile environment unique in its breadth and objectivity. He presents the story of Jewish emancipation as a whole, from both Jewish and non-Jewish points of view. If the results of the Jewish emancipation process differed from country to country, the forces effecting the changes were identical—the upheaval of the French Revolution, the loosening of bonds between church and state, and the ideas of the Enlightenment. It was those humanistic ideas which made possible the Jew's transition from the ghetto to partial inclusion in society at large and which attracted Jewish intellectuals to the "secular knowledge" of languages, mathematics, philosophy, and the wider world beyond their ancient learning.

For fans of Lorna Sage and Paula Fox, a unique memoir from Irma Kurtz, the acclaimed author of 'The Great American Bus Ride' and internationally renowned agony aunt. "A girl of indisputable gifts, she should of course use them someday to make a beautiful home and raise a family in elegant surroundings..." School psychologist's report on Irma Kurtz, 1950. In 1954 eighteen-year-old Irma Kurtz left New Jersey to travel across Europe, intent on transforming herself and changing the world. She looked to the Old World for an alternative destiny to that mapped out by the traditional expectations at home. On her post-war Grand Tour she found what she believed in: Art and Culture and Beauty and Love, and some horror as a Jewish girl encountering the seat of much of her family's destruction. Years later, sifting through a cardboard box filled with memories at her mother's house, she rediscovered the journal of her first journey, the one that marked the beginning of a life of writing and living abroad. Gripped by intense recollections of sailing across the Atlantic, and intrigued by the exuberant remarks of her adventurous younger self, she decided to leave her London home and retrace her footsteps, this time with herself as a guide. Testing her theory that older women are invisible, Kurtz's journey is peppered with acute observations of human behaviour, not to mention some sharp advice for her ghostly travel companion, a teenager who thinks she knows it all, yet is blind to what lies ahead of her. Part-memoir, part-travelogue, this unique book contrasts the experience of two very different travellers, offering an insight into what has endured, and what has been lost, in the life of one woman and the altered environment of Europe at the dawn of a new millennium. Beautifully written, moving and funny, Then Again is time-travel at its best, revealing the pains and pleasures of growing older and wiser.

Preface Introduction Chapter 1 Meaning and Mentalism Fodor and Chomsky Three Reasons Why Mentalism Can't Be Right 1 Meaning Is Holistic 2 Meaning Is in Part a Normative Notion 3 Our Concepts Depend on Our Physical and Social Environment in a Way That Evolution (Which Was Com ... Connections between 1, 2, and 3 Chapter 2 Meaning, Other People, and the World The Division of Linguistic Labor Elms, Beeches, and Searle The Contribution of the Environment An Indexical Component Other Natural Kinds Reference and Theory Change Meaning and "Mental Representation" Chapter 3 Fodor and Block on "Narrow Content" Narrow Content as a "Function of Observable Properties" "Narrow Content" and "Conceptual Role" Concluding Remarks Chapter 4 Are There Such Things as Reference and Truth? Why "Folk Psychology" and Not "Folk Logic"? Disquotation, Anyone? The "Semantical Conception" of Truth Disquotation as Disappearance Chapter 5 Why Functionalism Didn't Work Sociofunctionalism What "In Principle" Means Here The Single-Computational-State Version of Functionalism Equivalence Surveying Rationality Chapter 6 Other Forms of Functionalism David Lewis and I Lewis's Theory Further Examined Conclusion Chapter 7 A Sketch of an Alternative Picture Objectivity and Conceptual Relativity Internal Realism as an Alternative Picture My Present Diagnosis of the "Functionalism" Issue Appendix Notes Author Index

The Green Revolution of 1960s introduced herbicides, pesticides, and advanced agricultural technologies to third world countries-rescuing hundreds of millions of people from malnutrition and starvation and transforming low-yield, labor-intensive farming into the high-tech, immensely productive industry it is today. Despite these stunning gains, critics of chemical farming remain vocal. Recently, the European Union passed a ban on twenty-two chemicals-about 15 percent of the EU pesticides market-to begin in 2011. In Crop Chemophobia, Jon Entine and his coauthors examine the "precautionary principle" that underlies the EU's decision and explore the ban's potential consequences-including environmental degradation, decreased food safety, impaired disease-control efforts, and a hungrier world.

The climate is changing more rapidly than scientists predicted even a few years ago, with extreme weather already touching our everyday lives. At the same time, the clean energy revolution is forging ahead faster than nearly anyone anticipated. As Tom Steyer sees it, these two trends together create a moment like the one America faced during World War II: on the one hand, an existential threat calling for collective action; on the other, an opportunity to lead the world, protect the planet, and set the stage for a new generation of shared economic prosperity. In 2012, Steyer walked away from the highly successful investment fund he founded to devote himself full time to climate issues, and he's been on the front lines of the fight ever since: funding cleantech research and businesses, spearheading clean-energy ballot measures and voter registration drives, and running for president on a climate platform. Today, he leads a climate investment firm focused on accelerating climate solutions. In this accessible book, Steyer shares his own story and showcases the inspiring and innovative work of other climate leaders in the clean-energy transition. He shows us how capitalism can be used to scale climate progress, debunks many of the arguments made by fossil fuel companies, and calls on all of us to make stabilizing our planet part of our life's work. As green technology is fast becoming cleaner and cheaper, reshaping our planet's future--and our own--has never been more crucial or within our reach.

"Lester Grabbe here distills his wide body of work on the subject of prophecy. The volume considers prophecy in different cultural contexts across ancient Israel and surrounding areas. Beginning with a consideration of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, Grabbe then looks at it as phenomenon in the ancient near east, including Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Levant. From this background in the immediate context of ancient Israel, Grabbe then widens the cultural lens to consider prophecy in more global environments, including Africa and the Americas, and recent examples of pseudo-biblical prophets such as Joseph Smith. In the final part of the book Grabbe then analyses these different prophetic types and forms, looking at the continuing traditions of prophecy alongside their ancient roots"--Publisher website.

" Private sector activity is crucial for development. It shapes the investment climate, mobilizes innovation and financing in areas such as global health, and can either cause or mitigate social and environmental harm. Yet so far, the international development debate has not focused on the role of the private sector. This volume—written by members of the private sector, philanthropic organizations, and academia—investigates ways to galvanize the private sector in the fight against global poverty. Using a bottom-up approach, they describe how the private sector affects growth and poverty alleviation. They also review the impediments to private capital investment, and discuss various approaches to risk mitigation, including public sector enhancements, and identify some specific new plans for financing development in neglected markets, including an equity-based model for financing small-to-medium-sized enterprises. From the top-down, the authors look at the social and environmental impact of private sector activities, investigate public-private partnerships, explore new perspectives on the role of multinationals, and discuss an in-depth case study of these issues as they relate to global public health. In addition to providing a broad overview of the current issues, this forward-looking volume assesses the action-oriented initiatives that already exist, and provides templates and suggestions for new initiatives and partnerships. Contributors include David DeFerranti (Brookings Institution), Timothy Freundlich (Calvert Social Investment Foundation), Ross Levine (World Bank), Sylvia Mathews (Gates Foundation), Jane Nelson (Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government), Alan Patricof (APAX Partners), Warrick Smith (World Bank), and Julie Sunderland (APAX Partners). "

In 1980, when Dr. Ruth''s New York radio show debuted, herpes has just hit the headlines. When the show went live a year later, many of the questions people asked her were about this surging sexually transmitted disease. A short while later, AIDS was making headlines and herpes was relegated to the media back burner. But while there''s no denying that AIDS is a much more serious STD, herpes has done its share of damage and today it is estimated that nearly 60 million Americans are infected with this disease. What''s more, there are over one million newly diagnosed cases of herpes each year. This book is not only for people who have just discovered they have herpes, but also for the millions of Americans who are living with herpes and want a game plan for talking about their disease with fellow herpes sufferers, loved ones, and potential lovers. Structured throughout the book, in addition to Dr. Ruth''s no-nonsense advice, are quotes from people who are living with herpes that Dr. Ruth interviewed at length for this book. Each chapter concludes with a list of helpful pointers or highlights summarizing the main points discussed within that chapter. Dr. Ruth deals with the basics of herpes first - what it is, what kinds of herpes there are (HSV-1, which is responsible for cold sores, and HSV-2 which is responsible for genital herpes), how herpes can be transmitted, and walks you through the stages of infection (initial outbreak, latency period, and subsequent outbreaks). What makes herpes so transmittable is that 90% who are carrying the virus aren''t even aware they are carrying it. Finally, Dr. Ruth explains how to prevent herpes transmission and the various kinds of herpes therapy available. Subsequent chapters offer helpful pointers on how to come to grips with herpes emotionally, and how to learn to take charge of your treatment, which can be difficult when faced with apathetic or misinformed doctors and a wealth of bogus or misleading information that people believe about herpes and herpes transmission. The centerpiece chapter of the book is "The Talk" in which Dr. Ruth walks you through the various hypothetical situations you are likely to encounter when you tell someone you have herpes (sympathy, confusion, anger, denial) and how to deal with each emotion by giving whomever you''re talking to the appropriate kind of information they will need to deal with the news (herpes is contagious and incurable but not life threatening, condoms reduce but do not entirely eliminate the risk of transmission, etc.). Peppered throughout this chapter (as they are throughout the book) are quotes from people that Dr. Ruth interviewed for this book that have herpes and in this instance have actually had "the talk" themselves. These quotes offer a running commentary throughout the book that allow readers to balance the advice Dr. Ruth offers vs. how the situation actually plays out in real life (sometimes Dr. Ruth''s advice plays out exactly as she predicts, but in some cases, her advice doesn''t offer much help or solace, or actually improve the situation, and she is quick to point these inconsistencies out). Because this is a Dr. Ruth book, it wouldn''t be complete without information on how to maintain a normal and active sex life while living with herpes. With today''s suppressive therapies and medication, one can substantially reduce the chance of transmitting herpes to another person. Support groups also offer the opportunity to meet fellow people with herpes as well as offering a safe environment with which to meet new people to date. In addition to offering specific advice on how to deal with herpes when talking within specific groups and in specific situations (how to talk to your children about herpes, and how to talk about the disease if you''re a senior, or gay), Dr. Ruth concludes the book with a lengthy chapter on additional STDs and explains how each one is caused or transmitted, and what you can do to protect yourself against each disease. Two helpful appendixes can be found at the back of the book, listing where to find a support group near you, as well as listing websites that offer supplemental information to what''s listed in the book.

A little girl makes a huge mess playing in the kitchen. Includes brief notes about how children explore their environment.

"For over four decades, Richard Schwartz has engaged with two ethically rich ways of living that, as he charts in this book, he came to appreciate in middle age: Judaism and veganism. Having been born into a secular Jewish family, it was his marriage and an increasing commitment to social justice that propelled him to study and rediscover the essence of his Jewish faith. That sense of social justice further raised his awareness of the environmental movement, and, ultimately, to animal rights and veganism. In Vegan Revolution: Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism, Schwartz shows how, now perhaps more than ever, veganism offers a pathway for all of us of whatever faith (or no faith) to reduce hunger, conserve the environment, save water, reinstitute justice, and care for animals and the Earth. It is no coincidence, as Schwartz demonstrates, that many of these ideas are mandates in Jewish scripture, and that reincorporating a care for the world (tikkun olam) can itself reinvigorate the spirit of a faith and galvanize its practitioners to act"--

In a model study Jacob Price illuminates the dynamic growth of Britain’s foreign trade in the eighteenth century through an investigation of the investment patterns and credit institutions that financed that expansion. Concentrating on the trade between Britain and the Chesapeake tobacco colonies of Virginia and Maryland, for which a unique set of records exists, Price surveys the ways in which commerce developed and working capital was mobilized in Britain to support expanding overseas trade. Price develops the clearest picture ever of the financial environment within Britain as it affected Southern colonies in the preindustrial age. He does so by determining the kind of capital resources merchants in foreign trade actually commanded and measuring how much of their own wealth merchants brought to trade. In great and absorbing detail he discusses also the development of merchant-oriented banks in London and other ports, reinvestment of profits, long-term borrowing on bond, and the long-term credit provided to export merchants by wholesalers in textiles, ironmongery, and other industries. The relationship of debt to the coming of the American Revolution is also treated. Tobacco growers suffered more than others from a psychological unease caused by immense debt and were more revolutionary than farmers with less intensive capital needs and, hence, with lighter debt. This history will enlighten Anglo-American historians, economic historians, and historians of the American revolutionary era.

One of the world's most influential photographers, Bruce Davidson, takes readers inside three midcentury big tops in images that are poetic, realistic and profound. He reveals not only the swiftly vanishing cultural phenomenon of the circus, but what might be called the eternal human circus. At a three-ring show in 1958 he climbed to the top of the tent to view the performances of the famous liontamer Clyde Beatty and human cannonball Hugo Zacchini. His deeper interest lay in the daily lives of circus performers and producers--the roustabouts and riggers, and the pretty girl who rode an elephant in what was called the "spec." He also made an intimate series of a dwarf clown. In 1965 at a huge multi-ring coliseum show, Davidson took a more critical look at performances under a steel-and-concrete environment; continuing behind the scenes, his vision became sharper and more surreal. And in 1967, Davidson caught the elegant exuberance of an Irish one-ring circus. He photographed the kinds of performances that are the essence of the medium, including a face-to-face encounter with an exceptional trapeze artist. Most of these pictures are published here for the first time.

Russian-speaking Jews from the former Soviet Union are a peculiarity in the Jewish world. After decades living in a repressive, nominally atheistic state, these Jews did manage to retain a strong sense of Jewish identity - but one that was almost completely divorced from Judaism. Today, more than ten percent of Jews speak or understand Russian, signaling the importance of an ever-vexing question: why are Russian Jews the way they are? In pursuit of an answer, Anna Shternshis's groundbreaking When Sonia Met Boris: An Oral History of Jewish Life under Stalin draws on nearly 500 oral history interviews on the Soviet Jewish experience with Soviet citizens who were adults by the 1940s. Soviet Jews lived through tumultuous times: the Great Terror, World War II, the anti-Semitic policies of the postwar period, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. But, like millions of other Soviet citizens, they married, raised children, and built careers, pursuing life as best they could in a profoundly hostile environment. One of the first scholars to record and analyze oral testimonies of Soviet Jews, Shternshis unearths heartbreaking, deeply poignant, and often funny stories of the everyday choices Jews were forced to navigate as a repressed minority living in a totalitarian regime. Shternshis reveals how ethnicity rapidly transformed into a disability, as well as a negative characteristic, for Soviet Jews in the postwar period, and shows how it was something they needed desperately to overcome in order to succeed. That sense of self has persisted well into the twenty-first century, and has impacted the Jewish identities of the children and grandchildren of Shternshis's subjects, the foundational generation of contemporary Russian Jewish culture. An illuminating work of social and cultural history, When Sonia Met Boris traces the fascinating contours of contemporary Russian Jewish identity back to their very roots.

Current tactics can't solve today's complex global crises. The "bad boys of environmentalism" call for a bold and empowering new vision Environmental insiders Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus triggered a firestorm of controversy with their self-published essay "The Death of Environmentalism," which argued that environmentalism cannot deal with global warming and should die so that a new politics can be born. Global warming is far more complex than past pollution problems, and American values have changed dramatically since the movement's greatest victories in the 1960s, but environmentalists keep fighting the same old battles. Seeing a connection between the failures of environmentalism and the failures of the entire left-leaning political agenda, the authors point the way toward an aspirational politics that will resonate with modern American values and be capable of tackling our most pressing challenges. In this eagerly awaited follow-up to the original essay, the authors give us an expansive and eloquent manifesto for political change. What Americans really want, and what could serve as the basis for a new politics, is a vision capable of inspiring us to greatness. Making the case for abandoning old categories (nature/market, left/right), the authors articulate a pragmatism fit for our times that has already found champions in such prominent figures as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. This book will hit the same nerve as What's the Matter with Kansas and Don't Think of an Elephant . But its analysis will reshape American politics for decades to come.

"Unidentified Flying Objects," not "UFOs" or "Flying Saucers" Authority work is the linchpin of the library catalog. As the author puts it, "Without authority control, the burden is placed on the user to think of all the possible forms a cataloger might have used to give access in the catalog to a given author or subject." If a subject is not sorted by its authorized heading, then the library and its users and staff are left without a system and ultimately the cost of an unsatisfied user. From one of the preeminent experts in the field, this is the step-by-step guide for ensuring that your library and staff are creating and maintaining authority records with the end user in mind. Comprehensive and definitive, Maxwell's Guide to Authority Work is a must-have. In this readable text, authority work is broken down to its most basic components so that you can trace and follow the preparation of a complete authority record. Helpful illustrations identify the key characteristics of good authority records, common acronyms are defined, and cross-references throughout reinforce material. Step-by-step, you'll learn how to: Form and record uniform access points Keep thorough and accurate records Share information in an environment of international databases and cooperative cataloging The authoritative tool for making certain a person, author, corporate body, organization, book, or other media is appropriately classified under its authority name, subject, and form, Maxwell's should be part of any library's toolbox.

'Thank god for Richard Sennett ... essential reading for all students of the city' Anna Minton, Prospect 'Constantly stimulating ideas from a veteran of urban thinking' Jonathan Meades, Guardian In Building and Dwelling , Richard Sennett distils a lifetime's thinking and practical experience to explore the relationship between the good built environment and the good life. He argues for, and describes in rich detail, the idea of an open city, one in which people learn to manage complexity. He shows how the design of cities can enrich or diminish the everyday experience of those who dwell in them. The book ranges widely - from London, Paris and Barcelona to Shanghai, Mumbai and Medellin in Colombia - and draws on classic thinkers such as Tocqueville, Heidegger, Max Weber, and Walter Benjamin. It also draws on Sennett's many decades as a practical planner himself, testing what works, what doesn't, and why. He shows what works ethically is often the most practical solution for cities' problems. This is a humane and thrilling book, which allows us to think freshly about how we live in cities. 'Sennett is my kind of urbanist. He sees the modern city. He reads its secrets as he walks down the street, kicking over the detritus of the past ... There is no alternative to the planner, but please a planner who has read Sennett's book' Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times