Finalist for the 1997 National Book Award for Nonfiction Jamaica Kincaid’s brother Devon Drew died of AIDS on January 19, 1996, at the age of thirty-three. Kincaid’s incantatory, poetic, and often shockingly frank recounting of her brother’s life and death is also a story of her family on the island of Antigua, a constellation centered on the powerful, sometimes threatening figure of the writer’s mother. My Brother is an unblinking record of a life that ended too early, and it speaks volumes about the difficult truths at the heart of all families.

A new 30th Anniversary paperback edition of an award-winning classic. Winner of the National Book Award, 1976 World of Our Fathers traces the story of Eastern Europe's Jews to America over four decades. Beginning in the 1880s, it offers a rich portrayal of the East European Jewish experience in New York, and shows how the immigrant generation tried to maintain their Yiddish culture while becoming American. It is essential reading for those interested in understanding why these forebears to many of today's American Jews made the decision to leave their homelands, the challenges these new Jewish Americans faced, and how they experienced every aspect of immigrant life in the early part of the twentieth century. This invaluable contribution to Jewish literature and culture is now back in print in a new paperback edition, which includes a new foreword by noted author and literary critic Morris Dickstein.

"Understanding Socialism is a plainspoken text that disarms false narratives, confronts past failures, and offers a path to a fresh and modern understanding of socialism, by outlining what democracy in the workplace could look like. Wolff not only explains what socialism is and has meant to its various proponents, he also looks at the transition from feudalism to capitalism as a model to help us visualize an evolution from our current socioeconomic state. Understanding Socialism explores how socialist theory was used and applied to help shape the histories of countries such as Russia and China, and beyond. Wolff also analyzes the successes and defeats of those countries, the world's reactions to them, and how they offer important lessons for the building of a democratic, worker-controlled 21st-century socialism."--Publisher description.

"Drawn from more than two decades of pathbreaking writing, the iconic and bestselling David Graeber's most important essays and interviews"--

"Artificial intelligence and machine learning are reshaping our world. Police forces use them to decide where to send police officers, judges to decide whom to release on bail, welfare agencies to decide which children are at risk of abuse, and Facebook and Google to rank content and distribute ads. In these spheres, and many others, powerful prediction tools are changing how decisions are made, narrowing opportunities for the exercise of judgment, empathy, and creativity. In Algorithms for the People, Josh Simons flips the narrative about how we govern these technologies. Instead of examining the impact of technology on democracy, he explores how to put democracy at the heart of AI governance. Drawing on his experience as a research fellow at Harvard University, a visiting research scientist on Facebook’s Responsible AI team, and a policy advisor to the UK’s Labour Party, Simons gets under the hood of predictive technologies, offering an accessible account of how they work, why they matter, and how to regulate the institutions that build and use them. He argues that prediction is political: human choices about how to design and use predictive tools shape their effects. Approaching predictive technologies through the lens of political theory casts new light on how democracies should govern political choices made outside the sphere of representative politics. Showing the connection between technology regulation and democratic reform, Simons argues that we must go beyond conventional theorizing of AI ethics to wrestle with fundamental moral and political questions about how the governance of technology can support the flourishing of democracy." -- Publisher's description.

Jonathan Kozol's books have become touchstones of the American conscience. In Ordinary Resurrections, he spends four years in the South Bronx with children who have become his friends at a badly underfunded but enlightened public school. A fascinating narrative of daily urban life, Ordinary Resurrections gives a human face to poverty and racial isolation, and provides a stirring testimony to the courage and resilience of the young. Sometimes playful, sometimes jubilantly funny, and sometimes profoundly sad, these are sensitive children—complex and morally insightful—and their ethical vitality denounces and subverts the racially charged labels that the world of grown-up expertise too frequently assigns to them. Yet another classic case of unblinking social observation from one of the finest writers ever to work in the genre, this is a piercing discernment of right and wrong, of hope and despair—from our nation's corridors of power to its poorest city streets.

Peter F. Drucker may be best known as a writer on business and management, but these subjects were not his foremost intellectual concern. Drucker's primary concerns were community, in which the individual has status, and society, in which the individual has function. Here he has assembled selections from his vast writings on these subjects. This collection presents the full range of Drucker's thought on community, society, and political structure and constitutes an ideal introduction to his ideas. The volume is divided into seven parts. The selections in parts 1 and 2 were mostly written during World War Two and in the wake of the Great Depression. Part 3 deals with the limits of governmental competence in the social and economic realm. It contains some of Drucker's most influential writings concerned with the difference between big government and effective government. The chapters in part 4 explore autonomous centers of power outside government and within society. Part 5 contains chapters from Drucker's path-breaking work on the corporation as a social organization rather than merely an economic one. The rise of the so-called "knowledge industries" forms the background for part 6. The concluding part 7 is devoted entirely to Drucker's long essay "The Next Society." Drucker examines the emergence of new institutions and new theories arising from the information revolution and the social changes they are helping to bring about. In organizing these representative writings, Drucker chose to be topical rather than chronological, with each excerpt presenting a basic theme of his life's work. As is characteristic of his efforts, A Functioning Society appeals both the general reader as well as a cross-disciplinary scholarly readership.

A quick search on the net reveals some 2,400,000 sites about the 23-year-old socialite who is famous for doing little and baring little. But what is it about Paris Hilton that continues to fascinate everyone worldwide and why do or should we care? (oh, but we do). Paris has teamed up with entertainment/fashion/beauty/celebrity writer Merle Ginsberg and Jeff Vespa, Paris's fave photographer, to write her autobiography CONFESSIONS OF AN HEIRESS: A TONGUE-IN-CHIC PEEK AT LIFE BEHIND THE POSE. There are chapters on sister Nicky, the jet/set life, and Paris's cavalcade of paramours including Rick Salomon and the notorious sex tape that "has made me change my life. I used to have fun and dress up and that was my life. But now I'm moving on, I've grown up a lot." Wow. CONFESSIONS OF AN HEIRESS also include a section on how to tell if a guy is only interested in your money. "If they offer to pay for dinner, that's a good sign," Paris advises. "But if they talk about how 'you're so rich,' if they do stuff like that, I can tell they like money more than they like me. But I think girls are more gold-diggers than guys." Ouch. CONFESSIONS OF AN HEIRESS doesn't just include Paris's thoughts on men and money. She also weighs in on nutrition ("Never drink Diet Coke. Diet Coke is for fat people.") and the hardships of travel ("Having a stewardess spill something on you can totally ruin your flight. I hate rude stewardesses. It's like, 'Hello, I'm paying, be nice to me.'"). Like, hello, we think they're called flight attendants now.

In this important and insightful work, Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD, demonstrates the powerful healing potential of the Nonviolent Communication (NVC) process. You can transform emotional pain, depression, shame, and conflict into empowering connections. Rosenberg shares that behind all emotional pain are unmet needs. He provides simple steps to create the heartfelt presence necessary for healing to occur. Learn how to transform your relationships, find satisfying reconciliation, and move beyond pain to a place of clear, honest communication. Through role-play dialogues and every-day examples, Rosenberg demonstrates the keys to healing pain and conflict without compromise. The healing power of NVC provides practical and effective tools for individuals, mental health practitioners, mediators, families and couples.

2012 Reprint of 1951 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Kenneth Arrow's monograph "Social Choice and Individual Values" and a theorem within it created modern social choice theory, a rigorous melding of social ethics and voting theory with an economic flavor. The work culminated in what Arrow called the "General Possibility Theorem," better known thereafter as Arrow's (impossibility) theorem. The theorem states that, absent restrictions on either individual preferences or neutrality of the constitution to feasible alternatives, there exists no social choice rule that satisfies a set of plausible requirements. The result generalizes the voting paradox, which shows that majority voting may fail to yield a stable outcome.

New York Times –bestselling author of The Psychopath Test Jon Ronson writes about the dark, uncanny sides of humanity with clarity and humor. Lost at Sea —now with new material—reveals how deep our collective craziness lies, even in the most mundane circumstances. Ronson investigates the strange things we’re willing to believe in, from robots programmed with our loved ones’ personalities to indigo children to the Insane Clown Posse’s juggalo fans. He looks at ordinary lives that take on extraordinary perspectives. Among them: a pop singer whose greatest passion is the coming alien invasion, assisted-suicide practitioners, and an Alaskan town’s Christmas-induced high school mass-murder plot. He explores all these tales with a sense of higher purpose and universality, yet they are stories not about the fringe of society. They are about all of us. Incisive and hilarious, poignant and maddening, revealing and disturbing—Ronson writes about our modern world, and reveals how deep our collective craziness lies, and the chaos stirring at the edge of our daily lives.

Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2018"This book will inform and inspire all those wanting to make change . . . and achieve a goal against all odds." Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace In this indispensable guide to navigating the 21st century, two visionary thinkers reveal the unexpected ways power is changing - and how 'new power' is reshaping politics, business and life. Why do some leap ahead while others fall behind in today's chaotic, connected age? In New Power, Australian Jeremy Heimans and Brit Henry Timms confront the biggest stories of our time - the rise of mega-platforms like Facebook and Uber; the out-of-nowhere victories or Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump; the unexpected emergence of movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo; and the erruption of darker forces such as ISIS. For most of human history, the rules of power were clear: power was something to be seized and jealously guarded. This 'old power' was inaccessible to the vast majority of people. But widespread connectivity has made possible a different kind of power. 'New power' is made by the many rather than the few. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It works like a current, not a currency - and like water or electricity, it is most forceful when it surges. In a world increasingly shaped by new power, this revelatory book gives each of us a new way to understand the world and our role in it. SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES & MCKINSEY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 PRAISE FOR NEW POWER" If you want to understand how the world is changing, what's really happening and how we can all find our way, this book could not becoming at a better time." Richard Branson"New Power is an essential and extremely insightful guide for anyone who wants to maximize the opportunities for progress and impact in today's new tightly connected world." Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers The Alliance and The Startup of You "A must-read, New Power is a gift to our movements. It's not just about going viral-it's about connecting millions of people to roll up our sleeves and create the changes we long for." Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter

"A handbook for how to organize to meet immediate needs in your community and work toward lasting change"-- Provided by publisher.

Award-winning journalist Ben Joravsky vividly brings to life all the richness and subtlety of the experiences of Arthur Agee and William Gates, two gifted urban hoopsters determined to make it to the NBA, in this intimate, suspenseful, and heart-wrenching adaptation of the award-winning, commercially successful film documentary. 25 photos.

This comprehensive reader will give undergraduate students a structured introduction to the writers and works which have shaped the exciting and yet daunting field of social theory. Throughout the text, key figures are placed in debate with each other and the editorial introductions give an orienting overview of the main points at stake and the areas of agreement and disagreement between the protagonists. The first section sets out some of the main schools of thought, including Habermas and Honneth on New Critical Theory, Bourdieu and Luhmann on Institutional Structuralism and Jameson and Hall on Cultural Studies. Thereafter the reader becomes issues based, looking at: * Justice and Truth * Nationalism, Multiculturalism, Globalisation * gender, sexuality, race, post-coloniality The New Social Theory Reader is an essential companion for students who will not just use it on their theory course but return to it again and again for theoretical foundations for substantive subjects and issues.

An unprecedented glimpse into the formation of the legendary talent of Leonard Cohen. Before the celebrated late-career world tours, before the Grammy awards, before the chart-topping albums, before 'Hallelujah' and 'So Long, Marianne' and 'Famous Blue Raincoat', the young Leonard Cohen wrote poetry and fiction and yearned for literary stardom. [Bokinfo]

"This is the story of three revolutionary American musicians, the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of twentieth-century America. Duke Ellington [...], Louis Daniel Armstrong [...], William James Basie [...]. What is far less known about these groundbreakers is that they were bound not just by their music or even the discrimination that they, like nearly all Black performers of their day, routinely encountered. Each defied and ultimately overcame racial boundaries by opening America's eyes and souls to the magnificence of their music. In the process they wrote the soundtrack for the civil rights movement. Based on more than 250 interviews, this exhaustively researched book brings alive the history of Black America in the early- to mid-1900s through the singular lens of the country's most gifted, engaging, and enduring African American musicians." -Från bokens baksida.

In an era when too many heroes have been toppled from too many pedestals, Sandy Koufax stands apart and alone, a legend who declined his own celebrity. As a pitcher, he was sublime, the ace of baseball lore. As a human being, he aspired to be the one thing his talent and his fame wouldn't allow: a regular guy. A Brooklyn kid, he was the product of the sedate and modest fifties who came to define and dominate baseball in the sixties. In Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, former award-winning Washington Post sportswriter Jane Leavy delivers an uncommon baseball book, vividly re-creating the Koufax era, when presidents were believed and pitchers aspired to go the distance. He was only a teenager when Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley proclaimed him "the Great Jewish Hope" of the franchise. But it wasn't until long after the team had abandoned Brooklyn that the man became the myth. Old-fashioned in his willingness to play when he was injured and in his acute sense of responsibility to his team, Koutax answered to an authority higher than manager Walter Alston. When he refused to pitch the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, he inadvertently made himself a religious icon and an irrevocably public figure. A year later, he was gone -- done with baseball at age thirty. No other sports hero had retired so young, so well, or so completely. Despite Sandy Koufax's best efforts to protect his privacy, his legend has grown larger ever since. Part biography, part cultural history, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy gets as close to that legend as he will allow. Through meticulous reporting and interviews with five hundred of his friends, teammates, and opponents, Leavy penetrates the mythology to discover a man more than worthy of myth.

"Courageous, insightful and candid thoughts on malady and mortality from one of our most celebrated writers"--Provided by the publisher

This text argues that science has established itself as the only legitimate form of human knowledge. The author asserts that the norms of science are by no means self-evident and that it is best seen as a socially constructed discourse that legitimates its power by presenting itself as truth.