NATIONAL BESTSELLER Being a teenager has never been easy, but in recent years, with the rise of the Internet and social media, it has become exponentially more challenging. Bullying, once thought of as the province of queen bees and goons, has taken on new, complex, and insidious forms, as parents and educators know all too well. No writer is better poised to explore this territory than Emily Bazelon, who has established herself as a leading voice on the social and legal aspects of teenage drama. In Sticks and Stones, she brings readers on a deeply researched, clear-eyed journey into the ever-shifting landscape of teenage meanness and its sometimes devastating consequences. The result is an indispensable book that takes us from school cafeterias to courtrooms to the offices of Facebook, the website where so much teenage life, good and bad, now unfolds. Along the way, Bazelon defines what bullying is and, just as important, what it is not . She explores when intervention is essential and when kids should be given the freedom to fend for themselves. She also dispels persistent myths: that girls bully more than boys, that online and in-person bullying are entirely distinct, that bullying is a common cause of suicide, and that harsh criminal penalties are an effective deterrent. Above all, she believes that to deal with the problem, we must first understand it. Blending keen journalistic and narrative skills, Bazelon explores different facets of bullying through the stories of three young people who found themselves caught in the thick of it. Thirteen-year-old Monique endured months of harassment and exclusion before her mother finally pulled her out of school. Jacob was threatened and physically attacked over his sexuality in eighth grade—and then sued to protect himself and change the culture of his school. Flannery was one of six teens who faced criminal charges after a fellow student’s suicide was blamed on bullying and made international headlines. With grace and authority, Bazelon chronicles how these kids’ predicaments escalated, to no one’s benefit, into community-wide wars. Cutting through the noise, misinformation, and sensationalism, she takes us into schools that have succeeded in reducing bullying and examines their successful strategies. The result is a groundbreaking book that will help parents, educators, and teens themselves better understand what kids are going through today and what can be done to help them through it. Praise for Sticks and Stones “A humane and closely reported exploration of the way that hurtful power relationships play out in the contemporary public-school setting . . . As a parent herself, [Emily Bazelon] brings clear, kind analysis to complex and upsetting circumstances.”— The Wall Street Journal “Intelligent, rigorous . . . [Bazelon] is a compassionate champion for justice in the domain of childhood’s essential unfairness.”—Andrew Solomon, The New York Times Book Review “Bullying is misunderstood. Not all conflict between kids is bullying. It isn’t always clear who is the bully and who is the victim. Not all—or even most—kids are involved in bullying. And bullying isn’t the only factor in a child’s suicide, ever. Emily Bazelon, who wrote about the subject for Slate in 2010, here expands her reporting in an important, provocative book about what we can—and can’t—do about the problem.”— The Boston Globe “Immersive storytelling with a sturdy base of science underneath, [ Sticks and Stones ] draws its authority and power from both.”— New York

Revealing how the anonymous nature of the Internet is enabling the unchecked spread of bigotry, bullying, and other hate-based vitriol, explores the working examples of social media companies while outlining recommended steps for establishing legal policies.

Every so often, a startling book emerges that gives voice to a new of previously unexamined trend that is transforming society. In Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways, Alan M. Dershowitz, the renowned lawyer and educator, chronicles the world's fundamental shift in its approach to controlling dangerous and destructive human behavior. Dershowitz reveals that we are moving - whether in terms of fighting crime, profiling suspicious behavior, or combating terrorism - toward increasingly preventive and proactive measures and away from a traditional reliance on reactive responses. In showing the seismic shift that not only has profoundly altered foreign policy but also has affected matters as close to home as inoculation, Internet censorship, and stings, Dershowitz presents the reader with challenging dilemmas. For example, should one detain and interrogate a potential criminal solely on the basis of his profile, DNA, or predicted behavior? Should the Department of Homeland Security have the power to monitor law-abiding citizens just because they attend a certain mosque or church? Should a nation threatened by terrorism or nuclear attack be authorized to launch a preemptive attack or a preventive war? In presenting his finds, Dershowitz contrasts our approach to the Cold War - deterring a nuclear attack by threatening mutually assured destruction (MAD) - with our current approach to terrorism: kill them before they kill us. The tragic events of 9/11 have of course outwardly change the nature of American foreign policy, but Preemption convincingly demonstrated that the seeds were planted long before the collapse of the World Trade Towers and the deadly chain of al-Qaids bombings that have ripped through more than a dozen cities throughout the world. In tracing the emergence of a preemptive approach, particularly in this new century, Dershowitz examines the troubling implications not just for national security and foreign policy but for civil liberties and human rights as well. He calls for, and constructs, a new jurisprudence of preemption that seeks to balance security and freedom. With a remarkable flair for debate that has won him acclaim in the courtroom, Dershowitz brings his prodigious talen and firsthand expertise as lawyer to a topic of great philosophical and political import, The questions that he raises, both in his introduction and through the many lucid examples in Preemption, have already begun to define our age. In doing so, they will profoundly alter our fundamental understanding of how to confront crime, terrorism, and warfare. Indeed, the knife cuts both ways.

Whether one favors the U.S. global projection of force or is horrified by it, the question stands - where do we go from here? What ought to be the new global architecture? Amitai Etzioni follows a third way, drawing on both neoconservative and liberal ideas, in this bold new look at international relations. He argues that a "clash of civilizations" can be avoided and that the new world order need not look like America. Eastern values, including spirituality and moderate Islam, have a legitimate place in the evolving global public philosophy.Nation-states, Etzioni argues, can no longer attend to rising transnational problems, from SARS to trade in sex slaves to cybercrime. Global civil society does help, but without some kind of global authority, transnational problems will overwhelm us. The building blocks of this new order can be found in the war against terrorism, multilateral attempts at deproliferation, humanitarian interventions and new supranational institutions (e.g., the governance of the Internet). Basic safety, human rights, and global social issues, such as environmental protection, are best solved cooperatively, and Etzioni explores ways of creating global authorities robust enough to handle these issues as he outlines the journey from "empire to community."