Amitai Etzioni has devoted a lifetime of study to the question of what makes a good society, and his work as the founder of the communitarian movement attests to his influence in moving the public debate away from a preoccupation with rights to a balance between individual rights and social responsibilities. In this landmark new book, he invites us to examine how a communitarian society should operate in practice and what values we must bring to our social interactions if we are to achieve stronger and more enduring community ties. The New Golden Rule takes its title from the familiar adage to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." But when taken to a society-wide level, the Golden Rule's admonition expands, taking the formulation "respect and uphold society's moral order as you would have society respect and uphold your autonomy to live a full life." The problem facing society today is that many of us are wary of morality and order while others are suspicious of liberty - which in their mind is equated with permissiveness. In an analysis that powerfully cuts this Gordian knot, Etzioni lays out how we can and must have both order and autonomy if we are to create an environment in which individuals and neighborhoods can thrive. Recognizing that excessive morality and excessive liberty are each a dire threat to the health of a society, Etzioni shows that we have overreacted in recent years by assuming that there must also be a tradeoff between morality and freedom. That need not be the case, he argues, because when order is largely based on moral commitments rather than on the law, and autonomy is regarded as a place in a social space, these two social virtues can reinforce each other. Using this framework, Etzioni studies the implications for the future of community in America and explores the policy implications for governments, community groups, and families

"At what point did the British develop their mania for interiors, wallpaper, furniture and decoration? Why have the middle classes developed so passionate an attachment to the contents of their homes? This book offers surprising answers to these questions, uncovering the roots of today's consumer society and investigating the forces that shape consumer desires. Richly illustrated, Household Gods chronicles one hundred years of British interiors, focusing on class, choice, shopping and possessions. Exploring a wealth of unusual records and archives, Deborah Cohen locates the source of modern consumerism and materialism in early nineteenth-century religious fervour. Over the course of the Victorian era, consumerism shed the taint of sin to become the pre-eminent means of expressing individuality. The book ranges from musty antique shops to luxurious emporia, from suburban semi-detached houses to elegant city villas, from husbands fretting about mantelpieces to women appropriating home decoration as a feminist cause. It uncovers a society of consumers whose identities have become entwined with the things they put in their houses"--OCLC

"The Transformational Decade shows the transformation that took place in American life from the attack on the World Trade Center to the emergence of the Obama presidency. It is not a strict history, but rather snapshots of a decade that has fundamentally altered perceptions of the United States. In some respects, this book is modeled after Frederick Lewis Allen's Only Yesterday and Since Yesterday, acclaimed books that sought to capture the spirit of the 1920s and '30s. London sees the period from 2001 to 2008 as "post yesterday," a period that broke with the past, challenged the essence of the free market, and contested America's role on the world stage. In an effort to limn these snapshots from recent history, London has written several "decade" books: The Overheated Decade, The Counterfeit Decade, and The Decade of Denial. This book, The Transformational Decade, differs in that it represents a separation from the past. London illuminates a decade that he considers to be a new and more frightful period than any in recent American history."--Publisher's website.