Society & Politics

Movies like American Sniper and The Hurt Locker hint at the inner scars our soldiers incur during service in a war zone. The moral (read more)

Movies like American Sniper and The Hurt Locker hint at the inner scars our soldiers incur during service in a war zone. The moral dimensions of their psychological injuries-guilt, shame, feeling responsible for doing wrong or being wronged-elude conventional treatment. Georgetown philosophy professor Nancy Sherman turns her focus to these moral injuries inAfterwar.

She argues that psychology and medicine alone are inadequate to help with many of the most painful questions veterans are bringing home from war. Trained in both ancient ethics and psychoanalysis, and with twenty years of experience working with the military, Sherman draws on in-depth interviews with servicemen and women to paint a richly textured and compassionate picture of the moral and psychological aftermath of America's longest wars. She explores how veterans can go about reawakening their feelings without becoming re-traumatized; how they can replace resentment with trust; and the changes that need to be made in order for this to happen-by military courts, VA hospitals, and the civilians who have been shielded from the heaviest burdens of war. (hide)

Rebecca Solnit's essay 'Men Explain Things to Me' has become a touchstone of the feminist movement, inspired the term 'mansplaining', (read more)

Rebecca Solnit's essay 'Men Explain Things to Me' has become a touchstone of the feminist movement, inspired the term 'mansplaining', and established Solnit as one of the leading feminist thinkers of our time - one who has inspired everyone from radical activists to Beyonce Knowles. Collected here in print for the first time is the essay itself, along with the best of Solnit's feminist writings. From rape culture to mansplaining, from French sex scandals to marriage and the nuclear family, from Virginia Woolf to colonialism, these essays are a fierce and incisive exploration of the issues that a patriarchal culture will not necessarily acknowledge as 'issues' at all.

With grace and energy, and in the most exquisite and inviting of prose, Rebecca Solnit proves herself a vital leading figure of the feminist movement and a radical, humane thinker. (hide)

In 2014, the ethics and politics of hospitality were brought into stark relief. Three years into the Syrian conflict, which had already (read more)

In 2014, the ethics and politics of hospitality were brought into stark relief. Three years into the Syrian conflict, which had already created nearly 2.5 million refugees and internally displaced 6.5 million, the UN called on industrialised countries to share the burden of offering hospitality through a fixed quota system. The UK opted out of the system whilst hailing their acceptance of a moral responsibility by welcoming only 500 of the 'most vulnerable' Syrians.

Given the state's exclusionary character, what opportunities do other spaces in international politics offer by way of hospitality to migrants and refugees? Hospitality can take many different forms and have many diverse purposes. But wherever it occurs, the boundaries that enable it and make it possible are both created and unsettled via exercises of power and their resistance. Through modern examples including refugee camps, global cities, postcolonial states and Europe, as well as analysis of Derridean and Foucauldian concepts, Migration, Ethics and Power explores: *The process and practice of hospitality *The spaces that hospitality produces *The intimate relationship between ethics and power This is a brilliantly contemporary text for students of politics, international relations and political geography. (hide)

A watershed book that masterfully integrates insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and more to explore (read more)

A watershed book that masterfully integrates insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and more to explore the development and workings of human societies "There is no good reason why human societies should not be described and explained with the same precision and success as the rest of nature." Thus argues evolutionary psychologist Pascal Boyer in this uniquely innovative book. Integrating recent insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and other fields, Boyer offers precise models of why humans engage in social behaviors such as forming families, tribes, and nations, or creating gender roles.

Published:8 May 2018
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'Following [Everyday Sexism] will make most women feel oddly saner.' Caitlin Moran 'Piercingly astute.' StylistLaura Bates, pioneering (read more)

'Following [Everyday Sexism] will make most women feel oddly saner.' Caitlin Moran 'Piercingly astute.' StylistLaura Bates, pioneering feminist, activist and bestselling author, has given voice to hundreds of thousands of women through her international Everyday Sexism Project. Drawing attention to both hidden and blatant sexist acts and attitudes, Laura has exposed the startling truth behind misogyny in our society: systemic, ingrained and ignored.

From Weinstein to Westminster, a torrent of allegations of sexual harassment and assault have left us reeling. One hundred years since some women were first given the right to vote, we are still struggling to get to grips with the true extent of gender inequality that continues to flourish in our society. In this collection of essays, originally published in the Guardian, Laura Bates uncovers the sexism that exists in our relationships, our workplaces, our media, in our homes and on our streets, but which is also firmly rooted in our lifelong assumptions and in the actions and attitudes we explain away, defend and accept. (hide)

Arriving 16/4/15: A clarion call to save humanity's most essential fellow creatures - and our health Far beneath our skin exists (read more)

Arriving 16/4/15: A clarion call to save humanity's most essential fellow creatures - and our health Far beneath our skin exists an unfathomable, ancient universe - an internal ecosystem that is critical to our health. Dr Martin Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human 'microbiome', unfurling its inner workings and evolution. For thousands of years, bacteria and human cells have co-existed in a relationship that has ensured the health and equilibrium of our body.

But now, much like the natural world outside of us, our internal environment is being irrevocably destroyed. The culprit: some of our most revered medical advances - antibiotics - which appear to be linked to the epidemics of asthma, eczema, obesity, certain forms of cancer, and other diseases plaguing modern society. In a book that stands as the Silent Spring of its day, Blaser sounds a provocative alarm that we ignore at our peril. (hide)

Welcome to the world of the sharp-suited 'faces'. The Italianistas. The scooter-riding, all-night-dancing instigators of what became, (read more)

Welcome to the world of the sharp-suited 'faces'. The Italianistas. The scooter-riding, all-night-dancing instigators of what became, from its myriad sources, a very British phenomenon.

Mod began life as the quintessential working-class movement of a newly affluent nation - a uniquely British amalgam of American music and European fashions that mixed modern jazz with modernist design in an attempt to escape the drab conformity, snobbery and prudery of life in 1950s Britain. But what started as a popular cult became a mainstream culture, and a style became a revolution. In Mod, Richard Weight tells the story of Britain's biggest and most influential youth cult.
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Written by the world's leading experts and campaigners, Modern Slavery: A Beginner's Guide blends original research with shocking (read more)

Written by the world's leading experts and campaigners, Modern Slavery: A Beginner's Guide blends original research with shocking first-hand accounts from slaves themselves around the world to reveal the truth behind one of the worst humanitarian crises facing us today. Only a handful of slaves are reached and freed each year, but the authors offer hope for the future with a global blueprint that proposes to end slavery in our lifetime All royalties will go to Free the Slaves. (hide)

You cannot understand power, wealth and poverty without knowing about Moneyland.'Simon Kuper, New StatesmanFrom ruined towns on the (read more)

You cannot understand power, wealth and poverty without knowing about Moneyland.'Simon Kuper, New StatesmanFrom ruined towns on the edge of Siberia, to Bond-villain lairs in Knightsbridge and Manhattan, something has gone wrong with the workings of the world. Once upon a time, if an official stole money, there wasn't much he could do with it. He could buy himself a new car or build himself a nice house or give it to his friends and family, but that was about it.

If he kept stealing, the money would just pile up in his house until he had no rooms left to put it in, or it was eaten by mice. And then some bankers in London had a bright idea. Join the investigative journalist Oliver Bullough on a journey into Moneyland - the secret country of the lawless, stateless superrich. (hide)

In many Western societies today the optimism of the 1990s and early 2000s has given way to a deep unease and a dark sense of foreboding. (read more)

In many Western societies today the optimism of the 1990s and early 2000s has given way to a deep unease and a dark sense of foreboding. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, many people feel worse off and the future seems bleak. The mood has changed -- that's clear to everyone.

But what is 'the mood'? How can feelings be shared by many people, and how do these shared feelings shape the course of events? In this short book, the sociologist Heinz Bude offers a highly original analysis of this vital but neglected topic. Moods, he argues, are ways of being in the world. Moods shape how we experience the world, which feelings and thoughts suggest themselves to us and which are excluded.

Published:20 Aug 2018
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