Society & Politics

Issues in Political Theory provides a stimulating introduction to some of the key concepts, thinkers, and texts in political theory. (read more)

Issues in Political Theory provides a stimulating introduction to some of the key concepts, thinkers, and texts in political theory. Extended case studies at the end of each chapter show students how to examine a key political issue in light of the concepts explored in the chapter, while a range of additional learning features help students to check and develop their understanding, and approach learning materials beyond the text book. Clearly written chapters have been brought up to date with contemporary issues and literature, and the third edition introduces a new chapter on crime and punishment, and one on power, as well as a rewritten chapter on war and intervention.

A number of engaging new cases are featured in the text to demonstrate how theory can be used to examine important political issues. The title is supported by an Online Resource Centre with additional case studies to build students' confidence in using theory to shed light on key issues, and a suite of class activities/exercises and essay questions to provide lecturers with additional teaching materials. (hide)

What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Do social media affect the (read more)

What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Do social media affect the quality of teens' lives? In this eye-opening book, youth culture and technology expert Danah Boyd uncovers some of the major myths regarding teens' use of social media. She explores tropes about identity, privacy, safety, danger and bullying. Ultimately, Boyd argues that society fails young people when paternalism and protectionism hinder teenagers' ability to become informed, thoughtful and engaged citizens through their online interactions.

Yet despite an environment of rampant fear-mongering, Boyd finds that teens often find ways to engage and to develop a sense of identity. Boyd's conclusions are essential reading not only for parents, teachers and others who work with teens, but also for anyone interested in the impact of emerging technologies on society, culture and commerce in years to come. Offering insights gleaned from more than a decade of original fieldwork interviewing teenagers across the United States, Boyd concludes reassuringly that the kids are all right. (hide)

`An accomplished and intensely evocative memoir ... A journey of courage and determination ... Joining the Dots ...will become in (read more)

`An accomplished and intensely evocative memoir ... A journey of courage and determination ... Joining the Dots ...will become in time an integral part of our understanding of postwar Britain' Daniel Kynaston, Books of the Year, Observer How has Britain changed - politically, economically, socially and culturally - in the postwar era? Both lyrical and personal, social historian Juliet Gardiner's memoir Joining the Dots is the accessible and empowering living history of a mid-twentieth-century woman who grew into a world so different from the one she was born into. (hide)

'A riveting true story of greed, serial murder and racial injustice' JON KRAKAUER 'A fiercely entertaining mystery story and a wrenching (read more)

'A riveting true story of greed, serial murder and racial injustice' JON KRAKAUER 'A fiercely entertaining mystery story and a wrenching exploration of evil' KATE ATKINSON 'A fascinating accountof a tragic and forgotten chapter in the history of the American West' JOHN GRISHAM From the bestselling author of The Lost City of Z, now a major film starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller and Robert Pattison, comes a true-life murder story which became one of the FBI's first major homicide investigations. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. But the bureau badly bungled the investigation.
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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)