Society & Politics

In a world of rising tensions between Russia and the United States, the Middle East and Europe, Sunnis and Shiites, Islamism and (read more)

In a world of rising tensions between Russia and the United States, the Middle East and Europe, Sunnis and Shiites, Islamism and liberalism, Turkey is at the epicentre. And at the heart of Turkey is its right-wing populist president, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. Since 2002, Erdo?an has consolidated his hold on domestic politics while using military and diplomatic means to solidify Turkey as a regional power.

His crackdown has been brutal and consistent - scores of journalists arrested, academics officially banned from leaving the country, university deans fired and many of the highest-ranking military officers arrested. In some senses, the nefarious and failed 2016 coup has given Erdo?an the licence to make good on his repeated promise to bring order and stability under a 'strongman'. Here, leading Turkish expert Soner Cagaptay will look at Erdo?an's roots in Turkish history, what he believes in and how he has cemented his rule, as well as what this means for the world. (hide)

This book explores significant aspects of the New Urban Agenda in the Asia-Pacific region, and presents, from different contexts (read more)

This book explores significant aspects of the New Urban Agenda in the Asia-Pacific region, and presents, from different contexts and perspectives, innovative interventions afoot for transforming the governance of 21st-century cities in two key areas: (i) urban planning and policy; and (ii) service delivery and social inclusion. Representing institutions across a wide geography, academic researchers and development practitioners from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America have authored the chapters that lend the volume its distinctly diverse topical foci.

Published: 25 Jun 2019 (hide)

For 167 years, The New York Times has been in the forefront of political reporting. This fascinating book, edited by the illustrious (read more)

For 167 years, The New York Times has been in the forefront of political reporting. This fascinating book, edited by the illustrious Andrew Rosenthal, captures the sweep and scope of the newspaper's unparalleled coverage. In today's turbulent world, The New York Times's political reporting is more relevant than ever--not only for the news itself, but because of the paper's high-profile advocacy for the freedom of the press.

Published:7 Oct 2018
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This book offers fresh research and insights into the complex relationship between the press, war, and society in the 20th century, (read more)

This book offers fresh research and insights into the complex relationship between the press, war, and society in the 20th century, by examining the role of the newspaper press in the period c.1900- 1960, with a particular focus on the Second World War. During the warfare of the 20th century, the mass media were used to sustain domestic morale and promote combatants' views to an international audience. Topics covered in this book include British newspaper cartoonists' coverage of the Russo- Japanese War, the role of the French press in Anglo- French diplomacy in the 1930s, Irish press coverage of Dunkirk and D- Day, government censorship of the press in wartime Portugal, the reporting of American troops in North Africa, and how the Greek press became the focus of British government propaganda in the 1940s. (hide)

Stocked 11 June - The year that led up to 7 May 2015 determined not just who governed Britain but the future of the country itself. (read more)

Stocked 11 June - The year that led up to 7 May 2015 determined not just who governed Britain but the future of the country itself. Night after night Nick Robinson wrote in his private notebook what he saw and heard and thought after a day spent broadcasting from the campaign trail and the House of Commons, or interviewing the nation's political leaders. It records his insider's view of the extraordinary events he reported on day after day to millions of viewers and listeners.

This was a year in which Nick asked David Cameron why he spent more on a dinner than the amount he was cutting from a family's annual tax credits; Ed Miliband whether he saw a prime minister when looked in the mirror; Nigel Farage why he employed his German wife and not a Brit to be his taxpayer-funded secretary and Alex Salmond why people should trust him and not businessmen. It was a year in which the BBC sometimes found itself dragged into the fight. This is a story not just of a battle for power but of the bare-knuckle fight between the established parties and UKIP, the SNP, the Greens and others to break the hold on power of the big three and the historic battle over Scottish independence and Britain's membership of the EU. (hide)

This is the inside account of the events documented in Laura Poitras Citizenfour. Glenn Greenwald's No Place to Hide is the story (read more)

This is the inside account of the events documented in Laura Poitras Citizenfour. Glenn Greenwald's No Place to Hide is the story of one of the greatest national security leaks in US history. In June 2013, reporter and political commentator Glenn Greenwald published a series of reports in the Guardian which rocked the world.

The reports revealed shocking truths about the extent to which the National Security Agency had been gathering information about US citizens and intercepting communication worldwide, and were based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden to Greenwald. Including new revelations from documents entrusted to Greenwald by Snowden, this essential book tells the story of Snowden and the NSA and examines the far-reaching consequences of the government's surveillance program, both in the US and abroad. "The first thing I do when I turn on the computer in the morning is go to Glenn Greenwald's blog. (hide)

North Korea is like no other tyranny on earth. It is Orwell's 1984 made reality. The regime controls the flow of information to its (read more)

North Korea is like no other tyranny on earth. It is Orwell's 1984 made reality. The regime controls the flow of information to its citizens, pouring relentless propaganda through omnipresent loud speakers.

Free speech is an illusion: one word out of line and the gulag awaits. State spies are everywhere, ready to punish disloyalty and the slightest sign of discontent. You must bow to Kim Il Sung, the Eternal Leader and to his son, Generalissimo Kim Jong Il.

Worship the dead and then hail the living, the Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. North Koreans are told their home is the greatest nation on earth. Big Brother is always watching.
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North Korea continues to make headlines, arousing curiosity and fear in equal measure. The world's most secretive nuclear power, (read more)

North Korea continues to make headlines, arousing curiosity and fear in equal measure. The world's most secretive nuclear power, it still has Gulag-style prison camps, allows no access to the internet and bans its people from talking to foreigners without official approval. In this remarkable and eye-opening book, internationally best-selling author Paul French examines in forensic detail the history and politics of North Korea, Pyongyang's complex relations with South Korea, Japan, China and America, and the implications of Kim Jong-un's increasingly belligerent leadership following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.

As an already unstable North Korea grows ever more unpredictable, antagonizing enemies and allies alike, North Korea: State of Paranoia delivers a provocative and frightening account of a potentially explosive nuclear tripwire. (hide)

In this brilliant collection of essays, Dalrymple explores some of the ideas that are changing our way of life, and examines the (read more)

In this brilliant collection of essays, Dalrymple explores some of the ideas that are changing our way of life, and examines the state of our culture. He censures some of the most celebrated writers of the modern era for their contributions to our collective collapse of confidence, criticises the shallowness and vacuity of 21st century youth culture and illustrates how terrorism can flourish in the empty space vacated by old certainties swept aside in the name of ‘progress’.

Dalrymple explains how the laissez faire lives of modern Britons and our ceaseless pursuit of a superficial – even chimerical – happiness has left our current age in a state of unparalleled physical comfort but profound existential unease. And he condemns our suffocating and self-serving State bureaucracy, wondering at a welfare system which, by oppressing and enervating those it is supposed to assist, achieves the opposite of that which it ostensibly intends.
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The world is messing with our minds. Rates of stress and anxiety are rising. A fast, nervous planet is creating fast and nervous (read more)

The world is messing with our minds. Rates of stress and anxiety are rising. A fast, nervous planet is creating fast and nervous lives.

We are more connected, yet feel more alone. And we are encouraged to worry about everything from world politics to our body mass index. - How can we stay sane on a planet that makes us mad? - How do we stay human in a technological world?- How do we feel happy when we are encouraged to be anxious? After experiencing years of anxiety and panic attacks, these questions became urgent matters of life and death for Matt Haig. (hide)