Society & Politics

The inside story of the campaign that rocked the United Kingdom to its foundations, and the implications of the Scottish independence (read more)

The inside story of the campaign that rocked the United Kingdom to its foundations, and the implications of the Scottish independence movement for the future of British politics. Alex Salmond has been a passionate supporter of Scottish independence his whole life. In September 2014, he came close to realising that dream.

In a riveting daily diary, written with his trademark wit and charm, Salmond takes us into the heart of the YES campaign, revealing what was said and done behind the scenes as the referendum reached its dramatic climax. He explains how the YES campaign energised the entire Scottish nation and rewrote the rulebook for grassroots political campaigning, not just in the UK but throughout the world. He also looks ahead to the critical role of the 'national question' in the future of British politics, making clear that the referendum was not the end of a process, but the beginning of one.

The dream of Scottish independence is very much alive. (hide)

Economics is all around us, essential to every aspect of our lives. But just how much does the average person understand about what (read more)

Economics is all around us, essential to every aspect of our lives. But just how much does the average person understand about what Economics is for, how it underpins crucial decisions taken every day and how it continues to evolve? Step forward the Economist's guide to Economics, written with the clarity and wit for which the newspaper is renowned and featuring bite-sized overviews of the most important economic ideas, concepts and terms. If you need to understand why a country's balance of payments is such a big deal, whether deflation is always a bad thing, or exactly why John Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman were so influential, then dipping into this A-Z Guide will provide the answers.

Primer, glossary, dictionary and reference, this book offers everything you always wanted to know about Economics, but perhaps were afraid to ask. An Economist Book, published in association with the Economist. (hide)

Democratic transitions in the early 1990s introduced a sea change in Sub-Saharan African politics. Between 1990 and 2015, several (read more)

Democratic transitions in the early 1990s introduced a sea change in Sub-Saharan African politics. Between 1990 and 2015, several hundred competitive legislative and presidential elections were held in all but a handful of the region's countries. This book is the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the key issues, actors, and trends in these elections over the last quarter century.
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Empathy is the power of understanding others, imaginatively entering into their feelings. It is a fundamental human attribute, without (read more)

Empathy is the power of understanding others, imaginatively entering into their feelings. It is a fundamental human attribute, without which mutually co-operative societies cannot function. In a revolutionary development, we now know who has it, who lacks it and why.

Via the MRI scanner we are mapping the human brain. This is a new frontier that reveals a host of beneficial ideas for childcare, teens challenged by the internet, the justice system, decent healthcare, tackling racism and resolving conflicts. In this wide-ranging and accessible book full of entertaining stories that are underlined by the latest scientific research, Peter Bazalgette also mounts a passionate defence of arts and popular culture as a means of bridging the empathy gap.

Pub Date:26/01/2017 (hide)

"My story starts at the very end of the journey to equal marriage rights. I stand on the shoulders of giants..."In the future, people (read more)

"My story starts at the very end of the journey to equal marriage rights. I stand on the shoulders of giants..."In the future, people will find it difficult to believe that until 2014, somewhere between 5 and 10 per cent of Britain's population were excluded from marriage.As Equalities Minister during the coalition government, Lynne Featherstone played a fundamental role in rectifying this. From setting the wheels in motion within government, to her experiences of the abuse with which the gay community is regularly confronted, through her rebuttals against the noise and fury of her opponents, and finally to the making of history, Lynne details the surprising twists and turns of the fight.

Filled with astonishing revelations about finding allies in unexpected places and encountering resistance from unforeseen foes, Equal Ever After is an honest account of one woman's pivotal efforts during the turbulent final mile.This is real, lived history - recent history. Many of us celebrated on the day the dream became reality; many of us know people whose lives were changed by the events described here.In this inside story, Lynne reveals the emotional lows and the exhilarating highs involved in turning hard-won social acceptance into tangible legal equality. (hide)

Essential Public Affairs for Journalists is the definitive handbook for journalism students and practising journalists. It guides (read more)

Essential Public Affairs for Journalists is the definitive handbook for journalism students and practising journalists. It guides readers through the constitutional framework and the governing institutions of the United Kingdom before considering the electoral system and the principal political parties. A number of key topics are discussed in turn including the National Health Service, education, utilities and industry, and social security.

The author examines both how these services operate and how they can generate a wealth of reports for the student and professional journalist alike. The text is supported by an Online Resource Centre featuring: - Web links - Additional topical feature ideas - Tables to accompany the text - News feeds
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This book comparatively examines the preferences of four key arms-producing states towards European joint armaments programmes. The (read more)

This book comparatively examines the preferences of four key arms-producing states towards European joint armaments programmes. The European defence market is characterised by a mixture of inter-state competition and European cooperation, and this work assesses why countries sometimes decide to cooperate with their partners, while in other instances they refrain from doing so. In order to shed light on this empirical puzzle, the book focuses on state-defence industry relations in the four major European arms producers: France, Germany, Italy and the UK.

Published:27 Mar 2020 (hide)

The essential Pelican introduction to the European Union - its history, its politics, and its role today For most of us today, 'Europe' (read more)

The essential Pelican introduction to the European Union - its history, its politics, and its role today For most of us today, 'Europe' refers to the European Union. At the centre of a seemingly never-ending crisis, the EU remains a black box, closed to public understanding. Is Europe ruled by Germany or by European bureaucrats? Does a single European economy exist after all these years of economic integration? And should the EU have been awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2012? Critics tell us the EU undermines democracy.

Are they right? In this provocative volume, political scientist Chris Bickerton provides an answer to all these key questions and more at a time when understanding what the EU is and what it does is more important than ever before. (hide)

Ruth Winstone retells Britain's history through the great diarists of the last century, drawing back the curtain on the lives of (read more)

Ruth Winstone retells Britain's history through the great diarists of the last century, drawing back the curtain on the lives of political classes, their doubts, ambitions, and emotions. She moves deftly among those in the thick of it, showing the elation, anger, doubts, jealousy, joys and fears of people as they record their own and the nation's triumphs and disasters. To this potent mix she adds the mordant perceptions of observers like Virginia Woolf, Cecil Beaton, Peter Hall and Roy Strong, and the vivid records of everyday life found in the diaries of otherwise ordinary men and women.

Events, Dear Boy, Events reveals Britain's recent past in the words of the actors who were shaping the events of the day. This is living real-time history. (hide)

This book contributes to emerging debates in political science and sociology on institutional change. Its introductory essay proposes (read more)

This book contributes to emerging debates in political science and sociology on institutional change. Its introductory essay proposes a new framework for analyzing incremental change that is grounded in a power-distributional view of institutions and that emphasizes ongoing struggles within but also over prevailing institutional arrangements. Five empirical essays then bring the general theory to life by evaluating its causal propositions in the context of sustained analyses of specific instances of incremental change.

These essays range widely across substantive topics and across times and places, including cases from the United States, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The book closes with a chapter reflecting on the possibilities for productive exchange in the analysis of change among scholars associated with different theoretical approaches to institutions. (hide)