Download or read book The Measure of a Nation written by Howard Steven Friedman and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Compares the United States with other affluent democracies in such areas as health, crime and violence, education, democracy, and equality, and suggests ways the country might improve its standing in these areas.

Download or read book The Measure of Civilization written by Ian Morris and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-27 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking look at Western and Eastern social development from the end of the ice age to today In the past thirty years, there have been fierce debates over how civilizations develop and why the West became so powerful. The Measure of Civilization presents a brand-new way of investigating these questions and provides new tools for assessing the long-term growth of societies. Using a groundbreaking numerical index of social development that compares societies in different times and places, award-winning author Ian Morris sets forth a sweeping examination of Eastern and Western development across 15,000 years since the end of the last ice age. He offers surprising conclusions about when and why the West came to dominate the world and fresh perspectives for thinking about the twenty-first century. Adapting the United Nations' approach for measuring human development, Morris's index breaks social development into four traits—energy capture per capita, organization, information technology, and war-making capacity—and he uses archaeological, historical, and current government data to quantify patterns. Morris reveals that for 90 percent of the time since the last ice age, the world's most advanced region has been at the western end of Eurasia, but contrary to what many historians once believed, there were roughly 1,200 years—from about 550 to 1750 CE—when an East Asian region was more advanced. Only in the late eighteenth century CE, when northwest Europeans tapped into the energy trapped in fossil fuels, did the West leap ahead. Resolving some of the biggest debates in global history, The Measure of Civilization puts forth innovative tools for determining past, present, and future economic and social trends.

Download or read book The Measure of a Nation written by Howard Steven Friedman and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2012-06-19 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If America were a corporation, how would an independent analyst judge its ability to compete against other corporate giants? According to the author, that hypothetical analyst would label America a corporate dinosaur and recommend that the nation either change or face extinction. This book focuses on how to improve America by first comparing its performance with thirteen competitive industrial nations, then identifying the best practices found throughout the world that can be adopted here in the United States. The author lays out some disturbing facts about America’s lack of competitiveness in five key areas: health, education, safety, equality, and even democracy. Taking the approach that "data doesn’t lie," the author notes alarming statistics, for example: -Americans have the lowest life expectancy among all competitor nations. -Americans are at least two times more likely to be murdered and four times more likely to be incarcerated than any other competitor country, including Japan, France, and the United Kingdom. -America shows the sharpest disparity between rich and poor among all nations on its competitor list. Using charts that clearly illustrate the unbiased, party-neutral data, the author uncovers the major problem areas that the nation must address to become a leader again. Homing in on best practices from other countries than can be adapted to the United States, the author plots a course to transform America from a corporate behemoth burdened by internal issues and poor performance to a thriving business with an exciting portfolio of solutions.

Download or read book The Measure of America written by Sarah Burd-Sharps and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduces the American Human Development Index, which provides a single measure of well-being for all Americans, disaggregated by state and congressional district, as well as by gender, race, and ethnicity. The Index rankings of the 50 states and 436 congressional districts reveal disparities in the health, education, and living standards of different groups.

Download or read book Our Patchwork Nation written by Dante Chinni and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revolutionary new way to understand America's complex cultural and political landscape, with proof that local communities have a major impact on the nation's behavior-in the voting booth and beyond. In a climate of culture wars and tremendous economic uncertainty, the media have often reduced America to a simplistic schism between red states and blue states. In response to that oversimplification, journalist Dante Chinni teamed up with political geographer James Gimpel to launch the Patchwork Nation project, using on-the-ground reporting and statistical analysis to get past generalizations and probe American communities in depth. The result is Our Patchwork Nation, a refreshing, sometimes startling, look at how America's diversities often defy conventional wisdom. Looking at the data, they recognized that the country breaks into twelve distinct types of communities, and old categories like "soccer mom" and "working class" don't matter as much as we think. Instead, by examining Boom Towns, Evangelical Epicenters, Military Bastions, Service Worker Centers, Campus and Careers, Immigration Nation, Minority Central, Tractor Community, Mormon Outposts, Emptying Nests, Industrial Metropolises, and Monied Burbs, the authors demonstrate the subtle distinctions in how Americans vote, invest, shop, and otherwise behave, reflect what they experience on their local streets and in their daily lives. Our Patchwork Nation is a brilliant new way to debate and examine the issues that matter most to our communities, and to our nation.

Download or read book Dream of a Nation written by Tyson Miller and published by SEE Innovation. This book was released on 2011 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across the nation countless individuals and organizations are dreaming a new future. Dream of a Nation is a comprehensive resource for any reader interested in gaining critical information and deepening their role as an empowered citizen. This handbook provides statistics and accessible analyses of the many interconnected social and environmental issues we face with compelling stories of individuals and institutions that are creating the changes necessary for our country to be more environmentally oriented, peaceful, equitable, and tolerant. Applicable for readers aged 16+ of all political and religious persuasions and anyone concerned with restoring balance in the world. The issues come alive through four color authentic images, and accessible graphics and illustrations. Contributors include: Alice Walker, Vice President Gore, Time 100 Visionary Geoffrey Canada, NASA Astronaut Jerry Linenger, Frances Moore Lappe, Union of Concerned Scientists, New America Foundation, United for a Fair Economy, Veterans for Peace (and nearly 50 more)Over 60 interconnected issues are explored and organized across twelve chapters including: Building an Equitable and Green Economy, Waging Peace, Citizen Leadership, Strengthening Community, Environmental Stewardship, Ending Poverty, Deepening Democracy, Improving Health, Media Reform, Key Education Innovations, Re-Imagining Business, and Creating a Nation that Shines. Dream of a Nation restores faith that humanity can solve our current looming environmental, economic and societal challenges.

Download or read book Writing the Nation A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present written by Amy Berke and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-12-01 with total page 742 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writing the Nation displays key literary movements and the American authors associated with the movement. Topics include late romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism, and modern literature. Contents: Late Romanticism (1855-1870) Realism (1865-1890) Local Color (1865-1885) Regionalism (1875-1895) William Dean Howells Ambrose Bierce Henry James Sarah Orne Jewett Kate Chopin Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Charles Waddell Chesnutt Charlotte Perkins Gilman Naturalism (1890-1914) Frank Norris Stephen Crane Turn of the Twentieth Century and the Growth of Modernism (1893 - 1914) Booker T. Washington Zane Grey Modernism (1914 - 1945) The Great War Une Generation Perdue... (a Lost Generation) A Modern Nation Technology Modernist Literature Further Reading: Additional Secondary Sources Robert Frost Wallace Stevens William Carlos Williams Ezra Pound Marianne Moore T. S. Eliot Edna St. Vincent Millay E. E. Cummings F. Scott Fitzgerald Ernest Hemingway Arthur Miller Southern Renaissance – First Wave Ellen Glasgow William Faulkner Eudora Alice Welty The Harlem Renaissance Jessie Redmon Fauset Zora Neale Hurston Nella Larsen Langston Hughes Countee Cullen Jean Toomer American Literature Since 1945 (1945 - Present) Southern Literary Renaissance - Second Wave (1945-1965) The Cold War and the Southern Literary Renaissance Economic Prosperity The Civil Rights Movement in the South New Criticism and the Rise of the MFA Program Innovation Tennessee Williams James Dickey Flannery O'Connor Postmodernism Theodore Roethke Ralph Ellison James Baldwin Allen Ginsberg Adrienne Rich Toni Morrison Donald Barthelme Sylvia Plath Don Delillo Alice Walker Leslie Marmon Silko David Foster Wallace

Download or read book A Nation Among Nations written by Thomas Bender and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2006-12-12 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative new book that shows us why we must put American history firmly in a global context--from 1492 to today Americans like to tell their country's story as if the United States were naturally autonomous and self-sufficient, with characters, ideas, and situations unique to itself. Thomas Bender asks us to rethink this "exceptionalism" and to reconsider the conventional narrative. He proposes that America has grappled with circumstances, doctrines, new developments, and events that other nations, too, have faced, and that we can only benefit from recognizing this. Bender's exciting argument begins with the discovery of the Americas at a time when peoples everywhere first felt the transforming effects of oceanic travel and trade. He then reconsiders our founding Revolution, occurring in an age of rebellion on many continents; the Civil War, happening when many countries were redefining their core beliefs about the nature of freedom and the meaning of nationhood; and the later imperialism that pitted the United States against Germany, Spain, France, and England. Industrialism and urbanization, laissez-faire economics, capitalism and socialism, and new technologies are other factors that Bender views in the light of global developments. A Nation Among Nations is a passionate, persuasive book that makes clear what damage is done when we let the old view of America alone in the world falsify our history. Bender boldly challenges us to think beyond our borders.

Download or read book Stakeholder Capitalism written by Klaus Schwab and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-01-27 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reimagining our global economy so it becomes more sustainable and prosperous for all Our global economic system is broken. But we can replace the current picture of global upheaval, unsustainability, and uncertainty with one of an economy that works for all people, and the planet. First, we must eliminate rising income inequality within societies where productivity and wage growth has slowed. Second, we must reduce the dampening effect of monopoly market power wielded by large corporations on innovation and productivity gains. And finally, the short-sighted exploitation of natural resources that is corroding the environment and affecting the lives of many for the worse must end. The debate over the causes of the broken economy—laissez-faire government, poorly managed globalization, the rise of technology in favor of the few, or yet another reason—is wide open. Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet argues convincingly that if we don't start with recognizing the true shape of our problems, our current system will continue to fail us. To help us see our challenges more clearly, Schwab—the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum—looks for the real causes of our system's shortcomings, and for solutions in best practices from around the world in places as diverse as China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Singapore. And in doing so, Schwab finds emerging examples of new ways of doing things that provide grounds for hope, including: Individual agency: how countries and policies can make a difference against large external forces A clearly defined social contract: agreement on shared values and goals allows government, business, and individuals to produce the most optimal outcomes Planning for future generations: short-sighted presentism harms our shared future, and that of those yet to be born Better measures of economic success: move beyond a myopic focus on GDP to more complete, human-scaled measures of societal flourishing By accurately describing our real situation, Stakeholder Capitalism is able to pinpoint achievable ways to deal with our problems. Chapter by chapter, Professor Schwab shows us that there are ways for everyone at all levels of society to reshape the broken pieces of the global economy and—country by country, company by company, and citizen by citizen—glue them back together in a way that benefits us all.

Download or read book Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations A Story of Economic Discovery written by David Warsh and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2007-05-17 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicling the story of what has come to be called the new growth theory, this text helps to explain dominant first-mover firms like IBM or Microsoft, underscores the value of intellectual property, and provides essential advice to those concerned with the expansion of the economy.

Download or read book Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-06-02 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States is viewed by the world as a country with plenty of food, yet not all households in America are food secure, meaning access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. A proportion of the population experiences food insecurity at some time in a given year because of food deprivation and lack of access to food due to economic resource constraints. Still, food insecurity in the United States is not of the same intensity as in some developing countries. Since 1995 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has annually published statistics on the extent of food insecurity and food insecurity with hunger in U.S. households. These estimates are based on a survey measure developed by the U.S. Food Security Measurement Project, an ongoing collaboration among federal agencies, academic researchers, and private organizations. USDA requested the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies to convene a panel of experts to undertake a two-year study in two phases to review at this 10-year mark the concepts and methodology for measuring food insecurity and hunger and the uses of the measure. In Phase 2 of the study the panel was to consider in more depth the issues raised in Phase 1 relating to the concepts and methods used to measure food security and make recommendations as appropriate. The Committee on National Statistics appointed a panel of 10 experts to examine the above issues. In order to provide timely guidance to USDA, the panel issued an interim Phase 1 report, Measuring Food Insecurity and Hunger: Phase 1 Report. That report presented the panel's preliminary assessments of the food security concepts and definitions; the appropriateness of identifying hunger as a severe range of food insecurity in such a survey-based measurement method; questions for measuring these concepts; and the appropriateness of a household survey for regularly monitoring food security in the U.S. population. It provided interim guidance for the continued production of the food security estimates. This final report primarily focuses on the Phase 2 charge. The major findings and conclusions based on the panel's review and deliberations are summarized.

Download or read book Mapping the Nation written by Susan Schulten and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-06-29 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A compelling read” that reveals how maps became informational tools charting everything from epidemics to slavery (Journal of American History). In the nineteenth century, Americans began to use maps in radically new ways. For the first time, medical men mapped diseases to understand and prevent epidemics, natural scientists mapped climate and rainfall to uncover weather patterns, educators mapped the past to foster national loyalty among students, and Northerners mapped slavery to assess the power of the South. After the Civil War, federal agencies embraced statistical and thematic mapping in order to profile the ethnic, racial, economic, moral, and physical attributes of a reunified nation. By the end of the century, Congress had authorized a national archive of maps, an explicit recognition that old maps were not relics to be discarded but unique records of the nation’s past. All of these experiments involved the realization that maps were not just illustrations of data, but visual tools that were uniquely equipped to convey complex ideas and information. In Mapping the Nation, Susan Schulten charts how maps of epidemic disease, slavery, census statistics, the environment, and the past demonstrated the analytical potential of cartography, and in the process transformed the very meaning of a map. Today, statistical and thematic maps are so ubiquitous that we take for granted that data will be arranged cartographically. Whether for urban planning, public health, marketing, or political strategy, maps have become everyday tools of social organization, governance, and economics. The world we inhabit—saturated with maps and graphic information—grew out of this sea change in spatial thought and representation in the nineteenth century, when Americans learned to see themselves and their nation in new dimensions.

Download or read book The Wellbeing of Nations written by Paul Allin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is national wellbeing and what is progress? Why measure these definitions? Why are measures beyond economic performance needed and how will they be used? How do we measure national wellbeing & turn the definitions into observable quantities? Where are we now and where to next? These questions are asked and answered in this much needed, timely book. The Wellbeing of Nations provides an accessible and comprehensive overview of the measurement of national well-being, examining whether national wellbeing is more than the sum of the wellbeing of everyone in the country, and identifying and reviewing requirements for new measures. It begins with definitions, describes how to operationalize those definitions, and takes a critical look at the uses to which such measures are to be put. The authors examine initiatives from around the world, using the UK ‘measuring national wellbeing programme’ as a case study throughout the book, along with case studies drawn from other countries, as well as discussion of the position in some countries not yet drawn into the national wellbeing scene.

Download or read book Letters of a Nation written by Andrew Carroll and published by Broadway. This book was released on 1998-12-31 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning 350 years of American history and culture, a collection of more than two hundred letters, many never before published, reveals the personalities and feelings of Americans great and small, from Amelia Earhart to Elvis Presley to Malcolm X. Reprint.

Download or read book U S A Measure of a Nation written by Twentieth Century Fund and published by . This book was released on 1949 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Knowledge Capital of Nations written by Eric A. Hanushek and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rigorous, pathbreaking analysis demonstrating that a country's prosperity is directly related in the long run to the skills of its population. In this book Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann make a simple, central claim, developed with rigorous theoretical and empirical support: knowledge is the key to a country's development. Of course, every country acknowledges the importance of developing human capital, but Hanushek and Woessmann argue that message has become distorted, with politicians and researchers concentrating not on valued skills but on proxies for them. The common focus is on school attainment, although time in school provides a very misleading picture of how skills enter into development. Hanushek and Woessmann contend that the cognitive skills of the population—which they term the “knowledge capital” of a nation—are essential to long-run prosperity. Hanushek and Woessmann subject their hypotheses about the relationship between cognitive skills (as consistently measured by international student assessments) and economic growth to a series of tests, including alternate specifications, different subsets of countries, and econometric analysis of causal interpretations. They find that their main results are remarkably robust, and equally applicable to developing and developed countries. They demonstrate, for example, that the “Latin American growth puzzle” and the “East Asian miracle” can be explained by these regions' knowledge capital. Turning to the policy implications of their argument, they call for an education system that develops effective accountability, promotes choice and competition, and provides direct rewards for good performance.

Download or read book The Measure of a Man written by Martin Luther King, Jr. and published by Ravenio Books. This book was released on 1988 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the first National Conference on Christian Education of the United Church of Christ, held at Purdue University in the summer of 1958, Martin Luther King presented two notable devotional addresses. Moved by the clear and persuasive quality of his words, many of the 3000 delegates to the conference urged that the meditations be made available in book form. They wanted the book for their own libraries and they were eager to share Dr. King’s vital messages with fellow Christians of other denominations. In the resolute struggle of American Negroes to achieve complete acceptance as citizens and neighbors the author is recognized as a leader of extraordinary resourcefulness, valor, and skill. His concern for justice and brotherhood and the non-violent methods that he advocates and uses, are based on a serious commitment to the Christian faith. As his meditations in this book suggest, Dr. King regards meditation and action as indivisible functions of the religious life. When we think seriously in the presence of the Most High, when in sincerity we “go up to the mountain of the Lord,” the sure event is that “he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths” (Isaiah 2:3).