Download or read book Schoolhouse Burning written by Derek W. Black and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The full-scale assault on public education threatens not just public education but American democracy itself. Public education as we know it is in trouble. Derek W. Black, a legal scholar and tenacious advocate, shows how major democratic and constitutional developments are intimately linked to the expansion of public education throughout American history. Schoolhouse Burningis grounded in pathbreaking, original research into how the nation, in its infancy, built itself around public education and, following the Civil War, enshrined education as a constitutional right that forever changed the trajectory of our democracy. Public education, alongside the right to vote, was the cornerstone of the recovery of the war-torn nation. Today's current schooling trends -- the declining commitment to properly fund public education and the well-financed political agenda to expand vouchers and charter schools -- present a major assault on the democratic norms that public education represents and risk undermining one of the unique accomplishments of American society.

Download or read book Democracy Burning written by Nigel Raab and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2011-01-10 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nineteenth-century commentators often claimed that Russia burned to the ground every thirty years. In an empire whose cities were built of wood, firefighters had a visible presence throughout Russia's urban centres and became politically active across the country. Democracy Burning? studies the political, cultural, and social values of volunteer firefighters and reveals the ways in which their public organizations cooperated with the authoritarian state. Nigel Raab considers the important roles that nationalism, regionalism, militarism, photography, and civil society played in fire departments and challenges prevailing notions that volunteer organizations opposed the state. His analysis not only provides insights into questions about a nascent civic consciousness in the years leading to revolution but also reveals new and important information about other aspects of urban life. A skilled work of history and urban studies, Democracy Burning? forces us to rethink the way we consider large public organizations and their relation to authoritarian governments.

Download or read book Books for Burning written by Antonio Negri and published by Verso. This book was released on 2005-10-17 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Subversive political writings by the acclaimed author of Empire.

Download or read book World on Fire written by Amy Chua and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2004-01-06 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reigning consensus holds that the combination of free markets and democracy would transform the third world and sweep away the ethnic hatred and religious zealotry associated with underdevelopment. In this revelatory investigation of the true impact of globalization, Yale Law School professor Amy Chua explains why many developing countries are in fact consumed by ethnic violence after adopting free market democracy. Chua shows how in non-Western countries around the globe, free markets have concentrated starkly disproportionate wealth in the hands of a resented ethnic minority. These “market-dominant minorities” – Chinese in Southeast Asia, Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, whites in Latin America and South Africa, Indians in East Africa, Lebanese in West Africa, Jews in post-communist Russia – become objects of violent hatred. At the same time, democracy empowers the impoverished majority, unleashing ethnic demagoguery, confiscation, and sometimes genocidal revenge. She also argues that the United States has become the world’s most visible market-dominant minority, a fact that helps explain the rising tide of anti-Americanism around the world. Chua is a friend of globalization, but she urges us to find ways to spread its benefits and curb its most destructive aspects.

Download or read book Beautiful Country Burn Again written by Ben Fountain and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 808 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a sweeping work of reportage set over the course of 2016, New York Times bestselling author Ben Fountain recounts a surreal year of politics and an exploration of the third American existential crisis Twice before in its history, the United States has been faced with a crisis so severe it was forced to reinvent itself in order to survive: first, the struggle over slavery, culminating in the Civil War, and the second, the Great Depression, which led to President Roosevelt’s New Deal and the establishment of America as a social-democratic state. In a sequence of essays that excavate the past while laying bare the political upheaval of 2016, Ben Fountain argues that the United States may be facing a third existential crisis, one that will require a “burning” of the old order as America attempts to remake itself. Beautiful Country Burn Again narrates a shocking year in American politics, moving from the early days of the Iowa Caucus to the crystalizing moments of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and culminating in the aftershocks of the weeks following election night. Along the way, Fountain probes deeply into history, illuminating the forces and watershed moments of the past that mirror and precipitated the present, from the hollowed-out notion of the American Dream, to Richard Nixon’s southern strategy, to our weaponized new conception of American exceptionalism, to the cult of celebrity that gave rise to Donald Trump. In an urgent and deeply incisive voice, Ben Fountain has fused history and the present day to paint a startling portrait of the state of our nation. Beautiful Country Burn Again is a searing indictment of how we came to this point, and where we may be headed.

Download or read book Global Burning written by Eve Darian-Smith and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How extreme-right antidemocratic governments around the world are prioritizing profits over citizens, stoking catastrophic wildfires, and accelerating global climate change. Recent years have seen out-of-control wildfires rage across remote Brazilian rainforests, densely populated California coastlines, and major cities in Australia. What connects these separate events is more than immediate devastation and human loss of life. In Global Burning, Eve Darian-Smith contends that using fire as a symbolic and literal thread connecting different places around the world allows us to better understand the parallel, and related, trends of the growth of authoritarian politics and climate crises and their interconnected global consequences. Darian-Smith looks deeply into each of these three cases of catastrophic wildfires and finds key similarities in all of them. As political leaders and big business work together in the pursuit of profits and power, anti-environmentalism has become an essential political tool enabling the rise of extreme right governments and energizing their populist supporters. These are the governments that deny climate science, reject environmental protection laws, and foster exclusionary worldviews that exacerbate climate injustice. The fires in Australia, Brazil and the United States demand acknowledgment of the global systems of inequality that undergird them, connecting the political erosion of liberal democracy with the corrosion of the environment. Darian-Smith argues that these wildfires are closely linked through capitalism, colonialism, industrialization, and resource extraction. In thinking through wildfires as environmental and political phenomenon, Global Burning challenges readers to confront the interlocking powers that are ensuring our future ecological collapse.

Download or read book Freedom Summer written by Bruce Watson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting account of one of the most remarkable episodes in American history. In his critically acclaimed history Freedom Summer, award- winning author Bruce Watson presents powerful testimony about a crucial episode in the American civil rights movement. During the sweltering summer of 1964, more than seven hundred American college students descended upon segregated, reactionary Mississippi to register black voters and educate black children. On the night of their arrival, the worst fears of a race-torn nation were realized when three young men disappeared, thought to have been murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. Taking readers into the heart of these remarkable months, Freedom Summer shines new light on a critical moment of nascent change in America. "Recreates the texture of that terrible yet rewarding summer with impressive verisimilitude." -Washington Post

Download or read book Is This the End written by Charles a. Royals and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-25 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written in an attempt to answer the question "Is This the End Burning American Democracy?" Attack on American democracy makes it imperative to have an account of events facing society as we know it, and also leave record of our struggle. American people must never give up the American dream, or the path which one travels to reach goals set achieving their dream. Democracy in America is the pathway to freedom, equality, fairness, liberty and justice in every human's pursuit of happiness. We all must question the ideals and action of a single individual, and do not become subordinate to government controlled by one. Democracy gives power to the people as government of the people, to be controlled by the people according to majority rule. We cannot forget from where we came, are get lost in where we are, but accept the challenge to achieve where we want to go.

Download or read book Democracy Compromised written by Lungisile Ntsebeza and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005-06-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that the promulgation of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework and Communal Land Rights Acts runs the risk of compromising South Africa's democracy. The acts establish traditional councils with land administration powers. These structures are dominated by unelected members.

Download or read book The Death of Democracy written by Benjamin Carter Hett and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting account of how the Nazi Party came to power and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen. Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In The Death of Democracy, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time. To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. He would never have come to power if Germany’s leading politicians had not responded to a spate of populist insurgencies by trying to co-opt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis in. Hett lays bare the misguided confidence of conservative politicians who believed that Hitler and his followers would willingly support them, not recognizing that their efforts to use the Nazis actually played into Hitler’s hands. They had willingly given him the tools to turn Germany into a vicious dictatorship. Benjamin Carter Hett is a leading scholar of twentieth-century Germany and a gifted storyteller whose portraits of these feckless politicians show how fragile democracy can be when those in power do not respect it. He offers a powerful lesson for today, when democracy once again finds itself embattled and the siren song of strongmen sounds ever louder.

Download or read book The European Union How Democratic Is It written by Svein S Andersen and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1996-02-27 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking as its starting point the major issues of democracy which are the ongoing concerns of every liberal Western political system, this volume offers a wide-ranging review of democracy in the European Union. It treats the EU as a new type of political system within the tradition of parliamentary democracies, a system which is neither federal nor intergovernmental, and which consequently has unique problems of how to handle democratic requirements. Part One deals with the two major challenges of interest articulation in the EU, political parties and lobbying. The second part discusses how democracy becomes the key element in the linkage between the EU and its member states, focusing on France, Italy and Belgium where the r

Download or read book the vest of democracy is burning written by Stéphane Xavier and published by BoD - Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-03-14 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The civil disobedience movements, the loss of stratospheric purchasing power.... are all signs of the decline and exasperation of a Western society that has suffered the full force of neoliberalism since the 1980s. Faced with this gloomy situation, the general public is expressing its discontent at the ballot box, and the result is clear: the traditional parties are dying while the extremes are becoming more and more powerful. Between those who blame the wealthy and those who point the finger at a certain budgetary and state laxity, the line is thin, both stigmatize a part of the population to believe that "yesterday's world" of Stefan Zweig is finally only our daily life! Indeed, the years to come will be decisive for the prosperity of democracy, a Machiavellian Prince could emerge and establish a total state under the guise of the fight against growing inequalities. The whole debate today is whether or not we will accept a retreat from Freedom for a neosocialism!

Download or read book Democracy Declined written by Mallory E. SoRelle and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Elizabeth Warren memorably wrote, “It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance an existing home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting the family out on the street.” More than a century after the government embraced credit to fuel the American economy, consumer financial protections in the increasingly complex financial system still place the onus on individuals to sift through fine print for assurance that they are not vulnerable to predatory lending and other pitfalls of consumer financing and growing debt. In Democracy Declined, Mallory E. SoRelle argues that the failure of federal policy makers to curb risky practices can be explained by the evolution of consumer finance policies aimed at encouraging easy credit in part by foregoing more stringent regulation. Furthermore, SoRelle explains how angry borrowers’ experiences with these policies teach them to focus their attention primarily on banks and lenders instead of demanding that lawmakers address predatory behavior. As a result, advocacy groups have been mostly unsuccessful in mobilizing borrowers in support of stronger consumer financial protections. The absence of safeguards on consumer financing is particularly dangerous because the consequences extend well beyond harm to individuals—they threaten the stability of entire economies. SoRelle identifies pathways to mitigate these potentially disastrous consequences through greater public participation.

Download or read book How to Lose a Country written by Ece Temelkuran and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2024-10-10 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to Lose a Country is a warning to the world that populism and nationalism don’t march fully-formed into government; they creep. Award-winning author and journalist Ece Temelkuran identifies the early warning signs of this phenomenon, sprouting up across the world from Eastern Europe to South America, in order to arm the reader with the tools to recognise it and take action. Weaving memoir, history and clear-sighted argument, Temelkuran proposes alternative answers to the pressing – and too often paralysing – political questions of our time. How to Lose a Country is an exploration of the insidious ideas at the core of these movements and an urgent, eloquent defence of democracy. This 2024 edition includes a new foreword by the author.

Download or read book Burning Down the House written by Julian E. Zelizer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book! A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice The story of how Newt Gingrich and his allies tainted American politics, launching an enduring era of brutal partisan warfare When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, President Obama observed that Trump “is not an outlier; he is a culmination, a logical conclusion of the rhetoric and tactics of the Republican Party.” In Burning Down the House, historian Julian Zelizer pinpoints the moment when our country was set on a path toward an era of bitterly partisan and ruthless politics, an era that was ignited by Newt Gingrich and his allies. In 1989, Gingrich brought down Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Wright and catapulted himself into the national spotlight. Perhaps more than any other politician, Gingrich introduced the rhetoric and tactics that have shaped Congress and the Republican Party for the last three decades. Elected to Congress in 1978, Gingrich quickly became one of the most powerful figures in America not through innovative ideas or charisma, but through a calculated campaign of attacks against political opponents, casting himself as a savior in a fight of good versus evil. Taking office in the post-Watergate era, he weaponized the good government reforms newly introduced to fight corruption, wielding the rules in ways that shocked the legislators who had created them. His crusade against Democrats culminated in the plot to destroy the political career of Speaker Wright. While some of Gingrich’s fellow Republicans were disturbed by the viciousness of his attacks, party leaders enjoyed his successes so much that they did little collectively to stand in his way. Democrats, for their part, were alarmed, but did not want to sink to his level and took no effective actions to stop him. It didn’t seem to matter that Gingrich’s moral conservatism was hypocritical or that his methods were brazen, his accusations of corruption permanently tarnished his opponents. This brand of warfare worked, not as a strategy for governance but as a path to power, and what Gingrich planted, his fellow Republicans reaped. He led them to their first majority in Congress in decades, and his legacy extends far beyond his tenure in office. From the Contract with America to the rise of the Tea Party and the Trump presidential campaign, his fingerprints can be seen throughout some of the most divisive episodes in contemporary American politics. Burning Down the House presents the alarming narrative of how Gingrich and his allies created a new normal in Washington.

Download or read book Bridges Burning written by William K. Jr. Tell and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2006-04 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades of Politically Correct attitudes, big-government fixes, culture wars and muddled foreign policy, the U.S. finds itself on the brink of what may become an historic decline from preeminence. In addition, recent trends and events such as globalism and the war on terror have created an environment for the U.S. which is increasingly more dangerous. America was founded on the principles of democracy and freedom. In the last half of the 20th century America forgot these important principles and allowed elements potentially dangerous to freedom and democracy to prevail. What can citizens do to change this trend? As the nation's social and political institutions are in peril of failure citizens must rise up and demand change. Several areas are identified for reform including education, the media and the political process. Ready or not, America's challenges of the 21st century must be addressed with an eye to both the future's perils as well as the Founders principles. Further information and topical updates may be accessed at http://bridgesburning.com.

Download or read book Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism written by Robert Kuttner and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-04-10 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Democracy is no longer writing the rules for capitalism; instead it is the other way around. With his deep insight and wide learning, Kuttner is among our best guides for understanding how we reached this point and what’s at stake if we stay on our current path.”—Heather McGhee, president of Demos With a new Afterword In the past few decades, the wages of most workers have stagnated, even as productivity increased. Social supports have been cut, while corporations have achieved record profits. What is going on? According to Robert Kuttner, global capitalism is to blame. By limiting workers’ rights, liberating bankers, and allowing corporations to evade taxation, raw capitalism strikes at the very foundation of a healthy democracy. Capitalism should serve democracy and not the other way around. One result of this misunderstanding is the large number of disillusioned voters who supported the faux populism of Donald Trump. Charting a plan for bold action based on political precedent, Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? is essential reading for anyone eager to reverse the decline of democracy in the West.