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Desperate: An Epic Battle for Clean Water and Justice in Appalachia
By Kris Maher. 2021
Set in Appalachian coal country, this &“superb&” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) legal drama follows one determined lawyer as he faces a coal…
industry giant in a seven-year battle over clean drinking water for a West Virginia community.For two decades, the water in the taps and wells of Mingo County didn&’t look, smell, or taste right. Could the water be the root of the health problems—from kidney stones to cancer—in this Appalachian community? Environmental lawyer Kevin Thompson certainly thought so.For seven years, Thompson waged an epic legal battle against Massey Energy, West Virginia&’s most powerful coal company, helmed by CEO Don Blankenship. While Massey&’s lawyers worked out of a gray glass office tower in Charleston known as &“the Death Star,&” Thompson set up shop in a ramshackle hotel in the fading coal town of Williamson. Working with fellow lawyers and a crew of young activists, Thompson would eventually uncover the ruthless shortcuts that put the community&’s drinking water at risk.Retired coal miners, women whose families had lived in the area&’s coal camps for generations, a respected preacher and his brother, all put their trust in Thompson when they had nowhere else to turn. Desperate is a masterful work of investigative reporting about greed and denial, &“both a case study in exploitation of the little guy and a playbook for confronting it&” (Kirkus Reviews). Maher crafts a revealing portrait of a town besieged by hardship and heartbreak, and an inspiring account of one tenacious environmental lawyer&’s mission to expose the truth and demand justice.When A Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind—Or Destroy It
By Jonathan Watts. 2010
As a young child, Jonathan Watts believed if everyone in China jumped at the same time, the earth would be…
shaken off its axis, annihilating mankind. Now, more than thirty years later, as a correspondent for The Guardian in Beijing, he has discovered it is not only foolish little boys who dread a planet-shaking leap by the world’s most populous nation. When a Billion Chinese Jump is a road journey into the future of our species. Traveling from the mountains of Tibet to the deserts of Inner Mongolia via the Silk Road, tiger farms, cancer villages, weather-modifying bases, and eco-cities, Watts chronicles the environmental impact of economic growth with a series of gripping stories from the country on the front line of global development. He talks to nomads and philosophers, entrepreneurs and scientists, rural farmers and urban consumers, examining how individuals are trying to adapt to one of the most spectacular bursts of change in human history, then poses a question that will affect all of our lives: Can China find a new way forward or is this giant nation doomed to magnify the mistakes that have already taken humanity to the brink of disaster?A groundbreaking analysis of political hobbyism—treating politics like a spectator sport—and an urgent and timely call to arms for the…
many well-meaning, well-informed citizens who follow political news, but do not take political action.Do you consider yourself politically engaged? Probably, yes! But are you, really? The uncomfortable truth is that most of us have good intentions. We vote (sometimes) and occasionally sign a petition or attend a rally. But we mainly &“engage&” by consuming politics as if it&’s entertainment or a hobby. We obsessively follow the news and complain about the opposition to our friends or spouse. We tweet and post and share. The hours we spend on politics are used mainly as pastime.Instead, political scientist and data analyst Eitan Hersh offers convincing evidence that we should be spending the same number of hours building political organizations, implementing a long-term vision for our local communities, and getting to know our neighbors, whose votes will be needed for solving hard problems. We could be accumulating power so that when there are opportunities to make a difference—to lobby, to advocate, to mobilize—we will be ready. Aided by cutting-edge social science as well as remarkable stories of ordinary citizens who got off their couches and took political power seriously, this book shows us how to channel our energy away from political hobbyism and toward empowering our values.In an age of political turmoil and as the 2020 election looms, Politics Is for Power is an inspiring, vital read that will make you hopeful for America&’s democratic future.Territorial Governance in Times of Crisis: Regional Responses, Communication and Public Opinion in Italy During the Covid-19 Pandemic
By Arianna Giovannini, Antonella Seddone, Davide Vampa. 2024
This book offers a comprehensive exploration of multi-level governance, political communication and public opinion in Italy during the Covid-19 emergency.…
Italy’s territorial arrangements of blending aspects of unitary and federal systems within a ‘regionalized’ framework underscore the tensions between centralization and decentralization, a theme echoed in many other nations. Given the state of flux and lack of clear direction of Italian regionalism at the onset of the pandemic, the analysis provides particularly interesting insights into the effects of this unprecedented crisis on regional dynamics. Covid-19 acted as a catalyst, amplifying and exacerbating existing territorial disparities, while also highlighting the resilience and adaptability of some regions. The book delves into the national and sub-national responses to the pandemic, examines how politicians and regional leaders presented them, and how citizens perceived these responses. Through this analysis, it provides deeper insights into the intricate interplay between centralization and decentralization, as well as the diverse strategies employed to address a wide spectrum of health, social, and economic challenges. Ultimately, by moving from institutions to citizens, the book reflects on how external shocks can both challenge the democratic underpinnings of decentralization and offer opportunities to strengthen them.The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious
By John Dodson. 2013
A hard-hitting inside account of the Fast and Furious scandal—the government-sponsored program intended to “win the drug war” by providing…
and tracking gun sales across the border to Mexico—from whistle-blower and ATF agent John Dodson.After the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, John Dodson pulled bodies out of the wreckage at the Pentagon. In 2007, following the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech, John Dodson walked through the classrooms, heartbroken, to cover up the bodies of the victims.Then came Arizona. The American border.Ten days before Christmas, 2010, ATF agent John Dodson awoke to the news he had dreaded every day as a member of the elite team called the Group VII Strike Force: a U.S. border patrol agent named Brian Terry had been shot dead by bandits armed with guns that had been supplied to them by ATF. Was this an inevitable consequence of the Obama administration’s Project Gunrunner, set in place one year earlier ostensibly to track Mexican drug cartels?Brian Terry’s murder would not only change John Dodson’s life forever; it would reveal a scandal so unthinkably unpatriotic that it forced President Barack Obama to claim executive privilege and caused Attorney General Eric Holder to be held in contempt of Congress.Federal Agent John Dodson, an ex-military man, took an oath to defend the world’s greatest country, and proudly considered himself a walking patriotic example of the American Dream. Brian Terry, ex-military like Dodson, was only forty years old, a family man who served his country by working for the government.Dodson was terrified when the next phone call came, one with the potential to destroy his career, his family, and his life. CBS investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson asked Dodson to go public with what he knew about Fast and Furious. To Agent Dodson, this meant blowing the whistle. But to the family of Agent Terry, it was a chance to save lives and right a wrong. As he took a fight from the border towns of Arizona to a showdown in the halls of Congress, John Dodson clung to the hope that truth would prevail, that he would be redeemed, and that Brian Terry’s death would not be in vain.Like whistle-blowers before him, John would not be welcome back on the job. But he found strength in his conscience, in the support of the American public, and in Senators Darryl Issa and Chuck Grassley. When his first-amendment rights to publicly tell his story were threatened, the ACLU took up his case. For her report revealing John Dodson as the key whistle-blower in Fast and Furious, Sharyl Attkisson received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.Ultimately, John Dodson was cleared by the Inspector General’s office, publicly heralded as a hero, and returned to Arizona.Perhaps a lesson gleaned from John Dodson’s powerful account is well stated by former Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn: “If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.”&“Essential reading for understanding not just Chinese American history but American history—and the American present.&” —Celeste Ng, #1 bestselling author of Little Fires…
Everywhere* TIME 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 * San Francisco Chronicle's Favorite Nonfiction * Kirkus Best Nonfiction of 2023 * Library Journal Best Memoir and Biography of 2023 * One of Elle's Best Memoirs of 2023 (So Far) * An ALA Notable Book *&“The Angela&’s Ashes for Chinese Americans.&” —Miwa Messer, Poured Over podcastAs the only child of a single mother in Queens, Ava Chin found her family&’s origins to be shrouded in mystery. She had never met her father, and her grandparents&’ stories didn&’t match the history she read at school. Mott Street traces Chin&’s quest to understand her Chinese American family&’s story. Over decades of painstaking research, she finds not only her father but also the building that provided a refuge for them all.Breaking the silence surrounding her family&’s past meant confronting the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—the first federal law to restrict immigration by race and nationality, barring Chinese immigrants from citizenship for six decades. Chin traces the story of the pioneering family members who emigrated from the Pearl River Delta, crossing an ocean to make their way in the American West of the mid-nineteenth century. She tells of their backbreaking work on the transcontinental railroad and of the brutal racism of frontier towns, then follows their paths to New York City.In New York&’s Chinatown she discovers a single building on Mott Street where so many of her ancestors would live, begin families, and craft new identities. She follows the men and women who became merchants, &“paper son&” refugees, activists, and heads of the Chinese tong, piecing together how they bore and resisted the weight of the Exclusion laws. She soon realizes that exclusion is not simply a political condition but also a personal one.Gorgeously written, deeply researched, and tremendously resonant, Mott Street uncovers a legacy of exclusion and resilience that speaks to the American experience, past and present.Risking Immeasurable Harm: Immigration Restriction and U.S.-Mexican Diplomatic Relations, 1924–1932
By Benjamin C. Montoya. 2020
The debate over restricting the number of Mexican immigrants to the United States began early in the twentieth century, a…
time when U.S.-Mexican relations were still tenuous following the Mexican Revolution and when heated conflicts over mineral rights, primarily oil, were raging between the two nations. Though Mexico had economic reasons for curbing emigration, the racist tone of the quota debate taking place in the United States offended Mexicans&’ national pride and played a large part in obstructing mutual support for immigration restriction between the United States and Mexico.Risking Immeasurable Harm explains how the prospect of immigration restriction affects diplomatic relations by analyzing U.S. efforts to place a quota on immigration from Mexico during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The controversial quota raised important questions about how domestic immigration policy debates had international consequences, primarily how the racist justifications for immigration restriction threatened to undermine U.S. relations with Mexico. Benjamin C. Montoya follows the quota debate from its origin in 1924, spurred by the passage of the Immigration Act, to its conclusion in 1932. He examines congressional policy debate and the U.S. State Department&’s steady opposition to the quota scheme. Despite the concerns of American diplomats, in 1930 the Senate passed the Harris Bill, which singled out Mexico among all other Latin American nations for immigration restriction. The lingering effects of the quota debates continued to strain diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico beyond the Great Depression. Relevant to current debates about immigration and the role of restrictions in inter-American diplomacy, Risking Immeasurable Harm demonstrates the correlation of immigration restriction and diplomacy, the ways racism can affect diplomatic relations, and how domestic immigration policy can have international consequences.The Long Game: Inside Sinn Féin
By Aoife Moore. 2023
Inside the rise of the political party, once subordinate to the IRA, that is on the brink of taking power…
in Ireland Sinn Féin, long widely-regarded as the political wing of the Provisional IRA, is the most popular political party in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. A movement once synonymous with a paramilitary campaign is on the brink of taking real power through purely democratic means. But if Sinn Féin has mastered the art of electoral politics, it remains strangely opaque. Who really runs the party? How is it funded? And what can we expect of it as a party of government?Aoife Moore, Irish Journalist of the Year 2021. explores these and other burning questions in The Long Game. Drawing on exclusive interviews with current and former members of Sinn Féin, she builds up a picture of a party undergoing a profound, and still incomplete, transformation. She looks at the key individuals and moments that put the party on its present course, and she explores tensions within the party and the wider republican movement.Packed with revelatory details, The Long Game is a groundbreaking telling of contemporary Ireland's biggest and most elusive political story.How They Broke Britain: The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller
By James O'Brien. 2023
THE REVEALING, DEFINING ACCOUNT OF THE DARK NETWORK THAT BROKE OUR COUNTRY.'An exceptional broadcaster' - Guardian | 'Consistently, forensically, brilliant'…
- Emily MaitlisSomething has gone really wrong in Britain.Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from the one that existed a decade ago. But whose fault is it really? Who broke Britain and how did they do it?Bold and incisive as ever, James O'Brien reveals the shady network of influence that has created a broken Britain of strikes, shortages and scandals. He maps the web connecting dark think tanks to Downing Street, the journalists involved in selling it to the public and the media bosses pushing their own agendas. Over ten chapters, each focusing on a particular person complicit in the downfall, James O'Brien reveals how a select few have conspired - sometimes by incompetence, sometimes by design - to bring Britain to its knees.Globalization: Buying and selling the world (No-Nonsense Guides #37)
By Wayne Ellwood. 2015
Globalization has an ever-increasing effect on our lives. It has made the world smaller and brought us closer together yet…
it can also make us more vulnerable and divided. The deregulation of finance and banking and the crisis they led to is a devastating example of the knock-on effects of globalization. This fully revised fourth edition reviews the history and complexities of globalization, examining the forces in play and whose interests they serve. And while the global exchange of people, products, plants, animals, technologies, and ideas intensifies the key question that Wayne Ellwood asks ‘how can globalization be a positive force for change?’Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies against Financialization
By Max Haiven. 2018
We imagine that art and money are old enemies, but this myth actually reproduces a violent system of global capitalism…
and prevents us from imagining and building alternatives. From the chaos unleashed by the ‘imaginary’ money in financial markets to the new forms of exploitation enabled by the ‘creative economy’ to the way art has become the plaything of the world’s plutocrats, our era of financialization demands that we question our romantic assumptions about art and money. By exploring the way contemporary artists engage with cash, debt, and credit, Haiven identifies and assesses a range of creative strategies for mocking, sabotaging, exiting, decrypting, and hacking capitalism today. Written for artists, activists, and scholars, this book makes an urgent call to unleash the power of the radical imagination by any media necessary.The Fire and the Ashes: Rekindling Democratic Socialism
By Andrew Jackson. 2021
In The Fire and the Ashes, long-time union economist and policy analyst Andrew Jackson looks back on a fascinating career…
in the labour movement, the NDP, and left politics, combining keen historical analysis with a political manifesto for today. As one of the few trade union economists in Canada, Jackson brings a unique insider perspective and decades of experience to bear on his critical reflections on the history and changing fortunes of the NDP, the failures of neoliberalism, and the waning and recent renewal of the democratic socialist tradition. What plays out is a battle of ideas fought by Jackson and the wider left—one meant to rekindle both political veterans and a new generation of activists who believe that a true democracy cannot exist with great inequalities of wealth and political power, and that social ownership and public investment must be brought squarely into the mainstream.The Great Revenue Robbery: How to Stop the Tax Cut Scam and Save Canada
By Canadians for Tax Fairness. 2013
Any attempt to restore responsible environmental policies, revive and expand our social programs, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and boost our…
flagging economy will be inadequate unless we also address the need to increase governments’ fiscal capacity. The tax system can also play a key role in closing the gap between rich and poor––a gap that is undermining the health of our economy and threatening damage to our democracy. Until recently, many progressive groups, including progressive political parties, have shied away from advocating for tax fairness and tax reform, fearing that the issue is political dynamite. Right wingers have encountered little opposition to their calls for deep tax cuts, especially for the rich and for corporations. But the tide is turning. Public opinion polls tell us that faced with growing inequality and cutbacks to government programs, Canadians now strongly support tax fairness, including higher taxes on the rich and on corporations. The Great Revenue Robbery is a collective effort to stimulate much-needed discussion about how tax policy can help rebuild our social programs, reduce the gap between rich and poor, restore environmental responsibility, and revitalize our country’s democracy.Advertising Shits in Your Head: Strategies for Resistance
By Vyvian Raoul. 2018
Advertising Shits in Your Head calls ads what they are—a powerful means of control through manipulation—and highlights how people across…
the world are fighting back. It diagnoses the problem and offers practical tips for a DIY remedy. Faced with an ad-saturated world, activists are fighting back, equipped with stencils, printers, high-visibility vests, and utility tools. Their aim is to subvert the advertisements that control us. With case studies from both sides of the Atlantic, this book showcases the ways in which small groups of activists are taking on corporations and states at their own game: propaganda. This is a call-to-arts for a generation raised on ads. Beginning with a rich and detailed analysis of the pernicious hold advertising has on our lives, the book then moves on to offer practical solutions and guidance on how to subvert the ads. Using a combination of ethnographic research and theoretical analysis, Advertising Shits in Your Head investigates the claims made by subvertising practitioners and shows how they affect their practice.Ecology for the 99%: Twenty Capitalist Myths Debunked
By Frédéric Legault, Arnaud Theurillat-Cloutier, Alain Savard. 2024
If everyone—from Emmanuel Macron to Jeff Bezos, and even Coca Cola—is green, why is the environmental crisis growing at an…
alarmingly rapid rate? The world is already experiencing the impact of climate crisis, but we are not equally responsible for its violent effects. Some of those who claim to be helping the planet are actually making things worse. To avoid being duped by false allies and to create an ecology for the 99%, we must discuss a radical topic: the exit from capitalism. Ecology for the 99% provides inspiration for building grassroots environmental movements through a lively discussion of the most persistent capitalist myths. It presents compelling evidence for why carbon market policies will fail, why a capitalist economy cannot be based on renewable energy sources, and why we should be protesting against overproduction, not overconsumption. Ecology for the 99% is an antidote to apathy and a bulwark against false leads. Time is running out, we can’t afford to take any wrong turns.Bold Scientists: Dispatches from the Battle for Honest Science
By Michael Riordon. 2014
As governments and corporations scramble to pull the plug on research that proves that they are poisoning our planet and…
rush to muzzle the scientists who dare to share their disturbing data, it seems the powerful have declared a war on science. Michael Riordon asks deep questions of bold scientists who defy the status quo including: an Indigenous biologist who integrates traditional knowledge and a trickster’s wit; an engineering professor who exposes the myths and dangers of fracking; a forensic geneticist who traces children stolen by the military in El Salvador; a sociologist who investigates the lure and threat of mass surveillance; a radical psychologist who confronts psychiatry’s dangerous power; and a young marine biologist who risks her career to defend science and democracy. Who controls science and at what cost to the earth and its inhabitants? Can we change? This is unspun science for dangerous times.The Case for Basic Income: Freedom, Security, Justice
By Jamie Swift, Elaine Power. 2021
Inequality is up. Decent work is down. Free market fundamentalism has been exposed as a tragic failure. In a job…
market upended by COVID-19—with Canadians caught in the grip of precarious labour, stagnant wages, a climate crisis, and the steady creep of automation—an ever-louder chorus of voices calls for a liveable and obligation-free basic income. Could a basic income guarantee be the way forward to democratize security and intervene where the market economy and social programs fail? Jamie Swift and Elaine Power scrutinize the politics and the potential behind a radical proposal in a post-pandemic world: that wealth should be built by a society, not individuals. And that we all have an unconditional right to a fair share. In these pages, Swift and Power bring to the forefront the deeply personal stories of Canadians who participated in the 2017–2019 Ontario Basic Income Pilot; examine the essential literature and history behind the movement; and answer basic income’s critics from both the right and left.Enemy Alien: A True Story of Life Behind Barbed Wire
By Kassandra Luciuk. 2020
This graphic history tells the story of Canada’s first national internment operations through the eyes of John Boychuk, an internee…
held in Kapuskasing from 1914 to 1917. The story is based on Boychuk’s actual memoir, which is the only comprehensive internee testimony in existence. The novel follows Boychuk from his arrest in Toronto to Kapuskasing, where he spends just over three years. It details the everyday struggle of the internees in the camp, including forced labour and exploitation, abuse from guards, malnutrition, and homesickness. It also documents moments of internee agency and resistance, such as work slowdowns and stoppages, hunger strikes, escape attempts, and riots. Little is known about the lives of the incarcerated once the paper trail stops, but Enemy Alien subsequently traces Boychuk’s parole, his search for work, his attempts to organize a union, and his ultimate settlement in Winnipeg. Boychuk’s reflections emphasize the much broader context in which internment takes place. This was not an isolated incident, but rather part and parcel of Canadian nation building and the directives of Canada’s settler colonial project.Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing
By Lesley J. Wood. 2014
Crisis and Control explains how neoliberal shifts in political and economic systems are militarizing the policing of protest. The book…
offers a way to understand the influence of political processes on police practices and provides an empirical study of militarized protest policing from 1995 until the present. Lesley J. Wood shows how protest policing techniques have become more militarised and more dependent on intelligence gathering over the past fifteen years partly as a result of the neoliberal restructuring political, economic and social processes. On an increasingly integrated and tumultuous globe, new militarized technologies, formations and frameworks are diffusing quickly through policing networks. Crisis and Control uses novel theoretical and methodological approaches and a unique range of empirical data to make an important and radical contribution to a growing field.Outside In: A Political Memoir
By Libby Davies. 2019
Libby Davies has worked steadfastly for social justice both inside parliament and out on the streets for more than four…
decades. At nine-teen, Davies became a community organizer in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. She went on to serve in municipal and then federal politics, advancing to the role of Deputy Leader of the New Democratic Party. Davies looks back on her remarkable life and career with candid humour and heart-rending honesty. She addresses the challenges of her work on homelessness, sex workers’ rights, and ending drug prohibition. She illuminates the human strengths and foibles at the core of each issue, her own as well as those of her colleagues and activist allies. Davies’ astute political analysis offers an insider’s perspective that never loses touch with the people she fights alongside. Outside In is both a political and personal memoir of Davies’ forty years of work at the intersection of politics and social movements.