Political Science

The 40-year history of how Democrats chose political convenience over addressing inequality--and how the poor have paid the price. For decades, the Republican party has been known as the party of the rich: arguing for business-friendly policies like deregulation and tax cuts. But as our national and global economy confronts a crisis of inequality, the truth is that Democrats have been unwilling to take risks that would help eliminate poverty. In this incisive new book, political historian Lily Geismer shows how the Democratic party of the 80s and 90s -- particularly during the height of the Clinton years -- peddled policy ideas that centered on helping the poor without asking the rich to make any sacrifices: doing well by doing good. Micro-lending became a big business, and private programs to promote democracy and equality abroad grew trendy. But as social programs in the private sector boomed, the structure of the government began to weaken, contributing to a crisis that has now fully arrived. Geismer makes her case through artful storytelling and a savvy eye, conjuring in meticulous detail the political moments that led to these fateful decisions. We've seen skyrocketing income inequality, huge discrepancies between the haves and have-nots, and growing poverty in America. This is the story of how we got ourselves into this mess, and where we can go from here--

A probing work of narrative history that reveals the hidden story of immigrant detention in the United States, deepening urgent national conversations around migration. In 2017, many Americans watched in horror as children were torn from their parents at the US-Mexico border under Trump's family separation policy. But as historian Ana Raquel Minian reveals in In the Shadow of Liberty, this was only the latest chapter in a saga tracing back to the 1800s-one in which immigrants to the United States have been held without recourse to their constitutional rights. Braiding together the vivid stories of four migrants seeking to escape the turmoil of their homelands for the promise of America, In the Shadow of Liberty gives this history a human face, telling the dramatic story of Central American asylum seeker, a Cuban exile, a European war bride, and a Chinese refugee. As we travel alongside these indelible characters, In the Shadow of Liberty explores how sites of rightlessness have evolved, and what their existence has meant for our body politic. Though these black sites exist out of view for the average American, their reach extends into all of our lives: the explosive growth of the for-profit prison industry traces its origins to the immigrant detention system, as does the emergence of Guantanamo and the gradual unraveling of the right to bail and the presumption of innocence. Through these narratives, we see how the changing political climate surrounding immigration has played out in individual lives, and at what cost. But as these stories demonstrate, it doesn't have to be like this, and a better way might be possible--

This revised and updated fifth edition of Immigrant America: A Portrait provides a comprehensive and current overview of immigration to the United States, including its history, the principal theories seeking to account for its diverse origins, the main types of immigrants and the various forms of their incorporation within American society. With the latest available data, Immigrant America explores the economic, political, regional, linguistic and religious aspects of immigration, offers detailed analyses of the adaptation process experienced by the adult second generation of the children of immigrants, and adds an updated and expanded concluding chapter on the changing policy regimes under which immigration has taken place and continues to do so at present--

Traces the history of the concept of democracy in the United States--

Analyzes the different feelings, drives and instincts we have inherited from other species, to suggest a new understanding of ourselves as part of an eco-political community--

The former head of the UK's Diplomatic Service considers what the future of Britain's foreign policy should look like. What should the future of Britain foreign policy look like? For too long successive governments have shied away from acknowledging uncomfortable truths about the decline of Britain's military capabilities. As we approach the middle years of the twenty-first century a new set of urgent and daunting challenges - including climate change, technological developments and the rise of AI, and a growing threat from China - lie ahead, making the need for us to reconcile ourselves with our position in the world more acute. In this persuasively argued book, Simon McDonald shows how the UK's significant soft-power strengths can be harnessed to expand our international influence. Such a shift will only be possible, he says, if we first acknowledge the challenges of Brexit and the need to reduce our unrealistic hard-power ambitions. Excellence in areas that other countries take care about will keep the UK internationally relevant in the second half of the century in a way that nostalgia for a lost pre-eminence will not--Publisher's description.

Accidental Sisters follows the lives of five refugee women in Houston, Texas, an epicenter of refugee resettlement, as they make their way through a yearlong program for struggling single mother refugees overseen by Alia Altikrity, herself a former refugee from Iraq. Entirely grounded in the words of each of these women--Mina, also from Iraq; Maandi from Sudan; Sara and Zara from Syria; and Elikya from the Democratic Republic of Congo--this book recounts, with deep insight, the lives they lived in their mother countries and the way they were forced to flee with their children into the uncertainty of displacement in neighboring lands. And although it documents the safety and refuge the women eventually find in the new city to which they have been permanently resettled, it critiques the insistence of the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program on rapid self-sufficiency and offers an alternative vision of the American Dream, one grounded in a sisterhood of mutual care for one another--

White rural voters hold the greatest electoral sway of any demographic group in the United States, yet rural communities suffer from poor healthcare access, failing infrastructure, and severe manufacturing and farming job losses. Rural voters believe that our nation has betrayed them, and to some degree they're right. In White Rural Rage, Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman explore why rural Whites have failed to reap the benefits from their outsize political power and why, as a result, they are the most likely group to abandon democratic norms and traditions. Their rage -- stoked daily by Republican politicians and the conservative media -- now poses an existential threat to the United States. Schaller and Waldman show how vulnerable U.S. democracy has become to rural Whites, who, despite legitimate grievances, are also increasingly inclined to hold racist and xenophobic beliefs, to believe in conspiracy theories, to accept violence as a legitimate course of political action, and to exhibit antidemocratic tendencies. Rural White Americans' attitude might best be described as I love my country, but not our country, Schaller and Waldman argue. This phenomenon is the patriotic paradox of rural America: The citizens who are most likely to show off their patriotism are also the least likely to defend core American principles. And by encouraging rural Whites' anger rather than addressing the hard problems they face, conservative politicians and talking heads create a feedback loop of resentments that are undermining American democracy. Schaller and Waldman provocatively critique both the structures that permit rural Whites' disproportionate influence over American governance and the prospects for creating a pluralist, inclusive democracy that delivers policy solutions that benefit rural communities. They conclude with a political reimagining that offers a better future for both rural people and the rest of America. --

Because of restrictive borders, human beings suffer and die. Closed borders force migrants seeking safety and dignity to journey across seas, trudge through deserts, and clamber over barbed wire. In the last five years alone, over 60,000 people have died or gone missing while attempting to cross a border. As we deny, cast out, and crack down, we have stripped borders of their potential--as lines of contact, catalyst, and blend--turning our thresholds into barricades. Brilliant and provocative, The Case for Open Borders deflates the mythology of national security through border lockdowns by revisiting their historical origins; it counters the conspiracies of immigration's economic consequences; it urgently considers the challenges of climate change beyond the boundaries of narrow national identities. This book grounds its argument in the experiences and thinking of those on the frontlines of the crisis, spanning the world to do so. In each chapter, John Washington profiles a character impacted by borders. He adds to those portraits provocative analyses of the economics and ethics of bordering, concluding that if we are to seek justice or sustainability we must fight for open borders. In recent years, important thinkers have begun to urge a different approach to migration, but no book has made the argument as accessible or as compelling. Washington's case shines with the voices of people on the move, a portrait of what a world with open borders will give to our common future.--

From one of the world's leading experts, Terrorist Minds offers an up-to-date, evidence-based understanding of the patterns, profiles, motives and mindsets of today's violent extremists from al Qaeda to the extreme right wing. The book is informed by scientific research findings from the best academic research available, presented in an accessible format. Its goal is to illuminate, educate and challenge the general reader and policy makers and practitioners about who becomes a terrorist, why, and ultimately what we can do about it. Drawing on over fifty years of psychological research on terrorism, John Horgan illustrates both the research data from studies of terrorists as well as the deeply personal journeys undertaken by terrorists into the world of violent extremism. Terrorist Minds will include never-before published interviews with the Pakistani Taliban, Somalia's al Shabaab, Al Qaeda, ISIS, America's 'homegrown' right-wing extremists, and most recently, members of the violent Incel community. In one of the final chapters, Horgan presents a detailed account of a series of meetings with a convicted jihadist recruiter operating within the United States. Horgan concludes with a new model of terrorist psychology that is the culmination of the author's twenty years of studying the topic--