Government & Politics
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The Russo-Ukrainian War: From the bestselling author of Chernobyl
CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND TELEGRAPH
Do you know what is at stake in Ukraine? Urgent, compelling reading from the author of Chernobyl on the defining conflict of our times
On 24 February 2022, Russia stunned the world by launching an invasion of Ukraine. In the midst of checking on the family and friends who were now on the front lines of Europe’s largest conflict since the outbreak of the Second World War, acclaimed Ukrainian-American historian Serhii Plokhy inevitably found himself attempting to understand the deeper causes of the invasion, analysing its course and contemplating the wider outcomes.
The Russo-Ukrainian War is the comprehensive history of a war that has burned since 2014, and that, with Russia’s attempt to seize Kyiv, exploded a geo-political order that had been cemented since the end of the Cold War. With an eye for the gripping detail on the ground, both in the halls of power and down in the trenches, as well as a keen sense of the grander sweep of history, Plokhy traces the origins and the evolution of the conflict, from the collapse of the Russian empire to the rise and fall of the USSR and on to the development in Ukraine of a democratic politics.
Based on decades of research and his unique insight into the region, he argues that Ukraine’s defiance of Russia, and the West’s demonstration of unity and strength, has presented a profound challenge to Putin’s Great Power ambition, and further polarized the world along a new axis. A riveting, enlightening account, this is present-minded history at its best.
BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER 2023: FINANCIAL TIMES * THE TIMES * SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE * TLS
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Class War: A Literary History
A bold new history of the global class warA thrilling and vivid work of history, Class War weaves together literature and politics to chart the making and unmaking of social class through revolutionary combat. In a narrative that spans the globe and more than two centuries of history, Mark Steven traces the history of class war from the Haitian Revolution to Black Lives Matter.
Surveying the literature of revolution, from the poetry of Shelley and Byron to the novels of Émile Zola and Jack London, exploring the writings of Frantz Fanon, Che Guevara, and Assata Shakur, Class War reveals the interplay between military action and the politics of class, showing how solidarity flourishes in times of conflict. Written with verve and ranging across diverse historical settings, Class War traverses industrial battles, guerrilla insurgencies, and anticolonial resistance, as well as large-scale combat operations waged against capitalism’s regimes and its interstate system.
In our age of economic crisis, ecological catastrophe, and planetary unrest, Steven tells the stories of those whose actions will help guide future militants toward a revolutionary horizon.
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£14.60£18.00Class War: A Literary History
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SAS Great Escapes Two: Six Untold Epic Escapes Made by World War Two Heroes
‘Damien Lewis is both a meticulous historian and a born storyteller’ Lee Child
SAS Great Escapes Two recounts the hitherto untold stories of six of the most dramatic and daring escapes executed by the world’s most famous fighting force during WWII. From the very earliest SAS missions to the push into Nazi-occupied Europe, they cover some of the key figures in the Regiment, including its founder, David Stirling, plus other lesser-known heroes.
With each story comes an edge-of-the-seat, rollercoaster ride in classic Damien Lewis fashion, as readers are plunged into the escapees’ experiences – sharing their most terrifying yet inspiring moments. These stunning accounts of survival beggar belief, revealing nerve-racking bluff and deception, knife-edge encounters with enemy hunter forces hellbent on wreaking vengeance and murder, but also incredible acts of mercy and kindness from those who risk all to help the escapees on their way.
Each tale of breath-taking derring-do reveals how necessity really is the mother of all invention, as with every step and at every juncture these fugitives defied fate, snatching survival and freedom from the jaws of the enemy, and all the horrors that would have followed capture.
Damien Lewis has worked closely with the families of those portrayed, accessing wartime diaries, letters, mission reports, interrogation transcripts and more, to relate how the men of the SAS crossed blazing deserts, evaded enemy hunter forces and escaped through hostile lands, battling against seemingly insurmountable odds. But most of all, these uplifting tales of endurance beyond measure showcase the triumph of the human spirit and the will to survive.
‘Damien Lewis paints a uniquely vivid picture of the wartime SAS. Packed with detail, this fresh and dynamic book brings us as close to its remarkable members as we are ever likely to get.’ Joshua Levine, author of
Dunkirk‘In these days when we are told to be scared of everything it is a relief to read of steely nerves and cold courage. Damien Lewis has collected examples of exactly these qualities from World War II and they are all thrillers, to be read with pleasure – and a bit of nostalgia!’ Frederick Forsyth
‘The fund of SAS escapes turns out to be too big for one book, and in Damien Lewis there is a writer of rare narrative gifts able to bring alive these epic stories for us today’ Mark Urban
‘An astonishing book: a collection of truly riveting stories of bravery, all brilliantly told. In terms of sheer drama and audacity, SAS: Great Escapes Two goes where no fiction writer would dare venture’ Alex Gerlis, author of Agent in the Shadows
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Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe (James Lydon Lectures in Medieval History and Culture)
Throughout medieval Europe, for hundreds of years, monarchy was the way that politics worked in most countries. This meant power was in the hands of a family – a dynasty; that politics was family politics; and political life was shaped by the births, marriages and deaths of the ruling family. How did the dynastic system cope with female rule, or pretenders to the throne? How did dynasties use names, the numbering of rulers and the visual display of heraldry to express their identity? And why did some royal families survive and thrive, while others did not? Drawing on a rich and memorable body of sources, this engaging and original history of dynastic power in Latin Christendom and Byzantium explores the role played by family dynamics and family consciousness in the politics of the royal and imperial dynasties of Europe. From royal marriages and the birth of sons, to female sovereigns, mistresses and wicked uncles, Robert Bartlett makes enthralling sense of the complex web of internal rivalries and loyalties of the ruling dynasties and casts fresh light on an essential feature of the medieval world.Read more
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Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases
This ground breaking text provides the ideal introduction to the ever-changing field of foreign policy. With a unique combination of theories, actors and cases in a single volume, the expert contributors provide students with a valuable and accessible introduction to what foreign policy is and how it is conducted.
With an emphasis throughout on grounding theory in empirical examples, the textbook features a section dedicated to relevant and topical case studies where foreign policy analysis approaches and theories are applied.
The expert team of contributors clearly conveys the connection between international relations theory, political science, and the development of foreign policy analysis, emphasizing the key debates in the academic community.The text is accompanied by an Online Resource Centre, which provides additional resources for both lecturers and students.
For students:
– Expand your reading with web links organized by chapter that point you to pertinent articles and useful websites.
– Test your understanding of key terms with the flashcard glossary.
– Explore the evolution of foreign policy analysis by following an interactive timeline
For lecturers:
– Use the adaptable PowerPoint slides as the basis for lecture presentations, or as hand-outs in class.
– Find out how to use case studies in your teaching with our guide to using case studies
– Use the simulation exercises to help your students explore negotiations and debatesRead more
£33.80£38.00Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases
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Inside the Deal: How the EU Got Brexit Done
“The Brexit you’ll never hear about from a British negotiator. An important book.” – ROBERT PESTON, ITV Political Editor
As a close aide to Michel Barnier, Stefaan De Rynck had a front row seat in the Brexit negotiations. In this frank and uncompromising account, he tells the EU’s side of the story and seeks to dispel some of the myths and spin that have become indelibly linked to the Brexit process. From the mood in the room to the technical discussions, he gives an unvarnished account of the deliberations and obstacles that shaped the final deal and offers a rare and fascinating insight into how a major negotiation is run.
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£22.40£23.80Inside the Deal: How the EU Got Brexit Done
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War and Peace in Islam: The Uses and Abuses of Jihad
Written by a number of Islamic religious authorities and Muslim scholars, this work presents the views and teachings of mainstream Sunni and Shi’i Islam on the subject of jihad. It authoritatively presents jihad as it is understood by the majority of the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims in the world today, and supports this understanding with extensive detail and scholarship. No word in English evokes more fear and misunderstanding than “jihad.” To date the books that have appeared on the subject in English by Western scholars have been either openly partisan and polemical or subtly traumatized by so many acts and images of terrorism in the name of jihad and by the historical memory of nearly 1,400 years of confrontation between Islam and Christianity. Though jihad is the central concern of War and Peace in Islam: The Uses and Abuses of Jihad, the range of the essays is not confined exclusively to the study of jihad. The work is divided into three parts: War and Its Practice, Peace and Its Practice, and Beyond Peace: The Practice of Forbearance, Mercy, Compassion and Love. The book aims to reveal the real meaning of jihad and to rectify many of the misunderstandings that surround both it and Islam’s relation with the “Other.”
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£19.00£23.70War and Peace in Islam: The Uses and Abuses of Jihad
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The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia
A dramatic new telling of the dawn of modern East Asia, placing Korea at the center of a transformed world order wrought by imperial greed and devastating wars.
In the nineteenth century, Russia participated in two “great games” one, well known, pitted the tsar’s empire against Britain in Central Asia. The other, hitherto unrecognized but no less significant, saw Russia, China, and Japan vying for domination of the Korean Peninsula. In this eye-opening account, brought to life in lucid narrative prose, Sheila Miyoshi Jager argues that the contest over Korea, driven both by Korean domestic disputes and by great-power rivalry, set the course for the future of East Asia and the larger global order.
When Russia’s eastward expansion brought it to the Korean border, an impoverished but strategically located nation was wrested from centuries of isolation. Korea became a prize of two major imperial conflicts: the Sino-Japanese War at the close of the nineteenth century and the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of the twentieth. Japan’s victories in the battle for Korea not only earned the Meiji regime its yearned-for colony but also dislodged Imperial China from centuries of regional supremacy. And the fate of the declining tsarist empire was sealed by its surprising military defeat, even as the United States and Britain sized up the new Japanese challenger.
A vivid story of two geopolitical earthquakes sharing Korea as their epicenter, The Other Great Game rewrites the script of twentieth-century rivalry in the Pacific and enriches our understanding of contemporary global affairs, from the origins of Korea’s bifurcated identity–a legacy of internal politics amid the imperial squabble–to China’s irredentist territorial ambitions and Russia’s nostalgic dreams of recovering great-power status.
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UK Politics Annual Update 2022
This UK Politics Annual Update will help students:
– Review all the developments relevant to A-level specifications in UK politics from the last year, with examples linked closely to specification points, strong links between topics and focused suggestions for further reading
– Develop their confidence with expert analysis they can draw on throughout their course and in the exams
– Enhance their knowledge of the news to build a bank of up-to-date examples linked to the specifications, helping them to develop persuasive arguments for their essays
– Learn more about the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other up-to-date political developments, and how to put them into context
– Use our updated exam skills feature to clarify how to use the information they have just learned in their examUK Politics Annual Update 2022 chapters:
1. Pressure groups: Lobbying in the 2020s – methods and controversies
2. Rights in context: Campaigns to protect liberties and to extend the franchise
3. Political Parties: Old, new or in between? What does Keir Starmer’s Labour Party stand for?
4. The constitution: The Johnsonian constitution ‘in flux’
5. Devolution (Part 1): See no EVEL: what is the future for English representation in Westminster?
6. Devolution (Part 2): What does the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda mean for devolved government in England?
7. Parliament and the executive: The changing relationship between Parliament and the executive
8. The House of Lords: Peers in the 2020s: The composition and legislative influence of the House of Lords
9. The UK Supreme Court: Redefining judicial power in the 2020sRead more
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Perception and Misperception in International Po – New Edition (Center for International Affairs, Harvard University)
Since its original publication in 1976, Perception and Misperception in International Politics has become a landmark book in its field, hailed by the New York Times as “the seminal statement of principles underlying political psychology.” This new edition includes an extensive preface by the author reflecting on the book’s lasting impact and legacy, particularly in the application of cognitive psychology to political decision making, and brings that analysis up to date by discussing the relevant psychological research over the past forty years. Jervis describes the process of perception (for example, how decision makers learn from history) and then explores common forms of misperception (such as overestimating one’s influence). He then tests his ideas through a number of important events in international relations from nineteenth- and twentieth-century European history. Perception and Misperception in International Politics is essential for understanding international relations today.Read more
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Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought (Princeton Classics): Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought – Expanded Edition: 23…
Politics and Vision is a landmark work by one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century. This is a significantly expanded edition of one of the greatest works of modern political theory. Sheldon Wolin’s Politics and Vision inspired and instructed two generations of political theorists after its appearance in 1960. Substantially expanded for republication in 2004, it is both a sweeping survey of Western political thought and a powerful account of contemporary predicaments of power and democracy. In lucid and compelling prose, Sheldon Wolin offers original, subtle, and often surprising interpretations of political theorists from Plato to Rawls. Situating them historically while sounding their depths, he critically engages their diverse accounts of politics, theory, power, justice, citizenship, and institutions. The new chapters, which show how thinkers have grappled with the immense possibilities and dangers of modern power, are themselves a major theoretical statement. They culminate in Wolin’s remarkable argument that the United States has invented a new political form, “inverted totalitarianism,” in which economic rather than political power is dangerously dominant. In this expanded edition, the book that helped to define political theory in the late twentieth century should energize, enlighten, and provoke generations of scholars to come. Wolin originally wrote Politics and Vision to challenge the idea that political analysis should consist simply of the neutral observation of objective reality. He argues that political thinkers must also rely on creative vision. Wolin shows that great theorists have been driven to shape politics to some vision of the Good that lies outside the existing political order. As he tells it, the history of theory is thus, in part, the story of changing assumptions about the Good. Acclaimed as a tour de force when it was first published, and a major scholarly event when the expanded edition appeared, Politics and Vision will instruct, inspire, and provoke for generations to come.Read more
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Muslim Identity Politics: Islam, Activism and Equality in Britain (Library of European Studies)
The surge in divisive and far-right politics and growing Islamophobia in Britain pose new challenges for Muslim advocacy organisations. British Muslim activism has taken centre stage in the public sphere as a result. Yet for over fifty years Muslim advocacy groups have worked to preserve religious identity, lobby the state and provide concerted responses to the political establishment.
This is the first book to chart critically the national and global factors influencing the political mobilisation of British Muslim activists as Muslims. Khadijah Elshayyal traces the changes of thought, direction and method within Muslim identity politics after 1960, noting key organisations and turning points such as the Rushdie Affair, the 9/11 attacks, the 7/7 bombings and the current conflict in Syria. The book argues that the Rushdie Affair prompted new debate around the subject of freedom of expression, which has continued to be a point of contention ever since. Providing a history of the interaction between Muslim advocacy groups and the state, and the impact of state policy on Muslim communities, Muslims Identity Politics shows that Muslim citizens continue to experience an `equality gap’ and recommends where transformation and progress can be made. Based on primary sources and in-depth interviews, this book is a vital resource for government officials, policy-makers and researchers interested in multiculturalism, Islamophobia and security issues in Britain.Read more
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Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars: The Politics of Sex
“Thoughtful and often moving.” Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian
Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars provides important theoretical background and context to the ‘gender wars’ or ‘TERF wars’ – the fracture at the forefront of the LGBTQ international conversation. Using queer and female masculinities as a lens, Finn Mackay investigates the current generational shift that is refusing the previous assumed fixity of sex, gender and sexual identity. Transgender and trans rights movements are currently experiencing political backlash from within certain lesbian and lesbian feminist groups, resulting in a situation in which these two minority communities are frequently pitted against one another or perceived as diametrically opposed.
Uniquely, Finn Mackay approaches this debate through the context of female masculinity, butch and transmasculine lesbian masculinities. There has been increasing interest in the study of masculinity, influenced by a popular discourse around so-called ‘toxic masculinity’, the rise of men’s rights activism and theory and critical work on Trump’s America and the MeToo movement.
An increasingly important topic in political science and sociological academia, this book aims to break new ground in the discussion of the politics of gender and identity.
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Northern Ireland Government and Politics for CCEA AS Level
This well-researched text was written specifically to address Unit AS1 of the current CCEA Government and Politics AS Level specification. It covers the Government and Politics of Northern Ireland and has been through a meticulous quality assurance process.
It considers the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, the amendments made in subsequent agreements (St Andrews, Hillsborough and Stormont House) and examines the functions and responsibilities of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the executive and various political parties.
Included in the book are tasks, practice essay titles, key terms and concepts, as well as a detailed glossary, index and examination preparation guide.
Areas explored include:
* The principles, content and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and the changes made to it by subsequent agreements.
* An analysis of the Assembly, including its three main functions (representation, legislation and scrutiny), and its independence from the Executive.
* A look at the Executive Office and the Executive as a whole – how it disappointed, how it can determine legislation and policy, the divisions within it, and its ability to function as a power-sharing government.
* An evaluation of the Northern Ireland political parties, including their role in government, their respective backgrounds, strategies and policies, and how they have changed since 1998.
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Politics: The Basics
Now in its fifth edition, Politics: The Basics explores the systems, movements and issues at the cutting edge of modern politics. A highly successful introduction to the world of politics, it offers clear and concise coverage of a range of issues and addresses fundamental questions such as:
• Why does politics matter?
• Why obey the state?
• What are the key approaches to power?
• How are political decisions made?
• What are the current issues affecting governments worldwide?
Accessible in style and topical in content, the fifth edition has been fully restructured to reflect core issues, systems and movements that are at the centre of modern politics and international relations. Assuming no prior knowledge in politics, it is ideal reading for anyone approaching the study of politics for the first time.
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£17.30£19.00Politics: The Basics
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Harrington: The Commonwealth of Oceana and A System of Politics (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
James Harrington’s brief career as a political and historical theorist spans the last years of the Cromwellian Protectorate and the Restoration of 1660. This 1992 volume comprises the first and last of Harrington’s writings. Harrington was the first theorist to interpret the English Civil Wars as a revolution, the result of a long-term process of social change which led to the decay of the old political order. The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) is a fictionalised presentation of English history up to the victory of the New Model Army, explaining the fall of the monarchy and proposing a republic to replace it. A System of Politics, written after the Restoration, is a scheme of history and political philosophy erected on the foundations of his previous works. Professor Pocock’s introduction emphasises Harrington’s place as a pivotal figure in the history of English political thought. This edition also contains a chronology of events in Harrington’s life and a guide to further reading.Read more
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The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics (Oxford Handbooks)
The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science is a ten-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science. Each volume focuses on a particular part of the discipline, with volumes on Public Policy, Political Theory, Political Economy, Contextual Political Analysis, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Law and Politics, Political Behavior, Political Institutions, and Political Methodology. The project as a whole is under the General Editorship of Robert E. Goodin, with each volume being edited by a distinguished international group of specialists in their respective fields. The books set out not just to report on the discipline, but to shape it. The series will be an indispensable point of reference for anyone working in political science and adjacent disciplines.The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics offers a critical survey of the field of empirical political science through the collection of a set of chapters written by 47 top scholars in the discipline of comparative politics. Part I includes chapters surveying the key research methodologies employed in comparative politics (the comparative method; the use of history; the practice and status of case-study research; the contributions of field research) and assessing the possibility of constructing a science of comparative politics. Parts II to IV examine the foundations of political order: the origins of states and the extent to which they relate to war and to economic development; the sources of compliance or political obligation among citizens; democratic transitions, the role of civic culture; authoritarianism; revolutions; civil wars and contentious politics. Parts V and VI explore the mobilization, representation and coordination of political demands. Part V considers why parties emerge, the forms they take and the ways in which voters choose parties. It then includes chapters on collective action, social movements and political participation. Part VI opens up with essays on the mechanisms through which political demands are aggregated and coordinated. This sets the agenda to the systematic exploration of the workings and effects of particular institutions: electoral systems, federalism, legislative-executive relationships, the judiciary and bureaucracy. Finally, Part VII is organized around the burgeoning literature on macropolitical economy of the last two decades.
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Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously (African Arguments)
Selected as one of ‘100 Notable African Books of 2022’ in Brittle Paper
A leading African political philosopher’s searing intellectual and moral critique of today’s decolonisation movement.
Decolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West’s direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for performing ‘morality’ or ‘authenticity’; it suffocates African thought and denies African agency.
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò fiercely rejects the indiscriminate application of ‘decolonisation’ to everything from literature, language and philosophy to sociology, psychology and medicine. He argues that the decolonisation industry, obsessed with cataloguing wrongs, is seriously harming scholarship on and in Africa. He finds ‘decolonisation’ of culture intellectually unsound and wholly unrealistic, conflating modernity with coloniality, and groundlessly advocating an open-ended undoing of global society’s foundations. Worst of all, today’s movement attacks its own cause: ‘decolonisers’ themselves are disregarding, infantilising and imposing values on contemporary African thinkers.
This powerful, much-needed intervention questions whether today’s ‘decolonisation’ truly serves African empowerment. Táíwò’s is a bold challenge to respect African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators and synthesisers of ideas they have always seen as universally relevant.
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White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners – WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2023
Fourteen women testify to the shocking human rights abuses in Iranian prisons
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 2023
‘A must-read for anyone concerned with human rights in Iran. A gripping, moving and utterly shocking account.’ Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Iranian prisons systematically violate human rights. In White Torture, fourteen women, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, share their experiences of imprisonment: harassment and beatings by guards, total blindfolding and denial of medical treatment. Angry interrogators threaten their families and lie about their whereabouts. One prisoner is even told she is dead.
None of the women have committed crimes – they are prisoners of conscience or held hostage as bargaining chips. Through torture, the Iranian state hopes to remake their souls. These interviews, carried out by Narges Mohammadi while each woman was in prison or facing charges, are astounding documents of resistance and integrity. As Iranians still fight for Woman, Life, Freedom, White Torture indicts the regime for its crimes.
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The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics and International Relations (Oxford Quick Reference)
This bestselling dictionary contains over 1,700 entries on all aspects of politics and international relations. Written by a leading team of political scientists, it embraces the multi-disciplinary spectrum of political theory including political thinkers, history, institutions, theories, and schools of thought, as well as notable current affairs that have shaped attitudes to politics.Fully updated for its fourth edition, the dictionary has had its coverage of international relations heavily revised and expanded, reflected in its title change, and it includes a wealth of new material in areas such as international institutions, peace building, human security, security studies, global governance, and open economy politics. It also incorporates recommended web links that can be accessed via a regularly checked and updated companion website, ensuring that the links remain relevant.
The dictionary is international in its coverage and will prove invaluable to students and academics studying politics and related disciplines, as well as politicians, journalists, and the general reader seeking clarification of political terms.
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Higher Politics: Revise and learn (Bright Red Study Guides)
Get exam ready with our brand-new Higher Politics Study Guide!
Written specifically for the Scottish curriculum, this unmissable new study guide from BrightRED Publishing covers a wide range of topics to help build your knowledge and equip you with the tools needed to succeed in Higher Politics. In this Study Guide, you will find:- Thorough coverage of the course and assessment
- Clear and concise explanations of key topics and challenging ideas, including political theory, systems, parties and elections
- Activities and content that will help you learn how to analyse and evaluate information from a wide range of sources
- Don’t Forget pointers that offer advice on key facts and how to avoid common mistakes.
- Things to Do and Think About sections which provide you with plenty of opportunities to put your knowledge into practice.
This guide is also supported by a host of free additional material available on the BrightRED Digital Zone!
Contents:
- Introduction
- Political Theory
- Political Systems
- Political Parties and Elections
- Source Questions
- Assignment
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The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations
The Globalization of World Politics is the bestselling introduction to international relations, and offers the most complete coverage of the key theories and global issues in world politics.The ninth edition has been thoroughly updated to explore the most pressing topics and challenges that dominate international relations today, including a brand-new chapter on global health, which explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tailored pedagogical features help students to consider key international relations arguments and debates, and apply theories and approaches to real world events, bridging the gap between theory and application. Interactive activities, such as multiple-choice questions and the opposing opinions feature, foster active learning, enhancing students’ understanding of key concepts and debates.
A diverse range of leading scholars in the field explore the history, theory, structures, and key issues in IR, providing students with an exceptionally comprehensive and clear introduction.
New to this edition:
US BLA brand new chapter 25 on global health, by Professor Sophie Harman, helps students to make sense of global health politics, and explores global health emergencies including COVID-19 and Ebola.BE UE US BLA new chapter on realism by Dr Or Rosenboim looks at realism outside the West, exploring arguments and ideas beyond the Anglo-American canon, and demonstrates the relevance of non-western realist thinkers to modern realism.BE UE
Digital formats and resources
The Globalization of World Politics is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and is supported by online resources.
The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooksRead more
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My Revision Notes: AQA A-level Politics: Political Ideas
Exam board: AQA
Level: A-level
Subject: Politics
First teaching: September 2017
First exams: Summer 2019With My Revision Notes, every student can- Plan and manage a successful revision programme using the topic-by-topic planner
– Consolidate subject knowledge by working through clear and focused content coverage
– Test understanding and identify areas for improvement with regular ‘Now Test Yourself’ tasks and answers- Improve exam technique through practice questions, expert tips and examples of typical mistakesto avoidRead more
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Political ideas for A Level: Liberalism, Socialism, Conservatism, Feminism, Anarchism 2nd Edition
These Student’s Books will help students understand the core ideas and principles behind the political ideologies, and how they apply in practice to human nature, the state, society and the economy.
– Comprehensive coverage of the ideologies of Liberalism, Socialism, Conservatism, Socialism, Feminism and Anarchism
– Definitions of key terms and concepts to help clarify knowledge and understanding of political language
– Exam focus sections at the end of each chapter to test and develop understanding of key topics, offering practice for short and long essay questionsRead more
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Politics, But Better: An A – Z Guide to Creating a More Hopeful Future
From the founder of Simple Politics comes a guide to rediscovering the heart of our democracy, reshaping our political system and making the UK a better place for all.
Strikes across the country. A prime minister resigning after just forty-four days. Accusations of bullying in the House of Commons. Our politics and our democracy appear to be fundamentally broken.
But that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. Things can get better. There are solutions out there to the complex web of failure in which we’re currently entangled.
Politics, But Better will look at the very fabric of our system and what improvements can be made. Exploring twenty-six issues in UK politics, from A to Z – including censorship, elections, insults and U-turns – it clearly lays out the problems and challenges we face, and puts forward possible solutions. Looking at a variety of ideas and real-world examples, it will encourage us to rethink the fundamental ways we do things, to question the status quo, and to chart a path towards a more hopeful future.
Respect and understanding are at the heart of this book, promoting open debate, tolerance and compassion as the cornerstones of a reformed political landscape. Politics is about improving the world – and we can do better.
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UK Politics Annual Update 2023
– Review all the developments relevant to A-level specifications in UK politics from the last year, with strong links between topics and focused suggestions for further reading
– Develop your confidence with expert analysis you can draw on both throughout your course and in the exams
– Enhance your knowledge of the news to build a bank of up-to-date examples linked to the specifications, helping you to develop persuasive arguments for your essays
– Use our updated exam skills feature to clarify how to use the information you have just learned in your examChapters:
– Think tanks: how do they operate and why are they controversial?
– Rights in context: do we need a British Bill of Rights?
– Political parties: are the Liberal Democrats re-emerging as a political force?
– Devolved and divided? The causes and consequences of Northern Ireland’s election
– The constitution: is the UK’s uncodified constitution working?
– Parliament and the prime minister: did parliament contribute to a prime minister’s demise?
– Prime minister and executive (1): Boris Johnson
– Prime minister and executive (2): Liz Truss
– Prime minister and executive (3): Rishi Sunak
– The Supreme Court: the impact of legislative reform and Lord Reed’s presidencyRead more
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Politics UK
This revised and updated tenth edition of the bestselling textbook Politics UK is an indispensable introduction to British politics. It provides a thorough and accessible overview of the institutions and processes of British government, an excellent grounding in British political history and an incisive introduction to the issues and challenges facing Britain today.
This edition welcomes three brand new chapters – ‘Elites in the United Kingdom’, ‘Gender and British politics’ and ‘UK Immigration policy in hostile environment’ – alongside rigorously updated revised chapters. It delivers excellent coverage of contemporary events, with significant new material covering: the Johnson premiership and the national challenge of Covid-19, the end of the May premiership and the implementation of Brexit, the Labour Party’s transition from Corbyn to Starmer, infrastructure and innovation, ‘fake news’, populism and nationalism, the UK’s place in a post-Brexit world, climate change, social mobility and elite recruitment, devolution and regionalism, constitutional strain, the role of political advisers, abuse and incivility in politics and much more.
Other features of the new edition include:
- A wide range of illustrative material, boxes and case studies providing illuminating examples alongside the analysis.
- A comprehensive ‘who’s who’ of politics in the form of Profile boxes featuring key political figures.
- And another thing . . . pieces containing short articles on salient and pressing topics, written by distinguished commentators including Sir John Curtice, Sir Simon Jenkins, Andrew Rawnsley, Baroness Julie Smith of Newnham, and Philip Collins.
- Online interviews on the book’s website see notable figures from British political life discussing the pressing issues of today.
With chapters written by highly respected scholars in the field and contemporary articles on real-world politics from well-known political commentators, this textbook is an essential guide for all students of British politics.
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£30.40£33.20Politics UK
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Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics
The Sunday Times bestseller.
‘A compulsively readable, carefully researched account of how a malignant combination of rightwing ideology, secretive money (much of it from the US) and weaponisation of social media have shaped contemporary British (and to a limited extent, European) politics… Remarkable’ Observer, Book of the WeekDemocracy is in crisis, and unaccountable and untraceable flows of money are helping to destroy it.
This is the story of how money, vested interests and digital skulduggery are eroding trust in democracy. Antiquated electoral laws are broken with impunity, secretive lobbying is bending our politics out of shape and Silicon Valley tech giants collude in selling out democracy. Politicians lie gleefully, making wild claims that can be shared instantly with millions on social media.
Peter Geoghegan is a diligent, brilliant guide through the shadowy world of dark money and digital disinformation stretching from Westminster to Washington, and far beyond.
Praise for Democracy for Sale:
‘Thorough, gripping and vitally important’ Oliver Bullough‘A brilliant description of the dark underbelly of modern democracy. Everyone should read it’ Anne Applebaum
‘A compelling and very readable story of the ongoing corruption of our government and therefore ourselves’ Anthony Barnett
‘As urgent as it is illuminating’ Fintan O’Toole
‘This urgent, vital book is essential reading for anyone who wants to make sense of our politics’ Carole Cadwalladr
‘This forensic and highly readable book shows how so many of our democratic processes have moved into the murky, unregulated spaces of globalisation and digital innovation’ Peter Pomerantsev
‘A call to arms for all those who value democracy’ The Herald
‘Geoghegan’s words are those of someone who is prepared to keep fighting to defend and revitalise what shadows of democracy still remain’Scotsman
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Mindf*ck: Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Plot to Break the World
‘Please please please read Mindf*ck’ – Richard Dawkins
What if you could peer into the minds of an entire population? What if you could target the weakest with rumours that only they saw?
In 2016, an obscure British military contractor turned the world upside down. Funded by a billionaire on a crusade to start his own far-right insurgency, Cambridge Analytica combined psychological research with private Facebook data to make an invisible weapon with the power to change what voters perceived as real.
The firm was created to launch the then unknown Steve Bannon’s ideological assault on America. But as it honed its dark arts in elections from Trinidad to Nigeria, 24-year-old research director Christopher Wylie began to see what he and his colleagues were unleashing.
He had heard the disturbing visions of the investors. He saw what CEO Alexander Nix did behind closed doors. When Britain shocked the world by voting to leave the EU, Wylie realised it was time to expose his old associates. The political crime of the century had just taken place – the weapon had been tested – and nobody knew.
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Out of Our Minds: What We Think and How We Came to Think It
‘Immensely learned and ambitious…seam-bursting eclecticism and polymathic brio… This is by any standards a significant book and its author deserves high praise.’Literary Review
To imagine – to see that which is not there – is the startling ability that has fuelled human development and innovation through the centuries. As a species we stand alone in our remarkable capacity to refashion the world after the pictures in our minds.
Traversing the realms of science, politics, religion, culture, philosophy and history, Felipe Fernández-Armesto reveals the thrilling and disquieting tales of our imaginative leaps. Through groundbreaking insights in cognitive science, he explores how and why we have ideas in the first place, providing a tantalising glimpse into who we are and what we might yet accomplish. Fernández-Armesto shows that bad ideas are often more influential than good ones; that the oldest recoverable thoughts include some of the best; that ideas of Western origin often issued from exchanges with the wider world; and that the pace of innovative thinking is under threat.
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Protest!: A History of Social and Political Protest Graphics
Discover the power and impact of protest art with this authoritative, richly illustrated history of social and political protest graphics from around the world.
Expertly written and unique in its scope, this extraordinary book features hundreds of the best examples of posters, prints, murals, graffiti, political cartoons and other endlessly inventive graphic forms that have been used in political protest throughout history and to the present.
Spanning continents and centuries, Protest! documents the vital role of the visual arts in calling for freedom and change. It examines how graphics have been used to highlight injustice, protest wars, satirize authority figures, demand equal rights and fight for an end to discrimination.
An astounding emotional visual exploration which includes:
Hogarth’s Gin Lane, Goya’s Disasters of War, Thomas Nast’s political caricatures, French and British comics, postcards from the women’s suffrage movement, satirical anti-fascist magazines, ‘Ban the Bomb’ demonstrations, clothing of the 1960s counterculture, Cuban revolutionary poster art, the anti-apartheid illustrated book How to Commit Suicide in South Africa, the “Silence=Death” emblem from the AIDS crisis, The Last Whole Earth Catalog, anti-corporate advertising campaigns, Stonewall posters and postcards, murals created during the Arab Spring, electronic graphics from Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution, posters created for the Women’s March, the Trump Baby inflatable blimp, the magazine Charlie Hebdo, Black Lives Matter posters and flags.Read more
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Social Warming: How Social Media Polarises Us All
‘Witty, rigorous, and as urgent as a fire alarm’ Dorian Lynskey
‘Cooly prosecutorial’ Guardian
Nobody meant for this to happen.
Facebook didn’t mean to facilitate a genocide.
Twitter didn’t want to be used to harass women.
YouTube never planned to radicalise young men.
But with billions of users, these platforms need only tweak their algorithms to generate more ‘engagement’. In so doing, they bring unrest to previously settled communities and erode our relationships.
Social warming has happened gradually – as a by-product of our preposterously convenient digital existence. But the gradual deterioration of our attitudes and behaviour on- and offline – this vicious cycle of anger and outrage – is real. And it can be corrected. Here’s how.
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The Law in 60 Seconds: A Pocket Guide to Your Rights
‘An indispensable guide to the law and your rights, giving you a lawyer in your pocket for a multitude of legal questions and problems that crop up in everyday life. … Exceptional’ – The Secret Barrister
‘Brilliant and generous and very necessary’ – Sarah Langford, author of In Your Defense
‘A triumph of a book. It should form the basis for a national curriculum in law.’ – Joanna Hardy-SusskindFrom junior barrister Christian Weaver comes an indispensable guide to your basic legal rights.
We engage with the law every day: when we leave the house, and even when we don’t, we’re bound by rules we don’t even notice. Until they’re used against us. Knowing our rights means taking control of our lives.
In this handbook, lawyer Christian Weaver brings together everything you need to know to claim your space in the world. Whether you are arguing with your landlord, looking for a refund, going to a protest or being harassed, this essential guide illuminates the full power of the law, and arms you with your rights, including:
– in a relationship
– at home
– out on the street
– when you’ve spent money, owe it or are owed itFrom housing to relationships, police conduct to travel, this guide will give you the confidence and clarity to take control in any situation.
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From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia
A surprising, gripping narrative depicting the thinkers whose ideas shaped contemporary China, India, and the Muslim world
A little more than a century ago, as the Japanese navy annihilated the giant Russian one at the Battle of Tsushima, original thinkers across Asia, working independently, sought to frame a distinctly Asian intellectual tradition that would inform and inspire the continent’s anticipated rise to dominance.
Asian dominance did not come to pass, and those thinkersTagore, Gandhi, and later Nehru in India; Liang Qichao and Sun Yatsen in China; Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Abdurreshi al Ibrahim in the ruins of the Ottoman Empireare seen as outriders from the main anticolonial tradition. But Pankaj Mishra shows that it was otherwise in this stereotype-shattering book. His enthralling group portrait of like minds scattered across a vast continent makes clear that modern Asia’s revolt against the West is not the one led by faith-fired terrorists and thwarted peasants but one with deep roots in the work of thinkers who devised a view of life that was neither modern nor antimodern, neither colonialist nor anticolonialist. In broad, deep, dramatic chapters, Mishra tells the stories of these figures, unpacks their philosophies, and reveals their shared goal of a greater Asia.
Right now, when the emergence of a greater Asia seems possible as at no previous time in history, From the Ruins of Empire is as necessary as it is timelya book essential to our understanding of the world and our place in it.
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SAS Forged in Hell: From Desert Rats to Dogs of War: The Mavericks who Made the SAS
A Waterstones Best History Book of 2023
The incredible true story of the SAS’ daring mission to liberate Europe
In the summer of 1943, the largest invasion fleet ever assembled sailed for fortress Europe, aiming to bulldoze its way onto Nazi shores. At its vanguard went a few hundred elite forces soldiers, the Royal Navy warship carrying them bearing the iconic winged dagger emblem on its prow, plus the motto ‘Who Dares Wins’.
Led by the legendary SAS commander Blair ‘Paddy’ Mayne, these war-bitten, piratical raiders were tasked to do the impossible – to bludgeon their way through the most heavily defended enemy shoreline, so enabling the ensuing forces to follow on.
If they succeeded, it would mark the turning point in the war. If they failed, the consequences were unthinkable. Against all odds, outnumbered some fifty-to-one, and facing a ferocious series of cliffside defences, they would have to dare all as never before.
So begins the incredible true story of the SAS’s mission to liberate Europe.
Action-packed and filled with heroic endeavour, SAS Forged in Hell is breath-taking combat writing at its best, in true Damien Lewis style.
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The Boy From Block 66: A WW2 Jewish Holocaust Survival True Story (Heroic Children of World War II)
He has endured more than any child ever should, but now he must survive Block 66.January, 1945. 14-year-old Moshe Kessler steps off the train at Buchenwald concentration camp. Having endured the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, lost touch with his entire family, and survived the death march in the freezing European winter, he has seen more than his share of tragedy.
Moshe knows only one thing about Buchenwald. Everyone knows it.
If you want to survive, you have to get to Block 66.
The Germans are cruel and determined – but they are not prepared for Buchenwald’s secret resistance, which rises up with one mission only: to protect the camp’s children from harm.
This is the incredible true story of Moshe Kessler and Block 66 – the children’s block that was at the forefront of one of the most shocking and inspiring stories of Holocaust survival.
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Hitler and Stalin: The Tyrants and the Second World War
‘You have to read it’ Volodymyr Zelensky
‘Laurence Rees brilliantly combines powerful eye-witness testimony, vivid narrative and compelling analysis in this superb account’ Professor Sir Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler: Hubris and Hitler: Nemesis
‘In this fascinating study of two monsters, Rees is extraordinarily perceptive and original’ Antony Beevor
_____________________Two tyrants. Each responsible for the death of millions.
This compelling book on Hitler and Stalin – the culmination of thirty years’ work – examines the two leaders during the Second World War, when Germany and the Soviet Union fought the biggest and bloodiest war in history.
Hitler’s charismatic leadership may contrast with Stalin’s regimented rule by fear; and his intransigence later in the war may contrast with Stalin’s change in behaviour in response to events. But as bestselling historian Laurence Rees shows, at a macro level, both were prepared to create undreamt-of suffering – in Hitler’s case, most infamously the Holocaust – in order to build the utopias they wanted.
Using previously unpublished, startling eyewitness testimony from soldiers, civilians and those who knew both men personally, Laurence Rees – probably the only person alive who has met Germans who worked for Hitler and Russians who worked for Stalin – challenges long-held popular misconceptions about two of the most important figures in history. This is a master work from one of our finest historians.
_____________________‘Coming from one of the world’s experts on the Second World War, this is an important and original – and devastating – account of Hitler and Stalin as dictators. A must read’ Professor Robert Service, author of Stalin: A Biography
‘Impressive . . . well paced and well informed with an eye for telling anecdotes and colourful character sketches . . . Rees’ decision to add personal stories to his narrative adds an important layer to our understanding of both the dictators themselves and their victims’ Robert Gerwarth, The Daily Telegraph
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The Boy From Block 66: A WW2 Jewish Holocaust Survival True Story (Heroic Children of World War II)
He has endured more than any child ever should, but now he must survive Block 66.January, 1945. 14-year-old Moshe Kessler steps off the train at Buchenwald concentration camp. Having endured the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, lost touch with his entire family, and survived the death march in the freezing European winter, he has seen more than his share of tragedy.
Moshe knows only one thing about Buchenwald. Everyone knows it.
If you want to survive, you have to get to Block 66.
The Germans are cruel and determined – but they are not prepared for Buchenwald’s secret resistance, which rises up with one mission only: to protect the camp’s children from harm.
This is the incredible true story of Moshe Kessler and Block 66 – the children’s block that was at the forefront of one of the most shocking and inspiring stories of Holocaust survival.
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The Places In Between: A vivid account of a death-defying walk across war-torn Afghanistan
A moving account of a death-defying walk across war-torn Afghanistan in January 2002 from Rory Stewart, bestselling author of Politics on the Edge and host of the hit podcast The Rest Is Politics.
Caught between hostile nations, warring factions and competing ideologies, at the time Afghanistan was in turmoil following the US invasion. Travelling entirely on foot and following the inaccessible mountainous route once taken by the Mogul Emperor, Babur the Great, Stewart was nearly defeated by the extreme, hostile conditions.
Only with the help of an unexpected companion and the generosity of the people he met on the way did he survive to report back with unique insight on a region closed to the world by twenty-four years of war.
‘With a deft, at time poetic vividness, he describes an awesome landscape . . . His encounters with Afghans are tragic, touching and terrifying – Daily Telegraph
Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Award and the Spirit of Scotland Award.
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and the Scottish Book of the Year Prize.Read more
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In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century
A timely look at the impact of China’s booming emergence on the countries of Southeast Asia“An expert and lucid synthesis of the historical context and recent developments of Southeast Asia’s rich and complex relations with Beijing.”―John Reed, Financial Times
Today, Southeast Asia stands uniquely exposed to the waxing power of the new China. Three of its nations border China and five are directly impacted by its claims over the South China Sea. All dwell in the lengthening shadow of its influence: economic, political, military, and cultural. As China seeks to restore its former status as Asia’s preeminent power, the countries of Southeast Asia face an increasingly stark choice: flourish within Beijing’s orbit or languish outside of it. Meanwhile, as rival powers including the United States take concerted action to curb Chinese ambitions, the region has emerged as an arena of heated strategic competition.
Drawing on more than a decade of on-the-ground experience, Sebastian Strangio explores the impacts of China’s rise on Southeast Asia, the varied ways in which the countries of the region are responding, and what it might mean for the future balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.Read more
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