Government & Politics
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The Little Book of Politics: A Pocket Guide to Parties, Power and Participation
Worried about the world and want to make a difference? Inspired by a new political voice or enraged by an old one? Whether you’re taking your first tentative steps into the world of politics or thinking about getting out and knocking on some doors, this clear and concise guide is for you. Providing a whistle-stop tour through the corridors of power and explaining the basics of our parliamentary democracy, it will INSPIRE YOU TO TAKE ACTION.Read more
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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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The Politics of the Judiciary
This work presents the argument that given our legal system as it is now composed, the judiciary cannot act neutrally but instead must act politically. This edition has been updated to include material covering “Spycatcher”, the Guildford Four and Lord Denning.Read 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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The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
States are more vulnerable than people think. They can collapse in an instant—when consent is withdrawn.This is the thesis of this thrilling book. Murray Rothbard writes a classic introduction to one of the great political essays in the history of ideas.In times when dictators the world over are falling from pressure from their own people, this book, written nearly 500 years ago, is truly the prophetic tract of our times.Étienne de La Boétie was born in Sarlat, in the Périgord region of southwest France, in 1530, to an aristocratic family, and became a dear friend of Michel de Montaigne. But he ought to be remembered for this astonishingly important essay, one of the greatest in the history of political thought. It will shake the way you think of the state. His thesis and argument amount to the best answer to Machiavelli ever penned as well as one of the seminal essays in defense of liberty.La Boétie’s task is to investigate the nature of the state and its strange status as a tiny minority of the population that adheres to different rules from everyone else and claims the authority to rule everyone else, maintaining a monopoly on law. It strikes him as obviously implausible that such an institution has any staying power. It can be overthrown in an instant if people withdraw their consent.He then investigates the mystery as to why people do not withdraw, given what is obvious to him that everyone would be better off without the state. This sends him on a speculative journey to investigate the power of propaganda, fear, and ideology in causing people to acquiesce in their own subjection. Is it cowardice? Perhaps. Habit and tradition. Perhaps. Perhaps it is ideological illusion and intellectual confusion.La Boétie goes on to make a case as to why people ought to withdraw their consent immediately. He urges all people to rise up and cast off tyranny simply by refusing to concede that the state is in charge.The tyrant has “nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you. Where has he acquired enough eyes to spy upon you, if you do not provide them yourselves? How can he have so many arms to beat you with, if he does not borrow them from you? The feet that trample down your cities, where does he get them if they are not your own? How does he have any power over you except through you? How would he dare assail you if he had no cooperation from you?”Then these inspiring words: “Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.”In all these areas, the author has anticipated Jefferson and Arendt, Gandhi and Spooner, and those who overthrew Soviet tyranny. The essay has profound relevance for understanding history and all our times.As Rothbard writes in his spectacular introduction, “La Boetie’s Discourse has a vital importance for the modern reader—an importance that goes beyond the sheer pleasure of reading a great and seminal work on political philosophy, or, for the libertarian, of reading the first libertarian political philosopher in the Western world. For La Boétie speaks most sharply to the problem which all libertarians—indeed, all opponents of despotism—find particularly difficult: the problem of strategy. Facing the devastating and seemingly overwhelming power of the modern State, how can a free and very different world be brought about? How in the world can we get from here to there, from a world of tyranny to a world of freedom? Precisely because of his abstract and timeless methodology, La Boétie offers vital insights into this eternal problem.”Read more
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Apocalypse How?: Technology and the Threat of Disaster
‘Entertaining and insightful’ — Evening Standard
‘One of the most important books of the year… Compelling’ Jamie Bartlett, Literary Review
‘Timely’ — New StatesmanAs the world becomes better connected and we grow ever more dependent on technology, the risks to our infrastructure are multiplying. Whether it’s a hostile state striking the national grid (like Russia did with Ukraine in 2016) or a freak solar storm, our systems have become so interlinked that if one part goes down the rest topple like dominoes.
In this groundbreaking book, former government minister Oliver Letwin looks ten years into the future and imagines a UK in which the national grid has collapsed. Reliant on the internet, automated electric cars, voice-over IP, GPS, and the internet of things, law and order would disintegrate. Taking us from high-level government meetings to elderly citizens waiting in vain for their carers, this book is a wake up call for why we should question our unshakeable faith in technology. But it’s much more than that: Letwin uses his vast experience in government to outline how businesses and government should respond to catastrophic black swan events that seem distant and implausible – until they occur.Read more
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Politics: A Complete Introduction: Teach Yourself
This is your go-to guide to politics
As the UK gears up for a snap general election on the back of a hotly contested and divisive referendum, there has never been a better time to discover more about politics and how it works.
Politics: A Complete Introduction explains everything you need to know, giving you a comprehensive and easy-to-understand introduction to a complex subject.
Inside you will learn about different political ideologies and systems, referendums, elections and electoral systems, political parties and party systems, protest, the media and politics, constitutions and human rights, what the courts do, and how the machinery of government is organised. It also covers the nation state in the modern world and international terrorism.
Politics: A Complete Introduction is a jargon-free guide that will get you informed, fast.
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BLACK LIVES MATTER NOTEBOOK: BLACK LIVES MATTER – NOTEBOOK SUPPORTING THE MOVEMENT (BLM)
- SUPPORT THE MOVEMENT EVERYWHERE YOU GO.
- It’s important for us to show support in any way we can, buy Notebook from BLM Series to show YOUR support to the cause.We are ALL EQUAL, and we need to treat each other that way. Remember that an spread LOVE.
Specifications for the notebook:
- Cover Finish: Matte
- Dimensions: 6″ x 9″ (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
- Interior: College Ruled Notebook with white paper
- Pages: 110
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My Revision Notes: AQA A-level Politics: US and Comparative Politics
Exam board: AQA
Level: A-level
Subject: Politics
First teaching: September 2017
First exams: Summer 2018 (AS); Summer 2019 (A-level)With 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 mistakes to avoidRead more
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American Politics: A Graphic Guide: 2 (Graphic Guides)
Illustrator Jules Scheele teams up with Dr Laura Locker in this comic-book introduction to the political history of the Land of Opportunity.
How did a political outsider like Trump win the 2016 presidential election? Why do some Americans feel so strongly about gun rights? Is there a role for more than two political parties in the system?
Politics isn’t something that just occurs in the West Wing or the gleaming Capitol building – it comes from the interaction between state and society, the American people living their daily lives. In this unique graphic guide, we follow modern citizens as they explore everything from the United States’ political culture, the Constitution and the balance of power, to social movements, the role of the media, and tensions over race, immigration, and LGBT rights.
Step right up, and see what lies beneath the pageantry and headlines of this great nation.
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S.H.O.R.E.: The Ultimate Descent
The Club was the Board’s international affiliate and provided professional accountants from Asia with a networking forum in their adopted country, the United States. However, despite its fancy claims, the non-profit was not run transparently, forcing a young, energetic lady, Olive, to run her voice. She and her Like-Minded friends wanted transparency and fair treatment for all. Though supported by junior members, she was confronted by the patriarchal mindset that discourages women’s involvement in manly matters. She fought her way through to the top only to find the malice deep-rooted and highly exhausting for an honest individual.Read more
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30-Second Politics: The 50 most thought-provoking ideas in politics, each explained in half a minute
You may be OK with standard stuff like Conservatism and Democracy, but do you really know what Patrimonialism is? And what about Oligarchy? Anarcho-syndicalism?
Politics is, we are willing to bet, the most passionately argued-over subject matter, and yet how many of us flounder around in confrontational debates because we have no grip on political theory, just a vague notion that they are all out to get us?
30-Second Politics will help dispel this fog mistrust and paranoia. It challenges political theorists of all colors to come up with no-frill, no-spin, tell-it-like-it-is explanations of the 50 most important political -isms, -archies, and -ocracies that have pertained since the time of Periclean Athens. At no public expense, the book explains each political theory in nothing more than two pages, 300 words, and some propaganda-style imagery, for we all know that a picture opportunity is worth a thousand words of dull interview.
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Politics and the English Language (Penguin Modern Classics)
‘Politics and the English Language’ is widely considered Orwell’s most important essay on style. Style, for Orwell, was never simply a question of aesthetics; it was always inextricably linked to politics and to truth.’All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.’Language is a political issue, and slovenly use of language and cliches make it easier for those in power to deliberately use misleading language to hide unpleasant political facts. Bad English, he believed, was a vehicle for oppressive ideology, and it is no accident that ‘Politics and the English Language’ was written after the close of World War II.Read more
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Politics: Between the Extremes (Audio Download): Nick Clegg, Nick Clegg, Random House Audiobooks: Amazon.co.uk: Books
Politics has changed. Five years ago Britain had a coalition government built on compromise. Now the Conservatives rule unchallenged, a chasm has opened up between Left and Right and the centre ground is deserted.
Nick Clegg knows the volatile state of modern politics better than anyone else. Here he offers a frank and honest account of his experiences – from his spectacular rise in the 2010 election through his tumultuous years as Deputy Prime Minister to a brutal defeat in 2015 – in order to tell the inside story of this change and reflect on what it means for our future.
He writes candidly about his own mistakes – including the controversy around tuition fees – the tense standoffs within government and the sometimes bizarre challenges he faced. He lifts the lid on the arcane world of Westminster, offering startling insights into the hidden workings of government, and reflects deeply on the decision to enter coalition with the Conservatives.
In a rapidly and profoundly changing world, he argues that the long-term survival of progressive politics relies more than ever on the radical reform of our outdated political system. Whatever your political persuasion, if you wish to understand how Britain is run today you cannot afford to ignore this audiobook.
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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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A Village in the Third Reich: How Ordinary Lives Were Transformed By the Rise of Fascism – from the author of Sunday Times bestseller Travellers in the Third Reich
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A Waterstones Paperback of the Year 2022
A New Statesman Book of the Year 2022
‘Fascinating… You’ll learn more about the psychological workings of Nazism by reading this superbly researched chronicle… than you will by reading a shelf of wider-canvas volumes on the rise of Nazism.’Daily Mail
‘An utterly absorbing insight into the full spectrum of responses from ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.’The Times
‘Boyd is an outstanding micro-historian.’iNews
___________Hidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf – a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere.
Yet even this remote idyll could not escape the brutal iron grip of the Nazi regime.
From the author of the
Sunday Times bestselling
Travellers in the Third Reich comes
A Village in the Third Reich: an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Germany under Hitler, shining a light on the lives of ordinary people. Drawing on personal archives, letters, interviews and memoirs, it lays bare their brutality and love; courage and weakness; action, apathy and grief; hope, pain, joy and despair.Within its pages we encounter people from all walks of life – foresters, priests, farmers and nuns; innkeepers, Nazi officials, veterans and party members; village councillors, mountaineers, socialists, slave labourers, schoolchildren, tourists and aristocrats. We meet the Jews who survived – and those who didn’t; the Nazi mayor who tried to shield those persecuted by the regime; and a blind boy whose life was judged ‘not worth living’.
This is a tale of conflicting loyalties and desires, of shattered dreams – but one in which, ultimately, human resilience triumphs.
These are the stories of ordinary lives at the crossroads of history.
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‘Exceptional… Boyd’s book reminds us that even the most brutal regimes cannot extinguish all semblance of human feeling’Mail on Sunday
‘Masterly… [an] important and gripping book… [Boyd is] a leading historian of human responses in political extremis.’The Oldie
‘Gripping… vividly depicted… [a] humane and richly detailed book’ Spectator
‘Vivid, moving stories leave us asking “What would I have done?”‘ Professor David Reynolds, author of
Island Stories
“An absorbing, thoroughly recommended read”Family Tree magazine‘Laying bare the tragedies, the compromises, the suffering and the disillusionment. Exemplary microhistory.’ Roger Moorehouse, author of
First to Fight
‘Compelling and evocative’All About History
‘The rise of Nazi Germany through the prism of one small village in Bavaria. […] Astonishing’ Jane Garvey on
Fortunately… with Fi and Jane
‘incredibly engaging’History of War magazine‘Intensely detailed, exhaustively researched and rendered in almost cinematographic detail, Julia Boyd’s A Village In The Third Reich is deeply evocative, redolent of those times and truly revelatory. I learned so much. This is a book I will need to return to again and again, to relearn, refresh and remember. A triumph.’ Damien Lewis, author of
The Flame of ResistanceRead more
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Billionaire Raj: SHORTLISTED FOR THE FT & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2018
SHORTLISTED FOR THE FT & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2018A Financial Times Book of the Year and an Amazon Top 100 Book of the Year
India’s explosive rise has driven inequality to new extremes, with millions trapped in slums as billionaires spend lavishly and dodge taxes. Controversial prime minister Narendra Modi promised ‘to break the grip’ of the Bollygarchs, but many tycoons continue to thrive amidst the scandals, exerting huge influence over business and politics.
But who are these titans of politics and industry shaping India through this period of breakneck change? And what kind of superpower are they creating?
A vivid portrait of a deeply divided nation, The Billionaire Raj makes clear that India’s destiny – prosperous democratic giant or corrupt authoritarian regime – is something that should concern us all.
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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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The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union
BY THE AUTHOR OF CHERNOBYL: HISTORY OF A TRAGEDY, WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2018WINNER OF THE PUSHKIN HOUSE RUSSIAN BOOK PRIZE 2015
On Christmas Day 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union. By the next day the USSR was officially no more and the USA had emerged as the world’s sole superpower. Award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy presents a page-turning account of the preceding five months of drama, filled with failed coups d’état and political intrigue.
Honing in on this previously disregarded but crucial period and using recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants, he shatters the established myths of 1991 and presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Union’s final months. Plokhy argues that contrary to the triumphalist Western narrative, George H. W. Bush desperately wanted to preserve the Soviet Union and keep Gorbachev in power, and that it was Ukraine and not the US that played the key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The consequences of those five months and the myth-making that has since surrounded them are still being felt in Crimea, Russia, the US, and Europe today.
With its spellbinding narrative and strikingly fresh perspective, The Last Empire is the essential account of one of the most important watershed periods in world history, and is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to make sense of international politics today.
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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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