During the past forty years, activists have repeatedly used the court system to accomplish substantive policy results that could not otherwise be obtained through the ordinary political processes of government, both in the United States and abroad. In five insightful essays, the contributors to this volume show how these legal decisions have undermined America's sovereignty and values. They reveal how international law challenges American beliefs and interests and exposes U.S. citizens to legal and economic risks, how the "right to privacy" poses a serious threat to constitutional self-government, how the Supreme Court's religion decisions have done serious damage to our religious freedom, and more.

A sobering account of a disenfranchised American working class and important policy solutions to the nation’s economic inequalities One of the country’s leading scholars on economics and social policy, Isabel Sawhill addresses the enormous divisions in American society—economic, cultural, and political—and what might be done to bridge them. Widening inequality and the loss of jobs to trade and technology has left a significant portion of the American workforce disenfranchised and skeptical of governments and corporations alike. And yet both have a role to play in improving the country for all. Sawhill argues for a policy agenda based on mainstream values, such as family, education, and work. While many have lost faith in government programs designed to help them, there are still trusted institutions on both the local and federal level that can deliver better job opportunities and higher wages to those who have been left behind. At the same time, the private sector needs to reexamine how it trains and rewards employees. This book provides a clear-headed and middle-way path to a better-functioning society in which personal responsibility is honored and inclusive capitalism and more broadly shared growth are once more the norm.

Country Wisdom & Know-How is the most complete volume on every aspect of country and self-sustained living, from home and garden to barn and beyond. From Storey Publishing's landmark series Country Wisdom Bulletins, this comprehensive collection offers step-by-step instructions on nearly 200 individual topics, providing everything you need to know about sustainability, self-sufficiency, homesteading, and DIY living. Topics include: Animals: attracting backyard birds; building bathhouses and birdfeeders; training and caring for cats and dogs; raising rabbits, ducks, and game birds; buying and selling horses; building chicken coops; beginning beekeeping; Cooking: the basics of bread baking; making cheese, butter, and yogurt; cooking game; preserving and pickling; homebrewing and making homemade wine Crafts: stenciling, quilting, and basket-weaving; making wreaths, potpourri, and natural soaps; homemade gifts and decorations Gardening: starting your garden; caring for flowers and shrubs; controlling weeds; landscaping; growing vegetables, root crops, fruits, berries, kitchen herbs, and more Health and Wellbeing: natural home remedies; herbs for lifelong health; essential oils and aromatherapy; teas and recipes for a healthy diet Home: simple home repairs; building furniture; restoring hardwood floors; making curtains; building fences, root cellars, and smokehouses And so much more! With nearly 2,000 black-and-white illustrations, diagrams, and photographs, and trusted advice on every page, this is the most thorough and reliable volume of its kind. This book is also a part of the Know-How series which includes other titles such as: Woodworking Wisdom & Know-How Natural Healing Wisdom & Know-How Craft Wisdom & Know-How Garden Wisdom & Know-How

In her third collection, Indonesian American poet Cynthia Dewi Oka dives into the implications of being parents, children, workers, and unwanted human beings under the savage reign of global capitalism and resurgent nativism. With a voice bound and wrestled apart by multiple histories, Fire Is Not a Country claims the spaces between here and there, then and now, us and not us. As she builds a lyric portrait of her own family, Oka interrogates how migration, economic exploitation, patriarchal violence, and a legacy of political repression shape the beauties and limitations of familial love and obligation. Woven throughout are speculative experiments that intervene in the popular apocalyptic narratives of our time with the wit of an unassimilable other. Oka’s speakers mourn, labor, argue, digress, avenge, and fail, but they do not retreat. Born of conflicts public and private, this collection is for anyone interested in what it means to engage the multitudes within ourselves.

Thomas Sowell, one of conservatism's most articulate voices, dissects today's most important economic, racial, political, educational, legal, and social issues, sharing his entertaining and thought-provoking insights on a wide range of contentious subjects. "This book contains an abundance of wisdom on a large number of economic issues."

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Thirty-six essays from 2000 to 2009 chronicling America's struggles with terrorism and freedom. The first of these essays was written over a year before the events of 9/11/01. The last was written in 2009. The second was written the day of 9/11 and published the next week. These essays and articles are a kind of chronological examination of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and the consequences for life here in the United States post 9/11. You may judge for yourself with the hindsight of history how accurate were my analyses, predictions, and descriptions of these events of the past decade and a half. Those who forget the lessons of history...

Capital cities have been the seat of political power and central stage for their state’s political conflicts and rituals throughout the ages. In the modern era, they provide symbols for and confer meaning to the state, thereby contributing to the “invention” of the nation. Capitals capture the imagination of natives, visitors and outsiders alike, yet also express the outcomes of power struggles within the political systems in which they operate. This volume addresses the reciprocal relationships between identity, regime formation, urban planning, and public architecture in the Western world. It examines the role of urban design and architecture in expressing (or hiding) ideological beliefs and political agenda. Case studies include “old” capitals such as Rome, Vienna, Berlin and Warsaw; “new” ones such as Washington DC, Ottawa, Canberra, Ankara, Bonn, and Brasília; and the “European” capital Brussels. Each case reflects the authors’ different disciplinary backgrounds in architecture, history, political science, and urban studies, demonstrating the value of an interdisciplinary approach to studying cities.