This text re-examines 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion's' popularity, investigating why it has persisted, as well as larger questions about the success of conspiracy theories even in the face of claims that they are blatantly counterfactual and irrational.

Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and geographies, the Brill Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling presents modern spirit possession in a variety of contexts. Weaving together the interrelated movements of Spiritualism along with its specific Franco and Latin American currents, articles explore the nineteenth-century beginnings of séances and trance mediumship. Channelling, an heir to Spiritualism begun in the 1970s and still flourishing today, is brought into direct conversation with its predecessors with a view to showing both continuity and disjuncture as the products of new cultural and religious needs. The Brill Handbook marks the first extensive collection on these two interrelated movements and examines themes such as gender, race, performance, and technology in each instance.

As recent statistics show, more than 100 million people on the planet have used MDMA. After cannabis, it is the second most used drug worldwide. Yet there are many misconceptions surrounding the drug, which have affected attempts to use it as a legitimate and highly effective therapeutic aid. Despite the enormous extent of its use, and abuse, MDMA produced neither a large number of medical complications nor social harm on a larger scale, and has very limited addictive potential. In The History of MDMA, Torsten Passie aims to explore a deeper and more differentiated understanding of MDMA and its history. He has conducted personal interviews with most of the people significant in the history of MDMA and provides a lot of new material to present the first comprehensive overview of the history of MDMA in Europe and the U.S. This not just as it is perceived in the public mind, but also in terms of its history as an underground drug, the research into it, political responses to it, its spread, and its medical use. Passie brings these multiple narratives and levels of its history and their complex interactions together in order to make this book an essential reading for anyone interested in the topic.

Planning Canadian Regions is the first book to consolidate the history, evolution, current practice, and future prospects for regional planning in Canada. As planners grapple with challenges wrought by globalization, the evolution of massive new city-regions, and the pressures for sustainable and community economic development, a deeper understanding of Canada’s approaches is invaluable. Hodge and Robinson identify the intellectual and conceptual foundations of regional planning and review the history and main modes of regional planning for rural regions, economic development regions, resource development regions, and metropolitan and city-regions. They draw lessons from Canada’s past experience and conclude by proposing a new paradigm addressing the needs of regional planning now and in the future, emphasizing regional governance, greater inclusiveness and integration of physical planning with planning for economic sustainability and natural ecosystems. Planning Canadian Regions will be a much-needed text for students and teachers of regional planning and an indispensable reference for planning practitioners. It will also find a receptive audience in such disciplines as urban planning, environmental studies, geography, political science, public administration, and economics.