Smash the fratriarchy! At an exclusive island prep school in the PNW, Sylvester "Sly" Bennett dominates the lives of students through his loyal fratriarchy - until one student decides enough is enough. Embracing sisterhood and cooperation, Claire takes a stand against Sly and his cronies, and soon Declan, a dreamy transfer from Ireland, offers to help. Sparks (and kisses) now fly amidst a backdrop of gothic revival towers and secret passageways, while plans are laid to serve up the ultimate payback.

Welcome to Trinity Academy’s best-kept secret. The Society. You’ve been handpicked by the elite of the elite to become a member. But first you’ll have to prove your worth by making it through Hell Week. Do you have what it takes? It’s time to find out. Samantha Evans knows she’d never get an invite to rush the Society—not after her dad went to jail for insider trading. But after years of relentless bullying at the hands of the Society’s queen bee, Jessica, she’s ready to take down Jessica and the Society one peg at a time from the inside out. All it’ll take is a bit of computer hacking, a few fake invitations, some eager rushees...and Sam will get her revenge. Let the games begin.

Explores debt as a central historical component of religion, literature, and societal structure, while examining the idea of humanity's debt to the natural world.

From ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn, an assortment of eerie short stories to thrill and chill young readers

Must we resign ourselves to a growing chasm between rich and poor? Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott propose an innovative alternative in this thought-provoking book: an eighty thousand dollar grant for every qualifying young adult. The authors analyze this plan from many perspectives and argue that such a citizen's stake would open the way to a society that is more democratic, productive, and free. "A serious, smart book, which also functions as a cogent critique of the inequality of opportunity that has become a given in modern America."-New Yorker "A Big New Idea so bold in its simplicity, so pure in its claims to justice, . . . that the only shock is that it is certain to get a hearing as the fight to fix Social Security heats up this year."-Matthew Miller, New York Times Magazine "The new century needs political and social innovation even more than it needs business innovation. The authors have done well what intellectuals are supposed, but are seldom bold enough, to do-innovate ideas about important social issues."-Jack Beatty, Atlantic Monthly "A big idea like this is significant because it can reframe the public debate. It can change the prevailing assumptions. Eventually, it can change the course of the nation."-Robert Reich, Former Secretary of Labor, Washington Post

We call it justice—the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the incarceration of corrupt politicians or financiers like Rod Blagojevich and Bernard Madoff, and the climactic slaying of cinema-screen villains by superheroes. But could we not also call it revenge? We are told that revenge is uncivilized and immoral, an impulse that individuals and societies should actively repress and replace with the order and codes of courtroom justice. What, if anything, distinguishes punishment at the hands of the government from a victim’s individual desire for retribution? Are vengeance and justice really so very different? No, answers legal scholar and novelist Thane Rosenbaum in Payback: The Case for Revenge—revenge is, in fact, indistinguishable from justice. Revenge, Rosenbaum argues, is not the problem. It is, in fact, a perfectly healthy emotion. Instead, the problem is the inadequacy of lawful outlets through which to express it. He mounts a case for legal systems to punish the guilty commensurate with their crimes as part of a societal moral duty to satisfy the needs of victims to feel avenged. Indeed, the legal system would better serve the public if it gave victims the sense that vengeance was being done on their behalf. Drawing on a wide range of support, from recent studies in behavioral psychology and neuroeconomics, to stories of vengeance and justice denied, to revenge practices from around the world, to the way in which revenge tales have permeated popular culture—including Hamlet, The Godfather, and Braveheart—Rosenbaum demonstrates that vengeance needs to be more openly and honestly discussed and lawfully practiced. Fiercely argued and highly engaging, Payback is a provocative and eye-opening cultural tour of revenge and its rewards—from Shakespeare to The Sopranos. It liberates revenge from its social stigma and proves that vengeance is indeed ours, a perfectly human and acceptable response to moral injury. Rosenbaum deftly persuades us to reconsider a misunderstood subject and, along the way, reinvigorates the debate on the shape of justice in the modern world.

This volume delves into the study of the world’s emerging middle class. With essays on Europe, the United States, Africa, Latin America, and Asia, the book studies recent trends and developments in middle class evolution at the global, regional, national, and local levels. It reconsiders the conceptualization of the middle class, with a focus on the diversity of middle class formation in different regions and zones of world society. It also explores middle class lifestyles and everyday experiences, including experiences of social mobility, feelings of insecurity and anxiety, and even middle class engagement with social activism. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews, the book provides a sophisticated analysis of this new and rapidly expanding socioeconomic group and puts forth some provocative ideas for intellectual and policy debates. It will be of importance to students and researchers of sociology, economics, development studies, political studies, Latin American studies, and Asian Studies.

An erudite and original book that gets to grips with a central bone of contention in the social sciences and beyond: what do we mean by 'society'?