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Revitalizing Electoral Geography
2011Barney Warf (Editor) and Jonathan Leib (Editor)
Electoral Geography, the analysis of spatial patterns of voting, is undergoing a renaissance with new methodological advances, theoretical shifts and changes in the political landscape. Integrating new conceptual approaches with a broad array of case studies from the USA, Europe and Asia, this volume examines key questions in electoral geography: How has electoral geography changed since the 1980s when the last wave of works in this sub discipline appeared? In what ways does contemporary scholarship in social theory inform the analysis of elections and their spatial patterns? How has electoral geography been reconfigured by social and technological changes and those that shape the voting process itself? How can the comparative analysis of elections inform the field? In addressing these issues, the volume moves electoral geography beyond its traditional, empiricist focus on the United States to engage with contemporary theoretical developments and to outline the myriad theoretical, conceptual and methodological perspectives and applications that together are ushering in electoral geography's revitalization. The result is a broader, comparative analysis of how elections reflect and in turn shape social and spatial relations. [From Amazon.com]
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Philip K. Dick and Philosophy
2011Dylan E. Wittkower (Editor)
Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) is the giant imagination behind so much recent popular culture--both movies directly based on his writings, such as Blade Runner (based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and The Adjustment Bureau plus cult favorites such as A Scanner Darkly, Imposter, Next, Screamers, and Paycheck and works revealing his powerful influence, such as The Matrix and Inception. With the much anticipated forthcoming publication in 2011 of volume 1 of Exegesis, his journal of spiritual visions and paranoic investigations, Dick is fast becoming a major influence in the world of popular spirituality and occult thinking.
In Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Do Androids have Kindred Spirits?, thirty-four Dick fans and professional thinkers confront the fascinating and frightening ideas raised by Dick's mind-blowing fantasies. Is there an alien world behind the everyday reality we experience? If androids can pass as human, should they be given the same consideration as humans? Do psychotics have insights into a mystical reality? Would knowledge of the future free us or enslave us? This volume also includes two Dick short stories: "Beyond Lies the Wub," and "The Eyes Have It."
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Explaining Foreign Policy: U.S. Decision-Making in the Gulf Wars
2011Steve A. Yetiv
Steve A. Yetiv has developed an interdisciplinary, integrated approach to studying foreign policy decisions, which he applies here to understand better how and why the United States went to war in the Persian Gulf in 1991 and 2003. Yetiv’s innovative method employs the rational actor, cognitive, domestic politics, groupthink, and bureaucratic politics models to explain the foreign policy behavior of governments. Drawing on the widest set of primary sources to date―including a trove of recently declassified documents―and on interviews with key actors, he applies these models to illuminate the decision-making process in the two Gulf Wars and to develop theoretical notions about foreign policy. What Yetiv discovers, in addition to empirical evidence about the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars, is that no one approach provides the best explanation, but when all five are used, a fuller and more complete understanding emerges. [From Amazon.com]
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The Petroleum Triangle: Oil, Globalization, and Terror
2011Steve A. Yetiv
In The Petroleum Triangle, Steve A. Yetiv tells the interconnected story of oil, globalization, and terrorism. Yetiv asks how Al-Qaeda, a small band of terrorists, became such a real and perceived threat to American and global security, a threat viewed as profound enough to motivate the strongest power in world history to undertake extraordinary actions, including two very costly wars… [From Amazon.com]
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The United Nations in Latin America: Aiding Development
2010Francis Adams
The United Nations has increased its worldwide efforts to promote sustainable development. In this book, noted scholar Francis Adams examines the United Nations' actions in Latin America, particularly in light of meeting basic human needs, promoting gender equity, and preserving natural environments. While previous books have focused on a single UN agency, this book is the first to analyze the development work of various UN institutions and agencies that sponsor economic and social programs in the developing world as well as the UN's various funding initiatives, global conferences, and institutional goals. This book will be a necessary addition for students and scholars of Latin American politics and Development.
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Murder in the Métro: Laetitia Toureaux and the Cagoule in 1930s France
2010Gayle K. Brunelle and S. Annette Finley-Croswhite
On the evening of May 16, 1937, the train doors opened at the Porte Dorée station in the Paris Métro to reveal a dying woman slumped by a window, an eight-inch stiletto buried to its hilt in her neck. No one witnessed the crime, and the killer left behind little forensic evidence. This first-ever murder in the Paris Métro dominated the headlines for weeks during the summer of 1937, as journalists and the police slowly uncovered the shocking truth about the victim: a twenty-nine-year-old Italian immigrant, the beautiful and elusive Laetitia Toureaux. Toureaux toiled each day in a factory, but spent her nights working as a spy in the seamy Parisian underworld. Just as the dangerous spy Mata Hari fascinated Parisians of an earlier generation, the mystery of Toureaux's murder held the French public spellbound in pre-war Paris, as the police tried and failed to identify her assassin.
By examining documents related to Toureaux's murder -- documents the French government has sealed from public view until 2038 -- Brunelle and Finley-Croswhite link Toureaux's death not only to the Cagoule but also to the Italian secret service, for whom she acted as an informant. Their research provides likely answers to the question of the identity of Toureaux's murderer and offers a fascinating look at the dark and dangerous streets of pre--World War II Paris. [Amazon.com]
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Walking and Talking Feminist Rhetorics: Landmark Essays and Controversies
2010Lindal Buchanan (Editor) and Kathleen J. Ryan (Editor)
Walking and Talking Feminist Rhetorics: Landmark Essays and Controversies gathers significant, oft-cited scholarship about feminism and rhetoric into one convenient volume. Essays examine the formation of the vibrant and growing field of feminist rhetoric; feminist historiographic research methods and methodologies; and women’s distinct sites, genres, and styles of rhetoric. The book’s most innovative and pedagogically useful feature is its presentation of controversies in the form of case studies, each consisting of exchanges between or among scholars about significant questions. These debates have shaped the field’s past and continue to influence its present and future directions. The collection provides both students and teachers with an accessible introduction to and comprehensive overview of the intersections of feminisms and rhetorics. [From the Publisher]
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African Americans and Global aAfairs Contemporary Perspectives
2010Michael L. Clemons (Editor)
The repression historically faced by African Americans has had an important effect on the nature of the group’s participation in foreign affairs. This book offers a much-needed and long-overdue survey of the field, setting the stage for further exploration and analysis. Chapters discuss the Congressional Black Caucus and TransAfrica Forum; African American political organizations and Africa; Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice; the evaporation of strong black voices in events such as those in Rwanda and Darfur; and self-critical Pan Africanism... [From Amazon.com]
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The Ways that Police Deal with People: The Theory and Practice of Process-Based Policing
2010Mengyan Dai
Using data from systematic social observations of police-citizen encounters, the statistical analyses demonstrate the importance of understanding the dynamics of police citizen encounters. The findings suggest how to enhance police legitimacy and improve the experiences of police citizen interactions. This book will appeal to criminal justice scholars and practitioners. [From Amazon.com]
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White House Politics and the Environment: Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush
2010Byron W. Daynes and Glen Sussman
Presidents and their administrations since the 1960s have become increasingly active in environmental politics, despite their touted lack of expertise and their apparent frequent discomfort with the issue. In White House Politics and the Environment: Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush, Byron W. Daynes and Glen Sussman study the multitude of resources presidents can use in their attempts to set the public agenda. They also provide a framework for considering the environmental direction and impact of U.S. presidents during the last seven decades, permitting an assessment of each president in terms of how his administration either aided or hindered the advancement of environmental issues… [From Amazon.com]
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Sorry, Wrong Answer: Trivia Questions That Even Know-It-Alls Get Wrong
2010Rod L. Evans
In Sorry, Wrong Answer, Rod Evans takes readers on a tour of misleading trivia, debunking commonly held assumptions and sharing surprising "right" answers. [Amazon.com]
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Volume: Writings on Graphic Design, Music, Art, and Culture
2010Kenneth FitzGerald
Volume—a word that refers to sound, collections, and the measurement of space—is a crucial characteristic of both graphic design and popular music. While expressing different aspects of these two pervasive cultural mediums, the term also introduces a discussion on their many links. Volume: Writings on Graphic Design, Music, Art, and Culture is a collection of both new and classic writings by frequent Emigre contributor and educator Kenneth FitzGerald that survey the discipline of graphic design in context with the parallel creative fields of contemporary music and art. The topics of the writings are diverse: the roles of class in design, design education, Lester Bangs and Creem magazine, pornography, album cover art, independent record labels, anonymity and imaginary creative identities, and design as cultural chaos-maker. [Amazon.com]
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Press Professionalization and Propaganda: The Rise of Journalistic Double-Mindedness, 1917-1941
2010Burton St. John III
Increasingly, Americans are turning away from the traditional press--especially newspapers--for the news of the day. In fact, by May 2009 a Pew survey revealed that 63 percent of Americans said they would not miss their paper if it ceased publishing. Other surveys have revealed that since the late 1990s, Americans have significant concerns about the mainstream news media's credibility, with no less than 56 percent voicing reservations about the press's accuracy. At the same time, the mainstream news has continued to show a proclivity for using information proffered by public relations sources; in fact, some studies point to newsrooms that use such propaganda materials for up to 75-80 percent of their stories. As traditional newsrooms continue to either downsize (or, in some cases, disappear) and propaganda materials proliferate, the American public will continue to encounter difficulties obtaining from journalism the accurate and relevant information it needs to make informed decisions within our democracy. Current scholarship about journalism's increasing problems with relevancy often focuses on explorations of the advent of new media technologies and/or journalism's dysfunctional business models. Although those studies are important, they tend toward a presentism that ignores dilemmas that derive from the enduring ways that the press gathers and constructs news. This book argues that the problem of press relevancy can be traced to historical groundings that continue to inform newsroom practices. Specifically, it makes the distinctive claim that modern journalism's own professionalism has made the press prone to using propaganda materials, thus contributing to increasing news media irrelevance. ... [Amazon.com]
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The Politics of Destroying Surplus Small Arms: Inconspicuous Disarmament
2010Aaron Karp (Editor)
Although it receives much less attention than better known disarmament processes, the destruction of small arms is reshaping the military arsenals of the world. Out of roughly 200 modern military small arms world-wide, about 500,000 are destroyed every year. The commitment of major governments and international organizations makes small arms destruction is a permanent addition to the global disarmament repertoire. But the prospects for greater military small arms disarmament may be declining, as war in Afghanistan and Iraq create unprecedented demand for second-hand weaponry... [From Amazon.com]
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Keeping Tito Afloat: The United States, Yugoslavia, and the Cold War, 1945-1960
2010Lorraine M. Lees
Keeping Tito Afloat draws upon newly declassified documents to show the critical role that Yugoslavia played in U.S. foreign policy with the communist world in the early years of the Cold War. After World War II, the United States considered Yugoslavia to be a loyal Soviet satellite, but Tito surprised the West in 1948 by breaking with Stalin. Seizing this opportunity, the Truman administration sought to "keep Tito afloat" by giving him military and economic aid. President Truman hoped that American involvement would encourage other satellites to follow Tito's example and further damage Soviet power. However, Lees demonstrates that it was President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles who most actively tried to use Tito as a "wedge" to liberate the Eastern Europeans… [From Amazon.com]
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J.S. Mill: Moral, Social and Political Thought
2010Dale E. Miller
This book offers a clear and highly readable introduction to the ethical and social-political philosophy of John Stuart Mill. Dale E. Miller argues for a "utopian" reading of Mill's utilitarianism. He analyses Mill's views on happiness and goes on to show the practical, social and political implications that can be drawn from his utilitarianism, especially in relation to the construction of morality, individual freedom, democratic reform, and economic organization. By highlighting the utopian thinking which lies at the heart of Mill's theories, Miller shows that rather than allowing for well-being for the few, Mill believed that a society must do everything in its power to see to it that each individual can enjoy a genuinely happy life if the happiness of its members is to be maximized. Miller provides a cogent and careful account of the main arguments offered by Mill, considers the critical responses to his work, and assesses its legacy for contemporary philosophy. [From Amazon.com]
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A Few Spells: Poems
2010Rénee Olander
"Renée Olander's poems are distinctly female, which is to say fertile, passionate, powerful, sorrowful, sexy, stunning, and strong. Sit with them, spend time with them, hold them close, embrace them. You'll be glad you did. Reading A Few Spells is akin to being in the company of a wise and treasured friend," writes poet Lesléa Newman. [ODUscrivener.wordpress.com]
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Public Journalism 2.0: The Promise and Reality of a Citizen-Engaged Press
2010Jack Rosenberry and Burton St. John III
Public Journalism 2.0 examines the ways that civic or public journalism is evolving, especially as audience-created content―sometimes referred to as citizen journalism or participatory journalism―becomes increasingly prominent in contemporary media. As the contributors to this edited volume demonstrate, the mere use of digital technologies is not the fundamental challenge of a new citizen-engaged journalism; rather, a deeper understanding of how civic/public journalism can inform citizen-propelled initiatives is required.Through a mix of original research, essays, interviews, and case studies, this collection establishes how public journalism principles and practices offer journalists, scholars, and citizens insights into how digital technology and other contemporary practices can increase civic engagement and improve public life. ... [Amazon.com]
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Families Communicating with Children
2010Thomas Joseph Socha and Julie Yingling
This book offers a fresh and insightful introduction to children's communication development that emphasizes how families help children learn to communicate optimally. Writing for communication students, parents, teachers, and all who care for children, the authors argue that optimal development of children's communication competencies depends on family participation in everyday learning situations that challenge children's skills and build communication confidence… [From Amazon.com]
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Early Professional Baseball in Hampton Roads: A History, 1884-1928
2010Peter C. Stewart
This work focuses on the Norfolk team (nicknamed the Mary Janes), which played in the Virginia, Eastern and Atlantic leagues. Much attention is given to the players, coaches and teams of the Virginia League and the local news coverage from 1884 through 1928 as well as the business of baseball, the relations between major and minor league teams, and the controversy over hosting professional baseball games on Sundays. Photographs of the players, cartoons, and an appendix of league statistics are included. [From Amazon.com]
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Facebook and Philosophy: What's on Your Mind?
2010Dylan E. Wittkower (Editor)
Facebook and Philosophy is an entertaining, multi-faceted exploration of what Facebook means for us and for our relationships. With discussions ranging from the nature of friendship and its relationship to "friending," to the (debatable) efficacy of "online activism," this book is the most extensive and systematic attempt to understand Facebook yet. And with plenty of new perspectives on Twitter and Web 2.0 along the way, this fun, thought-provoking book is a serious and significant contribution for anyone working with social media, whether in academia, journalism, public relations, activism, or business. Exploring far-reaching questions — Can our interactions on Facebook help us care about each other more? Does Facebook signal the death of privacy, or (perhaps worse yet) the death of our desire for privacy? — Facebook and Philosophy is vital reading for anyone involved in social networks today.
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Mr. Monk and Philosophy: The Curious Case of the Defective Detective
2010Dylan E. Wittkower (Editor)
Mr. Monk and Philosophy is a carefully and neatly organized collection of eighteen chapters divided into exactly six groups of precisely three chapters each. Drawing on a wide range of philosophers—from Aristotle and Diogenes, to Siddhartha Gautama and St. Thomas Aquinas, to David Hume and Karl Popper—the authors ask how Adrian Monk solves his cases, why he is the way he is, how he thinks, and what we can learn from him.
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Women's Activism in South Africa: Working Across Divides
2009Hannah Britton, Jennifer Fish, and Sheila Meintjes
Women's Activism in South Africa provides the most comprehensive collection of women's experiences within civil society since the 1994 transition. This book captures South African women's stories of collective activism and social change at a crucial point for the future of democracy in the country, if not the continent. Pulling together the voices of activists and scholars, South Africa's path to democracy and the assurance of gender rights emerge as a complex journey of both successes and challenges. The collection elucidates a new form of pragmatic feminism, building upon the elasticity between the state and civil society. What the cases demonstrate is that while the state itself may not be a panacea, it still represents a key source of power and the primary locus of vital resources, including the rights of citizenship, access to basic needs, and the promise of protection from gender-based violence - all central to women's particular needs in South Africa.
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Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives: Translated Texts from the Age of Discoveries
2009Chandra R. De Silva (Editor)
Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and the Maldives: Translated Texts from the Age of the Discoveries is designed to provide access to translations of 16th- and 17th-century documents which illustrate various aspects of this encounter, combining texts from indigenous sources with those from the Portuguese histories and archives. These documents contribute to the growing understanding that different groups of European colonizers - missionaries, traders and soldiers - had conflicting motivations and objectives. Scholars have also begun to emphasize that the colonized were not mere victims but had their own agendas and that they occasionally successfully manipulated colonial powers. The texts in this volume help to substantiate these assertions while also illustrating the changing nature of the interactions. The present volume contains chapters covering the Portuguese arrival in Sri Lanka and their first encounters with the island and its peoples, their subsequent relations with Kandy and Jaffna, and a final chapter on Portuguese relations with the Maldive Islands. [From Amazon.com]
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The Artful Nuance: A Refined Guide to Imperfectly Understood Words in the English Language
2009Rod L. Evans
Many people use these words interchangeably but there are actually subtle and interesting differences in meaning and usage. Now from the author of Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge comes a fun and fascinating word reference book for word lovers, students, and trivia collectors alike. Readers will relish learning about these distinctions in this entertaining homage to a gift we use every day? Words. [Amazon.com]
A gallery of books by faculty from the Batten College of Arts & Letters, Old Dominion University. Faculty books are also listed under specific departments.
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