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We Can Do It: A Community Takes on the Challenge of School Desegregation
by Michael T. GenglerHow black and white school administrators, teachers, parents, and students in a Florida county shifted from segregated schools to a single, unified system.After Brown v. Board of Education, the South&’s separate white and black schools continued under lower court opinions, provided black students could choose to go to white schools. Not until 1968 did the NAACP Legal Defense Fund convince the Supreme Court to end dual school systems. Almost fifty years later, African Americans in Alachua County, Florida, remain divided over that outcome.A unique study including extensive interviews, We Can Do It asks important questions, among them: How did both races, without precedent, work together to create desegregated schools? What conflicts arose, and how were they resolved (or not)? How was the community affected? And at a time when resegregation and persistent white-black achievement gaps continue to challenge public schools, what lessons can we learn from the generation that desegregated our schools?&“A Gainesville, Florida, native focuses on his hometown and Alachua County to examine that state&’s challenging task to end segregation. . . . A thick, thorough history as only an attorney could present.&” —Kirkus Reviews
We Can Make the World Economy a Sustainable Global Home
by Lewis S. MudgeThis book by theologian-ethicist Lewis Mudge offers fresh philosophical and theological concepts, economic and political insights, and practical financial proposals to counter the causes and lasting effects of the worldwide recession that began in late 2007.The historical and global dimensions of Mudge’s perspective and his open-ended suggestions keep the book’s arguments highly relevant today, little affected by daily changes in a world economy still suffering from the reverberations of the credit collapse several years ago. Editorial references in footnotes provide up-to-date data and add nuances to the major issues raised by Mudge.To help foster the ecumenical dialogue Mudge calls for, We Can Make the World Economy a Sustainable Global Home includes responses from Elliott N. Dorff, John C. Knapp, and Djamel Eddine Laouisset — a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim.
We Count, We Matter: Voice, Choice and the Death of Distance (Classical and Contemporary Social Theory)
by Christopher SteedThis book examines the meaning of Brexit, the election of Trump and the rising tide of populist revolt on the right amidst the collapse of the left. Exploring the reaction against the establishment or ‘the system’, the author contends that we are witnessing a new divide between those who wish to see an interconnected world and those who seek distance: as transport and technology shrink the world, we witness a backlash that favours protectionism and opposes immigration. Distance is the new frontier: for some, remote players are rejected in favour of identities closer to home. This divide plays out in relation to the notion of ‘face’, as individuals react to ‘faceless’ organisations and processes such as globalisation and automation, responding to a sense of alienation on social media and developing a conception of themselves as networked individuals. Thus, we move towards a type of society characterised not by honour and dishonour, or right and wrong, but by voice and choice. A fascinating and very accessible analysis of the divisions and transformations that have come to dominate the contemporary landscape, this book will appeal to political leaders and social scientists with interests in globalisation, social movements and social theory.
We Dissent: Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan on Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court's Decision Banning Abortion
by Stephen Breyer Sonia Sotomayor Elena KaganThe full text of one of the most radical and controversial Supreme Court decisions in American history, highlighting the galvanizing dissent by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan ...Dobbs v Jackson, the landmark decision to overthrow the rights first granted to women in the Roe v Wade decision fifty years ago, is the first U.S. Supreme Court decision in American history to actually take away from citizens a Constitutionally-protected right. As such it may be the most consequential Court ruling ever.Compounding matters, the decision opened the door to the overthrow of still further rights — such as same-sex marriage, for example, or equal rights for trans people.Nowhere is the danger of this decision made more clear than in the sobering yet electrifying dissent filed by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan. That dissent is highlighted in this edition, which includes the entire decision, to let readers decide for themselves, but forefronts the stirring and eloquently reasoned dissent.That eloquence will surely inspire, inform, and fuel the increasingly impassioned debate during the tumultuous campaign season of the upcoming mid-term elections — and beyond.
We Dissent: Talking Back to the Rehnquist Court, Eight Cases That Subverted Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
by Michael AveryThe lawyers and legal commentators who contribute to We Dissent unanimously agree that during Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s nineteen-year tenure, the Supreme Court failed to adequately protect civil liberties and civil rights. This is evident in majority opinions written for numerous cases heard by the Rehnquist Court, and eight of those cases are re-examined here, with contributors offering dissents to the Court’s decisions. The Supreme Court opinions criticized in We Dissent suggest that the Rehnquist Court placed the interests of government above the people, and as the dissents in this book demonstrate, the Court strayed far from our constitutional ideals when it abandoned its commitment to the protection of the individual rights of Americans.Each chapter focuses on a different case—ranging from torture to search and seizure, and from racial profiling to the freedom of political expression—with contributors summarizing the case and the decision, and then offering their own dissent to the majority opinion. For some cases featured in the book, the Court’s majority decisions were unanimous, so readers can see here for the first time what a dissent might have looked like. In other cases, contributors offer alternative dissents to the minority opinion, thereby widening the scope of opposition to key civil liberties decision made by the Rehnquist Court.Taken together, the dissents in this unique book address the pressing issue of Constitutional protection of individual freedom, and present a vision of constitutional law in the United States that differs considerably from the recent jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court.Contributors: Michael Avery, Erwin Chemerinsky,Marjorie Cohn, Tracey Maclin, Eva Paterson, Jamin Raskin, David Rudovsky, Susan Kiyomi Serrano, and Abbe Smith.
We Do!: American Leaders Who Believe in Marriage Equality
by Jennifer Baumgardner and Madeleine M. Kunin&“The encouraging story of American acceptance of gay marriage and the roles that politicians—gay and straight—have played in that history&” (The Philadelphia Tribune). Through speeches, interviews, and commentary, this book chronicles the road toward marriage equality in the United States, edited by former Vermont governor Madeleine Kunin and author and activist Jennifer Baumgardner. &“Baumgardner and Kunin have compiled the writings and public pronouncements of public officials and other figures on the issue of marriage equality . . . This book will serve as a resource for what was said about the struggle.&” —New York Journal of Books &“Detail[s] the politicians out there who are good-hearted, decent and basically worth knowing about.&” —Detroit Metro Times &“Compiles speeches, interviews and commentary from 1977 through 2013, in which an array of political leaders . . . voice their unconditional support for the queer citizens of the US in their quest for same-sex marriage rights.&” —Bay Area Reporter &“Highlights the path politicians have taken from Harvey Milk of San Francisco in 1977 until now, to advance the cause of marriage equality.&” —Sun News Miami &“Powerful . . . As Vermont&’s governor, Madeleine Kunin was a leader on gay rights years before it was fashionable and years before our state became the first in the country to allow civil unions and, later, gay marriage without a court order. The struggle for gay rights in Vermont was very difficult, divisive, and acrimonious. If you talk to young people today about gay rights or gay marriage, they ask, What was the big deal? Madeleine and Jennifer Baumgardner remind us what a big deal it was and how important it is.&” —Bernie Sanders &“The gay marriage movement, like all civil rights movements, began with individuals telling the truth about who they are to a world that doesn&’t accept them. It ends with an entire generation of young people who reject blatant civil rights discrimination . . . We Do! triumphantly chronicles this recent chapter.&” —New Pages Included on the American Library Association&’s Over the Rainbow Project Book List
We Don't Need Permission: How black business can change our world
by Eric CollinsHighly Commended for the Diversity, Inclusion and Equality Award at the Business Book AwardsA powerful 10 step guide to transformative entrepreneurship for under-represented people from Eric Collins, host of the award-winning Channel 4 reality business show The Money Maker.'Eric Collins is one of the most powerful business people in Britain.' The Times__________Step 1: Embrace the unexpectedStep 2: Engage in consistent and continuous acts of disruptionStep 3: Let go of small - think bigger, think global and prepare for pitfallsStep 4: Take risks using data to mitigate the downsideStep 5: Put your money where your mouth is, make your resources matterStep 6: Leverage what you knowStep 7: Become a convener by making your mission bigger than yourselfStep 8: Invest in women to create AlphaStep 9: Sell your vision, make time-appropriate asks and don't forget to recruit alliesStep 10: Always bet on Black________________________At a time when half of Black households in the UK live in persistent poverty - over twice as many as their white counterparts - We Don't Need Permission argues that investing in Black and under-represented entrepreneurs in order to create successful businesses is the surest, fastest socio-economic game-changer there is.Long-lasting economic empowerment - from education to health outcomes - is key to solving the multiple problems that result from systemic racism and sexism. And it is the best way to close the inequality gaps that have hampered and continue to hinder Black people and all women too. To address this problem head on, Eric Collins co-founded venture capital firm Impact X Capital to invest in under-represented entrepreneurs in the UK and Europe.In We Don't Need Permission, Collins identifies ten key principles of successful entrepreneurship, and reveals how it's possible to change a system that has helped some, while holding others back. The book not only aims to inspire and motivate under-represented people to take their future and economic destiny into their own hands, but will demand of current business leaders and organizations that they do business better.It's time to stop waiting for someone else to give permission and start boldly making the world we want to see.__________
We Gave Away a Fortune
by Christopher Mogil Anne Slepian Peter WoodrowStories of People Who Have Devoted Themselves and Their Wealth To Peace, Justice and a Healthy Environment
We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation
by Jeff ChangIn these provocative, powerful essays acclaimed writer/journalist Jeff Chang (Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, Who We Be) takes an incisive and wide-ranging look at the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country. Through deep reporting with key activists and thinkers, passionately personal writing, and distinguished cultural criticism, this book links #BlackLivesMatter to #OscarsSoWhite, Ferguson to Washington D.C., the Great Migration to resurgent nativism. Chang explores the rise and fall of the idea of “diversity,” the roots of student protest, changing ideas about Asian Americanness, and the impact of a century of racial separation in housing. He argues that resegregation is the unexamined condition of our time, the undoing of which is key to moving the nation forward to racial justice and cultural equity.
We Have Never Been Human: Or Why We Have Always Been Something Else
by Juan de Dios VázquezWe Have Never Been Human: Or Why We Have Always Been Something Else boldly reimagines what it means to be human, challenging the traditional notions that bind our identity to biology and culture. From ancient mythologies to modern technologies, this book reveals a dynamic, ever-evolving human identity shaped by external forces and technological advancements.Blending insights from philosophy, technology studies, anthropology, and cultural critique, We Have Never Been Human: Or Why We Have Been Something Else offers an interdisciplinary exploration of our constructed identities and what they portend for the future of society. It raises essential questions: How has technology reshaped our self-perception? Are humans fixed beings, or are we endlessly evolving? What ethical, social, and political challenges arise as we integrate with intelligent machines?This book is a compelling read for those intrigued by the intersection of humanity and technology, offering profound insights into the essence of what it means to be human—or perhaps, what it means to evolve beyond the human.
We Just Build Hammers: Stories from the Past, Present, and Future of Responsible Tech
by Coraline Ada EhmkePhilosopher Noam Chomsky is famously quoted as saying that technology is neither good nor bad, but simply a neutral tool. He likens it to a hammer, which can be used by carpenters and torturers alike. While the neutrality of tech is an idea that appeals to many technologists, this perspective is out of alignment with today's realities of pervasive ad-tech, surveillance capitalism, algorithmic manipulation, and rising techno-fascism. We Just Build Hammers applies a lens of speculative and science fiction to connect you with a historical lineage of thinkers and activists in the responsible tech movement. Its narrative spans a century of major technological upheavals: from the advent of the atomic age to the formative years of computing; from the hacker visionaries of the turn of the century to the tech justice revolutionaries of today. This book challenges technologists to consider for themselves whether they're really just "building hammers"– technologies whose potential for good balances their potential for harm– or if they are unwittingly contributing to systems that exacerbate inequality, inequity, and injustice. What You Will Learn A historic grounding and a science fiction perspective to help untangle the difficult and fraught topic of tech ethics Ways to bring ethical considerations into the development of new technologies How to navigate the increasing complexity of the techno-social world we live and work in Who This Book is For Designed to appeal broadly, not just to engineers and technologists, but to anyone interested in the history and future of ethics and technology.
We Make Each Other Beautiful: Art, Activism, and the Law (Publicly Engaged Scholars: Identities, Purposes, Practices)
by Yxta Maya MurrayWe Make Each Other Beautiful focuses on woman of color and queer of color artists and artist collectives who engage in direct political action as a part of their art practice. Defined by public protest, rule-breaking, rebellion, and resistance to governmental and institutional abuse, direct-action "artivism" draws on the aims, radical spirit, and tactics of the civil rights and feminist movements and on the struggles for disability rights, queer rights, and immigrant rights to seek legal and social change. Yxta Maya Murray traces the development of artivism as a practice from the Harlem Renaissance to Yoko Ono, Judy Baca, and Marsha P. Johnson. She also studies its role in transforming law and society. We Make Each Other Beautiful profiles the work and lives of four contemporary artivists —Carrie Mae Weems, Young Joon Kwak, Tanya Aguiñiga, and Imani Jacqueline Brown—and the artivist collective Drawn Together, combining new oral histories with sharp analyses of how their diverse and expansive artistic practices bear important aesthetic and politicolegal meanings that address a wide range of injustices.
We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption
by Justin FentonThe astonishing true story of &“one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation&” (The New York Times), from the Pulitzer Prize–nominated reporter who exposed a gang of criminal cops and their yearslong plunder of an American city&“A work of journalism that not only chronicles the rise and fall of a corrupt police unit but can stand as the inevitable coda to the half-century of disaster that is the American drug war.&”—David Simon, author of Homicide, co-author of The Corner, and creator of The Wire Baltimore, 2015. Riots are erupting across the city as citizens demand justice for Freddie Gray, a twenty-five-year-old Black man who has died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody. Drug and violent crime are surging, and Baltimore will reach its highest murder count in more than two decades: 342 homicides in a single year, in a city of just 600,000 people. Facing pressure from the mayor&’s office—as well as a federal investigation of the department over Gray&’s death—Baltimore police commanders turn to a rank-and-file hero, Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, and his elite plainclothes unit, the Gun Trace Task Force, to help get guns and drugs off the street. But behind these new efforts, a criminal conspiracy of unprecedented scale was unfolding within the police department. Entrusted with fixing the city&’s drug and gun crisis, Jenkins chose to exploit it instead. With other members of the empowered Gun Trace Task Force, Jenkins stole from Baltimore&’s citizens—skimming from drug busts, pocketing thousands in cash found in private homes, and planting fake evidence to throw Internal Affairs off their scent. Their brazen crime spree would go unchecked for years. The result was countless wrongful convictions, the death of an innocent civilian, and the mysterious death of one cop who was shot in the head, killed just a day before he was scheduled to testify against the unit. In this urgent book, award-winning investigative journalist Justin Fenton distills hundreds of interviews, thousands of court documents, and countless hours of video footage to present the definitive account of the entire scandal. The result is an astounding, riveting feat of reportage about a rogue police unit, the city they held hostage, and the ongoing struggle between American law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve.
We Rip the World Apart: A sweeping story about motherhood, race and secrets
by Charlene Carr'A charged emotional epic . . . a can't-miss read!' Marissa Stapley'[A] fearless reflection on race, identity, and parenthood . . . page-turning and propulsive' Shelby Van Pelt'[A] haunting story about racism, identity, and the choice between safety and raising your voice . . . compelling and poignant' Nigar AlamThree women. Three secrets. One family torn apart.MOTHERWhen Evelyn fled to Canada with her young family during the politically charged Jamaican Exodus of the 1980s, she thought they were finally safe. But, years later, her worst fears come true when her son is killed by the police.GRANDMOTHERIn the wake of her grandson's violent murder, Violet moves in, but despite her efforts to help the family through their grief, a growing web of secrets threatens the relationships they all hold so dear.DAUGHTERKareela has lived with silences surrounding the loss of her brother since she was a child. Now, 24 and pregnant with a baby she isn't sure she wants, she feels the need to understand her place in the world as a woman who is half Black and half white - yet feels neither.As the traumas the three women carry continue to pull them apart, Kareela must uncover the mysteries of her family's past to make sense of her identity and her future . . .A sweeping multi-generational story about motherhood, race and secrets, We Rip the World Apart reveals the ways that simple choices, made in the heat of the moment, can have devastating repercussions across the years, especially when people remain silent.PRAISE FOR HOLD MY GIRL:'[A] tense, emotional story about racial identity, loss and betrayal' Daily Mail'Carr gracefully explores the moral dilemma and custody battle . . . Fans of The Herd will love it!' Grazia'Compelling and thought-provoking . . . A page-turner' Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake
We Rip the World Apart: A sweeping story about motherhood, race and secrets
by Charlene Carr'A remarkable storyteller' AMANDA PETERS'Wrenching, deeply moving, yet hopeful' CHARMAINE WILKERSON'A haunting story about racism, identity, and the choice between safety and raising your voice' NIGAR ALAMTHREE WOMEN. THREE SECRETS. ONE FAMILY TORN APART.MOTHERWhen Evelyn fled to Canada with her young family during the politically charged Jamaican Exodus of the 1980s, she thought they were finally safe. But, years later, her worst fears come true when her son is killed by the police.GRANDMOTHERIn the wake of her grandson's violent murder, Violet moves in, but despite her efforts to help the family through their grief, a growing web of secrets threatens the relationships they all hold so dear.DAUGHTERKareela has lived with silences surrounding the loss of her brother since she was a child. Now, 24 and pregnant with a baby she isn't sure she wants, she feels the need to understand her place in the world as a woman who is half Black and half white - yet feels neither.As the traumas the three women carry continue to pull them apart, Kareela must uncover the mysteries of her family's past to make sense of her identity and her future . . .'A charged emotional epic!' MARISSA STAPLEY'Page-turning and propulsive' SHELBY VAN PELT'A beautifully executed portrait of what it means to be a family' AMITA PARIKHA sweeping multi-generational story about motherhood, race and secrets, We Rip the World Apart reveals the ways that simple choices, made in the heat of the moment, can have devastating repercussions across the years, especially when people remain silent.PRAISE FOR HOLD MY GIRL:'[A] tense, emotional story about racial identity, loss and betrayal' Daily Mail'Fans of The Herd will love it!' Grazia'Compelling and thought-provoking . . . A page-turner' Charmaine Wilkerson
We See It All: Liberty and Justice in an Age of Perpetual Surveillance
by Jon FasmanAn investigation into the legal, political, and moral issues surrounding how the police and justice system use surveillance technology, asking the question: what are citizens of a free country willing to tolerate in the name of public safety?As we rethink the scope of police power, Jon Fasman&’s chilling examination of how the police and the justice system use the unparalleled power of surveillance technology—how it affects privacy, liberty, and civil rights—becomes more urgent by the day. Embedding himself within police departments on both coasts, Fasman explores the moral, legal, and political questions posed by these techniques and tools.By zeroing in on how facial recognition, automatic license-plate readers, drones, predictive algorithms, and encryption affect us personally, Fasman vividly illustrates what is at stake and explains how to think through issues of privacy rights, civil liberties, and public safety. How do these technologies impact how police operate in our society? How should archaic privacy laws written for an obsolete era—that of the landline and postbox—be updated?Fasman looks closely at what can happen when surveillance technologies are combined and put in the hands of governments with scant regard for citizens&’ civil liberties, pushing us to ask: Is our democratic culture strong enough to stop us from turning into China, with its architecture of control?
We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative
by George J. BorjasFrom “America’s leading immigration economist” (The Wall Street Journal), a refreshingly level-headed exploration of the effects of immigration. We are a nation of immigrants, and we have always been concerned about immigration. As early as 1645, the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to prohibit the entry of “paupers.” Today, however, the notion that immigration is universally beneficial has become pervasive. To many modern economists, immigrants are a trove of much-needed workers who can fill predetermined slots along the proverbial assembly line. But this view of immigration’s impact is overly simplified, explains George J. Borjas, a Cuban-American, Harvard labor economist. Immigrants are more than just workers—they’re people who have lives outside of the factory gates and who may or may not fit the ideal of the country to which they’ve come to live and work. Like the rest of us, they’re protected by social insurance programs, and the choices they make are affected by their social environments. In We Wanted Workers, Borjas pulls back the curtain of political bluster to show that, in the grand scheme, immigration has not affected the average American all that much. But it has created winners and losers. The losers tend to be nonmigrant workers who compete for the same jobs as immigrants. And somebody’s lower wage is somebody else’s higher profit, so those who employ immigrants benefit handsomely. In the end, immigration is mainly just another government redistribution program. “I am an immigrant,” writes Borjas, “and yet I do not buy into the notion that immigration is universally beneficial. . . . But I still feel that it is a good thing to give some of the poor and huddled masses, people who face so many hardships, a chance to experience the incredible opportunities that our exceptional country has to offer.” Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, We Wanted Workers is essential reading for anyone interested in the issue of immigration in America today.
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America
by Roxanna AsgarianA finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award | the Los Angeles Times Book PrizeA Washington Post best nonfiction book of 2023 | Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction“A riveting indictment of the child welfare system . . . [A] bracing gut punch of a book.” —Robert Kolker, The Washington Post“[A] moving and superbly reported book.” —Jessica Winter, The New Yorker“A harrowing account . . . [and] a powerful critique of [the] foster care system . . . We Were Once a Family is a wrenching book.” —Jennifer Szalai, The New York TimesA New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice | One of Publishers Weekly's best nonfiction books of 2023 The shocking, deeply reported story of a murder-suicide that claimed the lives of six children—and a searing indictment of the American foster care system.On March 26, 2018, rescue workers discovered a crumpled SUV and the bodies of two women and multiple children at the bottom of a cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway. Investigators soon concluded that the crash was a murder-suicide, but there was more to the story: Jennifer and Sarah Hart, it turned out, were a white married couple who had adopted six Black children from two different Texas families in 2006 and 2008. Behind the family’s loving facade was an alleged pattern of abuse and neglect that had been ignored as the couple withdrew the children from school and moved west. It soon became apparent that the State of Texas knew all too little about the two individuals to whom it had given custody of six children. Immersive journalism of the highest order, Roxanna Asgarian’s We Were Once a Family is a revelation of precarious lives; it is also a shattering exposé of the foster care and adoption systems that produced this tragedy. As a journalist in Houston, Asgarian sought out the children’s birth families and put them at the center of the story. We follow the lives of the Harts’ adopted children and their birth parents, and the machinations of the state agency that sent the children far away. Asgarian’s reporting uncovers persistent racial biases and corruption as young people of color are separated from birth parents without proper cause. The result is a riveting narrative and a deeply reported indictment of a system that continues to fail America’s most vulnerable children while upending the lives of their families.
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories From Rwanda
by Philip Gourevitch"There are few books, fiction or non-fiction, as compelling as Philip Gourevitch's account of the Rwandan genocide." Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm. "Like the greatest war reporters, Philip Gourevitch raises the human banner in hell's mouth.... This volume establishes him as the peer of Michael Herr, is no limit to what we may expect from him." Robert Stone. "Magnificent, terrifying.... Gourevitch's account is factual, unemotional - and utterly gut-wrenching... The great achievement of his book is that it allows us to imagine this unimaginable crime.... and those who stood by, human beings all." Irish Times.
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
by Philip GourevitchWe Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families is the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. An unforgettable firsthand account of a people's response to genocide and what it tells us about humanity.This remarkable debut book from Philip Gourevitch chronicles what has happened in Rwanda and neighboring states since 1994, when the Rwandan government called on everyone in the Hutu majority to murder everyone in the Tutsi minority. Though the killing was low-tech--largely by machete--it was carried out at shocking speed: some 800,000 people were exterminated in a hundred days. A Tutsi pastor, in a letter to his church president, a Hutu, used the chilling phrase that gives Gourevitch his title.With keen dramatic intensity, Gourevitch frames the genesis and horror of Rwanda's "genocidal logic" in the anguish of its aftermath: the mass displacements, the temptations of revenge and the quest for justice, the impossibly crowded prisons and refugee camps. Through intimate portraits of Rwandans in all walks of life, he focuses on the psychological and political challenges of survival and on how the new leaders of postcolonial Africa went to war in the Congo when resurgent genocidal forces threatened to overrun central Africa.Can a country composed largely of perpetrators and victims create a cohesive national society? This moving contribution to the literature of witness tells us much about the struggle everywhere to forge sane, habitable political orders, and about the stubbornness of the human spirit in a world of extremity.
We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
by Adam WinklerWe the Corporations chronicles the revelatory story of one of the most successful, yet least known, “civil rights movements” in American history. <p><p> We the Corporations chronicles the astonishing story of one of the most successful yet least well-known “civil rights movements” in American history. Hardly oppressed like women and minorities, business corporations, too, have fought since the nation’s earliest days to gain equal rights under the Constitution—and today have nearly all the same rights as ordinary people. <p> Exposing the historical origins of Citizens United and Hobby Lobby, Adam Winkler explains how those controversial Supreme Court decisions extending free speech and religious liberty to corporations were the capstone of a centuries-long struggle over corporate personhood and constitutional protections for business. Beginning his account in the colonial era, Winkler reveals the profound influence corporations had on the birth of democracy and on the shape of the Constitution itself. Once the Constitution was ratified, corporations quickly sought to gain the rights it guaranteed. The first Supreme Court case on the rights of corporations was decided in 1809, a half-century before the first comparable cases on the rights of African Americans or women. <p> Ever since, corporations have waged a persistent and remarkably fruitful campaign to win an ever-greater share of individual rights. Although corporations never marched on Washington, they employed many of the same strategies of more familiar civil rights struggles: civil disobedience, test cases, and novel legal claims made in a purposeful effort to reshape the law. Indeed, corporations have often been unheralded innovators in constitutional law, and several of the individual rights Americans hold most dear were first secured in lawsuits brought by businesses. <p> Winkler enlivens his narrative with a flair for storytelling and a colorful cast of characters: among others, Daniel Webster, America’s greatest advocate, who argued some of the earliest corporate rights cases on behalf of his business clients; Roger Taney, the reviled Chief Justice, who surprisingly fought to limit protections for corporations—in part to protect slavery; and Roscoe Conkling, a renowned politician who deceived the Supreme Court in a brazen effort to win for corporations the rights added to the Constitution for the freed slaves. Alexander Hamilton, Teddy Roosevelt, Huey Long, Ralph Nader, Louis Brandeis, and even Thurgood Marshall all played starring roles in the story of the corporate rights movement. <p> In this heated political age, nothing can be timelier than Winkler’s tour de force, which shows how America’s most powerful corporations won our most fundamental rights and turned the Constitution into a weapon to impede the regulation of big business.
We the Kids: The Preamble To The Constitution Of The United States
by David CatrowA long time ago some smart guys wrote the Preamble to the Constitution. You have probably read it before, but do you know what it means? And did it ever make you laugh? Now it will! Perfect for inspiring discussion in classrooms and around kitchen tables, this fun-filled and cheerfully illustrated look at the Preamble provides an accessible introduction to America's founding ideals for citizens of all ages. Includes a glossary of terms and a foreword by the artist. "This zany, patriotic paean offers kids lighthearted but meaningful incentive to reflect further on the relevance of those 'big words' and 'big ideas.'"
We the Miners: Self-Government in the California Gold Rush
by Andrea G. McDowellA surprising account of frontier law that challenges the image of the Wild West. In the absence of state authority, Gold Rush miners crafted effective government by the people—but not for all the people.Gold Rush California was a frontier on steroids: 1,500 miles from the nearest state, it had a constantly fluctuating population and no formal government. A hundred thousand single men came to the new territory from every corner of the nation with the sole aim of striking it rich and then returning home. The circumstances were ripe for chaos, but as Andrea McDowell shows, this new frontier was not nearly as wild as one would presume. Miners turned out to be experts at self-government, bringing about a flowering of American-style democracy—with all its promises and deficiencies.The Americans in California organized and ran meetings with an efficiency and attention to detail that amazed foreign observers. Hundreds of strangers met to adopt mining codes, decide claim disputes, run large-scale mining projects, and resist the dominance of companies financed by outside capital. Most notably, they held criminal trials on their own authority. But, mirroring the societies back east from which they came, frontiersmen drew the boundaries of their legal regime in racial terms. The ruling majority expelled foreign miners from the diggings and allowed their countrymen to massacre the local Native Americans. And as the new state of California consolidated, miners refused to surrender their self-endowed authority to make rules and execute criminals, presaging the don’t-tread-on-me attitudes of much of the contemporary American west.In We the Miners, Gold Rush California offers a well-documented test case of democratic self-government, illustrating how frontiersmen used meetings and the rules of parliamentary procedure to take the place of the state.
We the People
by Bruce AckermanThe Civil Rights Revolution carries Bruce Ackerman’s sweeping reinterpretation of constitutional history into the era beginning with Brown v. Board of Education. From Rosa Parks’s courageous defiance, to Martin Luther King’s resounding cadences in “I Have a Dream,” to Lyndon Johnson’s leadership of Congress, to the Supreme Court’s decisions redefining the meaning of equality, the movement to end racial discrimination decisively changed our understanding of the Constitution.“The Civil Rights Act turns 50 this year, and a wave of fine books accompanies the semicentennial. Ackerman’s is the most ambitious; it is the third volume in an ongoing series on American constitutional history called We the People. A professor of law and political science at Yale, Ackerman likens the act to a constitutional amendment in its significance to the country’s legal development.”—Michael O’Donnell, The Atlantic“Ackerman weaves political theory with historical detail, explaining how the civil rights movement evolved from revolution to mass movement and then to statutory law…This fascinating book takes a new look at a much-covered topic.”—Becky Kennedy, Library Journal
We the People
by Donald C. DahlinDahlin takes an analytical approach to existing Constitutional scholarship and presents a limited number of landmark Supreme Court decisions in a way that makes this important material accessible to an undergraduate academic audience.