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Hearings on the Hill: The Politics of Informing Congress (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)
by Pamela Ban Ju Yeon Park Hye Young YouGood public policy in a democracy relies on efficient and accurate information flows between individuals with firsthand, substantive expertise and elected legislators. While legislators are tasked with the job of making and passing policy, they are politicians and not substantive experts. To make well-informed policy, they must rely on the expertise of others. Hearings on the Hill argues that partisanship and close competition for control of government shape the information that legislators collect, providing opportunities for party leaders and interest groups to control information flows and influence policy. It reveals how legislators strategically use committees, a central institution of Congress, and their hearings for information acquisition and dissemination, ultimately impacting policy development in American democracy. Marshaling extensive new data on hearings and witnesses from 1960 to 2018, this book offers the first comprehensive analysis of how partisan incentives determine how and from whom members of Congress seek information.
Heart Berries: A Memoir
by Terese Marie MailhotA powerful, poetic memoir of an Indigenous woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Band in the Pacific Northwest—this New York Times bestseller and Emma Watson Book Club pick is “an illuminating account of grief, abuse and the complex nature of the Native experience . . . at once raw and achingly beautiful (NPR) Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder, Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father―an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist―who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame.Mailhot trusts the reader to understand that memory isn't exact, but melded to imagination, pain, and what we can bring ourselves to accept. Her unique and at times unsettling voice graphically illustrates her mental state. As she writes, she discovers her own true voice, seizes control of her story, and, in so doing, reestablishes her connection to her family, to her people, and to her place in the world.
Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans
by Kadir NelsonKadir Nelson's Heart and Soul--the winner of numerous awards, including the 2012 Coretta Scott King Author Award and Illustrator Honor, and the recipient of five starred reviews--now features eight pages of discussion and curriculum material. <P><P> The story of America and African Americans is a story of hope and inspiration and unwavering courage. This is the story of the men, women, and children who toiled in the hot sun picking cotton for their masters; it's about the America ripped in two by Jim Crow laws; it's about the brothers and sisters of all colors who rallied against those who would dare bar a child from an education. It's a story of discrimination and broken promises, determination, and triumphs. <P> Told through the unique point of view and intimate voice of a one-hundred-year-old African-American female narrator, this inspiring book demonstrates that in gaining their freedom and equal rights, African Americans helped our country achieve its promise of liberty and justice--the true heart and soul of our nation. <P> Supports the Common Core State Standards
Heart in the Right Place
by Carolyn JourdanCarolyn Jourdan, an attorney on Capitol Hill, thought she had it made. But when her mother has a heart attack, she returns home--to the Tennessee mountains, where her father is a country doctor and her mother works as his receptionist. Jourdan offers to fill in for her mother until she gets better. But days turn into weeks as she trades in her suits for scrubs and finds herself following hazmat regulations for cleaning up bodily fluids; maintaining composure when confronted with a splinter the size of a steak knife; and tending to the loquacious Miss Hiawatha, whose daily doctor visits are never billed. Most important, she comes to understand what her father really means to this close-knit community.With great tenderness and great humor, "Heart in the Right Place" shows that some of our biggest heroes might be the ones living right beside us.
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph ConradWidely regarded as one of the greatest English novels, Heart of Darkness follows Charles Marlow on his journey down the Congo River and into the heart of Africa. The book moves fluidly between poignant psychological introspection and insidious horror as Marlow moves through an alien landscape. It has been the subject of considerable analysis and criticism for its treatment of British imperialism, particular with regards to colonialism and racism. It was the basis of the Vietnam war film Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, and Robert Duvall. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Heart of Fire: An Immigrant Daughter's Story
by Mazie K. Hirono"[A] sparkling, revelatory memoir.&” —Oprah Daily&“[A] multigenerational tale...built around her political and feminist awakening…Most powerfully, Heart of Fire is about Hirono&’s growing determination to loosen her tongue.&” –Rebecca Traister, The Cut&“Inspiring . . . insightful . . . you won&’t want to put it down.&” —CosmopolitanThe intimate and inspiring life story of Mazie Hirono, the first Asian-American woman and the only immigrant serving in the U.S. SenateMazie Hirono is one of the most fiercely outspoken Democrats in Congress, but her journey to the U.S. Senate was far from likely. Raised on a rice farm in rural Japan, she was seven years old when her mother, Laura, left her abusive husband and sailed with her two elder children to Hawaii, crossing the Pacific in steerage in search of a better life. Though the girl then known as "Keiko" did not speak or read English when she entered first grade, she would go on to serve as a state representative and as Hawaii's lieutenant governor before winning election to Congress in 2006. In this deeply personal memoir, Hirono traces her remarkable life from her earliest days in Hawaii, when the family lived in a single room in a Honolulu boarding house while her mother worked two jobs to keep them afloat, to her emergence as a highly effective legislator whose determination to help the most vulnerable was grounded in her own experiences of economic insecurity, lack of healthcare access, and family separation. Finally, it chronicles Hirono's recent transformation from dogged yet soft-spoken public servant into the frank and fiery advocate we know her as today.For the vast majority of Mazie Hirono's five decades in public service, even as she fought for the causes she believed in, she strove to remain polite and reserved. Steeped in the nonconfrontational cultures of Japan and Hawaii, and aware of the expectations of women in politics--chiefly, that they should never show an excess of emotion--she had schooled herself to bite her tongue, even as her male colleagues continually underestimated her. After the 2016 election, however, she could moderate herself no longer. In the face of a dangerous administration--and amid crucial battles with lasting implications for our democracy, from the Kavanaugh hearings to the impeachment trial--Senator Hirono was called to give voice to the fire that had always been inside her. The compelling and moving account of a woman coming into her own power over the course of a lifetime in public service, and of the mother whose courageous choices made her life possible, Heart of Fire is the story of a uniquely American journey, told by one of those fighting hardest to ensure that a story like hers is still possible in this country.
Heart of a Patriot
by Max Cleland Ben RainesBy the time he had reached middle age, Max Cleland thought he had nothing to live for. Vietnam had left him a triple amputee. He had lost his seat in the U.S. Senate, and in the grip of depression he had lost his fiancée, too. But instead of giving up, Cleland discovered that he has what it takes to survive: the heart of a patriot. Doctors did not give Cleland much hope when he returned from Vietnam, but he overcame his despair through his bonds with other wounded soldiers. Against all odds, he realized his dream of becoming a Senator. But after being smeared as unpatriotic in a reelection campaign, a long-dormant case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder sent him back to Walter Reed Hospital. Surrounded by the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, Cleland again found the faith and endurance to regain control of his life. In a gut-wrenching memoir that is free of bitterness but frank about the costs of being a soldier, Max Cleland describes with love the ties America's soldiers forge with one another, along with the disillusionment many of them experience when they come home. Heart of a Patriot is a story about the joy of serving the country you love, no matter the cost--and how to recover from the deepest wounds of war.
Heart of the Hunter
by Deon MeyerTiny Mpayipheli, a six foot three giant with a quiet demeanor, once earned his living as a government gun for hire. But now he's moved to the countryside and leads a quiet, ordered life. The woman he loves and her son have never learned about his past or the deadly skills he mastered in darker days. Then the daughter of an old friend tracks him down, desperate for help. Her father has been kidnapped, and Tiny has to make an agonizing decision: remain in the peaceful life he's built with his new family, or honor a debt to a trusted friend. It's no contest. Tiny agrees to deliver the ransom to the kidnappers. He has seventy-two hours to save his friend from certain death. When Tiny is intercepted by government agents at the airport, he realizes that he's stepped into something far more complex than a kidnapping. All obvious travel options are blocked, and Tiny is forced to hijack an off-road motorcycle and take off across the wild roads of backcountry Africa. With little time left to liberate his friend, he races the monstrous yellow bike across the weathered, dusty roads with danger constantly at his back, for shadowy underground factions have now joined in pursuit, and the nation's security forces are tightening their net as they come to understand that the rogue they're after may be none other than the most cunning assassin ever known -- the lethal warrior known as the Hunter.
Heart: An American Medical Odyssey
by Dick Cheney Jonathan ReinerFormer Vice President Dick Cheney and his longtime cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, share the story of Cheney&’s thirty-five-year battle with heart disease—providing insight into the incredible medical breakthroughs that have changed cardiac care over the last four decades.For as long as he has served at the highest levels of business and government, Vice President Dick Cheney has also been one of the world&’s most prominent heart patients. Now, for the first time ever, Cheney, together with his longtime cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner, MD, shares the very personal story of his courageous thirty-five-year battle with heart disease, from his first heart attack in 1978 to the heart transplant he received in 2012. In 1978, when Cheney suffered his first heart attack, he received essentially the same treatment President Eisenhower had had in 1955. Since then, cardiac medicine has been revolutionized, and Cheney has benefitted from nearly every medical breakthrough. At each juncture, when Cheney faced a new health challenge, the technology was one step ahead of his disease. Cheney&’s story is in many ways the story of the evolution of modern cardiac care. Heart is the riveting, singular memoir of both doctor and patient. Like no US politician has before him, Cheney opens up about his health struggles, sharing harrowing, never-before-told stories about the challenges he faced during a perilous time in our nation&’s history. Dr. Reiner provides his perspective on Cheney&’s case and also gives readers a fascinating glimpse into his own education as a doctor and the history of our understanding of the human heart. He masterfully chronicles the important discoveries, radical innovations, and cutting-edge science that have changed the face of medicine and saved countless lives. Powerfully braiding science with story and the personal with the political, Heart is a sweeping, inspiring, and ultimately optimistic book that will give hope to the millions of Americans affected by heart disease.
Heartbeat: George Bush in His Own Words
by Jim Mcgrath"We are not the sum of our possessions. They are not the measures of our lives. In our hearts, we know what matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend; a loving parent; a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood, and town better than he found it." -- from President George H. W. Bush's Inaugural Address, January 21, 1989 A charming collection of excerpts from the former president's speeches and other writings, Heartbeat reveals the basic ideals and beliefs that have served George H. W. Bush throughout his public and private life. He speaks often of what he calls "heartbeat." It is a simple word -- a code word -- referring to personal bedrock values concerning service, duty, honor, friends, faith, and particularly family. As the Bushes prove themselves to be one of the most important political families in U.S. history, this warm and revealing look into the former president's guiding principles could not come at a more important time. Culled from Mr. Bush's speeches over the course of his presidency and beyond, Heartbeat discloses a surprising personal side to the forty-first president -- a warm, witty, and expressive man. In chapters such as "1989: A New Breeze" and "1993-2001: Did It with Honor," the book features entertaining, eloquent, and emotional excerpts from the former president's words... "Sure we must change, but some values are timeless. I believe in families that stick together, and fathers who stick around. I happen to believe very deeply in the worth of each individual human being, born or unborn. I believe in teaching our kids the difference between what's wrong and what's right, teaching them respect for hard work and to love their neighbors. I believe that America will always have a special place in God's heart, as long as He has a special place in ours...." "Being president does have its advantages. And this is true: I have a TV set there in the White House with five screens, one big one in the middle, four small ones around it. Now I don't have to miss the nightly news when I watch Wheel of Fortune." In this single, remarkable collection, Mr. Bush's speeches, interviews, and other statements paint a poig-nant portrait not just of the former president but of a man and a family.
Hearts & Minds: A Blueprint for Modern Labor
by Chris BowenIn Hearts & Minds: A Blueprint for Modern Labor, Treasurer Chris Bowen writes a passionate clarion call to Labor's heartland, making the powerful argument that the Labor project is far from complete and it is time for a radical program of renewal and reform for the party. Hearts & Minds is a manifesto to secure the ALP's position as the dominant force in Australian politics. It advocates for governing alone or not at all, opening up the election of the parliamentary leader to party members as well as caucus, and support for the carbon tax. Bowen argues for instituting primaries wherever there is no sitting ALP member and allowing a broader range of groups to affiliate with the party. Bowen writes that the measures he suggests will see the ALP become a bigger, stronger and more inclusive party, delivering economic growth and improved opportunity, reflecting the aspirations of all Australians. Hearts & Minds: A Blueprint for Modern Labor offers Bowen's insights for the party he believes can create a better and fairer nation.
Hearts And Minds: ‘Ambitious, compelling and utterly gripping' Maggie O'Farrell
by Amanda Craig'A novel written with passion and moral outrage' Sunday Times'Sympathetic, thought-provoking and often deeply moving' Daily Telegraph'You can't put this down' Independent Rich or poor, five people, seemingly very different, find their lives in the capital connected in undreamed-of ways. Job, the illegal mini-cab driver whose wife in Zimbabwe no longer answers his letters; Ian, the idealistic supply teacher in exile from South Africa; Katie from New York, jilted and miserable as a dogsbody at a political magazine, and fifteen-year-old Anna, trafficked into sexual slavery. Polly Noble, an overworked human rights lawyer, knows better than most how easy it is to fall through the cracks into the abyss. Yet when her au pair, Iryna, disappears, Polly's own needs and beliefs drag her family into a world of danger, deceit and terror.Riveting, humane, engaging, Hearts and Minds is a novel that is both entertaining and prepared to ask the most serious questions about the way we live.
Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made
by David GergenA powerful guide to the art of leadership from David Gergen—former White House adviser to four US presidents, CNN analyst, and founder of the Harvard Center for Public Leadership. <p><p>As nations careen from one crisis to the next, there is a growing cry for fresh leadership. Those in charge have repeatedly fallen short, and trust in institutions has plummeted. So, what does great leadership look like? And how are great leaders made? <p><p>David Gergen, a leader in the public arena for more than half a century, draws from his experiences as a White House adviser to four presidents, his decades as a trusted voice on national issues, and years of teaching and mentoring young people to offer a stirring playbook for the next generation of change-makers. To uncover the fundamental elements of effective leadership, Gergen traces the journeys of iconic leaders past and present, from pathbreakers like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, John McCain, and Harvey Milk to historic icons like Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, to contemporary game changers like Greta Thunberg, the Parkland students, and the Black Lives Matter movement. <p><p>Leadership is a journey that starts from within, Gergen writes. A leader must become self-aware and then achieve self-mastery. You cannot lead others until you can lead yourself. As you start to leap into the world, you begin your outer journey, overcoming setbacks, persuading others, empowering them, and navigating crises—armed a sense of history, humor, passion, and purpose. By linking lessons of the past with the ever-changing practice of leadership today, Gergen reveals the time-tested secrets of dynamic leadership. <p><p>An indispensable manual, Hearts Touched With Fire distills experience and wisdom of the past into an invaluable guide for leaders of our future. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
Heartseeker
by Melinda BeattyA vibrant fantasy-adventure debut about a girl who can see lies.You're a Fallow of the Orchard. You're as tough as a green apple in summer . . . Only Fallow was just six harvests old when she realized that not everyone sees lies. For Only, seeing lies is as beautiful as looking through a kaleidoscope, but telling them is as painful as gnawing on cut glass. Only's family warns her to keep her cunning hidden, but secrets are seldom content to stay secret. When word of Only's ability makes its way to the King, she's plucked from her home at the orchard and brought to the castle at Bellskeep. There she learns that the kingdom is plagued by traitors, and that her task is to help the King distinguish between friend and foe. But being able to see lies doesn't necessarily mean that others aren't able to disguise their dishonesty with cunnings of their own. In the duplicitous, power-hungry court, the truth is Only's greatest weapon . . . and her greatest weakness.
Heat Islands: Understanding and Mitigating Heat in Urban Areas
by Lisa Mummery GartlandHeat islands are urban and suburban areas that are significantly warmer than their surroundings. Traditional, highly absorptive construction materials and a lack of effective landscaping are their main causes. Heat island problems, in terms of increased energy consumption, reduced air quality and effects on human health and mortality, are becoming more pressing as cities continue to grow and sprawl. This comprehensive book brings together the latest information about heat islands and their mitigation. The book describes how heat islands are formed, what problems they cause, which technologies mitigate heat island effects and what policies and actions can be taken to cool communities. Internationally renowned expert Lisa Gartland offers a comprehensive source of information for turning heat islands into cool communities. The author includes sections on cool roofing and cool paving, explains their benefits in detail and provides practical guidelines for their selection and installation. The book also reviews how and why to incorporate trees and vegetation around buildings, in parking lots and on green roofs.
Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
by Eric KlinenbergOn Thursday, July 13, 1995, Chicagoans awoke to a blistering day in which the temperature would reach 106 degrees. The heat index, which measures how the temperature actually feels on the body, would hit 126 degrees by the time the day was over. Meteorologists had been warning residents about a two-day heat wave, but these temperatures did not end that soon. When the heat wave broke a week later, city streets had buckled; the records for electrical use were shattered; and power grids had failed, leaving residents without electricity for up to two days. And by July 20, over seven hundred people had perished-more than twice the number that died in the Chicago Fire of 1871, twenty times the number of those struck by Hurricane Andrew in 1992--in the great Chicago heat wave, one of the deadliest in American history. Heat waves in the United States kill more people during a typical year than all other natural disasters combined. Until now, no one could explain either the overwhelming number or the heartbreaking manner of the deaths resulting from the 1995 Chicago heat wave. Meteorologists and medical scientists have been unable to account for the scale of the trauma, and political officials have puzzled over the sources of the city's vulnerability. In Heat Wave, Eric Klinenberg takes us inside the anatomy of the metropolis to conduct what he calls a "social autopsy," examining the social, political, and institutional organs of the city that made this urban disaster so much worse than it ought to have been. Starting with the question of why so many people died at home alone, Klinenberg investigates why some neighborhoods experienced greater mortality than others, how the city government responded to the crisis, and how journalists, scientists, and public officials reported on and explained these events. Through a combination of years of fieldwork, extensive interviews, and archival research, Klinenberg uncovers how a number of surprising and unsettling forms of social breakdown--including the literal and social isolation of seniors, the institutional abandonment of poor neighborhoods, and the retrenchment of public assistance programs--contributed to the high fatality rates. The human catastrophe, he argues, cannot simply be blamed on the failures of any particular individuals or organizations. For when hundreds of people die behind locked doors and sealed windows, out of contact with friends, family, community groups, and public agencies, everyone is implicated in their demise. As Klinenberg demonstrates in this incisive and gripping account of the contemporary urban condition, the widening cracks in the social foundations of American cities that the 1995 Chicago heat wave made visible have by no means subsided as the temperatures returned to normal. The forces that affected Chicago so disastrously remain in play in America's cities, and we ignore them at our peril. For the Second Edition Klinenberg has added a new Preface showing how climate change has made extreme weather events in urban centers a major challenge for cities and nations across our planet, one that will require commitment to climate-proofing changes to infrastructure rather than just relief responses.
Heat and Light: A Novel
by Jennifer HaighAcclaimed New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Haigh returns to the Pennsylvania town at the center of her iconic novel Baker Towers in this ambitious, achingly human story of modern America and the conflicting forces at its heart--a bold, moving drama of hope and desperation, greed and power, big business and small-town families.Forty years ago, Bakerton coal fueled the country. Then the mines closed, and the town wore away like a bar of soap. Now Bakerton has been granted a surprise third act: it sits squarely atop the Marcellus Shale, a massive deposit of natural gas.To drill or not to drill? Prison guard Rich Devlin leases his mineral rights to finance his dream of farming. He doesn't count on the truck traffic and nonstop noise, his brother's skepticism or the paranoia of his wife, Shelby, who insists the water smells strange and is poisoning their frail daughter. Meanwhile his neighbors, organic dairy farmers Mack and Rena, hold out against the drilling--until a passionate environmental activist disrupts their lives.Told through a cast of characters whose lives are increasingly bound by the opposing interests that underpin the national debate, Heat and Light depicts a community blessed and cursed by its natural resources. Soaring and ambitious, it zooms from drill rig to shareholders' meeting to the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to the ruined landscape of the "strippins," haunting reminders of Pennsylvania's past energy booms. This is a dispatch from a forgotten America--a work of searing moral clarity from one of the finest writers of her generation, a courageous and necessary book.
Heath and Thatcher in Opposition
by Eric CainesThis book traces how Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher, during their respective years as Conservative Opposition Leaders (1965-70 and 1975-79), managed their Party's attempts to ensure a return to government, each after two electoral defeats. They did so in the context of an emergent New Conservatism, championed by the likes of Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph and Nigel Lawson, which betokened a long-term change from the post-war Butskellite settlement. Against a national background of declining economic status, high inflation, debilitating public sector strikes and internal Conservative Party debates, particularly over industrial relations policy and monetarism, they adopted strikingly different approaches to policy-making in Opposition. The book illustrates how, paradoxically, Heath's technocratic over-prescription failed to save his eventual premiership, while Thatcher's under-committed policy design failed to impede her leading a purposeful and transformative government in the 1980s.
Heatwave: The Summer of 1976 – Britain at Boiling Point
by John L Williams'Grippingly captures the three months that shook Britain's cultural landscape' PAULINE BLACK'Scorching, seething and scintillating, Heatwave conjures a slow-burning collage of a country on the brink. I lived through those cruel months, and Williams recreates them with intense skill' SIMON GARFIELD'An absolute joy' PETE PAPHIDES'Engrossing...powerful...goes way beyond nostalgia' DAVID KYNASTONWith temperatures soaring to 35ºC, severe water shortages and a sunburned population queuing at the standpipes, the summer of 1976 was always remembered as Britain's hottest.But the wave that hit the UK that year was also cultural and political, with upheaval on the streets, in parliament, on the cricket pitch and on the radios and TV sets of a nation at a crossroads.Before this blistering summer, Britain seemed stuck in the post-war era, a country where people were all in it together - as long as you were white, male and straight. In July, Tom Robinson writes a song called Glad to be Gay, and by August bank holiday, Black youth are making the police run for their lives in the almighty riot at the Notting Hill Carnival. But with the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson suddenly quitting, the pound sinking and the economy tanking, a restless immigrant population and increasing dissatisfaction in the old world order, the weather seemed to boil up the country to the point where the lid blows off.Weaving a rich tapestry of the news stories of the year, with social commentary and dozens of first-person interviews with those that were there at the time, Williams's reappraisal of the summer of '76 is an evocative, sometimes nostalgic but always an unflinching read. Heatwave takes us back to relive the events of that summer and asks - have we really moved on as much as we would have liked?
Heatwave: The Summer of 1976 – Britain at Boiling Point
by John L Williams'Grippingly captures the three months that shook Britain's cultural landscape' PAULINE BLACK'Scorching, seething and scintillating, Heatwave conjures a slow-burning collage of a country on the brink. I lived through those cruel months, and Williams recreates them with intense skill' SIMON GARFIELD'An absolute joy' PETE PAPHIDES'Engrossing...powerful...goes way beyond nostalgia' DAVID KYNASTONWith temperatures soaring to 35ºC, severe water shortages and a sunburned population queuing at the standpipes, the summer of 1976 was always remembered as Britain's hottest.But the wave that hit the UK that year was also cultural and political, with upheaval on the streets, in parliament, on the cricket pitch and on the radios and TV sets of a nation at a crossroads.Before this blistering summer, Britain seemed stuck in the post-war era, a country where people were all in it together - as long as you were white, male and straight. In July, Tom Robinson writes a song called Glad to be Gay, and by August bank holiday, Black youth are making the police run for their lives in the almighty riot at the Notting Hill Carnival. But with the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson suddenly quitting, the pound sinking and the economy tanking, a restless immigrant population and increasing dissatisfaction in the old world order, the weather seemed to boil up the country to the point where the lid blows off.Weaving a rich tapestry of the news stories of the year, with social commentary and dozens of first-person interviews with those that were there at the time, Williams's reappraisal of the summer of '76 is an evocative, sometimes nostalgic but always an unflinching read. Heatwave takes us back to relive the events of that summer and asks - have we really moved on as much as we would have liked?
Heatwave: The Summer of 1976 – Britain at Boiling Point
by John L Williams'Grippingly captures the three months that shook Britain's cultural landscape' PAULINE BLACK'Scorching, seething and scintillating, Heatwave conjures a slow-burning collage of a country on the brink. I lived through those cruel months, and Williams recreates them with intense skill' SIMON GARFIELD'An absolute joy' PETE PAPHIDES'Engrossing...powerful...goes way beyond nostalgia' DAVID KYNASTONWith temperatures soaring to 35ºC, severe water shortages and a sunburned population queuing at the standpipes, the summer of 1976 was always remembered as Britain's hottest.But the wave that hit the UK that year was also cultural and political, with upheaval on the streets, in parliament, on the cricket pitch and on the radios and TV sets of a nation at a crossroads.Before this blistering summer, Britain seemed stuck in the post-war era, a country where people were all in it together - as long as you were white, male and straight. In July, Tom Robinson writes a song called Glad to be Gay, and by August bank holiday, Black youth are making the police run for their lives in the almighty riot at the Notting Hill Carnival. But with the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson suddenly quitting, the pound sinking and the economy tanking, a restless immigrant population and increasing dissatisfaction in the old world order, the weather seemed to boil up the country to the point where the lid blows off.Weaving a rich tapestry of the news stories of the year, with social commentary and dozens of first-person interviews with those that were there at the time, Williams's reappraisal of the summer of '76 is an evocative, sometimes nostalgic but always an unflinching read. Heatwave takes us back to relive the events of that summer and asks - have we really moved on as much as we would have liked?
Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Death of Mao's China
by James PalmerWhen an earthquake of historic magnitude leveled the industrial city of Tangshan in the summer of 1976, killing more than a half-million people, China was already gripped by widespread social unrest. As Mao lay on his deathbed, the public mourned the death of popular premier Zhou Enlai. Anger toward the powerful Communist Party officials in the Gang of Four, which had tried to suppress grieving for Zhou, was already potent; when the government failed to respond swiftly to the Tangshan disaster, popular resistance to the Cultural Revolution reached a boiling point. In Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes, acclaimed historian James Palmer tells the startling story of the most tumultuous year in modern Chinese history, when Mao perished, a city crumbled, and a new China was born.
Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States
by Elizabeth Shakman HurdAn urgent exploration of borders as sacred objects in American culture. Our national conversation about the border has taken a religious turn. When televangelists declare, “Heaven has a wall,” activists shout back, “Jesus was a refugee.” For Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, the standoff makes explicit a longstanding truth: borders are religious as well as political objects. In this book, Hurd argues that Americans share a bipartisan border religion, complete with an array of beliefs and practices, including a reverence for national security, a liturgy for immigration, and an eschatological foreign policy. Through an analysis of the many ways the United States creates, enforces, and ignores borders at home and abroad, Hurd offers a bold new perspective on the ties that bind American religion, politics, and public life.
Heaven Help Us: How Faith Communities Inspire Hope, Strengthen Neighborhoods, and Build the Future
by John KasichDiscover the antidote to cynicism and despair in this dynamic, revelatory, hope-inducing exploration of the extraordinary work and extraordinary people who are transforming communities around the country--motivated by faith.The mother of a man with autism manages a network of group homes through her local Greek Orthodox congregation. The director of an Islamic cultural center hosts a national interfaith conference to foster better relationships with the Jewish community. A student counselor starts a free immigration services program through her church. Sometimes we forget that good is not only happening in America, it is flourishing--in the fertile soil of our churches, synagogues, and mosques.Few people are better poised to speak to the value of religious institutions in civic life than former Ohio governor and presidential candidate John Kasich, who is both a public servant and a man of faith. In Heaven Help Us, Kasich reminds us through gripping stories that faith communities are vital to healthy communities and our nation. Heaven Help Us offers:Unforgettable stories of people making an extraordinary difference because of their faith communitiesInsights into what sets faith institutions that transform their neighborhoods apart from those that don'tPractical ideas for making positive changes in our own communitiesHope to dream about what is possible in our country instead of what is impossibleEncouragement that religion can bring us together rather than break us apart As Kasich shows us, faith institutions can magnify the power of an individual in ways that almost always exceed the expectations of the person who jump-started the initiative in the first place. More than a collection of "feel-good" stories, Heaven Help Us reminds us of the resourcefulness and ingenuity of our fellow congregants and religious leaders that make it possible to turn our good intentions into even better outcomes. Good is happening in our country. Join in.
Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Searching for an American Utopia
by Adrian ShirkAn exploration of American ideas of utopia through the lens of one millennial's quest to live a more communal life under late-stage capitalismTold in a series of essays that balance memoir with fieldwork, Heaven Is a Place on Earth is an idiosyncratic study of American utopian experiments—from the Shakers to the radical faerie communes of Short Mountain to the Bronx rebuilding movement—through the lens of one woman&’s quest to create a more communal life in a time of unending economic and social precarity. When Adrian Shirk&’s father-in-law has a stroke and loses his ability to speak and walk, she and her husband—both adjuncts in their midtwenties—become his primary caretakers. The stress of these new responsibilities, coupled with navigating America&’s broken health-care system and ordinary twenty-first-century financial insecurity, propels Shirk into an odyssey through the history and present of American utopian experiments in the hope that they might offer a way forward. Along the way, Shirk seeks solace in her own community of friends, artists, and theologians. They try to imagine a different kind of life, examining what might be replicable within the histories of utopia-making, and what might be doomed. Rather than &“no place,&” Shirk reframes utopia as something that, according to the laws of capital and conquest, shouldn&’t be able to exist—but does anyway, if only for a moment.