- Table View
- List View
Twilight of the Elites
by Christopher HayesA powerful and original argument that traces the roots of our present crisis of authority to an unlikely source: the meritocracy. Over the past decade, Americans watched in bafflement and rage as one institution after another - from Wall Street to Congress, the Catholic Church to corporate America, even Major League Baseball - imploded under the weight of corruption and incompetence. In the wake of the Fail Decade, Americans have historically low levels of trust in their institutions; the social contract between ordinary citizens and elites lies in tatters. How did we get here? With Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes offers a radically novel answer. Since the 1960s, as the meritocracy elevated a more diverse group of men and women into power, they learned to embrace the accelerating inequality that had placed them near the very top. Their ascension heightened social distance and spawned a new American elite--one more prone to failure and corruption than any that came before it. Mixing deft political analysis, timely social commentary, and deep historical understanding, Twilight of the Elites describes how the society we have come to inhabit - utterly forgiving at the top and relentlessly punitive at the bottom - produces leaders who are out of touch with the people they have been trusted to govern. Hayes argues that the public's failure to trust the federal government, corporate America, and the media has led to a crisis of authority that threatens to engulf not just our politics but our day-to-day lives. Upending well-worn ideological and partisan categories, Hayes entirely reorients our perspective on our times. Twilight of the Elites is the defining work of social criticism for the post-bailout age.
Twilight of the Merkel Era: Power and Politics in Germany after the 2017 Bundestag Election
by Eric LangenbacherElections always have consequences, but the 2017 Bundestag election in Germany proved particularly consequential. With political upheaval across the globe—notably in Britain and the USA—it was vital to European and global order that Germany remain stable. And it did through the re-election of Angela Merkel as chancellor, now in her fourth term. Just under the surface, however, instability is mounting—exemplified by the entry of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the largest opposition party, the decline of the Social Democrats, the ever-restive Bavarians, and the growing factionalism within the Christian Democratic Union as the Merkel era comes to an end. Paying special attention to the rise of the AfD, this volume delves into the campaign, leading political figures, the structure of the electorate, the state of the parties, the media environment, coalition negotiations, and policy impacts.
Twilight of the Republic: Empire and Exceptionalism in the American Political Tradition
by Justin B. LitkeA thoughtful analysis of how American identity has been defined and reinvented through history, and the ongoing debate over “exceptionalism.”The idea of “American exceptionalism” tends to provoke strong feelings, but few are aware of the term’s origins or true meaning. Understanding the roots and consequences of America’s uniqueness requires a thorough look into the nation’s history and Americans’ ideas about themselves.Through a masterful analysis of important texts and key documents, Justin B. Litke investigates the symbols that have defined American identity since the colonial era. From the time of the United States’ founding, its people have viewed themselves as citizens of a nation blessed by God, and accordingly sought to serve as an example to others. Litke argues that as the republic developed, Americans came to perceive their country as an active “redeemer nation,” responsible for liberating the world from its failings. He introduces and contextualizes various historical and academic claims about American exceptionalism and offers an original approach to understanding this phenomenon.Today, historians and politicians still debate the meaning of exceptionalism. Advocates are often perceived by their opponents as unrealistically patriotic, and Litke’s historically and theoretically rich inquiry attempts to reconcile these political and cultural tensions. Republicans of every age have recognized that a people cut off from their history will not long persist in self-government. Twilight of the Republic aims to reinvigorate the tradition that once caused people the world over to envy the American political order.“Probing the depths of the American identity, Litke provides a lucid and deft rejoinder to the ‘dangerous nation’ thesis that insists the United States has always been an ideological, imperial power dedicated to global revolution [and] points the way forward to a renewal of the best of the American tradition.” ?Richard M. Gamble, author of In Search of the City on a Hill: The Making and Unmaking of an American Myth
Twilight of the Self: The Decline of the Individual in Late Capitalism
by Michael ThompsonIn this new work, political theorist Michael J. Thompson argues that modern societies are witnessing a decline in one of the core building blocks of modernity: the autonomous self. Far from being an illusion of the Enlightenment, Thompson contends that the individual is a defining feature of the project to build a modern democratic culture and polity. One of the central reasons for its demise in recent decades has been the emergence of what he calls the "cybernetic society," a cohesive totalization of the social logics of the institutional spheres of economy, culture and polity. These logics have been progressively defined by the imperatives of economic growth and technical-administrative management of labor and consumption, routinizing patterns of life, practices, and consciousness throughout the culture. Evolving out of the neoliberal transformation of economy and society since the 1980s, the cybernetic society has transformed how that the individual is articulated in contemporary society. Thompson examines the various pathologies of the self and consciousness that result from this form of socialization—such as hyper-reification, alienated moral cognition, false consciousness, and the withered ego—in new ways to demonstrate the extent of deformation of modern selfhood. Only with a more robust, more socially embedded concept of autonomy as critical agency can we begin to reconstruct the principles of democratic individuality and community.
Twilight of the Shadow Government: How Transparency Will Kill the Deep State
by Kevin Shipp Kent HeckenlivelyIn this groundbreaking book, Kevin Shipp, a veteran CIA agent who worked with all four Directorates of the agency, including protecting the head of the CIA, provides his perspective on how the agency has strayed so far from its original mission to provide accurate intelligence to the American president. You will learn about the founding of the Agency, how the intelligence agencies have manipulated journalists through Project Mockingbird, as well as their new efforts with the Center for Global Engagement and Big Tech interference. Shipp will also give you his up close and personal assessment of how the directors of the agency have contributed to our safety or undermined it. Shipp and Heckenlively detail how the CIA has blocked whistleblowers and the reforms they champion, while also controlling our country through secret alliances with large corporations, Wall Street, Big Media, the drug trade, and blackmail of our political leaders. Shipp provides his own history with the Agency, both the good and bad, including the Agency&’s attempt to ruin his career and life when he turned whistleblower. Perhaps most striking of all, Shipp lays out his plan for a dramatic overhaul of the Agency, likely to win wide approval from other sectors of the intelligence community, restoring the freedom of our country, while also keeping us safe from our adversaries.
Twilight of the Titans: Great Power Decline and Retrenchment (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)
by Paul K. MacDonald Joseph M. ParentIn this bold new perspective on the United States–China power transition, Paul K. MacDonald and Joseph M. Parent examine all great power transitions since 1870. They find that declining and rising powers have strong incentives to moderate their behavior at moments when the hierarchy of great powers is shifting. How do great powers respond to decline? they ask. What options do great powers have to slow or reverse their descent?In Twilight of the Titans, MacDonald and Parent challenge claims that policymakers for great powers, unwilling to manage decline through moderation, will be pushed to extreme measures. Tough talk, intimidation, provocation, and preventive war, they write, are not the only alternatives to defeat. Surprisingly, retrenchment tends not to make declining states tempting prey for other states nor does it promote domestic dysfunction. What retrenchment does encourage is resurrection. Only states that retrench have recovered their former position.MacDonald and Parent show how declining states tend to behave, what policy options they have to choose from, how rising states respond to decline, and what conditions reward which strategies. Using case studies that include Great Britain in 1872 and 1908, Russia in 1888 and 1903, and France in 1893 and 1924, Twilight of the Titans offers clear evidence that declining powers have a wide array of options at their disposal and offers guidance on how to use the right tools at the right time. The result is a comprehensive rethinking of power transition and hegemonic war theories and a different approach to the policy problems that declining states face. What matters most, the authors write, is the strategic choices made by the great powers.
The Twilight of Unionism: Ulster and the Future of Northern Ireland
by Geoffrey BellThe crisis of Ulster Unionism and the future of Northern IrelandThe fissures that have split the United Kingdom in the last decades have run through Northern Ireland. Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the fragile peace has been threatened by Brexit, the rise and fall of the D U P and the failure of power-sharing arrangement between the main parties at the Stormont Assembly. As the very future of Northern Ireland is now in jeopardy, will Britain face up to its imperial legacy and address the deep inequalities that remain in the aftermath of the Troubles, and the uneven development of the 'New Ireland'?Geoffrey Bells offers an insightful history of Ulster Unionism from the 1960s to the present day. In recent years this has come to a crisis point. What is the future of the Union in the post-Brexit reality? How will the relationship between Northern Ireland and Westminster develop? Can the United Kingdom survive?
The Twilight of World Trotskyism (Routledge Studies in Radical History and Politics)
by John KellyThe Twilight of World Trotskyism analyzes the reasons behind the historic failure of the Trotskyist movement around the world. The book begins this assessment by briefly recapitulating the origins of Trotskyism, as a political current within the communist movement, and elaborating its major elements, before describing the historical development of Trotskyism in the four countries where it has sunk the deepest roots and which house the clear majority of the world’s Fourth Internationals: Argentina, Britain, France and the USA. It then proceeds to map the current state of the global Trotskyist movement. Whatever their current size and status, Trotskyist organizations aspire to become mass political parties and lead revolutionary seizures of power. It is therefore appropriate to examine them through the metrics applied to mainstream parties, namely organization, membership and political influence. The author looks at the dynamics of the Trotskyist movement, focusing in particular on the supposedly harmful effects of the communist movement before then turning to examine the role of Trotskyist organizations in the many revolutionary situations that have appeared since the 1920s and in the various ‘cycles of protest’ that have occurred in the latter half of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st century. The final section examines the two success stories frequently cited in Trotskyist literature, namely the cases of Bolivia and Sri Lanka. The book concludes by setting out and examining a wide variety of explanations for the chronic and sustained weaknesses of the Trotskyist movement, including its flawed appraisals of contemporary politics and economics, ultra-radical programmes and policies, failures in understanding the dynamics of protest and the baleful legacy of Soviet communism. It is argued that these weaknesses are rooted in Trotskyist doctrine and are therefore integral, not peripheral, features of world Trotskyism. This volume will be essential reading for activists and scholars interested in the transnational history and politics of the radical left.
Twilight People: One Man’s Journey to Find His Roots
by David HouzeThis deeply personal narrative uses the unraveling mystery of Houze's family and his quest for identity as a prism through which to view the tumultuous events of the civil rights movement in Mississippi and the rise and fall of apartheid in South Africa.
The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great-Power Rivalry Today
by Hal BrandsA leading historian&’s guide to great-power competition, as told through America&’s successes and failures in the Cold War&“If you want to know how America can win today's rivalries with Russia and China, read this book about how it triumphed in another twilight struggle: the Cold War.&”— Stephen J. Hadley, national security adviser to President George W. Bush The United States is entering an era of great-power competition with China and Russia. Such global struggles happen in a geopolitical twilight, between the sunshine of peace and the darkness of war. In this innovative and illuminating book, Hal Brands, a leading historian and former Pentagon adviser, argues that America should look to the history of the Cold War for lessons in how to succeed in great-power rivalry today. Although the threat posed by authoritarian powers is growing, America&’s muscle memory for dealing with dangerous foes has atrophied in the thirty years since the Cold War ended. In long-term competitions where the diplomatic jockeying is intense and the threat of violence is omnipresent, the United States will need all the historical insight it can get. Exploring how America won a previous twilight struggle is the starting point for determining how America can successfully prosecute another high-stakes rivalry today.
A Twilight Struggle: The Life of John Fitzgerald Kennedy
by Barbara Harrison Daniel TerrisDiscusses the childhood, family, and political career of the president who served from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. For children and teens.
Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance
by Mike MooreConsidering the historical background of space militarization and providing an overview of the United States' efforts to militarily dominate space since the dawn of the space age, this book argues that America must either ensure that space-related weapons are verifiably banned for all nations through an international treaty or definitively choose a policy of unilateral space dominance that may lead to an arms race in space and possibly to another cold war.The 1967 Outer Space Treaty designated space as the &“province of all mankind.&” It expressly prohibited nuclear and non-nuclear weapons of mass destruction in orbital space and exclusively limited the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies for &“peaceful purposes.&” But changes in the post–Cold War world, as well as unforeseeable advances in satellite and weapons technologies, have compelled every space-faring nation—save the U.S. and Israel—to go on record as favoring a new treaty for the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space. In Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance, Mike Moore, former editor of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, argues that the U.S. merely provokes conflict when it presumes to be the exception to the rule. Rejecting treaty negotiations while further militarizing space renders America unable to lead by example. Moore concludes that instead of trying to stop an arms race in space by starting one, the U.S. must radically rethink its strategy.
Twilight Warriors: The Soldiers, Spies, and Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War
by James KitfieldA dramatic portrait of the innovative Special Forces commanders and FBI agents who wage war against America's hidden enemiesWith the planned withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the longest conflicts in our nation's history were supposed to end. Yet we remain at war against expanding terrorist movements, and our security forces have had to continually adapt to a nihilistic foe that operates in the shadows.The result of fifteen years of reporting, Twilight Warriors is the untold story of the tight-knit brotherhood that changed the way America fights. James Kitfield reveals how brilliant innovators in the US military, Special Forces, and the intelligence and law enforcement communities forged close operational bonds in the crucibles of Iraq and Afghanistan, breaking down institutional barriers to create a relentless, intelligence-driven style of operations. At the forefront of this profound shift were Stanley McChrystal and his interagency team at Joint Special Operations Command, the pioneers behind a hybrid method of warfighting: find, fix, finish, exploit, and analyze. Other key figures include Michael Flynn, the visionary who redefined the intelligence gathering mission; the FBI's Brian McCauley, who used serial-killer profilers to track suicide bombers in Afghanistan; and the Delta Force commander Scott Miller, responsible for making team players out of the US military's most elite and secretive counterterrorism units.The result of their collaborations is a globe-spanning network that is elegant in its simplicity and terrifying in its lethality. As Kitfield argues, this style of operations represents our best hope for defending the nation in an age of asymmetric warfare. Twilight Warriors is an unprecedented account of the American way of war-and the iconoclasts who have brought it into the twenty-first century.
The Twilight Zone: A Novel
by Nona Fernández* Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature *An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes by the author of Space InvadersIt is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández’s mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man’s face on the magazine’s cover with the words “I Tortured People.” His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime and his commitment to speaking about them haunt the narrator into her adulthood and career as a writer and documentarian. Like a secret service agent from the future, through extraordinary feats of the imagination, Fernández follows the “man who tortured people” to places that archives can’t reach, into the sinister twilight zone of history where morning routines, a game of chess, Yuri Gagarin, and the eponymous TV show of the novel’s title coexist with the brutal yet commonplace machinations of the regime.How do crimes vanish in plain sight? How does one resist a repressive regime? And who gets to shape the truths we live by and take for granted? The Twilight Zone pulls us into the dark portals of the past, reminding us that the work of the writer in the face of historical erasure is to imagine so deeply that these absences can be, for a time, spectacularly illuminated.
Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J.
by Susan BordoConsidering everything from Nike ads, emaciated models, and surgically altered breasts to the culture wars and the O.J. Simpson trial, Susan Bordo deciphers the hidden life of cultural images and the impact they have on our lives. She builds on the provocative themes introduced in her acclaimed work Unbearable Weight—which explores the social and political underpinnings of women's obsession with bodily image—to offer a singularly readable and perceptive interpretation of our image-saturated culture. As it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between appearance and reality, she argues, we need to rehabilitate the notion that not all versions of reality are equally trustworthy. Bordo writes with deep compassion, unnerving honesty, and bracing intelligence. Looking to the body and bodily practices as a concrete arena where cultural fantasies and anxieties are played out, she examines the mystique and the reality of empowerment through cosmetic surgery. Her brilliant discussion of sexual harassment reflects on the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill controversy as well as the film Disclosure. She suggests that sexuality, although one of the mediums of harassment, is not its essence, and she calls for the recasting of harassers as bullies rather than sex fiends. Bordo also challenges the continuing marginalization of feminist thought, in particular the failure to read feminist work as cultural criticism. Finally, in a powerful and moving essay called "Missing Kitchens"—written in collaboration with her two sisters—Bordo explores notions of bodies, place, and space through a recreation of the topographies of her childhood. Throughout these essays, Bordo avoids dogma and easy caricature. Consistently, and on many levels, she demonstrates the profound relationship between our lives and our theories, our feelings and our thoughts.
Twilight's Last Gleaming: Can America Be Saved?
by Todd Starnes&“Todd Starnes is a fierce defender of freedom and a great patriot. He has seen, and understands, what is happening to our country like few others—his book is absolutely terrific, a must read!&” —President TrumpPresident Biden ushered in a dark winter of malaise across our great nation. He snuffed out Lady Liberty&’s bright beacon of hope and brought despair to the land. And now we stand at a time of great choosing. Do we choose the path that leads to freedom or the path that leads to tyranny? We face difficult days, but not hopeless days. Together, we can restore the Republic and reclaim our standing in the world. But first, we must remember our roots and return to the values that made our nation great. A deep and abiding desire for freedom and liberty, girded by faith in God, is the essence of who we are. Those are the precepts that must be reaffirmed if America is to be saved.
Twilight's Last Gleaming
by Walter WagerA terrifying novel of political conspiracy and basis for the movie starring Joseph Cotten, from the bestselling author of Time of Reckoning and Telefon. A retired general takes over a missile silo in the Badlands. His threat is to provoke a world war, launching deadly ordnance, unless the president is willing to reveal everything about a secret meeting he had during the Vietnam War. The situation is explosive, and so is the truth. Before the day is done, one man has his only shot at redemption—and countless lives hang in the balance.
The Twin Earth Chronicles: Twenty Years of Reflection on Hilary Putnam's the "Meaning of Meaning"
by Andrew Pessin Sanford GoldbergIn 1975, Putnam published a paper called The Meaning of 'Meaning', which challenged the orthodox view in the philosophies of language and mind. The article's Twin Earth conclusions about meaning, thought and knowledge were shocking. This work contains writings on the subject of Twin Earth.
The Twin Princes
by Tedd ArnoldRiddle me this . . . Why does Old King Chanticleer worry about his two sons, Henry and Fowler? Because they are twins, and he can't decide which prince should inherit his throne. And so he plans a horse race--one that will determine the next king. But this race is an unusual one, and it will take cleverness, not just speed, to become the winner. With puns on every page, the classic battle of hero versus villain, and even a riddle for the reader to solve, this featherbrained fairy tale is exuberant, goofy, irresistible fun.
The Twin Princes
by Tedd ArnoldWhy did Old King Chanticleer worry about his two sons? Because they were twins, and he could not decide which prince should inherit his throne. And so he planned a horse race-one that would determine the next king. But this race was an unusual one: The brother whose horse was last to cross the finish line would be the winner. How in the world could they finish this strange race? With puns on every page, exuberantly goofy artwork, the classic battle of hero versus villain, and even a riddle for the reader to solve, this featherbrained story is terrifically clever fun.
Twinchantment (Twinchantment Ser.)
by Elise AllenPrincesses Flissa and Sara are even closer than most twins. In fact, most of the kingdom thinks they’re the same person. When magic was outlawed in Kaloon generations ago, twins, black cats, and other potentially -magical beings were outlawed, too. Since they were born, Flissa and Sara have pretended to be one princess, Flissara, trading off royal duties like attending glamorous balls, participating in fencing exhibitions, and making friends with other young nobles, all while hiding in plain sight. But when the first magical attack in years puts their mother’s life in danger, the girls must break the rules that have protected them to save her. Enlisting a brave servant boy and his plucky black kitten as their guides, they set off on an epic quest to the Twists―a forbidden place full of dark magic―to find the evil mage who cursed the queen. With a case of mistaken identity, a wickedly powerful exile out for vengeance, and time running out for their mother, the twins might just need to make their own magic to save the day. In the first book of this new series, author Elise Allen brings to life a fantastical world filled with high-stakes adventure, incredible twists, and all the spark and humor of sisterhood.
Twist
by Harkaitz Cano Amaia GabantxoA moving portrayal of violence's emotional legacy in the Basque Country. Twist is tale of guilt, love, friendship, and betrayal, and of the difficulties that arise when one flees one's own skin to inhabit the minds of others.Set in the politically charged climate of the Basque Country in the 1980s, Twist relates the disappearance and brutal murder of two ETA militants at the hands of the Spanish army. The novel centers on their friend and fellow activist Diego Lazkano, who, since revealing his comrades to the authorities, has been tormented by guilt. In Twist, Harkaitz Cano provides a multi-vocal account of a conscience and a society in turmoil.
Twisting Arms and Flexing Muscles: Humanitarian Intervention and Peacebuilding in Perspective (The\international Political Economy Of New Regionalisms Ser.)
by Timothy M. ShawMilitary force is considered essentially a non-military pursuit in international relations, specifically, humanitarian intervention and peacebuilding. This coherent and interrelated study makes an important contribution to the existing literature by concentrating on empirical analyses. It is illustrated by key case studies which consider the complexities and dynamics associated with the application of military force. Of particular importance in this context is the emphasis on areas of recent crisis, such as Africa and the Balkans. The book considers whether our understanding of military force and its utility is outdated and finds that new considerations are required in order to capture the demands of the new environment and generate more appropriate and effective responses. The volume will have wide appeal, ranging from students and academic researchers to high-level policy makers and policy analysts in the military, governance and democratization and peacebuilding communities, as well as area-specialists and non-governmental organizations.
Twisting in the Wind: The Politics of Tepid Transitions to Renewable Energy
by Oksan BayulgenWhy do governments insist on fossil fuels? Why do renewables face uncertain and inconsistent legal and regulatory circumstances that slow their market-share growth against fossil fuels? Oksan Bayulgen studies the political determinants of partial energy reforms that result in tepid energy transitions and shifts the geographical focus from front-runner countries of energy innovation to developing countries, which have become the largest carbon emitters in the world. Her in-depth case study of energy policies in Turkey over the past two decades demonstrates that energy transitions are neither inevitable nor linear and that they are often initiated if and only when promoting renewables is in the interests of governing elites and stall when political dividends associated with energy rents change. This book contributes to the debates on the nature and pace of energy transitions by analyzing the power dynamics and political institutions under which energy reforms are initiated and implemented over time. This timely topic will be of interest to scholars, policymakers, energy investors, and anyone interested in environmental studies.
Twisting Title IX
by Robert L. ShibleyThis is the story of how Title IX, a 1972 law intended to ban sex discrimination in education, became a monster that both the federal government and many college administrators treat as though it supersedes both the U.S. Constitution and hundreds of years of common law. It's a story about the victims of this law-men and women both-and of the unaccountable government bureaucrats at the Departments of Education and Justice who repeatedly prioritize an extreme brand of politics over free speech, fundamental fairness, and basic human decency. But while help may come too late for many of the present victims of Title IX abuse, there are still measures that colleges and courts can take to curb these abuses until Congress acts-or we see a Presidential administration that cares more about restoring justice and the rule of law than it does about sex and gender politics.